Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 January 1945 — Page 2

Herson A Appeals for Universal Service Act STILL TAKE. JOp’

a (Continued From Page One). pewildered by complicated statistics, #riavaved arguments, ‘and clever catch-

3 Let's make it simple. Think of our nation as a family of four or oi five hard-working, averag: people, living on a farm In Ohio. Its a : "summer afternoon, and everyone is * busy at his own job. Cousin Ben #% Ug out in the front yard, trimming rose bushes. Suddenly, the barn ., catches fire, and dad calls for -help "to put it out. Everyone rushes to his aid—everyone, that is, except # “Cousin Ben. He keeps right on , wit « ‘trimming rose bushes. I Now it won't do any good for “4 Oousin Ben to help put out the fire pk i a week from now. What we need #540 for him to quit trimming rose I AWE pushes and start fighting the fire, © 8% Upright now! And since he won't do {t voluntarily, there has to be a way, for the good of the whole family, to compel him .to do it.

Volunteers Not Enough En There are millions of people Who s. .. are voluntarily devoting themselves to the war effort, just as millions would volunteer for military service even if we had no selective serivce

pov

nov

eo Rey - aw. Ge $00 But in modern war, volunteers are not enough, either on the battle front or on the home front. Other JAS nations know this. Our enemies *®&< ynow it. America, however, is the A only one of the great powers which does not have a national service law, or its equivalent. There have been charges that manpower is wasted. Every conRav; ceivable effort is midde to prevent such waste, but of course it occurs. War, by its very nature, is the most colossal waste known to man. No ». employer, be he the head of great corporation, or the manager of the ,: Corner grocery store, or the governab "ment, or a farmer with two hired men, can keep every employee fully .occupied every moment of every day. We Just haven't become that “efficient. we Need Tanks, Shells

In this nation’s great, urgent need for manpower, every case of wast.age is, of course, to be deplored and . But even if we eliminated

rare

re wi

Ris & nd ay ne LB

_«. cases of wastage make headlines— ua os ut, headiithy do uni. make tanks : and artillery shells, which are the -4 5 things our fighting men need... vi: When the news from the fighting fronts looks- good, many of us are to lean back and relax, and figure the war is just about over, all this speed and urgency isn’t necessary. We should ber always that we are fightpowerful and resourceful nawho, as they have demonare fully capable of inflict counter-blows. about today’s gains and is easy. To predict to's is extremely dangerous. pipe line of supply to our in Europe and in the Pacific 1s a long one. It takes many weeks to transport all of the materials _ from the factory to the front.

Must Keep Going We cannot afford to gamble the

have got to keep the supplies going forward, day and night, week in and

comes over the wires. ~ would be criminal folly. There is one ‘great national char-

American men between 18 and 45, | who remain at home? This war was declared, not in the name of those 12 million who fight, and not by those 12 million. It was declar®d by and if the name of all the American people! Is it fair to send Jim to work, and suffer, and perhaps die in battle, and not even require Jack, who remains at home, to “make the things Jim needs with which -to fight, or clothe himself, or bind his wounds? It has been argued that government officials cannot be trusted to administer a national service law fairly and efficiently. We. are trusting Gen. Marshal and Adm. King with the lives of our soldiers and sailors and marines, and certainly no one would contend that the lives of these men are any less valuable, or any less sacred, than the material comfort of those of us who remain at home.

War Workers Praised

It is difficult to“express our urgent and pressing need for more manpower without seeming to over- | look the millions of loyal, sincere men and women in civil life who are | working whole-heartedly in the war | effort. { I have seen ‘them in the ammu- | nition plants, the aircraft plants— | many of them working on the mid- | night shift—many elderly men and | women—working to arm and equip | their loved ones who are fighting | overseas. In all kinds of weather they travel many miles from their homes to work for the winning of the war. No one can see them without being deeply touched by their devotion. They are a great and a proud army, doing a job which is just as necessary and just as vital as are the men in uniform.

Too Few in Number

Without them, and their magnificent record of production, there would never have been a “D-Day.” But there aren't-enough of .them. There are too many who are not fighting the war at all—either on

front. Tomorrow morning, on your way to work, look around you. You will see people _who are not contributing to the war in any way—who are busily engaged in activities which are well and good in peacetime, but totally unnecessary in war. Wouldn't you rather have those men making gups and tanks and airplanes and battle jackets and blankets and jeeps and bomber tires—things your sons and brothers need, and need badly?

