Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 August 1945 — Page 10
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ie Indianapolis Times PAGE 10 Friday, Aug. 3, 1945 ROY W, HOWARD
Editor
WALTER
No
2d 4 wh LECKRONE HENRY W. M 4 " Business Manager
(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
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«259» «+ RILEY 5351
Give Light and the People Wili Fina Thetr Own Way
THE POTSDAM PACT
THE Potsdam agreement outlined in the Big Three com-
» fe
munique represents an
advance. Compromises were
‘made, with Russia winning most. Several of the hardest questions were postponed. The main issue—Russia’s attitude toward the Jap war—could not be mentioned in the “communique for military reasons. But the net gain of the conference, as officially announced, seems to us important. This is particularly true of the agreement on Germany. The terms are severe for Naziism and militarism. The
“German people are held jointly responsible and must pay,
but they are not to be destroyed or enslaved: They aré to be allowed to earn an adequate standard of living no higher than that of the average of their neighbors. »They are to “receive civil liberties to the limit of military security. They are to be encouraged to grow into a democratic, peaceful nation. This is not a “soft” peace, but it is just and
wise.
Provisions for the permanent demilitarization and denazification of Germany seem complete, with one possible
exception. Though all active
Nazis and others hostile to
the allids are to be barred from positions of responsibility, there seems to be a loophole for Junkers and high army officers of the kind who made up Stalin's so-called Free
Germany committee.
» . . . DEMILITARIZATION includes not only
all the armed
forces, reserves, military clubs, S. S. and Gestapo, but
also the general staff institution.
On the production side
there is a ban on alarms, munitions, aircraft, ships, and control and restriction on metals, chemicals, machinery and
other military potentials.
Although the allied control
council will maintain strict supervision over all industrial, financial and econemic activity, the Germans will be held responsible for economic administration and any breakSe downs. Emi : .
There is to be “decentralization of the political struc-
ture and the development of local responsibility,” with
rights accorded democratic political parties.
But nothing
is said about dividing Germany into separate states.
Reparations are to leave
enough resources for the Ger-
mans to support themselves without external aid, with the
emphasis on agriculture and
domestic industries. Russian
and Polish reparation claims are to be taken from the Soviet
occupation zone, plus 10 per equipment from the western
cent of the industrial capital occupation zone, plus German
assets in liberated eastern European countries and eastern Austria. Western allies in general share the remainder.
Slave labor is not mentioned.
8 tr s ” " ” RUSSIA WON the territorial changes and political control of eastern Europe she has been after, though nominally these things must be confirmed by later peace conferences. Russia herself gets Koenigsberg and adjacent areas. Her Polish puppet gets Danzig and all of eastern Germany up to the Swinemunde-Oder-Neisse line, in compensation for east-
ern Poland taken by Russia. and may breed future wars,
These settlements are bad,
Also the way was opened for eventual American and | British recognition of Soviet satellite regimes in Austria and |
eastern European countries.
Free elections were re-pledged
in Poland, but reference to allied supervision was omitted.
Freedom of the allied press
in Poland and other eastern
‘European countries was again promised but no date given.
” n 8 s n » ‘THE MOST constructive part of the agreement created a | permanent council of foreign ministers in London. include the Big Five, who will be supplemented by rep-
will
It
resentatives of other countries as and when their direct interests are involved. It will handle the many questions ‘postponed by the Potsdam conference. Its first job will be to prepare an Italian peace treaty, and then treaties for the smaller enemy states, so they can
enter the new league as soon except Franco Spain, will be
Buccess or failure of the Potsdam decisions will depend |
in the long run on this new that bogs down—as have
as qualified. Neutral nations welcomed into the league,
’
foreign minister's council. . If similar councils in the past
‘through lack of Russian co-operation—the Potsdam pact will not operate itself any more than the Moscow and Yalta
‘pacts did. But the Big Three have made another start at | ha
Potsdam, and have set up machinery for continuing deci-
sion and action. That is hopeful.
TOMORROW’S JOBS
COMMERCE department survey reveals that 7000 American manufacturing firms plan to lay out $9,000,000,000 in the next year for new plants, equipment and
- increased inventories. of civilian goods—provided they can get the materials and manpower.
- Railroads and utilities Hotaling $1,500,000,000.
That's the stuff jobs are made of. Real jobs, “With a future. Jobs that build up the
of the country.
of course, are planning capital outlays
J ol )8 productive capacity
. The plans are based on what industrial management thinks can be done to provide goods and utility services
_ ‘that can be sold at a profit. appraisal of consumer demand, m
They. reflect management's anagement’s confidence
dn America’s peacetime future. Business is ready to go ahead. Only two things are
holding back these civilian
controllable, are the prior requirements, in materials and |
enterprises. First, and un.
