Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 November 1944 — Page 12

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PAGE 12 Monday, November 20, 1944

he Indignapolis Times

‘MARK FERREE Business Manager

WALTER LECKRONE Editor

“(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD President

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RILEY 5551

THE BIG BATTLE BEGINS

Now that the biggest battle of the war has begun on the Western front, we at home must fill the depleted blood banks, turn the munitions shortage into a surplus, buy bonds—and keep our heads. During the invasion and battle of France we were too much up and down, one month expecting a quick end of the war and the next month unduly depressed by delays, an emotional instability unworthy of our steady fighting men, In this larger test let us be prepared for inevitable casualties and reverses, for consolidating delays following spectacular gains, and for the possibility that even success in this offensive may not mean final victory. Gen. Eisenhower two months ago said there was a chance of winning the European war in 1944, That chance still exists. This grand offensive, for ‘which he has planned so long, is not behind schedule. He is ready now to throw more fire power against the Germans on a 450-mile solid front than they, or any other armies, have ever faced in the history of warfare. But when they will break under it no man knows—not even Eisenhower or Von Rundstedt. The important thing is that Eisenhower is prepared to continue the pressure until unconditional surrender, whether that takes six weeks or six months or longer, . » » . . J AT THE start of the battle the balance is in our favor. Our command is a brilliant and hard-hitting team that has won four major campaigns and lost none. Our air supremacy is so complete that the weather, rather than the Luftwaffe, is our chief enemy. Our ground superiority is probably three-to-one in men, and far more in mobile armor and fire power, Our productive capacity is beyond comparison. Our supply system, though stretched across the Atlantic and still bottle-iecked through inadequate ports and railheads, is probably better than the shorter but bomb-riddled enemy supply lines. While the net advantage is ours, it is not as wide as these ratios might indicate. The enemy has the protection of the deepest and strongest line of fixed defenses in the world. Vor Rundstedt on the record is the ablest German: general, top product of Prussian military tradition and science. He salvaged the German armies from defeat in France and reorganized them behind the west wall. He is not apt to waste men as Rommel did, or gamble all on intuition like the absentee Hitler at Stalingrad. ® 8 » w o . APART FROM weather, the decisive factors on the Western front probably will be reserves and morale. Whether we are stopped at the Rhine in this offensive will depend in part on whether Von Rundstedt has adequate reserves, especially fresh mobile forces, to throw in after the punishment of the first fortnight—if he has one-third the reserves of Eisenhower, he is well off. On the morale side, it is allied certainty of final and righteous victory versus the fanatical desperation of deflated conquerors defending their homes. _ But neither final victory nor this battle for the Rhine will be decided in the West alone. Strategically the West--ern, Southern and Eastern fronts are one. The best chance of winning the European war in 1944 is a Russian break of the three-month stalemate on the Warsaw line, to close the Nazi death trap which Eisenhower is springing.

NO THANKS, DOC

THE ANTI-CIGARET Alliance, from its Washington headquarters, hails the fag famine as a golden opportunity for millions of smokers to quit. Dr. J. Raymond ~~ Schmidt, vice president, offers a perfectly lovely “simple” formula for breaking the cigaret habit: ’ Chew gentian root, take rochelle salts and cream of tartar before breakfast, avoid highly seasoned foods and stimulating drinks, stay away from smokers, take a couple of Turkish baths, get lots of fresh ai} and keep the mind occupied. Well, our mind is occupied, all right, all right. We have pondered Dr. Schmidt's statement that three leeches dropped dead when attached to the arm of a smoker, and his warning that smoking may shorten our life by 11 years. We have found that Tobias Venner, in 1620, outdid the good doctor in invective against the weed, to-wit: “Tobacco drieth the brain, dimmeth the sight, vitiateth the smell, hurteth the stomach, destroyeth the concoction, disturbeth the humors and spirits, corrupteth the breath, induceth a trembling of the limbs, exsiccateth the windpipe, lungs and liver, annoyeth the milt, scorcheth the heart, and causeth the blood to be adusted.” . But we are afraid of forming the fiendish gentian-root and Turkist-bath habits, and we hate leeches. If any of those things get attached to our arm, we want em to drop deader than doornails. So, what chiefly occupies our mind is: Where can we get a pack of cigarets?

