Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 October 1945 — Page 16

“PAGE 16 Wednesday, Oct. 24, 1945

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE

PRAY

Business Manager (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

Price in Marion Couns ty, 5 cents ascopy; delivered by carrier, 20 cents a week.

Mail rates in Indiana, $6 a year; all other states, U..8, possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a month,

>

. Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland st. Postal Zone 9.

Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

RILEY 5651

LICRIPPS ~ HOWARD | Give Light and she People Will Find Their Own Way

THE GENERAL MOTORS ‘STRIKE’ VOTE

FROM union headquarters, across the street,-comes the sound of a loud-speaker being tested, presumably for use in the “strike vote” at Allison and Chevrolet plants here today. A test phrase that is often repeated is: “Get out there and vote for that 30 per cent pay raise!” Whether or not that's a sound-track slogan union leaders are actually going to use to induce local General Motors workers to vote their way, today, there's no denying it is a very effective slogan. We can't recall ever having met anyone, anywhere, who wasn’t in favor of getting a 30 percent pay raise. But, like many a campaign slogan, this one has very little relation to the election it is supposed to sway. Workers at Allison and Chevrolet will find nothing on their ballots, today, about a 30 per cent pay raise, or any pay raise. The question on which they will vote is simply, “Are you willing to authorize a strike that would interrupt war production in war-time?” Since the war is over, and there isn't any war production to interrupt, that doesn’t make much sense. It is required, however, by the Smith-Connally law, which congress passed under tremendous public pressure in the hope that it might stop the thousands of war-time strikes which union leaders said were unauthorized and hence uncontrollable. The national labor relations board will waste about $200,000 today in conducting the election which this law requires among 825,000 General Motors employees, here and elsewhere.

IT IS a 1000-to-1 bet they will vote by a huge majority to authorize a strike, Officers of their union have told them, as the sound-track across the way indicates, that by 80 doing they will help to win a 80 per cent increase in hourly pay. That does not mean, necessarily, that there will be a strike. Very few workers want to strike, and these General Motors employees understand quite well that they are not deciding, by their vote, whether they shall quit work or not. ‘They are just giving their union representatives authority to order them to stop work, or to threaten . to.do so, whenever these representatives feel that such . action can win them a point in the bargaining they expect to begin with the General Motors Corp, «So the issue they really are voting on is whether to give their leaders complete power to go as far as they like in dealing with General Motors, even, if they feel it necessary, to forcing a showdown fight that might wreck the union, or the corporation, or both. : : It is at this point, of course, that the “vote for that 80 per cent raise” slogan begins to take on meaning. United Auto Workers leaders have been unswerving and uncompromising in their demand for 80 per cent higher hourly wages throughout the whole industry. Walter Reuther, one of the most able of their top leaders, insists that General Motors can easily raise wages 80 per cent, cut the price of their automobiles, and still make more mone than they've been making. ; The issue is closely tied to prices, Automobile manufacturers contend that any sizable wage increase means a higher price for cars—and cars are still under a ceiling fixed bythe government in its campaign against inflation. All their corporate reports—which are quite exhaustive— indicate that they would not be making more profit, or any profit, if they increased their costs and cut their prices, and in fact that they would operate at a loss if they did either, If they had to run at a loss they would quickly close. And a man out of work at $1 an hour is very little better off than a man out of work at 50 cents an hour.

ALL THESE things enter into the strike vote, which isn't a strike vote, We believe the workers will vote to authorize a strike, without any desire for a strike, and with the sole intent of strengthening the bargaining hand of their leaders. TY Even from that viewpoint it has very little meaning. If, by some miracle, a Majority voted “No,” that would | not make a strike illegal, If a strike had started yesterday, before the election, the union and its members would not have been in any way penalized. But so long as the Smith-Connally law remains a statute, NLRB will have to go on taking such votes whenever unions ask for them--and hundreds are asking or planning to ask. Repeal of the law has been proposed, but congress is delaying action because some men in the &dministration believe some parts of the law are still necessary-—such as the clause that gives legal status to the war labor board, and the one that permits government seizure of strike-bound war plants. Congress should at least repeal the section that compels this kind of meaningless strike vote at public expense, and without delay. And at least begin to formulate a workable labor policy under which disputes like this one can