Need Is Continual We need thousands of men in

the home front or on the battle ||

WALLACE: Mn

‘Asserts He Wouldn't Refuse

Even if Loan Powers: Are Slashed.

(Continued From Page One)

policy, a question of the path America will follow in the future.” Wallace said that if the RFC and its subsidiaries remain in the department he would utilize all its powers for the time being toward speeding up victory in the war. Wallace suggested that .congress

immediately to oppose. the ‘George bill and support Wallace, Wallace was greeted by spectators at the hearing with a tremendous ovation. He admitted at the outset that he was - disturbed by the move to strip the commerce department of its lending powers. Wallace said that to provide jobs for all, there should be 60,000,000 productive jobs. This, he added, will require large outlays of private capital. But the government, Wallace said, should “guarantee the lender against the special and abnormal risks which may be involved in achieving our objective.” Wallacé said an expanding foreign trade also must be a part of the picture. : Ard when jobs in private enterprise fall below 57,000,000, he continued, the government should take

investigate past RFC. activities to| UP the slack with road, public build-

determine whether the agency's powers have always ‘been administered im such a way as to do the

ing and power-producing river projects. “American labor,” Wallace went

on, “should be assured that there

most good for the American people. »|are not going to be any wage cuts

Meanwhile, C. I. Philip Murray asked all C. I. O. officials to urge their ‘congressmen |

munitions factories, in aircraft, need them now!

Our men at the front can't stop and wait for ammunition and food and gasoline, They have ‘got to have it now, and they have got to have it a week from now, and a month from | naw, and six months from now, and every hour of every day so long #3 thie war lasts! - i A great many statistics have been | cited on both sides of this great issue.

Decrease Ahead

acteristic of all Americans, whether they live in Pennsylvania, or Indi- | ana, or Texas, or California. That| characteristic is a deep-seated sense | of fair play. Is it fair play for us say to 12 million of our sons and brothers) 384 fathers in the armed services| that “you happen to be between the) age of 18 and 45, and able-bodied, | and so” we are sending you into combat, to defend us with your lives,” and at the same time to provide no legal obligations or responsibilities, so far as the war is concerned, for the 16 million other

ian life and jobs. Or that we will have to fill 700,000 additional war jobs during the same period, But statistics, after all, don’t help very much. You can stop a Tiger | tank with statistics. You can't very well go over to France and tell | Jim, who's trying to blow up a Ger- | man pillbox, that “here are some | statistics proving that we've got all | | the war workers and all the war) production we. need.” haven't, We need more; Jim needs more, Now!

Gleiwitz, Big Factory Town,

Falls to Advancing Russians

(Continued From Page One) !

advance of Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky’'s columns. Unconfirmed reports said that) Boviet troops had broken into the East Prussian capital of Konigsberg where street fighting was said to be in progress, The German DNB, news agency said units of Marshal Korstaritin K. Rokossovsky’s 2d White Russian army sealed the Prussian trap with] an advance to the Frisches Haff, a Baltic lagoon between Elbing and the provincial capital of Konigs- | | The thrust cut the last rail and highway lines linking the Germans, in East Prussia with their homeland. First word that the Oder had | been breached also came from DNB. “Tank- groups” of Marshal Ivan 8. ‘Konev's 1st Ukrainian army, it was reported, forced the river at Steinau, 3 miles northwest of Breslau.

Many Points Attacked

Beores of other crossing points along the Oder from Steinau down past Breslau almost to the Czechoslovak border were under attack, Koney sent his armored divisions forward for the pay-off battle for German Silesia and the southeastto Berlin,

, the biggest indus- ; Germany, reported under direct assault

{of the city to threaten the Oder

offensive for the moment centered | on Silesia where Adolf Hitler had | {ordered his forces to hold Breslau | |and the Oder line at all costs.

