Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1949 — Page 22

The Indianapolis Times a Cpr

HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

A SORIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE * President Ph tor

PAGE 22 . Thursday, Mar. 31, 1949

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Telephone RI ley 55351 Give LAght and the People Will Fing Their Own Way

“Inflation Ending EGINNING yesterday, ‘people who want tp invest or speculate in securities listed on the stock markets need put up-only one-half instead of three-fourths of the purchase price in cash. The Federal Reserve Board, using its legal power to fix stock-trading margins, has so ordered. Ever since the, war ended the board has required margins of at least 75 per cent. For 11 months in 1946-47 it permitted no margin trading at all, fearing that if a speculative boom got started in the stock markets it might cause runaway inflation. By reducing margins to 50 per cent now, the Reserve Board signals its belief that inflation no longer is much of a menace. Marriner Eccles, member and former chairman of the board, says that deflation is “more imminent’ at this time—that, in fact, the country has been in a thild recession for several months.

. " - » " - THE New York Stock Exchange's first reaction was brisk, but indicated no danger of a speculative spree. Indeed, there’s some doubt whether the easier credit terms, which lower margins make available to security buyers, will encourage enough more trading to lift the stock markets out of their doldrums. If Mr. Eccles is correct about deflation having succeeded inflation as a problem—and many developments support his opinion—the government will have to change a lot of policies it has considered appropriate for fighting inflation. Deflation means lower prices. Lower prices are fine if _they enable more people to buy more goods and services, so { that production and employment and wages can stay high and employers tan earn fair profits. - -- So, from now on, the government should do all it can . to encourage co-operation between industry and labor to e production.costs by using America’s unequaled tools of production at top efficiency. That's the way to prevent a recession from becoming a depression, and to make the downward adjustment of prices a gradual and safe progress to stable conditions of general

prosperity.

Progress Report on Germany HARD-HEADED business judgment has triumphed over the vagaries of small-bore diplomacy and power politics in the tentative decision to retain intact jn Germany 150 industrial plants whose potential output is considered . vital to European recovery. French-British acceptance of the American viewpoint on this issue is a victory for Paul G. Hoffman, the ECA chief, and his colleague, George M. Humphrey of Cleveland, who headed the committee of industrialist which surveyed. the probable economic consequences of the reparations

rogram. The Allied agreement, yet to be ratified by the three governments concerned, approves the Humphrey Committee's recommendations on 150 of the 167 plants it selected for removal from the list of industrial units which were to have been dismantled and transferred to other countries. Many of these plants, while productive in their present locations, would have little more than junk value torn down and carried away piecemeal. Mr. Hoffman, the practical industrialist, called a halt to such wasteful proceedings. Now if the status of the plants can be settled once and for all by prompt ratification of the agreement, they can be put to work for the common good of Western Europe.

LJ » » 8 8 -n MESSRS. Hoffman and Humphrey have proved good salesmen in this instance. Persons similarly qualified could well be used on qgther trouble-shooting jobsfwhere diplomatic negotiations have bogged down. The niilitary men and career diplomats aren't making much headway toward a general German settlement. The delay is costly and has dangerous political potentialities. An agreement with the Russians seems out of the question under present circumstances. But surely the less understandable bickering by the French and British can be ended somehow. Possibly if .these negotiations were in the hands of businessmen who have a painful appreciation of how and where tax money originates, a better showing could be made than the militarists and politicians have produced.

Information for Mr. Fadeyev THE Soviet writer, Alexander A. Fadeyev, denouncing the Atlantic Pact at a rally in New York's Madison Square Garden, asked: “If this is a peace pact, why don't you invite the Soviet Union to join it?” The answer is that we did. Former Secretary of State Byrnes and Foreign Secretary Bevin invited Russia to join in just such a pact more than three years ago, and the invitation has been renewed at intervals since. But Moscow wasn't interested. Possibly living behind the iron curtain as he does, Mr. Fadeyev doesn't now that. The Byrnes-Bevin proposal may “not have been published in the Russian press, for Soviet censors limit their people to the information they want them to have. In any event, Mr. Fadeyev's question should be asked of the Kremlin, not of the American people. But would he dare to address such a publie inquiry to the Kremlin?

