Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 January 1945 — Page 10

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‘he Indianapolis ‘Times

; PAGE 10 Tuesday, January 30, 1945 >

WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ Editor Business Manager

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD President

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

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RUSSIA'S BIGGEST VICTORY |

RUSSIA'S ‘capture of Upper Silesia and advances in Lower Silesia, admitted by Berlin, are the most important victories in the eastern campaign to date. Various Stalin armies have taken more historic cities and much larger areas, but Silesia is incomparable among the victories in size of population, in natural resources and industry, and perhaps even in strategic value. The area taken includes the Gleiwitz-Beuthen-Katowice triangle where Germany and Poland join. This “Pittsburgh of the East” was second only to the Ruhr until-a year ago. Latterly it has topped the Ruhr, because of strategic materials and because long allied bombing in the west has forced eastward some .of the production facilities not destroyed. Especially in synthetic oil from coal and in chemicals, the Reich war machine has been increasingly dependent on Silesia. And of all the major industr ial areas of Europe, this distant mine-factory center had been the "least bombed. : Of course the loss of Upper Silesia, severe blow that it is, does not mean Germany is totally incapacitated industrially. Oil and other reserves have been stored underground elsewhere, and the bombed Ruhr and Saar basins still produce some. Moreover, there are newly enlarged and so-called “hidden plants’ scattered over interior Germany, particularly in the Hanover area halfway between Holland and Berlin and the Erfurt- Chemnitz belt halfway between Berlin and Munich. So Germany can limp along for a little while. 5 » s » » 8 » : _ SILESIA onthe strategic side is the flanking key to Polish fronts on the north and to the Czech and Vienna fronts on the south, the several natural mountain and river gateways into Germany from three sides. So Hitler has lost his best base for turning the main drive on Berlin. And the Russians, by pressing on from Silesia toward Moravska-Ostrava and also across the Carpathian passes, are beginning to close another giant pincers behind the Danube. Apparently the flight of great numbers of German refugees from Silesia—many of them meeting death from starvation and cold along the roads, according to Swedish correspondents—is beginning to shake civilian morale throughout the Reich. But the allied armies still have a job to do i in the east, as well as in the south and west. The faster all fronts can be co-ordinated in a single simultaneous offensive the quick_er the job will be done.

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DEMILLE’S DOLLAR (CECIL B. DEMILLE isn't likely to go hungry,.even if permanently barred from earning $5000 a week for directing a radio program. A poorer man, undertaking the fight Mr. DeMille is making for what he considers, a prin-. ciple, might enlist more public sympathy. On the other hand, the principle may be important to many a poorer man who could ill afford to fight for it. Here’s what has happened: Last fail officers of the American Federation of Radio Artists levied a $1-per-member assessment to oppose a proposed “right-to-work” amendment to the California constitution. Mr. DeMille, as a member of that union, refused to pay. So the union's officers undertook to suspend him from membership. The A. F. R. A. has a closed-shop contract with Mr. DeMille’s radio employer, and if the suspension sticks he can’t work at the $5000-a-week job. Mr. DeMille went to court about it. A Los Angeles judge has just held that the union's officers have the right to suspend a member for non-payment of the assessment. The officers say they'll withdraw the suspension if Mr: DeMille will now fork over that dollar. He still refuses, and says he'll carry the case on up to the United States supreme court, if necessary. The intent of the proposed constitutional amendment was to outlaw the closed shop in California. A closed shop is one where a man can’t work unless he belongs to a union. Should any man’s right to work in that shop—at $5000 a week, or at $50, or less—depend not only on whether he belongs to a union but also on whether he comes through with money for the union’s officers to spend on political or legislative battles with which he may be completely out of sympathy? We think not. We think that union officers who undertake to make the closed shop mean that are handing potent ammunition to the closéd shop's enemies.

CREDIBLE PLEDGE

AFTER the OPA’s cancellation of ration stamps, we heard a lot of muttering from people who said they had lost all faith in the food control agency, that it had gone back on its pledges, and so on. Well, these people shouldn't have any further cause for complaint about broken faith if they. saw the headline we noticed the other day: “Less Meat. Next Month Promised Civilians by OPA.” You needn't promise any more, boys. We believe you.

