Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1945 — Page 10

I. SII 4

REFLECTIONS —

The Indianapolis Tires

PAGE 10 Monday, March 12, 1945

I

Task Yoice 5

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By Harry Hansen - JUST AS Task Forces 68 was tossing everything it has at the Japanese homeland the first semi-officlal account of its many gotivities since it raided Marcus 1 on Sept. 1, 1043, was afforded land- , jubbers in “Carrier War," which | Lt. Oliver Jensen, USNR, has prepared as one of the Battle -Report Series of United States navy ‘inder the auspices of the Council on Books in War-time, It is additional evidence that the job In the Pacific is being done by resourceful,

Give Light and the People Will Fing Their Oton Way

energetic, well-trained young men who were working right next door just before Pearl Harbor and who

LAW WITH TEETH

THE President says he wants a manpower bill with teeth

“init.

Well, the senate bill puts a bite of $10,000 or a year in jail on an employer who hoards workers, that is who

hires more employees than the war manpower commission establishes as his ceiling. And the house bill permits a bite up to the same amount .of money and five years in jail on any worker who refuses to take an essential war job when it is offered to him. The President doesn’t say in which of the two bills he wants longer teeth. He says only that he wants the best’ measure possible. He says that voluntary methods have failed to produce the manpower needed for the war effort. And other proponents of drastic legislation have pointed out that our allies, Russia and England, and our enemies, Germany and Japan, have compulsory work laws. But the thing that stumps congress is just this: With all the admitted faults of our system, which functions through the voluntary co-operation of a free people, still we | produce more weapons of war than both our allies and our | enemies, with their compulsory systems. Maybe we could | produce even more by resorting to compulsion. But we don’t know we could.

” » . » ” ¥ AMERICANS HAVE DEMONSTRATED a genius for | doing the impossible, under a system of free enterprise | and free labor. special talent for accomplishment through a regimented procedure. with an all-powerful government directing every move. What experience we have had in vesting authority in Washington has not been encouraging. And it is not logical

to believe that administrative failures can be curbed merely. |

by granting additional powers to the same administrators. The test in any such hard business as war is in the results. The test in this controversy is in production for war. Could we produge more by changing our system, or might we produce lech? Spokesmen for management and labor engaged in war production are almost unanimous in the opinion that we would end up by producing less. And it is possible that they know more about it than some of the leaders in’ Washington who are agitating for this change. Congress, very reluctantly, is going to pass some kind of a compulsory work law because the President and his - military commanders say they need a law. At a time when young Americans are dying on Iwo Jima and on the Rhine, it. is easy to understand why congress-should not want to set its judgment above the judgment of the men who. are immediately responsible for winning and ending the ‘war. Just the same, it is also easy to understand why congress hesitates to give the executive agencies of the government longer and sharper teeth.

ARMY EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS HE knowledge that thousands of young men have been rejected for military service because of educational deficiencies came as quite a shock to most of us. Educators were aroused, congressmen deplored, and people generally felt a little smug about our progressiveness.

Now comes a report by Metropolitan Life Insurance !-

Co. statisticians which reveals that the fight against illiteracy isn't going so badly as one might think. In the years from 1920 to 1940 our illiteracy percentage was reduced more than 75 per cent in the age groups from 25 to 29. What caused all the concern in connection with the draft, the report states, was the exacting mental and educational demands of modern warfare. High military standards, not high illiteracy, seem to have been the story behind most of the rejections. This statistical survey is undoubtedly accurate, and its | conclusions seem sound. But two stories that came out of Europe the other day made us wonder if these high military | standards don’t occasionally slip.

