Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 September 1945 — Page 20

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USSIA’S effort to pick a quarrel with the United States & over the occupation of Japan does not make sense. With the council of foreign ministers unable to agree #4 European disputes, and with the Russians challenging he British and the French at every turn, there would seem be better work for Mr. Molotov to do than to trump up “nother issue with the United States. ; iy * The explanation in London is that he thinks this is good bargaining technique: Maybe so. But it looks pretty ‘dangerous to us. ks ++ «Mr. Molotov raised ‘ference, ‘despite the fact that it was not on the agenda ‘agreed fo by Marshal Stalin and although virtually all of the questions on that agenda had been deadlocked by the Russians, According to Mr. Molotov, the United States is not doing a good job in the occupation of Japan and therefore Russia should be given a hand in it. The net impression from this is that the United States is going it alone in Japan, without consulting our allies and in defiance of their ‘wishes and rights. Bo . #8 yan FHE facts are the exact opposite. Marshal Stalin had an equal voice with Britain and the United States in fixing the Jap surrender terms and conditions of occupation. He agreed to Gen. MacArthur as the supreme allied commander in Japan—the Russians are occupying south Sakalin, the Kuriles, parts of China and parts of Korea; and the British and Dutch are cleaning up, in the Pacific south of the Philip- ~ pines and in southeast Asia. : We can only conclude that Mr. Molotov, in trying to _ smear the United States as a dictator in the Far East, hopes to shift world attention from Russian dictatorship of liberated eastern European countries in violation of repeated Stalin pledges. J A good case for an allied Pacific council can be made | by Australia and others, who have had little voice: But {not by Russia, who has shared all major decisions—despite her belated and small contribution to Pacific victory,

STILL CLASS CONSCIOUS

\NE of America’s great assets has been the Horatio Alger concept; a thing which grew with America. From rags to riches, and all that, and never mind where 1 came from. Very little if any attention to whether one was born on one side of the tracks or the other. ° Check the big shots in industry or finance or labor leadership and you discover that few if any were “of the purple.” In fact, the harder the going the farther they went, if they had what it takes; but without inhibition as to papa's social standing or whether grandpa was a duke or an earl, . : That is generally true of the American attitude toward the struggle of life and the pursuit of happiness. . But, deeply imbedded in English and Russian history is a class consciousness. It runs to centuries of kings and czars and major and minor titles of royalty implying divine right, “the boasts of heraldry and the pomp of power.”

» » » » » » ’ SO after all the efforts toward leveling off that we have seen both in Russia and in England we find cropping out the old class instinct, from two men who typify the social struggle which America, by the Horatio Alger route, threw off generations ago. We quote a colloquy between Ernest Bevin, foreign secretary of Great Britain, -and Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov of Russia, both symbols of the class struggle yet both revealing themselves as at least sub-consciously conscious of the past. Bevin: “I am tired of always being the butt for agcusations. It is as though I am always being put in the prisoners’ dock. Is it because I used to be a docker?” Molotov: “Well, I don't know, but there is one thing you and I have in common anyway. Our nobility is not very old.”

a ———

REPEAL SMITH-CONNALLY

THE Smith-Connally act was adopted by Congress in haste and heat as a measure supposed to prevent war. time strikes. It was never a good law. In present circumstances it is an absurd law. Congress should repeal it. Complying with one provision of this act, the C. I. 0. auto workers’ union has asked the government to take a strike vote in 96 General Motors plants. The vote, if taken, will cost the taxpayers about $150,000. The General Motors workers will be askéd—more than two months after the war ended—whether they favor a strike that! would “interrupt war production.” The redl question now, of course, is whether strikes and strike threats shall stall reconversion and delay peacetime production. But that question couldn't be asked under the Smith-Connally act. Union officials have told the workers that government policy is for higher living standards and full employment, and that demanding and getting an immediate 30 per cent increase in hourly wages would promote this policy. The government's policy as to wages, and their effect on prices and production, has never been clearly stated. Small wonder if the workers believe their leaders. "The union officials are} naturally, certain that the workers would vote overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Otherwige, they wouldn't ask the government to conduct a poll. If a strike were started without a vote, the union and its members couldn't be penalized under the Smith-Connally act, The government could do nothing moré*than seize the General Motors plants, and that would neither speed reconversion, produce automobiles nor create peacetime jobs. b The requested vote would waste $150,000 and accom- ~ plish nothing except to give some semblance of government approval to a strike. Repeal of the Smith-Conndlly ‘act ould kill the war labor board, but that board is practically anyway. There is urgent need for sound, careful,

