Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 August 1945 — Page 12

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PAGE 12 Friday, Aug. 17, 1945 ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) E Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 20 cents a week. : Mall rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states,

U. 8. possessions, Canada

Ser 8 Neva and Mexico, 87 cents a jos, and Audit Bureau of month,

Circulations. «iP» © ‘RILEY 5551 Give Light ond the People Will Find Their Own Way

AMERICA LOOKING UP

WASHINGTON’S planners emphasize the reconvergion troubles ahead. They say in effect: It's sure going to be tough folks, and it will take us a long time to plan our way out. Fortunately, that’s not the attitude of the people across the country who are doing the reconverting. They say the opportunities are greater than the difficulties. They are confident, not doleful, about the prospects for peacetime ity. We lit to two news articles as an antidote for the worry-wart talk coming out of Washington. One article yesterday rounded up reports from typical American cities. On the whole, it painted an optimistic picture of much less unemployment and much shorter time for reconversion than the Washington planners are planning. The other, an interview with Charles E. Wilson, appears on Page 14 today. Mr. Wilson knows what he’s talking about. He used to be a top man in the War Production Board, so even the Washington boys know that he knows. In this article, she told specifically what his own concern, the General Electric Co., is doing to make peacetime jobs. General Electric's plants have been devoted 99 per

cent to war production. Its reconversion problems should But Mr: Wilson is not

be as difficult as any company’s. singing the blues.

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HE says that General Electric is already off to a running start: That within a relative short time it will be providing work for more persons than it ever before had on its payroll in peacetime; that within nine months—the time the Washington guessers are guessing will bring the peak of unemployment—General Electric will have as many employees as it had the day the Japs surrendered. Washington economists and statisticians can give fancy reasons and charts and graphs and figures to prove how difficult a job is to do. But, luckily, then men who are going to put the country back on a peace footing aren't wasting much time reading Washington's master plan. Each has a plan of his own—to produce something or provide some service that can be sold at a profit. It's as simple as that. And the American market will be a seller’s market for a long time to come. It’s these millions of unco-ordinated individual enterprises, producing things and providing services for sale at a profit, that makes jobs and more markets. And woe to the priorities, regulations and master plans that get in the way. ,

- Oleanders By Anton Scherrer

Marriage being the. fitful institution that it is, I guess that Father and Mother got along as well as could be expected. At any rate, the only time I remember anything approaching a rift was when Father raised hell about Mother's collection of oleanders. 4 An oleander, in case you youngsters have to be told, is an evergreen shrub (Nerium) of the poisonous dogbane family (Apocynacece) which nothing -on earth can stop growing. To be sure Mother's stopped when they reached ‘the ceiling, but I'm certain they would have kept right on growing had not an’ impediment been put in their way. The leaves, I remember, were narrow’ and leathery and glistened like anything, especially on Fridays after Mother got done washing them with soapsuds and warm water, a task that kept her occupied the greater part of the day.

Father Gets Enough

SIXTY YEARS ago when I was a little boy, a married woman's social standing was rated according to the number of oleanders she had. Only those in tubs were counted. Mother was right on top of the social ladder, I suspect, because I never heard of another woman—not on the South side, at any rate— who nursed as many as she did. Indeed, at one time our family had so many oleanders that the pantry, a good-sized room with two big windows in it, had to be cleared to accommodate them. That's when Father lost his patience. Now that I think back, I don’t believe that Fatner really hated oleanders as much as he pretended. The thing that irritated him was Mother's uncanny ability to take a cutting, stick it in sand and water, and in no time at all have another oleander, Father used to say that nothing made him so mad as to have too much of a good thing. He hated churches with two steeples for that reason and he never wanted an encore in the way of music. Indeed, he

ways declined a second helping at the table, All of which gives me reasoll to believe that Father wouldn't have lost his patience had Mother limited her collection to one example,

The Plot Against the Oleanders

WHAT HAPPENED next is proof of it. Without telling a sbul about it—not even us kids—Father made up his mind to break up Mother's collection “of oleanders and reduce it, if possible, to one specimen. It was a perfectly fiendish thing to do, and I still remember how he went about it. ! : He made it his business to be around when Mrs.

