Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 March 1946 — Page 22

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ndianapolis Times Friday, March 22, 1946 WALTER LECKRONE yam

HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

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Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, U. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a month. . RI-55651.

Give Light and the People Will Pind Their Own Way

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ere too many ‘% teeth in the house-passed Case anti-strike bill. So it has drafted an innocuous substitute with just one little false tooth. This toothlet would forbid labor unions to extort money or block transportation of perishable farm products to market by intimidating or coercing farmers and their employees. Union officers and members guilty of such conduct would be subject to $2000 fines, one-year prison terms, or both. j Among the five committee members who favored that idea are Senators Murray of Montana and Guffey of Penngylvania. Always before, to our knowledge, these two gentlemen have opposed any restriction at all on the freedom of unions to do'whatever they please. Why are they now 80 eager to protect farmers against union racketeers? Here, we think, is why: + Farm lobbyists, who swing almost as much weight in congress as labor lobbyists, are demanding senate action

a

on the Hobbs anti-racketeering bill. The Hobbs bill has |

twice passed the house by big majorities and is now buried in a senate judiciary committee pigeonhole. And labor lobbyists are working to keep it there. The Hobbs bill would make it a felony for union officers - and members—now exempted from federal punishment by a supreme court decision—to obstruct interstate commerce ‘by robbery or extortion. Thus is would not only protect farmers and their perishable products, but all other citizens and all other products. - That toothlet in the labor committee's bill is tticky. Its effect would be to appease the farmers, reduce farm lobby pressure, help the labor lobby to keep the Hobbs bill buried, and leave union racketeers free to prey on everybody except the farmers, Agriculture needs protection against union extortion, but so do business and industry and honest workers. The way for the senate to protect all is to reject this trick proposal and enact the Hobbs bill,

LET'S INTERCHANGE fogpabi ELEVEN C. L O. officials who spent eight days in Moscow and Leningrad report finding much to admire in Soviet Russia and its labor unions. : They report also a need for closer understanding and co-operation between the Russian and American peoples. One way to promote that, they gay, would be an enlarged interchange of workers. Pointing out that the United States already has an organization for exchanging workers with other nations, they observe, “Perhaps Soviet Russia will establish a.similar vehicle.” ; ~ * Well, perhaps. And it would be afine idea—that is, if the interchange were of rank-and-file wage earners, not of union officers on brief conducted tours. ‘A few hundred Americans working, say, a year in Soviet industries would learn some things mentioned in the C. I. O. report, and “some not mentioned. WE * & =» HEY WOULD learn that wages in Russia are fixed by “a top government planning body” which “consults” the unions. That “piece rates” prévail. That when the work week was shortened after the war, the piece rates were not raised; the workers kept their earnings up by producing more pieces. That Russians have “cradle-to-grave” social security, with medical and other services free. But that “the shortage of most consumer goods makes a worker less concerned with the amount of his wages than with finding commodities which he can buy with them.” They would also learn that Russian labor unions are actually part of the government. That an individual dissatisfied with his government-fixed whge keeps mum, if he knows what's good for him. That there are no strikes. They're forbidden. A few hundred Russian wgge-earners, working a year

in capitalistic America, would discover some facts they may |

not have been told at home: : © That American unions, though greatly helped by government to organize workers, demand and have almost complete freedom to strike when they please and otherwise to run their own affairs. That individuals are free to kick about their wages or their bosses. That most Ameri: can unions won't stand for “piece rates” and speedups. That the work week before overtime begins is, by law, only 40 hours. That American labor kept its earnings up after the war by forcing hourly wage rates higher. That American workers don’t yet have all the social sécurity unions advocate. But that—as the C. I. O. tourists found—America’s living standards are high compared with Russia’s. They are, in fact, so much higher that we have a hunch some of the Russian workers might be glad to stay here forever. Anyway, we are for that interchange. We hope—without being too confident of it—that the rulers of Soviet Russia will agree that Americans need more firsthand knowledge of the Soviet system, and that Russians peed more first-hand knowledge of the American system.

