Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 December 1944 — Page 10

agi

. dghy (except Sunday) by

land st. Postal Zone 9.

—to-condemn. It is our duty to ask ourselves whether

- or who might have had to huddle around a stove instead

_ additional ones whose needs will be met this week through

‘they call a “blitz boycott.”

Jn “The produce will rot and the receiver will take a dead loss.

cott” might provide it.

The Indianapolis Times

PAGE 10 Wednesday, December 27, 1944

ROY W. HOWARD

~~ WALTER LECKRONE . President

Editor

Business Manager | (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy; deliv ered by carrier, 20 cents a week. Mall rates in Indiana, $6 a year; all other states, + U. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a month.

a

Qwned and published

Isdianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Mary-

Member of United Press, seripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Servfee, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

| SCRIPPS ~ HOWARD | Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

L

EXAMPLE ON THE HOME FRONT

is not pleasant to read that: hundreds of American soldiers—officers as well as. énlisted men-—have been arrested behind the combat front in Europe for stealing huge quantities of gasoline, cigarets and other army goods and selling them to the French black market. Yet we at home can ill afford to raise our hands in holy horror. The men in the army are not all Galahads—they are a cross section of American life. Some of them are dishonest, some can be corrupted by “easy money.” When hundreds out of their millions go wrong, it is not our place we | can set them a better example. And, beyond doubt, we can. We can so behave that we will give the.men in uniform less excuse for cynicism, less cause to feel that, while we ask them for extraordinary sacrifice, we seek for ourselves more than usual profits and pleasures and demand exemption from even the minor inconveniences of wartime.

{

s wu » » TO HEAR some of us talk, it is a terrible thing that the government has. called a halt on horse racing and dog | racing, and has ordered a review of the draft status of all men engaged in professional sports. But we should welcome these steps, and complain only that they have not been taken long before this. For certainly racing -is not essential in these times, and obviously it does add extra burdens to the already overloaded transportation systems. And certainly many professional athletes could be doing something more useful than playing games. So with the new extensions of rationing, and so with the government measures to enforce manpower regulations and assure workers for vital war industries. This is a season for good resolutions. Let us on the home front remember how much we expect ot those on the fighting fronts—so much that, when a few of them yield to temptation and steal army goods, we are shocked and grieved. Let us resolve to meet our lesser duties, hardship and deprivations with something of the cheerful gallantry shown by the great majority of them.

YOU GAVE THEM HAPPINESS

WHEN the thermometer dropped to 3 above zero yesterday morning, there were 1241 children in Indianapolis who were warmly clothed against the bitter cold—1241 children who might otherwise have shivered in chilly homes

of running outdoors to play. You clothed those 1241 children. Your generosity kept them warm yesterday. Your gifts to The Times Clothe-A-Child campaign, and the coins you added to the Mile-O-Dimes will make it possible for those children to go to school next week with their heads high, with no inward apology for the shabbiness of their garments. Self-respect means a lot to a youngster, and you gave them that con-| fidence. The measure of their happiness was in the faces of the children when they returned from the stores, wearing bright new outfits or hugging an armload of packages. It was reflected, too, in the hearts of the direct donors who took children out to be clothed—sometimes, indeed, we wondered who had the most fun on those shopping expedi- | tions: The children or the benefactors who discovered just how good the spirit of Christmas unselfishness can make one feel. So the cheer that comes from Clothe-A-Child spreads both ways.

~ ” . » 8 °

MOST OF THOSE 1241 cflildren and their mothers—a widow struggling to keep her brood together, the wife of a man overseas, a homemaker pinching to make a pitifully small budget meet the needs of many hungry mouths and | growing bodies—thanked us. Those who worked in the Clothe-A-Child office will not forget those shining eyes as | someone interrupted timidly to say, “Thank you—and Merry Christmas.” We wish that you, the citizens of Indianapolis who gave the $27,000 to clothe those 1241 children and the

late contributions, could have heard those “thank yous.” For it was you who made it possible, it was you who gave those bright-eyed youngsters their Christmas happiness and the warmth and comfort that will last through the told winter days ahead. And so it is to you that we pass along their message: Thank you. .. 1241 thanks. And we hope that your own Christmas Was as merry is you made it for these little ones.