SUCKERS AND SKEPTICS

A CHILEAN radio producer put an adaptation of Orson Welles’ famous “Men from Mars” broadcast on the air the other night and achieved the same frightening response. Citizens of Chile succumbed to panic, heart attacks, and an urge to run screaming into the streets in their night-clothes, - even as New York and New Jersey citizens did six years ago. All of which confirms our earlier suspicion that one thing that got our world into its present sorry fix is that its inhabitants were all too ready to believe in Martian invasion, despite elaborate assurance that it was all a joke, and much © too reluctant to credit the possibility of axis invasion, though they wére assured that it was all in dead earnest.

REFLECTIONS TL Egging Them On By John W. Hillman

ol IT'S A PRETTY safe bet that the farmers of Germany and Japan aren't carrying their eggs all in one basket these days. . For the Nazi DNB agency has announced that German farmers have been ordered to deliver to their government “at least 70 Li © eggs per annum per hen” or suffer “unpleasant consequences.” That has an ominous sound. “Unpleasant consequences” can be . drastic in the Third Reich. The Central Assogjation of the German Milk, Fat and Egg Economy, which issued the order, leaves to the imagination of the farmers what the term means, But we can guess. ne Not to be outdone by German efficiency, the Japanese government has almost doubled the ante. Japanese farmers, according to the Tokyo radio, must deliver to the government at least 10 honorable eggs per honorable hen per month—or “so sorry!”

Can't Lay Eggs on Sawdust

SEVENTY EGGS per year, or 10 per month doesn’t sound like much of a chore for a hen that loves her work, but it must be remembered that the axis hetis have been short of vittles for a long time, and that makes quite a difference. You can’t lay many eggs on K rations or sawdust—at least we can't and we're morally certain that hens can't either, And no well-regulated hen can put her heart into a doubleyolk when the flak keeps her awake or blockbusters are dropping around her ears, She gets shell shock. Hens are stubborn critters and notoriously unregimented, as any chicken-raiser knows, so the German and Jap farmers must be under a strain these days. What happens if a broody biddy hides her nest out in the kraut patch? And when the flock starts moult ing, it's time t~ go underground. Think of the suspense when old red Gretchen, with only 69 eggs to her credit and her year almost up, refuses to concentrate on her duty to the fuehrer and the fodderland. Ach himmel! And also Himmler,

Our Egg Problems Are Different

WE HAVE our egg problems, too, but they are quite different from those of the weary hens who are trying to keep their owners out of the German concentration camps. Our government's big difficulty is to reduce production and stop the growth of an embarrassing surplus. : In the last year, the war food administration has sold 1,383,725 cases of eggs in the shell and 168 million pounds of dried eggs to other government agencies, It has sold for fertilizer more than a million dozen eggs that spoiled before they could be distributed through normal channels.. It still has 1+ 613476 cases of shell eggs and nearly 92 million pounds of dried eggs. And it's finding so much diffieulty in locating storage space that it looks as though wé might have to move out and give the country back to the Buff Orpingtons. It would be nice to believe that American chick« ens are more patriotic than the superhens of Germany and Japan. But the chief reason why hatch eries and henneries have outproduced the breakfast tables seems to be that the WFA has spent $288, 188,611 to bolster egg prices. And since Congress has promised that sil farm prices will be supported at 90 percent of parity during’ the war and for two years thereafter, sjowing down egg production may prové a difficult task. Hens are single-minded creatures. They live to lay, and vice versa,

New Kind of Shell Game

80 NOW there are proposals that the government may make it possible for the public to buy more eggs by paying a subsidy to consumers. Or maybe, as the Wall Street Journal suggests, everyone who tries to buy a pack.of cigarets could be required instead to take a dozen eggs. All of which sounds like some new kind of a shell game, First we pay the farmers to produce more eggs—and then we pay the consumers to eat them. Pass your egg cup for a second helping—the yolk's on us. Everybody profits but the hens and the faxpayers; in the end, they both get it ig the neck. But perhaps we shouldn't complain too much. We're getting our eggs, even if we do have to forego the ham. And it's pretty nice to be living in a country where if the farmer finds an empty nest, the only “unpleasant consequences” are to the hen.

