Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1945 — Page 12

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| and constructive role in world affairs.” |

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* vacant, or about to be vacated. ...

REFLECTIONS—

‘We First’ Politics

By Harry Hansen

Indianapolis Ti] imes |

PAGE 12 Tuesday, January 23, 1945

HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

WALTER LECKRONE Editor

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER]

ROY W. HOWARD J nt STUART CHASE, homespun economist, who persists in arguing that you can’t escape some form of economic planning if-you | want to survive, is now way out | 3 in front, inviting brickbats from | businessmen and labor unions. For «Mr. Chase has written a book condemning “the pressure policies of corporations ard labor . unions as pure grabbing at the material goods of America with out any concern for the general welfare that includes us all. Ordinarily vou find labor writers demanding reforms and privileges and telling you business is to blame for unequal conditions. Then you hear from | chambers of commerce and the NAM that labor has . y ve | business at the point of a gun and is going to kill E'LL go after this one chronologically. Here's what we the well-known goose. Mr. Chase says, "A plage had written before the « cy yelone hit—an editorial, en- | on both your houses.” In “Democracy Under Pres- " A+-Eure Special Jisterests Versus the Public Welfare”

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| Olrcuations RILEY 3551

WE PAY FOR ‘THE TICKET’

"titled “Absurd”: \ fantast h “iden | he declares it is. time ‘that the public welfare got a The more we think of it thi more fantastic the ace,

. seems, of picking Henry Wallace for secretary of commerce. | ! | Ch Is Out in the O Of all places to put him! ase Is Out i pen Here is a department; the broad general purpose of | THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND, which is which is to stimulate and help business. The job has in- | | publishing: “Mr. Chase's studies, provides the money | but sidesteps the responsibility for his views. Evans finite possibilities, domestic and foreign, in that direction. | io WEUE0 Cor says Mr. Chase is “a bold and And here is a man who, despite his many good and | speculative thinker” who-ought to be heard, but as courageous qualities, has become anathema to business; a | to his views "the Fund takes no stand, either for ymbol of the New Deal contingent which w ould keep busi- | OF against them.” So Stuart Chase is out in the 8 { open. And although his brickbats hit labor, business in the dog house. { ness, farming and government, I think some of them And here is a country that is hurtling toward a 300 | should be directed squarely at ourselves. For we oes er A i iy © tenn toae | are the American people and members of the presbillion debt—a debt which can be retired in only two WAYS. ' ire groups who exemplify the “Me First” idea. And One, a steadily mounting business volume, sustained and | we can improve if, as Mr. Chase puts it, “the Amerheavily taxed after the war. Two, printing press inflation. an people Jsaty to decipline themselves.” b n haranguing the crowd it is easy to attack The first would-be safe. The second would be fatal. So, | ..conomic planning” with calls for “free enterprise,” what tg do? but when Stuart Chase, Beardsley Rumi, David C. Put in charge the man who introduced the scarcity theory of economics in our national life, plowed under cotton and killed little pigs; who by his record became the | anti-business symbol we have mentioned?

It's like making Tom Girdler secretary of labor. »

Aree re t— ro

Tepe

gp a——

| the table they agree pretty well that the health of | the American system is in free enterprise plus some form of government co-operation to combat the worst effects of the business cycle. To Mr. Chase the capital rime is restriction of output to keep prices up in a country that needs an | economy of abundance, and here the government is | the only authority capable of controlling such

! - » » THEN, LATER in the day, comes the President's letter to Jesse Jones, giving him the news that Jesse is being asked to relingiish for Henry, not only the secretary ship of commerce but all of the RFC with all the billions of taxpayer money involved in that stewardship over which Jesse so long and so carefully has presided. And why? “Because,” in the words of the President, “Henry deserves almost any service which he believes he ean satisfactorily perform.” Because “he (Henry) displayed the utmost devotion to our cause, traveling almost incessantly and working for the success of the ticket.” Of all the frank demonstrations that “to the victor belongs the spoils,” this is it—stark and naked tribute to politics-over-all. : s " » s # AS FOR “Dear Jesse,” thé up-to-now loyal retainer, this is the brush-off: “I hope you will continue to be a part of the government. .. . There are several ambassadorships-

over another as at present.

