Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 August 1945 — Page 14

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he Indianapolis PAGE 14 Friday, Aug. 31, 1945

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

Give Light and the People Will Pind Their Own Woy

AMERICAN-CHINESE PARTNERSHIP AMERICAN policy in China is bearing fruit. It is not a *™ selfish policy. China and all the. world will profit from it. For its object is a free, strong and prosperous China as the necessary basis of Far East stability and peace. The United States is the only world power which has fought for this enlightened policy down through the years — finally to the point of accepting a war with Japan rather than desert China. The United States single-handedly elevated China to the ranks of the Big Five, and all that means in international influence. As a result, China today trusts the mighty United States as her best and closest partner, There have been five main obstacles to this AmericanChinese policy. Happily now some of them have been removed, and there is a better chance of getting rid of the others. The first barrier was Jap aggression. disposed of—by the United States chiefly. The second barrier was a Russian policy of expansion and interference in China. That has been removed—in go far as solemn pledges can do, so—by the new Moscow pact reaffirming China's territorial integrity and promising non-interference in her domestic affairs. The main cause of this change in Russian policy, as of Japan's defeat, was United States policy and power in the Far East. A third barrier has been the traditional imperialism of the western European powers. In China most of this has disappeared under war pressure and American policy, and the rest probably will go as rapidly as China grows strong.

That has been

. . THE two remaining obstacles are internal—political disunity and economic backwardness. America u, helping China, at her request, to solve both of these basic problems. Today's unity negotiations between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tze-tung are the result of long American effort, culminating in the new Chiang-Stalin pact and U. S. Ambassador Hurley's trip to the rebel Yenan stronghold to bring back the red Mao. Only the United States has insisted from the beginning on the necessity of political unity under a democratic central government. Even if these Chiang-Mao negotiations fail like earlier ones, because of unreasonable red demands, the national government under the progressive Premier Soong is now in a much better position than before. ~~ The economic barrier involves war exhaustion and devastation, and even older exploitation, usury, graft, superstition, indifference, inefficiency. This is the front on which requested American aid can help most—American credit and business experience, scientific skill, organizing ability, educational leadership. But constructive American aid can take hold no faster than necessary Chinese political and social reforms permit. "China has all the strength and weakness of an ancient civilization struggling to rise as a new power in a new World. If we do not expect miracles we probably shall not be disappointed. Meanwhile we can be thankful that America’s faith in her, and war-tested friendship, already has produced big results.

ANOTHER WONDER

AFTER radar¥ind the atom bomb we hadn't expected so © ™ soon to be amazed again at a miracle revealed in the public prints. : YY But comes now a dispatch from Washington telling of the president of ‘the National Association of Manufacturers espousing lower tariffs. Shades of Payne & Aldrich, Smoot & Hawley, Mark Hanna & old Joe Grundy! Ira Mosher, president of the N. A. M,, testified before a senatorial committee on the so-called full employment bill, saying he thought the measure likely to produce booms and busts, rather than steady employment. He proposed 8s a substitute what he called a full-employment-plus program: Eliminate special favors and privileges, reduce tariffs progressively, abolish cartels by internation#! agreements, overhaul national labor policy, revise taxes to promote an adequate flow of private investments, and restore farming to a free, self-supporting and profitable basis. At the same committee hearing Henry Wallace indorsed the “full employment” bill saying it was a “conservative” measure. But that has to do with semantics and labels, and is hardly in a class with the miracle of a manufacturers’ spokesman urging lower tariffs,

THEY DEFEND ‘SAME COUNTRY

EPORTER CHARLES T, LUCEY disclosed on this page > yesterday that for several months the military high command has kept under cover a report of a committee of army and navy officers recommending a post-war merger of the War and Navy Departments. For a long time many people in this country have believed that we could provide defense and wage war more efficiently through a single department of defense, with sea, land and air forces under unified command. The necessities of the war just ending have compelled certain co-ordinating expedients such as the joint chiefs of staff in Washington snd unity of command in the theaters of operation. But with the coming of peace, unless something is done to brihg them under the same tent, the army and navy may soon going their separate ways, making separate plans, king separate appropriations, indulging in separate reand keeping secrets from each other. x Whatever ‘the merits or demerits of ghe merger idea, of the recommendations made by the committee of army avy officers, their report should be released to Congress