WE PROMISED RELIEF

ALMOST a month has passed since Director General Lehman of U. N. R. R. A, warned that a shortage of funds threatens to break the relief line to hungry Europe. Still congress has not acted on President Truman's repeated appeals. According to official estimates, 170 million of our allies are already near the edge of starvation, with winter closing In and worse conditions ahead, Surely-it is not the desire of congress or of the American people to ignore this desperate need. : */ The $550 million requested was authorized by congress last year but never appropriated, A 1 "We are aware that Russia made matters worse in

~ Her puppet regimes are trying to get their hands on relief supplies for political purposes, But this problem is not |!

t reason for wi

ticos and Puppets who face

he Indianapolis Times|g8

HENRY W. MANZ |

over a chafing dish went into court and begged the

largest single political party with 155 seats in the chamber of deputies. Edouard Herriot's Radical So-

cialists came second with 118 and the Communists [Indiana to rise up and defend ourthird with 73. These were the backbone of the coali- |5lves against this Pvt. Colby ever tion known as the popular front which, with sev. | being able to retimn here in U. 8. A. eral smaller adherents, had and Indiana.

proximately the same proportion.of seats. Only the arrangement is different. Latest reports indicate that the Communists have climbed into first place with 146 seats, & gain of 73. The Socialists have dropped | } to a second-place tie with 135 seats, a loss of 20. The Radical Socialists have been all but wiped out with only 19 seats left of the 116 held

in brand new party, the Oatholi be settled without penalizing the worker, the employer and og Qenetal De Gaulle, They, also piers all the customers. places.

eastern Europe by carrying off livestock and some supplies. 18

; : $0 iy Chafing Dish By Anton Scherrer ANOTHER thing that future historians will ponder is the so3 cial significance of the chafing dish, a cultural phenomenon that, contributed as much as anything to the excitement of my formative years. And my formative years, I don’t mind saying, were spent in that glorious decade sometimes referred to as the Naughty Nineties. : The chafiing dish was a message straight from Heaven in fulfillment of the sound, old earthy doc~ trine that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. It was part of the equipment with which every girl surrounded herself to make sure that she hadn't muffed anything in the way of catching a husband, Properly used it could loosen a man's tongue sufficiently to lead up to a marriage proposal,

And in less skillful hands it worked Just the other | way, and shut him up for good.

A Complicated Machine

THE CHAFING dish of the Nineties was a most dangerous thing to put into the hands of a girl, It was really a complicated machine and consisted, if I remember correctly, of three distinct parts. First of all, there was a fountain for holding the alcohol and wicks, over which (2) rested a dish designed to hold hot water, into which (3) fitted the cooking dish proper. The machine came in all kinds of finishes, A very serviceable set make of granite iron-ware could be bought for as little as $2. The enameled blue and white ware and the nickel-plated kind cost somewhere around $4. Those made of copper, tinned on the outside, cost maybe a dollar more. 1 distinctly recall, however, that some girls had chafing, dishes made of electro-plate and even silver with ebony or ivory handles costing anywhere from $30 to $00. So far as results were concerned, it didn't get them anywhere, which is the same as saying that it wasn’t so much the equipment as it was the matter of brains with which the girl ran the machine, I have observed its counterpart today in the case of

on an outfit only to learn that it doesn't get them better pictures than a five-dollar camera. The most popular product of the chafing dish back in the Nineties was the so-called Welsh Rabbit. As a matter of fact, most girls never got any further and, considering everything, maybe it was just as well. There were two kinds of Welsh Rabbit, I re-

; Our Changing World

ALL THROUGH THE WAR YEARS —

amateur photographers who spend a wad of money i 5, 5 § pI

. CMON, BOYS, STick. YOUR HEAD IN ITs MOUTH! IT WON'T HURT You - Much!

member, which is by way of saying that there were | two types of girls—those who belleved that a half cupful of beer improved the dish, and those who most emphatically though otherwise. The alcoholic group always seemed to draw the bigger crowds.

