Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 June 1945 — Page 16

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The Indianapolis Times PAGE 16 Thursday, June 7, 1945

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President - Editor . owe Business Manager { (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy: deliv= ered by carrier, 20 cents a week.

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by indianapolis Times Pubishing Co., 214 W. Maryand st. Postal Zone 9.

Member of United Press, seripps-Howard Newspaer Alliance, NEA Serv- E oe, and Audit Bureau of Jvlrculations.

Give Light and the People Will Fina Their Own Way

ALLIED CONTROL OF GERMANY, NE month late the allied control comission for .Germany has been set up in Berlin. The delay was due 0 disagreements among the Big Four. Most of those lisputes continue. The period of enemy capitulation ends, nd the era of formal occupation begins, under a cloud of he allies’ own making. ; Success will depend on allied unity. It was to prevent ust a crisis as now exists that the old European advisory ommission was set up. When that failed, the Big Three hiefs themselves met at Yalta and produced what pursorted to be a firm agreement for joint control. The problem now is to get Russia to live up to the ‘alta pact, and to make agreements on other issues which Zalta found too hot to handle. That task is difficult because Russia, during the intervening weeks, has carried out solicies in her ‘occupation area without consultation and ften in defiance of her. allies. One such policy has to do with punishment of war criminals. Russia has boycotted the United Nations war crimes commission and is running one of her own. Another conflicting policy concerns slave labor. EJ 5 =

ty . 2 he EVEN MORE explosive are territorial issues. Tuesday's declafation, cutting: back Germany to her 1937 ‘rontiers, added that the Big Four “will hereafter determine (he boundaries of Germany or any other part thereof.” Actually, however, Russia is already drawing new German boundaries in a way difiicult if not impossible to change. For instance, in eastern Germany she is moving out masses of Germans and moving in masses of Poles. 1f the mew joint commission for control of Germany during the ‘occupation period is to work, the four allied governments must observe faithfully these minimum rules at least: ; : The same military, economic and political policies must he enforced in all four occupation zones through joint-in-;pection and joint action. No one power must be allowed, under guise of occupation authority, to prejudice or usurp functions of the allied commissions on war crimes, reparations, and other peace settlements. » . All final decisions constituting peace settlements as distinct. from the immediate policy task—must be shared by the United Nations in an authoritative peace conference. ~ Their blood,. too, bought victory, and without their cooperation the peace will fail. >

Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, U. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a month. \

KEEP IT CALM UBLIC hearihgs on post-war military training are in progress before a house committee at Washington. We hope they will produce a lot of light and a minimum of heat. This controversial issue needs calm, intelligent argument from all sides. : ;

. Ohio's Senator Taft did not contribute to that by |. - ‘charging in a Memorial day address at Gettysburg, Pa., that “secret meetings” are being held in the Pentagon build- | ing and elsewhere to launch propaganda for compulsory | training after the war. Officers of 40 or more women's or- | ganizations, he said, were invited recently to hear talks on |

the subject by the secretaries of war and navy, Gen Marshall, Adm. King and others. Mr. Taft is entitled to his opinion that compulsory training in peacetime would endanger freedom and democracy and tend to create a military caste. But we don’t believe that the heads of the army and navy are plotting against the country or engaging in secret and sinister activities. They are open advocates of post-war training, as one means of insuring future peace. They believe that the United States can never again afford to be caught unprepared for self-defense. - And, if we understand them correctly, that the best way to avoid necessity for a huge standing army, which might really create a dangerous military caste, is to teach the nation’s young men how to 1 se modern weapons and then return them to civilian life as ready and adequate reserve. x : These happen to be our opinions, also, but we hope { ose who agree with us, as well as those who don’t, can : oid extravagant charges and keep the debate calmly 1 ;asonable,

CLASSROOM, G.I. STYLE

SPEAKING of the problems of returning veterans, we'd |

like to point to a report of the Armed Forces institute.

