Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 November 1946 — Page 14

JI1S 1 y, Nov. 20, 1946 ° ' ALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ

"A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER es Owned and publisifed dally (except Sunday) by ; ; Times Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland Lat : =" al Tope yn Press, Scripps-Howard News- : Sl paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations. _ Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 20 cents a week. Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, 0. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a month. Ee | RI-5861 : Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way LEWIS’ HAND CALLED MOR the first time in many years the government of the * United States has dared to defy John L. Lewis. We cannot now foresee all the consequences if Lewis refuses to back down and if the government goes firmly ahead on the course ordered by President Truman. But one of the consequences must be the shearing away of the monopolistic power over coal that has made it possible for Lewis to bring this nation to its present dangerous predicament. And another must be a national determination that the policy of appeasing domestic tyrants, having proved as futile and disastrous as the appeasement of foreign aggressors, shall be discarded for all time to come. The federal government, which has denied private employers the use of the federal court injunction against labor unions, has undertaken to use that drastic weapon against Lewis and his coal miners’ union. This, however, is no ordinary labor controversy. It is a strike against the government. It is a deliberate, unprovoked attack on the jobs, the welfare and even the lives of millions of American citizens. - Lewis invited this test of strength, and cunningly picked his own time for it: With winter just ahead, with the country’s coal stocks above groynd good for less than 40 days at normal consumption, he pulled a threat that was meant to terrify the people ald their government into submission to his will. ” = » ” ” » HE had no reasonable excuse for what he did. His bombastic phrases cannot obscure the fact that the government, being in possession of the coal mines, has been a fair and generous employer, or the further fact that his demands for new concessions are extortionate. He merits no support from members of his union. He is betraying the miners, using them as helpless pawns in a cruel game. If he continues to push the price of coal upward, and to make the supply of coal undependable, the certain result will be to force the wide adoption of other fuels, and to destroy the industry which brings them their livelihood. He deserves no sympathy from members of other unions. He is endangering the essential rights of all workers and forcing upon all unions the risk that outraged public opinion will demand savagely repressive labor legislation, and get it. - And he is entitled to no consideration from the government, which by one means or another must go through with its duty to protect all the people against the rapacity of John L. Lewis or any other power-drunk autocrat.

PAN-SLAVIC ‘WPA PROJECT . H. LA GUARDIA finds grave fault with the proposed American overseas relief plan, which would extend aid on a national basis and, as he puts it, “only to those countries chosen, picked and acceptable to our own government.” He thinks it reprehensible that we should adopt a policy “which will make innooént men, women and children suffer because of some political situation which makes their government unacceptable to the United States.” This is merely another way of saying that we should go on giving free food and other supplies to the Soviet Union and its satellites, without having any voice in its distribution.

fund, set up under the United Nations, with a committee empowered to make distribution to governments according to need. As in the case of UNRRA, the United States would put up more money than anyone else, but it would

fictional supervision of its use that has prevailed under the UNRRA system. In support of his position, thee UNRRA director says that in Moscow he found Premier Stalin, “very much alive

their position will become.

Mr. La Guardia wants a $400 million emergency food |

to the dangers of a national approach” to the relief problem. That's understandable. The more of our money Mr. Stalin and his henchmen can get to spend, the more secure |should be subject to fine, or made Now this is over, Tammany Hall also waxed |

3

say, but |

Hoosier Forum

your right to say it." — Voltaire.

oe vr

"| do not agree with a word that you

will defend to the death

"Can Be No Industry-Labor Truce Unless Welfare Placed Above Greed"