DON'T GET HURT

THE interdepartmental safety council estimates that accident costs among federal employees are approaching $100 million a year. Understandably disturbed, the govgrnment is organizing a drive against occupational and jor-vehicle mishaps among its workers. The Eovarumment ks in terms of millions. But ~ accidents have a way of ha i i go at a time, ppening one at a time to one You don’t have to be on the point. Be careful, ING PROCESS war an ingredient called napalm was emflame throwers to scorch embattled Japs. 0 80ap so gentle that it is used on United Nations Organization deleathe daily with napalm ‘as tructively in combat can

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& government payroll to get

“

d First Big Question

Hoosier "Religion of Today

say, but |

Forum Must Serve

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Need of Modern World; and Does"

-By Sue E. Lindeman, 218 Ohmer Ave. I hardly believe that the letter written by Ira Fields should go

unanswered. His letter is not without truth.but to lay the blame for today's conditions upon our ministers is entirely unfair. I tried to reach Mr. Fields by phone but he has requested that his number not be given

The democracy within the Protestant church, and our right to criticise are things we cherish deeply and intend to keep, but with every privilege there exists responsibility—which means that the church is no stronger or weaker than the people themselves. 1 have met in the last few years too many of our ministers to believe that the caliber is lowering. On the contrary, our leaders today we need the religion of Grandare better educated, more tolerant mother's day. Whether we wish or and understanding, and are.cpn- not, we have a modern world and

tributing greatly to better living in| the home, community, city, and even the world. Organizations such | as the Church Federation, the Fed- | eral Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Christians and Jews are proof that our leadership) is working and working hard to meet the needs of the church and its people today. In grandmother's time the world was very -large and to “love your neighbor” meant to love those in your community. The church was the center of her religious and social life and her whole life was her church and her community, It is true we do lack her simple kindliness and unselfish sharing but tgday the world is much smaller, To love our neighbor today means so much more and to help our neighbor means organization and planning. To go to church and sing hymns is not enough for the Christian of-the modern world today. We face a harder job. It would have been-easy for Grandmother to limit herself to one slice of bread a meal in order to give to the Jones family down the road. Will it be as easy for us to limit ourselves to give to someone in the world who we will never know, never hear from, and who will never thank us directly? While niost of our pastors do not pound the desk and climb on chairs while preaching, they have worked * for national Christian policles, Christian communities, etc. I firmly believe they have played a big part in the overwhelming cry in this country that our nation must back the U. N. O. They were largely responsible for the bill on compulsory military training in this country to be shelved—a bill that would |

sight of the world. No, I don’t think

our religion must meet its needs and serve it. " = o “I8 STREETCAR COMPANY USING CRYSTAL BALL NOW?" By George A. Heineman, 611 E. 10th st. Hats off to Tex Quigely of our fair city on his “speech” in the Forum on the case of the Indianapolis Railways Transit System vs. the people of Indianapolis. Boy, he said a mouthful. He really hit a nerve on the point by suggesting that they prove their worth first before they gets the “gimmes.” Then there's the one about the ninety-day trial. Did you ever in your life see anyone claim to offer a service at a reduced rate, then get heart failure and go into conniptions~ (whatever that is) when the recipients of the wonderful deal themselve say, “No, thanks. We'll take the higher rate.” Ain't it a dafty world? The strangest part of this farce at all is how the I. R. 8. figures they've the right to make people dig deeper into their pocketbooks to pay for something they claim is going to happen in the future. It might be an interesting trip for Donna Mikels to make to their offices to see how many crystal gazers and black magic artists they have on their payroll. They don’t deny they are making scads of money now. Records prove that they are just afraid they won't be able to keep it up. You can tell they- are getting madder all the time, though. Now they say: “All right, citizens, you weren't satisfled with eight tokens for 55 cents so we'll make it still easier for you. We'll give you three for a quarter.” Or has anybody got

have made us hypocrites in theltwo dimes for a nickel? Hey, boy, |

bring me my arithmetic book.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

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_DOPR. 1946 BY NEA SERVICE, ING. T. M. nto. v. 8 par oi ; "Oh, I wouldn't worry about Junior hanging around Dorothy sa

much—it'll wear off as soon as he gets acclimated. : to this spring weather!”

| .word of the Lord, he hath also

- be: not committed —~Cicero, ©.

"| do not agree with a word that you

wilk defend to the death

your right to say it." — Voltaire.