Two Caught Millionaires

OTHERWISE, the two schools of thought used the same basic recipe, except that it always seemed to me that the beer crowd doubled the amount of dry mustard with which they mixed the melted cheese. To be sure, the most daring girls of the Nineties also added a. teaspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce on top of the beer, but there weren't enough of them to constitute a type. As a matter of fact, I remember only two. They're worth mentioning, however, for they made the best catches. Both ended up as the wives of millionaires, It was during the chafing dish period—at its very height, I remember—that a menace gained ground which, for a while, threatened the very foundations of Indianapolis society, And again we had two schools of thought—those who called the dish Welsh Rabbit, and those who insisted that it was Welsh Rarebit, : The Rabbits said it was a sign of affectation to call it a Rarebit, and the bitters came right back and called the Rabbits the scum of the earth. It was a bitter controversy and led to hard words. In many cases, courtships were broken off on account of it. Indeed, I even remember a divorce that was granted because of it. The two who had pledged their troth

Hoosier

“WANTS TO SEE ALL MEN OUT OF SERVICE”

By An Ex-Boldier, Sheridan

I for one am getting a little tired of reading the gripes of servicemen’s wives in the Hoosier Forum. I am an ex-serviceman and am single and feel that all the single men who have been in combat should have the same chance to be out and to raise a ‘family as the married man. After all,’ the single men had to spend six months overseas, fighting, to get the 12 points that the married men got for each child. I had better than the needed 85 points and all of them were for fighting, not: for raising children after Pearl Harbor, It is my opinion that all men who have been overseas fighting should be the first ones out, whether they are single or not. Some people seem to think that the 18 and 19-year-old boys should have to stay in and let the married ones out. I had some very good buddies who gave: thelr lives and were only 18 amd 180 Don’t you people believe that these boys should have a chance to get out; after all, they went through the same fighting as the older and married ones did. I want to see all of the men

Judge to release them because of “incompatibility.” So far as I know, it was the origin of what is now an established practice, ¥ The chafing dish went ito the discard sometime around 1900. After that, Indianapolis girls were hard put to find a substitute to snare men. Wonder how the poor fish are being caught today. :

WORLD AFFAIRS—

Frefich Vote By William Philip Simms

- WASHINGTON, Oct. 24.~The Communist gains in the French elections easily could be overs played. The wonder is not that they were so large but that they were not larger still,

out of the service, but let's please | be fair about it.

{ ® » =»

“SHOULD HELP FAMILIES OF COLBY’S VICTIMS” By Mrs. A. A, Indianapolis The most sensible article T have | read in our good paper, The Times, in regard to Pvt. Colby was the very nice one sent in by R. J. Pielemelér of W. Ohio st. Indeed, it would have been more appropriate There were two major factors: First, immense {to send the letters, 30 in all in popular bitterness over France's defeat in 1940, and [sympathy to those two murdered the national ruin and misery which followed, Sec |officers' families. Lt. Wade had a ond, votes for women. Most French women are extremely conservative. They have shrunk from political activities, } Thus, while many would stay away from the polls, party discipline would see to it that every Communist vote, female as well as male, was recorded. Out of 31 women elected Sunday 14 were Communists, : What happened in the French elections .was far from a landslide leftward. On the contrary, it was almost entirely a reshuffling of the old popular front lineup. After the last general elections in 1936, the government found itself in the hands of a leftist coalition which is about where it would seem to be today.

Blum's ‘Socialists Lad in 1936 IN ‘1936, Leon Blum's Socialists emerged as the

E

men e as’ I have sald before. I would dislike Indeed to class our soldiers with a murderous person as Pvt. Colby. He admitted. his guilt, he planned that all out before going to officers’ quarters to commit this awful murder. Yes, he should be shot. I sould get a thousand names signed and sent over to our good General Ike if required. God has said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Let Colby pay with his life. 5 When I think of the grief these slain men's families have had to

and citizens ‘of .gur good state of

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 responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

