Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 November 1946 — Page 20

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PAGE 20

Friday, Nov. 29, 1946 ————————— ; NE HENRY W. MANZ ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRO! Dias AIAG ; A ARD NEWSPAPER

Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 314 W. Maryland st. Postal Zone 9. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard News- | paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.: Price in Marion County, § cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 20 cents a week. Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, U. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a

month. Pon RI-8361

~ @ive Light and the People Will Find Their Own Wey

G RESTRICTIONS : and much-needed restrictions on parking within

the mile square go into effect Monday. This long-delayed first step toward solution of the irksome traffic problem will inconvenience a few, but it will benefit many. Therefore it should be approached in a spirit of co-operation, and improvements made as experience indicates they are called for. Parking will be prohibited at all times except Sundays and holidays on sections of several main traffic arteries which have been publicized and which will be clearly marked. On Other specified streets, parking will be banned from 6 to 9 a. m. and from 8 to 6 p. m., the hours of the most serious traffic jams. An article in today’s paper gives these in detail. ; : ‘Penalties for violation of the ordinance are a maximum of $300 fine and 180 days’ imprisonment. In discussion of enforcement of the ordinance, it was suggested that the police he authorized to tow in to garages vehicles which were illegally parked. Such action, we believe, is not necessary so long as there is a sufficient heavy penalty for violation of the ordinance. And there is, so long as no one is permitted to “fix” stickers. It will be up to the municipal court, after Monday, to aid the police by imposing adeqhate fines for wilful violations. Another great improvement that appears in the making is the ultimate removal of busses from Monument circle. Four of the 18 bus routes which use the circle will be rerouted a week from Sunday, and further re-routings elsewhere are planned in the attack on the traffic problem.

FLOORS AND CEILINGS ; MOST of this country’s manufacturers have just demanded

, successfully, that the government take price ceilings off their products. They did this in the name of free enterprise. .. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, many of them are seeking government help in maintaining price floors. : The federal government and 45 states have “fair trade practice” laws, enacted during the depression, which permit manufacturers to fix minimum prices below which their goods cannot be sold legally at retail. : The most appealing argument for such laws was that they would protect little retailers against cutthroat competition. Big stores or chains, it was pointed out, could afford to slash prices of some goods far enough to drive small stores out of business. Competition can be unfair and cruel, and everybody wants to help little business. But if enterprise wants to stay free, competition and prices must be free—free to fall as well as to rise. During the war, and until recently, manufacturers and merchants didn’t need to worry about enforcement of the fair trade practice laws. Anybody could sell anything there was to sell at the highest prices OPA would permit. Pricecutting was out. Now, having got rid of OPA, manufacturers want these laws used to keep prices from being driven down “too far” if competition gets tough. . That may be natural, but it isn’t consistent and we doubt that it’s wise or for the public's best interests. We believe industry and business—even little business—risk loss of freedom when they ask for government protection against the possible penalties of freedom. Government-enforced price fixing interferes with free enterprise, whether at top or bottom. Enterprisers who objected to ceilings should, in logic and fairness, object just as strongly to floors.

YES, JAY GOULD WAS A PIKER ROM a reader we have received a letter critical of this column—and we must admit he makes a point. His letter follows: “Every now and then, when you get ready to haul off and say something nasty about a ‘union leader’ you seem to feel that it is necessary to soften the lick by reminding your readers that ‘big business” used to be pretty snotty around the nose, too. “I-suppose it is true that ‘big business’ used to be a bad actor: Ten and 12-hour days used to be the rule; department stores paid sweat wdges to salesgirls; several pirates attempted to corner the stock and grain markets, but failed; the old railroad ‘tycoons’ were the tigers in the economic jungles; undoubtedly a great many weak and helpless people were exploited by the grifters and grafters of so-called ‘big business.’ “Yet when you review the situation, I do not believe there is a case on record whére one businessman ever had the power—or if he had it, ever used the power—completely _ to strip the country’s industrial gears. I can’t recall where " & single big businessman, or even a group of big businessmen, ever had, or if they had it, ever used the power to close stores and hospitals, to stop trains, to ‘dim out whole cities and sections, to cause thousands of people, in remote parts ‘of the country, to be thrown out of jobs; to bring about ry and hardship, to threaten starvation, disease and r. “I know some businessmen I think are scoundrels, but i@ scoundrels not because they're businessmen, but they were born that way. All they want to do is le last penny out of a profit, but in all their meanave no desire to kill the goose that lays the

ad the piracy of big business as a prelude, mterpolation, in discussion of the brutal

jtreets, lost jobs. :

he Indianapotis Times|

t seem to me that it is relevant $0 mention |

icious destructiveness of some of the nions, chief of whom at the moment

nduct, millions of Americans homes, paralyzed transporta-

said, must not make this

: , hr ER TE SRT 9

Hoosier

increase prices.