“MAIL SERVICE TO JAPAN IS POOR, NO FAST AIRMAIL” By S. Sgt. Neal Shaw, Tokyo, Japan I am writing this letter in regard to the mall service to servicethen and women overseas. It seems as though they have already forgot-. ten us and will continue to do so in the future. I speak of, they, as the ones responsible for our mail service. We are now allowed one plane to bring all the mail scheduled for Japan for all servicemen here, That is one plane a day. We are lucky now if we get one letter a week and “hen it is dated two to three week§ before. I and many others, I'm sure, would be willing to pay a little more for stamps if they would continue airmail service as it should be. I have been with the 1st cavalry division for nine months and this is the poorest mail service I have seen. It seems as though our only way of being with our relatives and friends back home is being dissolved, I wish I were capable of doing something about it, but I am just one of many “forgotten” soldiers here in the service. I hope this letter doesn't come to you by “pony express.” >

Editor's Note: No, this letter didn’t come by pony express . .. it required 14 days to reach us However, there is a much greater delay in other mail received from Tokyo, some of it as much as seven weeks pld and apparently sent by sea because of the shortage of planes. Six days apparently 'is the record from Japan, The war department has announced such mail now will have Number 1 priority. a. “QUIT TALKING ABOUT OUR OVERSEAS BRIDES”

For some time now I have read the reactions of you Indiana people as to how you feel toward our brides of other countries. To be quite frank, I am greatly disappointed in your being so un-Amer-ican, you people who did so much to get us the equipment that we needed in order to win the right to live our American way of life. I was very proud to be a member of the American army. 1 was.also proud to be one of the fighting sons of Indiana. Yet, on returning home I find that the people who I left four years ago are not’ the same. Why have you become so selfish, greedy, and cruel? Yes, have changed. Anyone who has been through hell and back has changed. I have seen thousands die because they thought they knew they had something to fight for. I spilled my blood twice on enemy soil. And for what? Only to return to my own country and find the same thing in it that we fought against over there, Yes, I am married to an English girl, whom I love very much. I hope to make her very happy. All of you have heard stories about the English, yet no matter where you g0, you will find good and bad. Look around you in our own country. Are we all perfect? I try to be 100 per cent American because I love my country and what it stands for, I am asking the people to leave us and our brides alone and let us be good Americans.

DAILY THOUGHT'

For’ rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the

rejected thee from being king.— I’ Samuel 15:23. ; GUILT js present in ‘the very hesitation, even though the deed

By Ex-Sgt. John E. Haley, Indianapolis |

TITIES IE, rer rr. edly Se aA

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THE HYSTERICAL NOTES about to follow are the result of the season known as spring which sneaked in Wednesday night (11:33 p. m, C. 8. T.. C.8.T) "

The century-old Hoosier practice of spring housecleaning is as much in evidence today as it was when I was a little boy. ‘It still starts on the stroke of the vernal equinox and’ maintains its feverish dizzy pace until the summer solstice.” ‘At any rate, that's what happens in the temperate zone which is the droll name of the place we live in: Nor has the technique of \ . spring housecleaning changed much in the course of the last 60 years, which is as far as my memory will pend without cracking. Indeed, the technique has changed so little that I'll hazard the bold and brilliant guess that it's the only tradition to come through clean. . Spring housecleaning still starts with upsetting everything downstairs beginning, as a rule, with my ‘avorite sitting room just as it did when I was a little boy. By slow and fitful ‘stages, it then moves upstairs and lands in the bedrooms. After which all rhe clothes closets turn up.

Clothes Closets Separate Operation

IN THE TEMPERATE ZONE the clothes closets, for some reason, ‘ire never considered a component part of the room. They never were. Search me, 1 don’t know why. All I know is that the cleaning of the clothes closets is a distinct and separate operation to be tackled after everything else has been put in order. This means, of course, that spring housecleaning starts all over after everybody (except the one in command) thinks it’s done. Sometimes, indeed, the second phase of housecleaning doesn’t end until it gets to be time for all the men to shed their vests. I still recall how, one year, the cleaning of the ~losets revealed a sponge cake, designed for a pre-

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WASHINGTON, Mfrch 22.—Dissolution of the LaFollette Wisconsin Progressive party after a dozen years brings an abrupt end to a regional third party experience that offers some interesting political clues for today. : Among other things, it comes right in the midst of agitation for a national third party. It throws a damper on such projects to some extent,“though it’s hard to discourage. enthusiastic groups who profess to see no hope today in either major party. They are a minority, but a noisy and belligerent one. Pragtical considerations forced Senator Bob La~ Follett® to disband his party. The party that once had dominated the state under himself and his brother Philip has dwindled away. The senator is up for re-election this year. He had to have a vehicle. His own party no longer provided it. So he decided to go back to the Republican party out of which his father, the late Senator Robert M. LaFollette, walked in 1924 to run as an Independent candidate for president.

