Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 July 1947 — Page 16

PAGE 16 Friday, July 11, 1947 " ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President "Editor Business Manager

, A.SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER * <P

Owned and published dally (except'Sunday) by A {ndianapolis Times Publishing Co., 314 W. Maryland Lage | ot Postal Zone 5. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Price in Marion County, 5 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 25c a week, Mail rates In Indiana, $5 a year; all other states, U. B. possessions, Canada. and Mexico, $1.10 & month. Telephone RI ley 5551

Give LAGAS and the People Will Find Thew Own Way

NEW U. S. COMMISSIONER ERAL JUDGE ROBERT C. BALTZELL made an excellent selection when he appointed Asa J. Smith ak United States commissioner for his court yesterday. Mr. Smith, a onetime legislator, has been one of the leaders of the bar for years. He has a distinguished record of service overseas in the marine corps in the last wareand in world war I. The position of commissioner is one of the key posts in the federal court system. Two men hold this appointment, the other incumbent being Francis M. Hughes. The commissioners hold preliminary hearings for all persons arrested on federal charges, determining whether they should be bound over to the grand jury or released. Commissioners usually hold office for a number of . years, although each appointment is for four years. Mr. Smith succeeds Fae W. Patrick, who died recently. Others who have held the posts include Howard S. Young, now a judge of the state supreme court, and John W. Kern, former mayor of Indianapolis.

AILING WITNESSES?..0R LIMPING JUSTICE? AYEAR AGO last April Leland Miller, a crippled youth, : was brutally slain here. The killer then cut off his hands and feet and made a crude attempt to burn the body. , After a search of several days, Howard Pollard, a local plug-ugly well known to the police and the courts who had fled to another state, was arrested. He signed a statement admitting he had done the killing, and claiming he did it in self-defense. He was charged with murder,

DAY, more than sixteen, ‘months after his arrest, Howard Pollard still has not béen tried on this charge. “Delay after delay stalled the hearing—a special judge was named, and then a change of venue was granted, and any number of legal quibbles were invoked to keep this case away from a jury. This. week, as another trial date approached, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Funk walked into the Hancock county circuit court where the case now rests, with Defense Attorney Frank A. Symmes—and got it postponed - again, till November, this time. Mr. Symmes said several of his witnesses were ill— a prolonged illness, verging upon the chronic one would assume, if it has lasted all these months. Mr. Funk said the court didn't want to hear the case in the summer and anyway you couldn't get a jury out in Greenfield because all the farmers are busy right now, Circuit Judge John B. Hinchman, however, says he is ready to hear the case any time and always has been, and that he consented to another postponement only because Mr. Funk and Mr. Symmes, together, asked for it. Han___*pock Colinty Prosecutor Melville Watson says it is just as . easy to call in a jury now as any other time, in Greenfield. « Bo it is apparept that the reasons Mr. Funk, at least, gives for delaying this case again are not the real reasons. » . . VWHAT are the real reasons? We'd like to know, This Pollard, who appears to have “connections” in the fringes of the Marion county political-underworld, has been arrested 18 times, has been found guilty again and again—and had never, up to the filing of this murder charge, spent a day in jail or paid any other penalties for his crimes. Courts have turned him loose “on probation” for crimes he committed while already on probation for previous crimes, assessed “token” fines for violations that the law lists as felonies—and then let him walk out of court free without even paying the fines. “~It-is an axiom around any courthouse that delays in ~~ the trial of a criminal charge always work in favor of the \ defendant. Witnesses disappear, or forget, or die, and guilty men go free. oi We believe Mr. Funk owes a straightforward explanation of his action in this case to the people who. pay his salary. And we don't care to hear any more about farmers being too busy to serve on juries or judges who want to leave town for vacations, We've heard that one.