crack. down on the unions? I think that a man that does not like his wages or working conditions should stay on the job until wages and conditions are adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. If that is not possible, then quit and let somebody else have the job. We like to talk about American sportsmanship. That is a joke. I have never seen any sign of it in the unions. e

= = =» “IT'S MEN FROM SERVICE WHO CAN'T FIND HOMES'®

By Mrs. BR. CO. Tolbert, 1588 Sheldon st. I would certainly like to say a few words to W. C. C, of Church st. regarding finicky people. My husband wasn't too finicky where he ate and slept overseas either, As he had no choice in the matter, % made no difference whether he was finicky or not. ‘As for being finicky, if a man wants a place that is halfway decent without having to pay a amall fortune for it, a place where he can have his wife and two children with him, where he doesn’t have to fight cockroaches, falling plaster and dirt; or when he asks for a little heat (for which he is paying, but doesn’t get) and doesn't like it when he is called names, then W. C, C., I guess we are finicky. We have walked miles trying to find a place to live in so we can all be together but it seems like if you have children you haven't a right to a decent place to live. I don't see any of those who stayed over here doing without a decent place to live, It is these guys who went “over there” ®to do the dirty work who have to do without. So because those guys who did go over balk at having to take leftovers that even landlord’s won't live in, they are called finicky.

"No American Sportsmanship Being Shown by Labor Unions"

By Jesse B. Bridgewater, 2211 N. Rural st. Can organized labor explain why it maintaing that it is working to improve the lot of the laboring man, when. it is doing more to increase prices to the consumer.and that means the laboring man. And organized labor has done more to cause hardship and scarcity and high prices than all other organizations in the United States. The wages of organized labor are the highest, yet it does all it can to slow up production and

Can anybody give a good reason why the government should not Other people have »

say, but |

Forum

some rights, too. - »

“NEED ACTION FREEDOM TO SOLVE HOUSING”

By J. F. Frantz, 750 Ketcham st. The vastness of the housing and rental program is only exceeded by the desire of its realization soon. Most useless controls have been or should be lifted. Unless we are too slow to learn the principles of controls we're not too seriously faulty, when applied to hasty wartime conditions, but are inconsistent in peacetime as no valuable results are proven unless we accept plenty of nothing as a good standard to judge by. Under present shortages we feel obliged to be critical. There is too much truth in support of this to ignore it longer. The difficulties and blunders of continued restraints are recognized in shortages. To solve the housing problem suecessfully, we must have freedom of action unless we as citizens are ready to admit our incapacity to do so with freedom of individual action. We will, as we have in the past, solve both. Our real and fancied ills, our problem of housing will be clearly understood and every citizen will share his equal responsibilities. United as Americans, let's go. » » » “WHERE IS JUSTICE WHEN RIGHTS DENIED?” By Henry W. Daacke, 21464 N. Illinois st. “To the court of justice ... without any chance of appeal,” 80 says Bryce Ham, 1507 Broadway, Hoosier Forum of Nov. 28. My answer is “Subversive and un-American” in any man's language. Where is their justice when you deny the right of appeal ° Please read the preamble of the constitu-

tion of the U. 8. A. Nuff said.

Side -Glances—By Galbraith

"| do not agree with a word that you

will defend to the death

your right to say it." — Voltaire. -

“LANDLORDS SHOULD GET TOGETHER FOR PROTECTION” By M. J. 8, W. Washington st. Why is it necessary for landlords to put up with tenants who refuse to pay their rent on time and are

very destructive and a nuisance? Why do we have to put up with these kind of people when, without the OPA, we could have the kind of tenants we want? One of my present tenants now owes me seven weeks’ rent, and I have to go through court to get them to vacate simply because the OPA will not back me. It is supposed to be an organization that will back the landlords in collecting rent and having the right kind of tenants, yet they will not help me in this matter at all. I think the landlords should all sign up with the National Home and Property Owners’ Foundation. They have offices with the Keller Realty Co. at 8 E Market st. and at Brown's Dry Goods store at 2619 W. Washington st. When the OPA was lifted from, other commodities, the shortage was eased and the same would probably apply to living quarters. If the

be homes for veterans and all, 8 85 8 : “DON'T STAND BY IDLY AND LET LEWIS RULE”

