Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1944 — Page 8
hn Sasa
he Indianapolis
ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONG President Editor ;
PAGE 8 Saturday, December 28, 1944
F4RK FERREE
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Woy
SGT. McCCONNAUGHEY’S ANSWER
(CERTAIN Californians have béen making
a good deal of
noise about the decision to allow loyal Japanese-Amer-
to return to their homes, The objections, we feel, are not relate
jeans, evacuated from the Pacific coast after ‘Pearl Harbor,
d to questions
of national security. They arise from racial and economic
prejudice. The sin of these people is not and inhumanity of the Japanese war-lords jects; they had nothing to do with this, and have given their sons to fight and die for country. Rather their crime is that they
the treachery and their submany of them their adopted are willing to
work harder and longer than many of their white neighbors; that they are thrifty and persevering—and that they
were born with yellow skins, We have felt, also, that the rooted intol
erance against
our citizens of Japanese ancestry is not characteristic of
all the residents of the Pacific coast. There
must be many
~—and particularly those who have grown up with the Nisei, who have worked with them, played with them and studied
with them—who do not féel this way.
» THAT BELIEF is confirmed by an incident reported today by William McGaffin in a dispatch from Honolulu. Sgt. Bayard H. McConnaughey, McGaffin- writes, has donated $100 to the Christmas fund of an Hawaiian newspaper with the stipulation that it be used for. children of Japanese ancestry. And Sgt. McConnaughey is a Californian. His gift, he said, is his answer to “unpatriotic groups
in my home state who seek to raise fictitious to foster ill-feeling between different groups,
racial barriers to destroy the
Constitution of the United States by making provisions
arbitrarily inapplicable to certain groups of ¢
itizens because
of their ancestry, and to destroy from within everything which distinguishes us from the axis countries and makes
. America really worth fighting for.”
There's a moral in those words, a moral that is as old
and strong as this ancient season when the bers a song that once the angels sang.
rE BEWARE OF SMALL VICTORIES!
world remem-
| man from a greedy or oppressive employer,
HOSE congressmen with a clear vision of the necessity of a strong congress won a meager victory from the departed 78th congress, which in its closing days authorized a study of congressional reorganization by a bi-partisan
senate-house committee of 12 members.
The committee started out with only a two-weeks grant of power, no money with which to establish a staff, and facing the necessity of getting a new authorization from
the next congress.
The Maloney-Monroney resolution passed both the
senate and the house without a dissenting doesn’t mean the advocates of reorganizat
vote, but that ion have easy
sailing. It took more than a year to gain house consideration
of a mere proposal for study of the subject.
acted belatedly—on a measure which subtly of the committee.
The house tied the hands
There are those in congress who would stand in the way of even so obvious a move as formal consideration of ways to make congress more efficient and effective, either through standpatism or a desire to protect their own influence and continue doing things “the way we've always
done them.”
” » . . . » THE IDEA is theoretical and may seem remote from
the average citizen, in these days of war, like the sort of thing a quiet commission
It may sound considers and
reports on: But we believe the proponents of the MaloneyMonroney resolution when they say that ‘next to the war,
this is the nfost important matter before
the congress.”
The warning is there, for all to see: In those nations which had liberty and lost it, it was lost, first, in the national legislature, which declined in prestige and power,
whether by design or failure to act.
To a nation pouring its blood and treasure into a war
for freedom, it’s important to make certain t directly representative of the people is able
hat the agency to do its job.
The voters who elected the 79th congress should demand that, among its first orders of business, it continue the joint committee on the organization of congress, and give
it ample powers and money.
FREEDOM OF THE “B BAG” A
LONDON dispatch from Edward P. Morgan of the Chicago Daily News says that certain American army
authorities in England would like to censor the “B Bag” column in the soldiers’ newspaper, Stars and Stripes. The
“B Bag” is an editorial page forum in wh
ich G. 1's are
encouraged to write about their “beefs” and “gripes.” So far, Mr. Morgan adds, Stars and Stripes has success-
fully resisted the would-be censors, and the
“B Bag” con-
tinues to give its soldier readers wide latitudé to let’ off steam, so long as they don’t betray military secrets. And this, of course, is as it should be. Anybody who thinks “beefing” and “griping” can be suppressed in the army, or that it should be, just doesn’t understand American fighting men, It's a good thing, we think, to let it be done in print, for it certainly won't hurt the brass hats or the folks at
the war is being run.
