Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 December 1947 — Page 26

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ROY W. HOWARD = WALTER LECKRONE President Editor

PAGE 26 ~ Friday, Dec. 12, 1947 A SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWSPAPER

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) oy Indianapoiis Times Publishing Co. 214 W, Marylang St. Postal Zoneé 9. . - . Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard News. paper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau ot Circulations, : Price in Marion County, § cents a copy; delivered by. carrier, 25¢c a week. : i Mail rates In Indiana, §5 a year; all other states, 0. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, $1.10 4 month, Telephone RI ley 5651, Give Light and the People Will Find Thew Uwn Way

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Super-Salesman ‘enough railroad cars are made available to carry it, the miners will “guarantee to produce all the coal America needs, even if it calls for working a few holidays.” « So John L. Lewis has just told a Senate committee. The

sentiment is admirable. It does credit to Mr. Lewis and his |

union’s members. But Mr. Lewis’ explanation of the fuel-oil shortage now afflicting some parts of the country—which is what the committee is investigating—is far from convincing. “He blames it on people who. wanted to “punish the min- | ers” for last year's coal strike. And on the oil industry | and the makers and sellers of oil-burning equipment. These, | he says, have had a “Roman holiday.” They have persuaded so many people to change from coal to fuel oil that now | there isn't enough oil to meet the cold-weather demand. Since the war, to be sure, a great many people and in- | dustries have made that change; but not out of desire to punish the coal miners or because oil and oil-furnace salesmen put on high-pressure campaigns. They changed because one man—Mr, Lewis—had made them afraid to depend on coal. ” . . » M ~ UST one year ago Mr. Lewis was asserting the power to | deprive the whole country of coal all winter unless he | was given his way. Repeatedly during the war, when even more than warm homes was at stake, he called strikes that stopped coal production. The government finally had to assert superior power, but there still is no assurance Mr. Lewis won't succeed some time in shutting off the coal supply until he causes a national catastrophe. | He promises now that the miners will produce all the | coal needed this winter if cars are provided to carry it. And that’s good news. But, it might be pointed out, the oil industry says much the same thing—that it can provide enough fuel oil, even for the North Atlantic States where the present shortage is most severe, if enough tankers are | provided to transport it. However that may be, one thing is sure: The supersalesman of fuel oil and equipment to burn it has been John L. Lewis.

What's Going On Here?

AROLD STASSEN is not the first to suggest a congressional inquiry into speculation in the commodity markets. President Truman has talked tough about the speculators boosting prices. And Commodity Exchange officials, : denying that speculation has caused price rises, have said they would welcome a thorough inquiry. But Mr. Stassen put his finger on one point of immetate and immense public interest. He charged that the government, itself, had engaged in purchasing policies deliberately designed to cause a boom in food prices. And he charged that government officials, possessing inside knowledge of government action, unethically had lined their pockets by buying and selling in the grain markets. That is an ugly charge. One high government official, of whom Mr. Stassen inquired whether he had been trading in the markets, refused to answer. The same official also refused to answer the same question put by a newspaper reporter. Congress, with its investigatory power, can compel answers from any and all government officials. Congress, we think, owes a duty to the public to discover and disclose the truth.

The Reds in Rome

O sooner has Stalin lost his political strike in France than he pulls a general strike in Rome. This is orthodox Moscow tactics. When stopped for a moment on one front, the Reds promptly probe another. They are fighting a global war, exerting pressure first here and then there, always feeling out democracy’s weak spots, ready to crash through if the line gives. : Italy is a better bet for the Communists than France. | Its democratic tradition is shorter. A generation of fascism did not make Italians love totalitarianism, but it did leave them dangerously weak and divided to face the threat of dictatorship from the left. The devastation of war, the

Times

HENRY ‘'W. MANZ

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| OF CATS AND WOMEN

Much has been written about cats. You like them or you don't like them-violently. There i.is no middle ground. People who dislike cats | hold them to be less intelligent than horses or |. dogs, just as some men claim that men Aareé smarter than women, despite the fact that no | evidence has ever been adduced to support either | claim. All cats and a great many wi | betrdy | by their attitudes that they consider Ives | superior, not only_to horses dnd dogs, but to men | as well, and to make this all the more exasperating, it is deucedly hard to disprove. Indeed, at least in the case of cats, some facts of their mentality—their innate awareness and . capacity | for guile—are so much greater than yours that | there can be no comparison at all. m- { Cats consider-it.silly to go through the routine | of tricks, but they betray their intelligence in | numerous little ways. If you pour cream in a saucer for his majesty the cat until it overflows on the carpet, he will look up in quick involuntary | surprise at your stupidity, but if ‘you urge him | to lick up what is spilled, his expression quickly changes to one of elaborate unconsciousness, He | knows it would please you if he helped you to | clean the rug, but he has no intentfon of doing | 80 and he is far too subtle to betray this aware-