By Fist Shaker, Indianapolis Many times when spoiled children get too big for their britches and want to run things, they are brought back in line by being deprived of certain privileges. John L. Lewis is acting very much like a spoiled child. Why not confine him in an unheated cell, take away his cigars, and let him have the plainest of food. This way he can be in full sympathy for his loyal followers. Is our government so weak that it must bow to the will of a modern Judas? Hitler brought Germany to its knees, his word was law. At a given word from Lewis all industry is at a standstill. Must we sit idly by and do nothing about this? Can't we bring suit against Lewis for dépriving us of our means for livelihood, thereby endangering our lives and the.lives of those who de-

pend on our support? ~

s = “LEWIS IS RIGHT; CAN'T MINE COAL WITH BAYONETS”

By Ernest Archer, 549 Dorman st. Mr. John L. Lewis is only asking what is fair and, just, a contract for the miners. He is a brillant, capable and qualified leader. It burns the bigwigs of this country up because he has the courage and spine to protect the rights and welfare of the miners. Why should he have to call off the strike without a contract. This is a test case for organized labor, When 400,000 coal miners say no contract, no work, they mean it. Now it is time for the operators or the government, to stop this stalling and bickering and sign on the dotted line. I have been a united mine worker and sympathizér for 63 years. People who speak like Bryce Ham are so narrow-minded they should keep

and will win the strike in a few days. Everybody knows you can't mine coal with guns or bayonets,

DAILY THOUGHT

Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.—Judges 2:15.

ROAMING in thought .over the

healthy for

rent control were lifted, there would]

silent for all the good they do. My bet is that Lewis won't go to jail

Universe, I saw the little that is Good steadily hastening to-

and | The customs

TOUR TOWN . . . By Anton Scharer amr ~ Local Epizootic Epidemic of 1872

1 CAN'T DISMISS November without recalling that 74 years ago this month, the epizootic moved into Indianapolis. An epizootic, in case you gasoline-nursed moppets never heard of one, is an epidemic with this difference — it hasn't anything to do with human diseases. Quite the contrary: It is a scholarly (Greek) word especially thought up to label the diseases of animals which manifest a common character, and prevail at the same time over considerable tracts of territory. Do you follow me? All right. Around here the disease was a species of influenza which put almost

‘| every horse in Indianapolis out of business. Sure,

hors de combat. It got the mules, too, but for some reason it spared horned cattle. As a rule, the symptoms started with a sneezing and coughing fit on the part of the horse/mule, after which there was no telling what would happen next. One veterinarian called it a gastroerysipelatous disease. As for the other four vets practicing in Indianapolis at the time, each had his own name for it. I took pains to record them all: Febriquo bronchitis, Hipporhinorrhea, Hipposnooticalosis, a word contributed by a realistic newspaper reporter of the time who, no doubt, wanted to add a colloquial nasal touch to his story.

No Horses or Mules IN THE EARLY BTAGES of the disease, the fumes of burning tar and sulphur were supposed to help the distressed animals. If the beast was too far gone for that, asafetida was tried. And if that failed, the horse/mule was given quifiine. Only as a last resort, however. After that there wasn't anything to do but count the hours. The epizootic broke out in Indianapolis on the Friday before Thanksgiving of 1872. It came here by way of the big towns on the Atlantic seaboard. The seaports got it by way of Devonshire, England. I can't help it if it provides the isolationists with an argument. Duty comes before anything else with me. In the week following Thanksgiving, the epizootic was 50 bad around here that you couldn't see a live horse/mule on the streets of Indianapolis. Livery men closed their stables and kept their horses blanketed and with comforters around their necks. The 200 mules belonging to the streetcar company went under, - Most of the fire department horses were

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29.—8talling on peace and the Potsdam pledges is costing American taxpayers $200 million a year, or more than $500,000 a day, in Germany alone, just to stave off starvation. 80 says Brig. Gen. Willlam H. Draper, chief of the economics division of the American military government, in a report entitled “A Year of Potsdam.”