CRYSTAL BALL
BACK in 1989 a St. Louis millionaire engaged a hotel room, |
* entered it and hasn't been out since.
Any man who could foresee the hotel
- home to know what soldiers think is wrong with the way
room shortage
five years ago should be invited, even forced, to step outside just long enough to tell us when the war will be over.
['imes
Road to Slavery By: Edward J. Meeman
+ . I HAVE JUST REAL a book which challenges the ruling thought of our times, the thought ‘which reigns in the highest intellectual circles, and dominates the 4
ments. I wish Henry Wallace would read this book. Then, I believe, he would think of “the people's revolution” in very different terms than he does now. I wish Phil Murray would read it, for if he should follow its teachings, he would lead the C. I. O. in a different direction than it is now headed. : I wish Mrs, Roosevelt would cancel all engagements for a week, and spend it reading and thinking
about this book, For if what this book says is true—and I believe it is—it deserves the attention of those people, This book says that the British and American peoples sare traveling fast down the road to slavery on which the German, Russian and Italian peoples moved before them. " It says that the frightful crimes committed by Russian communism. Italian fascism. and German naziism are not accidental aberrations, but the logical consequences of socialist philosophy when carried to its- inevitable conclusion, however liberal it may be in the first place. .
Returns to Tyranny and Terror
THE BOOK is “The Road to Serfdom,” published by the University of Chicago Press, $2.75. Its author is Friedrich A. Hayek, a famous economist of Austrian birth, now a citizen of Britain. Mr. Hayek observes in Britain and the United States today the same thinking and tendencies which he observed in his native central Europe before the rise of Hitler. He shows that soclalism, even in. its origins before Karl Marx, was authoritarian. Although socialism, under the influence of the revolution of 1848, for a long time aligned itself with democracy and freedom, it has in our time returned to the tyranny and terror which are a necessity of its nature. Socialism is offered to .us in Britain and America not under the name of socialism but of “planning” ~plannitig and control of all industry by the central government. : This has appealed to liberals and labor union leaders because they have believed this meant a fairer distribution. It does not. It means a new kind of privilege. The government planners can and do give more to a racial elite, as in Germany, or to members of the ruling party, as in Russia,
Prevents Planning by the Individual
“PLANNING” BY THE GOVERNMENT prevents planning by the individual, because he can never know what the government is going to do next, centralized power being arbitrary and obeying the whims of the ruling man or the ruling clique, Often criticism of socialist government planning makes no appeal to the liberal and labor groups because the critic seems to want a government which
| does nothing and gives no protection to the working- |
But Mr. Hayek does not make that mistake, He does not
want laissez-faire—“do what you please.” He wants a strong government, but a government of laws,
viduals and groups can do their own planning, knowing ‘exactly what they can do, and what they can’t do. “The fatal turning point in the modern development,” he says, “was when the great movement which can serve its original ends only by fighting all privilege—the labor movement—came under the influence of anti-competition doctrines and became itself en: tangled in the strife for privilege.” But it 1s not too late. We can turn back and get on the right road--the road to freedom, freedom from the evils which have grown up under capitalism, and freedom from the vastly greater evils that would come under a “planned” economy.
WORLD AFFAIRS—
Tide of Protest
By Ludwell Denny
WASHINGTON, . Dec. 23.— When an extreme isolationist and an extreme internationalist agree, that is news. It has happened to Senator Wheeler, a Democratic anti-interventionist before Pearl Harbor, and to Senator Ball, Republican, who bolted his party to support the fourth term candidate. Not that they see eye to eye on all points of foreign policy, of course. But they have agreed *. ‘on what will happen to the proposed international organization for security—unless. Every foreign country and every American friend of world co-operation should heed the warning of these two senators.
