Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 March 1949 — Page 14

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The Indianapolis Times

"H* SCRIPPS- HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE President wing Co RAROP....

td HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

PAGE 14 Tuesday, Mar. 22, 1949

Owned and published daily by Indianapolis Times Publish. ing Co, 214 Ww Maryland St. Postal Zone 5. Member of United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Serv- * ice and Audit Bureau of Circulations

Price in Marion County, 8 cents a copy for dally or Sunday; delivered by carrier daily and Sunday, 300 a week, daily only, 28c,. Sunday only, Sc Mall rates im Indiana, -daily and Sunday, $7.50 a year, daily, $500 a year, Sunday only, $250; all other states, U 8 possessions, Canada and Mexico, daily, $1.10 » month, Sunday. 5c a copy

Telephone RI ley 8551 Give Light and the People Will Find Ther Own Way

Germany and the Atlantic Pact , HE first showdown on the Atlantic Pact probably will come in Germany. While the Reds and their stooges all over Europe are doing a lot of loud talking against the pact, the action is beginning in the Soviet occupied area of Germany. = “There the puppet people's council has just approved a constitution for all Germany, aimed to prévent formation of the pending West German state under the democratic allies. Leaders of the West German constitutional

®nvention in Bonn have been invited to meet with the

satellite council to achieve German unity, obtain a peace treaty and end foreign occupation. This is Stalin's effort to ride to power in Germany on a wave of Teutonic nationalism. West Germany would be “liberated” from allied control only to be imprisoned by the same totalitarianism which now rules the Soviet zone and Eastern Europe. Though the Russian army nominally would be withdrawn, Russian officers and secret-police chiefs would control a. Red German army as they now control the Red forces of all the East European satellites. Since the war Stalin has been training ex-Nazi military units for this purpose. ‘

” : ” AT THE ‘same time the Berlin situation grows more tense. On the first anniversary of the Red blockade and consequent allied airlift, Russia threatens to cut wire connections between Berlin and Western Germany. The Western powers are outlawing use of Soviet zone currency.

These developments have a special relation to the At-

lantic Pact. Both sides operate on the self-evident fact that Germany is the economic and strategic key to Europe. Moreover, the Atlantic Pact specifically includes the Western allied occupied areas of Germany on the same basis

as the territories of treaty members. Under the pact a’

Russian attack on an American airlift plane, or on West Berlin or on the American, British, or French occupation zones, vould be considered aggression against all members of the Atlantic Defense Alliance. Such being the case, it is desirable that the Western powers look to their defenses in those danger areas and complete organization of the West German state under adequate safeguards.

Pensions—An Acid Test

EP. JOHN RANKIN'S bill, proposing pensions for veterans of the two world wars, will put congressional courage to an acid test. This bill should not pass, and, in our opinion, most of the members of Congress know it should not pass. It would provide $00-a-month pensions at age 65 for all veterans*Who served as long as 90 days in either war— not merely for those in need, or whose service involved great hardships and hazards, or who are handicapped by service-acquired disabilities. It would commit the federal taxpayers to pension payments of over $100 billion in the next 50 years. Those payments would be in addition to other benefits and services to veterans and their dependents on which, since the end of World War II, the government has been spending more than $6 billion each year.

» » "IT WOULD compel the 18,800,000 veterans and their wives and children to carry nearly half of that huge added burden of government costs. It is against the best interests of the country, and against the true best interests of the veterans. Yet we hear predictions that the House may .pass this bill because so many of its members fear that opposing it would cost them the votes of veterans. To those who are timorous we commend the recent words of Rep. John W. Byrnes of Wisconsin, who stood before the House and said: “I want the veteran to be able to look forward to a future in which peace is possible, in which his government is sound, in which his tax burden is reasonable, in which he can be assured of governmental care based on his need —a future which has meaning for him and his children. This bill would seriously jeopardize that future. If we cannot point out to the veterans in our districts the dangerous fallacies of this legislation, then we do not deserve to represent our districts in future Congresses.”

And What a Change! | FTER the great train robbery in West Virginia the other day, we remarked that things had changed a lot since Bill Doolin’'s gang held up the Rock Island for gold at Cimmaron Bridge in western Oklahoma. Yeah, things have changed, we said—Ilittle dreaming how much! Comes now 20-year-old George Ashton's lawyer with a $50,000 damage suit against the B. & O. Railroad. Ashton is one of the two zoot-suited young men charged with holding up a B. & O. train. And how did the railroad damage Ashton $50,000 worth? Well—hold .your hats on .this one—the B. & O. is charged with “negligence” in selling the “infant” Ashton drinks on the train, thus stimulating him and his companion to stage the great holdup near Martinsburg, W. Va.!

