Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 December 1944 — Page 12

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.. daily (except Sunday) by

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. GOOD IDEA, BUT— (CONGRESSMAN JOHN J. COCHRAN of Missouri pro-

paying goats of federal spending. The people, thus. educated, will start demanding economy. Congress, yielding _ to the pressure, will then cut appropriations, Sounds like a good idea, but we don’t know how ‘sena‘tors and representatives can find time to write those letters.

“The Indianapolis Times

PAGE 12 Monday, December 25, 1944.

MARK FERREE

WALTER LECKRONE : Business Manager

Editor (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD “President

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Give Light ané the People Will Find Their Own Way

RILEY 5551

«ON EARTH, PEACE”

HROUGHOUT the world today Americans once .moxe, are celebrating Christmas, in their homes and churches, before the altars of strange churches in strange lands, on tropic beaches and snowy battlefields, in barracks and hospitals and prison camps. For a little time their immediate feelings of anxiety or pain or loneliness will be crowded out by the emotions of love and fellowship which Christmas always kindles. Wherever they are there will be the old carols, and the old familiar story with its triumphant hymn of the angelic host, “Glory to*God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” : ” » » - " ” " SLOWLY, through defeat and despair and cynicism, the Christian world has struggled over the centuries to transmute those words into reality. And two thousand years of failure, made bitter by this present and most tragic failure, cannot erase the hope that those words arouse.

Today the struggle is not symbolical but fiercely literal. The war is in a real sense a crusade. For the Christian world is battling cruel and pagan enemies whose goal has been the destruction of peace and good will and the substitution of a slavery of body and spirit masquerading as something called Co-Prosperity and the New Order. » ” J » . ” THAT ENEMY THREAT is being averted, and peace will be won. With it must come good will, for the one cannot exist without the other. Never in the history of Christendom has that fact beey more apparent than now, and never have the people of Christendom been Jnore actively, acutely determined that peace shall be built upon an enduring foundation of good will. , It is a task as hard as war itself, in which men’s good will must over-come their fallibility. It will need leaders as wise and courageous as those who have led our armies. “On earth peace, good will toward men.” The wonder of it is not that the Christian world has failed of achieving that blessing, but that it is still bravely trying to fulfill that promise through blood and toil and faith,

FIRST THING FIRST

HERE just isn’t any way to make war nice.” That was what the late Webb Miller said after having covered as many battle fronts as any man of our time. He was European manager for United Press when he was killed in a London blackout in the spring of 1940.

Price in Marion Coun- |

REFLECTIONS—

By Edward T. Leech

DON'T ASK US; we're groggy, too. - General Eisenhower plucks a group of veterans out: of the front lines and sends them back home to tell of the army's critical shortage of certain war ma~ terials. The war department and other agencies ask help in recruiting workers to manufacture certain products whose scarcity has delayed victory and cost lives. And then 15 congressmen return-from.the battle fronts with the message that, while the war is “a good deal tougher than the erican people think it is,” things over there are in “excellent condition” with no apparent shortages, ' ° “There appeared to be no critical shortage of anything, although the commanders naturally would like to have more of everything, especially artillery and ammunition,” said- Rep. John M, Costello, (D. Cal). This is the same day that the public was getting belated and heavily censored news about the greatest American reverse since Pearl Harbor. What are the American people to think? And who's responsible if there is complacency?

'Public Doesn't Know What to Believe’

THIS BORT of thing has been happening right along. ; » It's the reason why the public doesn’t know what to believe. And it's nine-tenths to blame for the “cqmpla~ cency” regarding which the people get repeated spankings. The idea that the German war would end this year didn’t originate with Joe Butch and Mrs. Smith, It originated with the statements of men in the highest positions, both military and civilian. The idea that we had plenty of everything, that our production job was the marvel of the ages, that our troops were taken care of down to the last bullet, didn't emanate from the factory washroom. Do you

presidential campaign?