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4

Business Manager :

Wardrobes By Anton Scherrer ;

AN ARTISTIC phenomenon that might reward study is the hitherto

the Nineties; novelists took a turn for the better and dressed their heroines, I saw it happen with my own eyes, . Up until that time, novelists had little regard for the appearance of their characters. They cared even less about the wardrobes of their heroines. Indeed, the heroines went about thelr business in a state of nakedness so far as the reader was concerned, It | wasn't as exciting as that, of course, but it nevertheless remains a fact that Victorian novelists seldom, if ever, told their readers how their heroines were dressed: To be sure Thackeray, on one occasion, threw caution to the winds and described Becky Sharpe in “a pink dress as fresh as a rose” while, peeping from under the hem, was “the prettiest little foot in the prettiest little sandal in the finest silk stocking in the world,

Disclosed Stockings

AND ONCE, I seem to remember, he lifted Beatrix Esmond’s skirt high enough to disclose a pair of red stockings decorated with silver ‘clocks. Except for these two relatively insignificant revelations, Thackeray was woefully ignorant of what his heroines wore. Charles Dickens was even more pathetic, The farthest he ever got was to mention Dolly Varden’s “cherry colored ribbons.” Nor were the women

the Jap issue at the London con- | novelists any better. The Bronte sisters, for instance, |,

never mentioned: the subject and, goodness knows, they had plenty of opportunities to make clotheshorses of their heroines. As for Jane Austen, I can excuse her, Poor thing, she was always so concerned with ailing characters and sick scenes, both of which called for nothing more than nightgowns, : Well, as I started to say: It was during my formative years in the Nineties that novelists took a turn for the better, The first to open my eyes was Maria Louisa de la Ramee, the Norman-English novelist who masqueraded under the pseudonym of “Ouida.” I still remember that her Lady Joan looked her best when dressed in black with a collar of diamonds around her throat. On the other hand, her Princess Naproxine always dressed in a pink silk negligee when she received company in her boudoir, And another heroine of hers, whose name has escaped me, always wore a balayeuse (dust ruffle to you) trimmed with old Mechlin lace when she dressed for a conquest: As for Mme. de Sonnaz, probably the prize of Ouida's brood, she did her conquering arrayed in a wrap made of golden feathers.

Complexion-Conscious

I BELIEVE it was Ouida, too, who first put me wise to the fact that a woman had to have a mighty good complexion to be able to wear yellow. On second thought, maybe it wasn't Ouida at all, Maybe, t was the “Duchess,” the pen-name of Margaret Wolfe Hungerford who, too, had a flair for describe Ing clothes. She wasn't as good as Ouida, though. When caught in a pinch, the Duchess usually dodged the issue by reaching for glittering generalities, such as “clinging drapery” and “priceless lace.” At that,

these generalities appeared, I had my mind made up that the Duchess’ heroines were up to their old tricks again, Strangely enough, the men novelists of the Nineties knew more about dressing their heroines to advantage than did the women. William Black's “Yélande” was a perfectly charming picture as she stood in Ja white dress trimmed with black velvet.” On another occasion, she sat on the deck of a ship in “dark- blue linen with a silver girdle.” Had Ouida handled that situation, sure as shootin’, she would have had Yolande turn up In a yachting costume made of red velvet trimmed with ermine. Like as not, too, there would have been a dust ruffle;

FOREIGN AFFAIRS—

Like 1919

By William Philip Simms

- suppressed fact that, sometime in |.

they were good enough to orient the reader. Soon as it

og ALBY

They Always Itch When You First Change Over

eo > a

Hoosier “HAVE 1 HAD CHANCE TO PROVIDE FOR FUTURE?”