WORLD AFFAIRS—

Behind The Lines By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.— While Eisenhower's armies are slogging forward through blood and mud and ice in a desperate effort to knock out Germany and end the war quickly, bands of ‘armed revolutionaries are threatening their lines of communication at the reac. Belgium, holding the key position on the allied left, is particularly menaced. Already men and women of the resistance movement, In a mass demonstration in the streets of Brussels, have shouted for the government's resignation. Any interruption of transportation facilities, even for a short time, might spell the difference between victory and defeat. At best, Premier Pierlot would have his hands full trying to restore order in his land after four years under the Nazi boot, At best, too, the difficulty of getting supplies up to the allied front would be colossal without having to contend with threats of rioting along the way.

An Army Within an Army

THEREFORE, the Belgian government has asked the resistance forces to turn in their arms and join the army, gendarmerie police force, either individually or in groups. qualified to be officers will be properly commission . This the resistance organization does mot want to do save under its own conditions, Dominated by Communists, as in France, it insists on entering the armed forces in large groups—by battalions of 500 to

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Question and Answer Department!

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The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

“WHY BLAME THE MOTORMAN?” By A Laborer; Indianapolis. Your suggestion of middle-door exit for a crowded streetcar is good, Weary Traveler, but why blame the motorman because passengers block the aisles? . : No, he can't see the vacant space at the rear, He is in the driver's seat, responsible for collecting fares and keeping order in a mob, Passengers (the same who block the aisles) ridicule his requests “Move back, please” and threaten to report him for overloading or for forfeiting the “go sign.” Don’t blame the motorman! Size up the selfish prig that demands taxi service for streetcar fare and see to your own manners, ” ” J “IT WOULD GLADDEN THEIR HEARTS” Mrs. Walter E. Hynes, Indianapolis. I feel sure there are other mothers who feel the same way I do. In the paper and on the radio lately, there have: been quite a few cl''bs and organizations Yaising funds to get men in the service now, and veterans of other wars, gifts for Christmas. That is very patriotic. But what about small children of the men who are fighting this war? They are not old enough to realize that they can’t have the things this Christmas they are accustomed to having on Christmas before their fathers went away. I realize a gift on Christmas to a man in service would be like a gift from heaven, but I'm sure they would rather thelr children had some little gift. My husband said, in a letter not Flong ago, “I feel so bad because I won't be able to get our little boy what he wanted for Christmas.” 80 come on, friends, why not have an organization to get the children of our men fighting this war a gift for Christmas. It might not be ‘as patriotic as getting a serviceman a gift but it would gladden their little hearts. I might be wrong in thinking this way, but I don't think so. So let's have some letters on this so I can see what other mothers think. ” ” . “YOU'RE BEING UNGRATEFUL” By 8. M. Geiger, Indianapolis May I express my opinion, as an opinion? I'm a little upset about an article in tonight's Hoosier Forum. H. H. K. wrote lamenting the cigaret shortage, and laying the blame at the door of lend lease. Now 1 agree that the shortage is becoming acute, and that there is a

(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 assumes no responsis bility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

staunch allies, or of the government that established lend lease. Have you ever thought that it might be because of black market? Because some person may have started a rumor of a shortage and people bought all they could find, rather than the amount they would use for the day or the week, thus creating a real shortage. Suppose, Mr. (Miss or Mrs.) W. H. K. that you had a catcher’s mitt and you wanted to organize a baseball club. There's a team you'd like very much to beat but you know that you and the mitt alone wouldn't get very far. Besides, you aren't such a good player. Oh, you have the ability, but you're green, inexperienced, while évery member on the other team is a professional. Now in your neighborhood there are just the fellows to make up a wonderful team. John has a baseball, Jim has a bat, Bill owns the uniforms, et cetera, All togéther they have & very good chance to win. So they take inventory, study the other team’s weak spots, and map out a schedule. That's strategy, I believe. Things go fine up to the beginning of the sixth inning, Then John says, “It's my baseball they're using, and I didn't get to be pitcher, so why should I let 'em have 1? I'll take my ball and go home and they can play their own game.”

