Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 September 1945 — Page 16

Te Indianapolis Ti me S| ia

REFLECTIONS—

PAGE 16 : Thursday, Sept. 6, 1945

Kissing

ROY W. HOWARD President -

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A FANTASTIC SHOW IN TOKYO

THE show staged by the emperor and his new government at the post-war opening of the Japanese diet yesterday was a fantastic affair. There were few evidences of surrender, but many of Japanese authority—even over

American officers. 5 Regularly accredited allied press correspondents were

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the emperor's rescript or address, but had to pick up the

~— which has never been noted for accuracy. The Tokyo | radio so far has failed to carry out MacArthur's orders promptly. In a further effort to assert Jap power and humiliate the allies, the imperial government invited the allied cor- | respondents to attend the routine afternoon session from | which the emperor was absent, but insisted that they be | gearched by Jap police. Gen. MacArthur rejected this | stipulation. | To make it perfect from the Jap point of view, “three | allied public relations officers who accompanied the corre- | spondents, however, were forced to cool their heels in the | smoking room when they refused to give up their sidearms,” the United Press reports.

RE SRE OY RST i - . & — : JAP flags were used for the ceremonies, but no American | flag. The speeches, as reported, mostly expressed regret for embarrassing the emperor by not winning the war. But there were no reported regrets for the policies of conquest and, barbarism, except some criticism by one old pre-war liberal, Osaki, who had been arrested during the war. The eémperor- in his rescript did not. even mention ¥defeat” or “surrender.” He spoke of the necessity of gaining world confidence or face, and of fostering “concord and amity with all nations.” He ordered that his “subjects shall unite in service for the state.” ; The emperor chose to appear in the uniform of a grand ~ marshal of the Jap army. The lower house in reply to the * imperial rescript voted its “appreciation for the efforts exerted by the officers and men of the imperial forces as well as endeavors on the home front.” Although the house of peers did “acknowledge the

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- sorrow that Japanese aggression failed rather than any ~ sense of guilt that it was attempted.

RA B that at the beginning he “wanted to fight the United ~ States—everyone then believed in victory.” But, he com- . plained, “the Japanese government theated us because it told us we had more strength than we actually had.” Perhaps this revelation of the unrepentant Jap attitude is a useful warning to any’ Americans foolish enough to expect any genuine conversion or sense of war guilt on the part of the Jap military and ruling castes. . But we can see nothing useful in allowing Jap ar- - Yogance fo reach the point of excluding allied officers and correspondents from governmental proceedings supposed to be under allied control by the surrender terms. Fortu: _ nately, Supreme Commander MacArthur's army of occupation will take over Tokyo within a few hours.

MODEST MEMORIAL |

E are glad to learn that the grandiose plans for a multi-million dollar memorial to Ernie Pylé in Indiana | have been dropped, as Mrs. Pyle requested. Instead, the people of Dana and nearby communities ._ how propose to build a modest library, Dana's size, in Dana where Ernie spent his boyhood. It will be dignified, and useful, but not lavish or ostentatious. That makes sense, It is the sort of thing Ernie's family and friends can feel is in keeping with his own personality. There is to be no high-pressure promotional campaign, and no nation-wide hat-passing to finance this memorial, Naturally the committee will require funds to build and maintain the Dana library. These they expect to obtain, in quiet good taste, from contributions by sincere admirers of Ernie Pyle in Indiana, and elsewhere. The high standing | in this community and in this state of the sponsors of this | plan makes it possible for those admirers to contribute, with full confidence in its complete integrity. This is a program which the friends and associates and family of this great Hoosier can view without misgiving and to which his wife, who is most concerned, has given her approval.