the Atlantic Charter was a formal and sacred document, and that Messrs. Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt were hitting it off like three little schoolgirls in the same sorority, didn't develop from John Q. Public—it came to him amidst pleas not to rupture this harmonious and winning combination. Good news has traveled from the war fronts with the speed of light; bad news has had to worm its way out like a snail in a mud hole. And the public hasn't been responsible. Nor the newspapers and radio, which have faithfully worked under a voluntary, but strongly urged, censorship. and which don't put words into the mouths of the officials they quote. ¢

‘At Least, We Can Be Fair'

NO WONDER the people are up and down, No wonder they're confused. Maybe this situation can't be corrected; maybe it's one of the inherent faults of democracy; but, at least, we can be fair enough to quit blaming the people for something for which they aren't responsible. Our own notion is that the basic trouble lies in a theory that the public has to be spoon-fed; that it can't bear bad news; that it can’t be trusted with: knoweldge of diplomatic goings-on—in short, that facts are bad for the people. We think there isn’t really anything wrong with the people that more candor and truth couldn't cure ~and that some of our leaders might more profitably apply the paddle to their own rear ends than to the thoroughly calloused behinds of the public,

WORLD AFFAIRS—

His comment applies not only to the military but to the | political side of ‘war. > What we have been seeing lately is the tawdry phase of | the diplomatic sector. Power politics, secret deals, spheres of influence, conquest, the big dividing up the little. It is nothing new. . It threads back through the centuries. But don’t think we are going to help ourselves by getting too cynical. : About number one of the practical rules of conflict is, don’t get into a fight with your allies. Every war has its idealistic impulses. Despite all the sordid aspects, democracy and individual liberty and the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence were worth fighting for, as is freedom from totalitarian aggression. So let's not turn sour as we view some of the seamy facts of life. Let's cling to such ideals as may be salvaged. Let's keep our eye on the target and not be diverted by disillusionment. We are in this thing, not because we like it, but because our enemies started this fight and we have to finish it. : First, let's win the war. Then, let's try to rescue as

many principles as may be lying around after the shooting is over. *

EXCRESCENCES, EH?

THE President says that newspaper columnists are with ecessary excrescences. Our dictionary says that an excryscence may be “a natural and normal appendopment, as, hair is an excrescence from the "3 or “a growing out, especially to an abnormal ext”; or “a morbid development.” The evolution of many columnists in the last 15 years or so has been a natural growth in the field of public informdtion and enlightenment. A column such as that of Thomas L. Stokes on this page, for instance, is the normal product of years of training and experience in gathering and evaluating news. And columning has grown mightily, as the trend of events increased opportunity for personal comment. Some of those who get commented upon doubtless regard this growth as abnormal and morbid. . Elisabeth May Craig, a Washington correspondent who frequently talks back to the President, reminded him that he has a columnist in his own family (see “My Day,” . +-a~ +) Mr. Roosevelt laughed, and said that is a little different, : oo 3 Well, we're a married than, too, and if the President of the United States doesn’t mind a bit of advice from us, it would be that he call his shots when he speaks about unnecessary excrescences.

. poses a formula for reducing the cost of It goes like this: ’ : Members of congress should write letters to the people at home, telling them that they—the people—are the tax-

government,

‘enough hours in a day for most of them to

More Than a Myth By Ludwell Denny

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25.— After a week of public discussion and private gossip, following the President's remark that the original was not signed, there seems to be a widespread idea that the Atlantic Charter never existed except as a myth. That is absurd. Friends of the charter have reason for gloom and its enemies for glee, but the Roosevelt revelation has no effect whatever on the status of this allied commitment. No written signature was required. When issued by the American and British governments in the names of the President and prime minister as a formal declaration, it was as official as anything can be, It was officially communicated by its authors’ to congress and parliament,

Later, Everyone Signed in Ink

LATER, OF COURSE, not only Mr. Roosevelt and the British but all ‘the allies signed in ink—for the benefit of librarians and photographers—the Atlantic Charter, incorporated” in the united nations declaration as follows: “The governments signatory hereto, having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the joint declaration of the President of the United States of America and the prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern Ireland dated Aug. 14, 1041, known as the Atlantic Charter . . ." Since then the cliarter has been officially acknowledged—with never # question of textual] accuracy=by the President and allied spokesmen scores of times, If official signatures, declarations and congressional messages can make it so; the Atlantic Charter is safe. But the oaths of governments—like those of individuals—are worth no more than the character behind them. Whether they are worthless depends not at all on the type of signature, the size of the seal, the inipressiveness of the ceremonial, or the volume of oratory.

