Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 April 1947 — Page 20

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FOR ‘MAYOR

“Who is The Times for, for mayor?” "Right now, we're not for anybody. And we don't beHeve that any candidate for either the Republican or Democratic nomination has presented a sufficiently clear-cut platform or statement to justify his nomination. "After the mayoralty campaign is sufficiently advanced and the and their qualifications have been analyzed—their pledges and past records of accomplishments, their political or other obligations and their sources of ~ support—we will know which candidate in each party we believe to be best qualified to manage the affairs of Indian-

‘And we will make our recommendation to the voters. » » ! . . 9 »® ; THERE has been some pretty slick political maneuvering going om in the past few weeks, some of it centering about city council candidates. No matter how good a mayor we get in the fall, he ‘must have a co-operative city council to succeed. Therefore, every voter should scan the candidates for council carefully instead of accepting six men or women who are slated with a particular mayoralty candidate. So far as we can tell, there still isn’t much interest on the part of the so-called average citizen in the spring

That doesn’t necessarily mean apathy in the fall. The

ers and Republicans who will cross party lines can elect . a Democrat here. That should be a warning to the Republicans, and an encouragement to the Democrats—and a source of confidence to those who want good government.

BETTER LAWS ON LOTTERIES ‘WHATEVER power city council has or hasn't to act in the matter, William H. Remy is certainly right in calling for new laws to deal with lotteries.

years ago, and they were intended to cope with little, isolated, unimportant gambling enterprises. They never contemplated a $9 million a year racket that actually tries to get control of local government such as we have in Indian-

_* punish a racketeer who may be making that much a day out of his racket. .. Even‘those laws could be put to better use except for the body ‘of “precedent” our local courts have built up by & series of decisions that have the force of law themselves, and that make it ridiculously difficult to convict a gambling . For example, a witness who testifies against a gambling “operator in court may himself be fined for gambling while the racketeer with whom he gambled goes free. It has been done, in our own criminal court. And that is “precedent,” which all succeeding judges are supposed to follow. If a man is caught running out of a store that has just been held up, with a gun in his hand and his pockets full of loot from the store he can readily be convicted of the hold-up. But that kind of evidence against a gambling racketeer would be brushed aside in our own courts. You'd have to have witnesses who actually saw the

lottery. That is “precedent,” too. ) But even more interesting is the way this precedent - got established. : : Very few such decisions ever came from any county judge the people elected to office, or from any municipal judge regularly appointed to office. : They came, in general from “pro tem” judges. 2 s » . A PRO TEM judge is a man appointed informally by a : real judge. He may be and usually is put on the bench : for just one specific case. He never has to answer to the - Voters, or to anyone else. He can turn loose a racketeer with a perversion of law and justice that reeks to high . .heaven. And the judge who wanted the racketeer turned E - loose but hadn’t the courage to doit himself has dodged e responsibility for which he was placed in office, and shish. ba ae, an um dam satiny ag er — We don’t believe that kind of “precedent” ought to be considered binding by the judges who are now on the bench of our various courts. It is utterly absurd that.a lottery racketeer can be caught. with his pockets full of lottery tickets and drawing numbers ‘that be used only for illegal purposes, with lists of winners and losers and the profits from his racket ~and still be found innocent of ganibling in court because “precedent” ‘thus created says this isn't evidence. It is equally absurd that a huge business of manufacturing sup- . plies that can be -used only for violation of the laws ean _ operate openly under the. protection of an order from a

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: Mr. Remy is; indeed, on the right track. New statutes, clearly defining the evidence to be used in lottery cases,

tion and sale, of gambling devices and equipment, and clearly specifying penalties commensurate with the offense, to deal with this racket in Indianapolis. If city

gE GETTING a good many queries these days that

election last November demonstrated that independent vot-

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agree with a word that you will defend to the death t to say it.” ~— Voltaire.