IF ONLY the long-departed: “Rawhide Pete” could get

a load of that! Though he was cornered with shootin'-

irons still smoking, red-eyed from red eye, after sticking up the stage, Pete's lawyers might haye fetched a walloping case against the old Deadwood Stage Line—a damage “Jedge, yeronner, if the court please (spit) this here poor lad is a minor. He wuz ridin’ up in front with the driver. Wuz a cold night and the driver he hauled out his bottle for a nip or two against the raw wind. My client was tempted and.persuaded against his wishes to imbibe with him. Now them drinks were the motivatin' force settin’ in motion the subsequent actions resulting spon-

taneously thereafter in the great stage coach robbery.”

We refrain from comment on the merits of yesterday's

- remarkable lawsuit: We can only point out that Moman

Pruiett, as resourceful a lawyer as the Wild West: ever saw, never thought of that one. And if he had, he might

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«have been strung up alongside his client.

|

~ In Tune With the Times Barton Rees Pogue CHRISTMAS TREE STREET

Did you ever ride down Washington Street on a slow-moving trolley at night and watch a thousand flashing bulbs shrouded in shadosy light?

Have you ever watched them weaving by, with a drizzle of misty rain making them dance like wind-tossed leaves along a country lane?

Shimmering dots in the evening dusk that brighten the smog-filled gloom, like giant candles lit to dispel - the black of a long dark room!

“Victor's,” the “Danube,” “Peoples” and “Kays” make their own incandescent splash, * ° and that's the Indiana there, that long, phosphorescent dash!

That far away Star, I can’t quite figure— oh, yes, now we're closer 1 see that one’s the Lincoln sign up there on. the topmost branch of the tree!

The Washington waves a friendly hand to Penney's across the way, and they both wink back at the little stars ringing down the curtain on day!

On a sparkling branch away up high, along one side of the tree, a Royal Crown sign plays peek-a-boo, look, now it says “R C!”

A pattern of spangles and ornaments in visual symphony, and tinsel ropes wound 'round and ‘round on a giant Christmas tree!

~SUE ALLEN, Indianapolis.

ee & 9 i CTTTTMY GIFTS ‘Two things have made this morning bright for

me, A postman’s welcome call, . And then a squirrel frisking in my tree, Two things, and that was all.

How strange that sometimes those who give to

me The gifts I treasure so, Present great happiness unconsciously And never, never know! —RUTH BEARD HAMMOND, Greencastle.

LABOR... By Fred W. Perkins

Flood of Mail

WASHINGTON, Mar. 22 — Senators again are beginning to measure their Taft-Hartley mail by the cubic foot and the pound. The flood of letters, postcards and telegrams threatens to surpass the deluge of two years ago, when the. labor law was up for passage. Now the question fis whether it shall be repealed. There is one big difference in the mail of Sen. Robert A. Taft (R. O.). Two years ago most of the communications were against TaftHartley enactment, but now less than 10 per cent advocate its repeal. : You can get the other side of the story in the office-of Sen. James E. Murray (D. Mont.), a leading opponent of the Taft-Hartley law. His assistants say they have received only about 100 letters—all from employers—requesting that this law be continued and many more asking its repeal.

Seek Sympathetic Senator

THAT seems to show that when people advise their legislators how to vote, they write members likely to be sympathetic. Many Congressmen dismiss mass mail opposing their views as “inspired propaganda,” but they gird for the fight when they get a lot of it on their side. . Among several senatorial offices sampled, that of Sen. Taft is receiving the greatest volume of labor-law mail. His collection currently is estimated at about 10,000 letters and postcards. In addition there are about 7000 answered questionnaires which have been dlstributed by business concerns and others. Sen. Murray's mail is figured. to contain about 2500 letters, postcards and telegrams, and only about 350 questionnaires. The “anti” letters to Sen. Taft are, in general, courteous. One of them, from the secretary of a CIO United Steel Workers local in

up-state New York, and similar in phrasing to other letters from unions, merely states the | local's stand for repeal. However, the Taft mail includes a great | volume of letters from citizens who say they are union members and want the controversial | law retained.

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— A ARURT Wire APOLOGIES TO FANNY GRICE. .

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FARM PROSPERITY . .