By E. Bowman, 2831 Station st,

and labor truce for the duration of one year, I believe such a plan | should be and could be adopted. Mr. Manly's suggestion is not al concrete plan but does outline a method by w could be formulated. 1 would suggest that the annual standard cost of living for an average American family be found by actual facts. Taking into consideration the average amount of money necessary for food, light,! heat, water, telephone, taxes, recreation and medical treatment. Also a | per cent for savings. For management, be permitted to make a reasonable profit on his |will have to be abandoned, and a

gency that might arise. Keeping in mind falr profits and, standard costs of living as ottlined, the parties could go into confer- ; 8 nu ence, in good faith and intent, and | “GIVE STRIKE TRUCE formulate a workable contract. A|FOR A PRICE TRUCE” sliding scale arrangement to take | By H. J. Garvey, 846 E. Wyoming st. care of necessary adjustments in| wages due to fluctuation in cost of | Okay, we'll give them a year's truce

believe a sincere effort on the part

formulate a workable agreement,’

be set up. Normally when living!prices, put said prices back to 1942 costs increase profits do likewise|levels and keep them there. and visa-versa. A predetermined per |

come effective. The question of closed shops I do. And we the members have the should not be much of a stumbling | final say on a strike vote. Keep up

at least one year. |said work. Industry would be wise But thére can be no truce un- to give labor a 15 per cent increase

: less all concerned are willing to|at once to offset the high cost of employed to prevent wild or unsafe request struck such a popular note be turned over to needy governments without even the place American welfare above per-|)iving and save themselves trouble Skaters from causing crack-ups that| Er famous overnight.

lsonal greed. This one subject!ater, should be paramount. It should * = also be stated in the basic agree- | “ONLY WAY TO ment, differences arising thereafter | ESCAPE RENT CONTROL” be settled by arbitration, this to|py 5. Fr. Frants, 152 Ketcham st. | be compulsory before a strike or a| Property owners put up with the Either party | violating the contract multitude of sins during the war.

{lockout can oceur.

willfully

to pay damages. Such cases to be| process of decontrolling is in prog-

fund for expansion, and any emer- | truce will come to nought. - But I|

|

|

“INDIANAPOLIS HAS SAFEST BEST CONDUCTED SKATING” By Coliseum Skater, N. Pennsylanvia st. In the interest of fairness, may

I take friendly issue with the let-| Reading your editorial on Basil Manly's proposal for management | ter of - George Shearer appearing |

in your issue of Nov. 8. It seems to me that you give un-

ich a workable agreement {dye prominence to a “gripe” that has no merit whatever in truth or

fact.

Mr. Shearer says that at hockey

games or public skating at the Coliseum

.| understand why the

“the patron gets pushed

IT WAS JUST about this time in the fall of 1900. that the papers. brought the news of Charles H. Hoyt's last will and testament. It had everybody guessing because nobody around here could identify the “Elwood M. Dasher of Indianapolis” mentioned in the document. Finally it dawned on some, brighter than the rest, that maybe Mr. Hoyt meant Burt Dasher, a one-time citizen of Indianapolis. After that everything cleared up; enough, at any rate, for us to testator @ should have made Burt the beneficiary of $10,000. Besides the cash, Burt was to get 35 per cent of all the profits.of Mr. Hoyt's plays. - People who frequented the theater in those days sald that the provision concerning royalties was the better part of the bequest. It turned out that they were absolutely right for, back in the Nineties, Mr. Hoyt's farces played to “standing room only”"—a fact which is now explained by the discovery that Mr. Hoyt was among the first (if not the first) to capitalize the idiosyncrasies of recognizable American types... Which is to say that it was he who made America dramatically self-conscious.

First to Market Hoyt Plays THE TITLES of his plays always started off with a capital A, I remember, such as “A Brass Monkey,” “A Bunch of Keys,” “‘A Texas Steer,” “A Contented Woman” and so on ad infinitum. I'm sure I saw most of them and I still recall the stock raiser in “A Trip to Chinatown” who remarked: “I hate to talk about myselfy, but I bet I know more about art than any man as raises hogs in the United States.” The night he said it in Indianapolis, it brought down the house. Well, to get back to Burt. He got his start right here under George Dickson and worked himself up to be head usher at thé Grand Opera House. He mastered the job so completely that it didn't surprise anybody to see Burt bossing the ushers the night William H. English opened his theater on the Circle in 1881. After that Burt was theatrical agent for the Big Four railroad people and, some time around 1884

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.—Senator George D. Aiken has a hillside farm in Putney, Vt. His house sits part way up the hill. On the front porch is a rocking chair. There, in Off seasons of farm work and during recesses of congress, the senator often rocks and meditates. He has come, through the years, to take the objective and charitable view

of the world, its people and problems.