MORE ABOUT FOOD

[FRUIT and vegetable buyers in the New York City area are threatening a new kind of blow against the black market. They have notified produce receivers that if illegal practices don’t stop by Jan, 15 they will apply what

This will be.a concerted agreement to refrain from buying a scarce or desirable item if receivers are asking above-ceiling prices or forcing the tie-in purchases of unwanted produce with the sale. The buyers will select one itém at a time that is too perishable to reship elsewhere. It's as simple as that.

OVERCHARGES and tie-in sales have been gaing on for more than a year. It has been a spreading evil, and the OPA hasn't had enough inspectors tosstop it. Buyers have chosen to put up with it rather than jeopardize their sources Protection for both retailers and consumers from such gouging is long overdue. And it looks as if the “blitz boy-

Perhaps if buyers in other big city niarkets would take

at least migh

ie

MARK FERREE |

RILEY 5551

from their New York brethren, the fruit-and-vegetable t

REFLECTIONS— TT

'A Busy Year

By Harry Hansen »” ie EY > {LOOKING BACK at the books of 1944, this reader recalls those that pleased, edified, informed and bored him and passes out a parcel of awards and merit marks. The superlatives: . Best novel of the year—"A Bell for Adano,” hy John Hersey. Best book of war. reporting— “Brave Men,” by Ernie Pyle, Best study of American life— “An American Dilemma,” by Gunnar Myrdal. first novel—“Boston Adventure,” by Jean

-Best Stafford. Best novelette—“A Walk in the Sun,” by Harry Brown, Best book of pictures—"U, 8. at War.” Camera, 1944), > . Best English prose—'“The Leaning Tower and Other Stories,” by Katherine Anne Porter. Best literary criticism—“Henry James; the Major Phase,” by F. O. Matthiessen. Best title—"“Good Night, Sweet Prince,” by Gene Fowler. : Best literary history—"“The World of Washington Irving,” by Van Wyck Brooks. Best blography—“S8amue] Wood Krutch. Best autobiography — “Persons and Places,” George Santayana.

(U. 8

Johnson,” by Joseph

by

Honorable Mention Department | 2

NEXT BEST novel—'‘The History of Rome Hanks,” by Joseph 8. Pennell. ) Book most pleasing to male readers—‘“Man in the Shower,” by Peter Arno. Biggest surprise from’ west of Hoboken—'"The Letters of Mary W. Shelley” from University of Oklahoma Press. Novel most likely to improve life in America “Strange Fruit,” by Lillian Smith, Novel next most likely to improve life—"Earth and High Heaven,” by Gwethelyn Graham. Book most likely to improve foreign relations

Try and Find

“The Time for Decision,” by Sumner Wells. Book most helpful in post-war debate—'"The Great | Decision,” by James T. Shotwell. | Book most. necessary for future historians—“The Tennessee Valley Authority,” by David E. Lilienthal. |

Personal Department

BOOK I'D like to have written—"The Green Years,” by A. J. Cronin, Book that pleased Walter Winchell most—“What to Do With Germany,” by Louis Nizer. Book that pleased Carl Sandburg most—‘Short History of the United States,” by Nevins and Commager, Books that pleased John Chamberlain most—“The Walsh Girls,” by Elizabeth Janeway and “The Road to Serfdom,” by PF. Hayek. ? Novel that surprised its author—“Mama’s Bank Account,” by Kathryn Forbes. Nove! that surprised its publisher, Spencer Scott— “Deep River,” by Henrietta Buckmaster, Novel that surprised me—“The Lost Week-end,” by Charles Jackson. (I didn't know New York had so many reformed drunks.) : Novel that surprised practically everybody and made most of us a bit sick—But why bring that up?

Squeaks and Rattles Department

NOISIEST BOOK of the year—“The Literary Fallacy,” be Bernard De Voto. Book that made sex a bore—“For Love Alone,” by Christina Stead. . Book that started a fight—"“The Beards’ Basic History of the United States.” Book that seemed a waste of white paper—"Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake.” ]

Oddities Department

BOOK ALL critics reviewed favorably—"Brave Men,” by Ernie Pyle. Novel of 1943 that sold best in 1944—"The Robe,” by Lloyd Douglas. Novel most highly honored by Boston—“Strange Fruit,” by Lillian. Smith.