Not Much for Republicans

~ WITH SO MANY special interests clamoring for privileges, who looks after us? Mr. Chase agrees with Walter Lippman that the only real friend of the common people is the President, and he and we our selves have to look out for us. But “as individual citizens most of us are adolescent Americans.” And the President looks after his party's welfare, builds up support for his own projects, works -to get re-elected, and all that sort of thing. This isn't much consolation to Republicans. Today pressure groups are so strong, says Mr. Chase, that they “have turned congress into a sort of revolving door.” Nobody has the specific power of curbing them, but congress ought to be able to do it. The plans Mr. Chase suggests seem inadequate to curb the monster he has described. ~ Bome authors believe the seesaw of Presses groups constitutes democratic procedure and that the result is beneficial to the general welfare. But Mr. Chase shows that the result can be lopsided. Some kind of a conscience ought to operate here, but nobody seems to know how to invoke. it.

y William: Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23.—The | next two weeks, an allied officer who knows the eastern front told ! me, may be decisive in the war |

against Hitler. The turn might |

® ”

ference. .. The thing to watch, he said, is | the course of . the fighting in Silesia. If Breslau falls it will almost certainly mark the begin- | ning of the end for Nazi Germany. | East Prussia,

But let's hear from Jesse: “Dear Mr. President: 1 have your letter today asking that I relinquish my post as secretary of commerce, which carries with it the vast financial and war production agencies within the RFC and its subsidiaries, so that you can give it to Henry Wallace as a re- WORLD AFFAIRS— ward for his support of you in the campaign. You state that Henry thinks that he could do the greatest amount | «vv . of good he department of commerce, and that you con- | Decisive Fortnight sider him fully suited for the post. With all due respect, | Mr. President, while I must accede to your decision, I can- By “not agree with either of you. ... “For you to turn over all these assets and responsibili- | ties to a man inexperienced in business and finance will, 1 believe, be hard for the business and financial world to understand.” - » ” . AND AS FOR the brush-off, Jones concludes: “My 13 years of government service are ample-evidence | of my desire to be of any assistance I can to the government. I can best be helpful in the line of my life’s wor k—Dbusiness | and‘ finance. But I seek no job.” Parenthetically may we remark that Jesse won't starve. | iatned, is ver But, as for Wallace—if this thing actually goes through On her Baluc fank Germany has some 54 divisions. | —with the responsibility of our billions of RFC dollars | =~. Bre te in sks, Sash, maziliy | piled upon him, on top of the other department of com- | burg’s great victory against the Russians in the first merce duties, we can only say, God save the taxpayers who | world war. must put up this price for “the ticket.” iy He Red sry 2 gs already largely Sanked thi | of Danzig. The Nazis, therefore, may have to with- | THE REPUBLICANS LOOK AHEAD [sm doin wos Savi 1 {50-Vroia to aoep diam 1 Lal Hest posi lent meena. of the national Sampities in Latvia. oi a defeate arty usually 1s a second-guessers 1ielc 3 day. Under such rr sre, anything in the way of | Ideal for Mechanized Warfare | BETWEEN WARSAW and Berlin there are no |