Trying to Dump Aiken LIKE MANY OF HIS background and experience, he is inclined to be what is called liberal or progressive in his thinking. He revealed that when he was governor of Vermont, and in the senate. If disturbs some of his more orthodox Republican brethren, particularly Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. There is a time for philosophical meditation, also a time for action. For Senator Taft, very busy organizing congress, the lives of his fellow Republicans, and the state of the union, is pushing the Vermont senator around, trying to get a pattern that will suit Senator Taft—and the G. O. P. old guard. The plan of the Ohio senator and some of his

i

around.” He does not say just how lin the case of the hockey patron— ! but as to public skating he claims] production. Enough to defray the {real sense of fairness must pmevail!that children and adults sit around | overhead and to provide a reserve |or the whole scheme of a one-year because they are fearful of being |

“bawled out.”

2 We have skated at the Coliseum | of management and labor could —mpy wife, children and grandchil|dren—since ice was made available, at public sessions, and with clubs.

I join Mr. Shearer in his sugges-

tion that state officials—and I would also include mothers and fathers— So industry wants a strike truce. see for themselves the precautions

that are taken for the safety and

living or working conditions could|“if” they also agree to a truce onl protection of the children skaters. Consider the problem. At some sessions there are more than 500 I am one of the rank and file children and adults on a piece of cent in fluctuations govern as to | members of United Electrical Work- ice 200 feet by 85 feet. Naturally, when the sliding scale would be- ers (C. I. 0.). I've talked to about | there will be some few adults and 100 fellow members and all feel as | inexperienced teen-agers, with more | speed than control, who on that! full-page advertisement

colleagues is to keep Senator Aiken from having anything to do with labor regulatory legislation, which will be a chief Republican concern in the new congress. They want to block the Vermont senator because he has been friendly to labor. Renator Aiken is in line for chairmanship of the | jabor committee. Senator Taft, alone, is ahead of him. But Senator Taft naturally is expected to take

NEW YORK, Nov. 20.—David Silberman, a stubby little man who has papers to prove that he was born eight days apart, is molding public opinion again, and it is possible that he may save the country from a recession. Mr. Silberman is the zipper manufacturer whose last January, gained him

crowded surface could be a menace| great notoriety and started a national trend of using

block. The closed shop is not'used ithe upward spiral of -prices and you |to themselves and to others. Would | the pald advertisement to eXpress a in many industries, and shouldn't| wil] have strikes, for no law passed you turn loose on a small space! of be considered as of vital importance | can compel a person to work if he | hundreds of skaters of mixed ability | in arriving at a fair agreement for or she can see no economic gain in and judgment and not exercise pre-

cautions against injury?

Skilled skating supervisors are! and let him make his zippers in peace.

|could be very serious.

I get over the country some and visit other rinks. It is my consid-

ered opinion that we have the safes

and best conducted skating in the| Seems to h

{country. Could it be, perhaps, tha

added burdens of control and its|Mr. Shearer is a “wild” skater? That

Ihe has had his feelings hurt?

so the rapid| As for clubs who “can take the| {place apart.” Without doubt, Mr. handled by a tribunal designated |ress. All rented property in due time | Shearer, qualifying as a gentleman

personal point view. : If you remember, his first effort was tifled “A | Plea From a Small Busine§sman,” and was an appeal

| to government, labor and capital to please go #way His plaintive

that he found

Business Is Booming Now THE ZIPPER business is booming now, says Mr. with no glutted market in sight. This, it im, is ample indication that America will neither recede or depress. And he has just released his thoughts in another full-page ad called “No Boom, No Bust.” He is plumping heavily for uncontrolled co-operation. “It is very sincere,” says Mr. Silberman. for the page, how sincere can you get? “The same people who were yelling inflation now

¢ | Silberman, t

Eps $3200

OUR TOWN , By Anton Shore wt Ts 3 Playwrights Will Keep Em Guessing

powerful when it was the principal dispenser of charity in | New York City. But if the “Little Flower” thinks he can sell congress the idea that the Soviet Union should be allowed to tap the U. S. treasury to the tune of $196 million—our approximate contribution to his proposed fund—he must have misread the election returns. Our own government is competent to distribute all the money we can afford to spend for foreign relief, and it

is not necessary to make Pan-Slavic communism a European WPA project.

