Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 July 1948 — Page 18

PAGE 18

| .. A SCRIPPS-HOWAED NEWSPAPER

"matic means to avoid war,

:

: Temporary Austerity

é Indianapolis Times|™

W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ

‘Friday, July 23, 1948 Ae

Give Light and the People Wil Fins Thew Own Woy

— rp ; The Communist Indictments HE 12 leaders of the Communist Party indicted by the * Federal Grand Jury in New York are not charged with beirig members of a foreign “spy ring.” . The indictments allege that the defendants, as individuals, conspired with each other, and others, in organizing a group which teaches and advocates the overthrow of the United States government “by force and violence.” "That group is known as “The Communist Party of the . United States.” Pe » “But a distinction is to be made between leaders, who are ‘alleged “knowingly and wilfully” ” to have advocated such lawless acts, and members of the party who may have been mere dupes of such leaders. : Of course, it remains to be proved that the individuals named in the indictment have in fact urged overthrow of the government by force. If the defendants are found guilty as charged, the issue unquestionably will go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In that event the status of the Communist Party may be clarified. In previous cases taken to it the high court has not passed upon the question of whether the Communist Party as such advocates the overthrow of our government by force and violence, and party leaders consistently have denied this familiar allegation. wma : It is reported that the grand jury which returned the indictments against the Communist leaders also is investigating the existence in this country of a foreign spy ring, operating with or through the Communist Party or certain of its leaders. But that does not appear in the indictments

which have been returned.

Berlin and the UN A SECRETARY .of State Marshall's statement of American policy in the Berlin crisis is clear. He says he will not

be intimidated, but at the same time we will use all diplo-

This of course has been the policy of the United States and it its Allies from the beginning. But official reaffirmation ‘is useful, especially in connection with the flight to Washington of our Berlin commander, Gen. Clay, for toplevel conferences. Our government already has gone a long way in at~The ‘four-power agenéies in Berlin have been broken

up By Soviet withdrawal. Efforts by allied authorities on the spot. to negotiate with the Soviet commander have been. igs. For that reason the American, British and French paments in parallel notes of protest carried the case y to Moscow. The leisurely Russian reply was a run-

Since then Russia has increased the danger of “incidents.” Her fighter planes have buzzed American supply platies. She has announced she will hold flight maneuvers in the crowded ‘allied air corridor. That would be the surest way to precipitate crashes and violence. Se . 0» : Jose. ‘ ! AS WE HAVE stated editorially several times before, it is essential that this war threat be put before the United Nations before too late. "When suggestions were made in United Nations circles three ‘weeks ago informally, our government considered them premature. But delay is dangerous. ‘The United Nations lacks the military force to impose a decision on the Soviet aggressor. But it can inform world intelligence and focus moral judgment—especially through the General Assembly. And that is important. ‘Our government established a precedent in submitting to the United Nations its dispute with Russia over Korea, when’ direct displomatic negotiations failed. “Though the United Nations in that case has not been .able to make Russia law-abiding or to remove the war threat, the issue is no longer the U.:S, versus Russia but Russia versus the world. - : Because world peace i# in the balance in Berlin, the world security organization cannot properly or safely ignore that threat.

Pass the Margarine Bill

IN @BODY expects the coming special session of Congress ‘to set any records for beneficial legislation, but there's one thing it could do with little trouble or excessive strain: It could pass the bill to repeal federal taxes on margarine. This is not a partisan measure. It has overwhelming support. It passed the House, 260 to 106. The Senate Finance Committee approved it by a 12-to-0 vote. No pending measure is so well understood nor so ardently favored by housewives who want and need cheaper, colored margarine to help balance home budgets. The taxes bring the governments so little revenue that it hardly pays the collection costs. : In Philadelphia last week the Democrats put their party on record in favor of outright repeal of the taxes. The Republicans took no stand in their platform. But Gov. Dewey has advocated repeal. So has Sen. Taft, chairman of the Republican Senate Policy Committee. He has promjsed that it will be taken up promptly “at the next session.” “Such a session is at hand now. The measure is before tne Senate and can be taken up at the legislative point where it was when the adjournment rush came a month ago. The Senate will pass it, and it will become law, if it is brought to a vote. : ~ It’s a good way to insure that the coming session will not: be altogether abortive. Let's have a vote on the margarine tax-repeal bill—promptly next week. :

D save costs, two-way FM radio will be used instead of telephones in a new natural gas field opening up in angas. We trust-that the modern comfort, convenience ghtment of the party line will be available when

a bit more ‘settled. 5 t

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In Tune With the Times Barton Rees Pogue ABOUT WORK

A LATERAL PASS

1+ Yes, we, who basked in the brilliant sunshine

the gay 90's on the farm in our youth, saw the of the horse, horse-drawn vehicles

‘and implements,

However, after the first full impact of motordriven equipment, we were quick to realize its importance and staying qualities. . . Btill we like to see good “horse flesh.” This keeps us going to the county fairs to see racing and “pulling matches” We found that the automobile for transportation; though expensive, was far superior all respects

Now, this ‘generation is seeing the passing

of many hand tools. Of the moment I am think-

of the garden plow and thé lawn mower—

* all were hand operated.