Isn't that foolish? Of course it

is, but the thing you're saying is just about the same thing, isn't it? That's a form of lend-lease, too. No, we aren't fighting their war, W.H.K! They are helping us fight the common enémy. If we hadn't had England, Russia, China on our feam, no doubt we'd know by now what it is to have bombs fall en our cities, perhaps we'd even know how those peoples in the occupled countries feel,

cause, But it isn't the fault of our

Yes, instead of being thankful

Side Glances=By Galbraith

“(for the help of our friends, you're

being ungrateful. Let's try, instead of criticizing lend-lease, to stamp out black markets by buying only what we need of a scarce article, and—oh yes, I do have someone in service. My husband is fighting the Germans and I have a brother in the South Pacific, and I don't believe, W.H.EK., that either of them would feel the way you do concerning lend-lease. They don’t have time fo resent a cigaret shortage.

4 8..5 “WE LOOK TO YOU, THE PUBLIC”

By Member of National Association of Letter Carriers~A. F. of L., Branch 39 Your letter carrier has not had an increase in salary since 1925. Nineteen years have gone by without an increase in his basic compensation, It is not often that your letter

Southern Type

{By Thomas L. Stokes

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20. = In : the of Senator “Cotton : Ed” Smith of South Carolina was the passing of a tradition. That 1s, symbolically, “for the Smith tradition still lives here and there in the south. J It is the tradition of the rampant individualist, the rebel against too much government.

sionally as in the case of cotton. He was the champion, in his younger career of the sharecropper and tenant farmer, the way to political power, but in his later years he scorned help for ‘such low income groups from a paternalistic government. It was not so many years ago, during a New Deal fight, that he dropped a remark about 50 cents a day being enough wages in South Carolina.

'The Epitome of a Type'

IN HIM was the development into 2lmost the epitome of a type of demagoguéry seen most often in the South, though not peculiar to it. This is the demagogue for the predominant economic and financial interests, who is able to sell his doctrine to enough of the masses by a picturesque personality, a gift for the homely simile and story, and with a slug here and there of prejudice, usually at the expense of the “yankee” or the Negro. The last was laid on more heavily if he was pressed hard politically. There were few figures so engaging to watch in action as the belligerent Cotton Ed with his mustaches bristling. / There was a counterpart for some years in Georgia's Gene Talmadge of the red galluses, yho was taken care of by the people a couple of years ago, though it is too much to predict or hope that he won't come back. Cotton Ed finally was toppled from his throne in South Carolina in the primaries this year, after 35 years in the senate. The people of a newer generation finally caught up with him. It must have been a great disappointment—his defeat—for a man so long in harness. But he was full of years. He celebrated his 80th birthday Aug. 1. '

‘Came From Substantial Yoemanry'

HE DIED in the old house where he was born at Lynchburg, in the South Carolina midlands, where the Smith family had lived for over 150 years. He came from the substantial yeomanry of the up country, the backbone of the South, though less advertised than the aristocratic icing, with its legends of big white houses and honeysuckle, its mint juleps and pickaninnies, racing about to do “Old Marster’s” bidding, or the masses at the other end, satirized -in Jeeter Lester and his breed. : Ellison D., who was “Cotton Ed,” was born a féw days after Gen, Sherman burned Atlanta. He was

up with the memory of Wade Hampton and his “Red Shirts” who took over the state government from the carpetbaggers. Wade Hampton was one of Cotton Ed's heroes. The senator donned a red shirt in the celebration after his victory in 1938 when President Roosevelt tried to “purge” him. He was jubilant that night. ; Characteristic of the senafor, and the meaning of his kind in the South, was a scene that took place in front of his home described to me a couple of years ago by a traveling companion on & train. rolling across Georgia.