. EJ » » » » BOTH STORIES were about majors. One was the flight leader who bombed the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden without being aware that it was the site of Hitler's | famous, historic fortified residence, the Berghof. The other major commanded the railway operating | battalion from which two officers and 158 men were con- | ‘victed on black market charges. His defense was that he | had worked some 18 hours a day at what he, as an old railroader, thought was the most important thing in the world—keeping the railroads running. But he admitted that he had felt unequal to his job and had jasked to be reclassified. And he explained further, by way of extenuation, that he had only an eighth grade | education. He was acquitted, as we think he should have heen, : It-is not our purpose to embarrass or belittle these two officers. We do not question their courage or their integrity. But we do wonder if these cases are. unique, or if they represent typical promotions in the face of deficient general training, as exemplified in one instance, and of insufficient educational training, as in the other.

~ . » ” ‘THE BERCHTESGADEN incident was something of | a joke, however incredible it may seem that a high officer nad never happened to hear of Hitler's aerie. But the black marketing of the “million dollar bat--alion” had most-serious military consequences. It might have been stopped sooner under an officer other than one who admittedly felt incapable of coping with his responsi- | ailities, and victory might be a step nearer. ITS INCOME TAX -TIME ii PARDON this glum tone, but estimates of 1945 income taxes must be on file with the internal revenue depart. | ‘nent not later than Thursday. If you feel a few twinges 28 you compound your own, just relax and realize that a d man with no dependent except his wife will pay On a net income of $100,000 and the guy with a net will pay $900,000 better now?

|

Ie

But there is no proof that we have any |

We've never really tried all-out compulsion, |

*' confidence and.

represent an alert democracy in action. Task Force 58 is no longer a huddle of pilots, a small group of planes, a few vessels hiding by day and venturing out at night. It is, as one officer remarked, the biggest thing afloat, with “many long, | enormous aircraft carriers,” fast new cruisers, big battleships, rolling, pitching destroyers -- everyone able to make over 30 knots, packed with planes and pilots ready for the Japs. This is “the greatest assemblage of naval might in the world.” What it can do we know, now that we read daily of the plastering of Iwo Jima and Nippon.

New Navy Opens Fire LT. JENSEN'S report opens with the new York-

22,

| town's part in the invasion of Hollandia, April | 1944, and from that tells exactly what life and action | on the big carrier is like. It is a report on men, | from the skipper, Capt. Ralph E. Hennings, who who read comic books, talk about their girls or play | the slide trombone in off hours.

wears an aviator'’s cap on the bridge, to the pilots |

Cape

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“That Man"Aga

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American boys from farms, stores, college, machine

shops, hitting the enemy, covering disabled planes, living in “a dream city with no dirt, no slums, no waste space.” = You may have read some good accounts of this life before but Lt. Jensen ‘makes it fresh and new. Your chest ought to swell when you read. the chapter on, 'the rebirth of American sea power.” It's a wonderful thing to contemplate how it rose from practically nothing. There were several “perilous periods” when the navy had only one aircraft carrier and that incompletely repaired. But from Memorial Day, 1943, when the first Essex steamed into Pearl Harbor, the new navy was on the way. Lt. Jensen's -account tells what an achievement -the planning and equipment of these carriers was. He describes the make-up of “Task Force 58—its battleships, cruisers, destroyers. There are pictures of them | here for everybody to see. The U. S. navy doesn't have to keep things secret now.

| Rescues and Losses at Sea

THIS REPORT tells how the men fly to attack, and how they come back. It describes tragic and comic episodes—such as that of the pilot, down in the sea, who keeps thrashing about to keep sharks at bay. What was the idea, asked his rescuers— they had thrown life preservers at him and he had dodged them all. “I thought they were sharks,” replied the pilot. You will read here how much plastering it took to clear the Japs off some islands, and how we paid the price. There {s.the dramatic incident of the Liscome Bay, a Kaiser-class escort carrier, hit and exploding so rapidly that 54 officers ahd 658 men never had a chance to jump out of the flaming furnace. There is the story of the submarine Tang, which dodged Jap shore batteries at Truk while it moved in and out of islands answering signals of pilots drifting in the sea, eventually picking up 22. The chronicle includes attacks on Wake, Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Yap, Truk, Palau and Formosa and brings the account down to the Philippines invasion and sea battles of October, 1944, (Pocket Books, Inc., paper 50 cents.)

