Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 December 1944 — Page 22

The Indianapolis Time

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simply to hold him in check.

~ PAGE 22+‘ Thursday, December 7, 1944

MARK FERREE * Business Manager

WALTER LECKRONE Editor

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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Give Light and the Peopie Will Find Their Own Way

RILEY 5551

NO LETUP, AND NO LETDOWN

HE end of America’s third year of participation in this war finds our forces in Europe approaching the climax of what may well be the greatest and most fateful battle in history. In the Pacific, against the enemy whose attack brought us into the struggle, we have overcome his tremendous early advantage and, after months of slow, painful effort, have definitely taken the offensive, Three years ago our military leaders chose to concentrate our major force upon our stronger enemy to avert our greater danger. And today the wisdom of that decision to beat Germany first is more apparent than ever. For the latest horde of barbarians to overrun Europe presented a greater danger to civilization than all the Vandals, Huns, Turks and Tartars who have scourged the continent in 2000 years. Co Civilization was more vulnerable because of the centralization that its advancement had brought. It was prey to the cunning of its own science. Vast territories and resources and populations of that civilization had been devoured by Hitler to give him strength. Three years ago this country joined the last two great free powers of Europe to free and restore all that Hitler had taken. Co . x nN» TODAY THAT freedom and restoration are almost complete. From the critical days when it séemed that ~ America as well as her allies might be faced with destruction, we have come to the place where the battle of Europe is now the battle of Germany. We have reached that point at the price of death and pain and unremitting effort. And the price will remain the same until both Berlin and Tokyo have fallen. a : Here at home-there has seemed to be a feeling recently that the closer we come to victory the less effort is needed

to win it: It seems to have been forgotten that it takes

more power to overcome a stubborn enemy than it does - . This is total war, and total war-is no sport’ at which spectators may sit in the grandstand 3 watch the thrilling finish. There are no spectators. Some of us at home aré required to contribute much to victory, others have but a small part in the result. But.none of us can be idle. » » . . » . THE LEAST we can do is to stay on the job, buy war bonds, and make our small sacrifices, not with complaints but with penitence and humble gratitude that they are no worse. gd At the end of three years of war we are on the -oad to victory, but it is a road on which there is no coasting. Germany must be hit with our maximum power on the day she capitulates. Any letdown after that day will only lengthen the war with Japan, which at best must be long and bloody and bitterly contested. What needs saying on the Pearl Harbor anniversary has best been said by Gen. Eisenhower: “War is like pushing a heavily loaded wagon up a steep hill in a fog and never knowing when you are going to reach the top.” So you have to push like hell all the time.”

MR. WALLACE ON RUSSIA

NN ETY-NINE per cent of Americans, says Vice Presi- | dent Wallace, had a false impression of Russia because | of what had been published in the newspapers and are

magazines.

Well, the newspapers and. magazines sent coirespond- |

ents to Russia, who reported what they saw—which was only what the ruling Soviet clique permitted them to see. Most of the correspondents stayed for a much: longer time

than Mr. Wallace, who stopped off a few days in Siberia on | least temporarily, and together face

REFLECTIONS —

ty, 5 cents a copy; delive |’

‘| to copy Wagner's idea.

Spots on the Spot

By James Thrasher

IT MAY be that Richard Wagner and his operas really started it. And it may also be that Harry Bannister of station WWJ in Detroit will finish it.. The “it” in question is the singing commercial, Of course Wagner enthusiasts will bitterly resent his being dragged into this discussion. But they can't deny that he was the originator of the “leading mo- ‘ tive" in music—a scheme whereby the characters and some of the situations in an opera are identified by a melodic phrase which shows up in the orchestra when the characters or situations show up on the stage, or are even mentioned. It took the commercial songsmiths some 80 years Bit today any number of things—soup, soap, bread, soft drinks and what have you—are identified on the radio by melody. Blurps burbles, fanfares and snatches of close harmony have become the new trade marks.

