Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 August 1945 — Page 18

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PAGE 18 Thursday, Aug. 23, 1945

WALTER LECKRONE Editor

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RILEY 556

PEACE CLIMATE IN WASHINGTON

RESIDENT TRUMAN'S simple -gesture of

removing a

miniature gun ornament from the top of his desk, and

putting in its place a model of a plow, is symb

“he President and his top administrator should be congratulated on the speed and d

olic. s, we think, ecision with

which they are moving to restore the country to a peace-

time basis. Their neglect of many essential

preparations

for the coming of peace has made the switchover more abrupt than it needed to have been and has caused hard-

ships which might have been avoided. But th

ey have lost

no time since the day the Japs actually started folding up.

In rapid-fire order they have discontinued var

ious rations

and controls, showing a wholesome eagerness to get rid of

as many wartime restrictions as possible, as quick]

possible.

NM » o » o

y as

THERE HAS been some understandable exuberance in the performance—such as declaring two holidays to cele-

brate Japan's surrender, which may cost the as much as a billion dollars, directly in wage p no work to war contractors, and indirectly in porate taxes. And some politics—such as the

government ayments for loss of corpresidential

order to permit wages and farm prices to ease upward,

yet, contradictorily, to hold down living cost wages and living costs are such a factor,

s, in which

But the demonstration the President and his aides

are giving, of wanting to get out of the busin lating the lives of people, more than makes mistakes. controls just for the sake of controls. man, the attitude seems to be: controls.

ess of reguup for any

Time was when Washington seemed to cherish But under Mr. TruWhen in doubt, lift the

It's a part of the President's inherent Missouri faith in the ability of the people to handle their own problems. After four years of being shoved around, most of it indis-

pensable to the war effort, we are getting a of that fresh air we call freedom.

deep breath

We may get drunk on

it and fall on our face, but right now it sure feels good in

the lungs. No more gasoline rationing!

the wastebasket! erators, stoves, trucks, nylon, produce all they

#8 8 =» “z=

Blue points into Let the manufacturers of radios, refrig-

can! ”

JOHN W, SNYDER, Mr. Truman's reconversion direc-

tor, seems only to want to let the American business know what the rules are, and leave to get on with what they want to do,

WPB Chairman “Cap” Krug is doing ev

people and it to them

erything he

can to work himself out of a job—on the general theory

that war production is over. Agriculture Secretary Anderson, another administrator who acts like he knows what h about, is putting emphasis on producing and food for our late allies and for the home-folks, telling people what they shouldn’t eat. Food peace.

Washington is job is all distributing rather than can win the

And the President, now-that the war is over, says there will be no more blank checks on the American taxpayers, and orders lend-lease, which has provided 39 billions in munitions and supplies to our allies, forthwith to close

its books.

There's a new climate in Washington, and the American

people like it.

A WELCOME FOR THE FINNS

AMERICANS welcome Secretary of State nouncement that our government establish diplomatic relations with Finland. would have been made earlier except for proble

Byrnes’ an-

This move ms resulting

from V-E day and negotiations for Jap surrender. Finland had not been at war with our allies since last September, when the pro-German Helsinki regime—not representative

of the Finnish people—was ousted. Our government never declared war on line with the public attitude in this country,

than sinning. It was sympathetic wi when she was attacked by Russia in the wi

extremity.

Our government repeatedly demonstrated its friendship | . { about the earth rescuing colonial damsels from those r out of her |

by maintaining relations and trying to get he unwilling war on honorable terms. Qnly when cabinet became a Hitler puppet did Washingto lomatic relations.

Finland, In

Price in Marion Coun- | ty, 5 cents a copy; deliv-

| piece of the French empire. ready to re- |

Washington | believed that the Finnish people were more sinned against

Finland |

nter war of | 1939-40. When that war was resumed later as part of the | world conflict, with little Finland caught between the Russian and German giants, the United States understood her

the Helsinki n break dip-

continued behind the scenes to act in behalf of the demo-

cratic Finnish people.

u = =

- WE RECALL this record now in praise

of the late

President Roosevelt and of former Secretary of State Hull.