Novel-mistaken for religious tract—"That Razor's |

Edge,” by W. Somerset Maugham. : Book that deserved high price paid by movies—53 None. Book in which author wears practically nothing— “China to Me,” by Emily Hahn. ) Book that proves the mind functions at 88—“Everybody's What What,” by Bernard Shaw. Books that won prizes in 1944 (List omitted on account of shortage of white paper),

WORLD AFFAIRS—

Need of the Hour

By Peter Edson -

INTERNATIONAL brotherly love is strictly a rationed commodity and the coupons have run out. “A_new book of stamps good | for unlimited -quantities of mutual | understanding would be the most welcome gift the international authorities could provide for 1945. The great paradox is that while the nations seem able to fight together, they cannot make peace together as united nations should. Perhaps that is part of the trouble —trying to do too much at the same time. A strong point in Cordell Hull's philosophy of peace was that the nations should leave all questions of boundaries for settlement after the war, Equally strong was is conviction that all nations should have full ‘rights to determine their own form of internal government. It is through failure to observe both these principles that the heads of nations have got themselves into their present year-end holiday brawl ing

Doubt Begins to Arise

THE DOUBT begins fo arise, however, that the American people may not get their every wish in the attainment of these ideals. That is difficult for American to understand. Why should this country-—admittedly the most powerful nation in the world whether you measure it in dollars, guns, ships, washing machines, schools, or beauty parlors, have to give in to weaker parties, compromising on ideals‘ which should make ‘sense in any land or language? The question is further complicated by the fact that all over this ‘world the people of nations overrun by aggressors look to the United States for friendship and support in the self-determination of their future. Putting these two together——the desire of the nations to get a square deal and the American sympathy for the underdog which prompts the desire to see them get a square deal—the question arises as to why the United States can't insist they get it, - Greece has chosen revolution in preference to subservience to the British. Suppression of that revolt by the British can hardly win the British much good will. Anything can still happen in Italy, including revolution. Re ! .

lands East Indies, France, Spain, Palestine or where you will. ; eR {Che pi war is Jfor:a suc internal, national wars or even racial wars of still bloodier consequences. ~~. If e

ly curtailed.

ht:

The Hoosier Forum

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

a

“WALLACE MIGHT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY" By K. A. T,, Indianapolis As a plan for post-war employment, I would like to offer the following based orr a 30-hour five-day week, with a maximum and mini. mum pay of 30 hours for each worker each week. Under this plan each worker with a regular job would be paid time and a half for each hour he didn’t work, maximum pay - week -30 hours at straight time. Result: He wouldn't work, so two workers would be recruited from the ranks of the unemployed and paid double time for each hour or a total of 15 hours each. Based on one to

(Times readers are invited to express their 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 cor-

views

four shifts per 34 hours, each job would sustain anywhere from three to 12 workers. . Of course, to meet the payroll, |

dized in much the same way as the|

and cattle or to plow under the corn, cotton and wheat; and the national debt limit raised to one trillion dollars, which is much bigger and better than a mere 250 billion, Then this plan could include a merit badge to each worker that spends his entire pay on Saturday for consumer goods, and 52 merit badges in a year would entitle the worker to a pension. I send you this plan with some misgivings, but you might publish it with the obituaries; otherwise Henry Wallace and the New Deal{ers might take it seriously and try | to make it work. » “IT IS VERY SADLY NEEDED” By Fred Boyce, 1225 Reisner st, Having worked in politics the past number of years, in fact, 14 years, as precinct committeeman and must say that I have run up against many angles in the art of getting votes for my party, but the past election beat anything that I have confronted in my many years of service. After reading the eight-point plan

industry would have to be subsi- |

farmers will be paid to kill off pigs|

respondence regarding them.)