s Times

BO: Security reason. for}

OUR TOWN—

By Anton Scherrer °

ONE Saturday afternoon back in the Eighties, Mother took us kids uptown to help her with her shopping. (We always called it “uptown” because we lived on the South side). It was dusk when we returned and found our house on fire. It was a ghastly sight— so horrible, indeed, that I don't want to think about it. Next morning. bright and early, a Frenchman came to our home, or what wags left of it. His name was Peter Routier. I don't know how Father got Mr. Routier to come on Sunday, but he did. Father could get anybody of the male species to do his bidding. He wasn’t so good ordering women around. Father and Mr. Routier spent the greater part of that morning exploring the ruins, with the result that when Monday came, Mr. Routier showed up again—this time with a crew of carpenters who went to work restoring the old house. , It took Mr. Routier and his workmen several months to make our home habitable again. When they got done, it was bigger and better than ever— bigger, because of the addition of a real-for-sure bath room (our first to be equipped with faucets); and better, because of an enormous 12-inch-thick slab of Indiana limestone under the kitchen stove. Father's diagnosis of our misfortune had convinced him that our predicament was caused by a live coal dropping out of the stove onto a combustible wooden floor. He wasn’t going to have the same thing happen again, he said. As a matter of fact it didn't.

Story of Hangings EXCEPT for our fire and the fact that Father had the foresight to employ an eloquent contractor, I guess 1 never would have heard the story of Mr. Routier's participation in the first legal hanging in Indianapolis. It was one of the many stories he told us kids when we returned from school in the after noon. (Sure, I went to school). . On those occasions Mr. Routier always greeted us with ‘a la b'on heure,” a sure sign that he was going to drop his tools for a while and take up his avocation which was that of a raconteur. Usually the opening sentence ‘of Mr. Routier’s stories revealed his relish for the equivocal. On this occasion, he began by saying: On a night designed for murder, in the bitter winter of 1878 two Hoosiers got into an argument over something connected with a game called “faro.” When the smoke cleared, both men had to be hauled away—one to the morgue, the other to jail. Just about the same time, and probably because .of the same malignant winter, a South side livery-stable keeper found fault with his wife and slipped her a dose of strychnine in a sociable glass of beer. And right on top of that in the.same lousy winter, a hotel keeper's nephew shot his uncle's best waitress. She was the prettiest girl in Indianapolis, said Mr. Routier, which I have since learned is a typical Prench literary touch. All three killers (continued Mr. Routier) were adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree. The judge in charged picked Jan. 29 1879, as the day of execution, and he made it pretty plain (well “as plain as lawyers are able to talk) that he wanted all three men to hang not only on the same day, but also at the same time. Indianapolis was utterly unprepared for a simultaneous triple hanging. It wasn't even prepared for a single hanging for up until then every Indianapolis murderer had suffered nothing worse than imprisonment for life.

Routier Got the 'Buck

CONFRONTED with what looked like a problem the authorities passed the buck to Peter Routier to see what he could do in the way of constructing a gallows capable of hanging three men at the same time. Mr. Routier said he had a hunch right from the start that a simultaneous triple hanging didn’t necessarily mean that the dimensions of a one-man-gallows had to be tripled. The more he figured the thing, he said, the more he became convinced that the strains and stresses involved in a triple hanging were by no means three times those of a solitaire. The final result was that he invented a gallows unlike anything ever seen in this world. . And what pleased Mr. Routier even more was the fact that it didn’t cost anywhere near three times that ofa one-man-gallows. Of course, that still left the question whether Mr. Routier's figuring was fundamentally sound or not. It also explains why he was the most vitally interested spectator in the court house yard on the morning of the execution. On that morning, just a few minutes before the time set for the triple hanging, Mr. Routier was dumfounded to learn that only two of the murderers would be executed that day. Seems that at the very last moment two young lawyers just out of school—one John L. Griffiths and one Alfred Potts —contrived to get a stay of execution for their client (the one who killed the beautiful waitress). Mr. Routier never forgave the two lawyers for not letting the world know that he had designed an inexpensive gallows- capable of hanging three men at the same time. (Sure it worked in the case of the two remaining murderers).

VETERANS—

Job Bottleneck

By Andy Anderson

BALTIMORE, Md., Aug, 31.—I'm not particularly smart ‘and cannot set myself up as a chap who should tell others how to run things, but I have a suggestion which I believe sound. It has to do with the U. 8 Employmé®t Service's new system of handling jobs for disabled veterans. Formerly a citizen who wanted to hire a disabled boy could send his offer of a job to any hospital and the personriel manager would contact the boys who might be interested. That has been changed. USES took over the

pool with all others seeking jobs.