My garden hand plow has hung serenely in the tool shed since the advent of World War IL

"My vegetable garden has shrunk to one short

row of lettuce, six tomato plants, one row of self-perpetuating rhubarb and a few shoots of radish s

_ Conversely, with this reduction, my lawn has grown in size, In the Jast few years, a boy,

‘strong enough to do this job, could find more « luerative employment elsewhere. So year after

year, I nearly pushed my “daylights” out keeping it under control. This year, how different. I bought a new motor-driven lawn mower. What a delight. Mowing my lawn now is a ‘small pleasant re. 2 : Funny thing, this season for the first time in five a boy offered to mow my lawn, I smiled. The horse has been supplanted by horse power in heavy tools long ago. Now it is taking

_ over the hand tools. Sounds not unlike a lateral

pass—from horse to horsepower, --GEORGE 8. BILLMAN, Anderson.

IN WASHINGTON—

Living Statistics

By Peter Edson WASHINGTON, July 23—President Truman’s mid-year report from his Council of Economic Advisers is due any day now, Also on tap is the summary on government expenditures for the next fiscal year ending June 30, 1049. This latter document is prepared by the Bureau of the Budget after a most careful check on all the appropriation bills passed by the last Congress. Both of these reports are supposed to be cold analysis of conditions and outlook in business

and government spending. This year, however,

the two reports are bound to be important campaign literature. : In the case of the budget summary, there is a first real accounting on how much the

Republican dominated congresses were able to |

cut President Truman's _$39,000,000,000 estimate of last January. Congress voted to cut this budget by $2,500,000,000. Chairman John Taber of the House Appropriations Committee claims they. did. : ‘There are so many hidden gimmicks in appropriation bills, however—so many ‘contract authorizations” substituted for outright appropriagtions—that it usually takes sa month

after Congress goes home before thé true totals

can be obtained.

This Year's Budget Inflationary ANY WAY this year’s government ‘budget is looked at, it is inflationary. The increased appropriations for European recovery, for China relief and military aid, for the 70-group U. 8. Air Force plan, increased Army and Navy appropriations and provision for the draft—all give government spending

a great big boost, regardless’ of any legal or.

theoretical budget savings.

Similar inflationary trends aré bound to be noted in the President's economic report: on

private business conditions. : Wholesale priced reached a new postwar peak of 166 per cent aboye the 1026 level at the end of June. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumers’ price index, commonly known as the cost-of-living index, will be released about July 23, covering

the month of June. It can’t fail to show fur-’

thew increases, bringing the. index above 170 per cent of the 1935-39 average for ail items. The cost of food, clothing and: rents have ne up. ‘ All this is political campaign ammunition Republicans will blame the Democrats: for the increased foreign spending program.’ Democrats will blame Republicans for refusing to do anything about putting some anti-inflation-ary controls back on. Labor will blame management for boosting prices and management will blame labor for demanding more wage increases. From the general public's point of view, they're all right—meaning they're all wrong.

‘Economic Indicators’ Lack Data RECENTLY the Joint Congressional Committee on the Economic Report took over from the President's Council of Economic Advisers

the job of publishing an up-to-the-minute monthly survey of business statistics, to be |

called “Economic Indicators.” By graph and table, it will give the latest data on prices, employment, production, busi. .ness activity, purchasing power, money, banking, federal finance. But already it has been discovered that the government doesn’t have enough data in many fields to do an accurate job of economic diagnosis. : 3 In a report just issued by the Joint Committee’'s staff, attention has been called to some of the statistical gaps--the areas in which there still isn’t enough dope to tell where business has been or is, and where it's going. These are some of the fields in which the government needs more statistics to throw at you: Surveys on consumer purchasing demand by geographic sreas. Reports on wages of employees not covered by social security. Information on capital returns of unincorporated business. Detailed breakdowns on unemployment by areas and occupations. ° More about how small and medium business is faring. : A new census on wholesale and retail trade establishments. Better data on the volume and costs of new construction. New methods on measuring productivity in U. 8. industry. Better breakdowns on inventories at all business levels. More about business plans on capital expenditures. _ Detailed information on relationships of needed materials, capital equipment and energy to the Yolume of production.