It finds the boys overseas like not only sports but also | study. “Millions” of G. 1.’s have paid the $2 enrollment fee | and are devoting one to five hours a week studying their |

choices among 300 AFI correspondence courses. +» ..Tops in popularity is ‘hookkeeping. Tops in study methods, we'd say, is one mentioned in a soldier-pupil’s letter: “1 concentrate best when driven into my hole by artillery fire.” A fellow who plays ball hetween battles and pores over a text in a foxhole is no problem child. The only problem we see is how the rest of us will keep up with him, once he brings home all that commendable ambition.

“FIDO”

Jt was a great invention. It split fog so airplanes could come and. go.. The British said formally it was the “fog investigation and dispersal operations.” They credited it with shortening the war two years. Colossal though it was, the. British casually referred to the invention by its initials and called it “Fido.” It's comforting to be allied with a people who reduce their big deeds to familiar terms.

AH, THE SHAME OF IT! Just when we were congratulating ourselves on being

| able to keep abredst of reconversion devlopments, along ~ came the war production board with an announcement that

dichlorodiflouromethane -and - monochlorodifiouromethane

been removed from L.

Lub

ist B of priorities Regulation 13.

“ RILEY 5351+

REFLECTIONS— ni Front Porch By John W. Hillmah:

THE FOO-FOO school of modern architecture probably is weeping into its‘-creme de menthe over those pictures of the summer White House in Independence, Mo.—that noble example of gingerbread Gothic with scrollwork on ‘the gable ard full-bellied bay windows. And a front porch. > Somebow we can’t share their concern. Those pictures may set the cause of California ranch houses afid functional design back 10 year$, but it is reassuring to know the President of the United States ‘lives in that house. It's the kind of a house -that America grew up in, A All aver America, and particularly in the heartlands of the Midwest, there are houses like that. Somehow they dre typical, even today, of stalwart middle class America. Wendell Willkie grew up. in oie of them, and he bought another as the place to come home to after he had grown. great dn: the world, Anyone, who lives in a house like that is likely to have the common touch. = .

‘Orie Thing All Have in Common’ THERE IS ONE thing all of these houses have in common and that is a front porch. It is surprising, too, how few people realize what a tremen-

this country. ) Take the matter of romance. Some of our sentimental friends think that marriages are made in Heaven. But we've lived in Iowa and we Know better —most of the marriages in our town were cooked up on the front porch, And that made them highly successful. A couple can't sit on the front porch for a year or more without getting to know each other pretty well. And when you did your courting on the front porch, the neighbors could look you over, too—and if you passed muster, the girl's family. could breathe easily. Of course, no porch was complete without a | swing: That was standard equipment find so, too, was fhe squeak in the swing. Parents thus could, without being nosy, keep well informed on the progress of any. budding courtship. As long as the rocking tempo was regular, it was just another date, But when that squeak slowed down, his intentions were getting serious and when it stopped entirely it was time to have the piano tuned and start borrowing eggs for.the wedding cake. . Automobiles ended all that, however, and nowadays parents can only hope for the best.

'An Instrument of Neighborliness' THE FRONT PORCH was an. instrument of neighborliness as well. On hot nights everyone sat on the porch watching the bats dive under the arc lights. And when you finished watering the lawn, what was more natural than to stroll across the

one in the block—the front porch was the bond that made the whole town one. Yes, the front porch was a great institution whether, depending on your section of the country,

gadget that looks like a sway-backed awning over our front door—we're sorry especially when the rain beats under the sill or when the wind starts to improvise its version of the siege of Berlin on the sheet metal. But maybe the architects will come around after all. We've been reading a lot about outdoor living rooms—and what else was a front porch? And we noticed that one recent prize-winning home design “strives for sunlight but uses an overhanging roof to keep away the direct rays of the sun.” No matter what it is in the lingo of modern architecture, that sounds suspicjously like a porch,

