Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 August 1944 — Page 10
‘The Indianapolis Times PAGE 10 Wednesday, August 16, 1944
WALTER LECKRONE - MARK FERRER Editor Business Manager
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ROY W. HOWARD President
= Price in Marion Coun« ty, 4 cents a copy: deliv- === ered by carrier, 18 cents a week.
Mall rates in Indi. ana, §5 a year; adjoining states, 75 cents a month; others, $1 monthly.
«@@- RILEY 6551
Give Light and the People Will Find Their Owl Wey
EJ] SNUFFBOX STATECRAFT A BIG business which tried to operate along 19th century counting-house lines, with high-stooled bookkeepers bending over quills, would soon be skipping dividends. And the stockholders would be hollering for a new broom. . Bt stockholders in the United States government, although they find this mammoth concern an increasingly expensive proposition, have showed little interest in the fact that one vital branch of the enterprise—congress—still clings to legislative practices as antiquated as the snuffboxes in the senate chamber (which are still faithfully kept full of snuff). Let's not quarrel about the snuffboxes. But the nostalgia which they betoken, the feeling of what-was-good-enough-for-great-granddad-is - good - enough - for - me, unfortunately extends to the-business operatiqns of congress. And it will take a near miracle to apply €ven a moderate dose of modernization, so addicted are the legislators to the Victorian scent which pervades their creaking procedures. ” o o = s » THE NOTORIOUS evil of seniority, whereby members from safe states or districts achieve powerful chairmanships by simply outlasting their colleagues, has put many a misfit into a place far above his capacity. The failure to provide congressional committees with ample staffs of experts has left the lawmakers almost helpless, oftentimes, to treat sensibly with the well-manned bureaus that come to them for funds. Committees duplicate and overlap— and feud. Needless overwork wears out conscientious members, while some less sensitive of their trust gain soft advancement. All of which leads up to a hopeful note: The senate rules committee, under Senator Byrd of Virginia, has reported favorably a resolution by Senator Maloney of Connecticut proposing a joint senate-house committee to study congressional operations and recommend improvements. In the holige, Rep. Monroney of Oklahoma is sponsoring a simila# measure. Such a study is long overdue. It will be a pity if backward-looking members of the frock-coat school of statesmanship succeed in putting it off.
GALLANTRY AT ST. MALO
MERICANS WHO wept for the brave men trapped on Corregidor—men who fought on until further resistance was impossible—will feel a reluctant respect for Col. Andreas von Aulock and his men. Von Aulock, surrounded by American besiegers in a fortress in the harbor of St. Malo, replied as follows to an American invitation to surrender: “Thank you for fighting fairly. Even if the American army was fighting on the Rhine, we Germans should continue fighting, because capitulation, according to my conception, is not compatible with the honor of a German soldier.” This is a change from the conduct of German officers at Cherbourg, for instance, where the commanders saved their own skins by surrender but declined to order their "troops to do likewise. Correspondents are referring to the colonel as “The Madman of St. Malo.” If the colonel knows the history of the American Revolution, he should feel honored by the recollection that “Mad Anthony” Wayne got his nickname not from insanity but from gallantry in battle.
SOMETHING WE CAN DO WITHOUT PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, in rejecting the protfered gift of a paper knife supposedly carved from a dead Jap soldier's arm bone, administered a deserved rebuke to this sort of thing, several variations of Which have been publicized. Jap teeth, even Jap skulls, have been sent home as souvenirs. It is. not hard to understand how American boys who have seen their comrades slaughtered will get such ghoulish notions. But they ought to be discouraged, as the President has now sought to do. War is brutish enough without such grisly pranks. And they might have the effect of encouraging enemy desecration of our dead—not that this would be an innovation of the Japs.