A REMINDER IN Germany the race for Berlin is on from east and west. Here at home soaring confidence has returned. Russia's stock has boomed again. And those pools of two-bit bets on when the war will end are once more in evidence. As our contribution to the general chorus of optimism we should like to repeat a classic definition by General of the Army Eisenhower: “War is like pushing a heavily loaded wagon up a steep lin a fog and never knowing when you are going to reach top. So you have: to. pus) like hell all the time.”

| latest of the Rivers of America books, admits that.

| can save

REFLECTIONS—

Moving the Earth

By Harry Hansen

® THE WAY the Missouri river. is carrying the state of Missouri into the state of Louisiana and points south is a disgrace and you ought to do something about it, Who—me? Yes, you. You're able to finance “ this war, aren't you? You toss billions around for weapons of destruction, and when the tall sons of the Missouri ask for weapons “of construction you begin to pinch your pennies. But it will cost a lot of money for a lot of years. Of course it will cost a lot of money. Even Stanley Vestal, who explores the matter in “The Missouri,”

He says the Fort Peck~dam;-in Montana, has already |

cost $60,000,000, and now the representatives in congress of Missouri,” Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming have formed a committee to push projects for multiplepurpose dams all along the river which will develop power, irrigation and a deep channel. They want to get the river “to move water instead of earth.” The task is so huge that it won't be finished in our time. But it certainly ought to be pushed, unless a vast territory is going to run out to sea,

Half-Mile Wide at Bottom

THE FORT-PECK dam, says Mr. Vestal, is big. There was no bed-rock on which to anchor it, so it had to be built entirely of earth, half a mile wide at the bottom, 242 feet high, two miles from bluff to bluff, making a reservoir 180 miles long, 16 miles wide. That may not make as romantic reading as prairie schooners, Biiffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok, but it is most important to the future well-being of America’s breadbasket. Stanley Vestal, historian of the Santa Fe trail and the short grass country, and in daily life Prof. W. 8. Campbell of the University of Oklahoma, author of manuals of writing, roamed up and down the Missouri valley for the purposes of this book and fished up some interesting items. For instance: In St. Joseph, Mo., the Jesse James hotel advertises: “You won't be held up at the Jesse James.” Recently bandits held up the hotel bar and skipped with the loot.

Picture Is All Wrong

GEN. CUSTERy went into the battle of the Little Big Horn minus his flowing locks. So that picture of

Custer’s last stand is wrong. There were so many rats along the Missouri that the government cut down on cavalry in favor of infantry to eliminate oats; steamboats brought crates of cats and wise travelers brought their own tomcats. Souvenir hunters cut Indian skulls off bodies (usually placed above ground) and sent them back to friends. If the skull was that of a well known Indian it was highly prized. In the 1890s four men of Forest City, Mo. made a petrified man by taking a cast of one, putting a skeleton inside and filling it with cement. They exhibited it in Chicago and elsewhere, = Mr.-Vestal’s book is packed with historical clashes and personalities, but I miss a more substantial survey of agricultural fatcors in the valley. (Farrar & Rinehart, $2.50.) ¥ »

WORLD AFFAIRS— : Hemisphere Aims By William Philip gimms

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.—The conference of American nations scheduled for three weeks hence at Mexico City will be one of the most momentous in hemisphere 4 history. That is the view of Mexico's famed Foreign Minister Ezekiel Padilla who will preside. In an exclusive message to ScrippsHoward newspapers he said: “The united nations at present are facing two transcendental problems: The first- and most immediate is that of

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say,

defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.

“THERE WILL BE A NEW LINEUP* By W. C., Reese, Shelbyville

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed. Opinions set forth __here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by The Times. - The Times assumes no responsibility for the return of manuscfipts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

The recént letter signed by Senator Capehart, no doubt in the furtherance of peace, has the isolationist wondering if he is going along with the Democrats after his first few weeks in Washington, Many people thought that the senator was inclined to agree with the isolationists on international questions, but it is to be seen that Washington Democrats have made a new convert. Of course the public is told that we must have some centralized authority . to avert war, and the reason that we have the présent war is that the United States did not have a membership in the League and that it was Japan which when offended withdrew from the party, Not only will the internaLeague. That if the League had at|tjonal conference fail to cement that: time military force, it would any real alliance but will, on the

‘clothed and fed and do not run the

have had to declare war on Japan. Now that idea of a world police force is gaining ground. It would no.doubt work if some world power

other hand, prepare the ground for another world war, and if we are taken into this world organization aaginst the. will of the people, the

intensifying the efforts to achieve victory at the earliest possible moment. The second is to make plans for peace in order to avoid the risks of precipitate action later on. “The American nations have responded to this necessity. Within a global framework, they are ready to undertake universal collaboration without, however, prejudicing the maintenance and strengthening of the spirit of continental solidarity.

