Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1945 — Page 10

= 7 BY

BEHIND THE FRONT— ,

By Thomas L. Stokes

fas TR RAR he

REFLECTIONS—

Three P.M.

By Anton ‘Scherrer.

A GOOD PART of Booth Tarkington’s latest’ novel (“Image of | : Josphine”) revolves about two chdr- | acters: John Constable Horne and Josephine Oaklin. |

sou

a. Indianap olis. Times PAGE 10 Monday, April 16, 1945

‘ROY WwW. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President - Editor . Business Manager

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

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% SHOULD “LIKE TO FEEL THAT WHREN TRE LAST STONE

1 ON THE ITALIAN FRONT, § | April 16~~The war here is quite different from that on. the Western front in Germany. There you meas-

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JUST BE YOURSELF, MR. PRESIDENT PRESIDENT TRUMAN is finding that in this country there's no shortage of ane thing. Mhat's advite. ’ He's getting more advice from more sources than any man in the world. it's surprising how many people know exactly what M: (ruman ought to do to run this country right. And how cager they are to pound his ear in private conversations and over. the. radio, or to g the. Lounsel through personal letters or in the public prints, | Fortunately for his peace of mind, the new President | Js’ by nature a good listener, and is gifted with a sense of humo and a sense of proportion. And he’s not exactly wet behind the ears—he’s 61 years of age, has spent a large part of his adult life in the public service, has been around Washington the last: 10 years and Knows more than most about what goes on there. So Mr. Truman probably will take all this volunteer | advice in his stride, heeding what he thinks is good, ignoring the rest.

« RILEY 5551

” y rv hs » » » MR. TRUMAN once defined himself as a “‘commongense liberal.” We've a hunch that what this country wants right now is just a strong application of .common-sense liberalism, to the solution of our problems, foreign and | domestic. The country -wants the war won quickly, wants | the peace made as secure as practical statesmanship can | make it. As one sage philosopher expressed it, our war | air is to whip the enemy ; our peace aim to prevent another | war if possible. _ In the peacé to come, the country wants to be itself | again, without too much direction from Washington. We don’t want to sacrifice any of the social gains toward which the late President Roosevelt aimed. We want their attainment. We want as many of our individual liberties as we | can retain, and as mich social security as we can afford. We want to continue collective bargaining. We want social responsibility in business management, stability in farm prices, free commerce in free markets, truth in securities. We want monopolies regulated and opportunities open for all. : We want everybody to have a chance to get ahead. We want all this without burdening future generations with too much debt. We want to pay our way as we go.

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y = = s $.'N ‘ALL THOSE things Mr. Truman believes in, as his | voting record in congress testifies. He has a fundamental | faith in our constitutional government, an abiding confidence "in the wisdom of our FeeSaanve processes, | Members of the senate and house who have watched Mr. | Truman's work as a lawmaker reciprocate that confidence. | They will want to help him. : Being a man of some substance, character and heft, Mr. Truman. probably can endure all this advice without “faltering or turning aside. But, after all, he needs only be himself—a “common-sense liberal”—and- go ahead with his job. ; :

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WILL POLAND BE THERE? THE first glimmer of hope in the Polish deadlock comes | 4 from Foreign Secretary Eden. He hinted in the house | &f commons that an agreemént within the next ten days | was possible. That would permit Polish, representation at | the Golden Gate conference—a result desired by all friends of an international security organization. The Polish issue will be very much to the fore at San Francisco. The Big Three are doing their best to prevent that. One potent argument to induce Stalin to keep his Yalta agreement—for a representative provisional Polish government, is that this would quiet the international clamor. Undoubtedly that would modify criticism, but it gheady has cut too deep to cover up entirely at San Francisco. For Poland has become a symbol of the peace settlement and the proposed league, just as Hitler made it the | gvmbol of Nazi invasion and terrorism. Other European ! allies reason that what is done to Poland now, can be done to them.