RADIOS ON RAILROADS . A COMMITTEE of the federal communications commisgion will soon conduct hearings on the subject of twoway radio for railroad trains. The uses of such equipment would be many. To mention just one, a derailed train could communicate directly with approaching trains or with a signal point. Many a wreck would have been averted and many a life saved if such equipment had been standard in recent. years. ‘ As. Chairman Fly of the F. C. C. says: “Railroads have not been as quick to. take advantage of radio as the maritime world and the aviation industry.” If obstreperous and vocal Thurman Arnold were still in charge of the Justice department's anti-trust division, and investigated the ties between railroads and signal equipment companies ity might be that some light would be shed on this lack of alertness. : :
s——————————— ‘SLIGHTLY VULNERABLE | THEY COULDN'T try Thomas De Lorenzo for sayi 3 as NZ sayin, : that he would rather see Americans die in battle for ay Want of equipment than see his union lose any of its ~ “rights” at the Brewster aircraft plant, where he is’ the a Sh A. Ya 8.president. But they could try him on the arge ving about his police record t ot jol | fd a uly 0 get a Job, and . De Lorenzo's punithment, if it survives a is mi ] ) 8 appeal, is mild +30 days ‘and $5600 fine. But at least it should serve notice to him that he is not inviolate, and that he cannot flout the nation’s laws as he
di
A
did its interests and safety |
| lo settle down.”
Brewster's inefficiency, _, |
¢
Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler
NEW YORK, Aug. 16~From time to time, earnest and sincerely puzzled American patriots who © have heard the words of Com- : .munist arid fellow-travelér applied to many individuals in the Roosevelt government, write to inquire what these terms mean. They are loath to believe any President of the U. 8. would knowingly encourage enemies or opponents ef the ‘American system of government and the inner security of the nation, or anyone in sympathy with them. A Communist, of course, is a believer in eommunism who proclaims his meémbefship in the movement. The fellow-traveler is one Who associates with Communists and gives them aid and comfort but does not join the party in its guise of the moment and declare himself openly. The reasons usually are lack of courage and a selfish unwillingness to donate a private fortune or a large income to the movement. Some, however, remain fellow-travelers because they can. command more attention and public respect outside the party. In-that status they can pose as “liberals” and “progressives.”
t :
‘Impressed His Belief on Young Lawyers’
FELIX FRANKFURTER, born in Austria, has been, throughout the New Deal, one of its most influential personalities. As a teacher, at Harvard, he impressed his beliefs and ethics on many young American lawyers and many of his more precocious, witty and cunning students soon found their way into influential positions in the New Deal. Largely because of his political beliefs, Franklin D. Roosevelt put him on the Supreme court.
Back in 1917, Frankfurter was sent to Bisbee, Ariz., | “with ‘a commission appointed by President Wilson to
investigate the forcible, mass deportation of more than a thousand men by citizens deputized as sheriffs who lodded them into freight cars and sént them over into New Mexico. The details of the situation are too complicated for full statement in this space.
Frankltrter denounced the deportation and sympa- |
thized with the deportees. Bisbee was producing a large part of the copper which this country ahd her allies needed for the first world war. The I. W. W,, a Communist organization of terrorists, had been obstructing the war effort in Bisbee and many other places just as their successors did again during our so-called conversion, or tooling-up- period in 1940 ana 1941, right up to the hour when Hitler attacked Russia. The menacing element included Mexicans, who were believed to be veterans of Pancho Villa's guerrilla army which earlier had attacked Columbus, N. M., and aliens from Europe. All Communists, or Wobblies, as the Communists then were called, were opposed to this country’s war effort; Russia had quit the war and their mission was to extend the Bolshevik revolution all over the world. ‘
'Attitude Fundamentally That of Today"
IN DECEMBER, 1917, Theodore Roosevelt, the exPresident, in a letter to Frankfurter, wrote. “You are taking, on behalf of the administration, an attitude which seems to me to be fundamentally that of Trotsky and other Bolshevik leaders in Russia.” , , Roosevelt was referring to Frankfurter’s conceal ment of the peril of the community which stirred to action the local American citizens, many of whom soon went to war in person. “Your report,” Roosevelt wrote Frankfurter, “is as thoroughly misleading a document #s could be written on the subject. No official , . . is to be excused for failure to set forth that the I. W. W. is a criminal organization. To ignore the fact that a movement, such as its members made into Bisbee, is made with criminal intent, is precisely as foolish as for a New York policeman to ignore the fact that when the Whyo gang assembles with guns and knives it is with criminal intent. The President is not to be excused if he ignores the fact, for, of course, he knows all about it. No human being in his senses doubts that the men deported from Bisbee were bent on destruction and murder. ‘ (Roosevelt erred here, in that a few of the deportees were not Wobblies but law-abid-ing local men who resented being rounded up and refused to disassociate themselves from the rest.)