‘manpower, for waging the war. Second, are the govern-
Jment’s wartime restrictions..
are not needed for the war,
lifting restrictions on materials
Decisive action in Washington, and labor as rapidly as they will do more than anything
to speed up the job-making, wealth-creating programs
individual businesses which are so eager to get going. ‘8 the responsibility President Truman has turned
John W.
Snyder, head of the Office of War Mobilizasion, How well he fulfills his responsi-
on how. suecessful he is in forcing the WPB and WMC, the OES and OPA,
» work together toward the. our eountry for peace. It will | Lon
OUR TOWN— Pastor's Pay By Anton Scherrer
Indianapolis had a skeleton. in its closet as early as 1859. It turned up in the shape of a novel, the compound-title of which was “From Dawn to Daylight; or The Simple Story of a Western Home.” The author was “A Minister's Wife”; the publishers; Derby & Jacksonl of New York. The story was a dreary affair written around the life and experiences of one George Herbert, a preacher who had come to the midland town of Norton to take charge of a church. Sprinkled through the
-
part his parishioners, all of whom Were etched with the acid bite of a disappointed woman, The: general tone of the book was one of complaint, and the big~ gest kick seemed to be the Rev. Mr. Herbert's meager salary of $600 a year which wouldn't have been so bad had he received it, The climax, such as it was, came when the preacher and his family had to leave | Norton because of the shabby treatment of its citizens. The book rocked the foundations of Indianapolis. The rocking started with the. simultaneous discov~ ery of half-a-dozen people around here that the fctitious fown of Norton wds in fact Indianapolis; what's more, that all the characters in the novel were real live Indianapolis people. - The Rev. Mr. Herbert, for instance, turned out to be Henry Ward Beecher. . As for the other characters, all were personages connected with the Second Presbyterian church during the seven years of Mr, Beecher's pastorate (1839-47).
Could She Mean Us?
Right away, Indianapolis suspected that “A Minister’'s Wite” was the pseudonym of Eunice White Bullard Beecher, who in private life was Mrs, Henry Ward Beecher, It proved to be the truth. She wrote the book 12 years after the Beechers left Indianapolis. In the course of the next 32 years, the skeleton left its closet on three different occasions.’ And on all three occasions it rattled its bones in public. The first such rattling occurred in 1872 when Indianapolis started a public library. Charles Evans, a trained librarian, was brought from out of town to get it started. Apparently, Mr, Evans was unaware of the skeleton in our closet for one of the first things he did was to put a copy of Mrs. Beecher’s book on the shelves of the newly established library. Immediately two very prominentgcitizens (like as not characters in the book) appeared before the school board and protested in no uncertain terms. They labeled Mrs. Beecher’s novel “an. outrage, insult and libel,” with the result that the school commis~ sioners passed a resolution that the book should never be placed on the shelves of the Indianapolis library. Twelve. years later in 1884, the school board appointed Albert Yohn to succeed Mr. Evans. Legend has it that ofie day Mr. Yohn (in the pursuit of ‘duty) attended an auction, in the course of which three copies of Mrs. Beecher’'s book were put up for sale. Apparently unaware of what had happened to his predecessor, Mr. Yohn bought all three copies and triumphantly placed them on the shelves of the Indianapolis library, And again the skeleton rattled its bones in public. ’ : This time indignation knew no bounds. Indeed, it moved a group of irate citizens to enter the library in broad daylight and carry off all three books. When summoned to appear before the school board, the guilty men vindicated their behavior by. citing the original order of the board. It was the only time in the history of Indianapolis that anybody got the best of the school commissioners. > In 1891, which was 32 years after the publication of “From Dawn to Daylight,” Mrs. Beecher burst
book were a dozen or more characters, for the most |
-
Your
Coal for the Winter
a a
“l wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
(Times readers are invited i siden, our commander-in- . » . C wi these columns, religious cone [at Berlin)? Do not the English troversies excluded. Because seh ioe oo king? Does not or of the volume received, let. chief? Would not ia ters should be limited to 250 |fght for their Pope? And were words, Letters must be [they always right? Why cannot signed. Opinions set forth this great love of the Japanese for here are those of the writers, and publication in no way
“Hoosier Forum
DESTROY DEMOCRACY”
y J. George Fredman, Past National Commander, Jewish War Veterans and) Editor “The Jewish Veteran” Magazine.