Potsdam Agreement Not Followed IT HAS BEEN more than 16 months since VE-day,

in Europe, has not yet been broached. After world war I peace was signed in less than half that time. Even so, the allies could prevent wholesale hunger, freezing, disease and death among the German masses if they would live up to Potsdam. - On July 17, 1945, President Truman, Stalin and Prime -Minister: Churchill signed a many-faceted pact, the so-called Potsdam agreement. Among other things, it stipulated that “during the period of occupation, Germany shall be treated as a single unit. To this end, common policies shall be established in regard to: Mining and industrial production and allocations; agriculture, forestry and fishing; wages, prices and rationing; import and export programs for Germany as a whole; currency and banking, central taxation and customs; reparations and removal of industrial war potential, and transportation and communications.” This pledge has not been carried out despite insistence of the Americans and British, The Russians have blocked it by delay after delay, making it ime possible for food and other vital commodities to move freely from one part of the country to another,

NEW YORK, Nov. 26.—My life occasionally is so rich—so round, so firm, so fully packed—that I would be a churl not to share it with the customers, in the finer tradition of the journalists and radio actors who

traffic in personal experience. To prove my fitness for self-exploitation, I cite the following example: I know a lady who went into the little girls’ room of a popular Manhattan restaurant recently, and came out muttering this slogan, which had been etched on the wall with a Passion Fruit (adv.) lipstick: “It gives me pleasure, it gives me joy, that I got here before Kilroy.”

Quite a Boulevardier THAT WILL TELL YOU what sort of a boulevardier I am. Spies everywhere. Nothing gets by me, If properly approached, I can whisper the amount of Mr. Molotov’s tip to his barber, or give the address of a firm which deals in illegal rice. Some people accuse me of just sitting around, pulling ideas out of the air. Merely shows how much they know about the responsibilities of a job like this, Why, in one week, I went to three special previews of movies, gatherings so secret that not even the participating actors were admitted. You know who I am? I am the guy who was jostled at a premiere by the forward starboard corner of Sinatra's bodyguard. The uniform gives me the shoulder, and I give it right back. He was pretty little. ¢ “Take it easy, Mac,” I snarled. yuh pushin’?” Gad, what a week. Only hours before I had been

“Yuh know who

SHANGHAI Nov. 29.—Russia has obtained possession of secret Japanese stockpiles of strategic war minerals in China, ' ‘Yielding to the strongest behind-the-scenes diplomatic and political pressure, the Chinese have turned over to Russia huge quantities of tungsten and mercury which had been stockpiled here by the Jap army during the war.

Supplies in U. S. Area AMERICAN SUPPLIES of tungsten were so critical during the war that the mineral—necessary in manufacturing high-speed cutting tools—was flown over the hump on its way to the U. 8. from Kunming, China, at tremendous expense. . The Jap stockpiles were turned over to Russia in payment for a debt which Russia claimed China owed her for assistance in the early days of China's war with Japan. There was no question of Russia seizing the ma~terials—as she did factories in Manchuria—since the stockpiles are located in Nationalist China in the areas in which American troops wefe stationed at the war's end. bringing nressure on the Nationalist government, it has been learned. In the transaction, Russia go Iya wns of highuality tungsten ore and more ns of . lu rhe Chinese maritime customs listed the value of the tungsten at approximately $1,071,000 (U. 8.)

& Se Gf

yet peace with Germany, the key to reconstruction '

Instead, Russia got the 'stockpiles by..

HR rip -

attacked. Parrott & Nickum hitched men to their bakery wagons to keep the town from starving. Apparently, however, the town went thirsty, In support of which there is the historical fact that Schmidt's brewery didn’t have a single horse in their stables fit to pull a load. ; The situation was so acute that week that the Indianapolis Journal appropriated part of its society page to run a column of Horse Personals: “Mr. Ross, the coal man on the Circle, has lost a valuable horse by the epizootic. . . . The horses belonging to No. 3 engine house all have it. . . . T. Jordan's Gold Dust filly is recovering from a bad case. ... A fine young trotting mare belonging to Gates & Day is suffering from a severe case... . Col. Caflev's Gay Boy is the

“sickest horse in his stable. . . , Nineteen horses of

Valentin Butsch's coal yard and all the horses belonging to the Americar, U. 8. and Adams. express Somipazics are dows. with the disease. . . . The notdd tr! m Pete connected with Barnum'’s succombed to it.” eens Pas (And to this day the Indianapolis Star, successor to the Journal, uses the comforting word “succomb” to cushion the shock of death.) While all this was going on, Ed Little, a resourceful kid of 13, was living on a farm at Cumberland, Soon as he heard of the fix we were in, he hitched a pair of oxen to a wagon and drove to Indianapolis. The oxen, Mr. Little once told me, looked like a pair of calves, but that didn't keep him from doing a landoffice business hauling stuff for the express companies down on 8. Meridian st. At the end af the week he had $100 in his pocket. He might have repeated the performance except for something that happened on the corner of Washington and Pennsylvania sts.” He was ‘turning that corner one day during the epizootic when a man offered him $100 for his oxen. The team, sald Mr. Little, wasn't worth more than $30, even in a bull market, but he turned it down. Said he wanted $150, and not a cent less.