Tuneful Advertising Is Chief Target

A GREAT MANY people don't seem to like the singing ‘commercial, It may be assumed that Mr, Bannister is included among them. For, according to Broadcasting Magazine, he is banning all transcribed spot announcements from his station beginning Feb. 1. And Broadcasting reports that a major network is considering similar steps. , . The transcribed spot announcement naturally contains other things besides singing commercia but there is reason to suspect that tupeful advertis ing is Mr. Bannister's chief target: At least when someone asked him what he'd do”if an advertiser offered him a “live” singing cofamercial, he is quoted as having replied, “I'd turfi it down.” The majority of lSteners probably would welcome some changes in the technique of radio advertising. The wonder is that changes have been 80 long in -Coming. Broadcasters and the federal communications commission have long kept close watch on the facts stated and opinions expressed in radio programs. But they have paid less attention to their programs’ good taste, beyond seeing that they did not exceed the bounds of decency.

Announcements, Little Entertainment

IT 18 ARGUED that listeners must put up with commercials if they want to hear the programs that sponsors buy. But that does not account for the spot announcement that may precede or follow your favorite program. Nor does it rule out the broadcasters’ use of discretion In the spot advertising used. It is getting so that on many stations during much of the day, programs are largely spot announcements, with little entertainment. And the unhappy truth is that many of these announcements are delivered with a heartiness, bombast, eagerness or lyrical enthusiasm which, with or without a musical “leading motive" often irritates the listener. Newspaper executives for many years have exercised the editorial prerogative of passing upon the content of advertisements they print. If radio executives are now beginning to follow suit, it is safe

to say that listeners, broadcasters and sponsors all stand to benefit in the end. :

r WORLD AFFAIRS—

Showdown in China By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7-~The showdown in China is at hand. What happens there in the next few weeks will go a long way towards deciding the length of our’ war against Japan with all that means in American lives. At Quebec Prime Minister Churchill said. we have everything it takes to lick Japan, The trouble, he went on, is we haven't a proper springboard. We've got ships and planes and tanks and men and all the rest, but not a single good base from which to use them.

Now we are bombing Tokyo, but our boys have to fly 3200 miles from Saipan and back in order to do it. Keenly..aware-of these difficulties; ~the— Japéarese now trying desperately to add to them by knock- | ing China out of the war. They have driven within 200 miles of Chungking, the capital, and are shorten- | ing that distance every day. The next eight ‘weeks, | officials predict, will tell the tale | Everything now depends upon (1) whether Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's government and the ! Chinese Communists can bury their differences, at the oncoming

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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.

“LET'S HAVE SOMETHING OF A LIGHTER NATURE” By LI’ Abner, Indianapolis ' I always read the Hoosier Forum before anything else every evening. Naturally, as snyone would, I find some writers with whom I agree and some who I can hardly see “eye to eye” with. puis wre Since practically everything is of a more or less serious nature now, why not let us hear more from

Hawkins Day?” She must have abandoned her idea, for look as I will, I haven't seen any more on this page since I answered her first contribution, stating that I would indeed second her idea. World, state and city affairs are certainly very much in my heart, but let's have something occasion«ally ‘of a lighter nature,

® x = “THEY KNOW WE SERVE THEM WELL”

By Frank 8. McGuire, Vice Pres., National Federation of Rural Letter Carriers, Indianapolis

In The Times of Sat., Dec. 2, an article by James R. Meitzler appeared in which he took issue with the proponents of the blanket salary increase bill for postal employees, now pending before the 78th congress. Having read many articles by Mr. Meitzler in the past, I was not sur prised that he took advantage of

this opportunity to take one of his

one of the stanch supporters of | “rugged individualism,” which is] merely a nice way. of saying..‘get. the other fellow by fair means or foul,” he could hardly be expected to support the efforts of any class or group that sought a decent day's work, or to take any stand but that of anti-labor. In order to enlighten-your read- | ers who may be misled by Mr. Meitz{ler's generalities, allow me to pre|sent a few facts pertinenf to our

his way to China. Many of the writers, such as’ Eugene Japs and (2) a certain amount of help from the allies. | omorts to secure a permanent sal-

