Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 December 1947 — Page 14

“The Indianapolis Tim

, party. - Now that De Gaulle’s newest party, Rally of French

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ - President .- . Editor - Business Manager

"PAGE 14 Monday, Dec. 1, 1947 © * A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by Indianapojis Times Publishing Co., 214 W, Maryland st. Postal Zone 9. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations. ; Price in Marion. County, 5 cents a copy; dellvered by ‘carrier, 25¢ a week. Hh - Mail rates in Indiana, $6 a year; all other states, U. 8. possessions, Canada and México, $1.10 a month. Telephone RI ley 55851

‘Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

Stars on the License Plates

T seems completely unimportant, to us, whether 1000 Hoosier motorists have “star” auto license plates or don’t have them, +. : There is nothing to indicate that the drivers who have such plates get any special consideration if they violate traffic rules . .. in fact, if anything, the reverse is probably true . . . and we can’t quite follow the reasoning of some groups working for greater traflic safety that the streets and highways would somehow be made safer if those plates were eliminated. On the other hand we can’t see any real good reason why they should ever have been issued at all. The state very likely wouldn’t put them out again, except that for the coming year they have already been manufactured. So they are going out, for 1948, along with a letter pointing out to.the recipients that they don’t mean anything, and don’t confer any special privilege, That's all to the good, of course. = But they ought to be made to mean something. How about issuing. “star” license plates to 1000 motorists on the basis of outstanding records of safe and lawabiding driving? Or, if the mechanics of selecting the 1000 “star drivers” is too complicated to put into effect in the little time there remains to do it for next year, how about issuing them only to drivers who will agree, in writing, to pay double whatever penalty is imposed on them for traffic law violations? There must be some way those stars can be made useful.

The French Crisis =

HE new Schuman Cabinet of France, prodded by a reduced vote of confidence, is moving in on the Commu-nist-controlled strikes. But it will have to act with more speed and vigor. The strikes continue to grow, with more than two million industrial workers now out. By calling up 15 divisions of reservists within a week, and $y purging the higher police command of elements suspected of being too friendly with the Reds, the government should be able to maintain order. . That is only the beginning, however. Unless the new cabinet can win the positive confidence of the labor rank and file, strikes will continue to tie up production during the winter. This cabinet is only a stop-gap regime. At best it may be able to hold the line until political realignments produce a stronger government, Superficially the new cabinet is almost the same as the Ramadier regime, being a coalition of the Socialist, Catholic Popular, Republican, and smaller parties of the center. Eight of the old eabinet officers are in the new ministry.

ACTUALLY; however, there has been a shift fo the right. This is shown not only by the parliamentary rejection of Socialist leader Leon Blum, in favor of the conservative Schuman, as Premier, but also by the assignment of the key post of financial and economic affairs to Rene Mayer, one of Gen. De Gaulle’'s men. It was Mr, Blum's classification of the De Gaullist movement as a totalitarian threat from the right, comparable to the Communist threat from the left, which alienated parliament. The interesting possibilities in this shift become clear when it is recalled that Premier Schuman and foreign minister Bidault came up originally as aids of De Gaulle in theresistance fight. They. inherited leadership of De Gaulle's Popular Republican movement when he split from his own

People, has polled about 40 per cent in recent municipal

SS In Tune. With the Times

TORS

IN CROWN HILL Step lightly, you! Let not tiréd feet of woe Disturb the shrouded peace in which they lle. May no dim rains of grief from houndiess sky | Of love's remembering, wake them to know Again the blinded reach for years that go Like veiled nuns in silence passing by,

“, ™

Of your kind charity give them one sigh, One prayer for rest, for rest they wanted -s0. Step softly, you! Let no harsh sound dismay

A Hero.

sun, Heroes.

A Hero,

Varga Girls”)

elections—but is still without formal representation in parliament—the big political question is whether the highhanded general and his former. associates, Mw ‘Schuman and Mr. Bidault, can reunite, But none of these political considerations should obscure for France or the world the obvious fact that the chief problem is economic. Without inflation curbs, black market control; currency stabilization and more production | ~-the self-help necessary for American aid to be effective— no government is likely to save French democracy.