.. By Earl Richert

Price Prop Costs $2 Billion

WASHINGTON, Mar. 22—The government right now has $2 billion invested in holding up farm prices. That's by far the largest amount ever devoted to that purpose, It's $13.50 apiece for every man, woman and child in the United States— working to hold up prices of the food they've got to buy at the grocery.

It's invested at a time when the average of

all prices received by farmers stands at 105 per cent of parity. That means farmers in general still get 5 per cent more for the commodities they sell than they must pay for the goods they buy. But, barring weather disasters, this $2 billion is only a startér in the government's attempt to solve farm surplus problems and keep the farmers enjoying. prosperity, using the complicated formula called parity. Wheat fields are greening throughout the plains states after what has been nearly perfect weather for winter wheat. And three million more acres are planted this year than last.

Loans for "Another Prop

WE'VE exported (largely given away) more than a third of last year's bumper wheat crop. But still the government has had to use loans and purchase agreements to prop up the price of another big portion of the crop—364 million bushels at the latest count. The government has poured out $752 million so far in loans to cotton farmers at the support price of about 31 cents a pound. Already, 4.7 million bales of the 1948 cotton crop are under government loans and between 60,000 and 75,000 bales weekly are currently being placed under loan. Cotton farmers are expected to plant at least a 10 per cent greater acreage in cotton this year than last. So far, 134 million bushels of last fall's bumper corn crop have been placed under government loan at the national average of $1.44 per bushel. With corn now selling in the open market below the loan price and with the loanmaking period running until June 30, it is expected that many more bushels of corn will be placed under government loan. The government takes over the commodity on which a loan was made if the farmer doesn't want to repay it. The loan always is made at the support price. In addition to the three major crops, the government has millfons invested in price supports

on oats, barley, grain sorghums, rye, tobacco, peanuts, dry beans, turpentine and resin. The Agriculture Department now is reported to be considering extending the grain loans for another year and paying the growers 10 cents a bushel as a storage fee. This would keep much of the grain from being dumped onto the government.

$46 Million in Eggs

IN ADDITION to loans, the government does much direct purchasing to prop up prices. "7 Last week, for example, it bought 12 million dozen eggs in dried form to keep egg prices to farmers at 35 cents a dozen. That's one egg for every person in the U. 8.—bought by the government in a week. It now has more than $46 million dollars invested in eggs alone, with no disposal outlet in sight. It has spent more than $177 million on last fall's flaxseed, and now has almost $90 million worth of price-support purchased wool on hand —at a time of peak wool prices.

To keep from duplicating last year’s costly

$176 million potato support program, the Agri-

culture Department dropped the support price from 90 to 60 per cent of parity for the new crop. But already, the government has had to purchase 37,000 bushels of early Florida potatoes at a cost of about $72,000. These potatoes were given to state institutions and schools for the school lunch program.

. .To help out the citrus fruit industry, the government is paying exporters a subsidy amount-.

ing to 25 per cent of the cost of buying the fruit or juice and transporting it to a boat. Since Dec. 1, it has spent $237,000 on this program.

Problem for Congress

OTHER subsidy programs involve sweet potatoes, pears and honey. der butter and hogs, but so far hasn't had to do any buying. Where we go from here is a problem that will have to be threshed out.by this Congress. Agriculture Secretary Charles Brannan has not yet presented his ideas. The Aiken-Hope law which would permit the lowering of price floors under grain and cotton becomes effective next Jan. 1. Production controls are in effect now only on tobacco and peanuts. But agriculture officials say that controls almost certainly will have to be imposed on the 1950 cotton crop.

POLITICS IN CONGRESS . . . By Marquis Childs | SIDE GLANCES

Advantage for GOP?

WASHINGTON, Mar. 22—Memory brings back a scene in the It is the spring of 1935.

Senate of the United States. Long has the floor, badgering and harrying and inept Democratic leadership.-

With all his skill and ruthlessness he had tied the Democrats Huey was on his way

in knots and was making them squirm. and there was nothing that could stop him.

On the minority side of the aisle the Republicans were

Huey frustrating the

It has price floors un-’

T

Hoosier Forum

“I do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right fo say it."

Keep letters 200 words or less on any subject with which you are familiar. Some letters used will be edited but content will be preserved, for here the People Speak in Freedom.