Disaffection Faces Both Parties

PRACTICAL considerations likewise seem to militate against any national third party, among them, the fact that state laws have been fixed in s0 many cases to make it difficult for third parties to get on the ballot. > This still does not close the door to a new national third party, of course. But whether or not that happens, both old major parties are being subjected to stresses and strains for reform from within. Everybody knows that Bob LaFollette will continue to fight standpat G. O. P. conservatism from within the party, as he did from without for so many years. Harold Stassen is doing the same. So is a group in both branches of congress, though a minority. So are groups outside. Similarly, the Democratic party in literally bursting at the seams with disaffection. The disaffected

Hungry Nations

WASHINGTON, March 22.—The world famine situation is becoming desperate. It will almost certainly grow worse until June, at the earliest. It is equally certain, according to food experts, that millions are doomed to die of starvation or of pestilence due to malnptrition before the summer harvests. How big the toll will be depends largely on that partwof the world which has food equal or above their own requirements, If their entire surplus is fairly distributed throughout the famine areas, the death list will be cut. If every household eliminates waste, and every man, woman and child resolves to absorb no more than the necessary calories, fewer still will die.

We Have Guiding Responsibility AT BEST, HOWEVER, the outlook is somber. Before he left for India, Sir Sonti Ramamurti informed this writer he had received word that famine In this country can not be avoided. Already livihg on the margin of subsistence, she has cut down the national ration to an average of 960 calories with only 1200 for -adults—well under the minimum required for health. Yet a further reduction may become necessary. India’s need was for 800,000 tons of rice and wheat. Her food delegation to this country asked for 700,000 tons. According to Sir Sonti they have now been advised that they must not expect more than 60 per cent of that. “Are we to take back to India from this land of plenty a warrant of death for our people?” the Indians asked in a farewell statement, “Is this the message which ome great people may send to another? We ask that the people of the United States, who have established their right to guide the affairs of men, carry out also their responsibility, We ask that the people of India be not given up to death.”

NEW YORK, March 22.—What happens if the British loan fails to pass through congress? If the loan doés not go through, Britain will have to tighten her ‘belt upon an already undernourished stomach. The good-rations, which today are lower than they were 12 months ago when Britain was still at war with @ermany and Japan, will be cut still further, Britain will have to save her limited dollar resources for absolute necessities. The importation of American films and tobacco is almost certain to be prohibited in toto. .Purchases of Amerioan cotton will be reduced to a minimum, and the same would apply to all foodstuffs. ' = Then, Britain will be unable to play her part under the Bretton Woods agreement. Instead of the multilateral trade which is a major American in-

agreements on ‘the model set by Dr. Hjalmar Schacht.

Means Scuttling Bretton Woods

THE U. 8, WOULD be forced to follow a similar policy. Instead of an expanding world economy in which there will be mutually profitable trade for all, a cut-throat competition for foreign markets would break out between Britain and the U. 8. Britain would undoubtedly survive this ordeal, for she ig still the center of a vast group of mations who look to her for economic and political leadership. But both Britalp and the United States would be com g in a poorer world. Instead of organizing

and iding fairly the abundance of an expanding a dollar bloc and a i" i) £ a x

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OUR TOWN ; . . By Anton Sehorrer Spring Housecleaning Hecti

IN WASHINGTON . . . By Thomas L. Stokes Major Parties Feel Strain Within

terest, there will be a whole host of bilateral trade _

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- : , Time vious Fourth of July celebration, which Mother had carefully hidden so that we kids couldn't get at it ahead of time. And on another occasion a pair of fancy suspenders, embroidered by Grandmother, came to light. The discovery confirmed a.suspicion that, Father had deliberately "hidden. the suspenders just to get out of wearing them. 3 Of course, spring housecleaning works the other way, too. It's a great time.to lose things. There is the historic incident, for example, of Christopher «' man (ot blessed memory) who came home one spring evening and found the piano missing. It never, turned up again,

A Job Until Labor Day

COME TO THINK OF IT, though, the cleaning af the closets wasn't the end of spring. housecleaning when I was a little boy. The debauch ended with the painting of the brick walk under our grape arbor, to say nothing of all those around our house. It was a job assigned to me. Father, I remember, entertained a determined notion that kids couldn't start early snough to learn the seamy side of life. Indeed, it was Father who thought up the nifty that life consists of nothing but a succession of spring housecleanings. Anyway, Father provided me with the pigment with which to paint the sidewalks. It was always the reddist on the market and, with the help of a good stiff broom, I generally managed to turn out an acceptable job: at any rate, the paint was put on thick enough to merit Father's aprpoval. However, that still wasn't the end of it. After the walks were painted, it was my businegs to keep the grass frm growing between the bricks—a task that cut down my summer vacation by at least 20 per cent. It was an ornery chore; so much so that one spring I conceived the idea of mixing a lot of salt with the paint. It didn't work worth a cent. Father, I remember, laughed himself sick when he learned that a son of his had ried to circumvent nature. After he got done laughing he ordered me to paint the walks again, this time without adulterations. That year my part of the spring housecleaning didn't end until some time around Labor. day.