FAIRNESS TO FOREMEN IN at least one respect John L. Lewis does seem to have bowed to the Taft-Hartley act, He agreed that his union wouldn't try to organize mine foremen during the life of the soft-coal contract just signed. The new law doesn't forbid foremen to belong to unions. But under it, if they do belong to unions, they can't have the same protection the government gives other workers. No employer can be required to deal with any union as a bargaining agent for supervisors who exercise “managerial authority.” Efforts by Mr. Lewis to take mine foremen into his union were largely respongible for this provision of the law. : The national labor relations board is now dismissing

men. Since the new law was passed the Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn bargaining rights from an independent union which, since 1944, had represented several thousand of its foremen. - There are sound reasons, we think, why the govern-

unions. And, if Mr. Lewis had succeeded in getting mine foremen into the same union with the rank-and-file workers they are supposed to supervise, it seems to us there would have been an intolerable situation of divided loyalty. But we can well understand why many foremen have

| es, In far aven't really been treated as ven't had much actual authority,

little if any better than

The Indianapolis Times

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vA ne Mi wy

How's That Again, Massa Lewis? j y

- tA BYR -

"| do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death

Hoosier Foru m . your right to say it." — Voltaire. “Truck Drivers Should Be Called

“LET'S BREATHE- THE AIR OF FREEDOM ONCE AGAIN”.

--all petitions by unions for certification as agents for fore-.

ment should not compel employers to deal with foremen's:

that of |

By FV. M,

truck drivers. Almost 100 per cent,

“may 1 pass?” safety signals, go ahead, road clear. Tapping of horn in thanks of appreciation for courtesy shown. Out in the nowhere and out of gas; a kindly truck driver pushing my car to station, Again, in doubt, as to best roads and detours: The best source of advice from one who always knows, the truck driver. Not only on the road but. in other ‘places, truck drivers aren't too bad to deal with. I manage a store for a business and meet dozens of road

[ Hogs and hundreds of other people

each day and really it is the truth, that the road hogs dte the most courteous and “swellest guys ever, 80 1 believe instead of “Road Hogs" 1 will give them a new name “The Unknown Knights of the Road.” If I may have my choice, instead of meeting some brainless idiot who takes curves at 50 or 60 per, passes on forbidden hills and curves, swerves endways in front of you, please I pray to meet a truck driver, : One thing more, I drive a good car (a car capable of doing 100 per). I have never been arrested for trafic violation or even ‘res

| ceived a ‘sticker. I- try my best to

kéep the rules of the road. Also I am a woman driver and have been driving since 1919.

» » . “LABOR LEADERS DON'T GIVE TAFT LAW TRYOUT” By Joseph W. Graves, 2334 Paris ave. Ever since enactment of the Taft-Hartley labor control bill over President Truman's . veto, labor leaders have conspired to defeat it, branding it as a vicious piece of legislation, Last year when 8S, B. 380 was being considered by the . senate banking and currency committee these same leaders were called in, those that were not called were invited, and not one of them of-

Knights of Road, Not 'Road Hogs'"

Indianapolis

“Road Hogs" o1 “Knights of the Road?” In return for courtesy and kindness shown in Canada and the U. 8. A.; over mountains and through the plains; this I ‘will say tn behaif-of

they observe all rules of safety for

theinselves and others, Perhaps some few don't. What happens? They aren't drivers lbng. Rules strictly kept or no job. Company's safety rules. Personal experiences: Dangerous mountain roads, driving under distress and oh, so wildly to get there on time. Big trucks kindly considerate on narrow pavement; heavily loaded trucks, in response to,

fered a suggestion but howled to the high heavens about the contents of the proposed law. I have here before me a copy of that committee report and I do not see where anyone of them suggested what to write into law. Now the same ones are making a greater howl saying it is unconstitutional, it deprives labor of its civil rights but not one says anything of their duty or the government’s right or the right of the public (evidently they do not care). They .threaten to take it to court and are advising their members to violate it in order to test it, That is their right, test it in court. I do not challenge that, but which one of them has said, we will try the Taft-Hartley act and find out what really is in it. Not one. Maybe they are afraid it will work, ‘then they will not have a chance to show off to their members. Now don't get me wrong. I, for one, am a labor man and am in favor of labor and labor organization and will do all in my power for labor, but it must toe the mark. It is written, “spare the rod and spoil the child,” the child was spoiled and something had to be done They are claiming that the law denies the right of {ree press by making it unlawful to publish political information, and one organization, I understand, is printing the voting record of congressmen in open “violation” of the law, I have read it and do not find in the complete text of the law ‘where it is unlawful to print political information. To me it is a conspiracy to overthrow the . government through legal channels. The Taft-Hartley act will make diplomats and states men ‘of them and will also make labor organization 100% stronger, Keep the law and live and grow