We doubt it. His answer might be a one-way ticket to a salt mine, ’

Forrestal Departs ITHIN five minutes after Louis Johnson was sworn in as Secretary of Defense, his predecessor, James Forrestal, had cleared out of his office, out of the Pentagon, and wis on his way to a well-eagned rest. That same absence of fuss and feathers marked Jim Forrestal's arrival in Washington nine years ago, and his self-effacing service as Undersecretary and Secretary of the Navy and finally as head of the whole military establishment. He has the satisfaction of knowing that the hard work he has done and the hard knocks he has taken without complaint have made a little easier the difficult undertaking of his successor. As life goes in Washington these days, that bout 28 full 4 Sewaid ax's good pulls servant can expect,

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| WEAPONS... By Jim Gagan New Gun Won't Hit Our Planes

Will Fire Only on Foe; Made ‘Sale’ by Electronics

WASHINGTON, Mar. 31—The United States has developed a big gun which won't fire on our planes and tanks, a National Security Re-

sources Board official has revealed. “Sight it and pull the trigger all day-—when - our planes and tanks are the target, the gun won't fire,” said Leighton H. Peebles, the board's .assistant director of production for electronics,

formations“ and-—whammo-—our gun comes to life. Presumably, it'll shoot enemy planes out of the sky and his tanks off the field without touching ours. .

‘Gun With Conscience’

MR. PEEBLES, a former War Production Board official, sald Uncle Sam's new “gun with a conscience” was just one of the forward strides we'd taken In electronics since VJ-Day. In World War II we developed guns which automatically sighted and followed their targets. Those guns, however, had no “veto.” If their crews mistook a friendly plane or tank for an enemy, they usually knocked it down. As a result, nervous or uncertain gunners shot down many American, British and Canadian planes. Their policy was to take no chances; a plane which failed to identify itself properly or quickly was a legitimate target. No records were kept; such accidents were considered part of the fortunes of war. But in Blecily, for instance, many transports and paratroopers were lost because American gunners mistook them for Germans. Mr. Peebles says no gun ever will be 100 per cent fool-proof, but we've got one which comes close. Its operation is a secret. Presumably, however, it involves putting one part of an electronics device in our planes and tanks and the other part in our guns. When they establish contact, the gun's firing mechanism automatically locks. -

Fortunes of War

OF COURSE, there is always the chance that equipment will fail at a crucial moment. What happens then must be chalked up to the fortunes of war. But if everything works as expected, danger of an American plane being shot. down by American gunners will be slight. “New ideas, mew methods and materials are constantly being brought forth, undergoing development and being applied with great success,” Mr. Peebles said. “We have only scratched the surface. This progress makes production mobilization planning most difficult, for we do not know just what the industry will be called upon to produce.”

In Tune With the Times

Barton Rees Pogue FIRESIDE PHILOSOPHY

No other country in the world can afford the American standard of living—and we can't either . . . The road from the cradle to the grave goes through some rough territory . . . No one inherits enemies—he makes most of

”

them . . . When the heart is right the mind is at ease . . . Treating a symptom never cured a disease . . . The “Infernal Triangle’—an automobile, a quart of liquor and a fool . . . Most men and women who achieved success did so by doing more than they got paid for . . . Nothing adds more to the beauty of a rainbow than the cloud behind it . . . An ounce of preventiofi can usually be had free, but the pound of cure is always expensive . . If it shouldn't be repeated it probably shouldn't be said . . . About the only thing that can fool a man worse than a woman is another woman . . . It is better to persuade a man to do a thing because he wants to than because he has to . . . It's a good sport who can win without boasting and lose without weeping . . , The only way to make life worthwhile is to do things worthwhile . . . Sometimes a man gets a finger pinched lending a hand . .. Your best friends are those who love you, not so much for your virtues but in spite of your faults ... . Life is made up largely of hating heartaches and getting over them . . . Ole Asa Button says, “Sometimes. a feller spreads his salls wher ther ain't no wind.”

—THURMAN D. GEISE, Connersville.

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POLITICAL TRENDS . . . By Marquis Childs Rise of Old Hatreds, Fears Seen

NEW YORK, Mar. 31—The picket line and the mass demonstration have long been a form of violent political expression here in this teeming crossroads of the world. Only yesterday were the demonstrations, the clashes, the picket lines that marked the T§verish period preceding World War IIL. oh Often in that period the political lines shifted with dismaying rapidity. There was that strange time when the Communists in New York, in response to the Soviet-Nazi pact, abruptly joined up with the isolationists and hurled such epithets as “imperialist warmonger” at anyone who dared to say the Nazis were a menace to peace. Observing what happened here during the past week end, one must admit, however sadly and reluctantly, that the symptoms'ef that earlier period are recurring. The temperature is ominously rising. The hatreds and fears are mounting. But there was one meeting which was a kind of calm at the center of the whirlwind--a quiet place where men and women were profoundly concerned about truth. That was the meeting held at Freedom House by Americans for intellectual freedom.