“WE HAVE SOMETHING WORTH PROTECTING” By Volce in the Crowll, Indianapolis Ethel Gurvitz believes that peacetime conscription is a blow under the belt to our Constitution and its Bill of Rights. No doubt-the lady refers to compulsory military training. She may be right and she may be wrong so far as necessity is concerned. There is a difference of opinion in the high places in our national capitol. Now what I am wondering about is, why she should worry about the Constitution and its amendments, and then suggest a federalized school system and a federal medical and nursing corps to come in and “massage and evercise the baby” every day. Such a system is not only a‘blow below the belt but also a blow on the head and a kick behind the belt to our way of life. Nationalize the schools and medicine and the care of babies, and the Leftist coup will be complete, and you can bury the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in Arlington, we won't need them anymore. The care of babies and the raising of children belongs in the home and the proper home care should be compulsory local law enforcement. Sturdy people before us knew how to “massage and exercise children” in a manner that! kept our thinking straight, and we did not have to pay taxes for the job, Some day when the air is more clear the people will decide whether a year's military training is neces« sary. If it is so decided the tecision should.be taken gracefully and ‘administered fairly. We have something worth protecting, and we should assume the responsibility of protecting it, both from within and outside our boundary. From within we not only have the schemers against our way of life to contend with, but we also have innocent and gullible folks who believe our national planners (who have bungled everything they planned) can lead us to better conditions,

something like 400 seats out of a total of 618. 5. In the present setup the leftist group has ap-

in 1936.

and medicines. It is the|

Side Glances—By Galbraith

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

PART TO WIN WAR” By Mrs. M. Boatman, N. LaSglle st,

why worry about those

your right to say it.” “UNION 18 JUST AMERICAN GESTAPO”

By a» Discharged Sailor, Indianapolis I am speaking not only for one person but for all people who have fought and died for the good of the American people. We are letting the biggest atrocity of the whole war get by right under our very noses. Yes, I mean the people of the United States who are supposed to have a ‘belly full of war and everything it stands for, We have read in the papers about the horrible things the Japs and Germans have done to our own boys and have yelled bloody murder to the government to do something about it. And yet we will let our own people starve for the things that they have waited all during the war for because they had to sacrifice for the boys, Our own boys who have given their all and some more than that. With only one arm and one leg, men have come back and found that they have fought against things that are lawful back here. It is time that the people of the United States awakened to the fact that the veterans of the last war should take matters into our own hands and bury this union so deep in the mud that it will never be able to get up again. We, as a veterans organization of our own, could fight the things that are wrong in this country. The government won't do anything about it because every bigwig in Washington got there by the rotten union and their power. We have Just finished the job overseas: now let's finish the job here. The union is the worst thing that ever happened to this country, And the sooner the people wake up to the fact that the union is nothing any better than the lousiest Japs and Germans in the world, the better. They have tied up this country in a knot and the people and the government do nothing better than go fishing and take vacations. Now is the time for the true spirit of the American people to voice their cries and down this American gestapo. » ” » “WHY NOT GIVE VETERAN

A CHANCE FIRST?”

By a Veteran of 34 Years of - cific Jungle, Indisnapolis South Mo

The war is over and those brave heroes who everyone has been wanting to help are finally returning to the land they all loved and fought for so gallantly. Perhaps unknowingly, one of the greatest of American industries is working a hardship on those of us who really need a car in our work. We sold our cars for $600 (If we were lucky) when the draft came along, and today those same cars are costing us from $100Q to $1200, We are not asking for anyone to give us anything, but we do feel we are entitled to first chance at the new ones about to be brought on the market. How about it fellows? Why not give the veteran a chance of first? » » ~ “4-Fs DID THEIR

If your husband isn't

: | RECONVERSION-—

Help Surplus} By Thomas L. Stokes §

CLEVELAND; Oct. 2¢.—Much is being said about what appears to be a current paradox. } This is the existence of large pools of unemployed war workers

not nearly enough jobs to go around, even if it were merely a simple matter of putting jobless into jobs, willy-nilly. The more you dig into it, the more complex it becomes. ‘ Lo . One contributing factor that has been underemphasized is the increasing choosiness of employers. They are raising their standards. The reason for this is fairly obvious and is natural. 3 The employer looking for help finds a large work force from which to choose, He doesn’t have to take Just anybody. He wants the best he can find. So he passes up the less efficient workers who got good jobs during the war because of the demand. But they are not so readily employable in ordinary times. This supply of workers is churning about, shunted hack and forth between employment offices and employers.