Closed; Has Milita

"Ft. Harrison Should Not Be

By Army Wife, City ; I was amazed to read that Ft. Harrison is to be “terminated” as of

ry Value"

July 1. I had been wondéring why nothing had been started 4s far as protesting its removal—at least to any extent. I feel that maximum effort should be expended toward rescinding that decision. My reasons are because of the inherent value and extremely excellent setup at

“ take in money and pay out money and actually operate his “r

clearly forbidding the manufacture, possession, transporta-

ordinance it should do so, If it is 8 that should be first on the list of

Ft. Harrison. As I scanned the list of other

4 : were enacted legis found that none of them even slightly compared to Ft. Harrison. HavThe laws we have. by she sale lature ing been stationed with my husband at quite a few army posts, I feel

I can speak from experience. Pt. Harrison is unusually well equipped with four new large brick barracks, to say nothing of the original brick barracks on the

i + Th rovide, at most, for a $500 fine—to le. The modern station . apolis today ey P L ¥ ot ate wre)

splendid buildings. Other buildings such as the quartermaster, commissary, posi exchange, quarters, fire department, theater, etc., are the best of brick construction. ‘The brick service club and officers’ club are as beautiful as any I've seer. The large brick bakery has finest equiment possible and would adapt itself splendidly for a

tions lent compared to quarters on many larger posts. They are brick and officers and noncommissioned of-

is close enough.to a large city so thas cultural advantages, schools, colleges and entertainment are suitable with convenient bus service. Closing Ft. Harrison seems extremely foolish as well as ill<timed, considering world conditions. It is not a hastily-built. fort of a few scattered buildings of frame construction located in some out-of-the-wiy place. I have been surprised that there has not been much agitation over the closing of the fort as a military installation, but rather a great eagerness to get it closed and turned over to civilian uses. As it is now, it would require a great deal of readjusting although there are

Pt. Harridon has great value as far

—as it-stands. As a Hoosier voter

as the armed forces are concerneditake off the-OPA-and things will

military installations to be closed I

Lani taxpayer with no “axe to grind” leither way, to me closing of Ft. ‘Harrison as a military installation iseems little short of foclhardy. = ” » “CONGRESS ASKING FOR TROUBLE, AIDING REDS” By R EK. §., Indianapelis »

any more is stop communism. Well from the way the new Republican congress is trying to wreck labor unions they are driving the people! into it. | I think before the working class of people have to go back to WPA WA, soup kitchens, Hoovervilles, etc, they will think of trying the communistic form of government. I think the reason congress is against unions is because it keeps them from making millions in profits in the business that 25 per cent of them own, besides their job as lawmaker. Example, Senator Homer Capehart is president of Packard Manufacturing Co. Do you think he would introduce a vote for a bill that would benefit .or raise the standard of living of his employees? No, but he would introduce or vote for a bill that would cut their wages a nickel or a dime so he would make thousands of dollars more profit. I recollect at the outbreak of the war when manufarturers had to change from peacetime profuction to war production. This is what happened. They refused to change until the government (and we are the government) guaranteed them 10 per cent over cost during and {several years after the war, which we had to do if we wanted to win the war. But I don’t recollect their being sued for striking against the government as did John L. Lewis. But what is the difference? I don't think workers were guaranteed anything, but if they asked for a nickel raise they. were a bunch

"The Republican congress also said.

- plentiful and prices will come

Side Glances— By Galbraith

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id, But the trouble is the says ies: oin 10 be ; singor—and they all look ike wrestanst’

Wake up, congress. All you hear;

.J'| ‘Psalms 122:7. If. peace cannot be maintained |,

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down. Did they do that? What they should have said was take off the OPA, prices will jump and stay there during Roosevelt's administration, then when they are unable to buy, prices will come down. I think congress had "better stop trying to get back to the old-fash-foned way of slave labor and give them a square deal or there is going to be trouble pertaining to communism. Again I say, congress is asking for it. I'm not a Communist and I don't want to be forced to be one by congress. » »

H “DON'T LIKE OPERATION OF STREETCAR COMPANY” By John Albert Cline, 3515 N. Peansylvania st .