No Follow Through

RECENTLY, I learned that a number of veterans had been hired through the USES at Memphis. I tried to locate some of these boys to see how they were coming along.

In every city I have visited, businessmen have ex% | pressed displeasure with this system. Harry Hedges, Texas road contractor, relates an experience: “I phoned the employment service and said I wanted two disabled boys to act as traffic directors on a road job,” he said. “About 24 hours later I got a ¢all from ad applicant. In quizzing him 1 learned that he wasn’t even an able-bodied veteran but a shipyard worker who thought his job too tough and wanted to change. The next call came from a man 54 years old. Then a couple of high school kids called.

Still No Veteran : “IM STILL looking for a disabled veteran. It

rest of my help to have a disabled boy who proved

want to pick that boy and don’t want some office picking him. I'd like to send my application to & hospital and have it placed before the boys. If a poy is interested, I'd like to open. sort of a correspondence course with him so that by the time “he is ready for discharge I'll know him, he'll be acquainted with me and have a little ufiderstanding of my business.” : : ’ ‘In every hospital in America there is a shortage of beds: As a result many boys are sent out on fur-

First Hanging|

HAVE His FUN!

TG,

oo

: >

“WHY NOT USE RAY 4 TO STOP ALL MOTORS?” By Si Moore. 2606 W. 16th st. The so-called leaders or bright boys are now standing about with’ their mouths open, wondering how it all happened. They did not know that there are people in the world who really know something and had been working on atomic power, etc., for 30 years at least. The trouble with the gimme boys is that they think all knowledge is in old musty tomes and if any, hard-working scientist wants a lit-| tle backing for something new that | will help humanity, he is just an-| other nut. They would not believe] the scientists who showed them that real rubber can be grown in this country in any quantity.” In {fact, it was made of grain and a {few chemicals in a bucket right in | the halls of congress. - i But the big oil companies had {other plans and now it says the British will soon resume their shipments from the East Indies. Their’ trade must not be curtailed by cheap rubber made in the good old U. 8. A Tin is not mined and smelted here for the same reason, as well as. mica. But the cap sheaf for dumbness or skullduggery or both is the failure to use the rays that stop any motor fired by electricity. Marconi stopped all’ motors in Rome with this ray and killed himself to keep it om Mussolini. But it is known and has been tried out here. It has stopped motors miles away.! Why was it not used at Pear] Har-| por and all over the world? You! answer that one, or ask the cartel |that will sell it. Of course, it will ldo away with all gas motors and {that would not do. But the atomic |pomb makes it a must, and the oil cartel and the warmongers will ‘have to bow to science again,

” ou ou | «commmshe IS AS OLD AS HUMAN SOCIETY” By Ben Shapero, Muncie | For days on end now I have read the rants of The Watchman. And |

}

holds forth economic Utopia. Just to enlighten both of these

and is as old as people. So I have vacated my position as a silent

i reader to dwell on this subject.

First, communism is the birth of despair. When the Bolsheviks over- | ran Russia and liquidated the para- |

Hoosier Forum

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

(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 manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

self in the same state as the founding Pilgrim fathers of Masschusetts—cut off from the world with half of her 102 settlers dead. William Bradford, second governor of Massachusetts, set himself up as supreme commander and all resources were pooled in a general fund. However, try as you may, communism is only a hollow phrase and you can only survive through poverty. - The work, desires, ability and intelligence of people build up from the depths of communism to the heights of a better way of life. The destiny of the world is controlled by woman—for her smile and vanity have men sought the heights. was she who put an end to Governor Bradford's communistic state in Plymouth and brought on private title to property. Already today the women of Russia are painting their faces and lips, sheer silk stockings will become a “must” for every woman. Plus all the gadgets we use in America, she will desire a home of her own to rear her family. This, Mr. Watch-

{man and Mr. Communist, is what

you call capitalism, This spark of pride and vanity in every human is why we are what we

are. Russia today, with her virgin deposits of resources, is anxious and

now an Indianapolis Communist | willing to be capitalistic and join| {hands in peace with the family of |

nations.

gentlemen, communism is not new Stalin knows communistic theories | By Mrs. Georganna Brouse, Bridgeport

won't satisfy human emotion or desire. He must go right; but calamity hollerers (like our Watchman) will make communism stay on in Russia. I say let Russia pour her billions

work and, disabled or not, the vet's job application | goes through the service. He is placed in the same |

Then 1 learned they get thei vet the job but don't follow through. 1

would be a great thing for the boy, myself and the’

he could make good in my organization. But I

sitical Romanoffs, all semblance of [of dollars of gold, borrowed or modern government vanished. For |otherwise, into- international trade, twenty-five years prior to world and the women of America and Ruswar II, Russia lived in a boycotted sia will do the rest to again change state—her only alternative was com- | the swing of the pendulum from left munism. Thus Russia found her-|to right.