By P. JAE, Camp Atterbury x I am writing in reference to an

article in your editorial page entitled “Is It Fair to Release Single Men?” Now this poor man who has his family started doesn’t want a single

man to have an opportunity to start a family too. While we fought over there he had a nice job in a defense factory making a fortune (compared to what we made) and doesn’t want to be left holding the bag as he puts . What he meant was he didn’t want to do his share. I'll admit that the workers in defense factories did a wonderful job, at a wonderful wage scale. If a man who has worked for the past three years hasn’t a nice fat bank account that's no one's fault but his own. I (and thousands like me) were caught in the draft just as we turned 18 after ‘just having finished school. Now I'm 21, have I had a chance to raise a family or provide some security for the future? Am I wrong in askIng that someone should take the places of men like myself and allow us to start making a secure future or would you rather we stay in the army and let us rot? Even my point of view with 18 months overseas and three years in the army is unfair, because even before I can start thinking of complaining, there are others before me, men who have 30 or more months overseas and many

use he makes of

depends the future of the United Nations peace | Release Single Men” this is my organization. ’

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28.—In a | years in the army. But when my day or so Secretary of State James | turn comes to get out I don’t want F. Byrnes will return from London {to be left because a man with a empty-handed save for a satchel | family can’t give a year to protecting full of bitter experience. On the |this great country of ours. So in that experience, diplomats here say, | answer to the question “Is It Fair to

answer, crude as it may be, Nalvely Mr. Byrnes went to London expecting Nu

Russia, Britain and the rest to live up to their war | “IF YOU WANT TO GET aims as publicly and officially expressed, time and | FACTS, ASK THE G. I again. What he encountered was demands for terri- By Cpl. John F, McCullough, Camp

| whelmingly on his

in the field of labor-management

tory and loot based on conquest. The promises of the Atlantic Charter, Yalta, San Prancisco and Potsdam had been consigned to the ashean. As soon as the gavel fell, according to reports, Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov laid down the law. What Russia had tagged as hers—Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania, Finland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Eastern Germany. . and Prussia—was to be severely let alone. What went on there, was not open to question. What was left, she would share with the allles—in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, the Middle and Far East, and the Pacific ocean, There was power politics and bargaining behind closed doors. Nations without any interest in certain problems were invited in. Others, vitally concerned, were barred, For sordidness, this first “peace” parley made the 1019 peace conference look like a thing of sweetness and light,

v

U. S. Faces Dilemma

AS A result, in the opinion of foreign observers, She U. 8. today faces a dilemma. Either it will get tough and. insist on a peace which will be worth fighting for, or, in disgust, turn isolationist again and refuse to implement its membership in the new league of nations, Already there are signs of a backward swing of the pendulum. Up to now American sentiment has been overwhelmingly in favor of world co-operation. Many soldiers, however, are returning home as disillusioned as Mr. Byrnes seems to be. From Normandy's apple orchards to India’s coral strand, some of them are saying, the natives seem to regard them as interlopers, 3 Implications that we did not do very much in the war anyway, and that we still owe additional billions of dollars to our allies who did so much more, aren't helping. So for one reason or’ another, propaganda is springing up not only against long years of occupation abroad, but even against armed services adequate

to hold up our end as a great power—a dangerous phenomenon, :

Predict U. S. Retirement FOREIGN observers—-especially those representing the small democracies—are becoming | over U. 8. policy. They say that unless all signs fail, the U. 8. will abdicate its present world leadership without ever having made a serious effort to exercise it. Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, chief of

democracy, “most 45" members of the United Nations admit the U, 8. Is their main hope. . "Af San Prancisco it was axiomatic that world peace ultimately depended on a Big Three understanding. If the U. 8., Britain and Russia fell out, the new United Nations organiwation wouldn't be

Atterbury In an editorial recently you stat-

ed that 3000 soldiers were being dis charged at the separation center

at this camp each day, Did your paper ever investigate to find out how many are being discharged? It stated 3000 a day, One way to find out is do as one reporter I know of and who gave his all in the Pacific and asked the

anything about the actual facts and conditions, He did not ask some brass hat soda jerker general. He went out and found out from the soldier in the line. We, and I myself, always thought you had a very good paper, but lies like you are printing will do your paper no good. It pays to tell the truth as I've found out time and again, Hoping you really look in to this and real soon.

G. I. when he wanted to find out’

Forum

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, let= ters 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.)