constructive accomplishment is out of the question. The midwinter meeting of the Republican national com. | N!ural defense positions. It is mosti; mittee which closed here yesterday, however, was different. | Instead of looking backward with recrimination, the Republican leaders looked ahead. There was every indication | that responsible Republicans have learned that you cannot | B59 Rows: 20 have been Working Leverisity on defenses live in the past if you wish to be entrusted with responsi | have peen using slave labor, nes. ey bility for the future. | are located, how extensive or how strong -they are, The party, it appears, has grasped its opportunity to Dowever, apparently is still & mystery. So there is fill the role of the loyal opposition. Particularly is this true Some guessing © Yo Where te Germans will Wy %0 2 J make a stand, in the field of international relations. The anti-isolationist | There seems reason to believe they may make the revolt started by Wendell Willkie, continued by Governor | ge au, iene along the marshy | Dewey and stated with magnificent force and vision by | direction of Breslau. The Por sie Senator Arthur Vandenberg, has won its first great objec- may open up the easiest road to Berlin which lies tive. At a time when the administration's foreign policy : Fadpnt 2hesd down the Oder. seems confused and muddled, the’ Republicans have taken one ing DO rs lay the leadership in expressing the ideals’ of the American people for world collaboration in a fair and lasting peace. There were some mutterings from the isolationist minority at the meeting yesterday, but the responsible lead- . i krun y ers made it clear that the party is now supporting the prin- | Russians Greatly Outnumber Nazis ciples expressed by Senator Vandenburg and indorsed Sun- | THESE POSITIONS were in the east. For this day by Indiana's two senators .and the influential Rep. | there are several reasons. First, the Russians outCharles Halleck. . number the Nazis there hy something like two-and-an 8 yo» half to one. Second, they are better equipped. Third, THIS 1S A GAIN for the Republicans, for the isola- | "ature has provided no strong. defensive positions tionist label, as much as anything else, has been responsible | | Serand whieh the Hitlerites can hide. Fourth, Hitler's * YoF the defeats of 1940 and 1944. And it is a service to the | Russin Ste cast, ol SA 0 a nation, too, for it gives notice that America has closed | ¥ strong Rhineland, making it well nigh impregnable,

ranks and is united in its determination to pl |: Vhile neglecting his eastern frontiers. play a large :" "in addition 2o the vital.conl and steel industries of

| Silesia, there are three enormous synthetic oll plants The adoption of Chairman Brownell’ 8 slehapiint pro- | and some of the most important artificial rubber fac.

h va v shows: that the co mmittee realizes tha t tories in the same area. These have never been seriterda bombed and oh a ry cannot be wort in the five months béfore an elec- | the Joss of Ploesti ret in be i ‘tion. Here again, the leaders are looking ahead, starting qe: rubber sources elsewhere, to be. deprived of the I build Spires n and penfeet their organization for | “

olling plains,

man tanks and planes played havoc with Polish cave alry and infantry in 1939. Since Stalingrad in February, 1043, the Germans

certain, : Unable longer to hold on to thelr extended lines on all fronts-~in the east, the south and the | west—~the Nazis were forced to shorten them by nh

| withdrawal, under pressure but thus far orderly, frgm the most exposed positions, i

ww

Silesian plants now might prove fata), Lg | desperate hour. That she is doomed is certain. The the taken ‘only doubtful factor now is how she positon ON od out, TIA question may weeks,

| Prince, Thurmén Arnold and other experts sit around |-

abuses—provided it doesn't favor one pressure group

come during the Big Three con- |

the officer ex- | » strongly fortified and powerfully held. |

ideal for mgchanized warfare, Here is was the Ger- |

the officer

Unquestionably, Perham: today faces her: ost.

” r is

Py % er To

BAC BUR r~—

POLITICAL SCENE—

Looking. Aled

By Charles T. Lucey

of ry WASHINGTON,. Jan. 23. Franklin | D. Roosevelt, “crisis President,” ‘starts -his fourth term this week confronted by vexing ‘war and peace problems certain . to be as strenuous a testing for him as anything~in ‘the last ‘12 years. In 1933 he stepped into the crisis. of millions unemployed, bread lines and bank closings, At the inauguration in 1937 more than 2,000,000 reliefers were still on government payrolls, and sit-down strikes and what was called a “recession” were still ahead. In 1941, the lend-lease battle was just being start ed, and later came Pearl Harbor, plunging the nation into war—virtually a crisis a fortnight for four Years.

