Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 September 1945 — Page 6

REFLECTIONS —

PAGE 6 Saturday, Sept. 29, 1945 ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President Editor Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) li == price in Marion Coun-

ty, 5 cents a copy; deliv ered by carrier, 20 cents a week.

Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, uU. 8 and Mexico, 87 cents a

month. 59 © RILEY 5551

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

EXIT REYNOLDS’ NATIONALISTS ) EPORTER EUGENE SEGAL must have enjoyed writ- -*™ ing that story yesterday about the dissolution of former Senator Reynolds’ “Nationalist Party.” For Mr. Segal was chronicling a happy event which his own journalistic enterprise has helped to bring about. * 2 In articles published in The Indianapolis Times and other Scripps-Howard newspapers a couple of months ago, Mr. Segal disclosed that Reynolds and rabble-rouser Gerald L. K. Smith were working the same side of the political

® By Frank Aston

“Pearl Harbor” these days and up speaks someone with “court-mar-tial”

A court-martial is a court of army or navy officers to try a person accused of offense against military or naval law. Court-martial regulations have their roots in the Constitution and the Articles of War. The articles are dead-serious. But they were cockeyed as originally adopted by our continental congress. Gen. Washington, ready to fight the British, called for some articles of war as his rule book. John Adams declared the English articles were the best in the world. They'd come down from the Romans, he explained, and worked fine He sent a set to the continental congress. : Congress was busy attending at the birth of a nation and launching a war. So it legislated without reading the copy too carefully. The result was that our side fought the Revolution under English rules which caller our soldiers “His Majesty's most faithful subjects.”

Re-Wrote Embarrassing Phrase

THE embarrassed victors Ignored this wording until 1806 when they quietly wrote in a substitute phrase referring to the United States. Although we eliminated the “His Majesty” part, we retained the class privileges. They stayed in un-

street, peddling racial and religious prejudice. He revealed ‘also that a number of minor characters were around the country soliciting “party” contributions and pocketing a good share of the collections as commissions. One healthy result of the expose apparently was to put suckers on notice and thereby to reduce the ‘“‘party’s” sources of revenue. Anyhow, Reynolds is now reported to have fired his solicitors and to have started closing up shop. . The loss of one more organization dedicated to bigotry is a net gain to the country.

END OF JAP ERA THREE current headlines on Japan have more connec- : tion than appears. They are: Hirohito Visits MaecArthur, May Abdicate. ' New Jap Labor Party May Win First Election. Russia Criticizes MacArthur, Wants Hand in Tokyo. ~The emperor's voluntary call on the .supreme com‘mander is symbolic of a revolution in official Jap technique if not in actual attitude. Nothing like it has ever happened before in Jap history. Though it is what an American would take for granted, to the Japs it was unthinkable— the divine being “humiliates” himself before a foreign master! Less than a fortnight ago the emperor was still posing as an untouchable above and beyond the defeat and ‘occupation—and getting away with it in the eyes of the Japs. . : Phy the change? Undoubtedly because MacArthur has outsmarted the Jap strategists again, They had hoped e would be either so soft that they could continue control under the occupation, or that he would play into their hands the other extreme of making a martyr of the emperor. He has done neither. In a surprisingly short time, and without violence, he has consolidated allied control, demobilized most of the Jap forces, imprisoned leading militarists and war criminals. MacArthur is now master in fact as ‘well as name. The emperor and the old ruling caste must now serve allied policy, or else.

. ” » ¥ " * THE STORY that a new labor party may win a majority in the first post-war election some months hence is certainly premature, and perhaps too optimistic. But it is an indication that former minority leaders, as well as ¢ the emperor and ruling gang, are now convinced that MacArthur will institute political freedom. Of course this is a long way from assuming that the people will know how to use that freedom wisely. But at least the leaders of all factions—right, center and left—must try to win popular favor without violating allied rules. No wonder the Communists are starting to move in— not because MacArthur is failing, as they charge, but because he is succeeding so well. They want power in Japan, as elsewhere, They thrive on trouble, chaos, revolt, It is a much shorter step from axis totalitarianism to Soviet totalitarianism than it is to western democracy. If Mac‘Arthur preserves order in Japan and they cannot profit from mass revolt, then they will be driven—as in democratic countries—to misuse the political freedom under allied occupation to capture power and destroy that freedom. Meanwhile the first, though perhaps not the hardest, phase of allied occupation has. ended with the emperor's * symbolic trip to the supreme commander. ’