"Decisions May Do Irreparable Harm'
WHEELER SAYS: “It would be pointless for the President to send the Dumbarton Oaks proposals to the senate unless Russia and England completely change their present policies in Europe.” Ball says: “For once I agree with Senator Wheeler. The unilateral political decisions made in liberated Europe by great powers on the ed side, if they
continue, may do irreparable harm to the whole cause of collective security envisaged in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals. What is going on in Europe is power politics maneuvering for national security growing out of skepticism concerning the materialization of any ‘collective organization for peace." v
President shall insist on the Atlantic Charter prin ciples and a ban on further unilateral actions. Wheel er asks Russia and England to apply the four freedoms in Europe and the Orient, including India.
English Opposition Developed Also
THE ENGLISH PEOPLE also are stirred, as shown by the current opposition in the press and parliament from all parties to the rise of power politics. This week, afteg Conservative and Labor party critics challenged this trend, the Liberal party opposed “any foreign policy which is based on the vi-
policies of movements and govern- |
laws which apply to all alike, and under which indi- |%00
Ball demands a big three meeting at which the |
CBURr—
The Hoosier
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
Forum
“THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT” N
By M.s. V. F, A, Indianapolis I feel the following excerpt from a soldier's letter, received by his sister, should have the greatest publicity possible. “Have you seen that Gen. Elsenhower is sending soldie's to the United States to appeal for more
ammunition? Please write to some|
metropolitan daily and to congress and have your friends do the same. I can't write io anyone in congress, but you can. The people there seem convinced of an eatly victory and already are getting ready for peace; but I am afraid
here the ammunition is rationed. “Now the mest important gift you can give me is to write as 1 have asked you, and to get others,
Is it not a dreadful state of affairs that our soldiers must beg us to get ammunition to them—so that they can carry on the war lo victory? Who and what is responsible for this condition?
” # . “HERE IT'S ONLY A WORD”
By Pi. T. J. BR, Somewhere in Germany From the thoughts of the rboys over here, I send you this because we feel that summer victories have placed the home front in an optimistic frame of mind. We wish they weren't. When we see our ammunition running low, it hurts, because it is your job to keep it rolling up to us. We want no credit, no honor; we just want to get it over with and get home. The home front can have all the credit, just give us the ammunition. - Another Christmas is rolling and still the fight goes on. So let's get the boys and gals in the faetories “on the ball’—keep the ammo rolling over here and we'll try to do the rest. “Peace on earth, good will toward men"—and Christmas is here again, with that refrain once more coming to light. Back home the lights are shining from out the store windows, The hustle of the shoppers, looking for gifts—the noise of the traffic as the streets beckon ever homeward for the tired, shopped-out motorists—the tinkle of the little “bell” so typical of the season. We remember these things; we enjoyed each and every typical particle of their existence once; we hope and pray to soon remember and enjoy
®
they are wrong: In-some places} —
(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 responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter cors respondence regarding them.)
but our enjoyment is a bit estranged from the type you are having. We are joyful to be alive, to still be throwing lead at our adversaries with the hope that some day we'll be enjoying Christmas in a world set free from all tyranny and oppression. Christmas in the Siegfreid line— mud, dampness and cold—and still, it's Christmas. Yes, you tingle at the thought; your mind runs madly through other Christmases you have had and spent. The store windows, the trafic, the rollicking holiday crowd; yes, even the tinsel on your own little tree back home brings a tear to your eye. How angry you once -became when you accidently crushed one of the tree ornaments
your helmet you use to scoop some water from out of the hole. You wrap the damp blankets closer around your chilled body and recall the canister of tobacco and new pipe you'd gotten as a present one Christ mas. To supplement the hunger of this vision, you reach for a cigaret—but no, the German weather has gotten them too. Crumbling the’ damp cigs in your hand, you drop them in the water at your feet. A flare goes into the air and you stare at i§ “and a light showed in the heavens and guided the Wise men.” Gradually the flame descends, darkness again enveloping you. Wouldn't it be nice if you could walk down the street of your home town tonight—sure, mud and filth
walk, to gaze at the lighted windows and the houses bedecked with trimmings and colored lights. Sentimental? Why you big ape, you're sniffling, and at Christmas, too. When all the world is singing
them again, We are enjoying Christmas too,
Side Glances=By Galbraith
snd cheering the birthday of Christ.
ray -— 4! SOX IPA] S 24
—and you reminisce stolidly while
and beard and all. Just a short|.