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ness and thus appear to be stubborn or disobedient

I once read a short-short story, “The Reticence of Lady Anne” by Saki (H, H. Munro), which exemplified to perfection the psychology of the The story had four charactérs—Lady Anne, her husband, a canary and a Persian tomcat named Don Tarquinio. Don Tarquinio is definitély a minor character but he steals the show. Lady Anne's husband is trying to patch up a domestic quarrel. Lady Anne, however, seated stiffly at a tea-table, is singularly unresponsive. At last he gives It up and retires to his bedchamber saying, “Aren't we being 4 bit silly?” or something like that, to which Lady Anne makes no response. But no sooner has he left the room than Don Tarquinio, carrying out a preconceived plan, leaps to the mantleplece adjoining the canary’s cage (which up to this moment he has pointedly ignored) and, as the story has it, “éven though the bird had cost 27 shillings without the cage,” Lady Anne mdkes no move to rescue him. She has been dead for two hours. And the cat by some mysterious feline intuition has known it all the time, ~CLAUDE BRADDICK, * 4 & A small compliment swells the same kind of & head.

% » ALL THREE OF HIM

His eyes are twinkling, merry, bright, His beard is flufly, snowy, white, % He is the friend of boys and girls, Brings scooters and such and dolls with curls, His name you can guéss without a pause Oh, sure it's good old Santa Claus.

He's just as busy as can be Puttings things on every tree, He must get there fast so he goes by air Because it's not snowing everywhere, 80 you may not hear dny sleigh-bells jingle But he'll be there, this old Kris Kringle.

His laughter sounds so very gay As he goes on his merry way, Making every child feel glad, Even those who've been quite sad. A Yuletide visit does the trick When made by jolly old St. Nick. ~LAURA THELMA COMSTOCK. ® 4 The average life of a coin is 25 years—probably because it travels too fast, ¢ 4 4

OUR CHRISTMAS GIFTS

I want no diamond studded rings, No perfume, furs, or gold of kings, For these are only pagan things.

Material wealth can never be As great as things that we get free, Our joys, our tears, our sight, our ears, And faith in Him to chase all fears.

As for me, I ask one thing, A clear voice with which to sing Praises to the Infant King. ~ALICE M. SCHEFFLER. ® <

FOSTER'S FOLLIES

(“LAKE SUCCESS—Gromyko Backs 13 Vetoes of 1947 as Protection for Small Nations.”) Quite contrary to our wishes, Seems we've erred throughout the year, When we viewed as most suspicious, Vetoes from the Russian sphere. For, according to Gromyko, An envoy realistic, Every Soviet UN veto, Was purely altruistic!

IN WASHINGTON . . . By Peter Edson

Unofficial Slogan

humiliation of defeat, and acute post-war suffering have | contributed to disorder in Italy | If the Rome government acts with the firmness of the French government in facing Communist threats, and if the | American Congress provides Marshall Plan help before too | late, there is still a chance of providing jobs and better living conditions for the Italians. The Italian people are not | likely to fall for communism unless their condition is | desperate,

You, Too

HEN we read the accident columns, most of us do it objectively. It is always the other person who is killed or hurt. Who ever read of his own fatal accident? More than a hundred fatalities have beén recorded in Marion County this year. Not one of this number ever believed he would die a traffic victim, just as you don't believe it now. Yet some of those reading these words ‘will die either in or under an automobile. Traffic accidents do not always happen to the other person. You, too, are included, unless you are extremely careful, in the casualty lists of the future. Just how far in the future is up to you, depending upon how you behave behind a steering wheel or when crossing a street.

Step on the Gas

NEWS about comets makes good reading because their road rights in celestial traffic avert clearly gstablished. There's never any assurance that one of those jet-propelled jobs won't eross our arterial highway without stopping or waiting for the green light, An Australian astronomer now réports that the earth may pass through the tail of a ‘strange new comet which has been lighting up southern skies. Narrow thing, that—but we can’t slow up. ; re for somewhere and have got to get

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‘Eat Less Meat’

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12—-Charles Luckman, the big Boston soap

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OUR TOWN . . . By Anton Scherrer