cincts. This would . assure every voter the right to vote and there would be very little opportunity for cheating as the committeeman from each party would make it his business to call on a new family moving in their respective precincts and could also check the registration at the clerk's office to make sure the registration was properly filed. This I firmly believe would do away with the last minute jams at the courthouse and would also do away with appointing inexperienced help and deputy registration clerks. There would be no need for branch registration boards and everybody would be registered, and the taxpayers would be saved several thousand dollars every election. Of course, this would do away with a very nice plum for the county clerks and it would cut his appointing power in half. But what does that matter to the public?| After all, they are the ones to be| pleased and not our political heads, as political action in Marion county has become pretty darn rotten. .In |fact, we had a very bitter taste of it [in the past election. 1 sincerely hope you will offer this ninth peint to your eight-point program and .push it on through the next sitting of our state law-making body, as it is very sadly needed. a = =

-|is that

a room in the poorhouse. What we will need after the war will be a reduction in the retirement age to 60. If Mrs. Ferguson was familiar with employment practices she would know that it is plenty difficult for a man or woman of age 50 to secure employment in most any office or industry. We are at present producing supplies for the millions of men and women who fight our “battles, plus lend-lease supplies to our allies. And, in addition, we enjoy an alltime high in our standard of living. This is nothing to boast about as we at home are not undergoing

fice. The point that I wish to make when we terminate, this war the production of war supplies will cease. We must provide employment for the returning service men and women. It is true that as long as the public has war bonds to spend, civilian goods will be in great demand. There will also be -the need of many new homes in almost every community. Then, we will taper off to normal again. That is the time when it will be wise for us oldsters to get out of the industrial picture. Ma will be forced to spend her time with her fiSwers or books and possibly the grandchildren. Pop will be forced to pursue his hobbies, his garden, and possibly fish along his favorite stream.

i 2 . -

| “WE COULD

ASSUME LEADERSHIP” By Harrison White, Indianapolis > Dont be in too big a hurry to blame England or Churchill for the

' present condition or the plight of

all the people of Greece, when the whole blame can rest so easily upon the administration of the government of the United States of America. -

rials, food, money and blood. We

This is our war and we are pay-| j ing for its munitions, ships, mate-| 3

offered in your paper on Dec. 20, 1|“WE MUST PROVIDE must say that. if properly carried | EMPLOYMENT” out we won't have the confusion we gy 1 m., Indianapolis have had in the past. But there is one more point that I would like to May I take exception to a statesuggest or recommend and that is ment of Mrs. Walter Ferguson in for the registration or election board |The Times? She says that to reto appoint each precinct committee- | tire workers at the age of 65 is “unman as a registration clerk at atwise and cruel.” We have come a

Anything can happen in India, Bufma, the Nether- | .{

for the eh of the international world |

reasonable yearly pay to register {every voter in their respective pre-

long way since the refuge of the | worker who lived too long was often

Side Glances=By Galbraith

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{ferent ideologies upon her when she

| there are no “allies,” but whatever

have fostered the guardianship of every small country of Europe, notwithstanding the deceit behind the so-called “Atlantic Charter.” We assumed guardianship of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and after we had guided them to an even keel after the war with Spain, it was only then, we let them on their own government and we did not shirk that guardianship. Today Greece is in the awful plight of a wartorn country, being harrassed by armies, fed and armed by us attempting to force their dif-

is prostrate and looking to her foster guardian to support her in her plight and -just now when we shirk that guardianship with a “hands off” policy in Washington, in 'my opinion we write the blackest page of history ever written against the people of the United States. If there is no head for the allies,

|

Sh

svn ly

|you may call %ffir hookup in this

war, the adminjstration of the government of the United States has its hands on all the controls, money, munitions, men and food. was enough American

for.

DAILY THOUGHTS

my bay

have taken it upon ourselves and|

whole world needs and is waiting :

POLITICAL SCENE— :

Prophetic Words

By Thomas L Stokes ~~

-. fore he went into the navy, a year and a half ago seem particularly pertinent now, as well as prophetis, And they hold out encouragement. : Of late there has been a tendency to be discoure aged about the projected international peace organs ization, for which the groundwork was laid at Dums. barton Oaks, because of signs of the revival of power politics in Burope—in Belgium, in Italy, Greece and Poland.