We wish its sponsors full success in the completion of it. :

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VICTORY OVER DISEASE

(ONE highly dignificant statement was that recently from army medical corps sources to the effect that, for the first time in the history of war in Europe, more men were admitted to American theater hospitals for treatment of | battle wounds than for diseases. The same fortunate situation seems to have existed in the Pacific as well: The amazing record for the American forces doubtless ! has been due, in some degree, to the fact that Uncle Sam's fighting men, taken as a whole, were the healthiest ever to be sent into battle. But, beyond any question, the most important factors were the safeguards taken to protect the health of our soldiers and sailors. “Never in any war has any nation given such vigorous and intelligent attention to the prevention of diseases—nparticularly germ diseases of the type which have or no respect for natural resistance. This was a proction provided through such expedients as destruction of tin and the provision of opportunity for uncontami-| ted drinking water. No one knows how many men we ved from sickness or death through such measures, bu ainly the number totaled in the many, many thousands. if war a be productive of blessings, the experi-|

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WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ

excluded from the opening session attended by the emperor. | They were not even allowed to obtain directly the text of |

go-called approved version from the Jap propaganda radio |

. reality of our defeat,” the whole spirit of the occasion was

® » » . - 3 RON WAKATSUKI, a former premier, put it bluntly ||

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By Frank Aston.

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kissing our men, that the visitor

erally lets it go at that, However, a Latin on the homegrounds with fly with a lip~to-cheek smooch,

Italians and Spanish. Kissing between male and female is native to Europe and never was dreamed

the blissful possibilities. In some places it caught on right away; but in interior China, for instance, the natives still insist that a fellow kissing a ‘girl is acting like a cannibal and therefore is repugnant. Educated Chinese have been known to cast off this aversion. The Scotch had little success spreading their variation on kissing the bride. After an oldfashioned Scotch wedding ceremony, the bride went from man to man in the assemblage and allowed him to kiss her. Then she passel the plate, with the hint that each lucky man should pay for his privilege,

'X' Kisses Now Outmoded | PSYCHOLOGISTS say the fun of kissing is asso- { clated with the senses of touch, smell and sight. The least acute reaction comes from sight. Not so long ago a belle writing to her beau closed with a row of X's, each X being a kind of kiss in the eye. Nowadays & babe presses her rouged lips to the paper and the recipient gets a correspondingly heavier Jolt, although it still comes by eye, : The kiss by smell reached some kind of a peak in southeastern India. Affectionate couples would rush io each other and exclaim: “Smell me” They then would rub noses and inhale. The Laplanders do it in the same respiratory way, except they don't say anything, : > Some jungle natives miss the point altogether in their kissing. One African tribe kisses the ground where. the loved one has walked. In Australia a bush tribe breathes on the path of the beloved. In French Indo-China they're so mistaken about the possibilities of kissing that a kiss is a threat.

Women Driven to Veils

MONTAIGNE records that any Frenchman of means-in the 1500s was privileged to kiss-any woman he fancied. This habit spread fast, with a result that many a woman appeared in public only under veil and often with armed escort. When dancing became popular it was a custom

of the French to end each round with a’ kiss, Louis |

XII is credited with having kissed every woman in ‘Normandy. Pliny says that Cato believed husbands Inaugurated kissing to ascertain whether their wives had been drinking. Kissing under mistletoe, according to Louis Dorsch, traces to a Scandinavian legend that Frigga, goddess of the sky, would protect lovers who embraced under the mistletoe bough. ; There actually is a “kissing bug” It has a long, Latin name.. When it bites it hurts. The trick of throwing a kiss has been run back. to. practice of kissing the hand before a statue. .._ Japanese literature does not mention kisses or embraces. Mothers do not kiss children after infancy, girls don’t exchange embraces and a Jap boy never thinks of kissing his’ Jap girl, :

WORLD AFFAIRS—

Attlee’s Task

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6.--When 4 prominent Frenchman visits this country the newspapers show him As a matter of news reporting, it may be recorded doesn’t actually plant a smacker. He pushes a cheek up against our boy's cheek and gen performing another Latin often lets

Man-to-man kissing is peculiar to the French,

of elsewhere until traveling Europeans demonstrated

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t“NOT GIVING VOLUNTEER SYSTEM FULL TEST” By Howard H. Bates, 4915 N, Capitol ave. In all of the proposed solutions for the problem of manpower for the armies of occupation, the authorities are not giving the volunteer system the fullest test. It is possible for a man to volunteer at this time for the regular army, and such enlistments should be encouraged. These regular army enlistments are for three years and the man is assigned without regard to his place of origin. No fault can be found with this system for the “long range” and “over all” reaction of our regular army. However, the nation is faced with the immediate problem of creating occupational armies and relieving the fighting veterans of our