Lyons, Max Eastman and William Henry Chamberlain, were | Communists Want to Be Recognized not at all unfriendly to the Russian experiment when they | went over—but when the saw totalitarianism in action |

they couldn't swallow it as liberalism. ” . 8 =» . = wn

TO FACILITATE an understanding, Chiang has appointed Dr. T. V. Soong, brother of Madame Chiang,

ary increase of $400 per annum, Our present wage standards were established in 1025, and in the ensuing 19 years we have had nine, of

| to the premiership and given him latitude to negotiate with the Red faction of Northwest China. If he

approximately one-half of 4 those | yeas, during boom or war’ times, | We received no basic salary in

BUT MR. WALLACE seems to have a wider gullet. | can't succeed no one of his crowd ean, for he is among | creases to offset the increased livHe sees in Russian achievements something akin to applied | the most ‘liberal of Chiang’s entourage. The Com. |S costs during those years. In Christianity. “One of my®Litiu-American friends wrote | munist leader, Gen. Chou En-Lai, is reported to be me a year or so ago,” says Mr. Wallace, “that the Russians | in Chungking and it may be that when he returns do in Russia every day what the people in the United States | to his headquarters in Shensi he will have in his

talk about oni Sunday.” Among the things Russians do is to shoot people w

disapprove of the government under which they live. How- |

ever necessary that may be to totalitarian rule—it is not what most Americans consider a Christian act, The Russians are brave fighters, splendid allies in war, They are entitled to whatever system of society and form of government they want and can attain. entitled to the same. free society, we can indulge the luxury of listening to Mr. Wallace make such speeches. ;

TAKE NOTICE, NOEL,

BROOKLYN needn't go to war with Noel Coward after all. ‘I'hat great city’s reputation as a home of heroes is safe from aspersion by any la-de-dah British writer——sate in the hands of one of its former policemen, 28-year-old Lt. Carl C. Palm of the U. S. army. ; ~ Brooklyn’s Lt. Palm led an anti-tank platoon into action for the first time the other day at Preummern, Germany, While his men were setting up their guns he dashed off and, single-handed, attacked five German Royal Tiger

with his rifle, besieged a German command post and shot three more enemy officers, then eluded a whole Nazi bat-

talion that tried to capture him. ~~ Our guess-is that Noel Coward won't be writing any

And preferring and maintaining a |

tanks with hand grenades, killed-all five tank commanders.

| pocket a new proposition from “T. Sy

ho | The Communists want to be recognized as a legal

party on a footing with the now unique Kuomintang. | They want autonomy--government of their own--in

| the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia area, and they ifsist on | retaining their own large army composed of approxi- | mately 400,000 actives and 2,000,000 reserves. And they demand that available equipment be shared be- | tween the Red army and the regulars, share and

Americans are | share alike. -

| Now that Chungking seems prepared to meet the

Reds at least halfway the question is whether the latter will play ball. If the answer is yes, then the several hundred thousand troops which Chiang now uses to “blockade” the Communists in their north. western strpnghold, can be diverted for use against the Japs. Presumably the Communists will feel free

| to throw additional troops into the fray,

Pressure Should Work Both Ways

THE ANSWER, it is believed, would be “yes” If President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin could get together and lend a hand. Up to the present, Washington, London and Moscow

to come to an understanding” with the Communists. Now if equal pressure is brought to bear against the Communists to “come to an . with

To.this pivise, 4 whikiitted Suggestion

have limited their criticism “to Chiang for “refusing |

Chilang, the whole outlook in Ghia, Wight be changed. |

Dec., 1942, we were granted a temporary wartime bonus of $300 per annum which expires next June

underhand “digs™ at a group of loyal, American workmen, Being |

(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 responsi bility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter cgrrespondence regarding them.)

out of nine we have been accorded an increase in pay which partly offset increased costs. During the 10 depression years, contrary to Mr. Meitzler's statement, we received pay cuts rang-

ing up to 15 per cent and were |

given payless furloughs, or, in other words, ‘ layoffs. These pay cuts have been restored, along. with everyone else, but in 1934 the rural letter carriers were given a pay cut under the Reclassification act of that year that HAS NOT been restored, therefore we are receiving LESS pay than we did in 1925. Rural letter carriers, working under an antiquated mileage system established during the gay nineties, are in many instances the most grossly underpaid employees in the postal service, and while this in-