But go ahead—you're fighting and sweating for things like that. To cry about Christmas if you damned well please, because in fulfilling your inward desire you are joyful. And joy and Christmas are what rule the world tonight, even if your humble personage is not a part of it. The muddy water is up past your ankles now, so you automatically bend over, take off your helmet and scoop the slime out the best you can, Christmas—it's just a word this year. Somewhere the shoppers are bustling; somewhere the traffic rolls homeward; somewhere the season bells tinkle; but here in the Siegfried you'd never know it. Here in the Siegfried it’s only a word— Christmas — sentimental, and you scoop ‘down for another helmetful of slime. 88» “LET US NOT FORGET THE PLEDGE” By Mrs. C. E. F., Indianapolis
I have read that a number of organizations in California are protesting against the return of Jap-anese-Americans to the homes from which they were evacuated on the West coast. : Why do we call America a democracy? And why should any group discriminate against loyal Americans of whatever ancestry? There are more than 10,000 Jap-arlese-Americans in our army, many of whom have won decorations. The Japanese-Americans hold one of the finest records of any group in our land with the greatest number of young people in college and the lowest crime percentage. cording to the FBI, there has been no known case of sabotage by- the Japs on the West Coast. Yet we put these loyal citizens behind barbed wire, while at the same time a million German and Italian aliens are allowed freedom on that same coast. As a Christian I make a plea for all who belong to our great country by reason of birth for equal opportunity in every parf of America. Let us not forget the pledge of allegiance to our flag: “. . . with liberty and justice for all. . , .” ‘® ® =» “IT IS TIME TO DECLARE OURSELVES” By AG R, Indianapolis May 1 express my sincere appreciation of the very excellent editorial entitled, “The Churchill-Stalin Deal.” As you suggest, it is imperative that the United States establish a democratic alternative to British imperialism and Russian power politics If we are to avoid another world war in the near future. It is furthermore im tive that the President make a forthright statement of intent with respect to our state policy in regard to these problems. \ The reliance upon force instead of justice is causing disturbance all over Europe. The civil war in Greece is 4 very sad spectacle to witness
insignia. Will the ee mayan 1s with the American people or will. the Atlantic Charter go by default, and will the boys have died in vain? It is time to declare ourselves in
he was identified, and the Western insurgents a
Ac-|
Death of Moses By Thomas L. Stokes
‘WASHINGTON, Dée. 33—The death of former Senator George H.
recollections of his career “and, that, in turn, serves to point up the axiom that history repeats
George Moses, the cynical wag of the senate in his day, was the storm center in the late '20s and early '30s of the bitter fight within the Republican party between the Eastern old guard, with h Pe
ant and rambunctious crew. : This conflict cracked the party wide open. It helped to make the bickering Republicans easy game for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the then united Demo~ cratic party. The added factor of the .depression which kept Herbert Hoover floundering around so, only made matters worse for the party.
Democratic Party Is Split Now
TODAY THE Democratic party is in about the same shape as the Republican party in Herbert Hoo ver's and George Moses’ day, with the schism bee tween its conservative and left wings on domestic issues so graphically exhibited only a few months ago at the Chicago convention. And now the party is
divided, too, on the approach to foreign policy, as was™ revealed by the recent fight over state department
| appointments in the senate.
This latfer difference, however, is not basic. The Democratic party hangs together closely on foreign policy. But the controversy over domestic policy will flare up again in pest-war reconstruction measures. The party then will split into warring factions as did the Republican party in George Moses’ last years in the senate. : The late senator's tongue was too sharp for the purposes of pelitical conciliation. He it was who produced that phrase “Sons of the Wild Jackass"— lifted right out of the Old Testament—and appHed it to the Western insurgents. That was the match that touched off the explosion and shoved it on to the front pages for days. 3 4 The late Senator Norris of Nebraska; insurgent leader, only had to take one look at that item. When the senate opened he was up—and off for hours, pour= ing out his resentment at Senator Moses. A move was started to oust the New Hampshire senator as chairman of the senatorial campaign committee, Senator Vandenburg (R. Mich) a member of that committee, led the fight to discipline Senator Moses, as a party matter, for he was not- among: the ine surgents. - : But Senator Moses outmaneuvered his foes and sat tight.
