Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 April 1946 — Page 18
Indianapolis Times
E 18 sday, April 18, 1946 HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ mt _ Editor Business Mat 4 (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
_ sh. Postal Zone 9. : ; © Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Marion County, § cents a copy; deliv20 cents a week. Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a
ns » RI-S851. Rscers and the People Will Find Their Own Wey ERNIE .RNIE PYLE went to his soldier's death on Ie Shima a ; year ago today. We feel his loss more keenly today than ever. Others have tried to emulate Ernie's warm human reporting, but none has approached his place in the hearts of newspaper readers.
EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE
THE SINGING of our children has won fame for the Monument Circle Easter Sunrise Carol Service. Hundreds of them will lift their voices in the 24th annual program Sunday. And thousands of older folk of Hoosierdom and neighboring states will gather 'round the monument to listen. Still others will hear the music on the air. This Easter's service will express thanksgiving for peace and the return of the armed forces. From the far corners of the earth they are home again, many remembering how lustily they used to sing in the sunrise choir. The monument service owes its beginning to a small son of Indianapolis. He early lost his life in an accident. Since then, a chorus directed by his mother, Mrs. James M. Ogden, has interpreted the deep-down meaning and comfort of the resurrection story. The chorus has grown and the pageantry extended in scope until now the service is a city-wide project. More than 1000 persons give their time and talent to assure its success. : ri With a special thought for “Gold Star” families, it again will be held in the heart of the city at sunrise. Again the children will sing their song of recurring hope. Of everlasting life. Of Easter!
" UNTRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
SO NOW the railroads want a 25 per cent rate boost. Without it, they say, post-war costs and pre-war rates will cause them a “tremendous deficit” this year. We don't know how much relief they need, but obviously they have a case. The wages they must pay are up; the prices they must pay for materials are up and still rising; their traffic volume and freight revenues are down. And, just as obviously, higher freight rates will mean higher prices for what railroads carry. Something certainly did get started when the government undertook to fight deflation and inflation at one and the same time. The administration theory was simplicity itself: The country must provide 60 million jobs. That would require great industrial activity and high output of goods. The must have a market. That would require high puring power among the people, and the government ‘would see to that by encouraging labor to push wage rates up. But rising living costs must not destroy the value of wages, and the government would prevent that by holding
prices down. .... As Mr, Baruch has said, it was “bunking the public,” and the consequences are painful to contemplate. +... Consider steel, a basic materidl. When steel wages went up the government found that it had to let steel prices go up. Then countless steel-using plants found that they not only had to pay higher wages, but also higher material posts. So they got, or are seeking, higher prices for their products. Automobiles. Electrical goods. Farm implements. And on and on, until the anti-inflation line threatens to bulge like an overblown wad of bubble gum. . -
Now COME the railroads. And the farmers. And Joh ' * L. Lewis, having shut off a material even more basic than steel, sits waiting for a victory that will make rival labor leaders look feeble and may start a whole new round of wage-price-wage-price leapfrogs. Labor isn’t the only group that can apply political pressure. Everybody gets into that act. Everybody grabs, each grab calls for another, and everybody will end up clutching fistfulls of wind ., . . .
t Unless we all, and our government, get wise to the fact that our standard .of living is determined, not by dollar signs on pay envelopes or profit checks, but by the amount of new wealth productive effort creates. : i Wages are a cost factor in every step of production and 4 distribution. The administration's beautiful theory disEE couraged production by forcing costs up against controlled prices and squeezing out hope for fair profits. That's why the price controls had to give. Now, if we want to get back on the right road, we'll have to remember that no amount of cash can enable us to consume more than we all produce, and that producing takes work.
