Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 August 1946 — Page 18

81946 "0

: w TER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ

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Gide Light ond the People Will Find Their Own Woy

PEACE AT CONNERSVILLE QUIET has returned to Connersville, or at least enough quiet to permit sober consideration of what the turmoil there this week was all about,-and who, if anyone, stood to gain by what went on. What it was all about seems clear enough. An A. F. of L. union had a contract with a manufacturer, which a "C. L O. union wanted. Since a contract is legally binding upon an employer, though not upon a union, this manu- ~ facturer had no choice but to refusgto cancel his agreement and make a new one with a rival union. When the C. 1. O. union undertook to force hil to do so the disorder began. Who stood to gain by it is a little more obscure. Certainly not the manufacturer, whose business was interrupted at considerable financial loss to him. Certainly not the people of Connersville, whose city was kept in an uproar for days. Hardly the state guards, who had to drop their own affairs and go up there to preserve order. And of course not the A. F. of L. members, who apparently wanted to.go on working under the contract they had made, although not all of them were willing to fight with a group of pickets in order to get in. — That leaves only the C. I. O. men who might possibly have expected some benefit from the struggle, if they had won. But even that is a little hard to follow. It could not, conceivably, make very much difference to these workers which of the two unions they pay dues to, so long as the wages and the working conditions at the plant are satis-

factory—which they so far have not questioned. » . ” » » » \

KE all jurisdictional disputes this one goes back to a basis of union power politics, which may concern a tiny handful of professional union leaders—but which cannot in any way benefit the men who do the work and pay the dues, and for whom unions are presumed to exist. In the long run such an upheaval can only injure those men—and the unions themselves. The people of this country are getting more than a little fed up—not with the jdea of unionism, but with tactics such as these. It would be far from surprising if sentiment in Connersville today is running heayily against organized labor—without very much distinction as to the rights and wrongs of the matter. It is a reaction that is likely to sweep away a good many desirable things, along with the undesirable.

» . ® » ” » HERE is never any justification for a jurisdictional strike, which this so obviously was. Our existing labor statutes seem to us to be somewhat less than perfect, but they were enacted with the approval of both A. F. of L.

method for settling disputes such as this one was.

have sponsored. This affair-at. Conngrsville has done union labor more serious and more lasting damage than all the stiff-necked reactionary employers in Indiana ever could have accomplished if they'd been trying together. Nor are we impressed by the C. I. O. protests against Governor Gates for sending state guards and state police to Connersville. The first duty of the state is to enforce the laws and prevent violence, and no group or organization, it or otherwise, has rights that transcend the rights all citizens to such protection. Governor Gates did exactly what he should have done under the circumstances, and his men acquitted themselves well, in preserving order without discrimination—even giving exactly the same protection to the instigators of this squabble as they gave to their opponents. _ = And if, as this incident strongly indicates, the labor laws of this country as they now stand are not sufficient to prevent such rows as this one, we'd be glad to join with the unions themselves in working for improvement of them.

YOUTH MOVEMENT

A BOYS’ forum of national government, sponsored by the American Legion, is meeting in Washington. Legion Commander John Stelle believes that this forum, made an annual event, and giving boys opportunity to observe actual operation of democratic government, can be developed into a genuinely and usefully American youth movement. We agree with him, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Communist Russia all made great and effective efforts to sell their theories to the youths of those countries. Meanwhile most of us have been too inclined to take it for granted that American boys and girls will grow up firm believers in the advantages of democracy and of government that is the people’s servant, not the master. Alert boys at the Legion's forum may observe that the United States government has faults as well as virtues. All the better if they do, and if they gain determination to improve matters when they become voters.

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Hoosier Forum

“1 do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire.

and C. I. O., and both have vigorously resisted any changes in them since. They at least attempt to provide an.orderly |stimmelbrenner's, but in general paseball bats and wagon wheel To. see |they have had the business about] them flouted and defied by unions themselves certainly does not add to public confidence either in the management of [to be getting rich out of it, stil the unions or 'in the efficacy of the laws they themselves |they

AN adventure that has brought fame of a sort to Almon Max Frankel of Brooklyn, N. Y., inspires the following

Never in human history has it been possible for people places and predicaments where they

go Mr. Frankel boarded a plane at La Guardia airport, under the impression that it was about to take off for Amsterdam. Nine hours later he awoke from a nap and

of us can sympathize with him. Living in an en everything seems to move faster and faster : @ time for looking before leaping. Governuals alike face problems that call for seldom with much opportunity to be sure

prosperity and happi-

the consequences of their errors overcome as easily as in the got a free flight back to New