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» » = » » - IN THEORY the Golden Gate conference will have! nothing to say about Russia's acquisition of eastern Poland. This meeting, according to the plan, is Itmited to discusgions for a post-war security organization and related agencies: territorial and other settlements are postponed for a later peace conference. | "Actually, however, it will be impossible to keep the two approaches entirely separate. This is the first time the 4u-odd allies have been allowed to meet in political session, and they want a voice. They fear that Polish and similar questions will be settled hy the Big Three—if not so settled | already—and presented to the peace conference as a fait accompli. ' The question whether Poland is ta have a free government or a Russian puppet regime is very much in the | conference's lap. Polish participation ‘at San- Francisco and membership in the proposed league are diréctly in-

yolved.

” » " ». ” “THE POLISH government in exile ir original member of the united nations. by Britain, the. United States and virtually all the member nations of the San Francisco conference. Only Russia and her satellites have recognized the Lublin regime. If the conference is allowed to vote on this, it will reject Stalin's group and seat the other delegation. But, in the interests of harmony, a representative Polish government of all anti-Nazi parties should be recized and seated. That was the Yalta pledge. Stalin still

1 London ig an

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ogni seated has time to keep his promise. ;

ered by carrier, 20 cents

ive him the benefit of |

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It is recognized |

Each reveals a school of thought. Together they reptesent two of the.smuggest types we have to put up with today.

all .big ideas remain té6 be born tomorrow. On page 149 the two come to grips. : you ever deign lo glance at any work on the philoso-

asks Josephine. “That's the trouble with you.six-year-olds,” retorts Mr. Horne.

nothing was ever done right in this billions-years-old world till you got born into it a few minutes ago!” This sort of thing continues for the better part of 11 pages in the course of which Josephine slings

who counters with “Damn it” and “The hell's whiskers | it 1s!” . { The realism is considerably enhahced by the’ fact | that Mr. Tarkington fixes the time of the battle.. It | was “after lunch,” he says. Experience tells me that [it ‘was right around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. At. that "hour everybody's vocabulary is so low that it. touches bottom.” »

Doomsday

MY UNEASINESS over the shrinkage of the dollar is as nothing compared to my uneasifiess over the shrinkage of time, I bring up the subject of time and its apparent

| contraction because of the discovery that post-war

planners hesitate¥to look more than 10 years ahead.

"And, even tljen; they appear to be scared to death;

The discovery has all the implications of a message. For cne thing, it definitely locates doomsday. Brother, it's right around the corner.

The moral is. of course, that it behooves us to

'| make the most of what is left- of our “future,” a | department of time which no longer has the conno-

tation of “eternity.” And, in case you don't realize the little time fhat is left amounts to no more

than 3652 days as I have taken pains to ascertain

(this with the help of what was once our optimistic .

system of measurements), I must have taken this figure to bed with me last night, At any rate, I had a dream in the course of which doomsday caught up with me. It caught me still reading “Forever Amber.” All of which explains why I got up this morning determined to tell Kathleen Winsor that her bestseller needs-a-more up-to-date title, Poor thing, she doesn’t know that the post-war world can’t possibly recognize the dimension which, once upon a time, we fondly called “forever.” " ® ~

Our Fickleness

JULES ROMAINS, circumlocutory author of “Men of Good Will". (23 volumes) has been a refugee In U. 8S. A. and Mexico since 1940. He is anxious to return to France not because he doesn't like us, but because he wants to enjoy once more the stable relationship between writer and reader. Seems that he is completely bewildered by the speed with which writers here fluctuate between best-sellerdom and oblivion. From seller to cellar, as it were.

* WORLD AFFAIRS—

City of Chao

By B. J. McQuaid

HANNOVER, Germany, Apri] 12 (Delayed).—Two days spent in this home of Teutonic royalty—this regal rubble heap—are like one's first visit to the moon. This greatest city of the north German plain epitomizes all the

| confusion and nightmarish disorder that is Germany | «patience is a virtue” and so are

today. At Hannover it begins to dawn on you that this European war actually has been over for some time. But, because there prgbably will not be a formal

| surrender of Germany it is hard to recognize ‘the |state of balance between the fela-|

line of demarcafion between but chaos. The only analogy which can even faintly convey an idea of what is going on in Germany now is

war and=—not peacté—

{ the analogy of an old-fashioned American gangster

or kidnaper hunt. It is J. Edgar Hoover and the G-men on the trail of a John Dillinger, or a Ma