‘Victim - of Social Code’

By Mrs. A. L. Houser, R. R. 18, Box 157

I've been reading the article about the 14.

year-old boy who had been kept locked up because he was illegitimate. I'm so worked up over: it I have to write somebody. ' Probably the country is already aroused in anger at a mother who could do such a thing to her child,'but I'm wondering if there aren't hundreds of other mothers capable of the same. thing in view of soclety’s attitude on illegitimacy. We live in a social order which has caused and will continue to cause an untold number of crimes, yet we continue to punish the victims of our social codes rather than the ones who set such laws into being. Whoever invented illegitimacy anyway? ‘Isn't every child born a miracle of God? Wasn't it Jesus who sald, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone”? Are any. of us so pure, so noble, so without sin ourselves that we have the right to brand any child—I repeat, any child—as illegitimate Do you think that poor distraught woman whose mind became unbalanced enough to keep her son in a cell can be held responsible for the mess we supposedly “good” people have made of society? I don't. I think she is a victim of the worst sort ‘of social injustice. She and hundreds of other unwed mothers. Motherhood is God-made. It-—should be regarded so by everybody. There should be no religious piety which looks down its nose at girls who give birth to babies—I don’t care whether they are married or not. Every child has to have a father as well as a mother. The very fact that a baby is born presupposes it has a father. If that father is so cowardly hie Will not accept his fatherhood, is that any reason for society to brand the child? There are times when I'm a braggart about our American way of life, but when I read

stories like this and remember the sweet girls

I've known who have been doomed to'a lifetime .of disgrace because they had children which some people called illegitimate, I wish I lived in Siam—or some place so far away I wouldn't have to breathe the same air with such polluted ideas.

¢ © 9

Resents ‘Rural Minority’ Charge By W. H. Edwards, Gosport, Ind. We notice that the editor of The Times told the Engineers’ Club of Ft. Wayne that Indiana is being governed by a “rural minority” and that people of the cities want the badly misnamed Daylight Saving Time. As a long-time reader of The Times, I resent ye editor's statement. He has no definite information on which to base such a statement. The people of Indianapolis have never been given a chance to vote on whether they wanted daylight non-saving time or not. Why not let the people of Indiana have a referendum election on it, with a majority. to rule? Then, with that question settled, we could all begin consideration of the important - questions. now plaguing the nation, the state and its people. Indianapolis has no reason to point with pride to its boss-ridden municipal government as an example for other cities and towns to follow. ’ We who chose to live in small cities and towns are considered hick-town dwellers by many luxury-loving people living in metropolitan. centers; but we keep our feet on the ground, keep our mental faculties clear, obey all laws, whether we like them or not. And he only time when crime invades our borders is when scoff law gangsters, graduated in crime on the streets of big cities, bring crime into our

- midst.

What Others Say—

IT IS unfortunate that in the present posture of world affairs, nearly three-fourths of our national budget is devoted to paying the expense of past wars and trying to prevent future wars. . .. It is costing us lots of money, but will be worth it if we can bring peace, not in our generation, but to all generations, not in our natign, but to'all nations.—Vice President Barkley. @* oP @

THE (President's) Council of Economic Advisers see this year as containing the possibility of putting the economy of the nation on a solid foundation. It becomes a year of real showdown.—Dr. Edwin G. Nourse, chairman, Council of Economic Advisers. > > @ IT IS becoming more and more evident that every family is going to have a $5000 yearly income . .. not too far in the future.—Dave Beck, ex=cutive vice president, AFL-Teamsters Union.

By Galbraith

WORLD AFFAIRS ...By William Philip Simms

Pressure for Peace

WASHINGTON, Mar, 22—After the North Atlantic Treaty is signed the West is expected to make a new peace move. Bulwarked by the pact, such a move could hardly be inter‘preted as a sign of weakness, the West is now in a position to talk turkey with Russia. Currently Soviet propaganda is having a field day. The world is being bombarded with charges that the West is about to launch a cold-blooded war of aggression against the Soviet Union.

For the first time since VE-Day,

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laughing merrily. then they tried to help out. them directly. “You Republicans can sit over there and tee-hee-hee and haw-haw-haw. But don't think that you're going to step in and take over when these Democrats here get kicked out, because you're not.” , The Republicans, Huey was saying, would not inherit power out of confusion and breakdown. They would not be inevitable heirs of Democratic failure. fnherit the earth and he knew that his brand of potent demagoguery would triumph over the enfeebled conservatism of the Republican Party.