* WORLD AFFAIRS—

Tinder Box By Wm. Philip Simms

SAN FRANCISCO, June T7.— Fires kindled in the Near East may spread until they reach not only other Moslem areas in Africa but : also the half-billion subject peoples of Asia. The torch is “independence”’—that tricky word which they are trving to fit into the United Nations charter here. Like self-government and selfdetermination, it is a highly inflammable article which, when fanned by not always disinterested propaganda, often burns brightest among those not yet prepared for it. : The power politics now going on in the Near East will add fuel to the flames. Who is wrong and who is right makes little difference. Britain is the world’s greatest empire. France is second. And their quarrel over the Levant is almost certain to affect both adversely all the way. from Gibraltar, India, IndoChina and Singapore to the East Indies. Other nations are involved and Soviet Russia has declared herself in.

Churchill Plan Seems Unworkable

PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL'S plan to settle the “little war” at a three-power conference with only

»~

seems unworkable, According to the French delega-

Arab League. Nothing less than a full-dress conference, at which the whole Near Eastern situation will be aired, will suit the French—especially since reports of fresh bloodshed have come in from Syria. There are many problems in the Near East, a | member of the French delegation told me. It would | not be possible, he said, to, clean up the situation in Syria and Lebanon without dealing, at the same time, with those of Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq. All the

government in San Francisco

dous role the front porch has played in the life of :

Hoosier Forum

death "AMERICANS ARE (Times readers are invited LIVING IN LUXURY” to express their views in

these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, let-

Sgt. Glen J. Schmidt, Overseas In answer to Mr. Armchair Strategist Douglas, whose letter ap-

street or to the house next door to sit on the steps |peared in the Forum in April, I and chat a while? Of course you got to know every- {want to say I am very much sur- | } f

you called it a porch, or a verandah, or a piazza, | they sure didn’t show it at the elecor a stoop. We miss it and we're sorry we let that | {ion polls last fall. What are you architect talk us into substituting a sheet metal |, qino a5 proof for your statement?

{ | i

France, Britain and the United States present, now |

problems of the new Arab League should be discussed. | France-Journal, temporary organ of the French | is bitterly outspoken |

| and, at. times, ironical. Yesterday's issue declares | that only such a conference will “permit France to | put an end to a game which has endured too long.” |

That .game, it observes, is to concentrate on France “all the impatient ardor of. Arab nationalists to whom it was pointed out that weakened France cols stituted the point of least resistance.” Against her, therefore, they could get maximum advantage with a minimum of effort.

Growing Bitterness Is Evident

THE PAPER then goes on to charge that the most turbulent elements in the Levant were added to the most questionable—Arab converts of the pro-Nazi Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Thus incited, these began “the realization of their projects to the detriment of | France, assured that they would enjoy at least the | benevolent neutrality of the powerful British forces. | We have just seen that it is not only in Athens that | ‘these forces can pass openly into action.” There is more in the same vein, showing the growing bitterness which is creeping into Anglo-Frénch relations, Almost everyone here regards it as a great tragedy at a time when the Western democracies have so much to gain and everything to lose by quarreling among themselves. And, paradoxically enough, the British and the French are the first to | agree that this is so. >

Levant, probably on all sides—by the French, by the British and by certain factions of the natives. Perhaps, too, foreign agents provocateur have not been idle. But the empires of France and far-flung, gnd their subject peoples

3 : y ee

Britain are too

A . Unquestionably there have héen blunders in the |

ters 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 manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

prised to read such a letter, In the first place, if 95 per cent of the 130 million people (that's your figures) think the way you do,

I can see it's original. I will tell you one thing, Mr. Douglas, the American people, compared to othé¥-countries that I have! seen, are living in luxury. If you messed up this time as last by an can't take my word for it, you armistice. When we are around the should leave your nice armchair and |German people, they are quiet and