WE HAVE FAILED SO FAR ECENT elections have established the Communists as ; the. strongest political party in France and Italy. In neither case are they yet strong enough to form an all-out Commies government. But they have moved into posins where no other party can govern with i i ious Whe: g i ou working : The immediate significance of these results is that they indicate anew how Communism is spreading itself all over the world, Stalin controls or threatens most of the areas held eh a Shor time ago by Hitler and Mussolini. reece is the only liberated country in Euro ; i pe which has wholly resisted Communist conquest or inflltration. The Orient and the Middle East are in a ferment because of Ruseian intrigues and propaganda. iven in the western hemisphere, the Moscow: i ; Western | 8 ) influence has ‘won representation in the new government of Chile, and there are militant Communist movements in every | oounEy south of the Rio Grande. 3 estern civilization has used only « i : y defense tactics in meeting this dynamic challenge from the left, and each re- ; treat or compromise on our part has found the Communists ! moving up and digging in. Then, consolidated in their new posts, re out toward new objectives, have got to come up with something better and than anything we have produced thus far, or will be a Red world, in which freedom and

ferential between skilled and un|skilled employees should be main- home shortage. But this is the only| tained. All adjustment of wages way to escape rent control. As we |in .membership because they wish should be made on a percentage delay our decision to decontrol, the basis, and not a flat basis. The citizen must suffer. That this is requisite to membership must agree minimum wage should not be below and has not been recognized and (in writing to abide by the rules for |corrected is difficult to understand But the get-rich-quick, and get- when homes are vacant all over the group. ting-while-getting-is-good. attitude the city.

the cost of living figure.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

| by the federal government. Their | will go on sale to the highest bid- | With regard for the rights'and safety decision to be final. Existing dif- | der, Even this is pretty tricky | of others, can join a club. If he | business with inflation and a serious Goes he will find that they all skate

A .

memories of a light :

vi

|at inconveritent hours, are limited |

[to skate safely, and ‘as one pre-

| safety and conduct agreed upon by | # & =» (“CAN'T COURTS, ETC, ELIMINATE BONDSMEN?” By Howard T. Oglesby, 1723 N. Meridian. I read with a great deal of disgust the accounts in the local press | of another brawl among the pro-| fessional bondsmen. This time {it is another case of one conniving dndividual attempting to eliminate | a competitor and another step for monopoly. Can't the bar association, the courts, the board of safety or someone eliminate these parasites? They ruin the law profession because they “steer” unethical attorneys business so they can share” in the lawyer fees, They ruin the morale of a police and sheriff law enforcement group by attempting to fix cases. Now an effort is being made by one bondsman who apparently has several offices to move the police department in with him as a tenant, The city should hide its face in shame because such conditions are permitted and the local press should be embarrassed because nothing more has been done by them to eliminate such a cancerous growth in the community.

DAILY THOUGHT

Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height | of the stars, how high they are! | "==Joh 22:12, : .

IF GOD hath made this word so fair, : Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found!

are talking depression and recession. I never have been afraid of inflation. It was deflation that wore ried me. “The whole business of control was an economic mistake. You can't control some things and not con= trol others. It's either all or nothing. “Take zippers. The meat shortage was killing the zipper business. “Why? Well, when they aren't slaughtering any cattle there aren't any hides and when there aren't any hides they don’t make any bags, and when they aren't making any bags they aren't buying many

zippers.”

eu ch a vg teoelbvenimontit leben sd Co a” Po:

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or thereabouts, Gus Williams signed him up to go ahead of his show, “Oh, What a Night.” Burt was homesick all the time he was away from Indianapolis. And, strangely enough, he' had the literary gift to put the feeling into words. At the close of the season when Gus Williams asked him how he liked the business, Burt replied: “I would rather be a lamp post in Indianapolis than the biggest millionaire in New York.” No doubt you, too, haye wondered who was the first to pull that nifty, After two seasons with Gus Williams, Burt joined