I read John Rhouds’ letter giving

be no upkeep ‘by them, but rethe little property owner, or back again on the rider of this same streetcar? Forty-nine thousand dollars cash was paid for the company in 1932. Last year (one of the bumper years) in revenue, they claim to have lost $465,000. If they didn't make money last year of course they could not have made money in one of the lesser years, so how. could they have lost $465,000. Thurston must be back. If the streetcar company would not have been made up of this so high-powered stuff and had a reserve fund and would have bought cars before the war, would have paid taxes on the Washington and Highland barns. The “difference «in the increased fares since last August will buy more cars ‘at this high price than this company has spent since 1832. What will they do with this increase in the next 25 years? A survey of 40 large cities in the U. 8. shows that only three have a transfer charge, only eight deny passes for school Rnd Yo RO080e 1%. 20 0 I rembmber this company promised us new equipment and better service when the fare jumped from 5 to 4 for a quarter. Did you know that 257,174 more people rode the cars last August than did in July, and that one-third. of those paid straight 10-cent fare plus 2c transfer? Imagine the company wanting to charge $200,000 depreciation this year, people paying over $100,000 last year for attorney fees so as, to have someone geuge them and abuse them. If our commissioners allow this to pass, what do we need with commissioners? No court of justice could pass on such doings. Sometimes I believe this country is in a ‘worse condition than the ones we fouhgt to civilize, » ” »

| “PROJECTING THE FIGURES

ON BIRTH RATE IN U. 8.” By J. ¥. Woodward, Sacramento, Cal “The college birthrate” data has been brought down to date by Dr. C. J. Gamble. « Harvard's graduates now average 1.73 children, Yale's, 1.70. ; . Even if the Yale or Harvard men averaged two, these at the tworate, would have only four grandchildren. One California couple, both morons,” have 14 children, These, at the 14-rate, if all live through reproduction, would have 196 grandchildren.

DAILY THOUGHT Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy Ppalaces.—

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with honor, it is no longer peace.

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|SAGA OF INDIANA .. . ty Vat indiana, and Its Great

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e sun kissed for a nation. But when God decided to be good to Indiana, William M. Herschel has so well sald He did, included a& yen for politics. This is why: Indiana is a juicy bit of American dem , and, to her, democracy without politics would be like a rose without fragrance or a marriage without love. So when Indiana got her politics, it was something

Destiny passed to her on a platter.

Location Is Basic Reading BUT, SPECIFICALLY, whence comes Indiana's politieal yen? Much of it comes from the state's central location at the heart of a wide inland section of a great nation. That is a basic thing. This brought to Indiana a southern stream of pioneers that merely brushed by Ohio, passed through and from Kentucky into the state, and petered out in Illinois. ’ , With these it got a northern stream of balancing folks from New England and the middle Atlantic* seaboard. From these came many leading broadminded men, a good sprinkling of whom plunged into politics as naturally as a duck dives into the water.

Irish and German lot. They were typical of each nation, and fit drito poth farm and town life. Each were good politicians, and typically good Hoosiers, Purther instancing .all this and helping to jell the situation was the checkerboard of railroads that fast expanded in this era into a great system with political power in the state. , Creeping west with the rallroads was the center of population in the nation. This balancing factor

‘Dead Rat Is Still in

NEW YORK, April 10.—The one-year rap which was handed that silly little Paris fellow for his attempt to fix a professional football game, and the slightly longer terms dished out to his boy friends,

are not going to serve as a brassbound guarantee of future purity in sports. Indeed, if you can put any trust at all in current indications, it would seem likely that the next few years are going to be stuck full of glaring scandal in everything from sports to politics. The old gangster, honed socially smooth and grown pig-fat on the lush pickings of the war years, apparently has inserted a well-manicured finger in as many legitimate enterprises as possible.

Accent on Cash CRIME SUCH AS knocking over a bank or sticking up liquor stores has never been a big payer. The rackets, reasonably secure from the law, were and are the best moneymakers. Horse books, numbers, slot machines, fancy real estate dodges, the old black market—they yielded the heavy take. What they provided was cash capital, and men with a bulky wallet are always welcome in legitimate enterprise, in politics, in entertainment. So it is no accident that the racketeer is beginning to emerge as the bankroll] guy in supposedly honest business. It is no coincidence, either, that today's news feature widespread rascality on the front pages, evaluations of that rascality in the columns and articles, and long dissertations in the magazines. The columns, from sports to gossip to society, recently have been filled with illicit doings of the suave gqrrupters. The big scandals in sports are yet to come. The fixing-efforts of Mr. Paris and his thums are small stuff alongside of some of the successful epups. There is one major league football team on which many bookmakers refuse to lay odds, now, because of the easy bribability of some of its members. ; More money is Ret on baseball now than on any-

WASHINGTON, April 10.—The pessihists say that the more we try to understand Soviet Russia, the more we are bound to come in conflict with a people whose ideology is directly contrary to our own. Yet

our half-knowledge and our ignorance seems the most foolish kind of ostrichism. There has never been anything quite like the current preoccupation with Russia and communism. Books and articles pour out. In congress it is an unfailing subject that produces provocative and often hysterical headlines.