FIGURES THAT DECEIVE

: THE labor department reported yesterday that 410 strikes : or lockouts in August caused 1,350,000-man-days of idleness, or 19/100ths of 1 per cent of the month's available . working time, Such statistics are meaningless. They serve no good ¢ purpose. They mislead the public. For labor leaders, and I even government officials, cite them as “proof” that indus- | trial strife causes so relatively tiny a production loss that the public needs no legal protection against unrestrained | labor-management conflict. ‘ The labor department’s statisticians are not to blame. They do an honest job as best they can. If a strike by a few key employees prevents a thousand people in the same . plant from working for 10 days, the statisticians report truthfully that 10,000 man-days of idleness have been caused by that strike. But they do not report the whole’ truth. They have no way of finding what it is. The effort of a work stoppage on our complex economy is simply impossible to measure. But the effect of almost any work stoppage is“far greater than the labor department figures ever indicate. The strike of some 15,000 New York elevator operators keeps more than 250,000 garment workers and untold thousands of office workers off their jobs.

"

¥ "oo rd n THE strike of 35,000 oil workers, which threatens to spread and involve 250,000 oil workers, could paralyze American automobile traffic and prevent millions of people . from working. The outlaw strike of 4500 Kelsey-Hayes wheel plant employees means idleness for 50,000 Ford employees in ther plants. It means delayed production of Ford cars and r jobs for salesmen, garage mechanics and many others. ‘The labor department cannot even estimate accurately how much idleness will be caused by the elevator strike, the oil strike, the Kelsey-Hayes strike or any other strike. All the government's statisticians put together could never calculate how much this country will lose in production and oymént if labor-industry warfare continues to prevent | reconversion. But the.government can at least

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til 1920. That meant that world war II was fought under court-martial regulations that gave all military individuals equal justice, ‘But world war I rules were virtually the same as those of feudal England. A fight to overhaul the articles was led by Brig. Gen, Samuel T. Ansell, who resigned from the army to be free in his campaign. Gen. Ansell spoke of “terrible injustices” against “small offenders.” He charged that one boy new in the army got 40 years in jail for swearing at an officer. Another soldier was sentenced to 15 years for leaving camp to nurse his sick wife. A soldier was sentenced to death for refusing to drill after having been exposed to cold so long he was unable to stand. Two soldiers got 40 years each for disobeying an order to drill,

New Code Enacted in 1920

AFTER congress had heard this kind of testimony during a two-year investigation a new code was enacted June 4, 1920. Army and critics accepted it as a “liberalized and modernized procedure.” They said it safeguarded the rights of accused persons by processes evolved in civilian courts, One of the safeguards is a system of review. A court-martial sentence may be carried up and around and higher in various forms of appeal. Unless the case is airtight, an accused person stands a chance of beating the original rap. - American officers did not abuse the privileges peculiar to the old rules, But before 1920 it would have been possible for an officer to strike a soldier without fear of redress. That was a hangover from feudal days when a nobleman thought nothing of cuffing his help. Nowadays if an officer poked a man he’d be liable to court action. Of course, a 1945 officer probably would show up in such a case with some charges of his own—something like “after I chastised this soldier he popped me in the nose.”