stronger,

Side Glances=By Galbraith

N—

By Stan Moore, 2858 N. Niinois Let's breathe the air of freedom once again; why should we bow to' regimented power? We've lived without the rule of dictators, so why should we like old-world" subjects, cower? We've had the freest country on the globe, where men were born to live with equal right. Then why be shackled with a galling yoke, laid ‘on by crack-brained, bureaucratic might. Like slaves, in chains, we've lately borne the lash of parasitic bright boys run amuck until with a debt of billions for a war, as well as crazy dreams, we have been stuck. So let us get back to the better days, when government protected rights of men; let's have our nation stripped of racketeers; let's breathe the air of freedom once

Old Doc: Noe, Professor of Economics at Rag-Weed College, wrote those lines when congress walked

out and allowed price control to

die in its own foul nest. But Doc had never heard of the adrenalinpituitary mixture of graft and corruption with which any corpse can be brought back, even after the maggots have stripped the bones. New flesh quickly came back to the carcass in the form of rent control, sugar rationing and such other parts of the anatomy as might keep the maggots healthy until after next election, at least. No, Doc, the air of freedom still has that fetid odor of regimenta-

tion, that it picked up.when the

great blue eagle soared in from the morass “of corruption in glamorous old-world Fascist and Communist areas. The air of freedom is never very exhilerating, so long as it has to blow across a buzsard-roost. » ” . > “IF THERE WERE ‘SAUCERS, RADAR WOULD SPOT THEM” By W. C. B., W. Morris st. Let us travel into the realm of fantasy, If some alien power were to devise, construct and dispatch a fleet of radio-controlled missiles such as the present day scare of discs and/or saucers, their inventors

OURTOWN.,., by Snsdhorer ~~... = Kinds of Boys

THERE WERE TWO kinds of boys in Indianap-

Effects Still Visible in Oldsters

THE REASON for the doubts was due, more or less, to the wonderful way St. Nicholas writers had of delaying their denouements. Any kind of ending was possible in a St. Nicholas story, and it led to all kinds of speculation and mental theorizing on the part of the reader. The effects-of it are still apparent in 70-year-old men around here, » Compared with which, the Companion stories were more orthodox and had.a lamentable way of spilling their secrets in the first chapter. It didn't do the stories any good. Indeed, it made for a class of readers constantly on the lookout for the obvious. “Little Lord Fauntleroy” couldn't have gotten to first base in The Youths Companion. The Companion had other obvious defects, too. It collected its humor, I remember, in a department labeled “Jokes.” St. Nicholas was much too smart for that. It sprinkled its pages with Palmer Cox's “Brownies” and an occasional jingle by Oliver Herford, or somebody else whose funny bone was work-

happened in a long time has caused so much specu~ lation as John L. Lewis’ deal with the big coal opera~tors. Mr. Lewis once again is shown in the role of all-powerful manipulator, affecting the lives of millions of Americans. The 7United Mine Workers office solemnly announces that the 200-man policy committee of the union voted unanimously in favor of the terms Mr. Lewis had negotiated™ From long experience, the boys know what happens te dissidents: To. IIL «THEE WAS, 0f COUrse, NOC-Yeason ~why-asp-union man in his right mind would have voted against the contract. While its benefits have been exaggerated, it does give U. M. W. members far more than they had even under government operation. Inevitably speculation here turns on the politics behind the Lewis deal. There are those who believe it has important political overtones for 1948 and after.