{come over here and see for yourself. | little, but once you leave them by

One thing, you should have been! themselves, they féel wise and big around when the Americans were again, They are dumb, and yet they liberating the slave laborers in Ger- are smart. many. They were eating right out| I know you are wrong when you of our garbage can. It would make write and think like you did in your you sick to see them. And until letter, but you go right ahead and these people can get back to their do as you. please—that's what we own country, we will have to feed are fighting for. And proud to them. In France and Holland the fighting for.. As for your letter, food situation is also bad. Even |I can say is, “You're all wet.” after- sending food over here to| This letter ‘was approved by these people they still won't be eat- ‘members of the 1st platoon, ing half as good as yourself. *So|Getmany. : if it’s goirfg to hurt you to sacrifice | $n 2 a little, compared to the other coun- | “YOUR ARGUMENTS tries that have been bombed and DON'T MAKE SENSE” the people that are starving, you! are at the present time #Rdcrificing | darn little. You ought to join the| army—they eat the best. The only| ee people who have the situation pretty that you are definitely wrong. well in hand are the farmers of, We are, supposedly, fighting this these countries. The large cities|War to save democracy, and shen are suffering plenty. sanction the use of Fascist methods We have been shown films on why it the treatment of war prisoners— we fight, and it sure isn't to help it doesn’t make sense. England hold onto the countries she! Christ didn’t teach “eye for an has conquered. We are fighting to/eye and tooth for a tooth,” but protect-our ownself. When the war rather “turn the other cheek.” first started we were certainly in| ‘You want the boys to come back bad shape and for quite a while with a better understanding. Such were playing a losing hand. Our 'a destruction of Germans and boys are paying, along with the boys|Japanese as you suggest would refrom other countries, for this war|quire the most intense hatred—the because we want to make the world thing that destroys all understanda better place in which to live. ing or reason.

all

By Gerald Brown, Indianapolis In answer to Mrs. A. A's letter concerning Pvt. Joe McGee, I say

{ When you say it's a lie we are fight- | You say that our boys would feel |

ing for freedom of all nations, you|O. K. about killing Germans like are making a very bold statement.|flies because they were doing as If they had taken a poll over here | they were trained. Then are not among the servicemen, I don’t think |the German atrocities right? They any would want to stop fighting for |were doing. what they were trained

tion here, France is utterly opposed. Angry over the |, uvihi : : pp ar the {anything other than unconditional to do, incident, and blaming Britain, she insists that at | surrender. We have won our unleast the Big Four shall sit in plus “of course,’ the |conditional surrender

No, Mrs. A., your arguments don't from Ger-|make sense and even if they did, I many now and things will not be|wouldn’t believe in them.

Side Glances=By Galbraith

, a, = "oa “va

, "My horoscope says this is a good day for important meetings; but + lwish we had timé fo sit down in comfort While ws ~~ - alah ora ods”

“l wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the

your right to say it.”

“YOU CAN'T SUPPRESS THE PLAIN TRUTH” By The Watchman, Indianapolis Let's stick to cold logic, hard facts and common sense and face Stalin's aggression and hostile attitude realistically. * Henry Chamberlin and Norman kThomas joined Upton Close, Westbrook Pegler and The Watchman on the Town Meetings program, so The Watchman is traveling ine fast company. There will be plenty more to take a firm stand for freedom, democracy and justice for all

{press the plain truth in the United {States very long. Of course there is a strong pro{Communist element in this nation | which worships Stalin and is ready to defend everything he does. | Because an apologist for Stalin {has been in the army or navy that {does not change his political ideals. Nor does it make him an authority lon international policies. { A Times editorial says that Pres{ident Roosevelt had to give Stalin {veto power before he would consent {to join any league for peace. My reasoning is that Stalin's demand JLo power to veto action against an {aggressor was because he is an ag-

{nations before long. You can’t sup-) 2 | would start a spending spree that would lead to infla-

| POLITICAL SCENE—

ich Stake: By Thomas L. Stokes

WASHINGTON, June 7.—Everybody has a complaint about OPA. Some of them are justified. It's not perfect, It could never be perfect. Its job is ah almost impossible one in a complex economy in the midst of war. Right now it’s the scarcity of meat—good red meat —that we complain about most. There are folks in the big cities in the East, including this one, who have fiot ‘seen the likes of a steak for weeks, and there are children, includifig my own 5-year-old ‘son, ‘who probably would not know what a 3teak was if it was brought, hot and sizzling and dripping with butter, to the table. (Where did you get that butter?)