our week's washing in her little red express wagon. Mother paid her and just as she was about to go, Father, in the most offhand way, asked her if she wouldn't like to take an oleander back with her. Mrs. Grogan was struck dumb which gaye Father an opportunity to make quite a speech, in the course of which he made the point that it was better for the world to have twe churches with a steeple apiece than to have one church with two steeples. Mrs. Grogan wept with joy when Father loaded her little express wagon. with Mother's biggest oleander. Next week Father did the same thing and the\ week after that, too, with the result that in the course of a year Mother's collection ‘was reduced to practically nothing. Up until then, Mother had treated the whole affair with a kind of fortitude as if a wife had to expect such things of marriage. But one day she broke down. That was the day she realized that Mrs. Grogan was now the most highly-rated woman in the neighborhood.

The Family Fortune Recouped

WELL, JUST about the time we were down to one oleander with no social standing to speak of, Mother was invited to a Kaffeeklatsch which, in case you youngsters have to be told, was a coffee party, the ulterior purpose of which was to exchange items of interest too hot for newspapers to. handle. ‘Every

A BLAMELESS HITLER

LOIS HITLER," Adolf’s half brother and former pro-| £ * prietor of a Berlin beer tavern, has been found blameless of any war guilt by the British army. ° While Adolf was out shooting off his face, Alois just minded his own business and kept on shoving schooners across his Berlin bar. - We don’t hear so much talk any more about the “demon rum,” which was a generic term for all beverages containing more than one-fourth of 1 per cent of alcohol. It may be admitted freely that rum is a demon under certain conditions. It is possible that some otherwise respectable German citizen, influenced by half a keg of Alois’ suds, may have gone out and bashed in a plate glass window; he may even have spoken rudely to his wife. But there are worse demons. The demon in Adolf’s voice, for instance, compared to the demon in Alois’ beer as the new atomic bomb compares to the outlawed’ Fourth of July firecracker.

HERE ARE two members of the same family. Brother Alois, by conventional standards, never amounted to much. Brother Adolf amounted to plenty. Maybe some of our scientists can explain this slight family difference in terms of heredity and environment. The world is packed with Alois Hitlers, who take life as she comes and never do anyone much harm, nor much

» » a a

invited woman was expected to do her part or suffer

| the penalty of non-participation at the next Kaffee-

klatsch. Except for this fear, I don't believe mother would have squealed on Father. Mother's tragic story -of Father's outrageous be- | havior must have §tirred the sympathy of every woman present, for two weeks later, when it came time to celebrate Mother's birthday, at least 25 women presented her with oleanders. Even Mrs. Grogan

| hauled one to the house in her little red express

wagon,

- FOREIGN AFFAIRS—

Boundaries By Wm. Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.—Gen Charles De Gaulle's visit to this country, beginning next Wednesday, is of major importance not only to France, but to the United States, to Europe and the world. Now that world war II is over, diplomacy’s biggest job is to prevent world, war III. France is one of the Big Five. She is a permanent member of the allImportant security council and, as such; possesses veto power. But unless she is soon restored to the ranks of the -great democracies—politically, economically and otherwise—Europe’s equilibrium will be menaced. Europe is already largely dominated by Russian communism and British socialism, Thus far, however, France's position in post-war Europe seems to have been accorded only the most

good either, for that matter. And then there are a few Adolf Hitlers who are ambitious and want to get ahead. Sometimes they invent steam engines or gadgets to flip over a dozen boogie woogie records so you don't have to get up to do it yourself. And sometimes they start wars | which burn up half a world before they can be stopped. We don't mean to infer that we have reversed our policy in favor of ambition, enterprise and serious endeavor | but would like merely to point out there are limits. If the world were given a chance to vote on the ques- | tion as to who had been the more desirable citizen, Adolf, | the non-drinker, or Alois, the bartender, we think that | Alois might get practically all the votes, including those | df the W. C. T. U.