Your papers are to be congratulated on the excellent and timely series of articles last week exposing the so-called “Nationalist movement” in this country. The Jewish War Veterans of the
U. 8. has been aware of the subversive efforts of the groups antl in-
into print again—this time by way of an article in the Ladies Home Journal, in the course of which | she again referred to Mr. Beecher’s measly salary | while. in Indianapolis. (Mrs, Beecher lived to be 85 years old, which accounts for her long grudge.)
Henry Ward Beecher's Pay-Check
Mrs. Beecher's second reference to her husband's slim salary brought the skeleton straight to the door of the Second Presbyterian church, This time the church people were determined to learn the truth. |
PForthwith they dug up old records, discovered that |
Mr. Beecher had received a salary not of $600, as |
Mrs; Beecher had claimed, but of $1000, which was only $300 less than the governor of Indiana was get ting at the time. And out of the governor's salary had to come the price of a private secretary. Moreover, it- was discovered that oats were selling at 6 cents a bushel at the time; that chickens could be had for a bit (12%. cents) apiece; and eggs for 3 cents a dozen. (The item of oats was important. for-the reason that Mr. Beecher had a team of mighty fast horses all the time he lived in Indianapolis). All these comparative facts were incorporated in | a letter which the church people sent to Mrs. Beech- | er on Dec. 11, 1891, With the letter went a request | that Mrs. Beecher should mend her ways and give the | Second Presbyterian church a break. There is no | record that Mrs. Beecher ever answered the letter | or even acknowledged it. All of which still leaves | us husbands wondering whether Mr, Beecher had a habit of holding out on his wife or not: | | And what about the present situation? Well, the | | Second Presbyterian people no longer bear a grudge | against the Beechers, Indeed, they point with pride | that theirs is “The Historic Church of Which Henry | Ward Beecher. was Minister” (for confirmation see any Saturday issue of The Indianapolis Times), { As for the library people, believe it or not, they ve restored Mrs. Beecher's book. It's catalogued | “R 813, Vault,”
» WORLD AFFAIRS—
Jap Offer
J By Wm. Philip Simms
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3. -— In| United Nations circles here, talk | increases of Japan's desperate plight and of what, to many, is the inevitability of her early crack-up. Whether or not her “unconditional surrender” will come simultaneously with her collapse as an inte~ grated war machine is another matter. Much depends | upon (1) allied diplomacy, (2) political developments | Inside Japan and (3) the attiude of the Soviet union. { Edward Weintal, in Newsweek, says Tokyo offered | to send a “liberal” leader to Moscow for discussions’ | and, if necessary, have him proceed to Potsdam to present Japan's case before the British and Americans there. | The Russians. replied, Mr. Weintal writes, that | they- were “not interested in talk.” If.a Japanese | peace proposal were made in writing, over the signature of the emperor, they would give it consideration. DIPLOMATS OF late have shown increasing in- | teerest in the wheredbouts and present status of the former premier of Japan, Prince Fumimaro Konoye. They say there is little doubt that he is the Japanese “liberal” in question. His re-emergence in & public capacity after pro-Axis Gen, Tojo eclipsed him just before Pearl Harbor might well herald the beginning of the end. Konoye is not just another Jap. Like Emperor Hirohito, in Japanese orthodoxy, he is of divine descent. He belongs to one of the “five familie” from which traditionally empresses are chosen. What is important “is Konoye's prestige. reported, Tokyo offered to send him to Potsdam, via Moscow, Japan knows the jig is up. ; As for denials of Jap peace feelers, diplomats Ask: “What do you expect?” . When Washington and that peace talks are under ts and es,
| attention of millions of Americans,
If, as
will be ¥
their Emperor be used for good? Loyalty 4s of the heart, a love more or less. When people die in loyalty, imple reement. with it merits something more than de- ) pa sag any: wi hose struction. Loyalty shows they can opinions by The Times. The |be made to believe and follow and Times assumes no responsibility tor the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)
dividuals named in" your articles!’ and have been doing our utmost to combat their inroads. Your expose . has brought their activities to the that is our aim in taking over. We should pity them. They are human just as we. They should live, If they have followed unwisely they have at least obeyed. Surely God does not want these American unity can result only “JAPAN ASKED FOR PEACE, people destroyed. Hasten the peace. from mutual understanding and WHY MUST WE FIGHT ON?” Let my boys come home. Let’s build trust among all of our people of all By David E. Kennedy, 1223 Brookside ave. 8 love for one another in Japan), religions and races. The National-| Maybe I'm old-fashioned. I'm | Whose loyalty and love is proven in ists are enemies of democracy and ,iq4 enough to be but I have these U'6ir Willingness to die. No greater seek to destroy this trust. . {love hath man than love of country. Your last article has done a great 1% years of experience” in my| ® » = service to veterans of World War II. favor, anyway. Why must we fight |.; po. 1c HAVE FACTS It should have alerted them to be- on? It is a fact that Japan has NOT ANATHEMA” : ware the veteran organization they!gsked for peace. Why be so harsh?