‘Has Kept Living Costs Down’

THIS IS annoying. Something’s wrong and some= thing ought to be done about it. : A steak sure would taste good. We know it and lots of other folks know it. Some of them are ready to use our longing for a steak and other things, our little grievances about OPA, to try to break down the price control machinery which: despite its faults, has kept living costs down and warded off inflation like that of the last war and afterward. : After all, it is human nature for businessmen and farmers to want to let off the brakes and have a kill ing, even though they've done very nicely. Corpora= tion profits, even after taxes, were double last year what they were before the war, Small businessmen,

come 165 per cent above 1939. L A steak would taste mighty good, but: is this the time to sell ourselves out for one?

'Employing an Insidious Strategy’ THE WAR on OPA, which is just beginning in congress, first in the senate, is employing an insidious strategy. The slogan of OPA’s enemies is “OPA is all right, but—" There are some who would vote an ex= tension for only three or six months longer, when, they say, congress could take another look, That may sound persuasive. But don’t be fooled, OPA ‘expires June 30, unless congress extends it, The administration bill would continue it another year. This is regdrded as essentjal to carry through the Japanese war and the period of readjustment. Others in congress would amend the ‘law in divers ways. Senator Thomas (D. Okla.), would establish a price structure to guarantee a profit on single items, | instead of on the over-all operation. Senator~ Taft “(R. 0.) is proposing one of similar import, Amendments of this character, according to OPA Administrator Chester Bowles, would start a vicious circle of price .increases, which "then would call for wage increases and lead, in the end, to inflation. Congress already has gone over the price control act, provision by provision, three times. It has made many changes. The OPA is trying to meet problems administratively, without further changes in law, Many leaders in congress think this is the proper procedure,

'Danger Is Greater Than Ever’ MR. BOWLES and administration leaders envisage confusion, should the law be extended for only three to six months. That would mean, they say, that businessmen would hold back goods for expected higher prices, that consumers would begin to hoard, too, while prices still were low. This would be unfair to law-abiding distributors and consumers. Black markets would multiply, Higher prices with an end to price ceilings, would reduce the value of war bonds, * The inflation danger is greater right now than ever. The people have the biggest backlog of savings in history. If price controls were let off suddenly, this

tion. OPA- is gradually letting off price controls, as supply is built to demand, and intends to continue as conditions justify, but in an orderly way. The -inflation - pressure .now is far heavier than during and just after the last war. The worst of that inflation came after the war. Anybody “who lived through that era of high prices should not have to be warned, nor should he have to be reminded that it was followed by a collapse, the depression of 1920-21, with unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy. It looks like too high a stake for a steak.

IN WASHINGTON—

|gressor and intends to remain one. |

| As long as Stalin or any other great ipower has the right to veto action against an aggressor, there is no {hope for security or peace for small (nations. Suppose the organization was completed and functioning now. {France could go right on with her {shooting of Arabs and tie the hands {of the others by the veto power. And so could Stalin veto any in- | terference with his aggressive action |in Poland and the Balkans. So the {reason for veto power is plain to all {who are not politically blind. If the |big states like New York, Pennsyl|vania, Texas and California had the iright to veto the national Consti-

| : | tution, it would nullify and destroy

the Constitution. Sq will veto power (nullify the proposed security league. “Put not your trust in princes,” is wisdom from the Bible, and here is some more wisdom frdm Thomas (Jefferson: “In question of power, {then, let no more be heard of con|fidence in man but bind him down {with the chains of the Constitution.” |The Watchman says that you have to apply that same rule to the constitution of the world, or the world charter to make it effective. If I have written the truth, accept it. If I have made errors, cor= rect them. If my opinion is wrong, give us the facts. You can't drown the truth by sneers and smears. "