HE’S THE MAN FOR US INCE the start of the war, the man who has n telling = the newspapers, magazines, radio and other distributors | of news and information was Byron Price. Mr. Price, as director of the office of censorship, guided us on the use of news which might endanger the military security of our nation. | * It was not an easy job Mr. Price took on for himself soon after Pearl Harbor. There was a lot at stake. The security of the country and its fighting forces, first of all. And Mr, Price's own security—and his faith in the publications, industries and the radio. For it was he who sold President Roosevelt on the idea that a voluntary censorship of newspapers and radio would work—as against a military censorship. © It did work. It worked not only because the newspapers, magazines and radio co-operated to the limit. It worked because these institutions of information had confidence in Mr. Price. Now ‘he "is ‘about to do another to liquidate. FT STE So we, who have tried to “obey” Mr. Price for three years and nine months, are happy to say, “It was a pleasure, Byron. ‘And the best of luck.” a

Vieng

job. He is preparing

| not officially final.

{others of the Big Fiv

cursory consideration. It is understandable that she was not present at some of the earlier conferences. And there may be roon. for debate as to whether she should have been invited to Yalta and. Potsdam. But that it is to America’s interest, from here on put, to demand for her parity with the rest of the Big Five, few informed.-observers have the lightest aoubt,

carried his system of philosophy sogfar that he al- |

Grogan, a delightful and chatty old lady, delivered |

“UNIFORM EQUAL METHODS FOR ALL DIVORCE CASES”

{By L. R. Ward, Indianapolis Of late I have read articles by

our juvenile court judge on-so many divorces and that he favors keeping from G. I. Joe any information of wife's infidelity while away. He himself by doing and writing such causes child delinquency. Judge Pritchard's slap at a wounded Joe,

less leg and arm caused by hitch Nike trip to Kentucky to see his child; Judge Pike on his $21 week support of Joe for children who has six months to live—can't these judges call meetings and get together on uniform equal justice. Say on fifty-fifty basis. No wonder U. S. supreme court judges asked congress to change the Constitution by admendment for preference showed it to be unconstitutional on equal rights. It is not! possible for these “judges to change | over now to uniform equal methods | on all cases of divorce, child support! —custody and maybe retroactive) orders covering their past errors or | resign their offices as unfit, unfair | men for ‘justice to all on equal! basis or being prejudice. i Where a man or wife can prove infidelity just once, decrying a mar- | ried life with another except by relation, as they will perjure, them- |

‘Hoosier Forum

“l wholly de¢sagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

“MAN WOULDN'T DARE APPEAR IN SHORTS”

By Mrs. Joe Schwert,” Indianapolis I would now like to correct Mrs. A. A in her correction of my answer to her article of our cab drivers, 1 did not say anything about young “men” going downtown in shorts. A man wouldn't dare go downtown clad only in a pair of shorts for fear he would be arrested, and no doubt he would be. Go downtown some evening in the vicinity of Illinois, Market and Ohio sts, Mrs. A. A, and you will see women and young girls standing around in their shorts, inviting the attention of any mah who looks their way. These women are $0

2.3

(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 x The Times. The Times assumes no responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

for every battalion, along with the lieutenant colonel, colonel, etc., with : a brigadier general in command. Of [scantily dressed that they might course the larger the army the more [85 Well be nude. Any woman that need for officers. So the army brass |g0es out upon the streets with those hats will back the conscription bill [little short revealing pants on can’t 100 per cent as it means promotions |Pe Very decent. She hasn't any reand opportunities to them. Many |Spect for-herself and she cannot other groups may back the conscrip- [€XPéct any respect from the men. tion bill either for selfish or pa- Men know what these women are triotic reasons. : and what they are after. I say It is my contention that compul-|28ain, if our police force was so sory military training not only is darn good those women would not

unnecessary but also unwise. The Pe allowed upon the streets, on

army may instill a type of discipline busses and streetcars in shorts. but the only discipline worthwhile They certainly do not look decent. is self-discipline. J that the army falls down in teach-|ly. Respectable ladies do not go | ing self discipline to the individual. [in taverns alone, either. |