A Bit of Dickens Right at Home

IF THERE IS ANY ONE trait that all males of the human species have in common, it is the irresistible urge to spit into a running stream. Sixty yéars ago, we kids of the South Sidé used to walk all the way to Michigan St. and Indiana Ave, just for the sheer (and masculine) joy of leaning over the railing of the old Yellow Bridge and spitting into the Canal, which at this point ‘appeared to run swifter than any other place in town. The present bridge isn’t much to look at when compared to the wooden worm-eaten affair it once was. Nor is its prefent anemic color-scheme anything to brag about. Originally, it was painted the color of real-for-sure butter and thus became known as the Yellow Bridge, a name which has descended to its successor. Indeed, it is known by that name today nothwithstanding the anomaly that it hasn't got a bit of yellow to distinguish it. More than six decades have elapsed since the Yellow Bridge was the rendezvous of some of the most desperate characters that ever handled a section of lead pipe or a sandbag. Most of them were identified with Bucktown, a geographical area situated just beyond the bridge. They weren't scared anything —not even a policeman. Indeed, it was 4 mighty good cop that lasted a week in Bucktown. In its way, Bucktown had its literary associations— probably for the reason that, just about that time, the kids of my generation got interested in Charles Dickens. At any rate, Bucktown was our idea of the kind of neighborhood in which Oliver Twist lived, a discovery which was considerably enhanced when,

somewhat later, we learned that it also had its Fagin.

Patron of Artful Dodgers

HE WAS A SHRIVHLED UP LITTLE MAN who ran what looked like a junkshop not far from the Yellow Bridge. His place was known to the police as a “fence.” His dealings were almost exclusively. with young ,boys who found him prepared to dispose of their plunder. He turned out more than one Artful Dodger. . It was as a result of his associations with the Yellow Bridge gang that a certain Indianapolis boy (whose name might just as well have been Bill Sikes)

Side Glances—By Galbraith

startéd his careér of crime. Beginning as a petty thief, he blossomed out into a promising burglar and because of his daring and reckless escapades became oné of the most notorious and resourceful criminals within the confines of Indianapolis. Or, for that matter, anywhere elsé in the country. On one occasion, at the” height of his career, “Bill” escaped from the Jeffersonville penitentiary to which he had been sent aftér fleecing an Indianapolis citizen of his gold watch and four-pound-heavy chain. In broad daylight, too, mind you. He had put many miles between himself and the prison when suddenly he realized that he was foot-sore and hungry. Coming across an isolated farm house just after nightfall, he resorted to a technique practiced in the neighborhood of the Yellow Bridge. Walking into the yard, he knocked at the. door. When the farmer opened it, “Bill” introduced himself as an escaped conviet. In support of which, he pointed to the clothes he wore. Then he got down to business and made a proposition—namely that if he got a decent supper and a comfortable bed for the night, the farmer might return him to the penitentiary the next morning and claim the reward.

Farmer's Bargain Takes a Flop

IT WAS A BARGAIN, said the farmer. After “Bill” had eaten a hearty meal, he retired for the night. He took off all his clothes as a token of good faith. The farmer and his hired hand seated themselves at the bedside with guns across their knees to watch him through the night. Toward morning, of course, both watchers were sound asleep. Quick as a flash’ “Bill” jumped out of the bed, knocked the guns out of the watchers’ hands, took the pants off the farmer's legs (honest) and made a clean getaway. All the farmer had to show for it was “Bill's” discarded convict garb. r Alas and alack, however, “Bill's” luck went back on him. He was recaptured and stuck into prison again. When he got out, the career that began on the. Yellow Bridge was cut short by a bullet. This time “Bill” was caught plundering an Indianapolis home. The coroner found a two karat diamond stud pin in a cleverly concealed pockét of “Bill's” pants. Believe it or not, the pants were later identified as belonging to a farmer living 11 miles north of Jeffersonville. The Yellow Bridge isn't good for any stories of that nature anymore. However, it's still the best bridge around here from which to spit into the.Canal.

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“except the conscientious objectors, would be forced

doubt. ' With sincere wishes for the hedith arid Beppiness of you and yours, and again many thanks. Yours sincerely, FRANK E. AVISON, Yorkshire, Englind. o 4 &

Against Universal Training By James W. Cullen, 2825 N. Illinois St., City. 2 Liberal-minded, peace-loving Amfiericans are hereby asked to organize their forces to successfully oppose universal military training. Thig bill (H R. 4278) is on the agenda for the reguldr session of Congress. If passed the bill will take at least a year out of the life of every American boy wher Hé réaches the age of 18. It will cost at least $175 billion a year. If it is military security we want we can get far more for our nomey in somé other way. If it is the welfare of our people we want, we can spend this amount of money annually in ways that. will give us hundred-fold greater satisfaction. ; Widely advertised as education in democracy, this bill (H. R. 4278) is precisely the opposite. The proposed bill makes it mandatory that at 17 every boy has to’ register. At 18 he is drafted. Every boy,