A SMART C. I. 0. UNION
HE Communist party’s New York paper, the Daily = Worker, is angry because Communists are barred from membership in the Utility Workers Union, newest affiliate of the C. 1. O. : The anti-Communist clause in the U. W. Us constitution, the Daily Worker asserts, is the result of a ‘“‘redbaiting, hysterical performance.” “But,” it adds, “it is a
give up their right to earn a living for their famili : ht ies nor give up their political convictions.” We congratulate the new union It i idi , s avoiding the error of many other C. I. 0. unions, and many C. 1. 0, leaders, Who have thought they could make safe use of the gy and ability of Communist members. It can’t be
For when Communists i izati aor ) get into any organizatio eir plainly evident purpose a 2
unions, their constant ther loyal
safe bet that Communists employed in utilities will neither | |
plainly 1 i§ either to dominate or to ny Their “political convictions” impel them to use efforts are to stir up trouble, are not to American workers or Amer-
a ce a charge of red bating and | | oe Of wi the U. W. U, o el ow : . “¥! id a ah ught ¥o, be | got a pretty nice retainer from Mrs. Ven ‘Blott to keep my eyes : I, 5 % +; poesled for a pound of butter!" ol
_—_
- ! Easter Egg—And We Do Mean Egg :
Loto
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-
Hoosier
say, but |
Forum
"I do not agree with a word that you
your right to say it." — Voltaire.
will defend to the death -
The importance of the Marion a result, a number of persons have
presented in our civil courts. While
standing, sympathy and patience, which, in the past, have been so frequently lacking. Furthermore, he should have an adequate eomprehension of social welfare and
surround himself with a staff well trained in this field. In no event should political affiliation constitute
a qualification.
In the approaching primary, the voters will have an opportunity to express their choice. To aid them In this choice, a group of persons interested in social welfare and not
interested in the political side of the problem have carefully studied the qualifications of all the candidates and, as a result, have indorsed Harold N. Fields on the Republican, and Joseph O. Hoffman on the Democratic ticket. In my opinion, it behooves the voters to follow these recommendations. The next move should be to take this position entirely out of politics by appropriate legislative enactment. » ” ” “HAND-ME-DOWN HOUSE HAS FEDERAL BLESSING”
By Bert Wilhelm, R. BR. 5, Box To a man in the street it looks as if the senators’ final action on the veteran’s housing bill will create a subsidized monopoly for the prefabricated housing lobby. It is common talk among those who know that this group has acquired all the dry lumber in the country from government sources at a price that has never been made public. The prefabricated lobby makes a further demand that the government give them six-hundred million dollars to set them up in business and guarantee the sale of all the houses that they can produce. The only way this can be accomplished will be to giverthe prefabricated the green light on a G: I. loan regardless of the much better value offered {by the unsubsidized builder. When the government first went. into the building business much stress was put on condemning the
Carnival —By Dick T
"Juvenile*Codrt Judge Should Have Qualities Lacking in Past"
By Leo M. Rappaport, Indianapolis
county juvenile court has not been
adequately recognized by the voters of this county in the past and, as
heretofore been elected as judge of
this court who were wholly unqualified to fill this important position. In my opinion, the destiny of a child is of more. concern to the commainity as a whole than the determination of questions of property rights
it is desirable to have qualified per-
sons to preside over all the courts, it is absolutely necessary that the judge of the juvenile court have those qualifications of human under-
“Jerry built” house, but it seems that a change of heart has given the hand-me-down shoddy the preference, { » r » “VETERANS ADMINISTRATION DOESN'T GIVE THE RULES” By A Five Battle Scarred Veteram, dianapolis I have never considered myself a griper, even when the brass was pushing us around to show that he was the boss in the army, but the deal I received from the veterans administration is more than I can take. I am writing to yeu in the hope that you will publish this letter and, by so doing, prevent other veterans from making fools of themselves by spending money for transportation and wasting their time*by going out there expecting help. When I was discharged last October my teeth were in terrible condition so in. very good faith I went to the V. A. to file a dental claim (every time I tried to get treatment overseas I was given the run-around and a lot of excuses), I was told that I would hear from them in a month or so. Three months later, after many trips and telephone calls out there to find out what had happened to my claim, I became disgusted, had my teeth fixed by a civilian dentist, and paid for it myself. Recently I made another trip out there to see if I couldn't be reimbursed, at least in part, for the cost of fixing my teeth, and was told (for the first time) that “the ‘rules specifically state that anyone vho goes ahead on his own and has the work done, forfeits his claim." 1 wonder why I wasn't given a copy of the rules and regulations of thé game, as they play it. Has anyone any suggestions about how I can get the money back (which was a good share of my mustering out pay) that it cost me for the privilege of serving the land of the free and the home of the brave?
n-
urner
¥ 1946 BY NEA BERVIOR, INC. T. M. REO,
. i
Dek Tome 4x
PAT. OFF.