' WORLD AFFAIRS

i ‘Without a Countr By William Philip Simms WASHINGTON, March 12° — Unless something is done about © it, a million or more Poles—in“cluding the rémnants of some 30,000 soldiers who have béen fighting Hitler valiantly ever since 1939—will soon be a people without a country, _ These are the Poles of the government-in-exile in London, their representatives Sn Washington and other allied capitals, their army in Italy and the anti-Nazi { organization which carried on inside Poland. after the [German invasion. According to present indications, none of these { will be welcome in what is left of their homeland. | They naturally don't like what is being done to them. | And any Pole who fails to show joy over the fate | as worked out for him in Moscow and at Yalta, auto- | matically ‘makes himself persona non grata in what | was once his country.

Arrests Are Significant, Disquieting

DESPITE AN almost total news blackout inside liberated Poland leaks indicate that wholesale arrests have already been made by the Soviet-backed

| Lublin regime among anti-Fasicst leaders who r t main loyal to the Polish government-in-exile. Among

those arrested was Mme. Tomasz Arciszewska, wife of the premier. Following British protests, however, she, at léast, has been released. I have met Premier Arciszewski. I do not regard him as an anti-Soviet; only ardently Polish, just as Prime Minister Churchill is ardently British. These arrests are regarded here—and apparently in London—as significant and disquieting. Foreign Secretary Eden frankly warned the Lublinites against persecuting Poles loyal to the London Polish gov ernment. Senator Vandenberg expressed himself ‘in a similar sense here. And Prime Minister Churchill told the house of commons that “the touchstone” of the whole Briitsh issue is still whether or not the Poles are “to be masters in their own house.” ; On the whole, congress regards Poland as the test

of Yalta and the whole British-American-Russian |

post-war coilaboration ideal. Not only is it waiting to see what will come of the Yalta proposal to set up a truly representative interim government at Warsaw, but it insists on free elections of the British and American variety immediately after peace.

Even Churchill None Too Optimistic

THERE 18 grave doubt on both sides of the Atlantic that Poland, will s00n.enjoy any such democratic experience. Instead, many expect the Lublin

| regime to carry oh—perhaps temporarily including | two or three western Polish figures for purposes of

window dressing. « : Even Churchill does not seem to be any too optimistic. He indicated to commons that it was pos. sible that the Polish soldiers who .had ‘distinguished themselves at Cassino, in Italy, and on many another front, might not find it feasible to return home. England, said the prime minister, should offer British citizenship to these troops, “if they-so desire.” In Washington, ‘many. feel the United, States can .do no less. If these remaining Polish soldiers believe it is unsafe for them to return to Poland, or if they hesitate to go back for political reasons, British and American governments are in duty bound to find another homeland for them. They are parties to the partition. The Poles bore the first brunt of the war in 1939. Some escaped to France. Some were taken prisoner by the Red army and later released to, .and reorganized by; Gen. Anders in thé Middle East. Others, incredibly ‘made their way to Britain to reJoin. their colors there. Not once have \hey wavered. {To be sacrificed now, and by heir ow)

it 1s widely felt. might endanger the By -

’

“WHAT DO THEY

Hoosier

| HAVE IN MIND?” By Discharged Veteran, Indianapolis.

| On January of this year I re- | ceived an honorable discharge from the U. 8S. navy after spending a year {away from my wife and two boys. | After coming back home I imme(diately went back to my old em{ployer whom I had worked for a {period of 10 years, and was told they had replaced me with another man who was willing to work for iess money. Of course I understand that I {have legal rights according to tha |G. I. bill of rights, but this procedure takes a period of many months to be disposed of and it is impossible for me to wait this {period of time because of the loss {of income that I had to contend

| |

Forum

“I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

| “MEMORIAL BUILDINGS | ARE WASTEfUL" {By Mary Studebaker, Indianapolis The most wasteful way of employing public funds is in memorial buildings. Monuments, statues, and auditoriums, dedicated to a war memory, are unnecessary to any thinking person, and should, moreover, be a taboo subject for any legislature. Why haven't law makers and the city budgeteers ever thought of the war dead, the living casualties, and the veterans as human folks, and in need of many, many human things . |=—but never a stone building or jority -expressed their desire for a statue? hofne, family and a job. At no time| First of all they need a bonus or