Barker, or a baby snatcher, multiplied: ten thousand |

fold and assisted by tanks and airplanes. No Garrisons in Many Cities

IN SOME PLACES, particularly on the British |

front where suicidal German paratroopers are fighting as savagely as they fought in Normandy, the quarry is easy to find. But in many cities there are no garrisons, or the garrisons have surrendered or fled after mere token resistance. Before the war Hannover had more than 400,000 inhabitants. After .the raids began, the population dwindled and is now less. than half the prewar figure. But it is augmented by perhaps 100,000 foreign slave laborers and war prisoners. These liberated souls are the only people: who wear smiles today in Hannover.” As might be ex- | pected, they are getting as drunk as they can and taking food where they can find it. In the art of smelling out well-stocked cellars and shops, their noses are as long as their bellies are thin.

| Fighting From Sheer Exuberance

other. Mostly this fighting stems from sheer exuberance but things threatened to take a serious turn | when a group of foreign laborers, who had acquired | rifles, discovered a few carloads of food in the ruins | ofthe Central Railroad station and drove out the |

unarmed German civilian police guard. |

The“newly appointed police chief, who was fired | from that office for suspected anti-Nazi views in 1933, | found two Americans armed with tommy-guns who | quickly brought the situation under control without | hurting anyone. But much-food had disappeared and [ the food situation in Hannover is not so good as in When I arrived in town the civilian government |

most large German cities we have conquered. was being administered by the 84th division's mili-

| tary government team headed by former Chicago At- | | torney Capt. Herbert B. Friend, one of whose first |

acts had been to fire the burgomaster, Maj. Gen. | Egon Buonner, prominent Nazi leader and a veteran of long service in German military government in occupied countries. His successor will be named by the British military government team,

Traditional ‘British Flair THIS PART of Germany is to be occupied by the British, and the Americans are being followed up throughout »stphalia and Hannover by these British teams. y have the traditional British flair, bred by generations of colonial experience, for organizing government. Their attitude towards the Germhns seems to be identical with that exhibited by ‘British colonial officials in the Southern” Pacific islands and it works like a charm. They are, if anything, firmer with’ the Germans than we are, but they don’t threaten and shout and push people dround as much. ; ; One of the most seriotis and immediate problems faced by the military governfnent. teams is that of

15 LAID ON-THE STRUCTURE OF ..

ure in nearly flat miles; here the - measure is up and down—up one mountain, down it

The male in this case believes that all big ideas were born yesterday; the female is of the opinion that |

“Why don't | phy of art criticisnt that wasn't written before Noah,"

“You think nobody except you's ever read | anything or thought anything. By cripes} you think |

| |

WORKED UN

“You goose” and “You poor old silly” at Mr. Horne |- Rd

INTERNATIONAL PEACE, IT WILL BE AN ACHIEVEMENT TOWARD WHICH. OF US IN AMER ICA HAVE SELFISHLY." ~ FRANKLIN Bi +

and up another mountain, and so on,

War here i§ wearisome, full of toil, and lonesome, awfully lonesome. In Italy the allies won their first foothold on the European continent. It was a glorious chapter of the war, but a costly one, Once the front pages were full of the invasion of Italy and the people back home held their breath as they read day by day of Salerno, of Anzio beach and Cassino and then at long last of the capture of Rome. ' ‘This is where the Européan war may end, where | the last shot may be fired. For tried and experienced | German divisions, some of the best, are still in ‘the | fields here, the field being tall and rugged mountains. | The Germans can't get out now. The Americans | and British have seen to that. They have them pinned down, kept them from getting to other fronts and meanwhile have cut off their way of retreat and disrupted their line of supply.