FOREIGN AFFAIRS—

Zhukov Visit

By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20.—News that Marshal Gregori K. Zhukov, Soviet member of the allied control commission in Germany, would arrive in this country next week and visit the White House, was more than welcome here. It will be the first time that a high Soviet official ever .came to the United States on what might be described as a social call, Maxim Litvinov, Viacheslay Molotov and‘ a long line of Soviet military men, diplomats, missions and so forth have visited Washington but all of them came on business. Now, it appears, Marshal Zhukov, sometimes listed as one of three or four men from whom the: successor to Generalissimo Stalin might be chosen, is coming just for the visit, It is-tnderstood that at Potsdam President Truman extended an invitation both to the Generalissimo and the marshal to visit him at the White House. Marshal Zhukov will travel by plane under U. 8. army auspices,

Ends Odd Situation

BEHIND the satisfaction experienced here over Marshal Zhukov’s coming is a most unusual situation, From the bolshevik revolution of 1917 until President Roosevelt took office, there were no official relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In November, 1933, however, the world-famous Litvinov, Soviet commissar for foreign affairs, came to Washington seeking Russian recognition and a settlement of debts and claims between the two countries, He obtained the one but not the other, But the exchange of ambassadors seemed to improve Soviet-American relations little, if at all. Russia remained the least known major country in the world so far as Americans were concerned. While American tourists flocked to Europe in droves, year after year, very few saw anything of Russia because it was next to impossible to get a Russian visa, Nor could Russian citizens visit the United States. Only those who came on Soviet government business could get passports. * So the ignorance of one country about the other —today the two most powerful on earth—was not lessened. What we don’t know about the Russians is exceeded only by what they don’t know about us. At least we have free press and free speech, and our newspapers, magazines, theaters, radios, books, universities and churches are open to Communists, where

as the same freedom is not extended to us in the Soviet Union,

Mutual Understanding

ALTHOUGH it is true that “we must understand Russia,” as we repeatedly are told, it is even more important that the way be opened for the Russians to understand America. For friendship and under= standing need a two-way street, Marshal Zhukov is known in army circles as one of the most brilliant Soviet officers. After the rank of general was restored to thé Russian army in 1040, he was one o e first three to receive that rank. He is a tank alrborne expert, a disciplinarian of the toughest kind and ruthless ‘with incompetents, Likewise he is a politician, He has been vice come misar of defense and an alternaté member of the central committee of the Communist party. Officials here express the hope that the marshal's visit connotes a change from Russia's past policy of suspicion and isolation to one of closer contacts per= mitting the building of a better understanding,

So They Say—

THERE still is an insufficient supply of waste paper to meet our anticipated packing requirements, Volunteer (salvage) efforts must be maintained until

y : : W - . be 4 EUROPE, now 1 resuming its peaceful progress, are equally resolved to ork closely together for the common good of man-

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20.—S8ay

arising out of its ruins, and America,

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Ba Seems to Be Getting Results

Hoosier

“BIRKHEAD IS ONE OF BIGGEST ATHEISTS”

By A. McKinnon, 434 Irving pl I am calling the attention of the

editor of The Times to an article written by Frederick Woltman, a Scripps-Howard staff writer. It seems to me that Mr, Woltman must be hard-up for news when he picks a man like L. M. Birkhead to give news to the American people. He either does not know who L. M. Birkhead is or if he does he places

himself in the same class. Of all the Atheists that ever came down the pike, this man Birkhead is one of the worst. He lists himself in Who's Who as technical adviser of Atheist.

Birkhead has been a member of the Atheist free-thinkers and vice president of the Atheist Humanist Press Association, 1938. He was principal speaker for a B'nai B'rith membership campaign rally (B'nai B'rith magazine April 1939). He is president of a so-called Friends of Democracy supposed to have 800 in it. Such men as John Dewey, George Battle (Earl Browder’s attorney), Walter B. Cannon, Thomas Mann, Paul Douglas, G. Bromley Oxnam, A. J. Todd are a few of the national committee of Birkhead's Friends of Democracy. When Frederick Woltman comes forward to back such a bunch as this who are only friends of a bunch to attack everything or anyone who would dare stand up for America, I am sure that Gerald L. K. Smith would not be found dead in a 10-

acre field with this man Birkhead

and his co-sponsors, much less any sound-minded American. Whatever may be said against Gerald Smith by Birkhead, I hope and pray that in the near future Gerald L. K. Smith and Reynolds of the National party, and for that matter all good Americans, will get together and run this un-American Atheistic democracy out of America in order to make America safe for democracy. » » » “WOULD LETTERS LIGHTEN GRIEF OF SLAIN MEN?” By R. J. Plelemeier, 35 W. Ohio st, I noticed a package of 30 letters attesting the character of Pfc. Robert Colby has been forwarded to the war department by his parents. Would it not have been more appropriate to send them to the families of the murdered men? - Think how their grief would have “been lightened by the knowledge that their loved ones were killed by a “good boy” instead of by a “bad boy.”