“ i - ~ no. a a
“18-YEAR-OLDS ARE NOT READY FOR BALLOT RIGHT”
By A. J. Schneider, 504 W. Drive, Woedruff Place.
Again the agitation for changing our election laws so that servicemen 18 years old would be permitted to vote. Moreover, within
recent weeks President Truman has announced that he is in favor of such revision. That is an open admission by the President of his failure in the discharge of his duties, and he is staking his hope of reelection on the millions of adolescents who will be so grateful for the opportunity that they will all toe the mark and vote for him. When we consider the awesome matter of amending our election laws, which were set up long years ago after very weighty deliberation, there must be only one purpose in such changes—improvement of the technique of voting and the
quality of elected officers. It is debatable whether lowering of the vot- | ing age would tend to accomplish | this purpose. While I personally am as sentimental about the men who fcught our war and the debt we owe them as anyone else, I am not convinced that the fact of having fought a war or served in our military necessarily qualifies a man to vote. Indeed, a large percentage of 18-year-olds were refused by the military for illiteracy; but if the voting age were lowered they, too, would be entitled to vote. The 18-year-olds are still adolescents, and on the whole are impressionable and easily led or misled, and cannot know from mature deliberation what their own mind is. I must admit that they could not make a worse mess than the mess in Washington and elsewhere at the present time. But can they of necessity improve it? I must admit that millions who are 21 years old or more are not sufficiently matured to properly exercise the right to vote. But this does argue in favor of lowering the voting Age. 1 doubt if the average serviceman is flattered by Mr. Truman's bid for their thoughtless votes. They already know that they have strong organizations of veterans of legal voting age, which organisations are able to exert a much more forceful effort in their behalf than could their individual votes. - » ” “BRIDES FROM AFAR MAY HAVE GREATER AMERICANISM” By Voice in the Crowd, Indianapolis. Contrary to the belief of some of the Forum writers, it is not 100 per cent Americanism to deny the right or private judgment of the G. 1. to marry the girl of his choice, of any nationality and in any location. It is furthermore tlie young man's right to bring her back to his native land and ther: to live forever after. What is 100 per cent Americanism, if it is not tolerance of the other fellow and full recognition of his right to live as an individual with no criticism of his private judgment so long as his actions do not encroach on the rights of others? Perhaps some of these brides from afar will appreciate America more than most Americans do, and rear their children to love and protect our great in. heritance. if such be the hope, let the boys
ladies. And may we be true Amerjcans and not only welcome the ladies but prove to them that this is home and encourage them to bring happiness and peace to the young n who brought them here as their wives.
DAILY THOUGHT
Where is the wise? Where Is the scribe? Where is the disrupter of this world? Hath not. ‘God made foolish the wisdom of - this world?—Corinthians 120.
bring back a million or so of these’
HE ‘who ‘fi% once been very foolish will at no other time - wise. ~Montalgne.
RT EE
be very | lus to
= 9: I - 3 ov os;
| IT'S OUR BUSINESS ds By Donald D. Hoover = .. Jap Sports Mirror Nation's Traits
IT'S OUR. BUSINESS, and timely because of the opening of our baseball season this week, to know what sports attract Japanese interest, because this is an indication of the national temperament. As in this country, baseball is the national sport, As soon as youngsters got on gesturing terms with our troops, they tried to be included in tossing a baseball around . . . and frequently did. “They played little ball toward the end of the war, but their enthusiasm for both amateur and professional baseball rivaled that of Americans. ! Baseball was introduced in Japan in 1872 by two American teachers. The agile, fast-thinking. Japs soon proved themselves to be good pitchers and good fielders . . . but weak batters. The Waseda university team came to the U. 8, in 1906, to lose 20 out of 27 games, and soon teams from the University of Chicago, Wisconsin, Washington and St. Louis univer-
| sities were visiting Japan, and winning almost all
their games.