Ghosts

HAT the Republican Party needs—according to one of its ornaments in Congress, the ITon. Homer Ramey of Ohio—is more and better ghost writers. The Democrats, Mr. Ramey says, are getting the advantage of a “superiority of technique” in the ghost-writing department. Well, we don’t know. Maybe it would be a good thing for both parties to use fewer ghost writers, or none, That, to be sure, would deprive political oratory of many a sonor= ous sentence, many a polished phrase. But suppose all our statesmen had to write their own speeches, in their own words, without spectral assistance. Wouldn't that enable the voting public to judge more accurately their mental caliber, their stock of ideas, their ability to say what they mean ? (On further thought that is a‘consideration which may not have compelling appeal to said statesmen.)

‘

UT a moratorium on ghost writing would serve one purpose of unquestionable value. It would prevent such embarrassing predicaments as the one in which a great Democrat, Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach, found himself the other evening. : : . Mr. Schwellenbach, preparing a speech on aspects of the Marshall Plan of particular interest to labor, for delivery at a dinner in New York, had enlisted the aid of State Department ghost writers. So.had Isador Lubin, adviser on economics to the United Nations, another speaker at the dinner.

"POLITICS . . . By Charles T. Lucey

M’Arthur Boom Grows In Favorite-Son State

ILWAUKEE, Dec. 1-If Gen. Douglas MacArthur returns here in the spring to play the role of conquering hero turned presidential

(“Chicago—Vargas Loses Suit;

Concordance of their heavenly content, It might be the strange journey they are on Woilld somewhere halt on breaking words you say And muted harps with angel choirs now blent Forget sweet music whereto they have gone.

~JOHN ROSE. yw" .

'THE JUDGE’

As 1 came from the house My friend, the Judge, was sitting thes Prepared as usual with advice As 1 passed by his chair,

Where be ye going laddie? And I wished, of all the places That I didn't have to tell im I was going to the races.

For I knew from past experience That the foxy, sly old cuss Would start preachin’, and I'd have To run to make the bus.

TWe Judge is gone today But folks like him are never dead, He knew so well of what he spoke And this is what he said:

“Remember laddies, that ye may Win out in many places, Ye can beat the horses, too, But lad,

ye cannot beat the races.” ~ROBERT O. REYNOLDS.

* 4 9

A HERO

They call the men who fought with guns, And those who some famous battle won, Heroes. But I call a man who for many a year Stood, undaunted without fear And helped build homes, churches and schools For those, who otherwise might have been tools,

They call the men who scan the ocean by plane Or one who safely pilots a train, Heroes, . But I call a man who forgets himself And helps another up life's steep cliff Or guards a home where tiny feet have played And where many a stranger has safely stayed,

They call the man who swiftly a race has won Or one who measures the distance of the blazing

But I call a man with a smiling face Who goes through this world with a steady pace And helps make the lives of others brighter By giving them a part of his food and shelter,

~—JEANNE SEYMOUR. * %

FOSTER'S FOLLIES

(“Washington—Dress Uniforms—Out Since ‘40 ~May Soon Be Identical for 3 Service Branches.”) Service evening dress transcendent, (As we near the social norm) Will see every branch resplendent, In a matching uniform.

When brave men who sail the ocean, Dig out dress blues long unseen, They may come up with the notion: “Soup and fish" should all be green.

* 4 @ Esquire Owns

Let us change the pace a trifle, And to finer things aspire, Others can't use Varga's eyeful, And yet neither will Esquire.

While it's tough on Mr. Vargas, Lady, if you like to rhyme, Switch your Vargas for this Argus, Who'll be free at any time!”

* ¢ ¢

HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood is a wonderful place. They can change your figure, also your face. They put you on the screen and old friends sigh, My, she wasn't that beautiful when we sald “CGood-Bye.”

~EARL J. STAUDACHER.

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OUR TOWN . . . By Anton Seherior , Fashions in Preachers Also Change

ANOTHER THING THIS DEPARTMENT constantly watches is the behaviar of our preachers. Believe it or not, their manners are improving. Sixty years ago when I was a little boy, it was a rare sermon that did not betray the sectarian cast of the congregation. A hundred years ago, it was even Indeed, a century ago, the religious tendency was to sects and separations. It magnified differences. It hunted more diligently than sensibly for Scriptural divisions, The best sermon was the one which displayed the greatest array of plausibilities for sectarian separation; the corollary of which was, of course, that the most applauded preacher was he who could show the utter futility of his competitor's belief. And so it came to pass that among the amazing exhibitions of religious zeal in early Indianapolis were the public debates on the fine points of sectarian theology. “The first big debate of this kind was staged in 1830. The two contenders were the Rev, Edwin Ray, a distinguished pioneer Methodist, and the Rev. Jonathan Kidwell, who called himself a Universalist, a comparatively unknown kind of preacher in Indianapolis at that time.