In that painful situation they managed with

skill ‘and in-

Even then, however, our government |

tegrity to fulfill our allied obligations without disloyalty |

to our traditional friend, Finnish democracy.

Since the elections of last spring, the Helsinki governs

ment has been representative again.

As Secretary Byrnes

says, those elections “were-{freely conducted and expressed through secret ballot the democratic wishes of the Finnish people.” As a small and defeated neighbor of mighty

Russia, manfully paying on hard terms, Finland “is not |

free in an economic or military sense. But

she is free

| United Nations to promote the best interests of co-

| i

1 | |

politically to the extent that she was allowed unfettered | elections, resulting in a non-Communist government,

Full credit is due Russia for that, «It is not only just |

» to the Finns and true to allied pledges, but a

1so beneficial

to Russia. It is the basis for a stable and friendly Finland

—a far better protection for Russia than Finland, which wo of the future,

Why Russia has been so wise in Finland,

an enslaved

but has im-

~ posed puppet dictatorships and prevented free elections in other eastern European countries; we do not know. We can only hop¢ that Marshal Stalin learns from his Finnish

of others undermines the mig

4 .

: ent before too late that a good neighbor policy pays,

uld be an easy prey to any Russian enemy |

htiest power.

NAP PTT ‘o

os REFLECTIONS— Free Leader By Frank Aston

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23.—When Gen, Charles de Gaulle walks around in newsreel shots his cap generally is the highest point in the picture; Gen. de Gaulle, who arrived yesterday to visit President Truman, is six teet, six inches tall. As a rule, the general travels light. This. custom reached some kind of a peak June 18, 1940, when he suddenly went to England. On that momentous trip he carried one leather bag containing a photograph of his wifé and three children, a pair of long, uniform pants and four khaki shirts. . He had no money, no arms, no troops, no staff. He was flat broke, He spoke no. English and took a room in an inexpensive hotel. At that time he organized the Free French army. It consisted of himself and one aide. He returned to France June 14, 1944. In the four years the French army had grown from two men to 500,000. He was the head man of the French at that moment although on Aug. 3, 1940, a Vichy tribunal had condemned him to death and had stripped him of all his honors,

Jokes Without Smiling GEN. DE GAULLE also returned to France at the end of the other world war. That time he came back from a German prison hospital, He had been wounded at Verdun and picked up by the Germans. Five times he tried to escape but always got caught. He Jokes about that, says he was so tall the Germans spotted him every time. The general frequently makes jokes. He does it like the traditional Britisher, with a straight face. Listeners who don’t know him well are sometimes not certain whether or not they are supposed to laugh. De Gaulle's friends say this deadpan type of Joshing is typical of the people of northern France, where he was born, Travelers report these -northerners go around cracking dandy jokes but cracking no smiles. Critics of the general call him stiff and aloof. His friends resent this. They say he is shy. At big dinner parties, they recite, he used to sit at the table hardly saying a word simply because he suf fered from a form of stagefright. But after dinner, they say, he'd get'with a small bunch in a corner and talk freely, mostly about military matters.

Another Challenger NOW THAT WEVE WON THE TITLE ~—

His admirers exhibit quite a list of his accomplishments in modesty and charm. They say he goes big with louse servants, taxi drivers and dock workers. They like to recall a lavish party at Brazzaville to which the high and the low were invited.. And how did General de Gaulle behave? Triumphantly his friends report that he spent as much attention on the buck privates as on the generals.