By Edward A. Evans

LONDON, Sept. 6.—~Much that goes on in the early weeks of Britains new labor government re-

own New Deal's infancy, i= There's a lot of the hopeful, excited bustle that Washington knew in 1933. And quite a bit of the confusion. There are groans from the far right that the country is headed for communism and loss of free-dom-which most of the British people plainly don't believe. And, from the far left, impatient calls for faster, bolder steps than are being taken toward the labor party's goal of a planned socialist economy, There are, of course, great differences. Here“it is a ‘rather colorless, plain-spoken middle class citizen—Prime Minister Clement Attlee—who has been called to. leadership, displacing the ‘eloquent, glamorous and aristocratic Winston Churchill, And here it is unlikely that a startling procession of white rabbits will come popping out of anybody's hat. In its first year, at least, the government isn't expected to go much beyond the legislative program outlined as the nqw parliament met, Labor party leaders apparently feel that—what | with demobilization, reconversion, shortages of food, fuel, clothing and housing, and the desperate need to rebuild foreign trade—they have enough tough probs lems just ahead.

Many Are Reassured

THEY SEEM disposed to let many of their more controversial reform proposals wait while they grapple with immediate difficulties created or aggravated by six years of war, Their first-year program has disappointed some people who, having voted for socialism, want it in big, quick doses. Its mildness has reassured others who were frightened, during the election campaign, by the dire predictions from Mr. Churchill and his conservative supporters of what a labor victory would mean, “The first year's agenda”~as that scholarly magazine, the London Economist, observed—“is clearly only a first instalment. But it is not an instalment of Red revolution,” Many conservatives, for instance, agree with the Laborites that the government must take over the British coal mines, They see no other hepe of curing a desperately sick and vitally important industry which has been unable to remedy its own ineffecient methods, high costs and low wages. % In this case, chief controversy is over details. Strong opposition is said to be probable if the government simply undertakes to shift control of the coal Industry to the miners’ ‘union through a poliiteally~ appointed board, For there is much public feeling that the miners, by resisting introduction of laborsaving machinery and methods, have shared the private owners’ guilt for the sad state of coal.

Investment Planning

NATIONALIZING the Bank of England seems to be a less radical scheme than it sounds. Informed Londoners say it will assure bank assistance for gov~

to public ownership of what is already, in practice, a

public institution. “Effective planning of jnvestment” is another point in the first-year program. The conservative papers have been asking whether little people are to be told where to invest their shillings, as well as great ists their thousands of pounds. And whether the government is prepared to guarantee safety for money invested as it orders. ¢ 3 : ‘However, pénding fuller

pear to be worrying. TN phos notice

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pational troops” with a table of minds an American visitor of our |

victorious forces. 1 suggest the following plan: Direet and authorize each state 9 the union to proceed to enlist and {organize (within the state) “occuorganization similar to the present military police battalions: Make the raising of these forces a state function and encourage the formation of platoons, companies and battalions in each township, county, city and town. Stress the fact that the volunteers would serve with the men from their own community and under officers from their’ own state. The physical standards should be revised downward ,and made flexible. The enlistment period should be 18 months. > After the initial “muster in” of the battalions into federal service, and their departure for occupational duty, recruiting should continue in each state. The recruits should be assured that they would serve in the unit "of their choice. Comparatively few individual men will enlist for three years in regular army service in strange units with strangers 1 feel that many men would be vitally interested in serving for 18 months in the Irvington platoon of an Indianapolis company in an Indiana battalion. ‘There are many men recently out of service who would join these state-sponsored, federally recognized and disciplined troops. Parents would encourage many ons to enlist for the 18-month period if they were assured that the young men would serve with neighbors and friends and under the command of local affairs. Vast camps and cantonments are

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Forum iu:

(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 responsi. bility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

licity. and enthusiasm I believe that a substantial part of the troops needed for occupation can be raised by a well formulated volunteer plan. | Under the federal and state constitutions and statutes the President can simply call upon the governors of the states to organize and present the troops for “muster in” to the federal service. The governors should then proceeds to hold rallies, newspaper campaigns,” radio talks and appeals, and establish enrolling stations for the units. _ During the civil war many regiments were organized entirely within a city, county or congressional district. The local citizens at home followed with pride the record of their own units.