"Murderers and Encouragers of Murder’
“AND WHEN the President, personally, or by representative (meaning Frankfurter) rebukes the men who defend themselves from criminal assault, it is necessary sharply to point out that far greater blame attaches to the authorities who fail to give needed protection,” and to the investigators (again meaning Frankfurter) who fail to point out the criminal character of the anarchistic organization against which the decent citizens have taken action. “Here again you are engaged in excusing men precisely like the Bolsheviki in Russia who are murderers and encouragers of murder, who are traitors to their allies, to democracy and to civilization as well as to the U. S., and whose acts are nevertheless apologized for on grounds substantially like those which you allege. “In times of danger there is nothing more dangerous than for ordinarily well-meaning men to avoid condemning the criminals by making their entire assault on the shortcomings of the good citizens who have been the victims or opponents of these criminals,’
We The People By Ruth Millett
FOR MANY A war wife the first year or two after the return of her husband may be a more difficult period of adjustment than the vears of separation endured while the war lasted. For she thinks during the separation that all of her problems will be solved the day her husband returns to her. As a mate § * ter-of-fact, she may be faced with a new set of problems with no comforting philosophy to keep up her courage. No less an authority than Col. Wil= liam C. Menninger, chief of the division of neuropsy= chiatry of the office of the surgeon general says that the man sent to war may be a problem after he gets home, even though he never left this country and even. though he is just an average veteran, and not one discharged as a psychoneurotic, )
.
‘More Aggressive, More Restless’
THE REASONS for this, says Col. Menninger, are that service men will come back different fellows be= cause “they’ll all have known some degree of stress. They'll be more aggressive, more restless, full of indecision.” And he goes on to point out: “The veteran has heard of $100-a-week jobs, He's going to look for them—and they'll be scarce. Also, somebody has fed and clothed and paid him for two or three years. There has been no way for him. to get into serious. economic difficulties. He's had a philosophy of Hving from day to day with no sense of responsibility for anybody else. Even the allotments to his family came out of his pay automatically, It will be hard for him That doesn’t sotind as lems are going to be over as soon as her husband returns to her. It sounds as though in many cases she is going to trade loneliness and worry for the job. of helping a restless, disillusioned man settle down
> 5
Eo _ A
Fish Out of Water. ™.
John Knox in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal,
The Hoosier Forum
1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it—Voltaire.
“HOMES WILL STILL BE TOGETHER” By Mrs. Alvin P. Bracken, 3106 W. North st. Those are exactly my views, V. A, about having a memorial to the boys and girls of this war. It would be money in somebody's pocket, but not to the veterans. My husband and I were both born during world war I. None of our family was in] the war, but I can't see why they didn't divide the money up among the veterans of Indiana. I think the veterans of this war would rather have a little cash than a pretty building to look at. Yes, you're right. My husband is in this war, but if he wasn't, my views would still be the same. While I'm on the subject of servicemen, I'd like to say while they are giving advice to the soldier's
{Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words, Letters must be signed. Opinions set forth here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by “The Times. The Times assunfes no responsi. bility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.}
meant nothing to your fellow con-
as his hatred for unionism can be satisfied. Incidentally, The Times, in an editorial a week ago, blamed the C. I. O. for the strike. I have yet to see a retraction explaining the truth—that the union fought the strike from the minute it started. And I am waiting to see an editorial attacking Pegler for his support of the company’s shameful conduct during the strike. Or are you only interested in smearing the C..1. O.? How's about some honest journalism, please? ” “THE LEGION:
FOUGHT FOR US”
By Pvt. Samuel J. Del Pizzo, Seymour Miss Martha Louise Scott of Columbus suggests in Friday, Aug. 11,
a
Hoosier Forum a new veterans’ or-
family on how to treat him when he comes home, why not give it to the soldiers, too, to tell them how to treat their families. By that, I mean a majority of the women have changed. Some are even giving their children away so they can be free to go places. My {friends and I would rather stay home with our kids. They are mean at times, but do awfully cute things and they are a lot of fun. One is five and the other is 15 months old, both boys, and they keep me busy. Yes, we may be old-fashioned wives, but our kids and homes ‘will still be
marching home, » “JUST WHAT WAS EXPECTED”
» o -
-
om vince
spirators. The humane element is ganization. ‘
together when our husbands come [the grounds that the strike hurt the
-jemployers; the stockholders
never prevalent when a labor movement is to be thwarted.
be able to produce a similar situation here. ” .