Our Defense Need Not Be Futile

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER is in danger today |’

because some powerful governments are unwilling to. honor their bond, freely given. e But that is no reason for ‘the United States to desert it, or by silence give consent to its destruction. We are not a weak nation, and our def of it need not be futile, Others must learn that .they can not retain our confidence if they treat coritracts as scraps of paper.- If this solemn covenant cannot be kept, if oné party to the bargain can alter or ignere it without agreement with other parties, future pledges will be suspect. Let us and our allies not deceive ourselves. Complete victory in this war will not bring security to any one of us -unless international agreements are binding. ' If the Atlantic Charter of the united nations is killed by its own guardians, there will be no forget« ting for a generation twice betrayed.

‘

So They Say —

IT IS A sacred pledge made to the people ¢ United States that it shall be our purpose our .boys win this war. It is the purpose C. I. O, to maintain this until completely whipped. We ‘can't- just read a tion and then have someone violate it. It's not just an expression of good will—C. I. O. President Philip Murray on no-strike pledge. / ’

Who's to Blame? |

bet?

oN 4

Peace On E

”

arth - Guod Will Go Men

- ou ,

remember those glowing speeches during .the recent’

The notion that all. was well with Poland, that

h ik . J . : The Hoosier Forum 1 wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

POLITICAL SCENE— Personal Testament By Thomas L. Stokes

+ is a personal testament, written in the spirit of the season, and for which the forgiving spirit of the .- season is asked.

it represents the experience of so many in the generation which saw the first world war as young men, and saw its sad aftermath, a generation once called “the wasted generation” because of the war » and its disillusionment. That gen eration, now in its middle 40 and pressing toward 50, occupies a position of influence throughout the land.

There has been a disappointing series of events in Europe—in Belgium, in Italy, in Greece and Poland— occasioned by the struggles of weary and subjugated peoples to catch at the hope of self-government again and their clash with those who would order’ the process of regeneration in a more practical way. It is a natural development, unfortunate as it is. There are good intentions on both sides, though restrained by the practical necessities, most of them growing out of the fact that the war still is on, and in its bitterest phase, and military considerations are para= mount, These \events have caused a wave of disillusionment, and earlier than the last time.

'So Mich Is at Stake’

BUT THIS must be fought against by men and women, within themselves. This is a plea for the American people to keep their shirts on. For so much is at stake. The story, and it 1s a personal one, is about one who was a.young man at the time of the last war, Like a good many, he did not get into the fighting

a great many others. He registered for the draft in July, 1918, entered one of those S. A. T. C, units in college, went to a fleld artillery officers training camp, and there the armistice found him still only prace

“WE SHOULD REMAIN STRONG” By World War I Veteran Your editorial, “Let's Keep Our Victory,” appeals to world war I veterans whose sons are now on the fronts. As Secretary Forrestal has pointed out, we have after. all our previous wars allowed ourselves to slip into military impotence. So far the oceans and other nations have given us time to prepare the final victory punch. The inventions of the past five years have now stripped us of these protections. Even so, to get our country to change. its historic post-war practices will need the ac~ tive support of every citizen who believes that methods to keep the peace must be different from those which have failed in the past. One such method is the proposed organization of the United Nations. It seems entirely consist« ent’ with such organization that, particularly until it is tested and found to work, we should remain strong. = If our people, recognize postwar conscription as “peace ‘insurance” and as part of a larger plan. for world peace, Congress should pass it.