It Was All Greek

THE REV. MR. KIDWELL was the challenger. He had come to Indianapolis in the winter of 1829, in plenty of time to be on hand when the Legislature met. Locked in his pocket was a petition, the pur= pose of which was to obtain the necessary legislation to establish a Universalist school in Philomath, originally laid out as the town of Bethlehem in Union County. According to legends handed down t6~ Yosterity; Mr. Ray took exceptions to statements made by Mr. Kidwell with the result that Mr. Kidwell challenged Mr. Ray to a debate on the subject of eternal pun=ishment. Mr. Ray accepted with alacrity, and the fight was on. The debate took place on Jan. 21, 1830. Tradig tion has it that the Legislature adjourned for the day to get ringside ‘seats. Instead of settling anything, the battle left everybody more befuddled than before—and most of all, the legislators.

* |Side Glances—By Galbraith

Seems that the Rev. Mr. Kidwell was a self-made man who had never enjoyed the benefits of a formal education. Nonetheless, he took advantage of his opportunity by throwing some choice Greek quotations at his opponent. Whereupon the bewildered Rev. Mr. Ray accused him of being a highbrow.

The Great Beecher Reneged

THE LAST THEOLOGICAL debate of note occurred about 80 years ago. The two who came to grips on that occasion were President Burgess of Northwestern Christian (now Butler) University and the Rev. W. W. Curry—the one a Campbellite; the other, a Universalist. In the 40 or s0 intervening years, any number of collisions took place. Near collisions, too, It is related, for instance, that one day in 1840, the Rev. John O'Kane met Henry Ward Beecher on the corner where the Strauss people now do business. ,The two started talking shop. When the crowd collected and spilled over into the street, the Rev. Mr. O'Kane turned to Mr, Beecher and sr “Suppose we have a public debaté on it.” “No,” said Mr. B., “You'd use me up and I can't afford to be demolished so young.” / Today, of course, it's different. The sermon preached in a Presbyterian church might pass in any other without raising a fuss. Indeed, Indianapolis preachers have improved to the point of ex changing pulpits with no disturbance of religious complacency—a thing unheard of when I was still in short pants. As a matter of fact, the change for the better, on the part of our preachers came the day I paraded my first pair of long pants. On that day I saw with my own eyes the Rev. Oscar McCulloch (Cengregationalist), Father Bessonies and Rabbi Messing walking arm in arm down Washington St. For years, it was a common sight. People familiar with the habits of the three preachers said they-went on errands of mercy together. Of course, the significance of the occasion escaped me, but now that I know a little more—lamentably little, to be sure—I've got a kind of hunch that something momentous was taking ‘place in Indianapolis at the time. Since then, so far as I can see, our preachers have improved with every year. Indeed, today I haven't anything to kick about in the ecclesiastical line,

Wk . . * Eg: ho ‘Hoosier Forum "I do lot agree with a word that you say, but t will defend to the death your right to say i."

Remember Old Refrain

By M. 8, Indianapolis

on a hickory limb, but don't go near the water”? No, Mamma, we won't. (Ker splash!) Bernard M., Baruch’s suggestion about compulsory health in

pays part, then delicately keeps- in the background. (Ker splash!) The idea has failed miserably in other countries for the same reason it would fail here. Human beings are prone to put

taken from them. Good health doesn’t come in a neat package. moral, and physical qualities, There isn't any government on earth with enough money and power te buy health for its citizens, Wholesome and successful living is earned.

and knowing the quality of medical care that goes to those of us who make an honest effort, I think politicians, instead of level-headed. middleclass folks, propose, “How about government boost ing medicine along?” Right now to label organized medicine as inadequate, to single it out as not having done enough, is not fair, Are there any organizations, or even individuals, who are going along normally with prices shooting toward the wide blue yonder? I can't balance my household budget right now to save my neck! I don’t know any housewives who can. Folks are disgusted with the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick maker. Not to mention doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs! Inflation is a very serious problem. But we'll live through it, just like we do everything else. Here's the point. ie Getting enough money to pay expenses, mede ical expenses included, isn't simple. But is that a sound reason for letting another blundering bue reauracy mushroom over this nation in the name of public health? Got an aspirin? (Ker splash!) “ S %