Sticks to Essentials

BUT, HIS followers say, he can freeze mighty swiftly with certain people. Those are the insincere ones. The general is reputed to have a rare gift of

spotting phonies. To them he’s a clam. . The general has a way of letting’ his mind wander to essential principles when the talk gets small. This tends to limit his conversational virtuosity, but his friends say it shows he is dominated by his principles. They like to recall a recent moment when le was willing to make certain compromises for the sake of his nation’s unity. Some of his colleagues objected. The general hushed them with: “What does it matter, so long as France continues?” The general proved during the war that he can take it, physically, In North Africa, although he was untrained for the heat and climate, he could walk all day and argue half the night without showing fatigue. . He almost wore out the night of June 18, 1940, when it seemed France was lost. But he jumped into-the crisis with broadcasts to the French to fight for freedom. That rested him, His friends say he hasn't looked tired since then. Ee

ms WORLD AFFAIRS—

French Aims By Wm. Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23.—Arrival in this country of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, president of the French provisional government for a series of discussions with President Truman, | is long overdue. Astounding though it is—considering the fact that thousands of Americans gave their lives that France might be free—relations between the two countries are far from perfect. Ever since we landed in North Africa, mischief-makers have been peddling tales about -our alleged ambitions regarding this or that And, strangely enough, |

some people seemed to have believed them. The latest yarn has it that we want to turn IndoChina into an international trusteeship perhaps with | China and Australia on the same footing with France. Another is that the United States plans to take over some of France's Pacific possessions, her islands in | the Caribbean and so on,

has said that we do not want an ineh of territory. The bases which we need in the Pacific for | the security of the United-Nations, including ourselves, |

and which, of course, we shall take from Japan, do |“WATCHMAN OUGHT TO TELL | | HOW GOVERNMENTS FALL” By J. M. W., Indianapolis

not enter into the picture.

Stand on Charter Policy THERE ARE those who say we did not fight this war to win back colonies for nations which were un-

able to hold them for themselves. And that is true. |

{the views set forth by that very

But that does not mean Uncle Sam is going to turn | into an international Don Quixote and go galloping |

“VITAL THAT FEDERAL SPENDING STOP GRADUALLY"

By The Watchman, Indianapolis

has been converted and geared to war production with government supplying the major part of the oil which makes the wheels go round— money—it is vitally and positively necessary that government spending be slacked off gradually rather than too suddenly if we hope to reconvert to peace time production without a disastrous depression. And it is not only good business, but good for our political foundations for the government reconversion by continued injections of financial ,| economic system, if we don't want our private enterprise

grow anemic and insufficient to pull 3 cancellation. The one thing that to Bulgarize Macedonia. us through the crisis.

to Reep Uncle ‘Sam robust and down on the job, at least he says|the earth which stands at the healthy until we can get back into | peace time production? proper, convenient, nor more Well\y, 544 the downtrodden peoples of a deserved sources of government dis-| gone 1n establishing republican Front of Federal Macedonia.” tribution of funds to cushion the] shock of unemployment found than to extend the regular] pay of our armed forces for one year so. these men can readjust them-| ’ selves and get established without| Which of them are of particular too much financial loss and worry. | We owe these boys more than mere d0 8 thanks or monuments! We owe them | financial aid started back on normal home life.

jointly responsible to cushion the|not say what they “lead” in. Will} earthing there Greek, and not Bulshock and ease the ourdens of un-|/he tell us whom does he mean? garian or Slavic, temples or civiliemployment workers. 80 per cent of its employees is a “leaders” removed. {good example. | Yes, it will cost plenty of money, | people in the U. 8. A. who give The a long, long Hellenic history. Mr. | but the alternate result could cost {us all we have fou preserve!

{ounce of wisdom, and all {initiative and the great individual Already President Truman has said enougl to put | capacity these stories where they belong—in' the ashcan. He | now to the equally vital problem anybody's | of yeconversion to peace and prosperity,

correspondents {Forum are not at all pleased with |

| prolific writer, The Watchman. It only a change in personnel.

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

“MACEDONIA IS A PART OF GREECE” By John Prattas, Secy., Chapter, Order of A. H Strange as it may scem, one Luben Dimitroff, editor of the Indianapolis Macedonian Tribune, allegedly a Macedonian, rushed to the assistance of Gen. Tito of Yugoslavia and clearly as he could presented, or attempted to present, to the American public his views on the Macedonian question. Mr. Dimitroff stated that “The Macedonians want to create an independent state of Macedonia by unifying into one state unit its three divided parts,- their motto is “Macedonia for the Macedonians.” The Greeks who are the indigenous Macedonians have been systematically killed tortured and upis more than likely that The Watch- rooted by them by the hundreds of

Hoosier Forum

(Times -readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed. Opinions set forth here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by The Times. The Times assumes no responsibility for the return of manu. scripts and cannot enter cor-. respondence regarding them.)