_ lis paid by the deduction of 5_per cent from our pay checks, which

will be worked. Time and a half, NO; straight time, NO, just our regular deficient pay check. We don’t have much money, but what we DO have is a keen sense of loyalty to our job, our patrons, and to our government. Where many peacetime industries have been stripped of competent help the appeal of war wages, the office has lost few except to the armed forces. Our pension is not a “gift” but

amount buys for us a much smaller proportionate retirement pay than is enjoyed by other employees in private industry under the Social Security act. We don’t strike to attain our aims. We go to the American people whom we serve, and they know we serve them well. Again, we ask you to write your congressman and senators urging them to support the O’Brien-Mead bill. 5 » s “WIPE DUST OFF THE CRYSTAL BALL" By Joe Saunders, 3526 College ave. In his recent letter to The Times, Mr. -James R. Meitzler of Attica, deposes and says that the public— including himself, is being kept in the dark by postal employees, who, for reasons they do not divulge, are asking for a revision of postal salary schedules. But the mere matter of being uninformed as to the facts in the {case was, apparently, no handicap to the versatile Mr. Meitzler when he felt the urge to discuss the sub-/ ject in the public prints, since one|

crease of $400 will help, even that

with ‘his vivid imagination could,

ToimoA oN - : Who Won |?

By Thomas L Stokes

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7. — A common crack around Washington these days when New Dealers fore gather—and it is not passed off with gay flippancy-—runs this way: “Who won the election?” The mumbling started when President Roosevelt named Edward R. Stettinius Jr., son of a Morgan partner and himself out of General Motors and U. 8. Steel, as secretary of state, y . It became louder and tinged with acid when there followed ‘a few days later a whole flock of state department appointments which had a nice sprinkling of gold plate and big business—a' Rockefeller and a wealthy cotton broker, sweetened off with a distinguished career diplomat, Joseph C. Grew, and Archibald MacLeish, the poet, the only gesture to the left, who will sit off to himself and do something about cultural relations. -

Too Much for Some New Dealers

THIS IS not to say that Messrs. Stettinius and Nelson Rockefeller and Willlam L. Clayton are not able and qualified men, But the large dose of big business, ladled out in a dipper with not even the pres tense of small and broken doses, was too much for some New Dealers and particularly for the\C. I. O, which thought it had some part in the \election victory. A “shake-up” was being demanded, but thé New Dealers did not expect one quite like this, Nor was it much comfort to see that the one in this list who got the most adverse votes—four—in the foreign relations committee was Mr. MacLeish, while only one committee members, Senator Murray (D, Mont), voted against Mr. Clayton, who was the pare ticular target of labor and farm groups of the New Deal persuasion while he was surplus property ade ministrator., They thought Mr. Clayton was out of the admin istration picture, but up he bobs again, smiling, in & top administration post.

What About the Cartels?

THIS WHOLE SET-UP, with Mr. Stettinius at the pinnacle, was taken as indicating that Mr. Roosevelt is going to continue as his own secretary of state, which is not* unusual. But the New Dealers know that the President cannot give personal attention to everything that goes on in the department, and that those who make the day-to-day decisions down below and shuffle the papers had a way, if they have § purpose, of getting things done. $0 What New Dealers are worried about, and this includes some men in congress, is what is likely to happen to the President's once warmly expressed ine tentions to do something about cartels, those interna tional monopolies, against which Vice President Wale lace has crusaded so valiahtly, with men of the back« ground of the new appointees sitting in the seats of power in the state department. This probably would fall in Mr. Clayton's domain, since he is going to be in charge of foreign economie matters, and no one has heard him express himself very strongly on this subject. But there are also Mr,

BE

Stettinius-at-the top with-his busines career in gian§

enterprises of the monopolistic sort, and Mr. Rockee feller who is not entirely removed, after three genere ations, from the oil monopoly built up by his grande father to the bewailing of muckrakers of another era, Who, in the state department, is going to look after the little people? That's a valid question,