An Excellent Book I WOULD like to call attention to one book that has given me more of an insight into the Russian people and what motivates them than anything I have read. This is “a Room on the Route” by Godfrey Blunden, an Australian newspaperman who was in Russia for a long stay during the most critical period of the war. ’ This is pot one of those books of easy generalization that have come out in such a flood. It is a novel by an observer of deep sensitivity who has gone back of the official language and the daily mouthings of politicians. Mr. Blunden tgkes about a dozen people, ranging from a high-ranking general to a woman factoryworker, and traces the courses of their lives up to the moment of supreme danger from the Nazi invasion. Without any propaganda arguments, you see how they have suffered under the Soviet dictatorship; which breeds fear and suspicion on eyery hand. Particularly you get an insight into the devastation wrought by, the. purges of 1937 and after.

But at thé same time you get a knowledge of the {strength and Vitaidey o Rar rare un:

derstand how they. were ‘able to hold off the 'Naszis and withstand the terrible destruction of four years of war. 8 2g

WASHINGTON, April 10.—Some sort of peaceful showdown between the United States and Russia, in the opinion of an increasing number of informed diplomats, has become imperative to clear the atmosphere and lessen fear of war. : Michigan's Senator Vandenberg, say these observers, was on the right track when he called for a determined effort by American and Soviet statesmen to solve “persistent difficulties” between the two nations. For, he said, we must improve relations with full respect for the “fundamental freedoms,” or accept the fact that mutual agreement is impossible.

Secret Deals Dangerous - *™ THE SHOWDOWN, one European envoy suggested to the writer, should come as soon and as publicly as possible. No more secret “Yaltas,” or “Tehrans.”: Such meetings, he said, have been flascos, insofar as the promotion of World peace is concerned. They have contributed to discord rather than to international understanding because agreement always was based on such generalities as “democracy” which meant one thing to us and exactly the opposite to the Russians. - * Washington, the diplomat went on to say, should force the issue because Russia is quite pleased with things as they are. She has everything to gain and nothing to lose by maintaing the present smokescreen. By skilful use of international confetences as a sounding board, she hag contrived to make Uncle Sam look like an imperialistic land-grabbed, while she

In the canal and pre-Civil war days came an

REFLECTIONS . . . By Robert C. Ruerk

HA a Rly

It was just east of Columbus, Ind, under the 1890 - census. Here came the political peak of the era as the Harrison presidential term ended in 1889, In the seven presidential elections of this era from 1868 to 1892, both inclusive, one®of four men— Schuyler Colfax, Thomas A. Hendricks, George W. Julian, and William H. English, were vice presidential candidates, Colfax was elected in 1868 on the ticket with Ulysses 8, Grant. Hendrftks was defeated in 1872, but received the 43 electoral votes that would have gone to Horace Greeley. : ok Hendricks was elected in 1884 on the ticket with Grover OCleevland., Julian trailed. to defeat on a minor ticket in 1872, and English was defeated in 1880 on the ticket with Winfield 8. Hancock. In 1888 Benjamin Harrison was elected President over Grover Cleveland, and in 1892 lost the presidential election to Cleveland. He is the only Hoosier ever elected President of the United States,

Indiana Has Record IN TEESE presidential elections over 30 million votes were cast for Indiana candidates on a national ticket. Not im the 156 years of American Semoeraey has any state topped or matched that record. : The men, big and lesser, who fought the battles in these campaigns were seasoned in politics that were rough, hot, and wise, .

Sports Wall’

thing else, even Ss. And if the vicious pointspread betting system’ comes into the baseball picture, you can look for a series of major explosions in the sanctified national sport. The point-betting evil, which already has partially destroyed the good name of basketball and football, is particularly insidious in that an athlete need not lose a contest to be in on the fix. He merely, to the best of his ability, holds J0%m Or expands a score to conform to gamblers’

There is a false opinion of the nobility of athletes, of their devotion to their craft. The prestige of major leagues is not enough to keep them honest. Up to now the majors have paid a few guys big money, & few more reasonable money, and a great majority, peanuts. Any $4000 athlete, working along side another who makes $30,000, is a target for the briber. And the fixer knows it. The accent is on cash, not ‘pride. With Commissioner Happy Chandler:of baseball smiling while he vacillates, and Bert Bell of the .