“WE DO STILL HAVE RESPECTABLE SOLDIERS” By Mrs. B. Coin, 1922 N. La Salle st. In answer to Mrs. A. A. of Indianapolis, I do not wish to carry my recent article on Pfc. Colby into a feud but would like very much to make my previous article clear to a few misinterpreters. In the first place, I doubt very much if any real mother would wish for another mother’s son to be killed and I might add “let he who fis without sin among us cast the first stone.” Although Mrs. A. A. stressed the fact of the Ten Commandments, she evidently forgets that that is just what Pfe. Colby was sent overseas to do. Whether he thought it right or not. He was issued a gun and if he did not already know how to use it, he was taught. : Also I disagree with her that prayers will not help. I for one have enough faith to believe that, as we who know him feel, he was at the time, whether drunk or sober, under too much of a strain to be himself, My pleas were mostly to stress the point of having a trial for our war prisoners the same as for our civilians, I believe if Mrs. A. A. will investigate further she will find that in civilian life a person is innocent until proven guilty, while in army life one is guilty until he can prove himself innocent. I am in complete sympathy with the families of the officers who were killed but also I believe that capital punishment is as murderous as any other way of taking life. Also, Mrs. A. A, you spoke of Pfc. Colby as being yellow. Can you truthfully call a boy who has been through as many battles as he “yellow?” As for our servicemen who are being robbed here in town, I am sure they are not all drunks as you called them. It is bad enough for these soldiers to be in a strange town without being called “drunks” just because they are robbed. After all, we do still have respectable soldiers and ‘just because they take a few drinks now and then does not make them liars and criminals,

Side Glances—By Galbraith

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

| By Veteran of '18, Indianapolis

“RICH MAN'S WAR AND POOR MAN’S FIGHT” By C. D. C., Indianapolis Since I have noticed there is con= siderable criticism by various peo= ple of the brass hats who would like to see young officers given prefer« ence in civilian jobs, it is my belief that the general public does not fully understand the caste system as applied to the armed forces. First, let us remember that wars are a rich man's war and a poor man’s fight, Second, there is no people's war because, if so, there would be no war, and third, we get exactly what we vote for. Suppose as an example, a movie star, a millionaire’s son or a wellknown politician's son or someone who is either prominent or has a political pull should decide to enlist in the coast guard. He might not have but very little ability but he might go in as a machinist’s mate or an electrician’s mate, or almost anything else, If he happened to own a yacht he might even lease his yacht to the government and also receive a commission as captain of his own yacht. He would be given a left arm rating which carries with it a minimum of authority and a maximum of safety. He would in all probability be given some good safe berth either along the coast or possibly the Great Lakes. s If he did not ask for a transfer or to be shipped out he would probably be in comparative safety for the duration of the war. This is merely one example I have mentioned. Take, for example, the Roosevelt boys. They have all received left arm ratings and have been decorated for bravery, etc. Incidentally, a right arm rating is the one that comes the hard way. However, here is the question: Suppose an employer ‘was hiring 1» man for a good job. Would he give it to one of the Roosevelt boys or a buck private who fought on Wake island, Iwo Jima or some of the other hell holes in this war? I still believe the boys with the left arm rating are going to win without the help of the brass hats.

» nn “CONGRESS OF UNITED STATES KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH”

Well, I see where Sister Walter Haggerty (Mrs. No-Election Haggerty) has another of her sparkling expositions of the United States Constitution in today’s Times. And she wound up by praising President Truman, Only last year, 1944, Mrs. Haggerty was dead set against Mr. Truman and didn’t want any election at. all. She praised Uncle Joe Stalin, who doesn’t hold any elections, either,

Constitution . are amusing. She spends most of her paper out congress and uplifting the executive. If she will read the Constitution carefully she will find that the congress of the United States ig the keystone of the arch.

whom we vote for. The President is elected by someone else, and the supreme court judges are appointed

| Truman Tr

‘fis joining regularly with Republicans to wreck the

pOLITICS—, | 0

Ip By Thomas L. Stokes WASHINGTON, Sept. 28.—Pres-

the territory of his friendly enemies CS in congress who are causing him so ig much trouble on Capitol Hill. He will visit North

Carolina and Georgia. . In North Carolina he will speak at Statesville Nov. 2. He will attend a Georgia Tech-Duke. university football game in Atlanta the next day. On

‘I the following day he will visit Warm Springs and

lunch with patients at the hospital”in which the late Président Roosevelt was so interested. In going to North Carolina the President is fulfilling an engagement he had made while Vice President for an earlier date, last June. He had fo call off the engagement when he assumed the pressing burdens of the presidency. Rep. Doughton (D. N. C.) had requested the visit. Statesville is in Mr. Doughton’s district; ; Chairman Doughton now has announced that the

President will make a “major address” at Statesville.