Baseball Supplants Sumo, or Wrestling UNTIL THE ADVENT of baseball, sumo (or wrestling) was the principal Japanese sport. Heavy wrestlers, around the 300-pound class, pitted their bull-like strength against each other in this 2000-year sport. A sumo match is most uninterest. ing, from our standpoint, because the participants may spend as much as 15 minutes getting psychologically set before a bout that may last only one minute, Still, the Japs like it . . . although not so well as baseball. The other principal ancient sports which went into comparative decline with the coming of western sports, were kenjuto, or fencing with bamboo swords four feet four inches long, native style swimmjng as developed by the warriors and fishermen for practical purposes -and archery. Kenjuto was essentially the sport of the Samurai warriors, and demanded coolness, presence of mind and the ability and agility to present few openings to an adversary. Alone of the ancient sports, jujitsu (or “art of suppleness”) remains in relative popularity . . . and this because it is an art of mental discipline and self-defense maintained by the military.
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The Japanese took to western sports because the offered an opportunity for collective participation i greater spectator interest. The competition appealed to them, as did the opportunity to win honor for their country in world competition. Fountain-head of the new athletics was the Young Men's Buddhist associa~ tiont of Tokyo and the universities, - Soon there were active teams in track and field sports, basketbdll, western swimming, tennis, boxing and horsemanship, with a lesser interest in rugby football and ‘skiing. In all of these the Jap contestants showed deadly earnestness, sportsmanship until they got into a really tough spot, and a desire to bring honor to the em peror by victory over other countries.
Taught by U.S. Players AMERICAN B players naturally were sought to teach the Japs the game which was to become their national sport. In 1913, an aggregation of leading players of the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox visited Japan for a tour, In 1831, Herb Hunter took a picked pro team to the island empire, and a number of these players coached members of the Bix Six university league. The Jap teams aroused great enthusiasm at home, but didn't do so well when they played here, In the professional field, there are eight teams backed by newspapers and railway comparies. The strongest when war prevented actipe sports was the Kyojin, or Giants, of the Yomi himbun, one of Tokyo's largest dailies. This team produced the leading batter, who rated .286 per cent with 106 hits and 142 bases out of 370 timesit bat. The Giants toured the states in 1935 and 1936, and made more of an impression by their appearance than by their ability, The Olympics were to have been held in Tokyo in 1940, but were canceled because of the war. I lived at the Dai-Iti hotel, built to house the contestants. . . . I'd like to see a husky American athe lete fit himself into one of those tiny bathtubs after a heavy w at scabby Meiji stadium, ; From two contestants in the 1912 Olym Cc games at. Stockholm, Jap representation grew to ol at Bere lin in 1930 . . . even then Hitler was playing up to them, I'm told by a Jap who accompanied the team,
REFLECTIONS . . . By Robert C. Ruark . New York Alimony Club Still Going
NEW YORK, April 18—About 20 years ago, one of the more popular feminine sports, in this town consisted of throwing backsliding husbands into the clink, for failure to keep up the alimony payments. This frolicsome pastime finally became so fashionable that any character who was unable to refer to a stretch in the cooler was regarded as a square, a per-
| son apt to wear sleeve-garters and red underwear,
For years now there has been no commotion about the plight of the financially embarrassed alimony payer, but the status is still quo. The little 37th 8t. jail, which housed so many happy fugitives from matrimony, still averages: a half-dozen alimony dodgers, sometimes more, rarely less.