" ” “IGNORANCE

IS THE CAUSE.” By Mrs. Walter Haggerty, Indianapolis “The: boys in our squadron are studying a course in journalism and international law, the books being furnished by the Armed Forces institute. We carry a nocket dictionary around with us, and all of us have read a book on Soviet Russia and wondered why we. were not taught anything about Russia in school. In the past two years we have seen much of the world and seen and talked (or made signs) to many nationalities; believe me when

our trouble at home.” The above is an excerpt from a letter written by my son May 22, which shows pretty sound thinking by these “kids,” who haven't taken anyone's word, but have worked with the concrete. What xan Claie Booth Luce and the glamour boys tell these boys? We want to know, before you start another war,

DAILY THOUGHT And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see ‘that ye be not troubled: for all these things

‘| must come to pass, bw the end is

* not yet.—Matthew 24:6.

——

I tell you, ignorance is the cause or’

New Homes

By Ned Brooks:

WASHINGTON, June 7.—Mount{hg building costs have chilled some optimism of government housing officials for a record-breaking postwar “boom in home construction. Unless prices are “rapidly and substantially” Te= duced, says the national housing agency, home build« ing cannot assume its proper place in peacetime employment. NHA has estimated that 1,250,000 new homes * will be needed annually for the next decade. With nor= mal repairs and improvements, that program would provide more than 4,000,000 jobs at an annual invest ment of $7,000,000,000. 5 Achievement of this goal, however, was conditioned on reduced costs to builder or buyer. NHA predicts post-war prices may be higher in relation to the general price level than before the war. : Federal home loan bank system figures show city building costs are up 34.7 per cent from the 1935-39 base. Material prices have advanced 31.9 per cent, with lumber—up 714 per cent—leading the way, Labor costs have advanced 40.1 per cent. The agency reported these percentage increases over the base years: Washington 54.1, Cleveland 47.9, Indianapolis 46.5, Memphis 38.1, Cincinnati 34.6, Pitts burgh 34.2, Birmingham 29.7, Denver 27.9, Columbus 27.8, Albuquerque 37.3, Houston 26.4.

NHA Stresses Need for Low-Cost Homes NHA STUDIES have produced what the agency calls “striking evidence” of the need for low-cost houses. Fifty-one per cent of the demand over the next 10 years, NHA sald, will be for houses in the monthly rental classes below $40 or the equivalent sales classes below $4000. Only 12 per cent will be for homes costing $7500 or more. Building industry representatives, meeting here recently, agreed that their emphasis should be placed on low-cost dwellings.

gram, foreseen in the forthcoming Wagner-Ellender bill, has prompted the industry to give special atten tion to the low-cost market. The measure reportedly will expand the U. 8. housing authority program, whose slum clearance measures were interrupted by the war, make NHA ‘4 permanent agency and come bine other government housing activities under its supervision. Under relaxed restrictions of NHA and the war production board, NHA Administrator John B. Bland« ford Jr. predicts 250,000 new homes will Ba built within the next year. The figure may reach 400,000 if materials ¢-e available.

Charges Industry 'Has Not Kept Pace’ ON THE long haul, however, NHA is tempering its earlier optimism for a post-war boom. It charges that building costs have remained high because. the industry “has not kept pace with most other industries in development of efficient techniques or organise zation, production and distribgtion.” * *Because of its peculiar organization into many small and independent business enterprises, the build ing industry has been unable to undertake scientifie industrial research on a scale comparable with mod« ern mass production industries,” says the agency. “The research has, for the most part, been cone

with the house as a single product.” :

TO ‘be prepared for war is one of

too, have done well. So:have farmers, with a net ine :

The threat of an enlarged public housing pros *

cerned with relatively small elements rather than 9 vy te NHA's contention that

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