IN A SERIES of speeches advocating organization of the united nations to keep the peace, Mr. now a lieutenant er, faced very frankly the

obstacles and difficulties. He recognized that they

must be expected, but he as confident of success in the end. i He saw-the world on the eve of a great experi: ment and adventure very similar to that through which the American colonies went in creating a union.gut of a string of colonies along the Atlantie coast—colonies so different in many respects, with different histories, different backgrounds, different sorts of people, torn with local jealousies one with

another, with tariffs against each other, and with: those to the north and south separated farther from *

each other, considering the slow means of trave] and communication in those days, than apy part of the 1d is today from any other. : Yet the colonies found a way, through intelligence, patience, perseverance and faith, despite the scoffers, and there were many. Mr, Stassen pointed out how various leaders in the colonies began, four years before the revolution, to plan a union of the colonies with creation of the committee @f correspondence in Boston in 1772 and how, all through the war they continued “the search for methods of joint action.”

Stressed the Hard Fight for Ratification

HE ALSO stressed the hard fight, after drafting of the Constitution, to get it ratified, with approval by only 11 votes in New Hampshire, by only 10 in Virginia; and the very close contest in New York where “only the remarkable eloquence and leadership of Alexander. Hamilton were able to turn an adverse majority into a slender approval by a vote of 30 to 27.” There was only a two-vote margin in Rhode Island, the last to ratify. ; “I review these precise facts of our own ear

history,” he said,” “to emphasize that our form of

government was not suddenly brought forth in complete plans, but grew out of many discussions and trials and proposals, Furthermore, the course of its adoption was not an easy one, and frequently rested on very close votes in tense conventions. _“So°it is today. There are many obstacles and difficulties confronting us in endeavoring to work out a government affecting the nations of the world. It is a problem that is neither impossible nor easy of solution. We should neither be discouraged nor

anything like an equality of sacri- L should we delay our process of thinking through te

the best answers.” He admonished that “we must not forget that with peace, as with war, there is no easy road to victory.”

"We Must Not Sacrifice Principles’

THE PRESENT lieutenant commander also said some things that allied leaders today, as well as the people, might take to heart: “We must not saerifice principles in an attempt to secure an easy victory in the war. To build for lasting peace, we must win a victory both for our arms and our principles, Washington and Lincoln never sacrificed principles in search of an easy victory. It can very well be said that if we walk over many wartime bridges with the devil at our side, we will find him at our side when we sit down to work out the peace, and his presence then will be disastrous.” Also he said: “We must not permit suspicion or dissension te develop between us and the other united nations.” All very appropriate today.

IN WASHINGTON—

College Training

By Daniel M. Kidney

N

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27.~Cole leges and universities will have an A max. ‘arr as proposed by the war ment's post-war universal mille tary training program. . According to the latest army advice on the program, designed to require each young American between 17 and 20 to take a year of intensive military training, cole leges would provide needed reserve officer personnel. In addition, officer-eandidate sghools would be used to develop those who completed their year and showed marked aptitude for the role of leadership but are unable to attend a college where an ROTC unit is maintained. “The reserve officers training corps must be maine tained at an increased number of colleges and unie versities for the production of reserve officers and noncommissidned officers,” a departmient memorane dum states. “Graduates of the universal military training proe gram should be encouraged to continue their training in ROTC. Students successfully completing the first two years of the ROTC course should be offered ware rants as reserve noncommissioned officers.

Graduates Will Receive Commissions

. “GRADUATES of the complete four-year course, who are found physically fit and who are of accepte able character, should be proffered commissions as second lieutenants in the reservp. “With universal military training in operation, we shall be able for the first time to raise ROTC courses to a real university level. Its students will enter the corps with their basic training completed. That fact will enable us to effect a long hoped for revision of our courses of instruction. Basic subjects will, in general, be eliminated. The more advaneed military subjects will pe adequately presented. : “Student interest will be increased and ROTC will

components of our army. . . .

correspondence at , and orn sane Behe a | COTeRondece coum, courses st army choc, 04 } |; bermacie of Gud'ls wih men, of qualifying reserve officers and noncommissioned ap Sash wit Siew a Officery Tor promotion ; oe himself shall be with them, and | Te EN : | | ve their god.—Revelation 21:3, T i h 8 » wo, wil | mortonsi ox ier « 10 The Point— -

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