Toughest Problems Still Ahead THE TOUGHEST problems still ahead -of Mr.

T-Rooseveli—todag— Air -the—-erder—in-mhich—-many-here-

would rate them, are (1) winning the war; (2) Joseph Stalin, and (3) congress. Some, convinced we’ re going to win the war come what may, would revesses the order of the first two, * Mr. Roosevelt's administration still must lick huge supply problems, even after Germany is beaten, the Japanese showdown will stack up as the biggest war’ § we've ever had, except total world war IIL. A way must be found to bring critically short munitions items up. to production schedules, spotty manpower shortages remain to be solved and a tightened civilian production will mean plenty of headaches for, Wash- § ington. g On the foreign affairs side, people who have J talked with Mr. Roosevelt recently have come away |

| impressed by the gravity ‘of his tone in matters re- §

lating to the coming meeting of the big three, Members of congress, including those friendly to 4 full U, 8. participation in a world peace organizatioh, have contended it is time for the President to tell § Mr. Stalin bluntly of the widespread criticism here | over- Russia's ‘go-it-alone” policies in European | politics.

May Suggest Vandenberg Plan

THE PRESIDENT has given little or no sign as to whatever proposals he may be ready to lay beforee the meeting with Marsha] Stalin and Prime Minister

The Hoosier Forum

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

“WHICH WOULD YOU PREFER?” By Severin Brassine, Shoals I would like to add my criticism! to those {usually found in the | Hoosier Forxm against the admin-| istration, and\I m ean. the congress, | the senate an g t. 1 believe | a grave mistake was made by rot] enacting a work-cr-fight law at the| ig of this war. _ Not only that but there should be} £ law to take care of those who, for | different reasons,

“WE 4-F'S ARE STILL AMERICANS” By L. E. O., Indianapolis It was a bitter disappointment | for me when I was rejected by the navy air corps and later by the army | because I have a perforated eardrum, . Since then I, snd many others like myself, have been ques- | tioned as to why I ams not in the | armed forces. Now we are being | subjected to a name-calling barrage | and unjust legislation on the part qf | {some in the congress of the United | States. Sharp ridicule in the form of cartoons, such as the one in your paper of Tuesday evening, is also aimed at us.

Times readers are invited to express their views in these- columns, religious con= troversies excluded. Because of tha volume received, let: ters should be limited to 250 words, Letters must be signed. Opinions set torth here are those of the writers, and publication in no ways implies agreement with those

| obey government regulation, relying| ~©P:nions by The Times. The lon their age or wealth or their fol-| Times assumes no responsi. fowers or the fact that they are bility for the return of manuunfit for military service, to protect .them in their defiance of government orders. Such people could be handled by being compelled to] spend 30 days on the hottest spots] of the battle fronts with the boy] “MAJORITY OF 4-F'S whe are fighting to preserve the DOING THEIR PART” liberty ‘which they seem to value so Hitle. : = There is always scmeone needed | on the. front lines to exposé them- | selves in order to gray the fire of | the enemy so the sniper or machine

of

21S

are unwilling to!

scripts and cannot enter core | respondence regarding them.)

desire to fight for his country. I believe the greater percentage of the 4-F's have done the same and feel the same as I do. When the war is won, the 4-F's| battle will have just begun. always is placed on the defensive. He will be called upon throughout | his life to explain why he was not! in the armed forces during this, the |

| By Wondering, Indianapolis

I agree whole-heartedly with Fair. play of Jan. 18. Enough has been said against the! 4-F's. It is high time someone said 2 something in their behalf. I don't | gunner can be located and it re- see any of them wearing stripes or {quires no training for that post.l, .qa1c for services rendered—yet I

anyon ya can make a shadow Can now one personally that works on| the bil an essential job during the day and faced. The employers have already