are the Progressive and leftist groups who joined the party under Franklin D. Roosevelt and it is from them that the third party talk comes. They are annoyed over control of congress by conservative elements of the Democratic party in coalition with conservative Republicans. ist, Failure of President Truman to get much done in congress on his program-—largely left-over measures from the Roosevelt regime—offered Bob LaFollette his best argument against joining up his Progressive party with the Democrats, as some of his followers wanted to do. He seemed to be rationalizing to fit his political problem, but his statement that the Democratic party was “stalled on dead center” ‘was accurate enough.

Some Groups Getting Restive THROUGHOUT our political history third parties have cropped up under two conditions: Either when the old parties are controlled by the same conservative economic interests, or when depression spreads over the land and people grope for a saviour. The original Republican party came out of the first condition. Out of the second came that group of progressive or radical movements in the Northwest during the 20's and early 30's. The farm depression gave birth to the Non-Partisan league and the Farmef-Labor party. This reflected itself in congressional elections as far back as 1922, an omen which Republican leaders failed to heed until it blew up in their faces a few years later. In 1924 the elder LaFollette left the Republican party. A decade later his sons created the Wisconsin Progressive party. Phil LaFollette tried to expand it into ##national party, but the Democratic party under Mr. Roosevelt literally swallowed up various regional independent political movements. These groups are getting restive under President Truman's leadership.

WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By William Philip Simms

Depending on U.S.

Through this appeal runs a strain like the cry of a hungry child in the night. And the tragedy of it is, there just isn't enough food to go around. India is not alone in her plight. Almost every country in Europe is also in the breadline. Likewise vast areas in the Middle and Far East, including our own Philippines. ’

Invisible Guests at Table TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, the department of agriculture reports serious crop shortages on a worldwide scale. Where 12 hundred million bushels of wheat are needed, only 850 million bushels are available, Normal annual production of rice is 160 .million tons. Today there isn’t a quarter of that. Some 10 billion pounds of fats and vegetable oils are essential, only a little more than six billion pounds are to be had. Eight million tons. of sugar will have to fill a 12-millfon-ton want, and so on. Preakish weather has played havoc just when the world needed bumper Crops.

———The-question-now;,- however. is not why there isn't

enough food, but a human problem of how to stretch what there is as far as possible. Everyone can help. Former President Hoover, surveying the EurBpean famine areas, urges each family to imagine it has an “invisible guest” at every meal. Food thus saved would keep -tens of millions from starvifig. Most American families, it is said, throw, away enough to feed another of the same size. Such waste now denies food to empty stomachs, means death to hungry people in many lands, The Indian delegates’ appeal is expecially signifi cant. It reveals, with great poignancy, how utterly the hungry nations are depending on us for reHef. If we do not wish to merit reproach, we must tighten our belts now and for months to come, :

TODAY IN EUROPE . + . By Randolph Churchill British Loan Failure Means Chaos

sterling bloc fiercely competing, with tariffs and quotas, with subsidies and with currency devaluations, for a strictly limited volume of world trade. The privations that weuld be imposed upon the British ‘people, coupled with the exigencies of a bitter trade war, would tend inevitably to ‘drive Britain further down the path of socialism, nationalization and state trading. This process would be reflected throughout the world; everywhere the rights of the individual would wither and the authority of the state would be Mugmented. Invites War

IPPS might enjoy organizifig-

and regimenting necessary to im

e austerity which it would be upon the British public. Lord Beaverbrook might rejoice in beating the tom-toms of economic imperialism. ‘But throughout what remains of the free world there would be unnecessary hardship and, day by day, both Britain and America

would be building an economic system of poverty

which could only find its ultimate release in war. I have written the foregoing with a deep sense of responsibility, fully conscious that I may be accused of trying to make alarmist propaganda in tavor of the loan. However, consider the views of men like .Secretary of State Byrnes and Secretary of the Treasury Vinson. Both these men are cur-

rently trying to push the loan through congress—

not because they are especially enamored of Great Britain, but because .they belleve thdt the best in-

terests of the United States and of the world will thus be served. ata ato J : Mo dex 4

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