“PEGLER DOESN'T CARE A HOOT” By A Soldier at Fort Harrison In his column of August 11, your writer, Westbrook Pegler, defends the Philadelphia transport strike on
Transport Workers Union, C. I. O. To quote Pegler: “After all, the
Americans , .° this was & unique
By Harry A. Altmeyer, 253 N. Pershing e. .
Your recent editorial on the Philadelphia transit strike was just what was expected of you, not only by the interests you serve, but also! by 'a majority of your subscribers, whose interests you oppose.
chance to harm the union, not by breaking a strike, but by submitting and encouraging the strikers.” Pegler is trying to explain away the fact that the C. I. O. union fought the strike which was led, incidentally, by two former leaders of the Philadelphia Transportation
{teen men in our ward and, after Who knows, perhaps with your! editorial aid the local torys might!
Anybody with an analytic power Company's company union. He is of reasoning would expect you to trying to cover up for the company attempt to exploit the propaganda which not only did not fight the possibilities of a situation perpe- strike but allowed the strikers to trated by your cohorts of the United ‘meet on its property and refused to Anti-Labor Front as your partsof co-operate with the C. I. O. union the over-all grand sirategy. |which was trying to keep its moThat this plot to create fraternal strike pledge to the armed fotces.
I read aloud her article to the six-
an open discussion, it was decided: 1. No advantage seen in forming another o tion when the Legion has such a solid foundation. 2. Attempting to organize a third club would prove a waste of time, money. and effort, plus defeating our own ends by creating national disunity. ’ 3. All agreed that today's soldier would be tomorrow's Legionnaire. 4. Thirteen of the sixteen men had already decided to join the
5. The remaining three, undecided now, but may later.
active soliciting among discharged men. 7. Unanimously agreed—the Legion fought for us—we’ll fight for them. I might add that if Miss Scott is really interested in the plight of the serviceman, she sholld investi-
theaters in her home town. She may rest assured that the seryvicemen will be interested in the results of her investigations. We shall anxiously await her reply. ‘ : - . ~
and political disunity in the.ranks Apparently Pegler doesn't care a of labor would entail bloodshed hoot about war production so long
d : 4. though all of a wife's prob-
a
Side Glances—By Galbraith
aT. M. u,
4
"Sie 497 You dort tol mat Wall them of acento own 10 Be Tein hor ant scutes the dro wil
Passed a man stand ing in the air,
“THAT'S OUR AMMUNITION” By H. C. Murray, Columbus You may see fit to print this short answer to “Think of the Other Side” in your Friday's last edition by Pvt. Stein of Ft. Ben, I am thinking, Mr. Private, that Gold Star Mother is right. I would like to correct your delusion over how the Republican and Democratic candidates arrived at their respective conventions in Chicago. Dewey did arrive by plane and certainly in the open; But how many trains do you imagine had to go on a siding or hold Ih &
-
o#
special (car names. blanked out). Also that means a lead train in advance of the. special and nothing moves between them. Follow? Can you picture the millions of dollars of war materials held up? Every train crew just waiting, And for what? A secret meeting on a siding in Chicago with pulled blinds. Soldier, you shoot your gun. We are buying the ammunition for you, but the money FDR used for going through Chicago-well, that’s our ammunition. Tom never