Oppeln, one of the main Oder | bastions on the east bank 47 miles below Breslau, already had fallen to the Russian- invaders, Soviet

|armored spearheads were reported

across the frozen river on both sides of Oppeln. Breslau, now outflanked by Soviet | tank columns that raced northwest

line at a new point only 148 miles from Berlin, was brought under siege last night by units of MarIshal Ivan S, Konev's 1st Ukrainian army. - These troops pushed 12 miles up the east side of the Oder to take Margareth, four miles to the south- | east, Reports from both sides said Breslau, nigtir city of the Reich, had been converted into a bristling fortress covered by a chain .of fort{fications arcing through the hills to the east, : The city’s Nazi gauleiter ordered all women and children evacuated and announced that every man ahle to bear a gun would be thrown hs

rubber and textile factories, and we || ° When we landed | in France, we committed ourselves. |

| | | {

Because we |

ye Tout Soe, LOCAL GI PROMOTED TO STAFF SERGEANT

Victor Woodfill, husband of Mrs.

by Red a that late yesthin four miles

word from the on the

the Polish | Hardware & Iron Co, he is ant

3 miles east dispatches wing

ingbrument specialist in- a servite wing under the command of Maj. |

Gen. Paul L. Williams, His par- |

O. President | after this war:

“What is. more important—when the workers’ hours are cut back to

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMFS

peace-time levels a real attempt must be miade to adjust wage rates upward.” For farmers he proposed “an adequate floor on farm prices,” federal crop insurance and modernization of rural living conditions. “For businessmerr, Wallace said the bill of rights envisages freedom of enterprise not only for a few but for all. No “special class of business deserves to be the spoiled darling of government,” he said, adding that “we must break through ‘the barriers of monopoly and international cartels that stand -in the way of a healthy expansion of free enterprise. ” Calls for New Housing

Wallace said it would take at least 15,000,000 - new housing units to eliminate slums and substandard dwellings. He proposed that private credit be made available “on terms which wlil reduce the down payment and cut by one-third the monthly cost of buying homes.” . He said federal and state governments must see that medical attention is available to all,

He called for more hospitals and

|government financing of medical |

research in private and public institutions. Wallace added that.the nation will need a broader social security program after the war. The present program is “definitely inadequate,” he said. In the matter of education, Wallace said teachers now are underpaid and facilities inadequate, He urged his program as the kind “that can provide jobs, economic security and rising standards of living for all Americans, regardless of race, color or creed,”

Lists Positions Held °

Wallace listed the positions he has held in the government, and gave a detailed description of their functions, He dwelled upon ns administration of the agriculture department and the loans made by the commodity credit corporation, Wallace recalled that while he was secretary of agriculture the department made “11,500,000 commodity credit loans and 1208 rural rehabilitation loans. 0 “These loans were made not only on a sound business basis but also in the public interest,” Wallace said. He added that he was “proud of this record.” '

(Continued From Page One)

new series of German ‘delaying attacks along a 20-mile front _in French Alsace. The British 2d army today all but erased the threatening German bridgehead on the west bank of the Roer northwest of; Julich, - The American 1st and 3d armies carved another slice off the shrunken Ardennes bulge. The enemy was left a thin salient along the Belgian and Luxembourg borders. The Canadian 1st army showed its first signs of offensive action since last fall with an armored raid into German lines at the northern tip of the Siegfried line. A small enemy pocket. at Boxmeer, between Venlo and Nijmegen, was annihilated... With evidence mounting that the Germans were draining off tens of thousands of troops from the Western front to send against the rampaging Soviets in the east, observers were confident Gen, Eisenhower

"SPORTSWEAR, THIRD FLOOR

along. a 20-

THURSDAY, JAN. 2%, 1945

HINT ALLIES MASSING FOR WESTERN DRIVE .

would not mise the opportunity to 'sthke with full allied power. Eisenhower already was mustering every available man for frontline duty under a directive issued Lt. Gen. Ben Lear, new deputy commander of American forces inf Europe. Offensive stock piles wereg intact despite the German counter-§ offensive in Ardennes. Evidence of offensive preparatiofis} were apparent at every hand behind the fighting front. The Germans launched a series of § delaying attacks against the Tthj army last night and this morning le front stretching from Haguenal to the Hardt mountains in eastern France, The Nazis made some gains at heavy cost in stiff fighting. Intelligence reports confirmed that German railways north of the Alsace front for the last four days have been jammed with men and materials moving east, Presumably they were to reinforce the broken Nazi armies in the East. Westbound trains were empty. Planes’ of the 2d tactical air force were bombing, shelling and strafing the trains on an around-the-clocl schedule,