Will Seek Co-ordination of Resources

“THE CONFERENCE will determine, on the one hand, the participation of this hemisphere in the war effort. On the other, it will seek a solution of the economic and social problems of the Americas through

the co-ordination of our efforts and resources. ° “I am convinced that this will not result in mere lyrical expressions, but that the great aspirations of the American people will find both resounding and practical answers. I am confident that the security of the continent and the kind of economic solidarity which will insure higher standards of living and f{reedom from want and unemployment for all our peoples, will come from this conference. ’ “Mexico is proud to be the site of this important meeting. She firmly hopes that it will go, down in the annals of continental history as the starting point for the realization of the brilliant part that is reserved to our hemisphere.” Senor Padilla is one of the most brilliant among American foreign- ministers. Two speeches of his probably did as much to snatch success from impending failure at the meeting at Rio de Janeiro in 1942 as anything that happened there. In the first of these, in words which combined poetic beauty with blockbusting forces, he made it clear that Pear] Harbor was not only an attack on the United States but on each and every one of the Americas.

{fact that he has taken what is By R. EM,

Second Address Even Outdid First

HIS SECOND ADDRESS even outdid the first. It | was beforé the comniittee.which was then considering | the all-important question of whether the American republics should break off relations with the axis. |

Argentina and some other were raising difficulties and the whole conference was in the balance. It was then that Foreign Minister Padill+ spoke, : This moment, he said, and let there be no doubt about it, is of transcendant importance. It is, in itself, an episode of the war. Every American ideal, including American security and American unity, depends on the outcome. In this fateful hour, he argued, none will be saved by himself alone. We shall all of us, on this continent, be crushed down together under the iron heel of oppression, or we shall all of us rise up victorious with the banner of American unity on high. There was thunderous .applause. The Mexican statesman was forced fo stand again and again to acknowledge the ovation. He had won—even if, as it turned out, Argentina and Chile did not break with the axis until afterwards. Today American unity again is at stake. Argéntina once more is causing anxiety throughout the hemisphere. The problem of continental solidarity within

"| the framework of Dumbarton Oaks must be answered |

and social and” economic issues solved. at the forth= coming meeting. “But one thing is certain: If a presiding officer | sitiation—and a terrific responsibility minister

rests on hb 's foreign

did not take sides with offender and go to his aid. : Senator Wheeler, an out-and-out isolationist heretofore, pointed out in a speech that many of the smaller powers of Europe were -seeking the confidence of Russia to the exclusion of other powers. In our country we have the “right” and | forth by Son Tashington.

the “left” positions of many of OUr'| wr HESE BOYS ARE

officials and the bitter attack on / . : Henry Wallace springs from the | WORKING LONG HOURS”

people will no doubt repudiate the political parties who have assented to such organization. There will be a new line-up of parties and no doubt new parties in the future made up of those who will not abandon the course set

Indianapolis.

known as a “left” position. In fect,| It so happens, Ex-S. Sgt. Blake

| his proposal to give two quarts of) Tabor, that I am not in 4-F; how-

milk to the Hottentots was sbeered | ever, I have been working with sevat by the rights. : eral men who are in that class. InGeorge Washington, while our stead of sitting around feeling sorry republic was young, gave it the ad-| for themselves these boys are workvice to not make any alliances with |ing- long hours to supply our solEurope. This decided and made |diers with the guns and tanks what is known as the policy of | | needed at the front. Try standing isolation which was followed by up to a production machine for 12 years of peace in America and it is hours a day and you will realize a policy which Has many followers that class 4-F-does not mean..a among the poeple. { man is an invalid. Now, if you We are now engaged in a world | want to wear a button in your lapel war and no doubt the advocates of | that will be recognized by most international alliances are moved | everybody, they're giving them by the consideration that this will|away at the Red Cross blood donors secure to us some sort of a peaceful | headquarters. Perhaps I should solution of the problem how to|warn you—a lot ‘of 4-Fs are wearprevent war. They were given that|ing them. : solution by Washington and when| If I were you'I would try thankthis war is over, there will be a/ing God for being home and not change in the political parties as|where those boys are whose names result of the burial of the princplés|are in’ some of the telegrams you of isolation: by the Republicah]|deliver.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