(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 respohsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

Wallace ‘at Work

-His- immediate problem is employment prospects in the

have I heard them mention a me- lump sum that is of sufficient size morial made from stone (or dead to manipulate and on which to

[with while. in service. Just what do these employers have in mind | when they do such things as these? | They were very fortunate to be able | to be with loved ones and enjoy the | comforts of home, make big money | land not have to rehabilitate them- | selves such as I and many others in | like circamstances have to do. I also understand that the state legislators have turned down the world war II veterans bonus and | instead are .going “to "build ‘large |memorial buildings. Most forturnately I did not lose my arms or legs ‘and I am wondering that when the |boys who have been most unfortu{nate in this respect come home is the state of Indiana going to take them for a drive down Meridian street and say, “My heroes, we Have erected these monuments for you and you.” i I think that these gallant heroes are entitled to a large bonus in| order that they may have something | to start life anew. Of course, any-| one who has not seen action would | not understand, my viewpoint. Thank God we are living in a| country where free speech and a! free press are prevalent, thus I am able to write this little article: for your publication. : ~ » ‘A HOME, FAMILY AND A JOB By Arnold O. Johnson, Indianapolis.

May I make a few suggestions regarding the propdsal for building another - war memorial? I have talked to quite a few overseas servicemen, and without asking any questions about what they wanted

{stand what they are fighting for.to mind in this respect:

men’s bones).- I think they really | build a new, stagt. | want their buddies that paid the su- Next they deserve free medical preme sacrifice to live again in'and dental services for as ‘many! and through them. I am satisfied | years as they require it. that their fallen comrades had llke; Many civic projects to benefit desires. {the veterans and their families, as| I think that .most of us under- well as other folks, should: come such things as small playgrounds situated at frequent intervals throughout the city. But please, no more of these huge parks and playgrounds. Many, many tiny ones, dotting the entire city is a far more practical plan. A veterah's housing project will be-a civic “must” in almost every community. Such a place can have its own community nursery and kindergarten, laundry and. sports courts for recreation of .all.These things are both civic and truly memorial in nature and I believe most ex-servicemen are inclined toward such modest, living memorials as these. Rather than toward the expensive ones of stone) and bronze. These big civic auditoriums benefit only a small. proportion of the taxpayers. The average citizen never has sufficient spending money

For the freedom of self-expression, for themselves and dthers.. Shall the state administration vote -an appropriation « of several million ‘dollars to build a memorial without the consent of a majority of the servicemen? . Shall they say to our servicemen: “Not your will, but my will be done?” i If our state officials want a war memorial, I for one am willing, providing they use their own money and as much as they can raise from popular- subscription, but I don’t think that most of us want them| to raise their salaries in order to do this.. As that would be somewhat of a dirty trick. I don’t really] think any of us want to add any more cost to the war. I think we have a few back bills that need attending to first. I don’t think anyone wants any reminders of war. As all great things come from great ideas, peace is a ‘wonderful

|

when the war was over, the ma-

idea—and as suggestion has a powerful influence on the mind of man, I suggest that after the war our ships of the navy be called peace ships instead of war ships. And instead of the name war department, peace -department. : Of course as, usual, we will have the pessimist even unto the end of the world. I would say to them: “Kara Kara” I have never approved of you.