GOP Gain Doubtful

HAVING again helped to snarl the Democratic majority in a tangled web of futility, the Republicans may think that surely this time .they will profit from the confusion of their enemies Perhaps for one congressional election they may. But for the long pull of a presidential victory it seems to me an extremely doubtful proposition. ' For many who remember the promises of the campaign of last fall, what. is happening looks like a failure of representative government. If the coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats holds against the major {tems of legislation in the Truman program, then the score for this session will be close ‘to zero and a final judgment of failure will be justified. For such a failure the Republicans would have to accept a large share of public responsibility. Without their aid and active connivance it would not have been possible to kill all civilrights legislation as now seems to have been done for this session at least. . ’ Primarily, this means responsibility for the kind of leadership that engineered the coalition from the Republican side of the aisle. Sen. Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska gets. top credit. But a much quieter, smoother operator, Sen. Owen Brewster of Maine, is given a share of credit by his colleagues which he may not be eager to accept in full public view. . }

Ran Behind

But abruptly he turned to address

"BEN, WHERRY is shrewd, resourceful, often blunt to the

point of brutality. A successful storekeeper-and undertaker, he knows how to cajole, persuade, flatter and browbeat, if necessary. ‘ Yet in his race for the Senate last fall, against a Democratic candidate who offered only token opposition, Sen. Wherry ran far —behind ‘the young liberal, Gov. Val Peterson, and even behind presidential candidate Thomas | E. Dewey. This, it must be remembered, was {n the'rock-ribbed Republican state of Nebraska, Sen. Brewster is the Senate's’ master schemer. He understands how to capitalize on every position, for the short run at any rate. While Sen. Brewster denies it, a widely held belief in

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COPR. 1990 BY NEA SERVICE. WC. 7. ML. REO. § § PAT. OFF "Why don't you learn that cross-hands piece by heart? M's just the thing to put those show-offs in their place at the party tomorrow night!”

“ Maine is that he did his best to prevent Mrs, Margaret Chase Smith from winning the senatorial nomination. Mrs. Smith | received a whopping majority. This may give too much credit to Wherry and Brewster. Another resourceful Republican operator is Sen. Eugene Millikin of Colorado. In-a comparatively short time in the Senate he has | - learned a great deal about blocking dnd tackling. ’ To box the enémy is an elementary rule of strategy in any | kind of warfare. But that is only the first step to victory. | “Positive, constructive action is essential in the next phase and | it is just here that the Republicans have repeatedly failed. An assassin's bullet stopped Huey Long in midcareer as he was expanding his power in the South and looking ahead to greater ‘victories. : $ Another crisis, another failure, would almost certainly

produge arother demagogue ready to take adyantage of the PPOrtanity: : ie . ;

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If permitted to continue virtually unanswered, the bombardment could be most effective. Critical days are ahead. Peace or war is in the balance. Some say a showdown may be expected this summer. And Russia is seeking to align people everywhere on her side. Unless the West can find a way successfully to counteract Russia’s propaganda, Moscow may fatally undermine the West's position. In several European countries—Italy and France, for example—Communist fifth columns are already dangerous. And Moscow is adding to their strength by repeating endlessly that the Atlantic Pact is just an American plot to involve Europe in an “imperialist” war for the benefit of the U. 8, .

World Domination Charged

THROUGHOUT. Europe, the powerful Communist press is telling parents that the U. 8. seeks to purchase world domination with the blood of their sons. Mere denials from Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals will not undo the harm. The lies get huge headlines, The denials—if printed at all—get a paragraph. The West will have to do better than that. Moscow is shouting that the pact “proves” the West's real aim is war. The West must find counter-proof that what it is striving for is peace and nothing but peace. But the proof will have to be both convincing and dramatic if the world is to be impressed.

Voice“of Small Nations

AFTER the 1918 armistice, a general peace conference was called within 30 days. The treaty of Versailles was signed by ‘'mid-1819. Some 30-odd nations, big and little, took part. The big powers'made most of the decisions but the smallest nation present had a voice and influenced those decisions. The Mexican resolution called for a similar conference. The United States and other Atlantic Pact powers are now in excellent position to take the initiative. The aim should be total peace, including peace with Germany and Japan. Russia, of course, might—and probably would—refuse to at< tend. But her absence would go a long way toward femoving the sting from her lies that the West {s “afraid” of peace and is seeking war, ’ Of course a German peace settlement could not be effective 80 long as Russia held out. But a settlement calling for German unity under'a democratic German regime would call the Soviet bluff that only Russia wants a unified Germany while Britain, France and the U. 8, seek her dismemberment.’ This Soviet lie is winning many Germans over to the Reds. : : For three years Russia has blocked world peace while peri= odically launching “peace drives” for purposes of propaganda. Now, many ‘Atlantic Pact diplomats feel, is the time for the West

to make Russia put all iér cards on the table, :

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o 1 WHAT IS 17 small-town guy: drive?

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