: chairman of the

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OUR TOWN . . . SyAnonSchemer 0 7s

Caleb B. Smith Never Did

ru

In His Crown Hill Mausoleum

PURSUANT to a promise made the other day, this is the story of Caleb B. Smith's grave in Crown Hilk ee It is'a tragic tale. But even more depressing

is the moral it embraces. For, if I read it right,

it means that no longer is it possible to believe in signs— not even those of an official character. In support of which I cite the disturbing fact that Mr, Smith’s body does not lie in the mausoleum bearing his name. What's more, it never did, ‘Chances are you never : knew who Mr, Smith was, Or, if you did, tha yow've forgotten. In that case, I'll deem it a privilege to refresh your memory. Not only was he Abraham Lincoln's first Secretary of the Interior, but the first ever to be invited from Indiana to serve in a President's Cabinet, Caleb B. Smith was born in Massachusetts in"1808 (a year before Lincoln). For some reason the family moved to Ohio and it was there, in Miami University, that the youngster received his education. That done, he established himself as a lawyer in Connersville, Ind. At the age of 25, he was elected to the Indiana Legislature. Three years later, he repeated the pers formance. This time he was chosen speaker. In 1842 when he was 34 years old, Mr. Smith was elected to Congress. In the course of his seven years in Washington, he had the luck to meet Abraham Lincoln who had been elected a member in 1846, Practically of the same age, the two men formed a warm and lasting friendship which explains why Mr. Smith worked so ardently for Mr. Lincoln's nomination when he was elected an Indiana delegate to the historical Chicago Convention in 1860. x

| ‘Appointed Another Hoosier

AFTER SERVING two years as Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Smith suddenly informed Mr. Lincoln that he didn’t like working in a Cahinet. * Like as not, it was just another case of a brilliant jurist’s talents going to waste in Washington; ‘And, like as not too, the President was smart ‘enough to know: it. Anyway, Mr, Lincoln accepted his buddy's resignation, appointed John P. Usher (another Hoosier) to take his place, and forthwith sent Mr. Smith to Indianapolis to be Federal Judge of the District of Indiana.

Upon returning to Indianapolis, Mr, Smith was the first Federal Judge to set up shop in the big barnlike room on the second floor of the post office building at the southeast corner of Pennsylvania and Market Sts. — a structure hardly two years old at the time. The one-time cheerless courtroom is the present elegantly-

furnished trust department of the American National Bank. v : It ‘was in this room, while conducting a trial on Jan. 6, 1864, that Judge Caleb B. Smith suddenly collapsed in his chair. When medical aid arrived, it was too late (heart attack). : Judge Smith was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery for the reason that Crown Hill was not open for business until six months later. Soon:

as the new cemetery ‘was ready, however, his

widow contracted for a mausoleum and, eventually, her husband's body was placed therein. On the surface it look as if Mrs. Smith had

everything required of.a widow. However, one *

never knows, One morning Mrs. Smith was shocked to learn that the authorities didn’t like the style of mausoleum she had chosen; with the result that the fomb had to be abandoned. Seems it was set into a’hillside. Mrs. Smith had her husband's body moved a second time, ‘and ever since that day people have wondered about its whereabouts. Fiala " Ap

Body Taken to Connersville

AT THE TIME of the re-interment, Indianapolis entertained two schools of thought—those who had a hunch that Mr.: Smith's body ‘had been taken tot Connersville and those who were just as sure that it had been hauled to Cingcinnati, Of the two places, Connersville has the better claim. At any rate, IT know two reputable citizens of Indianapolis—Willlam H. Chitwood and Caroline Dunn—who can take you by the hand and lead you straight to Caleb Smith's grave in Connersville. Which is more than anybody around here ean do in behalf of Cincinnati. Both guides may be trusted—Miss Dunn -because of her connection with the State Library, a position which has given her the gift of detecting historic frauds a mile off; and Mr. Chit. wood, because of his family relationship (his great-granifather married Caleb Smith's sister). One more paragraph—and the most mys-

terious: From the looks of things, it appears that Mrs. Smith fully intended to bring her husband's body back to Indianapolis. After her failure to please the authorities, she built another mausoleum in Crown Hill, And this time she had better luck. : It was a free-standing affair, built of graystone and had the name of Caleb B. Smith and the correct date of his death carved over the door. In fact, it's: the mausoleum out there today. For some reason, however, it doesn't contain Mr. Smith's body-—and never did.

However, it isn't empty—if that be any consolation. Today it is the last resting place of Mrs. Smith's body and that ‘of her daughter (wife of Gov. Hovey). In the meantime, we will just have to go on believing that the body of Abraham Lincoln’s old buddy lies in Connersville. It could be worse.

WE ALL LOVE...