Side Glances=By Galbraith

“iow far would Thomas Edison Rave got if his parents had srooped arunds aormjory a to ie ind hos

afraid he was -

these big auditoriums are used for. We have plenty of auditoriums now and they are usedsonly for a small fraction of the time, If such places were used morning, noon and night, seven days in the week, every day in the year—all free of charge the citizens, then they might warrant the miHlions of dollars they cost. But we all can see that such is not the case, Believe me, more and more war memorial buildings is not the way to show honor to our war dead, or the maimed living, or the returning veterans and their families and dependents. » » » “SOMEONE HAS TO FIGHT THIS WAR” By H. G Winston, U. 8. Army This gentleman Mr. Ginsberg is up on his freedom loving “they are taking my rights away” soap box again. It's a little tiresome to

hear this same man over and over again, scream "the dirty politicians are stealing my right to do what I want to do!” Please think, Mr. Ginsberg, someone has to fight this war on the home-front as well as at the front lines. Soldiers are told exactly what to do and it is necessary. If the people at home won't work at essential industry, I say, “male ‘em!” » Get our of your snug little nest, chum, and instead of writing to your congressmen, write to your relatives who are fighting overseas. On second thought, just keep on. doing what you are doing; soldiers need people like you, to get angry at, to laugh at! Jt takes all kinds of people to make up this old life; so, good luck to you—you'll need. it! ;

DAILY THOUGHTS

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the ea and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. —Genesis 6:5.

| ing his four years on Capitol Hill,

to attend the musical events which |’

+

POLITICAL SCENE—' a

No

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, March 12. Henry Wallace's assumption of his new job as secretary of commerce has stirred up that moribund old institution more than anything since the days of Herbert Hoover. There are today more rumors in the place than filing cabinets to hold them, and what comes out is going to be

MRS. . ton annour Carol Yate

something to ‘watch. S. N.'R,, Reorganization of the staff anapolis, is being held up. pending the re- The wed tun to Washington of Undersecretary “Wayne Chat- the Potomac

fleld Taylor, who has beén in Mexico City for the conference of American republics. Taylor was a Jesse Jones appointee and he practically ran the department while Jones spent most of his time running the federal loan agency. Taylor has indicated he would be glad to stay on under Wallace if asked, but he may not be asked. Dr. Amos W. Taylor, head of the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, has been in almost constant consultation with Wallace since he took the oath, and would seem to‘be a fixture. Dallas lawyer Harold

Catherine's ir Junior league college and | Fore River sl

Shower to

MRS. R( laneous show Faulconer to Eldridge hon

Young, who was Wallace's secretdry while he was The hone vice president, has moved to commerce as his per- March 2 In sonal assistant, the daughter U.S. N.R, I Smith's Visit Starts Speculation The sho

Sharpnack, I Lawrence Ha |. Bernard Lyo

ONE OF WALLACE'S first luncheon guests in his big new office was Director of the Budget Harold D. Smith, * That started commerce buzzing with all

Thomas Kibl sorts of speculation, Smith being in charge of all Miss Mary C executive agency reorganization. Commerce already has a number of vacancies in Harmonie top jobs, caused by resignations of men going back to private industry at double their government sal- THE HAI aries. All sorts’ of names have been bandied about at, the Scott as candidates for these jobs. Most of them are The theme w long shots, but this speculation adds to the fun of The prog Washington's favorite pastime—reorganizing a de- other partic partment under a new boss. Helgesson, R What has particularly pepped up the commerce Dorsey, Jane staff since the advent of Wallace is that they now Wallace, 8. K have a boss who is showing an interest in what they're Byram and doing and is not preoccupied with RFC and other Mrs. Eugene federal loan agency affairs, as was Jesse Jones. In Mrs. Tracy \ meetings with his department heads, Wallace has already given his division chiefs some new problems to New mem

work on, has speeded them up on other projects ale

tea next Sun ready begun, and they love it.

will be assis

Favors Aid to Small Business ° and Maurice

WALLACE'S PARTICULAR domestic pets are aid to small business and the full employment program.

first year after the war in Europe, gauging the effects of immediate cutbacks on war production. . He is equally hipped on the development of foreign trade as a means to aiding employment at home. Gathering accurate information on foreign demands and foreign markets is one of the first essentials here, and this raises again the old problem of transfering back to commerce the commercial attaches now under state department. Possible transfer to commerce of interstate commerce commission, federal communications commis« sion, foreign economic administration and other more or less independent agencies, is ‘still in the rumof stage, It FEA should pe moved from commerce to state it would give Wallace much of the work he formerly did as head of bureau of economic warfare, before his big row with Jones.