Air Forces Have Done a Great Job

HERE THE AIR FORCES lave done a great job in these last few months. For some time the war has been fought in these tall and lonely mountains. Until the recent activity: in which the JapanéseAmericans of the 442d, now back from France, distinguished themselves as usual, the war in Maly had virtually slipped out of the newspapess. It was stalemated, with little but local action along the front. . The American boys in the army here have felt it. No full-blooded American boy likes to be out of the . show. I becanie very conscious of that feeling of being left out when I came to this front. - It matters little to remind them of all they have done here in the past, They live in the present. Consequently the present stirring along the Italian front had an electric effect through the mountains. The little nests of Americans hidden in the recesses here and there came alive. There were signs of activity on every hand.

Lifting Effect of Action Once Again

THE NOISE began to roll along the roads. Again the rush and clatter of trucks, of big guns moving | | up, of tanks lumbering forward. The convoys hur- { ried along the lower roads, preceded in some cases

{ by motorcycle patrols to warn other vehicles out of

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Hoosier Fe os COMPONENT PARTS OF WORLD STABILITY” By J. G., Indianapolis . Humanity could ill afford to suf{fer a relapse into-anothegggtate of chaos and belligerency, such as the present, and reducing the idea to its simplest terms, the urgent necessity of the world to arrive at and to remain on good terms with itself, is the primary reason for holding) and publication in no way the San Francisco conference. |” implies agreement with those But the success or failure of the opinions 1 The Timies. The outcome of the conference will de- Ti 3. 3 : i pend largely upon the degree of in- pt assumes no responsi tensity of the desire of its dele:| - ility or. the return. of manugates and national units te serve) scripts and cannot enfer cor- | -respondence regarding them.)

death

(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,

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its purpose in a’ positive ‘and most | high-minded manner. | : One cannot too often lay stress European theater have should be jupon the importance of exercising transferred direct to Asia without | patience, the lack of which is sug-|the 30-day home leave. If the lat- | gestive of weakness on the part ofter idea is not carried out, if these the individual; for impatience is | servicemen are denied the longconducive to wrangling and the ex- promised furlough, they will .not be | penditure of meaningless efforts, fit for combat in Asia—as common | neither of which ever produces the | conse tells people, even those not { best results. ‘medically trained.

{ a wholesome sense of discretion! cP THEY WILL ALWAYS

| and an- honest recognition of the| {rights of others. And to maintain/BE UNITED” | the most efficient and commendable ‘By Mrs. Walter Haggerty, R. R. 6, Box 454

tionships among men; the factors| I's aot oury 10 reason why, Ns of mutual trust and confidence must °Uf to do or die.” A commander. of | pervade the atmosphere of all their|an army tells his soldiers, they carry deliberations. " “lout his orders. Our commanderFor they also are component parts|in-chief had a far graver problem, {of the social formula for world he had to “reason why,” sometimes | stability. { with the unreasonable. I remember one instance, when |he told the people to look at the | map of the world, when it was {By Former Medical Corps: Officer. rumored the oceans was a barrier Indianapolis {to our enemies. This was the first | The public is advised that all{time I realized that. mechanized |G. Is in Europe except those phys- warfare had converted the Atlantic lically unfit for combat will ‘not be|into a river. One could see plainly lgranted the much talked about 30- (how cunningly the enemy had day home leave, but will be sent planned their attack and wal routed direct through the Suez canal tolby a great and patient leader. Lhe Japanese sector. |Americans kill’ their leaders by I am speaking as a ranking offi- | ignorance of the colnmon people and

» » EJ “THEY WILL NOT BE |FIT FOR COMBAT”

you say, but will defend to the

the~ way. ‘The roads are narrow. -Some vehicles | must draw aside so as not to delay the swift move- | ment of men, muntions and supplies: To understand the lifting effect of action once | again, it is necessary to know about this part of | Italy and the way the armies live here. It is beau- || tfful mountain country. The mountains are more | 1 rugged, more primitive, than the rolling hills farther | south, but not“so higlr as the Alps to the north nor snow-capped like the Alps. A From Florence north, the road winds around edges | of lovely valleys and then plunges finally right into the mountains themselves. It is a gorgeous sight of a spring afternoon for a casual sightseer, but moun=- | tains can become very lonely if you have to live among them, especially as soldiers. ;

olly disagree with what i’

your right to say it.”