Everybody

By FRED W. PERKINS PHILADELPHIA, July 23 —Everybody at the Wallace Party convention seems to love everybody else. The intra-party fights that featured the Republican and Democratic gatherings in this same city have no parallel in the convention.which is now in the preliminary stage here— headed for formal opening tonight. ; The main uncertainty about the new party is what it will be named. . 2 ” OUT IN Convention Hall, where the party is paying a fat fee to use the decorations and other appurtenances of the Democrats and Republicans, a statement of Henry A. Wallace is bannered. ‘ It says, “When the old parties rot, the people have a right to be heard through a new party.” Dr. Rexford Guy Tugwell, platform committee, issues statements periodically on what that document is liable to contain. The theme will be "Peace, Freedom and Abundance.” Greatest activity of the convention press bureau is issuing statements about the indictment and arrest of the 12 topflight Communist leaders in New York.

3

Side Glances—By Galbraith

COPR. 148 BY NEA SERVICE WC. 7. M. REQ. RB. MT. OF. . 2S

“You'd ‘better cut off the boy friend and answer the boss's | buzzer—we've spoiled him by taking letters wheneve:

he feels like ictating!"

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“1 do not agree with & word iat you sey, bat | wil defend fo the death your right fo say 3»

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Nov. 1, 1946, all controls had food with the exception of

. PLAN FRE | Council of Wo nes who really did it. fois ; ‘ see J Vrs. Ken Ballarc ‘The People Will Elect—' If Democrats and independent voters read The Times these days, they have faces longer than the Republican record for doing nothing, According to such ardent and admittedly Republican writers as‘ Clare Boothe Luce, the Party might as well run up the

Democratic .| white flag even though the battle has not yet

Of course, the Republicans and newspapers (the two terms may be uséd interchangeably) prefer not to fight on issues like the Taft: Hartley Act. iE A { 1d Neither will "the: newspapers mention other issues as veterans’ housing; a desperate ly needed program which floundered in th mire of Republican indecision. oi + The high and ever-rising cost of living" ignored, by newspapers and Republicans, like -poor relations. Not only did they ignore the problem; they engineered a rich man’s tax program which is bound to be ‘a shot in the arm to the price structure. The tax on ole seg Li this day. e work: for a living and b to fabor unions cannot vote for a 0 eee We will work and win again as'we did in 1032 when the newspapers were violently opposed— but terribly wrong. :

McCoy and Joe B. of the fre

WORLD AFFAIRS— book. On the ush

A Peace Policy [iime" By William Philip Simms

three Girl Scouts “thaw, Sue ‘Conato ot SHINGTON, July 23—Talks about anote ussia are going on in Washi ! ton, London and Paris A wn baie ten Pr obler _ diplomatic and military. Final decisions, how-RJ) ~ever, will have to await the outcome of the JOC Well { Political crisis in France. B : e nature of the next effort to reach an y understanding with Premier Ml ve the MME R other members of the’ u do 13 other, the *polithuro_ has been § yo © 2 Joins * “We will proceed to invoke every possible vi , it's es resource of negotiation and diplomatic pro: to Take the h cedure” Secretary of State Marshall ‘told aly OPPY Work— press conference this week, “to reach an accepl-JJ reerance. able solution to avoid the tragedy of war.” GOOD grr And Britain, France and the three Benelutfl,, =" 8roomin countries (Belgium, The Netherlands and Lux: tay, these sizz embourg) are known to be in accord with But, boys ; this view. > ortaat. Diplomats who have made a study of the hing | down t, latest notes exchanged between the westernlly is of firs allies and Russia believe a face-saving compro: oy Le regular y mise acceptable to all could be worked out. fy} 1% an un % t affe Might Resume East-West Contact ake. Many a THE BRITISH and American notes es iinyes has beer pressed a willingness to resume Big Four dis Ru, ie Cause .of cussions of the Berlin situation provided Russis | gaits. lifted the blockade on Berlin. tg po. the th Russia's reply insisted that the talks in Werte clotk clude the German problem as a whole whit Rs. i for bus the blockade continued. : ne, o 2llow m One solution, therefore, it is observed, might Bu be for the allies to agree to broaden the scope of the proposed discussions if Russia would cal off the blockade. This, it is pointed out, would at least bring about a resumption of contact between East and West. Under existing circumstances, with .-another world war apparently hanging by & , thread, many would regard even that as a dis . tinct gain. -

West Is Unprepared IF FURTHER Big Four conferences I* sulted in stalemate, there still would remit the United Nations which the British and French especially dislike to invoke sev: 3» last resort. They are convinced the Russians would wal ut, severing the last link ‘between Kast at

They prefer, therefore, exhaust every other pacific means. before calling Russia br

fore the world bar of justi »

ce. hid “On the whole, those who advocate this cours believe, time works for the West. True, Russia now seems weil behind 18 atomic matters, Experts give her two or thré Jars 8 more to catch up. But war now would find e West dangerously unprepared. We may have the atomic bomb, but we Iack planes and troops. Russia could probably ove" run all western Europe, if she today.

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