Labor and Farmers Are Skeptical SOMETHING MAY be heard of this when the

nominations come before the senate, though there ig '

no question but that they will be approved. v Labor and farmers, too, are showing some skepti« cism about the make-up of the surplus property board, Mr. Clayton got out of this picture and then the President met the issue by a couple of purely political appointments—former Governor Robert A. Hurley of Connecticut, a lame-duck, and a Lt. Col. Edward PF, Heller of California. The senate military affairs committee has ree opened its investigation of these nominations with a protest against them from the Farmer-Labor-Smaller Business Congress of New England. This organiza« tion embraces the American Farm Bureau federation and the National , Grange, both conservative farm organizations; the ® PF. of L., the C. I. O. and the Smaller Business Congress in that area. A real fight now is in prospect, for the surplus property board has a most important function in the post-war economy in disposing of the mammoth sure plus stocks running up to a hundred billion, as well as war plants and land, and men of ability and éxperie ence are needed.

will not correct the situation in | easily conjure up enough synthetic which. we find ourselves at the faets-to-give a biance-of plats~ present time. Many rural carriers, | ipility to his megative attitude. In emanating from the larger offices, | his categorical complaint he alleges are having to spend far in excess that postal employees have had a of their equipment allowance to steady income for 19 years; that maintain their automobiles under |this income suffered no diminution

re ppt eS

IN WASHINGTON—

today’s conditions. This extra cost comes out of their already deficient pay check. In other words, Mr. Meitzler, many, many rural carriers are helping to provide mail service to rural and suburban patrons by paying for it: out of their own pockets. : If our efforts to get adequate, or near adequate compensation for this unfair outlay of cash can be called a ““raid on the treasury,” then I don't know America and Americans. Rural carriers never heard the word “overtime” We work many days in excess of eight hours with NO extra pay. We are entering now upon the season of the year

{30. So, for two and one-half years | —t iiss

when 10, 12 and 14 hours per day

' Side Glances=By Galbraith

durfg the depression when the incomes of everybody else did; that postal employees have a pension, fund provided for them, and that {they really had their pay raised {during these 19 years by the in- | creased purchasing power of their {swollen incomes. And in view of {all these alleged facts, Mr. Meitzler is dead sot agin any increased remuneratinn’ for postal workers. Now he is undoubtedly in a dense tog, but that hardly excuses his unmitigated garbling of the facts in the case. The truth of the matter is, that | postal employees did not have the) same regular income for 19 years.| They were given payless furloughs) and a 15% pay cut during the depression and any advantage that might have accrued to them be-| cause of depressed prices of most! commodities was mote than offset by the devaluation of the Ameri. | can dollar when, in January, 1934, gold was nationalized by Presidential ukase, and he 1 Purchasing

declined steadily since that e. { -A8. for the so-called “pension” fund, there is, strictly speaking, no! such animal. There is an annuity | fund to which each employee con-. tributes five per cent of his salary.) The war bonus of $300 per year,

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Shifts in the Wind

By Peter Edson :

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.— Rue * mors of further cabinet shifts in the Roosevelt administration are but one symptom of the general feeling of impending change whicly © now hangs over Washington. Not since the time, nearly twa years ago, when the prince-make ers almost succeeded in uade ing Harold Ickes that he was to become secretary of labor with Paul McNutt succeeding him as secretary of the interior, has the back stairs gossip flown about so freely. And, as usual, none of the principals cone cerned in the current crop of carefully planted rumors knows anything about what solid ground there may be around the roots of the grapevine,

Pra,

Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones seems to be”

the intended victim of the latest putsch. The report that he would be forced to retire to his former poe sition as a mere head of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation stems from a hope of many ardent new dealers who would like to see him replaced by a fib eral, because he is considered too conservative,

Paul Hoffman Favored by Business

THE TRIAL BALLOON put up on the possibility that Vice President Henry Wallace would succeed to the secretaryship of coramerce met with an almost unanimous note of disapproval. : Other names now being bandied about as can

Chester Bowles and Paul G. Hoffman, The difficulty with both of these men 1s that they are now doing other fmportant jobs-Bowles as head of office of administration and Hoflman, er, as head of the committee for

development, helping business plan for he

ployment. Efforts to build bonfires are only one manifestation of some of the young administra ‘new tha

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