Forum w=:

(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.)

“SEND FATHERS HOME, LET . 18-YEAR-OLDS GO NOW” By A Sailor's Wife, M. H. ‘'W., Indianapolis I also am a serviceman’s wife. And I agree with the other wives

about these 18-year-olds, and others who have never seen any part of the service, It is their

turn now to do their part. Those who say “don’t draft the 1B-year-olds” have never. had to sit alone with their children night after night for two years listening to a little boy crying for his Daddy. Just saying, “Mommy, I want to see him,” Yes, it tears at the heart strings, and, were all tired and

‘lworn out at trying to be both

father and mother. I think the fathers ought to get to come home. How about you, other servicemen’s wives?

» » ” “MAY WE BE SPARED AGONY OF ANOTHER WAR” By a Young Mother, Indianapolis . What incentive have I as a mother to raise a family with all the talk and speculation of another ghastly war and its probable effect upon humans, those humans being the babies I have held so tenderly to me! Would I do anything to hurt them? Will I be guilty of a negligent silence at a time when I as a mother want to shout to the world: Father Almighty, give us an ever~ lasting peace, an eternal peace that my children may have the right to live full and rich lives, that we may be spared the agony of seeing their young, hopeful lives ended suddenly with so few of life's happinesses realized. Grant us the wisdom to be prepared, to remember what war means so that we can hate and despise it endugh to wage a never ending fight against it. Help us to learn the value of tolerance and broadmindedness, to rule out our prejudices and strengthen our love. I ask it in the name of all the

mothers in the world. Amen.

Carnival —By Dick Turner .

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tis for use by those who |

“I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the

your right to say it.”

“MINIMUM WAGE OF $1 PER HOUR IS NECESSARY”

By Bert Wilhelm, 2106 8. Emerson ave. The recent defeat of the -Tory government in England has caused the conservatives of America to shudder, and now Uncle Dan Tobin takes his pen in hand to make unwelcome predictions that cause additional shudders. Socialism is a bridgehead to the morass of communism, dictatorship and regimentation, and is the outcome of an economic condition that, if corrected, cam be nullified. A national policy of doles and subsidies of taking from the thrifty and giving to the shiftless has a tendency to promote rather than retard a drift toward communism. We, as a nation, should discontinue this dangerous policy and set our sights for an era of individual effort which can be accomplished quickly by establishing by law a living wage for every wage earner, If we analyze the present suggestion of a minimum wage scale .of 65¢ per hour and a 40-hour week it results in a w income of $26, if the wage earner is steadily employed. If his family consists of a wife and two children he must provide 12 meals per day, or a total of 84 meals per week at 15¢ per meal, amounting to $12.60. Add $8 per week for house rent, amounting to $20.60, which leaves him $540 per week to pay doctor or dentist bills, buy fuel and clothing and sundry expenses. This man will never be able to buy the dream house, the new car, the radio or washing machine, He is out of the market for such manufactured articles. He is the forgotten man, and there are some. 10 million like him in this, our United States. Panics: and depressions, layoffs and forced idleness are caused by the purchasing public being starved for a medium of exchange. Set the minimum wage of this fellow citizen at $1 per hour, and a 44-hour week; take off $4 to pay on the national debt and he will have $40 left and a surplus to pure manufactured articles and supply a job for someone to manufacture these articles. A minimum wage of $1 per hour Is the way out and the only way. 4 ” » ” “SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS HIGHER TAX EXEMPTION”

By George Gable, Perfection Paint & Color Company .