To be ‘sure, with a law of this in addition, works part-time in the | agreed to show. preference to service{kind we would hear a roar about fo.tnry of a war plant at night. At| men. Will the 4-F's be replaced by the dictators. But which would You the war plant there are several of | {veterans when it was not their fault | prefer, to take orders from Hitler {pa same cases. As I said before, lt they could not fight? for Tojo, or from a dictators of Our wnere or when does the 4-F get| NO, itis not easy to walk down the| [own making who is an American anything but the very devil? They | streets of Indianapolis where the rst, last and always? {would be in the armed forces if it many servicemen are a constant re3 #2 weren't for their physical defects minder of your own inability to fight | “PEOPLE FORGET The majority of them are doing for your country due to some | THEY WERE KIDS"

{ | know, YBy Ear) ‘Bik, Indiananelis, | By the way, a factory would never force unjust legislation upon one?

This thing has brooded on mY have thought of employing this 4-F| Will the congress of the United tbrow for some time now. I am a t spoke of before the war. After States wake up to this fact? We father of an” 18-months-0ld bdby (he war he will more than likely be| |4-F's are still American citizens and girl, just a baby like all of us were thrown out again. should be treated as such. {once.. Yet we are wtihout our baby| yes, and if there is such a labor #2 8 because we have been unable t0!shortage, why are hundreds of war{“MY IDEA OF LIFE |S an apartment or house where workers in war plants being laid | AT ITS BEST” they allow children. How cruel and off? I do not wish to be unpatriotic, | hard persons are when You are uh 1 C0 mo on WI of {By Henry Reger, 19080 N, Talboti ave, seeking A roof over your child's the things that turn over in my - If one were allowed to choose the | head. People forget that once they mind and I cannot help but think type of existence which provides | Were Kas, 1 sould fave omy B We, Same hinge Xr ey in the greatest amount of pleasure sagging, and filthy, but no. I don’t! speak up. : with the least effort, I don't know | wane my child to be brought up in| Don't misunderstand me, I am ‘not | of one which would provide greater {that kind of place being apologetic, I mean it. [ease or excitement than that of a

| Roosevelt dog. Side Glances —By Galbraith

| Imagine, if you- were Blaze, | (r | | | { | {

lis this a good reason to ridicule and

Elliot's mastiff erossing the Atlantic | by plane and even getting an A | priority on an army cargo plane | which is strictly against the rules {and taking a priority over a num- | ber of fighting men. That's my idea lof life at its best, The above makes me contemplate | whether or not a democracy Is worth preserving. It's strange the FN «4 | Roosevelt clan always gets a priora ity on everything. A telegram of g/C ‘| congratulations by Willkie was |- turned down, yet F. D. R.’s message of congratulations is flashed on its way immediately. The Blaze incident is supposed to be all smoothed over by saying that it wis a regrettable error. I say that it 18 a very deliberate act and those who contributed to the act should be court-martialed. It was ‘| simply the name “Roosevelt” which caused the cargo to obtain an A priority. The major at Dayton, who pleads ignorance, should be busted to a private for such stupidity or be given a dishonorable ‘discharge for dishonesty. It positively stinks to high heaven. THe Roosevelt gang gets away with murder, It dis. gusts me ‘with the _ democratic process. Lr ————————————. DAILY THOUGHTS

\ “This-we will do to them. we will “even let them live, let wrath be upon us, becaise of the oath which we sware unto them. | Joshua 9:20,

ome ou ve

|

»