Nice Quarters, Nothing to Do IT IS ILLEGAL to jail a man for in America, but the trick is the old contempt court angle. Court says pay, Man can’t, or won't so he is hauled up, sentenced for contempt, and stowed away in the locker until his sentence runs out or he decides to get up the dough. In 1927, there was so much yelling about the living conditions in the old Ludlow st. jail, that members of the alimony club were moved to comparatively lush quarters in the county jail on 37th st. The press of that day ran wild in describing the delights of this new clink—its roof-garden, where the inmates played handball, its airy rooms and country-club atmosphere. A friend of mine, whose wife once shut him away in a fit of petulance over a trivial matter of $3000, was talking nostalgically the other day about the peace and serenity of his incarceration. “It was wonderful,” he said. “We sunned our-
selves all day long, and I came out looking like I'd had a winter in Palm Beach. There were eight private rooms on the first floor. They called that Park Avenue, and for a little baksheesh you could move out of the bullpen into private quarters. “For a couple of bucks a week we built up a food fund, and although ‘the last meal was technically served at 4 p. m, nobody minded if we used the kitchen. When I was there, they had two delicatessen men doing time, and they were wonderful cooks. : “One man, when he got out, sent us a crate of baby lobsters from Maine. There wasn't any difficulty about liquor. Friends always brought plenty when they came to visit. Every evening we had a couple of tables of bridge going, and you met a lot of bright people—especially actors. It was a good life, and when the Rolls-Royce pulled up to take me away, I was a little sad.” .
No Liquor or Lobsters Now FAVORITE ARGUMENT among the languishing husbands dealt with the illegality of confining a man for failure to pay alimony. The most-voiced crack was: “They can't put us here legally——but here we are.” Fined in the amount of their back alimony, they were considered to be no longer contemptuous when they scratched up that amount. In today's version of the alimony club, there are still sufficient customers but little levity, according to Sheriff John L. McCloskey. “It is no country club,” said the sheriff. “We have the alimony dodgers, bus | you will find no lobsters and no liquor.” The roof garden, however, is still thers.
IN WASHINGTON . «+ + By Thomas L. Stokes Compulsion Needed in Food Crisis
WASHINGTON, April 18.—The American people are generous when the need is presented to them clearly and the means of helping is made plain. ‘This generosity has been demonstrated time and again. Now it is evident in all sorts of voluntary contributions, individually and in organized groups, to help feed a hungry Europe, as well as in efforts to co-operate in the national campaign to save food, particularly bread. But it is becoming obvious by now that none of these voluntary measures, loose and disorganized as they are, will be enough to avert a veritable black plague of starvation in Europe in the next two and a half critical months before harvests begin to come
in there. to Hurt
Conscience. Beginnin : THERE IS APRARENY a feeling of futility, of This is intensified
helpléssness, among people here. by growing pangs of conscience, for we have so much of everything here, so much food to eat, so much money to spend. The reports that come in*from Europe, including those of former President Hoover, the gruesome pictures of scrawny children and withered men and women—all are constant reminders that disturb us. Strong national leadership, courage to cast aside domestic political considerations, are needed, with some additional compulsions for our direction. Rationing would have met the problem, had it been instituted some time ago. But it is too late for that now to help in the immediate crisis. The government, on behalf of all of us, should act in its own right. Some compulsions already are in effect, imposed to iry to meet our quota of wheat and flour exports. Use of grain as livestock feed has been curtailed. An order, is in effect requiring 80 per cent extraction of wheat in making flour, so that more bread is made
from the same quantity of wheat. Distillers and brewers have baen severely limited in use of grains, although this is not a considerable saving. Then there is the voluntary campaign among restaurants and housewives. To attract wheat off the farms, a certificate system has been set up, though not yet in full operation, which will permit the farmer to cash the certificate at any time he chooses until March 1, 1947. But all of these, it appears, will not be enough. There is another avenue of saving. This is to issue a war food order to reduce by 25 per cent the amount of flour for domestic purposes, putting it aside for export to Europe. This is a direct method, Secretary of Agriculture Anderson was all set several days ago to issue such an order. The millers and bakers raised a howl. He backed off, at least temporarily, before the protests, of these special in= terests. Now it-is re again that such an ordes is imminent, No Hardship for People WE FIXED A QUOTA of 225 million bushels of | wheat exports to Europe for the first six months this year. We fell short in the first three months, ex= porting 100 million bushels. This makes 125 million bushels will be needed for the second three months, It will take a squeezé to do it, requiring us. to: reduce our carry-over to the barest minimum and to cut down domestic consumption. Since voluntary methods seemingly won't reduce domestic consump- 3 tion sufficiently the 25 per cent reduction in domestio flour by order seems the practical way, if that will? do it. It will be no hardship to the people. Per capita food consumption is some 10 to 12 per cent higher now than before the war. Everybody has enough to eat. The people will go along if they have leadership which resists “business-as-ususl” influences.