“STOP AND STUDY {OUR LESSONS” |By C. D. C., Indianapolis |. Some of the boys of the press and the radio seém to be able to give us {poor mortals news that is straight (from) the shoulder. They are the {ones who evidently believe we are {human and can take it. Others give {us news and also their opinions. {They usually have ~something to| back-up their opinion although i| You Can Have It, Brother'

lis sometimes biased : |” Another group is the wiseacres| f EVERY SOLDIER 1 talked to was thoroughly sick | {whe read between the lines and by| o these mountains. I would comment on the scenery. | [their deductions, can solve about | They would relpy in efféct, “You can have it, brother. § lany problem on the face of the _. cy live in little camps here and there, isolated, | v with only the mountains around them to look at. 3

{earth. . : { The last group who are referred tite hete lacks ie: comforts of the bigger camps. § to as news experts have been lately | Last 1 Skee 3 yas very cold” and the spring brought ! telling us that the date of April 25 "°° ashed out the roads and bridges. 5 {was highly significant because It| is due these boys here, veterans of some of the 3 represented the last day or the] hardest fighting of this whole war in the slow and | |deadline when the Russo-Japanese | hard push up the Italian peninsula, to let those back | inon aggression pact could’ be re-} home know about their hardships and difficulties, 'newed.. This could mean only one HOW it all looks to .the outsider will be told in thing, that Russia intended to enter, A10ther column. I {the war against Japan, said the ex: ! perts. hi Accordmg to The London Tribune, { what actually happened was this.

IN WASHINGTON— | It seems that the foreign secretaries

{ had a meeting and the date of April The Ca binet |

{1 was preposed for the San Fran- ~ | cisco conference, - Some objected be- By Charles 1. Lucey WASHINGTON, April 16.—A Te-

{cause they’ felt "Hey could not be {ready by that time. One foreign | office official jokingly remarked that emergence of the President's cab{April 25 would be a good day be- inet as a stronger, more influential cause it was his birthday. The date! part of the govdrnment is one of { was unanimously agreed upon. the first changes forecast for Pres The state department officials in ident Truman's administration« The reasons for this Washington of course are always flow from the vast differences in personality and | willing to let the people believe characteristics between Franklin Roosevelt and Harry anything as long as it reflects glory! Truman. on their sagacity and wisdom, 50 Mr. Roosevelt caine to Washington a dominant, they too kept their fingers crossed. powerful figure, full of ideas for his New Deal in In view of these facts, it seems, American social progress. He limself and the little to me that when the San Francisco! group of brain trusters about him developed the conference really starts, it might! policies and his cabinet took” a secondary role. be a good time for. all ‘of us to, _Cabinet members didn't formulate mich policy, stop and study our lessons for a they were instead administrators of departments while ‘before we try to absorb all! which carried out policies Mr. ‘Roosevelt himself dethe hokum that is likely to be put| creed. The President always was regarded as being

{cer in the medical corps of world the selfish ambition of others.

war I who had 25 months’ tour of |

stron ruling. t

To

the “forgotten man” President

{duty in the A. E. F. when I very Roosevelt was a shelter in the time gly protest against such a of storm, now he stands ous a sym-

bol of hope and peace, Let's do

It is not to give the home folks|cur best to support the one he left

should be granted.

| pleasure that the 30-day ‘home leave [in trust, Harry 8S. Truman, our I judge this|President of these United States.

purely from the medical point of |Our people have proven they are ~ |view, as well ag that of military united, by not wishing to change THEY, SWING fists freely, not only at Germans [efficiency. No man who has been {leaders in times of a national crisis. who resist the taking of their belongings but at each in active combat duty as long a|They will always be united in just

|time as, many of those now in the|such a time as this is.