Unemployed Outnumber Ready Jobs IN THE Ohio-Michigan-Kentucky region of the U. 8. employment service, which has headquarters here, on Oct. 1 there were an estimated 450,000 unemployed and 66,000 jobs available in the 16 largest metropolitan areas. A comparable ratio exists in other large industrial areas. Once again, as in the depression, there is the disturbing problem of the older worker, the man over 45. Very few of these are being employed now. The ban is general, Here in this three-state region 75 per cent of men drawing unemployment benefits are 45 or older. Women are a. big problem, too. Many of them are returning to their homes. But many also have decided fom their war experience that they want to keep on working, There are single women who want more’ independence and more money to live and dress better, and married women who want to inyprove their standard of living. Fifty-four per cent of those on unemployment benefit rolls in the three states are women. But, of the 68,000 jobs open in this region, only 12,000 or 18 per cent were for women. Women have been barred almost altogether from factory employment. It is true, of course, that some women who have no intention of continuing to work went on the rolls to draw their benefits. ’ In addition to turning down women and men over 45, employers have set up many other qualifications. They have not gone so far as the color of hair or eyes, but almost in some cases,

Requirements Now Important EDUCATION requirements are now specified by many employers. Many include even height and weight for laborers. For white collar workers there are requirements for “personality” and “appearance,” which suggests that we may see again a return of the “go-getting” and “self-improvement” literature of the 1920s which told ambitious young men how get ahead. It is a question how much worker may get out of that one-time best selller by Walter B. Pitkin, “Life Begins at Forty.” ~ Such qualifications are only natural. The department store owner could hardly use a husky mill worker for a floor walker or asa salesman in men's furnishings, nor would the mill-worker want such a Job. There were, as everyone knows, many misfits during the war, But that is over. \ All these things contribute to the frustration seething under the surface in the country today. The skilled worker, as well as those ‘who got to regard themselves as skilled, also have their prob. lems.

IN WASHINGTON~

Slow Start

By Roger W. Stuart

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 —OMcials of the Smaller War Plants Corp. have discovered that crusades can't be whipped up overnight. 2 Take their own world-wide “cru-~ = = ee sade of science,” launched here last spring by Maury Maverick, SWPO chairman, They conceded yesterday the thing has been slow starting. : It was on a windy March afternoon when Mr. Maverick summoned newsmen and ‘outlined plans for an international technical advisory service. It was to be “something brand new in international business relations.” 3 With it, business everywhere would prosper and wars would become “as obsolete as the stage coach of yesterday.” : But today the crusade is almost as unknown and unsung as ever, Only China and Australia have shown any “real interest” A few others have made feeble inquiries. ’

Still 'Good Idea’

INDEED, progress has been so slight that no mention was made of the crusade in 8 's latest report, released yesterday. .In contrast, the agency's own technical advisory service for American small business—upon which the international program was based-—was discussed fully in the report. “We're hoping that the crusade will begin to roll (eyentually,” a spokesman sald. “We still think it's a good idea.” Mr. Maverick was unavailable for comment. The program, in case you forgot, was to be threefold: 1. Each nation would establish its own advisory service and “co-operate with the technical advisory services of all other nations by exchange of technical information.” 2. A world organization similar to the Postal Union would be set up. The Postal Union itself, according to Mr. Maverick, would act as the administrative agent. 3 Universities throughout the world would be asked to join the crusade, providing for exchange of both students and teachers. Courses would be organized in each university explaining the advisory service,

China Interested

rena w—

and San Salvador, To The Point — HOUSES ARE made out of mud In some parts of China. What do the women kick about thelr huse

while jobs are available. It is true that there are |

nsolation the older

RIGHT: J dress with collar of ique, pu! Po . bac box pleats Aqua, gol

ABOVE Ile di classroo its its tiny Lovely sleeves, * the yol

rayon c

won

RIGHT: l-pe. ¢ wool he skirt, “p i

sleeves,

and as

yellow,