TODAY IN EUROPE . . . By Randolph Churchill
U.S. Reconversion Is Not Far Ahead
LONDON, ‘April 18.—Until my recent trip to the United States, I had supposed that the American conversion of industry from war to peace was at least 18 months ahead of that of Britain. However, what IT saw and heard while I was there makes me think that this gap is far smaller. American war industry, having nothing to fear from air attack, was planned on a gigantic scale which, of necessity, makes its reconversion to peacetime production a difficult and complicated undertaking. And, in many cases, the war factories are unsuitable for peacetime production. In" Britain, on the other hand, the necessity for the dispersal of wartime industry resulted in a diversity and flexibil-
jty which now is proving advantageous.
Britain Free of Strikes AMERICAN PRODUCTION has been severely held back by large-scale strikes which have paralyzed one industry after another. The steel strike, and now the coal strike, have affected output in scores of other industries. Britain, however, has been singularly free from serious labor unrest. This undoubtedly is largely the result of there being a labor government in power. The workers, having voted their own representatives into office, are naturally disposed to give the hew government a fair chance. The third comparative disadvantage from which American industry is suffering seems to be the undue insistence upon price controls. In Britain, very rigid price controls have been maintained upon the primary necessities of life, such as rent, food and clothing, but the prices of gost manufactured goods have been dllowed to rise a much-needed "stimuproduction fias thus been provided. What the whole world needs at this ‘
diy
+ would nt is
production. One would have expected that the United States, with its immense industrial capacity, would have gone decisively ahead. It is, therefore, disappointing to find that much of Amesican industry is turning over at only about half speed. I was particularly struck with this when I visited Detroit. I had last been there in 1042. when it was a great arsenal of democracy and was pouring out a huge flood of tanks and aircraft, One had only to see the production figures then to know that the victory of the allies was certain.
World Needs U.S. Preduction TODAY, IT IS a very different story. Benson Ford, who showed me around the Ford factory, told me that automobile production is only at half of capacity. At the present price figures set by the government, the Ford company is losing $180 on} every Ford car produced, and $1000 on every Line. coln. Even if they could get their production up to 10 per cent, they would still not be making a profit. i Though it is, in one sense, encouraging to an Englishmen to discover American industry has not got the immense lead one "had supposed, it is dise| appointing from the world point of view. Certainly,
for the next three or four years, there will be al” sellers’ market, and 'everything that can be pro-
duced anywhere will find an immediate sale. The} world has desperate need of every form of consumer | goods, and only large-scale production can ultimately check the inflationary tendencies which are wide-| spread today. .If American industry were free from “strikés, even. for six months, the flow of goods that pé produced would not only satisfy the home market, but provide an abundant surplus for export.
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FOOD | MENA
UNRRA Mi: Settle
By PARK] «Ho ATHENS, yy appalling and s inequalities in cally produces Italy and Gree Nowhere in there a rationi black markets not render in fective, The "ls of supply and mand and abi to pay rule ruthlessly as law that mi makes rig | dominates t | jungle, The factors “hind the inequ ities in distri tion are of suc be dealt with heads of the these nations. the factors pre which must be ministers conf Nations. In Greece su —there have b ation—have re American ratio reasons. The fi that it was too it was too late raised that th trative machin for such a task UNRRA cou!
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