It would be a most appropriate place for Mr. Tru-

| man to talk about something that is disturbing lots

of people, including the President himself, and in other parts of the country besides the South. This topic is the way a bloc of Southern Democrats

important parts of his program, Place Is Appropriate

IT IS A subject of major importance ‘nationally,

| for people in Detroit, and Seattle, and Boston, are

affected by the work of this “wrecking crew” from the South which represents a minority of thé nation, ‘and even a minority of the people they are supposed to ‘represent. Sime The place for the speech is peculiarly appropriate because Mr. Doughton is chairman of the house ways and means committee which has just shelved indefinitely all proposals including the President's for increasing the amount and duration and coverage of unemployment henefits for the reconversion program, : . The postponement was effected by three Southern Democratic members and a border state Democrat joining with Republicans. Ri fd : Mr. Doughton voted against. taking up she KijlgoreForand bill embodying the President's program which the senate scuttled though he did vote against postponing consideration of all pending bills. But he is not sympathetic with the President's program as is well known. The committee decision suited him. Last year this same committee toré to pieces a similar program proposed by the Roosevelt administration, Since then there has-been an election. But Mr, Doughton and some .of his Southern Democratic colleagues seem unaware of it. When President Truman first asked for his program several weeks ago Mr. Doughton promptly declined to call his committee together to do anything about it.

Could Inform Many sli EL IT WAS in Georgia that the late President Roosevelt opened seven years ago his campaign to unseat .Democrats whom he considered hostile fo his program —that abortive adventure: named “the purge” by his enemies. It was at Barnesville. Ga., that he called for the defeat of Senator Walter F. George who, incidentally, led the fight against. President ‘Truman's unemployment ' benefit program recently, with :Republican allies. ; : Nobody expects . Harry Truman to go that “far. But he would encourage lots of people in the South, who were first encouraged and aided by Mr. Roosevelt's 1938 campaign, if he merely pointed out in his “major address” what their representatives are doing in Washington. It would be influential, coming from him, and it probably would be news to many

He could also make some reference to the, poll taxes which are a prerequisite to voting in some southern states, though not now in North Carolina and Georgia. He could also refer other restrictions ‘of voting. He voted in the senate for elimination of poll as a voting requirement in election of federal officials. Thus he would put his finger upon the reasons for the tight little “rotten boroughs’ in the South which make’ it possible for their representatives to represent only a minority. Whether he will, of course, is another matter.

IN WASHINGTON—

Experience By Frank Aston

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28.—William DeWitt Mitchell, 71, newly named chief counsel of the Pearl Harbor congressional investigating committee, learned 13 years ago about political storms in the wake of war. Mt. Mitchell was attorney general throughout the Hoover administration. In the summer of 1032 a bonus army camped in Washington. On July 28, Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur's soldiers dispersed the marchers with fire and force. Attorney General Mitchell reported that the bonus marchers “probably brought intq Washington the largest aggregation of criminals ever assembled in the city.” His charge was denied by Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines, director of the veterans administration, and by Pelham D. Glassford, Washington police chief.

Statement Contradicted GEN. HINES declared that 90 per cent of the bonus marchers were war veterans and that twothirds of them had served overseas in world war I. Chief Glassford said Mr, Mitchell's report contained “assertions which are in conflict with police records and with facts known to the police department.” The chief asserted that there was a decrease in crime during the bonus siege and that the number of radicals at no time more than 230. He added that the majority of ‘the veterans remained orderly and that, contrary to Mr. Mitchell's charges, at no time did he (Chief Glassford) request the use of federal troops. £ Mr. Mitchell became attorney general after serving as solicitor general under President Coolidge. A justice-department report refers to his “quiet, master ful pleadings” as solicitor general and to “the same dignity and force” under Mr, Hoover. ' He 1s of medium height and medium weight, reserved and dignified.

Refused to Talk A REPORTER who asked him for an interview after his Pearl Harbor appointment was told: “I cannot talk to the press until I have conferred with the committee. It would not be becoming for me to act at the moment as press spokesman for the committee.” Wn : ® When the reporter said heswished to Inquire about his career, the reply was: “You can get such

rubbish out of a book.” Justice deparfment employees recall that Mr, Mitchell seldom was tagged as a good mixer, “He was a fine man,” one sald. “I'd say he had an hl ? remember him as going briskly, pre-

persons, For they are not reminded of this too often. .

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