Clean Up Bowling Alleys By A Mother rere While juvenile delinquency is being so much discussed, why haven't the bowling alleys been cleaned up? Two days this week I had occasion to visit one on the West Side. I could hardly believe my eyes. Men wearing their fancy emblems on their shirts and Prog euly out for an hour of good, clean fun, sneaking bottles of whisky from under seats, out of bowling’ bags, or running to the tavern next deor for a quick drink or to bring in another bottle, often times to some one too young to purchase it for himself.

School children eat their lunch in this place and the picture of a staggering man on an alley attempting to throw a ball is not a very good one to carry back to a school room. » Why can’t something be done?

> > 9

Bl=cked Sidewalks

By C. H. Hunter, City

Today I ran across an old clipping from your paper telling about the proprietor of a small furniture store being arrested and fined for placing a few pieces of his ware on the sidewalk. That is as it should be. The sidewalks are made only for pedestrian traffic and should not be obstructed by anything else. Now, here is my complaint-why are the big conipanies permitted to block sidewalks for hours at a time and nothing is said about it? Here is another item worth mentioning: In case of fire, regular traffic continues on its way, delaying our firemen. Why not put an end to all this danger by tightening up on our law? : oO HD

Plea for Rent Controls | By West Sider

Wake up, working people! The vultures are poised, waiting for rent cone trols to go off. Our living expenses are so high now:that many are as bad off as they were during the depréssion. Get a letter to your senator or congressman and ask for the rent controls to be continued. A few miutes spent writing a card or letter will make it possible for you to at least keep on paying the rest of your bills. $e > S @

Let Police Patrol Beats Mrs. F. E. M,, Indianapolis As a young housewife, I am writing this just to see if it will go into print. I say get a larger police force of younger men. Let them walk their beats instead of “patroling” in cars around every tavern or parked on the street somewhere out of sight, so they think. Get. . a real merit system and stick by it. Maybe Indian apolis wouldn't be the city where crimes are ¢ommitted and never solved.

IN WASHINGTON . .'. By Peter Edson

Broad ICC Veto Power Proposed by Rail Group

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1—The Association of American Railroads

@ ®

candidate, political observers here believe he may sweep everything before him in the Wisconsin primary. The spectre already feared by friends of Gov. Thomas E. Dewey and Harold Stassen is visualized like this. Suppose General MacArthur, absent for 10 years in which he has

in Japarf, arrives in. San Francisco perhaps a week or so before the Wisconsin primary April 6. San Francisco honors him with a pdrade and reception. Other cities accord him a hero's ‘welcome as he crosses the country. At last he arrives in Milwaukee, where his family once lived and

celebration. He makes a speech or two loaded with his own dynamic turn of phrase-making. Two or three other appearances follow in Wisconsin.

‘Strong Appeal Indicated GIVEN SUCH a situation, the politicians here believe, Wisconsin voters might find in the MacArthur favorite-son movement almost irristible appeal. No one knows whether all this is likely to happen, and discussions of the General's plans by his chief backers here run mostly to doubletalk. But even those who have lined up heretofore with Messrs, Dewey and Stassen acknowledge the explosive potential. : There is even some talk here that Governor Dewey might find it convenient not to contest the Wisconsin primary at all, perhaps taking a position that in Wisconsin—as in other favorite-son states—he is leaving the field for local boys to make good. Mr. Dewey's foes say this would be a confession of weakness. Mr. Dewey's Wisconsin troubles may be complicated by the fact that his coat-tail riders here, whether he likes it or not, probably will insist on entering a slate of delegates in the primary. A chief Dewey proponent here, state Senator Bernard Gettleman, says there will be a Dewey slate regardless of anything the New York governor may say or do.. Under this state's primary law, a candidate's consent Is unnecessary for entry of a delegate slate. A MacArthur slate or no, Mr, Stassen will be seeking Wisconsin delegates to next June's Philadelphia convention, as he must make a good showing here to be considered seriously nationally, If he falls, delegates he has been claiming in other states may switch quickly. Some of Mr. Stassen's friends here say he would look all right if he got about one-third of Wisconsin's 27 delegates, but others he should get half of them to insure prestige,