You didn't say you disliked our

It seems to me A decent woman will dress decent-|

{come out in the open by print, stating

selves to win their side of a vic- | The brags hats may argue that it is tory, take child away from either |€CeSsary to teach all our youth to] if both place in a Tome istand at attention, do squads left 2 . 3 . i : i co 4 . land right, present arms, right hand 1 contend if these judges would) catute, plus a score of trivial milithey held meetings and in | BATY manners and procedure, It is divorce cases, child custody child | beyond ne how such gorngs-on help} time with parents support , doctor | & Hider in w8ue. Se ‘bills, schooling, clothing, etc., each | in world war 1 p 5 2 . ! : . Dare big By be Wegisd on / al they would learn more in their as fifty-fifty TD “77 first battle than what they had Within one month after vHint in learned in all their previous miliall papers front page 1 th gr| Ty training, 1 believe that state there willbe enough broken homes

ent. ill it. do to teach where children are involved but What good: will 1% do

; {our youth the fundamentals of Wiel ould be counted on one hand. | warfare at the present for a war Ww ge oa lo prove 1 am { which may be fought 25 years later. Yorig Or ale they dishonest and Most of the weapons and techniques

unfair, want to be bull-headed and : ; | t ; itmoded by considered prejudiced. The bar as-,| Oo ne presen wili- be ou 3

iati v eke 3 { sociation of attorneys should back 1f we are to keep America safe

this effort as an example, I would suggest that we do a betxy . 2 = ter job of teaching democracy. “MANY GROUPS BACK That we keep the nation's health CONSCRIPTION SELFISHLY” at a high level. That we set up| By Henry Reger, Indianapolis isome form of physical fitness pro-| There will be many after the war |8ram throughout the entire school who will advocate compulsory mili-|life of our youngsters. That we tary training. The strongest agita- {train an adequate supply of officers tion for a year’s militafy training|at Annapolis and at West Point. for all American youth will come|That we carry on extensive military from the army brass hats. As there |research for new weapons of war. should be one second lieutenant,| This program to my mind would be one first lieutenant, one captain for {much more effective besides being every company of 100 men, a major|a great deal cheaper.

France's Future Vague

AT POTSDAM, Russia’s interests were pretty well taken care of. Germany's eastern frontiers were redrawn in conformity with plans for herself and Poland. German reparations for Russia and Poland were likewise‘kharted, but the claims of the United States, Britain “and other countries entitled to reparations,” were left for the future. Also Germany's western frontiers France's future as an European power, therefore, 1s now extremely vague. None of the Big Three (Russia, Britain and the U, 8.) is really European, yet they have disposed of eastern and southeastern Europe and Germany while France, Europe's foremost power has been left waiting outside. True, some of the. settlements thus far made are At Potsdam the Big Three established a council of foreign ministers and. France, like will be a member. ‘This council will do the spad® work for the coming peace settlements. But in each case the council will be composed only of those members representing states which were signatory to the terms of surrender imposed upon the particular enemy state concerned. So, while “for the purposes of the peace settlements,”

| other vital European ‘questions arise,

Border Question Vital

FRANCE was not consulted at any stage of the new partition of Poland or the annexation of Danzig, East Prussia and eastern Germany. Yet as she shares frontiers with Germany on the west, she would be ohe of the first to suffer should Germany, in the future, start a war of revenge. She always has in the past. : | Another strange decision at Potsdam was the | principle that while German territory was expendable in the direction of Russia, in the direction of France | it was not. The Big Three seemed to think that else- | where Germany should remain intact, i Gen. De Gaulle, in his White House conversa tions here, is almost certain to raise these and similar A4uestions. :

Sit Wo .-

France will be regarded as a signatory of the Italian surrender, she will not necessarily be present when