Indianapolis Since our whole domestic economy . E. P. A

to cushion the shock of

vitamins into our

aaa . as radia)

{man is not all pleased with the thousands during the last two! tO views of his critics, so we have world wars. Yet they have failed | Tito now | [The Watchman brings out clearly |seems to be on march, aiming to| So why not spend a few billions|is that our diplomats are falling|Slavorize the unfortunate corner of |

system

0. Ancther thing that disturbs |

No more |p; is the failure of our leaders] ers.

crossroad of ambitious expansion-| So conveniently they invented nationalism called “National

{representative governments, They know that ethnically, ethcan bel ave not so many diplomats ically and historically Macedonia inthe U.S. A. so it is quite likely | ever was, still is, and ever should pe that The Watchman can tell us! an integral part of her motherland | Greece. When St. Paul first visited Macedonia, Greeks and Jews, but et Ino Bulgarians, were inhabitants. 8 we Would initiate a TOVE=| Aristotle, the Philosopher, Alexander the Great, born there in the 4th century B. C., were as genuine Greeks as these Athens and their] He is angry at “our leaders” |anguage was Greek not Slavic. | Also government and business are| (whoever they may be) but he does |The anthropologists have been un-

| distaste to him. Probably if he could |

hent to have the particular diplothem get mat removed from his present

to help road to a Sphere of influence.

the

to our home front We might use our democratic rights | zation. Greek blood has been shed Allison’s plan of keeping|in this case also, and have those for twenty-five centuries to main- | tain unalloyed the roots of HellenIt seems that there are a few: ism in Macedonia. Macedonia has Watchman some sleepless nights, as| Dimitroff, and neither you nor anyght the War 10 those people have new plans for body else can alter it. |overthrowing the government. - I1| The leopard cannot change its | wonder what is the difference be- Spots, however, nor can you by tween\ those “new” plans and the changing the name from Bulgarian {old plans. Come on, Watchman, 0 Macedonia fool the American and enlighten us. If you do not public. Greece has fought on the téll us what they are and you side of America and England as know what they are, you ought to| Well as of Russia to the end, and { ; Russia may not and must not for{tell us how a government is Over~/ et that Groce by her heroic re[Hows This is verj-mporiant Wo! stance in 1941 saved the day. for

{12, Beranse We Would lee ts be) Russia; she contributed to the Rus[towards that end. We know that|

Let every American give every

of his the war

which won

u o »

to counter any movements Go... ..ce by defeating Mussolini {and by holding. Hitler for six { months until help from America, |and the severe winter came to the ihe party, who was in opposition | oop of Russia's armies at the |that such an occurrence is not an very gategao! MOSCOW. {overthrow of the government, it is What did Bulgaria do, Mr. Dimitroff—she joined Hitler and Mus-

I have noticed that some of your when an election takes place and

to the Hoosier! the party in power is defeated by

who now embrace them. It does not mean that we are going to try to force Britain to unhand India, Burma, Hongkong, Malaya, Singapore and the rest. Or that we plan to wrest the Dutch East Indies from Holland; the Congo from Belgium or the French colonies from France. | We are traditionally, and probably shall remain | opposed to colonial exploitation, We are giving up the | Philippines in July, 1946, and such ties as might possibly remain between them and us will have to spring from their own initiative,