A. F. of L. Officials Worried

THEY LINK IT to a report that Lewis and Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New’ York have come to an understanding. Which means that Mr. Lewis will da everything he can, privately and publicly, to help bring about Mr. Dewey’s nomination and election. Certain A. F. of L. officials are convinced this is true. And they are somewhat nervous at the thought that Mr. Lewis means to attach the federation to the Dewey comet in '38. This can be laughed off, of course, as merely a political flying saucer, But when you examine the political ‘consequences of the deal that Mr. Lewis engineered with the United States Steel Corp. it does not sound quite so laughable. ech

TANGIER, Morocco, July 11.—The object of my trip was to invade Casablanca, which I am doing the hard way. All I can say is that if the Yanks had run into the same difficulties in 1942, we would still be trying to chase the Krauts off Cape Bon. I'm not going to lowrate our troops, but I've got to say that ‘they never had to ride the 8. 8, L'Alert in order to get to Africa. LST's were tough, LCI's were tough, ducks were tough and so were APA’s. But L’Alert is something special in the way of transport.

Passengers to Tangier

Karachi. Karachi is in India. So he spilled us cover the side at Gibraltar. I thought it would be simple to get from Gib to Oasa. Airplanes, y'know. No airplanes, The only way to get to Casablanca from the rock is by way of ferry to Tangier, the international zone in Spanish Morocco—thence to take a milk train or hire a car. The name of the ferry, a misbegotten tugboat, is L'Alert. My sketchy french tells me that means exactly what it sounds like, and a finer piece of misnaming I never saw. The L’Alert is the shape of a bar of laundry soap, or perhaps a seagoing brickbat. It is so flatbottomed it would roll tied up to the dock. There are no chairs. And this brave vessel travels at five miles an hour. L’Alert is owned by the Bland Co., and the Bland

& be

JEETENE li

Magazines Marked Two

the Companion had girl readers.

IN WASHINGTON . .. By Marquis Childs Has Lewis Pledged A.F.of L. to Dewey?

WASHINGTON, July 11.—Nothing that has .

REFLECTIONS . : 8 Robert C. Ruark. Discovery of Most Fascinating C

THE CAPTAIN of that gallant barque, the 8. 8." Export, had a date to see a man about a cargo in °

‘ing. It was the better way, I think, because it alolis when 1 was a kid—those who read St. Nicholas lowed us boys to make up our.own minds—without and those Who swore by The Youths Companion. Pressure from the editor—whether a thing was funny To be sure, there were also those who didnt read ry ; . Come to think Companion. altoeither, but they didn't count. As a matter of fact, te io tir ED he Why, it pong one they never amounted to anything = “Jailed “Religion,” as if going to Sunday school once ~not even when they grew up. a week wasn't enough for a growing kid. Measured by the same ‘stand- Even more disconcerting was the fact that the’ ard, maybe there were two kinds Companion had a department designed to set us kids of girls, too. I remember a lot ‘straight in matters of deportment and decorum. It of girls, for instance, who read St. was run by a Mrs. Ward. Once in a blue moon she Nicholas, but I never ran across made sense. On one occasion, for instance, Mrs. one who read the Companion. Ward advised us kids to start eating as soon as we The two kinds of boys weren't were served. The custom of waiting is obsolete, she anything alike. Which is another ed said—God bless her. way of saying that they were very much the . paptrs they read. The Compan) 4 still believed Mit, Wald Sie soviied She subject of waphise, in the Alger-Henty doctrine that virtue is its own Spe aly im nr ith ems alter be had Sui i reward. The St. Nicholas crowd had its doubts. At “0 oo 5 Cor and ruled that napkins any rate, there were visible signs that It Wis SI ghould be neatly folded when leaving the table. some thought. Indeed, it was quite surprising how often Mrs. Ward

shared mother’s line of reasoning.