"Jurisdictional Lockout" Stops Flow of Milk in East Ananias

By RICHARD POOR, East Ananias, Ind. There have been some incidents going on right here in East Ananias that I think you ought to know about, and also will you please tell us briefly just what is the Clayton act, or, as some call it the businessman’s bill of rights? 1 ask because of the affair down at Squibbs’ dairy. For several years now we have had two dairies here in East Ananias, one run by Aristotle Squibbs and the other by old Cy Stimmelbrenner. Both of them buy their milk from Joe Lasher’s big farm out east of town, and deliver the cream and the butter and the smearcase and the ice cream they make from it to people's houses here. Some folks say Squibbs’ is by

far the best and others swear by

spokes in their hands. Lafe said it was a jurisdictional lockout, and was entirely peaceful, though of course he could not be both manage to make a right responsible if anybody attacked his good living as such things go here. men by pushing them out of the Last fall when Cy Stimmelbren-|way or maybe trying to walk into ner's boy, Lafe, came home from Stot’s dairy plant. Stot was pretty the wars he went in to help the mad about it, but not mad enough old man run the business, and to wade into Lafe and his crowd, right away things begin to happen. and he went over to get some help Free competition, Lafe calls it.|from the sheriff. But the sheriff First he cuts his price, and then told him this was strictly a business Stot Squibbs cuts his, and then | dispute and all covered by the SherLafe begins to sign up his custo-|{Man act and the Clayton act, so of mers on long-time contracts, and| course he could not interfere. On first thing you know they're offer- | the way back Stot got Gus Macroing three pints to the quart and | polis from the Auld Pynes Tea butter tinted to match your mblejSuoppe and 5a SalAphey eum he as it- one(™ e E Ce ims wi sg Toe 10 hl, him. ut ihe time other went him one better. It got|'1€Y BOL bac e dairy han hotter and hotter, and a couple of|Schmaltz who owns the Bon Ton milk wagons got upset. Toggery and Ben Wuerstler from About » week ago. Sto Squibbs | the grocery store and Al Swink from comes Hight out ad says that the filling station had joined Lafe, everybody. that. lives. on South|gurec un tour id shut up shop Ofthan Ayers ie. Ine cusiomers | gry the owners had taken sides in e Ww the dairy argument, else to deliver milk there, which| Ng telling what might have hapsome of the folks out that way pened if the state guard hadn't didn’t like at all, since they'd al-icome in and moved in between ways been customers of old Cy them, and as it was there were a Stimmelbrenner. So Lafe 8ays||ot of hard words used, but nobody that is an unfair business practice) actually hit anybody else. and a violation of the rights of e| That's been going on for three pluribus unum and threatens to get| days now, and nobody in town ean out a writ of a certiorari, and I|get any milk or butter, or for that can tell you things were very tense matter any groceries or blue plate in East Ananias over Sunday. {lunches or gasoline, either, because Monday morning when Stot went|the men who run those places are down to work he found all of Lafe's|all marching around down in front milk wagons jammed in his drive- | of Stot’s dairy. We don't like it very way, and Lafe and a couple of much here in East Ananias, though dozen strangers that some folks|of course we are progressive liberals sald ere from over around Hard-|and don't like to be arbitrary about scrabble walking up and down with |a legitimate business dispute, even

evenly divided between them, and while neither Cy nor Stot appear

Carnival —By Dick Turner

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if it makes us go clear over to the county seat if we want a loaf of bread or a box of carpet tacks. Some of us are beginning te wonder if there’ hadn't ought to be some way to settle a dispute like this that would cause less inconvenience to everybody around, who don't much care which dairy brings their milk since it all comes from the same cows anyway, out at Joe Lasher’s. What would your reaction be to a suggestion like that?