>. .

National pro football league playing wishy-wash, about the only tough counter-irritant to émerge is salty old Jonas Ingram, the former C-in-C of our Atlantic fleet. Adm. Ingram has been hired by the all-America conference; a rival of the National out-

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» fit, %0 put the fear of God into the owners and

IN WASHINGTON .. . By Marquis Childs New Book Gives Best Picture of Russ

to go on from this and say that we should rest on othe

- per cent of the world's people would be overwhelmingly for it. That is why it is so important to. clear the air of the smokescreen

players.

Outlook Not So Hot THE ADMIRAL plans a personal tour to explain to his athletes that withholding information etncerning" attempted bribery means life expulsion, He intends to tell the players to 'ware anybody who courts them off-fleld with dinners ‘and dates and lavish attention. It may do some good, but there is too much gambler money in professional sport today, and a lot of it is in pro football. Even if half-a-dozen Judge Landises stalked the scene, the outlook is not bright pink. The dead rat is already in the wall, and from time to time the odor is bound to bust loose.

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I would like to see more books, like this one, which deal with people rather than with theories. Too often, it seems to me, our thinking about Russia is conditioned by Americans who, at one time or anr, themselves: came under the Russian spell. When they found that performance did not match theory and ideal, they cried out in angry indignation, and some of them have made a business of crying out in print and on the lecture platform. An example is William C. Bullitt. Mr, Bullitt Was, of course, never a Communist. But as a liberal he - looked with sympathy on Soviet Russia, That was his attitude when he went to Moscow as the first American ambassador to the U. 8. 8. R. Mr. Bullitt was quickly disillusioned. He sent dispatches back to the state department describing in angry terms the indignities he had suffered. His cook was taken out of the embassy by the N. K. V. D. He was stopped on a tour of Leningrad by soldiers with fixed bayonets. Smypathy because a deep hostility. Mr. Bullitt has since made a ‘career of his Russophobia. As it developed, this sympathetic “friend of Russia’ was the worst type of ambassador we could have sent to Moscow.

Publicity Excites Guilt REFORMED COMMUNISTS spend much of their time’ publicly expiating their guilt, What is more, these ‘reformed Communists want us to expiate their © guilt with them. What one wonders is how they became Communists, subscribing to a totalitarian doctrine, in the first place. : Emotionalism and hysteria make it difficult for 2 ibis. country, ta, form, any regsonpble. policy. hase. ota

- on firmnéss and perseverance. What we need is less ES heat from. partisans and more light from those who r are trying to appraise the Soviet Union in terms of i

its capacity and its direction,

ATR SERIE

WORLD AFFAIRS 2 By William Philip. Simms Hor Open Showdown With Russia Needed

enough for you. As for the other nations, large and small, let's agree to apply the Atlantic Charter. It says peoples everywhere have the right to governments of their own choosing; let's live up to that principle. As for United Nations, let's make it judge of our conduct. If it isn't strong’ enough to act now, let's make it strong enough, right away, As soon as it is ready we will gladly turn over to it such cases as Greeee and Turkey to which we are administering first aid. In all such matters we are prepared to forego our right to veto in the security council. We challenge you to match our reliance on the United Nations with a similar stand of your own. When, by a seven-to-five vote, the secyrity council considers that an investigation of a given dispute is in order, we will forego our right of veto if you will forego yours. We" are prepared to abide by world opinion thus expressed within the UN: Are you?

U.S. Position Misunderstood ' AS MATTERS STAND, the United Nations is moving in circles. The Moscow !conference isn't doing any better. Russia keeps stalling at- both places just as she did at Dumbarton’ Oaks, San Prancisco, London, Paris and New York. And all the while she keeps up a drumfire of propaganda, falsely . accusing others, as Nazi Germany did prior to world war II, of committing the very crimes of which she, “herself, repeatedly is guilty. ; Once the Trumaf doctrine was understood for what it really is, namely something to preserve the “fundamental” freedom” of peoples everywhere, 90

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