.the firm of Hoyt Thomas, the first to market Charles”

H. Hoyt's plays. They started off, I remember, with “A Tin Soldier.” 2

' Helped Hoyt Win Election

AFTER THAT Burt Dasher never left Charles Hoyt. They were inseparable, even on the occasion of Mr. Hoyt's historical race for a seat in the New Hampshire legislature. Mr. Hoyt, a mere ‘playwright, didn’t know. the first thing about practical politics and even less about running off a campaign. Indeed, there's no telling what might have happened had not Burt Dasher been around to tell him what he had learned by-way of Harry New and Bill (William E.) English, two old cronies of his back in Indianapolis. Burt discovered right away that his buddy didn't have a Chinaman’'s chance of getting into the legislature unless he introduced some wet goods into the campaign. This was practically impossible because of the rigid temperance laws of New Hampshire, but that didn't faze the Indianapolis boy at all, He used the Hoosier head God had given him and smuggled the stuff across the border in a funeral hearse drawn by two panoplied black horses. Sure, Mr. Hoyt won. If your memory is good, you'll remember that later it became the plot of Hoyt's “A Temperance Town.” Buypt was also responsible for another of Mr. Hoyt's sure-fire plots. At any rate, the plawright must have heard Burt tell about the ghastly joke played on him by Walter Nichols and Harry New when, one wintry night back in the good old Indianapolis days, they called on Frank Flanner (the undertaker) and tearfully announced the sudden death of Burt Dasher. After which they made elaborate arrangements to have Burt embalmed and buried. That was the big idea of Charles H. Hoyt's “A Milk White Flag.” Remember?

IN WASHINGTON . . . By Thomas L. Stokes Taft After Labor Committee Control

chairmanship of the finance committee, for which he is in line, since it is appropriate to his talents, and is one of the most important senate posts. To block Senator Aiken, the Ohio senator might forswear his ambitions and take the labor chairmanship. There are other maneuvers possible that might do the trick, even though they take no thought of the feclings or aspirations of others, including a veteran of 27 years in the senate. . That is Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas, who is in line for chairman of the agriculture committee. Senator Aiken is second in line there. Why not, it is being asked, get Senator Capper to step aside and move Senator Aiken to the chairmanship of the agriculture committee, and let Senator Capper become chairman of the District of Columbia committee, regarded as among the least important? + Being chairman of agriculture is 8 natural aspiration for Senator Capper. He is from the Midwest, has been active for many years for farm legislation and publishes a well-known farm journal. Undoubtedly the Midwest would prefer him for the post.

R-!| as New Chairman?

DENOUEMENT OF the whole scheme is to move Senator Joe Ball of Minnesota into chairmanship of the labor committee, once Senator Aiken is out. The young senator, who has become a sort of protege of Senator Taft, is provosing legislation along lines of the Case bill and even beyond. For one thing, he would outlaw the closed shop by federal law.

REFLECTIONS . . . By Robert C. Ruark 1 2 Silberman Again Out To Save Nation

Mr. Silberman is so certain of the American people's ability to steer their own economic destiny that he currently is agitating for removal of rent controls, alleging that it will shortly drive the price of rentals downward, and spur building. Increased building will frighten landlords into con= sidering the tenant more kindly, he believes. A man who has manufactured zippers of Sterling silver, during a dearth of cheaper metal, Mr. Silber-

~man seldom pauses to sob over difficulties.

He once resigned a $75,000-a-year directorship to accept a weekly salary of $50 while he was spading up his own business. His role as economic spokesman for the small businessman is only a sideline, He also angels unsuccessful shows. The only man I know who takes off his austere glasses ih order to read (he says he wears them to make him look distinguished), Mr. Silberman was born on both Nov. 20 and Nov. 28, a good many years ago.