Unquestionably, American- influence will continue ||

{ | | | to be exerted in the same direction but it will make

De Gaulle's Real Concern SO GEN, PE GAULLE need have no fear on that score and doubtless knows it. What he is more cons cerned about, and rightly, is the following: (1) Germany's western frontiers, (2) The future of the Rhineland, the Ruhr and the Saar, (3) France's role in the occupation of Germany and parts of Asia, (4) Reparations. (5) Credits. (6) Shipping, transpor=tation, maclzinery, raw materials, ®oal, food, clothing i and other supplies pending French recovery, and (7) | France's place at the Big Five conference table. | The last.is treméndously important to ourselves as | well as to France, There are few major international | problems which do. not touch France vitally, That is 50 whether the problems have to do with Germany or Spain, Poland or Italy, the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, Far East, the Atlantic or Pacific. Her's 1s | ‘he ‘world's second largest empire, after Britain's, " True, France today is not a great power in the |

military sense, But she was once such a power, and |

almost certainly will be again, Meanwhile she fs still A great power culturally and morally, What is equally importany, by tradition she is democratic. And postway democracy needs every friend

opr

Carnival —By Dick Turner

solini to rob, burn and destroy

Greece, » ” ”

| “FOOLISH NAMES, FACES | OFTEN IN PUBLIC PLACES” .

By Voice in the Crowd, Indianapolis People read books written under the pen names of authors, they worship movie stars and stage folk who use “stage names,” and don’t give any thought to the fact that they are influenced by anonymous people. Now if they are willing to go that far, what difference does it make whether or not correct names are used in the Forum? They are either |ultra curious or they would like to badger someone with direct mail that would not be welcome, Ideas that are of public interest mean more than who sets them on | paper. Be assured that no one is | going to start a war or prevent one by his writings in this column. The Times is a well edited paper, capable of deleting any material that does not belong on its pages, and you can be certain that proper authorities, on demand, could get the identity of the Forum's scribes. he whole argument about anonymous writings reminds one of the old adage heard so frequently four decades ago—“Foolish names ‘and foolish faces are so often found in public places.”

DAILY THOUGHT

But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the

, AR

a es

Tess

it can muster, |

oom. 1oes wv wea sewvice, we. vw wea. u. a Fur. ovr,

: . —— ‘ghost, and where is he?~—Job “We've been doing fine with our red points sinte they stopped gas : hE

Mae : ~ OUR lives are but marches to the

os tipoomag Crinouint Satara gop m Sr ge Au A a tg Se ru

'RECONVERSION—

Plant Knot By Charles T. Lucey

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23.~The government is getting nibbles for & purchase of some of its huge war plants. But there's nothing very sure as to when the plants will be providing jobs in civilian production, Vast factory spaces used for making airplanes, steel, synthetic rubber, magnesium, aluminum and} other war needs stretch from coast to coast. Industrial leaders urge speed in disposing of them so they can be turned to production and jobs-for-all, Some say they'd like to buy government plants if 16qf could be done expeditiously. The alternative is build« ing their own new plants. But Reconstruction Finance Corp. officials say time must be taken to publicize sales so that everyone will J know they're.to be held, and that they've got to guard against quick “behind-the-barn” trading. And, they say, they're developing an aggressive plant disposal program.

Study Multiple Use

STUDIES are being made of possible multiple use} of some plants—use of a plant like the huge Willow 4 Run bomber factory, for example, by a half dozen or a dozen concerns. Also, some big plants may be needed for temporary storage of machinery moved from other war plants, No one knows how much must be stored while awaiting sale, Here's an idea of the importance of the governs ment’s war plants in relation to the industrial economy: Government-owned steel plants could produce ones fifth of pre-war steel requirements, according to estimates. More than $400 million went into magnesium plants - and equipment which give the government nine-toe one domination in this industry. The government has $700 million in rubber plants of huge capacity. The RFC, it has been estimated, would end the war owning nearly half of the country’s machine tool manufacturing facilities, The government's aircraft industry investment, about $3 billion, is 10 times that of privately owned aircraft plants. \ The government put $129 millions into steel plants § run by Carnegie-Illinols in Homestead, Duquesne, Braddock, Pa. and Gary, Ind. It has $172 million i plants run by the Republic Steel Corp. in Cleveland}! Birmingham and elsewhere. It built a new $202 mile § lion steel plant in Utah, §