"Well,

pons, | can't ste the sh dreadfully formal with

if oi must have cou dldn't ink youl ba so

I entered war work immediately | after being rejected -in the draft;! however, war work offers little con-| solation when one has the earnest

greatest test the United States has|

|their part in the best way they Physical defect. Because one is 4-F,|

Churchill. Secretary of State Stettinius has commended the proposal] of Senator Vandenberg (R. J Mich.) for an immediate treaty covering demilitarization of Japan and Germany, and there is some pelief J here that Mr. Roosevelt will suggest this or something like it. { If the President comes out of the Big Three meet« ing with a concrete agreement on a! least some of the points that have made the allied nations seem to be riding off in all directions, his problem with congress will be made vastly easier. If the conference énds with Mr. 8talin still bent on going his own way, it will mike new fuel for F, D. R.'s foreign policy opponents on Capito] Hill | Senator Wheeler (D. Mont.), isolationist leader, set | out to give Mr. Roosevelt apd his foreign. policy a blistering in the senate a few days ago, but most ob= | servers believe he did not get far. By contrast, the § | Vandenberg speech favoring world co-operation drew § wide support among both Democrats and Republicans. | 3

National Service Battle Already On

|THE. SENATE is certain to see a bitter fight on | any peace plan along Dumbarton Oaks lines, but if § the President comes out of the Big Three meeting with banners flying, U. 8. participation in a post-war | | world organization will have a vastly better chance, | The first tough battle to be faced by the fourth § | Roosevelt administration—a battle already on—whirls about attempts to get a national service act, giving { the government sweeping powers to allocate homefront manpower in war production, Chances of get § ting it are rated slim, and congress. may even balk i at the more limited Balley-May bill, tightening controls on all*men, 18 to 45. H Organized labor leaders and liberals ranging from 2 | radicals to moderate progressives who helped re- © elect’ ‘Mr: Roosevelt are disappointed by his. “con-. | { servative” appointménts in the state department and = | by other matters. Other problems might grow out of this, z

[IN WASHINGTON—

Travel Troubles By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Jan 23-0, 8. transportation is in a tough is er-predicament than most people 4 appreciate, 8 When Office of Defense Traris- J portation Director Col. J. Monroe | Johnson slapped a feur-day ban on the shipment of everything | except war freight over storms bound Chicago-to-New York rails road lines the other day, he may | have been setting a pattern for drastic action that might have to be repeated from time to time throughout 1045. There have "been other wartime local embargoes | pefore—on the movement of tank cars or refrigerator | cars to or from certain areas, on seasonal passenger | travel to resort centers and such things. But when ! the railroads.in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and § New York got tied up by the. mid-January blizzards, | ODT told them they could discontinue passenger | service wherever it was necessary to keep the war | freight rolling, and they did. Purthermore, they can | do it again, any time it is necessary to relieve | congestion. If the embargo had been put on non-war shipments in the northeastern area 10 days earlier, the | transportation situation today might be a little better. As it is, the railroads will be feeling the effects of the storm for six or eight months, says Col. Johnson perhaps right up to the annual freight movement after the harvest season, next fall,

There's a Heavy Load Ahead

OCTOBER HAS traditionally been the month ot | heaviest rail freight movements in the United Btates.

But last November the tonnage went up instead of down, December beat November and January might have beaten December if it had not been for storms in the lower Great Lakes states. With war production schedules calling for increased output during the next. six months, there will be no slack summer season and 1045 looms ahead as the toughest year the American Sransonation system has ‘ever had to face. The sad facts of this situation ‘have not yet registered on the American public, says the ODT director, despite all the demands and campaigns tO | keep people off the trains. Citing statistics to show | that the railroads and trucks and busses are ‘having | to carry more passengers and freight with no more | equipment than they had before the war does no | gpod.. When one individual feels that he has to | travel, he goes, frequently taking his family with | him, Yet its is only The top 10 per cent of the traffic that causes the overloading and the hardship. If only | that top 10 per cent of the load could be taken off, there would be no problem. ra + No one has yet come forward with any idea of how travel cat be rationed. Permitting travel only on priotilies involves s-cumbersome amount of overhead | which would probably cause confusion than i | | 18 worth Germany has solv: one way

| i l ! |