» » » “19 POINTS DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING” By L. White, 1417 8. Belmont ave. { I share the attitude of- Mr. Rus{sell, 1635 Martinddle, whose letter | appeared Aug. 30. Some things seem unfair or at least seem so when compared. Here is a record that should cool some of the overseas protests coming from men who were given at least a 30-day furlough before going to the Pacific from Europe. My flance has served 27 months in. ETO and he saw 300 days of combat from Salerno to Pisa, Italy, Anzio beachhead being the blood« jest. Aug. 12 he was somewhere in the Pacific being sent there directly from France, Seventy-nine points didn’t mean anything and a 30-day furlough unknown. - a

He is just one man. How about the others in the same boat? Will they be given a chance to come home first or will we find them

standing idle, and with proper pub-

Carnival — By Dick Turner

trickling in when room is found?

HE

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"1 wholly disagree with what

{it fair to release single men and

By Mrs. B. Coin, 1922 N. LaSalle st.

y, but will defend to the your right to say i.”

“IS IT FAIR TO RELEASE SINGLE MEN?” By a Serviceman, Indianapolis

I just finished reading a writer's story about the fine vacation he is going on and all the things he is going to demand at hotels, candy shops, gas stations and such. It kind of made me feel bad, and a lot of fellows in my position being married and having two or three children are going on a vacation, too, but we are going to Japan. While the war was on we knew there was a job to do over there, but since the end of the war we have been wondering if we're not getting a rotten deal. If a man is married and has two children and one year in the service, he has only 36 points. His chances of returning home and giving his family a decent way of living are very slim. Isd

leave this class of men holding the bag? 5

2 = “YOU CAN HAVE YOUR sOoUP

hs public eye.

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Press Men

{By Douglas Larsen

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6.—One of the people least}

, known publicly, but exerting most influence on the | | public, is the government press agent. To make it

less obnoxious to congréss when the appropriation or this item appears in the budget, they are called

| “information men.”

Their job, with variations, is to keep-John Q. Public convinced that the big boss is the only man in the U. 8. for his job and everything his agency does is strictly in jthe best interest of the people. ‘Usually, because m~st of the destings are with the press, an ex-newspaperman gets the job. ; "If he’s doing a good job he knows everything that's

| going on in am agency and is present when top policy | [1s being informed. He's the people's representative | at meetings when the big shots get together to decide

what new regulation to throw at the public. , It's ustially his decision as to whether the public can take it or not. "Keeping the big hoss out of trouble with the press

| | frequently becomes a major ‘task for these public | | relations men, Next to Secretary of Interior Harold ° | Ickes, maybe, who is only happy when he’s battling | | the press, former Attorney General Francis Biddle

had the best knack for getting himself in bad in the If it wasn't taking over a mail order house it was trying to fire one of his unruly assistants, with each maneuver blatantly recorded on p. su me of every paper in the country. ]

| Biddle a Problem

9 ROTUND, jolly Charles Malcolmson, former

| Washington correspondent for the Philadelphia Rec-

ord, had the herculean task of keeping Biddle out of the public frying pan. What he had to do frequently, no city editor would ask a cub reporter to-do. With | an audible sigh of relief he decided to take a long

rest when the new attorney general took over.

It is well known ‘in inner circles that Biddle was dead set against the government taking over Montgomery Ward. But the President and Jimmy Byrnes

Charlie behind the scenes to ease the fall. With the

situation as it was, it is recognized he did a good job. Such things as Biddle’s being snapped in a picture at the last convention in Chicago with a ridiculous paper hat askew on his head doing some kind of a jig that gave the appearance of his being tip€y gave Malcolmson many a sleepless night. ! Frequently these information men turn up with something that saves the taxpayer dough and makes everybody happy. One of the best recent examples was performed by Bob Horton, head of public relations for the maritime commission and one of the best known of his clan in government and newspaper circles.