sn ‘ By “Teddy.” Hope Join—it should have opened their . : : s eves 10 the fact that some are] I have two boys in the Pacific. I| To the readers and writers of
rackets, others phony and still/"ant them home, as do other the Forum I wish to say emothers deliberately subversive, parents wish it so. Answer this. phatically that this wanting to ® = =» Were you one of the guilty, as the know who's who and why they are
“IT'S HATS OFF TO warlords of Japan are, could you GOVERNOR GATES”
find a essen for giving up? {is entirely off the beam. Naturally By L. W. Heagy, Indianapolis
and will be of inestimable aid in counteracting them. Groups. such as these cannot stand exposure to light. ;
Condemned as they are, do they an would like to know the backWhen. the county director of pub- know that to give up is to die? ground of some of the Forum lic welfare of Lawrence county, me 2 8 Shnseqence ey ahi on. writers as well as that of the editor diana, issued an edict, 30 days ago, pe pitied. More to be pitied be. {Oot imes~for the purpose of arto the effect that “Any applicant or cause he, like our own American "VINE at some conclusion as to why recipient who is the owner of real soldiers, must obey orders. |they are what they are, but that estate or personal property which | Now to the point: These warlords|'S Just curiosity partly. The main has a net valuation of six hundred |should die. They are a band of |thing as I see it is to express our dollars or more would be ineligible! criminals. They expect to die, put | Point clearly and impersonally so to receive assistance,” he failed to to take every right from these Jap-| 3S to convince others. : anticipate the defiance that arose|anese people because of these few| I cannot say that I agree with in the oldsters’ ranks. warmongers is terribly unfair. As| The Watchman on anything ‘in Quickly after the news arrived |to the Emperor, from infancy, these Particular, but I will take my hat in Indianapolis, the facts were people were taught to love, to honor Off 1 him for this one thing, that given to Governor Ralph Gates. |and to die for him and they wili|n® has done more to arouse the Three days later Governor Gates, and do. Why cannot something Public to action in defense of fair in no uncertain words, annulled come out of this great adoration, Play for Russia than any of the this Lawrence county “law.” From the oldsters, “It's hats off |for good? (880 as a member of the Republican to Governor Gates!” | Right or wrong, do we not obey |Party to find out what the Re-
publican party stood for, and 30 Side Glances=By Galbraith
years ago as a member of the Democratic party to find what the Democratic party stood for, snd to this day I haven't found out. I never saw aA Communist or heard one speak, but they must be very dangerous judging by the way some froth at the mouth whenever the word .is mentioned. Now 1 wonder if I will ever find what éommunism is. “Réally, I cannot see that we have even “fear to fear” in the case -of Communists; let us look the field over for just a bit. | We have something . like 600 members of the senate and house, all highly intelligent, mostly lawyers, every state has its state legislators, thousands and thousands of judges and lawyers, college professors and school teachers “galore” and 1 should mention the President, cabinet officers, ambassadors, governors and more, but is not that enough, If Communism is dangerous certainly we have enough intelligent, cultured people in this good old United States of America to show the evils ot it, but let us have facts not ahathemas, propaganda or Secret treaties, Come now, Mr. Watchman, how about cleaning up our own back- “| yard.
DAILY THOUGHT
ith ol the
+
{this loyalty, may I say? Something Forum writers. I started 40 years|-
To The Point—
ne he itr
RECONVERSION—
[Buyer's Day
By James Thrasher . THIS is a miessage of Dutch
| uncle advice to the many voung
women . who have become house wives and food shoppers since. the war began. It is prompted by the ut : statement of OPA Director Chester Bowles that Ration Book 5, due in December, may be the last in the series. ; ; Points may still be a part of ;your life for a year or 80. But sometime you are going to have to re convert your marketing techinique to peacetime
= | requirements. And right now isn’t too soon to give
you a few of the facts of prewar life, if your mothers haven't already. . Back before the war, money was a basic consid- | eration of shopping. ' Nobody had ever heard of the theory that if the butcher has the beef and you have the points, then the price doesn’t matter. If it had been, it would have beeri labeled &nobbish extravagance. ¢ : : .