Born on Different Dates HE GOT into a terrible flap with the passport people in England recently, because they could not understand why it was simple for a man to be born on two different dates: ’ “It is easy,” says Mr. Silberman. “My parents reported the birth the day 1 was born, and then eight days later, after the usual christening ceremonies, my doctor reported it, too. On one certificate I am named David. On the other 1 am named Davis. In England I had to swear that I was born.” Mr. Silberman takes pride in the simple clarity of his expensive prose, and enjoys the heavy mail he receives when he unleashes a stemwinder. “I am a very fortunate man,” he says. “I was born on the lower East side, like Al Smith, and when you are born down there, you either wind up a gangster or with social consciousness. I am Very lucky to have social consciousness.”

WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By William Philip Sims

Dutch Empire to Become

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.—In line with the demo~ cratic principles in support of which the western peoples have fought two world wars, The Netherlands empire is now undergoing a transformation no less marked than that which overtook the empire of John Bull, As one of the minor results, the United Nations soon may have a new member—the Indonesian republic. The Netherlands will be chief sponsor and the date some time next year. The new republic will include Java, Sumatra and the small island of Madura.

Decision Was the Queen's BUT THIS IS only the beginning. When completely reorganized, the Dutch colonial empire will be neither colonial nor an empire, Like the British commonwealth, it will be a free association of selfgoverning parts. The only ties will be the slender, silken threads which join them to the Dutch crown. Behind all this is the will of a remarkable, 66-year-old-woman-—Queen Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of Orange-Nassau—a woman who is likely to live in history as one of Europe's great monarchs. Queen Wilhelmina had made up her mind in 1942, . years before the post-war upheavals began in the gouthwest Pacific. , In a world-wide broadcast from London, where she lived in exile, she pledged “a combination of independence and collaboration” to the various parts of her possessions. The details would have to be worked out later, ghe said, when all concerned tould get together “in free consultation.” But, she added, what she had in

~—James Montgomery.

mind was “a commonwealth in which The Nether-

RK . pL BN

Commonwealth

lands, Indonesia, Surinam (Dutch Guiana) and Cutacao (in the West Indies) would participate with complete self-reliance and “freedom of conduct for each part.” Way HA is authoritatively informed that the decision was really the queen's. She might have allowed one of her ministers to make the promise and later new officials conveniently could have forgotten it. Other rulers have used that sort of dodge. Apparently, however, Queen Wilhelmina was in earnest, for she chose to place the whole weight of the crown behind her pledge. deliberately making it irrevocable, So today a commission is on its way from the Dutch East Indies to The Hague. J

Voluntary Collaboration THE NEXT STEPS, it is understood, will be to or= ganize Borneo and a group of ‘islands’ to be called the Great East, into autonomous states. The Great East will include Bali, the Celebes, part of New Guinea, the Moluccas and the lesser Sundas. « All together they will be called the Unitéd States of Indonesia and will be joined with the mother country in a Netherlands-Indonesia union. & There will he differences, of course, but in general the relationship between The Netherlands and the. various members of her overseas family will be

somewhat like that between Britain and Canada, or

Britain and Australia. Independent to all intents and purposes, there will be voluntary collaboration in various fields such as national defense. Foreign

residents, it is said, will be on the same footing AS

the Indonesians and the Dutch will be neither more

RED GE!

Move Slov In

WASH! a drive agai According t nists are | and carefull ards—so as nc Germans too s "In the end, to d:stroy the fluence .of | German chur Just as comple as they have stroyed that the church Russia. The Sovli have worked their whole | of campaign the Reich. They will st each blow in time seems rig The Commt attacking the Union, a pol Protestant an active in all fc Forced Christian D tives in the mittee in Lei gone, were Ie sign from the city officials t lar action aga the Liberal pa “Both the Union and t reactionary,” youth comm “Their membx treated the Nazis have be Both partie. turn over com to the Russiar in Saxony. Red army

TECHNIC PLANNE

A three-ws will be held bj for Metals N Marott hotel. at 6:30, follow

Speakers w of General | N.Y: RDU Electric Co. Woodruff, Air Chicago. J. | division, And technical cha

ATTEND C A. 8. Rowe and vice pres cal Institute Douglas, edit Journal, will council meet; ington, D. C. held to discus institute's act United States