® = - “GOVERNOR COMMENDED FOR CONNERSVILLE ACTION”

By Merritt Fields, Executive Manager, Indianapolis Association ef on n he public

It is important that review the facts about Governor Gates’ action in preventing beatings and assaults and possible homicide at Rex factory in Connersville,

In brief, this is the story: Two unions in the same plant are disputing and finally men massed at plant entrances not only refused to let plant workers enter, but also refused to. let the men who owned their own business go into the office to attend to their own business, Plant employees, office employees, owners and management men were stopped from going in—stopped not by peaceful persuasion but because of threats of beatings. So the company on behalf of those . employees who wanted to work both in the plants and offices very properly appealed to the court for protection against taking a beating or perhaps being crippled for life or possibly killed solely because they wanted to get in and go to work and resume the production the country so badly needs. After the Fayette circuit court issued a temporary injunction preventing interference with plant operations, threats to ignore the court order were made. and local law enforcement officers appealed to_Governor Gates for assistance, meaning the governor was asked to help the sheriff and Connersville city police save employees, owners and management men from being beaten up when they tried to go to work. Stat~ police, assisted by units of the Indiana State Guard, kept the plant entrances open, and a few were arrested who persisted in trying to blockade entrances thereby interfering with plant operations. Once more Governor Gates acting for all the people of the state has done his duty by enforcing the laws against assault and physical injury. We commend the governor for his devotion to duty. ” ” » “JUST TRY IT ONCE, GOVERNOR” By M. R., West Side I know one of those poor unfor« tunate men who gets tired and sleepy from driving so far. The superintendent where he works has often told the drivers to pull off the road and get sothe sleep in preference to having a wreck, As for these wayside tables you speak of, I Jove to take my Sunday dinners out and eat on them. I certainly wouldn't begrudge any of them a little snooze on them. After all, we cover those tables with a cloth so what harm is done. Also, some of these men are, out on ‘the road several days and just

one ever so bad. I bet you'd do the same thing and wait for a shave if you were a truck driver. Just try it once, governor. e————————————

DAILY THOUGHT For everyone asketh receiveth;

* and he that seeketh findeth; and . to him that knocketh it shall be

Hy # ”

Ret

Merit System to

IN AN ATTEMPT TO BRING greater efficiency to the city government of Indianapolis and other bommunities, merit system legislation will be sought of the general assembly when it convenes next January. The merit system as it operates in state government is feeble at best, but it is encouraging to have made a start. toward the Utopian goal of efficiency for every employee. There is no reason why nearly everyone in tht statehouse, courthouse or city hall should be turned out when there is a change of party administration . . . such ptactice removes one of the first incentives to efficiency, security in a job.

Indianapolis Lags ACCORDING TO A STUDY made by'the League of Women Voters of Indianapolis, “every city in the country larger than Indianapolis uses a qualified personnel plan for employment of municipal workers.” Having seen some of the operations in a few of those larger cities, I'm not too impressed with the efficiency of their city employees even with their systems . . . so it's diffftult to accept that comparison as a conclusive argument, It is not difficult, though, to accept the league's_ premise that Indianapolis doesn't seem to have a “comprehensive personnel program to improve the quality and capacity of our public employees by a well-rounded system of recruitment,” classification and pay, supervision, promotion .and tenure of service.” Several hiring systems for city employees are in operation, under general supervision of the acting personnel director and deputy city controller. ‘The board of safety pretty well controls selection of policemen and firemen, the health and hospital depart-

arr SATS v

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ments have systems of their own, the park depart--ment._has still another procedure which util the principal city qualification requirements and forms,

ht for City

and the acting personnel director handles other em-

ployment. *. In other words, the present methods would be improved if a modern merit system were installed. The League of Women Voters is the “mother” of merit system legislation in Indiana, having worked since 1935 for a more effective method of employment of persons on the public payroll. It carries on a quiet educational campaign, and works especially to bring to the attention of legislators information which will help them arrive at the genuine tacts if they wish to do so.

Voters Don't Control Government

ONE OF THE MOST PERTINENT observations

I have read recently is that made by Dr. Harold W. Dodds, president of Princeton university, in a discussion of who really runs government . . . the people or the servants they elect. “Who really is in the driver's seat, the voter or the official?” queried Princeton's president. “Unless the citizen's understanding of political issues keeps pace with their growing complexities, is he not destined to lose control over his officials?” . . I would say that the voters do not understand their government . , . city, county or state ++, and hat Ihsy astslly do not control it. Real control 8 In the hand of the officials and the not the public, Polo «18 All success to the League of Women Voters in their campaign for the merit system. If they don't win in the next legislature, they will in future years as the voters demand control he handed back to them,

REFLECTIONS . . . By Robert C. Ruark Nice Fellows Until Bitten by. Hysteria

NEW YORK, Aug. 8.—It's a little difficult to work up unbounded enthusiasm for the recent exploits of the armed mob in Athens, Tenn, even though the mobsters apparently had cause for indignation. It’s probably narrow-minded of me, but I am just naturally allergic to flery young roosters all rodded up with guns and bombs, on the prowl for something to bust wide open. It can get to be a popular sport if encouraged, and one I would not like to see spread. The Ku Klux Klan, of which it is so fashionable to disapprove these days, began, if I recall correctly, when a bunch of discharged soldiers were so piqued with the status quo that they felt they just had to wrap up in a sheet and lynch a few people. We still have the Klan on our hands.