Side Glances=By Galbraith

|comfort and freedom but some peo-

{truly appreciate what

COP. 1944 BY NEK SERVICE. ING. T. M REG. U. 8. PAT, OFF,

soldiers. You said they are rude and insulting. What's the difference? You still think the soldier that spoke to you in a restaurant was insulting you. Okay, maybe he was. Were you wearing a pair of shorts? You speak to your milkman, breadman and laundryman, don’t you? They are strange men, aren't they? You say, oh, but they are doing me a service. The soldier who spoke to you, lady. has done you a far greater service but you can’t seem to understand that. So you buy war bonds and have been to the blood bank. Good for you, Mrs. A. A. I can’t understand anyone's refusing to speak to a soldier. They are willing to give their life for our

ple are too silly and narrow minded to appreciate them enough to say “hello.” So, I say hats off to our soldiers! Let's be polite and courteous to them. Show them we really and they have done for us, . » » ~

“THIS IS WHERE PEOPLE CAN ENTER VERBAL COMBAT”

By An American, Indianapolis Some of you people who are wroth with The Watchman seem to be wanting to strike below the belt. Why should you know his name and address? ‘This column is a place where people, if they so desire, can enter into verbal combat, like knights of old, with a mask over the faces. If some of you are so anxious to displace The Watchman, then learn to wield the sword of argument-in a more telling manner. Resorting to namecalling only exposes the mental weakness of those who do so. The editor is right in holding to the rules of $he game. I'm not wild about The Watchman but I don’t want anyone to force me to kiss Joe Stalin. If anyone wants to kiss Joe, let him go do so. If their return boat doesn't sail, we'll get along somehow. As for me, if I want a headache, I read an article by Mrs. Haggerty. If T want to get my balance, I read Voice in the Crowd. os » ” “ATOMIC POWER TOO MUCH FOR HUMANS TO HAVE” . By Pte. Victor W. McGinnus, Camp Atterry

There .are those who are joyful over the atomic.bomb, Perhaps I am a pessimist and it will be thought that I drink vinegar before breakfast—but, really, I believe that this power is too much for any human or group of humans to have.

w—— DAILY THOU GHT— But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.—Titus 3:9. * .

THIS CHANGING WORLD

Change

| By Thomas L. Stokes

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.—Such a thought-provoker as an atomic bomb also sends the mind back along the trial of memory. It prods the mind to try to look, speculatively, into the future, as into a mirror darkly, Clinton, Tenn. In that vicinity one of the big bomb experimental plants is located. It recalls an experience there nearly 10 years ago. What I saw then was an augury of changes that have come over the South since. Looking back upon it, and pondering the changes forecast from the atomic discovery, in our way of live ing, our society and possibly our forms of government, it seems to me that maybe inert is some relation somewhere between what I saw ft Clinton and what is goimg on down there now. , Through a chill, December rain one Sunday & union organizer friend and I drove from Knoxville to Clinton. We were looking for a meeting of a new union. It was being held in Volunteer hall, we had been told. Several inquiries in Clinton brought no clue. Finally, a young man who had overheard our questions sidled up quietly and said In a low voice that if we were looking for the union meeting to follow his car,

Meet in Secrecy

IT WAS the hush-hush then necessary for labor unions in small towns. My friend knew all about it, He had to go into small southern mill towns by the back way. He'd been chased out of one by gunfire which riddled his car and sent him to the hospital with injuries. : We followed our guide who turned off the main road about a mile from Clinton and led us down a slippery mud road through the woods. Suddenly, in the middle of the woods, we came upon a barne like structure. It was the meeting place. It was a chicken-fighting club. The union had sought permission in vain to use the schoolhouse or courthouse in Clinton. The cock fighting fraternity was more hospitable. They had to hide out, too. There was a peep-hole in the door, but no one was on guard there today. We entered to behold & strange scene. We stepped right into the arena, Perched on tiers of seats, like so many chickens roost ing, were about 80 people from a nearby mill. Some were hunched over, arms on knees, for the seats had no backs. Their attention was concentrated on a four-square figure, standing in the middle of the

‘| arena, talking. He had a decided Scottish twang.