Your suggestion of “a year's military training for every able-bodied man, say at the completion of his high school studies” appeals as one practical method; another is to give the registrant the option of~#hoosing any year between his 18th and 22d birthdays. While, our country still wants to be left alone, we have been shown again and again that it just doesn't work. There is evidence that the Middle West has taken this to heart even more strongly than other parts of the country, as shown by demands from that section for an organization even stronger than that proposed at Dumbarton Oaks. Your editorial touches on one of the major problems that must be decided by the American people. Keep up this good fight for “peace insurance!” ” ” ” “THEY AREN'T QUITTING THEIR WAR JOBS” By Verna Melton, Paoli No one man's advice or opinion cancels a war order, Gene Engle. It's my knowledge that it's done only on the advice of the military “brains” from all sections of the fighting fronts. These “brains” are, by the way, from all political beliefs. : Is it any worse for thousands of employees to be released because of lack of work than for other thousands to leave voluntarily? Or strike” voluntarily, or on the suggestion of a C' 1. O. or A. F. of L. “brain”? Should we continue manufacturing wheelbarrows if we no longer need wheelbarrows? If the navy deesn't know what the navy needs, then who does? Also, there is probably more than one plant in the U. 8. manufacturing that

(Times readers are invited fo 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 forthe 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 core \ respondence regarding them.)

type of navy plane. At least that is true of most other commodities. I hardly think the fact that these people were released would tend to make other defense work-

lers all over thé country ease up

on their production, unless they were felow unioneers. I believe there are still plenty of jobs available. It wouldn't be very difficult to. find good paying jobs even at different types of work and in different sections of the country. We farmers are critically short of labor and will welcome any help we can get, although most of us can't afford to pay union wages of $4 to $10 a day or more. There were several people who, during the wave of optimism, predicted the end of the war soon and they're at it yet. These peo ple, too, are of all political beliefs. Incidentally, speaking of “European inspirations,” did you read what Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce said when the general asked her how she found war fronts? Her brilliant answer—“Oh, I knew where they were!” I have two brothers in the servfice and much as they might like to, they and the thousands of other Joes aren't quitting their “war jobs” for ones with better or more secure post-war futures. Truly patriotic persons aren't quitting their essential jobs for non-essential ones until the last gun is fired. That, of course, is purely a matter of personal opinion. No, papier-mache campaign speeches aren't to be taken literally, else we would have elected “Superman” Dewey. His speeches were so much more flowery and full of adjectives and besides they only seconded what F. D. R. said.

” ” ” “CONTRACTS WILL NOT PREVENT WARS” By J. L., Indianapolis A lasting peace’ will never be possible without first destroying mental isolationism, which was the fourth dimensional warfare used by Hitler in preparing the German people for war. Formal contracts will not prevent future wars. Without a universal

Side Glances=By Galbraith

Ore

to think alike and we will have

_ | ther getivity.

| helping to uphold the great fabric of the state—that is American]

change in ideas there will be no lasting peace. You cannot force people to think as a group by forcing them together. But teach them

peace. Why all the talk about the four freedoms and not one word about fascism in India—the India where thousands are facing starvation? We must get away from the theory that the “big fellow” has the right to survive because he has the brute force, and that the “little fellow” must perish and become a slave in order that the “fittest” may live and the race thus be improved. The human law should not be the survival of the strong, but the survival of all, Why is it the lives of millions of men, the tears of millions of widows and children are necessary to create a friendly world, free from war? This is but a lamentably confession of human incompetency. Is it necessary for countless people to freeze, starve and suffer daily in order that competitive conditions in the industrial and ‘social world be maintained? »

“I AGREE IN FULL”

By An Americon, Indianapolis

Please accept my congratulations and my complete approval, of your editorial “Let's Keep Our Victory.” I agree in full and could add more. For years I have made gpeeches in my feeble way on “Preparedness” but am now too old for fur

I wish I could live long enough to see the American people learn a lesson, “But I am afraid that I will die with my country unprepared and open to attack. " = » “GOOD IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR” By Mrs. Carroll Cr 'lins, Indianapolis Soon we will begin a new year, and let us remember one thing. Great statesmen have left words of advice, so take heed that we do not destroy democracy’s cornerstone, Labor. Let me quote what Abraham Lincoln, the gerat liberator said: “All that serves Labor serves the Nation. All: that harms Labor is treason. No line can be drawn between these two. If any man tells you he loves his country, yet hates Labor he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts-his country, yet fears Labor he is a fool. There is no country without Labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.” Daniel Webster sajd, “Labor is one of the .greatest elements of society—the great, substantial interest on which we all stand. No feudal service but labor, intelligent, manly, independent, thinking and acting for itself, earning its own wages, accumulating these wages into capital, educating children, maintaining worship, claiming the right of elective franchise, and

labor; and all my sympathies are with it, and my voice, till I am dumb, will be for it.” And the inscription om the Statu of Liberty says:

Come Unto Me

« + + Give ‘me your tired, your ‘poor, your huddled masses Yearning to be free, | The ‘wretched refuse of your teeming shore-— : Send these, the homeless, tem-

“Now I ask you, are Meitzler, Voice in the Crowd, Mother, and many others more intelligent than these

ticing on those austere wooden ‘horses, still going through drills with those old French 75s pitching shells about through the gray November day. He had served exactly 64 days when he got his discharge,

The young man received the $60 cash bonus tha$§ everybody got, went home and back to college, spende Ing the $60 to buy a dress suit for the returning social college events of peace, (This equipments he sold when he left college to a fraternity brother for $25, who in turn sold it to the young man’s own brother when he entered later for $35, showing thas college education has its practical aspects, despite the critics.) :

'He Saw This Dream Shattered"

THE YOUNG MAN was imbued with the ideals for the world announced” by Woodrow Wilson who was a veritable god in the South where the young - man lived. It was in his mind, truly, a war to make the world safe for democracy. He saw this dream shattered and came to Washington, as a newspaper reporter, in the early ’20s, and there got the come plete dose of disillusionment.

He saw “Journey’s End,” written by a sensitive Enge lishman and “What Price Glory,” written by a dee spairing American soldier who had lost a leg in France. He read John Dos Passos’ “Three Soldiers” and Ernest Hemingway's “The Sun Also Rises” and other bitter books of those day,

Very naturally he became an isolationist, like so many others, and his belief in a resplendent, shine ing America, living to herself, was bolstered when - the senate munitions investigation came along with its story, only a part of the truth, about the big, fat boys and the munitions makers causing wars. They tried to prove we had been duped. The New Deal came in on this wave, and its doctrine, with which the now somewhat older man heartily agreed, was to rebuild America and forget the rest of the, world, or, as one of its brilliant stars put it in the title of the book he wrote only so late as 1938, “Save America First.”

'If Only We Have Faith’

ALMOST UP to the time of Pearl Harbor the central figure in this story remained an isolationist, but in the better sense, for he knew full well thas this country could not live alone. He just abhored the thought of war, as so many millions of others did. Then, with a shock, he saw how wrong he had been. Again, as when he worshiped at the shrine of Woodrow Wilson, he saw that something must come from this terrible ordeal, and he came to feel very, very strongly about it. Again, he was ale most a zealot, as he had been many years before. He had a queazy feeling with the recent manie Sestations of power politics in Europe. ut he feels that the leadership of this nation.’ with the backing of so many or: people, ation. exerted to keep this to a minimum. And that we’ can Sone SAY, of this war, if we only have faith and Speak up, with something that will mak y ally, a better and safer world. $1 Se: We must keep our shirts on.

IN WASHINGTON—

Military Training By Daniel M. Kidney

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25. ~Why universal military training should become & peacetime “must” for America was outlined in a preChristmas war department statee ment, backing up the stand of Gen. Marshall outlined last August, The idea that this would be 8 program of “universal training” for a citizen army and not “uni versal service” for an afmy of s professionals is stressed. , The point is made that all our wars have been won by citizen-soldiers and that this tradition must be kept. To do so will require one year of training for each young man between the ages of 17 and 20. Having spent a year learning how to be a citizen soldier, he then would be in the reserve, ready for active service during any ‘emergency for the next five years. Army officers point out that congress must act to make any universal training plan possible and will undoubtedly determine what course it will take. They are dead set against turning army camps into anything else but training centers for citizen soldiers who must devote their time to becoming fit and trained for combat.

‘No Place. for Nonessentials' “THERE WILL BE no place in a sound training

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25.~This

It is offered in the belief that

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in Europe, and in this respect the story differs from |,

program for nonessentinls,” the statement said. The.

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