No Excuse for Armed Riot

ONE OF the big troubles with turning loose a bunch of young buck¥ with guns is, no matter how noble the irfcentive to spontaneous action, the innocent bystander generally winds up with his pants full of lead. A Once the vigilantes take over, it is so easy to cave in the window of a liquor store with a gun butt, and there is always a thirsty percentage which allows its enthusiasm for violent action to run free in the wrong direction. Then you have to call in the militia to shoot up a lot of guys who were nice fellows until they were bitten by hysteria. I gather that the fragrant politicos of Athens were bent on stealing an election, and that politics smelled a little riper down there than the honest nose enjoyed. But if all the crooked politics in the country suddenly are to be subjected to indiscriminate gunfire, then I am going to dig myself a large, deep hole and go underground for the next couple of years. The use of the word “ex-G. 1.” and “veteran” has been widely employed to describe the character of

the vigilantes who cleaned u and rifle bullets, If this is intended to i partially excuse the men for an armed riot, I don't like it - guy running around with a loaded gat is rioter because of his war record. 5 "0.1% 3 There is a broad and sentimental supposition that a veterans have an angelical quality because of eir recent service. It is not, unfortunately, true Whisk is why we had M. Ps. ’ n freshly occupied towns, our youn : : ) g men proved Sime an spain that some of them could rape , and roister around in the finest tradi ’ , a tradition : of the If this minority of bad apples is still kicki ! ickin around in civil life, encouraging them to rise up ii trample down the law is not healthy.

Remember the Seeds of Nazism? TEN MILLION men with a knowledge of weapons and a burning resentment which can be channeled by cynical pressure into mass uprisings present a frightening potential. The seed of Nazism was planted among ex-soldiers in Germany after the first world war, and those knock-down-and-drag-out brawls for political reasons in Munich ‘beer halls have a sinister resemblance to this thing in Athens. In this one instance, rebellion against the power politics in a little Tennessee town might possibly be justified. But already the uprising has begun to degenerate into the commoner aspects of mob rule. As a guy who likes to walk the streets without having to duek, and who prefers to go to the office with the reasonable presumption that his house will be standing when he comes home, I take a very dim view of the carryings-on in Tennessee. There is very little difference, essentially, between a vigilante and a member of a lynch mob, and if we are seeking an answer to crooked politics, the one that the Athens boys just propounded sure ain't it.

P politics with bombs

POLITICAL REPORT . .. By Thomas L. Stokes

The Gerald LK's

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8—The Gene Talmadges, the Bilbos and the Gerald L. K. Smiths have their small-fry imitators, Lots of them are active in the South today. They are busy in various ways trying to impede and hamstring the A. F. of L. and C. I, O. union organizing campaigns. : They get financial support from somewhere—it would be interesting to know where—for their pseudopatriotic, religious sort of labor-baiting that smacks of an American brand of fascism, much as one dislikes to use tags. But it seems appropriate here. Some are found in the Ku Klux Klan, though the klan, which started in Gene Talmadge's state of Georgia, has not extended to ‘Senator Bilbo's Mississippi. Under the‘cloak of a spurious Americanism, the revived klan is striking furtively at labor, just as it was a few years ago when this writer spent some time in the South exposing such activities. There are other figures active in the South. Two of the most persistent are Sherman Patterson and the man who calls himself-Parson-Jack Johnson: These two are hit-and-run operators, moving from place to place on the heels of union organizers. When a campaign is started to organize a plant, you can be sure that the workers will begin to receive copies of the sporadic publications of these two genttlemen—if they can be so termed—designed especially for the occasion,

Fright Psychology Often Effective

MR. PATTERSON calls his paper “Militant Truth,” while the parson's is “The Trumpet.” The gist of their preachments is that it is against church principles to belong to a union, an artifice long used in the South. It is a fright psychology. It is effective often, whatever you may think of hypocrites who by such methods would try to hold down workers, keep them

SAGA OF INDIANA . . . B .. ~ Early Settlers

OLD VINCENNES GRIPS Hoosier folk on three counts: its illusively dated settlement; the thrill of its bold capture; and the tragedy of a fateful decision made there when it was young. For over two centuries loyal Hoosiers have scratched dirt, as no hen ever did, trying to find aut definitely the exact date when Vincennes was settled. These loyal ones say, in effect: “We know they squatted on the banks of the James river in Virginia on May 13,°1607,.and stepped off the ship at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts on Dec. 11, 1620. Why can't we know when the first ones paused to settle in old Vincennes, in Indiana?”