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to spend ix months in training camps at the conclusion of which he would be given a& “choice” of continuing anothér six months in camp or enlisting inthe National Guard, Organized Reserves or Enlisted Reserve Corps; for such period as the President may prescribe; or participating in other designated military programs. If a boy «deserts, anyone who harbors him is - subject to a fine of $2000 or two years’ imprisonmeht or both. In self-defense every parent. will OAR. OF Re ID Seif Gelele SEY Jueut.wl) “Son, are you a deserter?” Europeans came to this country to get away from this kind of military training. Millions of our best citizens are descended

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opposition to such training and all it implies; an. eventual dictatorship, not democracy and individual freedom as we Americans understand it. The armed forces are not equipped to teach many of the aspects of self-discipline and individual responsibility which are democratic essentials, This bill is sponsored by and lobbied for by powerful interests who claim this is the surest road to peace and for the U. 8. to arm to the teeth. It is believed this will intensify an armament race which is the greatest threat to the United Nations and the United Nations is still our greatest hope for a universal peace. Two world wars in our generation testify to the futility of force as a method complete of obtaining 4 universal pédce. It is suggested that dll church groups, parefitteacher associations, educational orgdanizdtions arid other organizations as well as Rai Sc bo this bill, send a letter, postcard or 1] their representatives in Congress as well ds the Senators expressing their continued opposition 4 this Bill H. R. 4278. = .

WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By William Philip Simms ‘We Must Be Strong,’ Alf Landon Warns

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13—America’s greatest single need is to make

BR rss PMI ‘Thanks From Great Britain’ lives in a By Ed Hunter, City. . : went into On a visit to Mr. Mont Millikan he showed me in service the attached letter. Tt was so interesting and war. Sin contained such proof of warm friendship for our quently wi country that I asked him if I could submit it ne yom f : ve her ma to you. : The id follows: NS Gua a Dear Mr. and Mrs. Millikan: ; in or in Jove 1 4am, rather belatedly, writing to thank you She said: for the food paicel received by my mother— I had pl Mrs. M. AviSon, 87 Burdyke Ave. Clifton, York. hl een aa As. my mother is aged "83, she thought I celed our 1 was better able to write a letter of thanks, and si . sma for having procrastinated, I offer my sincere We've know: apology. family likes "You may be interested to know that my OL mother wis a member of the Worfien's Volun- felt I should tary Sérvice and during the late war wis'a regu- tried but I ¢ lar ‘worker at York Railway Station Service to. 1 want | Canteen and each week did a double tum, helping to serve food and hot drinks to fernbers of You in the Allied Forces passing through York by rail. you have, | There is, of course, no need for me to ldbour 4b. 1 don the point that things in this country sre vefy you oan tr austere, The press of your country has no difficult. " doubt kept you informed on that point, So You're your parcel to her was doubly welcome on the She may b score of the it contdined and thé kind mistaken w thought that pjompted you to dispatch it. I'm afr With sich. a bond of friendship ds exists » Tare sper between our two countries, I am confident that he is, but : we shall win through in the not-too-distant fu- Atone | ture to better; times. We have had our bad change is | times when bombs rained down on us merciléssly riage but and we felt stunned. But the Old Country Heked Though her wounds and tried to hide scars and : édrried on—somehow, We did, and shall refuse Writes a to submit to thé Nazis or dnyoné fn sintfidr I HAVE 1 served in the Royal Air Force the or me war and had the good fortuné dnd privilege of Sant being attached for a timé to members of the yubte American Army Air Force. I alwdys foumd Hert She Like good “buddies” and shall always have pledsent : memoriés of them. Oné Jud only 4 it - ast By war them to know the issué of the

and food-saving man; was not yet decently out of town when the President's Cabinet Food Committée called a4 press conference to announce it was still in the eggless and meatless day businéss. . Also to introduce Mr. Luckman's successor, 4 ‘ He turned out to be a big, fair-haired boy of 31 named James A. Stillwell, from Chickasha, Okla. Before coming into the State Department in 1942 he sold automobiles. But He apparently never made

$300,000 a year at it, or he wouldn't have stayed in Washington these

past fivé years, working on Lend-Lease, Occupied Areas and such stuff. It was Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson who stole the spotlight at Mr. Stillwell's first show. He did it by admitting that, while there was no official government slogan to “Eat Less Meat,” that is the desired result. It's to go on at léast until fall, when the next grain harvest comes in and farmers can go back to feeding livestock | and poultry in the style to which, they are accustorned.