Side Glances=By Galbraith

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be willing to accept a

washing machine as a birthday present; but | whyld £ oy nog and lors Md en

|“BEVIN LIFTS LOAD OF |FEAR FROM MANKIND” | By The Watchman, Indianapolis | “The one thing we must aim at

| {resolutely is to prevent the sub-

| stitution of one form of totalitar{ianism for another!” No, that is not | The Watchman speaking. It is | Ernest Bevin, foreign minister of Great Britain, stating emphatically land with no quibbling Britain's

| policy toward liberated nations such |as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugo{slavia, Greece, Italy and all the irest; and let The Watchman assure you that Bevin's above statement is the most reassuring pronouncement that has come from any statesman on political policy concerning liberated people and should revive hope in the hearts of the down-

Unification By Charles T. Lucey

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31.-The new Pearl Harbor investigation re- |

"ports released by President Truman §

are loaded with ammunition for

proponents of tying U. S. land, sea

and air fordes into a unified national defense department. The ammunition will be used as soon as congress gets back to town, Rep. Woodrum (D. Va), chairman of a special house committee studying unification, said today his group would take up the whole question after cone gress reconvenes. Mr. Woodrum said also that his committee un= doubtedly would ask for a report on a single defense department. held for several months by the joint chiefs of staff. This report was made by a special

| committee of army and navy officers after a year's

study and is understood to favor co-ordinating all the fighting forces. It has not been made public. Caustic criticism of the defects due to lack of unity at Pearl Harbor is made in the report of the army Pearl Harbor board and also in Secretary of War Stimson’s separate statement. “While Adm. Kimmel! and Gen. Short were on very friendly terms and in frequent communication,” he said, “the exchange of information. as well as consultation in other respects at Hawaii between the army and navy was inadequate.”

Agreements Unworkable THE ARMY BOARD, reviewing army-navy agrees ments at Pearl Harhor, said that while they were “admirable in concept and in many feulars equally admirable in the proposed plan of administration, under the handicap of joint action by Go operation instead of unity of command, were of quite limited effectiveness because neither the army nor the navy had sufficient means to properly imple ment them.” The investigating board said the agreements were difficult to execute and that “to make them effective would have taken skilled professional officers of hoth services, guided by a well organized composite staff, and practiced in operational tests. “The agreements themselves were not to go into effect until either a period of strained relations occurred, or M-day was declared, or in actual event of war. Neither the army nor navy seemed to appreciate this defect.” The report cited defects of an army-navy agree ment on air defense and remarked that its officers “had a difficult time in determining under which of the three shells—Adm. Kimmel, Bloch or Bellinger— rested the pea of performance and responsibility.” These agreements, the report said, “constituted a vain paper attempt to predict war procedure without having properly tested out the proposed arrangements in training and by joint staff action to see if they were practical measures.” : .

'Plan Never Operative ADM. BLOCH was quoted as saying of the joint air defense plan: + “The plan was never operative as a plan because the war and navy departments never ordered it to become operative, either in part or in whole. The local commanders never mutually agreed to have’ it become operative in part.” ’ The inquiry board remarked that the local commanders apparently took no action to “mutually agree” to implement parts of the plan and “evidently were going to let the agreement go until an emergency arose, when they became operative auto matically.” But when the emergency came, the board said, “it” was too late to have gotten the benefit of the cooperative action that it implied, and the training which would result from this close teamwork by army

{trodden people in Communist con[trolled nations. | Bevin has lifted a heavy load of | fear and apprehension from those who love freedom and liberty for| mankind, and placed Britain at the right hand of Uncle Sam as the united champions of free men in a free world. Secretary of State, Byrnes has also protested against] totalitarian methods of holding] elections in Bulgaria and Stalin has| refused to participate in a free] election in Greece. The far reach-| ing political significance of these political moves cannot be over- | estimated. Britain's foreign po-| litical policy, under Attlee and Bevin, has improved considerably | the hope that the United States | and Britain can work in peace as| we did in the war, as a team pull- | ing with all our irresistable power | toward the final brotherhood of| man—free men—that wonderful, dream or individual liberty en-| visaged in -the English Magna! {Charta and echoed in the Constituition of the Uniteq States! The | {United States and Great Britain [can and must save Christian civili- | | zation! | 8 #4 8 “UNCLE SAM MUST | CARRY A BIG STICK”