3 “After George: paid NE our bills heSaid we'd have to boost our

wiidosh |

income some way, so | hope you won't mind if we happen to win‘a little from you tonight"

but will

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“I AM WILLING TO DO MY SHARE” By Mrs. War Worker, Indianapolis I have read and heard so much criticism by smug housewivés that I have decided to express my opinion. I am one of those war-working mother-housekeepers. I work 10 hours a day, six days a we2k in a war plant, leaving home at 6 a. m. and returning at 6:30 p. m,, including transportation back and forth. My mother who is ill looks after my | dren; however, she has been| unable to do any shopping for 25 | years. I am proud to say | that my | children are well behaved, well

streets. I am explaining this so you will know that I am not working and neglecting my family. I read with much distaste Mrs.

Nash's letter in the Hoosier Forum of. Jan, 22. Monday night is the only time I have to shop for my, family, but I have about decided it would be easier for me to take time off from the critical war work and turh Monday nights over to the | housewives who are tired of the monotony of housework, the society brides who meet to have a hat and “just look,” the expectant mothers with several dirty children tagging after them, the fussy old ladies with their furs and pince-nez who just love the excitement the young high school: girls and their boy friends and even grade school | children running wild through the | stores handling merchandise and | causing confusion, The stores extended their hours for the convenience of the war workers, but there are too many people with the same selfish and unpatriotic spirit as Mrs. Nash that make Monday night shopping a nightmare. True there are exceptions to all things, but I don't believe Mrs. Nash's case is an exception, or in any of the gnes mentioned above. This isn't the time to do “as we please when we please.” The soldiers can’t and we are all soldiers of the home front. I have read the Hoosier Forum for a long time and it seems that if this country, its government, taxes, food, clothing and .everything in general are as bad as some of the perpetual gripers seem to think it is, they should look for a better place to live. I am proud to be a war worker. I am proud of our President for the great man that he is, the taxes don't worry me, and I am willing to do my share. ” ” » “LARGE ARMIES CANNOT GIVE US SECURITY” By Richard Woodard, 5104. N. Meridian st. I'm not sure what your attitude is on peacetime military conscription, hut as it is something that will effect future generations, it 1s

a subject that should be given very careful thought by all Americans. I feel very strongly against it, as universal conscription has long been the foundation stone of the military regimes in Europe which gave place in due time to Fascism and totalitarianism. Conscription alone has made the Napoleonic and Hitler policies of conquest possible. Our democratic way of life would bé jeopardized, as a democracy must rest upon voluntary personal responsibility which is destroyed through the necessary regimentation and blind obedience demanded by the military system. Surely his- | tory has proven to us by this time that large armies cannot give ‘us permahent security, but can only come through good will and confidence leading to an wgunised and co-operative world,

"DAILY THOUGHTS

For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made

J Sota) selipss of the Rising Sun,

POLITICAL SCENE—

Williams B Next |

By Charles T. Lucey

WASHINGTON, Jan. %. Or - ponents of the nomination -Aubrey Willlams as head of rural electrification administratid hope to see him on the senate hot seat as oon as it is vacate by Henry Wallace. The strife that has whirl about Mr. Wallace's head has of scured the nomination of Mr. W liams in recent days, but bo Democrats and Republicans predicting a battle over it and Ha and open investigation” already is being call

Skepticism over the wisdom of the appointment the former head of the national youth administratid is coming from western senators to whose stat;

| rural electrification is of major consequence. They"

pointing out that REA is .a $500,000,000 concern a say they want to know more about Mr. Williams’ ide before confirming him.