Sudden Departure

LATER THAT SAME DAY, Mr. Little happened to pass the same corner and, sure enough, there was the same man waiting for him or anybody else willing to sell a team of oxen. Again he offered $100. This time Mr. Little weakened and took the money, Mr. Little was 80 years old when I last saw him (circa 1939). He was still wondering what the man did with his oxen because the very next day (on Dec. 12, 1872) the epizootic suddenly left Indianapolis—as suddenly as it came.

IN WASHINGTON . . . By William Philip Simms Democracy Gets Black Eye in Germany

The Potsdam agreement is the to Germany's Industrial disarmament, therefore ey peace. It specifiesthat she is to. be left with emough industry to permit her a tolerable standard of living. But, Gen. Draper indicates, unless her resources are made freely available throughout the country, and the proceeds of her exports can be used to pay for the neces

. sary imports for Germany as a whole, no such stand-

ard will be possible. She will face disaster. For nearly a year and a half, there have been reports that Russia is systematically stripping her own zone of occupation and removing the loot far into her interior. She is even carrying off German engineers, scientists and top specialists of various kinds. Therefore, if and when she decides to relent, there promises to be little left. Observers predict that Germany will be a sort of vast poorhouse for a long time and will have to be fed from the outside— principally by the United States,

Situation Getting Worse THE GERMAN PEOPLE brought on their own misery, it is true. As the Big Three said at Potsdam: “They openly approved and blindly obeyed” their Nazi fuehrers. But that does not relieve. the allies of their own obligations assumed at Potsdam. ; The German situation admittedly is bad and growIng worse. Public morale is lower, bitterness greater, food and health prospects worse than they have ever been. As a- result, democracy—which we profess to be trying to instill in the German mind—is being given a black eye.

REFLECTIONS . . . By Robert C. Ruark pay Sharing a Life So Rich, So Firm, So..

sitting at a table in “21”—get me, kid, “21"—with a girl who was just back from England and who had been just as close to the king as I was to Sinatra. Only the other day I went to a party for little children—a cocktail party, yet. And at the Waldorf, so help me. The kids were sitting around, getting limp off double-marshmallow-with-pecans-chocolate-and-cherry ice cream sundaes, while their parentg sat around getting stiff off untyped Scotch.

Nod From Stork Club

WHO ELSE BUT Hollywood has ideas like that? It was a party thrown for the young of the local movie critics, to cwry the elders into favorable reception of a new Disney movie. It was a party fraught with incident, too, One of the magician's rabbits died. It has been a week of mingled triumph and frustration. I had my mouth all fixed for another big party. It was being managed by Elsa Maxwell, the professional party-thrower, and was. in honor of wired brassieres which °don’t need straps to stay up It proved so popular the elevators ceased to stop at its particular floor, for fear that added guests would violate the New York fire-hazard laws. I never saw Elsa. I never saw a wired brassiere. I never fllched a free canape, But my gloom soon lifted. Because that, dear diary, was the week Billingsley spoke to me. The Stork club man, no less. “Hello,” Billingsley said. “Aw, shucks,” I replied, blushing and toeing the floor. ‘ Do you understand now why I can’t keep a life like mine under wraps?

WORLD ‘AFFAIRS . . . By Wiliam H. Newton Russians Grabbing Jap War Minerals

The strategic minerals were obtained by Russia between January and September of this year. The same reports issued by the Chinese customs show that the United ‘States received no supplies of tungsten or mercury from China in that period. Records reveal that between January and September Russia received “ores, minerals and metal products”-princi-pally the two strategic minerals—with a total custom valuation of about $1,200,000 (U. 8.). In the same period, America recelved minerals valued by customs at $79,000 (U. 8). And in those months the United States sent $7,800,000 (U. 8.) worth of various ‘types of ores and minerals to China, and Russia sent $45.60 worth, The fact that China is paying her debts to Russia by turning over strategic materials, while at the same time she is negotiating for loans from the U. 8, by no means indicates that the Nationalist government is inclined by favor Russia against America. China's policy toward Russia appears to be dictated by fear rather than by friendliness,

Check by Washington Bureau IN WASHINGTON, it was stated by the strategic materials branch of treasury procurement, which aandles government purchases—that no tungsten or

mercury had been purchased since the program went into effect last July 23. Similarly, the RFO said it had bought no tungsten or mercury. Thus it would

that the government had not yet begun stockwards immortality, at the rate of exchange then in effect. The customs appear : ‘valuation of the was about $150,000 (U. 8). piling these strategic minerals. All sources declined. mois elo rn hy oh Jover th Ts

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