In reply to Mr. Cullings’' letter in Monday's paper regarding ending the draft with formal signing of the peace, it would seem that he is not so concerned with keeping peace as he is with his own selfish ‘desires. To spend one or two years in peacetime military service is not asking very much of young men who are civilians now in comparison to the four and five year records of the men who were win-| ning the war while these other) young men were sitting at home enjoying themselves on war-swollen incomes. Remember, these veterans are the ones who did the sweating, bleeding and the dying. The men in the peacetime army won't have to worry—their hides will be safe. : Why shoul ' military service “wreck” any young man’s life? It makes men of the spoiled, soft playboys and a man is °C 100 per cent better physical having had military service, Military and government au-| thorities know far better than the ordinary citizen what the requirements of our armed forces are, and until these needs are met by voluntary means, there must be a draft. To allow .our military strength to ‘fall below the vitally necessary minimum would be going back to the policies of disarmament and isolation. And those policies served only to encourage aggressor nations to wars of conquest. In the peacetime now upon us, Uncle Sam can be heard if he speaks softly to other nations, but he must also carry a big stick.

DAILY THOUGHT And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, ‘and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.—Chronicles 16:35.

YOUR bounty is‘ beyond my speaking; But though my mouth

ly after

and navy” Unified action could have been ordered by the President, the secretaries of war and navy or the army and navy commanders. But, said the army inquiry board: “No one of these agencies took steps to effectuave what all of the witnesses have concurred in stating was the principal cause of difficulties on Dec. 7, 1841, and the events leading up to and causing those difficulties, that is, unity of command.” The board testified to “cordial and co-operative” relationships between Gen. Short and Adm. Kimmel. But it pointed out repeatedly that separate commands hampered overall military effectiveness.

IN WASHINGTON—

‘Forgotten’ By Robert Taylor

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31.—Army i, men in the Pacific combat divisions feel they are the “forgotten men” B of the army's discharge-point systém, say veterans returning from that area. The soldiers themselves can't write to their con= gressmen, or to newspapers, because they - are still under combat conditions and their mail is subject to censorship. Meanwhile, men of the 86th and 05th divisions, veterans of the German war, have been bombarding congress and newspapers with protests against their redeployment to the Pacific. =~ Many of the members of the house military affairs committee object to the plan of President Truman and the army to continue drafting 18-year-olds for occupation duties. The army says it needs them to replace veterans. . Pacific veterans say their theater. of war is full

of veterans who are veterans in the sense that none -

of the European combat fen are.

Longest Battle Records “NOBODY in the European theater of operations has any service to compare with it.” one veteran said. “The North African invasion was in the fall of 1942 and no man-who fought in North Africa and Europe had to go to the Pacific. There are men in the Pacific who have been fighting since before North Africa.” ' One man said the average division in the Pacifie has three or four campaign stars for each man. , One division has been fighting since the Aleutians came paign; anether, with dozens of men who have been woupded four tines, hasn't seen a town for the last 18 months. : : Pacific veterans take the view that the European : ith ipment, and

“theater it, and | the Pacific theater had to fight battle after battle |

with the same outfits—because they had nobody else, The point system, they say, works for the European veterans, but not for those in the Pacific, They estimate one division has 7000 men with more than 85 points—the present critical point score. Another has 5000; another 8000. Maj. Gen. Stephen G. Henry, army personnel chief, told the house military affairs committee the Pacific —with its heat, humidity, insects and diseases—is no, place for a white man to stay too long.

Being Sent Home WACS. HE SAID, are being sent back on individ= ual medical recommendations, and will not be replaced, because they don’t get ‘along well in that climate. It will be particularly to convince veterans they should stay there, he added, when there's no shooting to be done. Geh. Henry sald he went to Gen, MacArthur's heatlquarters before the Japanese surrender to talk, about point-score discharges. MacArthur's staff objected to lowering of the point score, however, He quoted them as saying their first und second teams had been taken out and they wouldn't land on Japan with their third team. x : - oa Gen. MacArthur asked for more men with combat experience to help in the job. of occupying J re Gen. Henry faid. Accordingly, the 86th snd 95th divisions were screened down to 75 points and sched.

be dumb, my heart shall

’

thank you.

uled for the Pacific. The 97th also has been scheduled

]