Collateral Battle May Develop

AS IN THE CASE of the Wallace nomination head the commerce department and the loan agencie fight on Williams may get involved in a collater battle to take the REA out from under the agricu) ture department. Senator Shipstead (R. Minn] critical of the way the agency has been run und agriculture, is author of a bill for divorcement. Senator. Bushfield (R. 8. D.) announced yesterds] that he expected to vote against Mr. Williams’ co: firmation and said he would ask for open hearin in the matter by the senate agriculture committe! of which he is a member, “I ‘don’t believe in his philosophy,” he said, “ar! I want to question him about some of the things he] said and written.” Senator Shipstead said there “seems to be a lot opposition” to the Williams nomination and charge that REA, under the--agriculture department, “hi been used for political ends.” ; Democratic senators agreed there was considerab

“opposition to the nomination and said that “if op¢

hearings are requested, they're usually granted.” The hot seat will be no new experience for M Williams—he's been on it about as often as anyone the New Deal. His direction of the national you administration was under almost constant fire congress year after year, and the agency finally wij

! liquidated in 1943. - Half-Billion in Loans Authorized

THIS WAS after’ the joint economy committ]

| headed by Senator Byrd (D. Va) investigated ti

agency, said it had examined every possible justific| tion for its continuance and wound up saying thi “it must confess it has found none.” It said costs were “much higher than necessary” and that | equipment was not being used “to an extent con mensurate with satisfactory results.” ] Mr. Williams’ “keep-your-friends-in-power” ¢ to the Workers’ Alliance probably will bob up to fal him when the senate gets down to scrutinizing

| qualifications for the REA job. So will the experien

of the NYA, which cost nearly $800,000,000 in years in which it was operated. i The REA, providing 100 per cent financing rural electric systems deemed good risks, financ construction and operation of distribution lines rural areas. It has been authorized to provide mo! than a half-billion dollars in loans, which are rf quired to he self-liquidating within 35 years. REA'S wartime activities have been directed to ii creasing food production and saving farm lab through use of farm electrical equipment. { financed. systems now serve more than 1,100,000 customers, ‘ncluding 900,000 on farms. Cristics conj mented today that “this is too big a concern to tui over to anyone” until there's a full investigation | the nomination.

Surplus Property | By Roger W. Stuart

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.—Because of the relu tance of congress to amend the surplus property a

to make it “administratively workable,” business a: industrial groups are planning to draw up a stateme: of needed amendments. This statement, it was learned today, will be place before congress soon, Spearheading the drive for changes in the are the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the Ng tional Association of Manufacturers. Officials of bo8 organizations met recently with several senators ax representatives in an attempt to work out a seri of amendments. The legislators, however, showed disposition to take part in the planning.

Promises ‘to Consider Proposals

“THE ONLY concession we offered,” according | Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D.”Colo.), one of tl group, “was that we will keep our minds open ats consider the proposals when presented.” H Frankly conceding that “our-interest-may-in-p be selfish,” T. W. Howard, secretary of the Char ber's surplus war property committee, declared: “By more than that, we are convinced the act as it ng stands can not be successfully administered. -It §0 deficient, in fact," that unless changes are m very soon, Were may be serious economic rep sions.” With more than a million dollars’ worth of pluses already turned over to the five governme disposal agencies—out of an expected total of $1 billion—the immense job of marketing the 800 already is under way. One of the most needed changes, in the view both the Chamber and the NAM, concerns prefe] ences for veterans, small businessmen, farmers al other groups. It is their belief that under existiy regulations the surplus property board's hands a tied to such an extent that the various preferent groups cannot be served, while at the same time t. vast stores of goods and materials are efficient marketed, I

List to Be 'Quite Long'

“WHAT WE PROPOSE,” Mr. Howard explaine “is that present preferences be taken out of act itself and be inserted in the preamble to the This would permit the surplus property board | work out its own regulations to aid the preferen groups in such a way as not to interfere with &# orderly disposition of the surpluses.” P The complete list of desired amendments, accory ing to the secretary, will be “quite long,” and may of them of a technical nature, All interested ¢ ganizations and individuals, he said, will be given &3 opportunity to offer suggestions before the fing; statement is prepared. . . “We hope to have our proposals and men ready in about a month, Two lines of approach Wj be open to us. We can go before the board and af it to recommend the changes uh congress, as |

serived in the act, or we can go directly to men

‘bers of the senate and house. In either case,

intend to work vigorously for the changes.”

To The Point— A LOT OF people forget that they were tau when babies, to stand up for tr themselves.

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BUYING YOUR FULL share of war bonds u you feel better—becatisg you arel

ITS JUST A ion of im un nr

. yt sn

THE ONY cee site for uk

TUESDA

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