DAILY THOUGHTS
Blessed is the man that endur‘eth temptation: for when he is
8. The American. Legion has been!
gate the reason for full prices be-|. ing charged the boys at all three{"
block to wait for the President's| PY
We Must Kno
By Wiliam Phils Simms
2 : £
75
1
Fi
! E
3
President Points to Need for Bases
THE REACTIONS to President Roosevelt's Bréme erton speech show why this is, and must be, so, Speaking of Hawaii, the President remarked that we
Similarly we have to think about the defense of Central and South America, all the way down to Chile, and that involves some of the Pacific islands which are the possession of the British empire and the French. “We have no desire,” the President added, “io ask for any possessions of the united nations. But the united nations who are working so well with us in the winning of the war will, I am confident, be glad
T to join with us in protection against aggression and in
with their help I am sure that we can agree come pletely so that Central and South America will be ag safe against attack ffom the South Pacific as North America is going to be from the North Pacific.” : Generally speaking, the Australian press seemed
‘| favorably disposed towards the Roosevelt suggestion,
But not altogether so. The Sydney Telegfaph, for example, is quoted as saying “Yes ... but..." It emphasized that Australians also “have fought in this war and have clear-cut rights in the Pacific which miist be upheld.” : New Zealand newspapers followed a similar line,
Basic Conditions Must Be Known
NOW NO ONE in authority here disparages the heroic contribution made by the Anzacs or other meme bers of the British commonwealth or thinks of dise puting their “rights” whether in the Pacific or else | where. But the extent of America’s co-operation in the postwar set-up most certainly depends upon whether or not she is given the necessary bases, | Which brings us back to | betwéen Britain, Russia, China All this country can do is to league of nations it would be “1.” It cannot pledge Hoult SHlese and until it 4he basic conditions upon it may be called upof to fight. To do otherwise would be to sign a blank check—something no U. 8. senate would indorse,
i
Morse’s Views By Fred W. Perkins
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18. — Wayne 1. ‘Morse, Republican nominee for the U. 8. senate {from Oregon, is a former government official now on the outside, look ing in. He was on the inside for two years preceding last February, as a member of the war labor board. His service in this field and in related work indicates that if elected he will be active in labor laos. that he believes r. Morse , in campaigning, e ev in A of on Wagner (national labor relations) act to give protection to employers as well as labor unions; in an immediate withdrawal, with the end of the war, of the government from its dominant posie tion over labor-management relations; and in a thore ough going-over of the federal agencies, figured varie ously at from 12 to 24, that now have their oars in on r questions. gem we now have,” he says, “is in reality a series of labor departments, independent in nature and anything but co-ordinate in policy.”
No Authority Except the President
CONFLICTS BETWEEN THEM have been blamed for some important wartime labor controversies, ine cluding the Montgemery Ward trouble. . The .aecre= tary of labor has no authority over some of the most powerful agencies, including the war jabor board and the national labor relations board, and there is no authority over the complete. assortment of boards, commissions and commitees except the President. «I strongly advocate,” says Mr. Morse, “consolidae tion of the various labor services into one single abor department.” : ar mo act his gone without important revie sion since its enactment midway of the New Deal, and it provided the means for the great expansion of labor organizations during the past decade. The national labor relations board now has before it, with uncompromising opposition from the A. PF of L, the C. 1. O. and ‘other labor organizations, a proposal that employers have the same rights as unions in asking ‘for elections among (hei lio to de ine the collective bargain — Morse’s statement on this subject, made orignally in 1940 and being redistributed in 1944, follows: 7 #Labor has made great gains in recent years and some of them were long overdue. There are many features of the Wagner act which truly constitute a ‘magna carta for labor. Labor is entitled to protec. tion from and remedies against unfair labd prac. tices by those employers who are sull bent on exploiting labor. \
Urges Protection for Employer
“HOWEVER, LABOR is beginning to recognize that legislation in its behalf such as the Wagner act, which is totally one-sided and procedurally dis. criminatory against the employer, carries with It liabilities as well as assets insofar as the support of blic opinion is concerned. “Although labor generally is still opposed to the suggestion, I have no hesitancy in saying that the Wagner act cannot prove of lasting benefit to labor ‘unless it is modified and amended in a manner which will give to the employer the same protection against unfair labor practices as it gives to labor in protection against unfair 1abor practices by employers.”
g
own good, should expect the public to provide for settleraent of jurisdictional disputs between unions 1ntless labor provides its own machinery. We must avoid the bankrupting or at least great financial cost to innocent em as well as loss to the consume ing public resulting from Jurisdictional quarrels be {ween powerful labor groups. ; “Buch a stand,” Mr. Morse says, “may be impelitia, but it is sound, and one which large numbers of the rank and file of labor will approve.”
© succeeded—as far as the
must have other bases, too—bases nearer Japan, :
machinery to prevent aggression. With "them and-
He has another ides, witich is that “labor, for its -
says his wife spent more tha: : 8he succee n
~ =; WEDNI - TRUM/
BRIEF
Hopes to | To Six; With WASHING" -Senator Ha dent Rooseve ning mate wl
the brunt of
campaigning, could limit th major speech The strateg campaign is, ¢ out by Trum: at a meeting Friday. It w ference since by the Democ tion at Chica; In the inte vice president working out | Junction with Committee ( Hannegan. Truman is veritable wor improve the Roosevelt's re. but he perso short campaig He would li sonal efforts f and Far Wes trial East to - of the Preside Truman wo part of the p @t notificatio TED
Our Mis has just ELIZAB the sho . Eliz has mal you anc tim