Annual Premium Number a Wow

IN ONE RESPECT, however, the Companion put it all over St. Nicholas. Once a year, the Companion people published their Premium Number. It made up for all their shortcomings. Indeéd, it made St. Nicho-

The annual Premium Number offered unbelievable prizes for new subscriptions. For one new subscription, a kid had his choice of at least 50 premiums. For two he got something that looked three times as good. As for the prizes illustrated on the pages for five and 10 new subscriptions, it left a kid gasping for breath—in much the same way that modern seed catalogs now affect people.

A real steam engine, I remember was one of the ~

rewards for 10 new subscriptions. They: even gave bicycles away. And in one issue. I distinctly recall seeing the picture’ of a gold thimble which. could be had for 25 new subscriptions. Maybe, after all,

ONE: Mr. Lewis becomes the outstanding chieftain of organized labor. He got more for his men, both in pay and in benefits, than any other leader—and without a strike. That will add immeasurably to the political weight he can pull next year,

TWO: By circumventing the provisions of the Taft-Hartley law, Mr. Lewis has made the authors of that act look. rather foolish. Those qualified to know say that urider the Lewis contract the penal

t +This cértainly does “not” enhance

the-prestige-of-Sernator Robert A, Taft, who 4&Mr,

Dewey's rival for the Republican presidential nomination. :

Considered against the background of recent history, the deal seems even more extraordinary. At the time of the coal strike last winter, the operators were indignantly demanding that the government stop coddling Mr. Lewis. °

Operators Said They Wouldn't—Did ONLY A FEW DAYS before the government gave up the mines on June 30, the operators were insisting that they would never approve, in a union contract, the kind of health and welfare fund that Interior Secretary Julius Krug had okayed. Yet, in the agreement just signed, the operators agree to double the welfare fund. One of the ironies is what happened to the southern operators. Southern congressmen went along with the backers of the Taft-Hartley bill, but when Mr. Lewis got ready to deal, he kept the southerners waiting outside his door until he had the terms he wanted from the big boys in the North. Now the

southerners have accepted the terms.

| ) is in no way responsible for anything that happens to the passenger, whether it be storms at sea, the negligence or incompetence of the crew, fire, plague, or seasickness. Furthermore, it says; if plague breaks out. aboard ship—which is not unlikely—everybody is apt to be quarantined indefinitely. Skipper of this seafaring coal scfttle was pukka British, in. white shorts and ribbons. The mate had a dirty face, to match his clothes. The passengers were about the motliest horde you ever saw. There were old ladies and young ladies. Therg were children of all sizes and ages. There were a few American sailors, off to taste the fleshpots of Tangier.

There was one honeymoon couple, and the bride .

promptly got seasick. There wasn't even a ripple on thé water, but the passengers, packed like New Yorkers in a subway, all got sick simultaneously. The Spanish are most thorough folk. When they get seasick it is a production. They suffer, and they admit it.

Fabulous People, Too

I WOULD LIKE TO TELL the heroes of world war II that they had it easy. They never hit a beach in a boat full of Spaniards—crying babies, weeping brides, upchucking grandmas, and garlicky grandees, all of whom seemed to catapult into my lap at the moment criticale. The next time I travel from Gibraltar to Tangier I swim. Sharks I can handle. We were only going to allot a day to Tangier—just to get the visa for travel through Spanish Morocco en route to Casa. But in that day I discovered the most fascinating city, full of the most fabulous people, in the world today. Maybe we wil never leave Tangier.

WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By William Philip Simms Finns Tighten Belts to Pay Obligations

FAR FROM PLANNING revenge, the Finns yearn for two things. One is to be able to fulfill the peace termé on time and the second is to live thereafter

their own independent lives on good terms with

tes against wildcat strikes cannot be enforced-against he mine workers: ;

Amuseme soft ball, bow

Miss Mar My Day- ~ Young "' Discus

Bill of

By ELEAN HYDE PARI Yesterday I r people from 2 second group the summer Ethical Cultura We discusse United Nation: mission, I an about an hour

» THESE you life with grea sense of real ¢ worked for a for the discus: subject of the ( rights. ; They produc