Back to Bargains QUALITY WAS also important. And the game of finding high quality at low cost (which was called “getting a bargain”) was quite as exciting as knowing who has plenty of cigarets and soap powder toddy. Most prewar shoppers didn't know the difference between a No. 2 can and a barrel, But a lot of them knew the difference between two heads of lettuce, and could tell a good piece of meat by looking at it, You'll be able to do it, too, with practice. The prime factors of price and quality will probe ably assume their old importance. And you young ladies, if you're to hold your heads up in the come munity, will have to overcome the habit of buying the first thing the butcher shows you, happily paying for the thumb that he weighs in with your purchase, and hurrying home to pop the precious bundle in the icebox lest it all turn out to be a dream, You'll also have to avoid the temptation of Quying every thing in sight for fear it won't be there tomorrow,
He'll Smile—and Mean It ; THERE WILL be certain strange new approaches in shopping. For instance, the grocer may smile at you and give you his solicitious attention. Don's think He's being flirtatious. His behavior will signal:
1 the return of something called competition, under
which merchants actually vie with one another for your trade. : You may hear some older shoppers say such things as, “That last steak you gave me wasn't very tender. Now give me something really nice today." Don't worry, the man behind the counter won't harm her. He won't even talk back. He may even say he's sorry. That's the way things used to be. A lot of other things may seem strange at first, too. But don't let your new-found freedom go to your head. Be a lady and keep your equilibrium, And once you get the hang of peacetime shopping, we think you'll like it. At least we always did,
IN WASHINGTON. Clothes Cost By Peter Edson
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3.—A report that OPA has finally been forced to give up on its plan to roll back the cost of clothing by 6 or 7 per cent seems to be & bit premature. The price administration boys are i , and they still hope. i a President Truman has trouble buying white shirts, why all men have trouble buy= ing shorts and all women have trouble buying ine expensive garments, are a bit complicated. The whole story presents an interesting case history of .what one basic American industry is up against in these uncertain times between VE and V+J days "The big problem is in cotton’ textiles, wool and rayon playing relatively minor parts. Production of cotton textiles has Hiropped 18 per cent since the record high of 1943 and the main reason is that the number of people working in the mills has dropped about 18 per cent. Textile workers have simply gone off to other war jobs where pay is higher and working and living conditions are better.
The textile industry is one of the lowest paid in the country. Threefourths of the mills are in the South. About 15 per cent are union organized. Last February. the war labor board handed down an award affecting 55 of the union mills, 23 of which - were in the South. WLB raised the minimum wage from 50 to 55 cents an hour, with an extra nickel an hour on the third shift, and vacations with pay. Many of the other mills have now raised pay to this standard, but it still isn’t enough to attract as many workers as are needed. ‘ In May, the war production board launched & campaign to recruit more mill workers. It is just getting started. It has checked the usual 10 per cent summer employment slump. By next fall it hopes to have al the 18 per cent back at work. The mill operators say the trouble is that OPA price ceilings on textiles are too low to encourage management to pay higher wages and produce the necessary yardage.
Textile Mills Earn Huge Profits : OPA counters this with that assertion that’ cotton textile mill profits are seven times pre-war earnings and the mills are plenty prosperous without having to raise price ceilings. Further, under the Bankhead amendment to the price control act, OPA must raise the price on textiles as the price df raw cotton goes up. OPA will soon announce a revision of the cotton textile price structure to meet the rising parity price of cotton. 3 . But even with wage and price angles solved, there is still the problem of getting production of the right quantities of the right kind of cloth. The mills naturally want to weave the higher-priced fabrics on which they make the most money. 1, To take care of these twin problem children, Judge Fred M. Vinson, as director of economic stabilization, last’ January launched ga double-barreled attack. ao First the war production board was directed to put in a priority system to control the output of the textile mills. It hasn't worked to perfection because the mills were supposed to put ratings on their own “output and there séenis to have been & little inflation of ratings, to put it politely..
Low-Priced Apparel Next Problem OPA'S problem then was to see that the textiles were made into low-priced apparel. To do this it put out its highly controversial maximum average price, or MAP order, which requires clothing manu ‘facturers to produce apparel lines that will average out in price with their 1943 output. | MAP brought an outcry from the apparel industry, | The whole thing was called impractical and unworkable. ; ) a : OPA and WPB between them are now working out modifications of their orders to take the bugs out. of the system. They have already announced changes affecting the manufacture of wool and rayon textiles. In the near future they will announce revisions affecting the production of cotton textiles and cotton clothing. They have two lines to follow—relaxing the MAP controls or strengthening the WPB priority
But they aren't giving up on trying to make the
sticking by
age person will be behind in his payments on a new car. Parimir otes d
al
IT PROBABLY will be at least a couple of
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think they could fig :
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