Weekly Press Conferences Planned

WALLACE 13 planning to inaugurate weekly press conferences, and the wire news services have applied for desk space in the department of commerce press room. Like the appearance of the first robins, these are good indications that things are going to unfreeze and there will be worms of information worth digging for. Wallace was singularly reticent as vice president, holding less than half @ dozen press conferences dur=But as secretary of commerce that will be changed. Wallace's press conference personality hasn't been too hot. His reports on junkets to South America and China were publicity flops. Some of his advisers have therefore been fearful that the secretary of commerce should go slow. But if he is to do anything about building

THERE that is to us its own utr ‘because 1 co how deliciou Some mi using molass crude strong to this classi prejudice kee day's recipe.

TUE

Sliced orang Poached egg: Pan-fried ba Toast and nr

Vegetable bis

Buttered gre Fresh pears.

Breaded veal

himself up as a presidential possibility for 1948, he Baked potat can’t remain a shrinking violet. ei - Creamed ca: Wallace already has strong backing in farm and Shredded le labor elements, If he can sell himself to businessmen RAE

as a great secretary of commerce, he's in a strong position, politically. His speeches to business organi zations will bear particular watching. He certainly isn’t going to use his department of commerce post to ruin his chances. :

IN WASHINGTON—

Orangs sher Molasses gin Milk to di child; 1c. f points—2 rec eon ham al chops.

Bureaucracy Too Noon and one-ha ? flour, % tsp By James Thrasher tartar, % | ginger, ¥ ts WASHINGTON, March 10. — 1 c. sugar, | “We must pay just as much ate lasses, 12 c. tention to demobilizing bureau- Sift flour, crats. as we do to demobilizing dry ‘ingredi the army or navy,” said Senator shortening; Arthur Vandenberg in a recent until fluffy. radio address. ra lasses. Bea The Michigan senator wasn't (———

just making another Republican speech about a Democratic administration. He admitted that the war had made bureaucracy inevitable; that generally it had been handled well; that many controls must remain after victory as insurance against economic collapse. At the same time Mr. Vandenberg cited that potential danger in a body of some 4000 executive decrees which have the force of law, but: not the background of open debate and voting of our lawmaking process. He warned of the tetiacity of a bureaucracy, which might seek to perpetuate itself. -

Foreign to Our Traditions

CERTAINLY AN expensive government payroll of more than 3,000,000 civilians is as foreign to our needs and traditions as an armed force of 10,000,000, how= ever necessary both may be now. But there's a difference between the two groups; unlike most of thé millions in the armed forces, the civilian army may . not be anxious ‘to go- home. ¢ So it seems logical that Mr, Vandenberg's proposed demobilization of the bureaucrats might also include a rehabilitation program. Some occupants of top drawers in our Washington bureaus may need it before they are reconciled to returning to private life. Washington has a considerable number of young men who came to the bureaus straight out of eollege, or from the early beginning of a business or professional career. Many of them are bright young men, representing a possible source of national leadership in the coming post-war decade, But their first experience with government has been in an unnatural atmosphere. They haye had too much authority over the lives and livelihoods of their fellow citizens, with a minimum of responsibility. There has been too little to remind them that they are public servants.

I §

wl

Confusing and Unworkable Attempts SPs ' MANY WARTIME directives and détisions trac- $5.00

ing from thesyoung men in the alphabetical agencies reveal that they mistook ultimate authority for ultimate knowledge. They have made cohfusing and unworkable attempts to force complex industrial prac--tices to conform to wartime needs without consulting those affected.” And they have sometimes re- - jected advice through a suspicion that special knowl--edge can't exist without special pleading. It probably should be made clear lo these young men that they were given emergency powers that

They should. be conviced that ordinarily the people

~4

14.