RFC Constructed Plants

The RPC built the $182 million Chrysler-Dodge plant in Chicago, $122 million worth of Curtiss-Wright plants in Indianapolis, Buffalo, Columbus and other cities, and put nearly $400 million in plants for aire craft and aircraft engines and parts operated by General Motors. Another $2556 millions of government money went for plants run by Wright Aeronautical Corp., including the $135 million engine factory at Cincinnati. In rubber, government holdings include such items as $84 million for a plant operated by the Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corp. at Institute, W. Va, and Louisville; $43 million for a DuPont-operated plant at Louisville; $37 million to Dow Chemical Co. for Texas and Calitornia plants; $21 million to Goodyear for Akron and Houston plants and $20 million te Firestone for plants, A Nevada magnesium plant cost $135 million and another at Velasco, Tex., cost $61 millions. Sixty millions each went for plants of the Koppers United Co. at Monaca, Pa., and to the Neches Butane Products Co. at Port Neches, Texas. Many plants built and operated by private cone cerns gave the operators an option to purchase, bug there were no options granted on plants for magne= sium, aluminum or synthetic rubber. So far, a dozen or so options have been picked up on some of the smaller government-owned plants, and

| there has been a similar number of negotiated sales.

But the big job in plant disposal is all ahead.

IN WASHINGTON—

Top Man

By Earl Richert

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23.—A two-fisted army officer who mobilized American industry to produce : the 50 billions of ordnance needed to win this war will be responsible for getting our industry back to peacetime production, He is Lt. Gen. Levin H. Campbell Jr., army chief of ordnance, who has been placed in charge of industrial reconversion by John Ww. Snyder, director o! war mobilization and reconversion. Of this appointment elder statesman Bernard M. Baruch said: “I can sum up this appointment in one word ‘tops.’ He knows American production as well as anybody in the world and nobody knows. mori about it.” Gen. Campbell is known in Washington andl throughout the business world as a .man who ge things done—and quickly. Soon after he became chief of ordnance on June 1 1942, he issued this order to men under his eontrol: “Whenever a member of the ordnance departmen regardless of rank, encounters red tape in conducting our business, throw the red tape to hell out the window, And accept that please as a definite geners order.” The sandy-haired, 59-year-old general has bee dealing with businessmen since he was transferred from the coast artillery to the ordnance department n 1918. ,

Studied With Pliny Holt

HE WENT to Stockton, Cal. to study under th renowned automobile engineer, Pliny Holt, of the Hol Manufacturing Co. He worked on the development of self-propelled mounts and at the Rock Island arsenal in Illinois he inaugurated the mass production technique for pro ducing self-propelled artillery and gun ‘carriages. At the Frankford arsenal in Philadelphia he revo lutionized the art of artillery ammunition productio pi improved the production of mechanical tini uses, The time between the wars, he spent in army arsenals. He had much to do with the development, of the tank. As. the war approached, he was of the big ordnance which cost $3,500,000,000. | On Jan. 1, 1942, he was placed in charge of all production as assistant chief of industrial services, And it was here he came into close association with the men who operated the industries turning ou tanks, self-propelled guns, trucks, ammunition and all of the other numerous types of ordnance. 8ix months later he became chief of ordnance. While he was chief of ordnance, the cost of dropped from 29 to 6 cents a pound. In the last war TNT cost up to 55 cents a pound,

Worked With Businessmen

HE WORKED closely with businessmen in (is building and retooling of plants for war productin and always referred to himself as head of the “indu= try-ordnance” team. y He formed what he called ‘Integrating committe under which men from different companies which produced similar items would meet at regular inter. vals to exchange new ideas in production methods. Gen, Campbell, a native Washingtonian, was grad: uated from the naval academy in 1909, but did no accept a commission; Two years later he was com missioned a second lieutenant in the coast ‘artille corps. He has been in the army since. While not an engineer, he has been honored b being voted a honorary life member of the Americay Society of Mechanical Engineers. . He ‘has pe a dagrea ol doctor. of laws by

placed in gharge plant construction program