With the surrender of Ja; re conversion to civilian productioff or resumption of - civilian production where reconversion was unnecessary, suddenly became a problem to be confronted solely ‘in 1945 rather than 1946, as was originally considered by the house when it

{rejected the $25,000 corporation tax

exemption for 1945.

i : f

DAILY THOUGHT

ck E g : |

at Pressure By Thomas L. Stokes -

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20.—The

carry out their functions. %: keen rivalry among industries, Some

® Byun a to “highly there a tices which are designed to obtain favorable decision from the board based upon personal, political and other pressures.” *

| Use Politicians :

STRINGS are being pulled in many directions. Campaign managers of some senators from states along the route have been hired by P. C. A. in their campaign to bring pressure upon the board. The ine fluence of senators is also being sought through friends. Thomas G. Corcoran, former government official, still an ace in the influence business around Washing ton, has been enlisted, though he is not a lawyer of record in the case The oral argument before the board on behalf of P, C. A. was made by Charles H, Murchison, of Jacksonville, Fla., a close friend of Mr, Corcoran and a political associate of Senator Pepper (D, Pla). Mr. Murchison is one of the key figures in the senator's Florida political machine and one of the ‘managers of the senator's last campaign, Senator Pepper, himself, now abroad, repeatedly has beén sending back messages on behalf of P. C. A. seeking to have the case re-opened. Other important political influence also has been brought to bear, it is reported. After long consideration the aeronautics board awarded the route to Eastern Air Lines in late August. The board upheld its examiner's recoms mendation. There were a number of aspirants, ine cluding P. C, A. . The vote of the board was three to two. Voting for Eastern were: Chairman Pogue, Edward Warner, vice chairman, and Harllee Branch. Against were former Senator Josh Lee of Oklahoma and Oswald Ryan.

Vacancy on Board

MR. WARNER resigned a few days ago, leaving a vacancy, Since that time pressure has been increased

“for a re-hearing in the case. P. C. A. applied for re

hearing soon after the decision. President Truman is being urged to appoint a technical man to succeed Mr. Warner, who is a fechnical expert of high standing. Political pressure such as is being sought in this case was deplored officially last May in a letter Chairman Pogue wrote to Stuart G. Tipton, acting president of the Air Transport Association of Amerie ca. In that letter he referred to two previous letters, one Sept. 18, 1943, and another in July of last year in which he had asked that political activity be stopped. - ‘ In his last letter he said it had not been stopped, and added, among other things: . “The implications of these activities are so serious and so sinister that it seems to the 1 that the airline industry should be so concerned that it will ee svery possible ‘means of promptly bringing them an end.”

IN WASHINGTON—

Labor Row By Peter Edson

~ WASHINGTON, Sept. 29.—Probe deep enough in any labor sore spot § and you will find beneath the new cause of trouble an old infection which never healed properly. The Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co. strike in Detroit is no exception. Its labor relations record is writ large and long in the Washington files of the U. 8, concilation service and war labor board. It has been having labor trouble for years. When Michigan's Governor Harry F. Kelly announced he would start an investigation into affairs at Kelsey-Hayes, he was merely putting his finger on a perfect case for clinical study. One of the principal conditions that stands out is that Kelsey-Hayes management has never had a formal written labor ‘contract with its employees. The employees are organized and they do have a union. It is a branch of the famous Amalgamated Local 174 of the ©. I, O. United Auto workers. This Amalgamated Local 174 is the creation of Walter Reuther and it takes in the employees of nearly 100 plants on Detroit's West side which do not have U, A. ‘'W: local unions of their- own. ‘All have contracts except Kelsey-Hayes. :

Had No Contract

THE RECORD shows that the Kelsey-Hayes uni of the union has asked management for a contract to cover working conditions, and the company has also offered the union a contract. But neither party has been able to accept the terms of tH& other, so over a period of years labor relations have been allowed to drag along under an armistice that continually breaks out in open warfare, Most labor disputes eventually are reduced to a clash of personalities. Kelsey-Hayes troubles offer no exception to the rule. ) Head of the company is George Kennedy, its presi«

Y

On the other side of the picture, a leader in the Kelsey-Hayes union is one Chester (Moan) Mullins, a hothead of the variety that can be found in almost every union or club or society ever organized. The

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