Gets Rid of Life Rafts

POR MANY months. the navy had been trying desperately to dispose of a huge batch of life rafts declared surplus, They couldn't get rid of them at $5 a piece, and finally in utter disgust turned them over to maritime, 3 Result was a flood of attractive posters and descriptive material showing how these rafts could be used at summer resorts. The whole she-bang was sold at 50 smackers each. : Selling OPA to the public has been the toughest public-relations job in government. A steady stream of everything from- advertising executives to college professors has tried and thrown hands up in despair. A former college professor, Bob Brooks, who has been

the job, and succeeding better than average, Office of defense transportation has a tough job. With transportation at its tightest, ODT has no enforcement branch and practically no enforcement power. In spite of this, the director of formation for that ageney, Charles E. V. Prins, who just re-

LINES IF YOU WANT THEM” By W: A. Wise, 4621 E. 16th si.

In answer to C.D. C.: i So you think the OPA was born back in 1931. If so, I say give us more of it. Back in 1931 you may not have needed points to buy meat and a pot to cook it'in. I managed to get by doing all sorts of odd jobs, even working outside that real cold winter when it got down to 18 degrees below and froze my fingers and toes. Then came the NRA. But your “big shots” wanted to keep the laboring man down and managed to get it kicked out but our “great” President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not be stopped and gave the working class of people a new and “fair” deal. So today I am proud to say the FHA (thank God and our New Deal for it) and I together own a nice home for my wife, three sons and myself, You can have your soup lines if you want them but I for one know what it is to be “cold and hungry” and will take the New Desl, pay my taxes, buy war bonds and feed and clothé my family in spite of the shortage without the aid of the black market. We may have a shortage now but thanks to the New Deal, we don't have to “see” a lot of food we would “like” to have but no money to buy them with. Think it over, Mr. or Mrs. Cc. D.C. » » »

“HELP SOLDIERS HAVE TRIAL IN OWN COUNTRY”

Sometime last spring there were millions of American hearts brought to the bolling point over American

that same feeling in the case of Pfc. Robert Colby, of Geetingsville, Ind., tried and convicted on a mur-

[IN WASHINGTON—

signed, succeeded in cutting down civilian travel 9 per cent during the first three months of 1945, the frst drop it took during the war. This was striculy through public relations.

New Houses

By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6.—All the = din now heard over rumors of new | government controls and price ceil-" ings on that new house you are’ supposed to be wanting to d seems to boil down to three principal proposals which are now being considered at those trite old highest levels in Washington: 1. A proposal to limit the cost of a new house to, say $12,000. The present limit is $8000. Originally it was $6000. But even at the $8000 figure, home builders say they can make no profit at present high prices of labor and materials. : 2. A proposal to have the plans and specifications

. for each new house submitted by the builders to

office of price administration or national housing agency. OPA or NHA would make an appraisal, set a fai ce and then grant a permit to build and sell at its ceiling figure. 3. A proposal to remove all controls on private home building, giving the industry the green light. The background fighting over these questions is hot*and heavy. Final decision will be made by office of war mobilization director John*W. Snyder, with the nod of the President himself. It is that important.

Working on Recommendations RECOMMENDATIONS to Snyder are now being worked out by a construction co-ordination committee, headed by Hugh Potter of Houston, Tex. a real estate developer who was in Washington with the building code authority in NRA days. On his committee are the heads of the top war agencies. They are lined up like this: Potter and WPB Chairman Krug of all WPB controls at once. Office of economic stabilization. director Will H. Davis and housing administrator John B. Blandford Jr, say controls must stay on. If controls are removed, they argue, there will be a mad scramble

favor removal

There has just leaked out of OPA, however, a sixpage memo signed by Karl Mathiewson of the build: ing materials and construction price branch and

with. OPA for a long time, is currently trying to do

insisted, so it fell to Biddle to be the fall guy, with

Horton got his staff together and talked it over. =