Side Glances==By. Galbraith

‘

Probably the biggest fight of the conference will come on the Vandenberg amendment. It would recdgnize the new league's right to review all separate agreements and settlements—such as those imposed by Russia and others. is the basic issue of international control versus big torship. - And here, again, Poland will become

charcoal burning variety. £0 “- Stern measures may be necessary te get the refugees into eamps and keep them there until the roads. arg clear of war traffle.. ©" lh

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“establishing camps for displaced persons iff forward | military zones in order to get these people off the | roads. The liberated slaves have a knack of acquir- | ing horses, wagons, bicycles, pushcarts and even | dilapidated automobiles, and’ trucks—mostly of a

i ; 1648 BY NEA SERVICE INE. T. M. REG: U. 8 PAT. OFF.

im ge

led ou boys are knocking of the Japi—if t wa te a : > SR : Rh 20 su

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‘| tional debt. Moral: Teachers should

n't for those «| © ler

out about that meeting. " - s

“A PART OF MY LIFE DIED”

By Mary O'Connell, 410 Traction Termi-! nal Building

I'm one of those so-called “Roosevelt kids,” ‘who grew up to an awareness of national and political affairs during the “Roosevelt regime” It's bedn said — usually around election time — that people such as I wete incapable of sound judgment in our capacity as voters, because of the fact that we had never known anything but “Roosevelt.” Well, it's 3 a. m., April 13, 1945, and I haven't been able to sleep tonight. A part of my life died a few hours ago, and I'd like to go on record as saying that I'm proud to have been a “Roosevelt kid.” He was one of the fou greatest men ever produced by our country. The other three? Washington, Lincoln and Ernie Pyle, » ” s “TEACHERS SHOULD BECOME MINERS” By W. R. Baldwin, 4141 Byram ave. I notice the miners get $1.10 a day raise. Who cares, if they will only mine the coal? 1 also notice the same raise for teachers is turned down because taxpayers’ association sheds crocodile tears, and taxes might cost 12 cents more on ‘the hundred... I haven't heard of any teachers on strike. I haven't heard of any miners who spend years getting a costly education to prepare themselves for a thankless job. I haven't heard the taxpayers’ association cry because we have a 300 na-

become miners.

DAILY THOUGHTS

' So when they continued asking him, he lifted. up himself, and ° sald unto them, He that is with‘out sin among you, let him first cast a storie at her.—John 8:7. powwhen

‘the

tead of

do

pretty much his own secretary of state, even when Cordell Hull held that office, and in considerable degree this held for the other rabinet departments. But with President Truman, those who know him well believe, the story will be different.

Will Rely Heavily: on Men Who Know

MR. TRUMAN comes into the presidency with & record as the capablé and courageous head of & senate war investigating committee which has done a superior job But, say his friends, he realizes well that there are many areas in the vast field of govern= men in which he has had little experience, and here he will rely heavily on men who know these subjects. Hence cabinet members: and agency heads will have greater influence in their own right than in the last 13 years, it is reasoned, and so some personnel changes are being predicted. James PF. Byrnes flew in from South Carolina to meet the President yesterday and he said afterward that, as private citizen James F. Byrnes he had offered his help to Mr. Truman. Already the signs point to his being secretary of state to succeed Edward A. Stettinius. s President Truman, in the first hour after Mr, Roosevelt's death had become known here, asked the present cabinet to remain. ‘But changes are considered pretty certain. At this stage it is hardly more than speculation, but the names of fervent New Dealers like Secretary of Labor Perkins, Secretary of Interior Ickes and Atorney General Biddle are always at the top in this speculation.

Wallace Is Expected to Stay

ANOTHER SHIFT frequently mentioned as possible would put-Democratic National Chairman Robert A. Hannegan into. Postmaster General Frank Walker's place. Henry Wallace is expected to stay as secretary of commerce. But for a’long time the liberal group in the Roosevelt camp has talked up Mr. Wallace as the man they want to support for the presidency in 1948. If this move ripens into something approach. ing an obvious candidacy it probably would be dificult for Mr. Wallace to remain in the Truman cabinet. Mr. Roosevelt always had a little group of close-in advisers between him and the cabinet—Tommy Corcoran, Ben Cohen, Ray Moley and others in the early days, and Harry Hopkins and Judge Sam Rosenman in later days. Often cabinet members resented it, hut couldn't do..much about it. The odds are now that many of the old F. D. R. advisers will fade from the scene, = NE el : On his first day as President, Mr. Truman went back to Capitol hill to have lunéh with his senate colleagues, and that, too, betokens a new trend--closer relations” between the White House and the.

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