‘It Might as Well Stay’ MY COMPANION, who happened to be in the

carrier comes to you with his problems. He does so now because he has no alternative. You and other citizens of our nation are in a position to render in-| valuable assistance. You can alleviate the unsatisfac-| tory economical circumstances of | these men who cheerfully, despite inadequate earnings, continue brifig- | ing your V-mail, your business and personal mail. Realizing the importance and value of their services in the field of communications, these men have stood by their routes to give YOU the full benefit of their experience during a period when the cost of living has overcome their earning capacity and industry tempted with its wartime salaries. Thé receipts of the postoffice for the past fiscal year reached an alltime high and broke all records. This unprecedented mail volume was accomplished despite the ab-

in the armed forces. The letter

of that record. es We look to you, the public, to

have chosen your service as their life's vocation. Senator James ‘M, Mead, New York, has introduced a bill in the senate, 8, 1882, for a $400 per year increase in salary to effect the needed relief, Congressman Géorge D. O'Brien, Detroit, Mich, has introduced in thé house Of representatives a compénion bill, H, R. 475. We sincerely urge you to write to your congrésmén and senators today in support of these two bills and to request thenr to séek edrly

Indidnspolls, you published a letter by W. H K. who suggested a “plan” for the easing of the cigaret

shortage, W. H. K. asked: “Is it not enough that Americans are fighting évery war in the world for everyone. else, without maintaining them in a style to which they are not accustomed and certainly not entitled by their military accomplishments?” - Does he realize that the American

sence of thousands of employees|

carriers are proud of their contri- |? bution toward the establishment] $

bring adequate relief to those who 3

neighborhood of the Smniith homé on businéss, was taken by a friend to meet the senator. They found him in the front yard, in his shirt sleeves, a Pine branch in his hand which he was lazily swinging back and forth across his shoulders to keep off the mosquitoes, i The visitor asked him where the mosquitoes came from. The senator pointed across the road where he said there was a swamp. Hé was asked why he didn't drain the swamp. “Oh, it's been there since my grandfather's time,

| and it might as well stay,” the senator replied.

There's Cotton Ed and there was the South which he represented. Fortunately that's passing.

IN WASHING TON—

American Way

By Daniel M. Kidney

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.— Trade-marks and well-advertised brand names made the mass production possible which is winning thé war for America, Rep. Charles A, Halleck, dean of the Indiana Republicans in congress, maintains. As 8 member of the committee which cracked down on the New Dealers who wanted to abolish advertising and brand names through the office of price . istration, Mr. Halleck was asked t6 write his views for the cutrent (Nov, 28) isste of Look magazine, Here are some of the things thd ablé Hoosier sald: “We all know how we saved oursélvés—through conversion of our mass-production industifes, But how did we happen fo have the mass-production industries? Through mass consumption.

Americans Buy by Name

“AND WHAT made mass consumption? “Known brand _names—trade-marks—plus low prices, plu$ quality, Therein lies s connection, too often overlooked, between America's political democfacy and its economic ; “x distinctive characteristic of Americans is that we buy by name. This has been derided, but today it is our salvation, Without the brand-name buying which fostered mass consumption, mass production

lost or victory long-delayed.” Tracing the history of trade-marks and advertising, Mr, Halleck listed some of the things which wellknown firms now make, Included are: “Frigidaire now makes machine. guns and B-29 propellers; Plymouth, planes, fanks and guns; - strong Linoleum, artillery

“foreigners” of Russia fighting 2 the eastern front? Does he realize| ‘Trade-marks Delivered the Goods’ that the people of Lidice gave their i all—their families, homes and lives| FROM THIS Mr. Halleck concluded: ~that others could live? Does he “ methods have made us realize that if it were not for the| thé arsenal and supplier of our own and our allies’ “foreign” Chinese and Australians,| forces. American brand names and trade-marks have

: i

Tokyo; the American production system will be se“Ther, becatss our have been on short rations for years, our business and industrial leaders war. a NDT py Say here wi i Ee i

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