Clark's Delay Costly THE ANSWER IS: The settlement of Vineennes was made by a process, not on a date. This is the story: In the first quarter of the 18th century the then three great nations of the world—France, England and Spain—began a grim struggle to control a wide sweep of the land around the spot that was to be Vincennes. Early in the century the men of vision and in control of these nations clearly saw that the one of them that first took root and “stuck tight in that spot would take the first trick in a game they well knew would be grim and for high stakes. Frenchmen had been passing around and aboyt this spot at Vincennes for about, 50 years. So, when they saw the fated struggle begin to close in around it, more of them hovered closer and ‘lingered longer about it, precisely as a mother does when danger threatens her little ones. Nia Somewhere in this process. one Frenchman, and now and then a few, lingered on to keep watch. As they stayed, still others tarried to remain. Finally, probably about 1732, Vincennes WAs born—at more

. God warms His hands at man’s heart when he prays.—Masefield.

exactly what date, in the larger view of the state, doesn’t matter. .

Have Their Imitator

subservient and discourage them from improving their economic position. It evidently gets support from industrialists here and there, for these “editors” get their lists of workers from some sourte, and the company lists are the private property of mill owners. Another operator with a somewhat different approach is James T. (Jimmy) Karam, who has organized in Arkansas his Veterans Industrial Association, which obviously is an anti-union and strike-breaking outfit,

Strong-Arm Leader In Gadsden Era

IT DOES not seem to be generally known, but Jimmy Karam was a strong-arm leader several years ago in one of the squads in Gadsden, Ala., maintained to fight unionization during that bloody era so widely publicized at the time. When I was in Gadsden recently I talked to workers who knew him there in that role. Those squads were composed, I was told, of former “college athletes and tough boys from the hills. Jimmy Karam, himself, was a football star at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and received All-American mention, He leans to athletes today for his assistants. His organization, he said, is to take care of labor and racial agitators. The testimony of newspapermen who have attended his “press conferences” is that he is surrounded by a tough, husky bunch. In paid newspaper advertisements the V. I. A. was described as a new kind of labor organization that was against the check-off of union dues, the closed shop, and for co-operation with employers. Some familiar with his organization suspect a connection with another, the so-called free enterprise association, composed of planters and businessmen, which announced its entry upon the southern scene in a newspaper advertisement shortly before the V. IL. A. was announced.

y William A. Marlow of ‘Old Vincennes’

Nearly half a century thus rolled by. It was now 1778. The 13 colonies in America were locked in deadly struggle with England in the Revolutionary war. Two spots on the western front in that war, Detroit and Vincennes, were the key points in the 165,768 square miles of the Northwest Territory. As the Revolutionary war tightened up, George Rogers Clark, Virginia-born and several years in the territory, was backed by Virginia that controlled it, in a bold stroke to capture Vincennes, which he did on Feb. 27, 1779. Now comes the tragic touch to Indiana. Though Clark did a master job when he captured Vincennes, he had a wide open opportunity to do a more masterful one in an immediate attack on and capture of Detroit, Though reliably informed that he had a sufficient force to capture the town, he hesitated. He consulted friends endlessly. He debated the ‘matter all alone. By June, four months after the capture of Vincennes, the opportunity was gone. Of this Clark, over his

own nature, commented: “We now regretted we had not marched from Vincennes to attack Detroit ,at once.” .

at Canada Might Have Been U. S. THE TRAGEDY OF ALL THIS is that with Detrot captured, Canada's 3,847,807 square miles would have become United States territory at the close of the Revolutionary war. Without suggesting the probability, but admitting the possibility of a world war III, and on, there might come a fatal attack on the U. 8. A. over the top of the world that only the ownership of Canada’s broad stretch could well fend off. - . Turning the shield over: Though George Rogers Clark stubbed his toe on Detroit, Indiana will gratefully remember and hohor him for - amdabsavely did in old Vincennes. .

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“what he boldly