“He was Dr, T. B, (Scotty) Cowan, a Presbyterian . minister from Chattanooga, who had driven the 120 miles from that city for this meeting. He’ was here for a purpose. Three ministers in Clinton had been preaching against unions, saying that it was wrong to belong to them, and one had gone even further and was calling upon people at their homes,

Just 10 Years Ago AS “SCOTTY” talked he walked up and downm, stopping every so often and throwing his head back to emphasize a point. Overhead there turned round and round in the wind which swept through this draughty structure a sign which said: “No drunkenness, no profane language.” Even a cock-fighting club has its standards. As his text, the minister had chosen: “A man is worth more than a machine.® He told them that the Bible and the Constitution of the United States approved organization of workers into union. So does the church, he said, and read from a dog-eared pamphlet prepared by the International Council of Churches which he took from his pocket. That was in 1935! The dominie was throwing a bomb of his own that day into this community. Others were dropping them around the South, too. They were bold men and women, because they were going contrary te custom. Now, 10 years later, they are getting ace ceptarnce. Things have changed in the South. The atomic principle which has come out of Clin ton is going to change things, too, for people in Tennessee as elsewhere. We might as well accept that and get ready for it.

IN WASHINGTON—

When Does It End?

By Douglas Larsen

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.—President' Truman's of= ficial announcement of V-J Day doesn't mean that Mrs. John Doe can start crossing out days on the calendar for the next six months because her huse band's commission or enlistment reads “for the durae tion and six months thereafter.” 3 The legal end of the war does not occur when the President announces to the public that the fighting has stopped. Legal end of world war I was not until three years after the Armistice and was the subject of much controversy. Nobody appears to know much about the official termination of world war II either, It’s an important question which vitally affects each U. S. citizen. Is the war over officially when treaties with all the belligerents are signed? Is it over when congress says it's over? Is it over by presi dential proclamation? Is it over with the cessation of hostilities? These are some of the undetermined possibilities. The hastily drafted legislation which put this coun try on a wartime footing and gave the President extraordinary powers is controversial and vague on this point, permitting different interpretations. The Soldier and Sailor Civic Relief Act, which proe tects servicemen from certain civil court actions, exe pires six months after “war is terminated by act of congress or a treaty of peace.” This could mean i$ could be in effect for years. v 3

Could Be in 'State of War' for Years MOST vague is the- Espionage Act which is in effect “when the U. 8. is at war.” The War Labor Disputes Act terminates itself with the “termination of hostilities or a declaration by the President.” The important First War Powers Act ends with “an act of congress or presidential proclamation.” Thus it can be seen that if congress wanted to delay in a declaration of official end of war and the President failed to make an official proclamation, the U. 8. legally could be in a state of war for many years. All the emergency powers would continue in the hands of the executive. And an official declaration of V-J Day by the President doesn’t constitute a presidential proclamae tion. The latter is a formal legal statement made in| a special form, not a radio talk or press release. In addition to men getting out of the service o the basis of “the duration and six months,” billions]

‘of dollars in the way of contract termination and

continuance of federal authority are all bound up in this one point. "

Expect End of Emergency in Few Months

IT IS believed, however, that Mr. Truman will off cially proclaim the end of the emergency in a fi months. Then everybody can start counting off th six months. He will probably wait long enough see-that-reconversion-is-progressing satisfactorily. - Legal minds here suggest a possibility: for congre sional action if the President is slow in raking su a proclamation. It could be done by a “concurren resolution” of congress, This action does not need presidential signature, Some war legislation provid for this. ; Following world war I, congress passed a “join resolution” in May, 1920, to declare a legal end of dent Wilson who, for political reasons, vetoed it. was hot passed over the veto. va Again on March 3, 1921, congress passéd a simila joint resolution. Being his next to last day in offic Wilson signed it for the purpose of terminating th war laws. : edulis

“

we downtrodden common people arise!”

ow i ES » ota, >, >a i

"You butchers will wish yd had some friends after the war when

ALL places are filled with fools. ~

The final treaty with Germany wasn't ratified untf a i ; i: a

n - je