146 Pounds Per Capita

THE EXPERTS have figured it out that there's going to be only 146 pounds of meat, per capita, in 1948, Don't ask how they know this, but théy say they do. This 146 pounds a year amounts to not quite | three pounds per week, or about Six ounces & day. If you can't visuslize six ounces of meat, it's the équivalent of four hot dogs. ++ This 146 pounds far 1948 is 10 pounds less than the average person. is consuming in 1947. This means three ounces of meat—two hot dogs —less per week next year. In summary, you'll gét the equivalent of only 28 hot dogs per week next year, instead of 28. If income stays up and people kéep on buying all the meat they want, the problem is how to keep thém from rising in revolution when they can't get it. Meat has become & kind of symbol. If meat is scarcer, Secretary Anderson says the price is bound to #0 higher. That may upset the whole economic hot dog stand.

Prices Now at Record Highs : THERE MAY be plenty of everything else. Plenty, of mustard, rolls

and relish, But as long as there is a shortage of meat &nd as lang as people have to pay high prices for what they get, \théy may be justi fled In asking for higher wages. Meat. prices are now at record highs. One load of steers recently brought an all-time high of $38.50 a hundred pounids in Chicago. Individual steers have sold as high as $500--close t0 50 cents a pound. Hogs have gone as high as $27 a hundred. These are some of the factors behind Mr. Anderson's present request for congressional authority to put price. ceilings on meat. . A year or so ago, when OPA was still around, the Department of Agriculture suggested that ceilings on meat animals be set at $16.25 8 hundred for hogs and $2035 a hundred for beef. A yell went up

that those figures were too high. But look at them now. Mr. Anderson won't say the cellirigs would be if he had power ” a

"Yes, we're staying with my brother Bert this time! That's how it is being a réal estate man's wife—George keeps selling our‘own houses!"

to slap them on today. His rédson is that there are 100 many specu lators now -operating on the markets. To the meat industry's contention that price controls and rationing would mean a return to black markets and still higher prices, Mr. Anderson replies that he hopes for greater powers to regulate black markets. than were available to OPA in wartime. ; It is a bit difficult to see how price controls can be put on meat without also rationing meat. But there are no plans to reimpose rationing at this time. Mr. Anderson is against it. : g __But if the meat packers and the livestock raisers and. the consuming public don't co-operate on eating less meat, Anderson admits that

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itself strong both militarily and economically, Alf M.. Landon ,ex-gov-ernor of Kansas and former Republican standard bearer, told me in an interview here. . : ¥ “The little guys in this country,” he said, “dre iti a fix. But us dad as their fix is, it would ‘be far worse if America 1¢t8 her defénses down and- béconmés involved in another war.” ; “The little guys in this country,” he sald, “are in a fix. But as

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\_bad as théir fix is, it would be far worse if Aniérioa lets Mer deferites

down and becomes involved in another war.” He expressed compete approval of the Marshall Plan. But he warned against allowing it to give the people of this country whss might be called a Maginot line complex, In other words, he dooq nok regard it as a cure-all. Rightly handled, he said, the Marshall Plan would be of enormous help in getting the world back on its feet. But, he went on to ny, it will take more than that. Unless law and order abroad are sufficiently restored to give the plan a chance to be effective, and especially unléss currencies are stabilized, the plan won't work. Om the contrary it will be like pouring water down a rathole.

‘Wa Must Face Facts’ ’

WE MAY as well face the fact, he continued, that for some years we will Be teetering on the abyss of another war. And we must act accordingly. That is why in his opinion current discussions in Congress are the most significant since the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Its outcome will determine not only our domestic policies but our position in the world as well y In Mr. Landon's view, one of our biggest issues is how we can face up to Russia's “undeclared war” on the United States. He was not a military expert, he said, but he has devoted considerable study to our national defense needs, and here are some of his conclusions: ONE: The next war won't be just g “blitz"—it will be supersonie. TWO: We won't have just a two-ocean front to defend, but a third front along the Aictic Circle. 4 - THREE: Arctic Circle bases are imperative ahd continued enpéditions to test men and equipmeént up there are vitAlly important. : The next wat will be an air wir, herice & ¢onstantly tm Proving alr force also is vital. : FIVE: While the biggest navy in the world is not out of step with future warfare, the need is for plenty of floating air bases—ecarriers, submarines and the proper auxiliaries. SIX: We should have a regular army four or five times the size of our pre-war army; a bigger and more efficient National Guard organized reserves. : _ SEVEN: Proper and efficient intelligence forces tant of all~whatever it takes to kéep th well sliesd in nuclear physics ¥ i i + NS » . &