been a great military leader and a successful peacetime administrator |

where many thousands line the streets in a tremendous homecoming |

~ Came; as unfortunately it always does at such events, [Dewey Could Lose, Win : the time for speeches. Mr. Lubin was called on first. He| MR. DEWEY, with the backing of New York and other Sais, could arose. He cleared his throat. He launched into his re- | l0se here and still win at Philadelphia. \If he gets fewer than the 17 : 944, his uld contend he h marks. And the Secretary of Labor, whose turn on the | Selegaten ie Lag. 1a 4 Sdversasies oouid: contend. tint he, hus program was to come next, sat there and heard Mr. Lubin

lost some ground, however. deliver the same address Mr. Schwellenbach had ready in | , Xf Dewey forces saw a real possibility of this there might be a

disavowal such as came in 1944. Mr. Dewey then urged delegates run-

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COPR. 1947 SY WEA Ne. T. W U. 8. PAT. OFF.

"| want a new suit and overcoat and they have to fit loose—my wife is threatening to put me on a reducing diet.’

allow themselves to be double-crossed” by the candidate. It might be more difficult for the New Yorker to disavow a Wisconsin candidacy this year. ! The MacArthur backers here talk boldly of taking all 27 Wisconsin delegates, but say they might be satisfied with 20. Yet if the General doesn’t return before the primary or announce that he would be happy to have the state's delegates, the MacArthur boom could come a cropper. If this shold happen and a straight Dewey-Stassen battle remained, political observers say now the odds would lie with Mr. Dewey. But Mr. Stassen plahs an intensive campaign around the state early next year. His job now is to assemble a slate of delegates with the strongest appeal, X Some of those in the MacArthur camp were members of the isolationist America First movement, and Lansing Hoyt, chief MacArthur , Spokesman at the moment, was its Wisconsin chairman. This is

bis own pocket,

| ning in his name to withdraw, but they refused, saying they “couldn't " ‘ : {

certain to be used in the campaign, but its effect in Wisconsin is conjectural. - ®t a

Ries

Restriction on Transportation

has come forward with a bold, bad plan to give the Interstate Coms= mercé Commission veto power over Congress and the U. 8. Public Roads Administration. The latter had over-all planning responsibility and the handling of federal aid funds given to the states for cone struction of America’s highway system. The AAR plan would work like this: : : ; Whenever Congress had before it a federal highway construction appropriation bill, the Public Roads Administration would be required to certify “to what extent, if any, the amount under consideration exe ceeds the sum which would be adequate but for the commercial use of the highway.” : What this seems to mean in simple language is that the Publis Roads Administration would have to estimate how much the proposed highways would be used for pleasure driving, how much far motor busses and trucks. But now get the next step in the railroads’ proposal: - . : If the certification of the Public Roads Administration indicated that part of the appropriation would go for building a commercial highway, the Interstate Commerce Commission would be required to Investigate and report whether this “excess appropriation” was justie fied in the public interest.

Wider Power for ICC |

IF THE ICC FOUND that a part of the appropriation was “unjustified” as a commercial use, that part of the money would be disallowed. In effect, this.would give the ICC the power to tell Congress how much it could appropriate for public roads construction. : (Besides putting a stranglehold on the railroads’ motor bus and truck competition, by limiting highway construction through the 1CC, the Fletcher committee also proposes to repeal the long-standing government transportation policy which probihits one form of trans portation from controlling another, - ’ Rall, water, motor and air transport companies are now required to be fully independent of each other, so as to be competitive. What the railroads propose, to get around this, is the power to form “transportation companies, authorized anti able to furnish to any shipper that particular class or type of services which the exigencies of his business demand.”

THE FLETCHER. COMMITTEE report admits that this would tend

“to restrict each form (of transportation) to the field in which ex~ perience has shown that it

y belongs.” In short, one form of transportation would be able to ttle another if it offered competi«

* tion, and, since the railroads are by far the strongest, fina , the assumption is that the railroads would soon control all anclaly. Another recommendation in the report is that a law be passed prohibiting the appropriation by Congress of any sums for “improv ing” waterways and for “construction of artificial waterways,” “ the ICC has certified that such expenditure is justified in the interest. This would apparently give the ICC veto power over

control, irrigation and water-power expenditures by the fedéral

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Group Safety

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