The Phrase Stuck—and Rankled
THE FIGHT, -however, continued. The rift wide. ened between the Eastern and Western wings of the party. Thereafter the insurgents were “the Sons of the Wild Jackass.” The phrase stuck—and rankled. Senator Moses had been a participant earlier in a bigger and more important piece of history—it seems now a tragic piece of history. He was one of the so-called irreconciliables—“the Battalion of Death”—which fought and finally defeated Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations. Of that famous group, there now survives only former Senator Jim Watson of Indiana. In contemplating the Moses era of their party, Republicans can take some comfort today. The Democratic party seems headed for the same sort of crackup as the Republican party of that day. And, in the coming senate consideration of the peace, there is no sign in the Republican party of such an organized, belligerent, effective group as the irree conciliables to smash up the projected world organe
history.
IN WASHINGTON— Self-Criticism-By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23.—On the general assumptioh that when congress bites itself, that’s news, - there is more than passing interest in the fact that the year-end re port of the senate’s military af fairs sub-committee on war cone tracts comes out flatly to assert that: “As measured against the back ground of our economic needs, the post-war laws that have been enacted add up to very little. The balance sheet shows that the seventy-eighth congress never came to grips with the problem of providing an economic substitute for war production.” Listing what has been done, this committee consisting of Senators Murray, Truman and Revercomb reports that the three major acts on which ‘the con= gress centered its attention—contract termination, surplus property disposal, war mobilization and reconversion—are important transition measures, but nothing more. Ideas expressed at the time-that these acts were all that were needed to assure a high level of post-war employment—are flouted, “None of them,” says the sub-committee report, “even aims at providing the basis for a second post-war economy.”
Failures of Congress Cited
ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION passed by the congress just now folding up is listed as an inadequate G. I Bill of Rights and a miscellaneous assortment
velop river basins of the country, accomplishment of little in the way of post-war tax programs; failure to do anything about discriminatory freight rates, promotion of foreign trade, settling on policy for dealing with monopolies and cartels, or mapping plans for dealing with the fundamental post-war problems of .
to see what could be done about getting re-elected, committee staffs did keep their eyes on the ball to the. extent they could.
George Committee to Continue
|
Moses of New Hampshire. stirs up °,
ization and take the blame for the party down into.’
itself. \
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AMO! festivities
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bers, their to be held :
Mrs. Nol Woodsmall,
. be in the re
C. Ketcham, burn, Norma E. Smith, Hu
Chairmen
CHAIRNM Hiatt will be B. Norman, A. Van Osd Bartholomew Clyde E. Tit Johnson, Hes J. Weesner, Black. Also, Me Taylor, Law Landers and Miss. Elizabe D. Stilz, Jar tea table,
Luncheon
SMITH (¢ mas meeting will be a bu is chairman James North are assisting Students will speak 1 Misses Alice Kellogg, Anr jory Turk, 1 dents includ Yorktown; 1 Miss Jeanet Miss Alice D Mrs. Theodo
Among ner-dance V those of Me Blaine Mille Sr,, Earl Ba Ww. C. Tomy ger, Mrs. Jul
Shaffer-Pi
MRS. M apolis, anno Pierce, and Rev. R. R. | Ascension, L reception in Among | Suzzallo of | Plains, Va., | Shaffer Sr., Tucson. Th is stationed. is a member Henry Doug Indianapolis.
St. J ‘Will Harlc
St. Joh: 4:30 o'clock bender and nest Piepen| A progr: ist, and Mrs Ludwig B daughter in gowned in basque will | neckline, loi the princess train, A fingerti attached to soms will be will carry a and greener Brid Miss Mild her sister's gown will be with a broc: marquisette
a bouquet
roses. The bride: i