Freedom's Being Destroyed

ONE after another the speakers told, with abundant documentation, how the freedom of the poet to write, the freedom of the musician to compose, the freedom of the scientist to inquire and experiment are being destroyd in the Soviet Union. If was a frightening picture of spreading darkness decreed by an all-powerful dictatorship. These speakers did not claim that all is perfect in this country. Far from it. They pointed to the all-too-frequent interference here with the basic freedoms. But, as they pointed out, the right to protest, to. criticize, to demand redress is very much alive. In Russia, the answer to even the mildest. criticism is the concentration camp. One speaker who made a deep impression was Dr. H.”S. Muller, professor of zoology at Indiana University. Dr. Muller is a Nobel Prize winner in genetics, which is the branch of biology dealing with heredity. 4 He began in his quiet, schoolmaster's voice speaking about what a tender growth science fs. The right of free inquiry and free experimentation is so new in the world. It has come

at the end of a long, long struggle against various forms of absolutism and tyranny. Then he began to talk about something he had seen at firsthand in Soviet Russia. Dr. Muller had come to know the leaders of the science of genetics in Moscow. They were brilliant men who worked tirelessly and organized persistently to push back the horizon of knowledge.

Contrary to Doctrine

BUT the political bosses at the top of the Communist Party in Russia decided that the conclusions of the geneticists were contrary-to politieal doctrine. They began systematically to tear down the whole organization the genetic scientists had built up. Under pressure, some of the scientists “confessed” -their guilt. Others were banished. In 1940 the most famous genticist, N. I. Vavilov, former head of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Science, was arrested. He died in Siberia in 1942, his important papers destroyed. “About seven months ago,” Dr, Muller said, “the central executive committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union officially repudiated the entire science of genetics and approved in its stead asgroup of superstitions that hark back to ancient times.” The official belief rigidly inforced today is that human beings who live under a superior environment will tend to become innately superior. Those who live in an inferior—and this can be translated capitalist—environment become innately inferior. This is directly contrary to all the patient findings of several generations of scientists. As Dr. Muller pointed out, it repeats the Nazi creed of innate master and subject races and classes.

Concern of Every Citizen

SOME of us may be inclined to say, “Well, what of it? That is going on a long way off and it doesn’t concern me very much anyway.” But it must be the concern of every free citizen today to make sure that the pursuit of truth is not encroached upon by the enemies of truth at home or abread. A long time ago Socrates asked, “What is truth?” His searching questions got under the skin of the political bosses of his day that they put him to death. But the search for truth still goes on.

Hoosier Forum "1 do not agres with a word that you say, but | will dofend to the death your right to say WB."

Kecp 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, ;

Club Opposes Fare Increae By Starling W. James, President, Federatio of Associated Clubs : . The Federation of Associated Clubs is opposed to the fare increase suggested by the Indianapolis Railways. ‘We believe it to be unfair and unjust, The fare was Increased from 6% to 10 cents just a short period of two years ago. Yet the service is worse than before. We would like to call your attention to the following statements; ° : “The Indianapolis Rallways has earned approximately 50 per cent of their common stock during several years since acquiring the come pany of June 1, 1932, “Since the above date of acquisition, the

company has accumulated $11 million in depreciation which was partially computed at

“weplacement value and was to pay for replace=

ment as the equipment was worn out or became obsolete. Yet now the company asks for a rate increase in order that they may be able to buy new equipment. The question is what happened to the $11 million which has already been charged against rate-payers? - “A fare increase to 12 cents would cost the average family an additional $1 a week and would hit at those that can least afford it. “The passenger revenue per vehicle for Ine dianapolis Railways for 1948 was $17,100, which is 36 per cent higher than the $12,600 per vehicle for the other large cities. Despite this the average fare per revenue passenger in Indianapolis is 9.87 cents as against 8.35 cents in the other large cities, Indianapolis Railways earns 46.5 cents passenger revenue per mile which is 11.2 per cent higher than the 41.6 cent average earned in the other large cities.” Since the above facts were found to be true, the Federation of Associated Clubs with a membership of 7000 grossly opposes the increase in fare by the Indianapolis Railways.

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“Nothing for Aged Veterans’

By W. H. Edwards, Gosport, Ind. - The propaganda being put out editorially against a pension law for World War I veterans is a repetition of the same put out in the early 1930s against veterans of the Spanish-American War and is headed by some of the same men who fathered that infamous National Economy Act. ) It appears that the program should be “Give Europe anything and everything it wants, even the United States Treasury, but it would bankrupt the Treasury to give the aging veterans of World War I anything to ease their declining years.” The Rankin bill, as it was fist written, was not justified by facts, for it would haye given relief to veterans no matter how large an income they might have had from private investments. The new bill, now emerging from committee, is reasonable -and should become a law. The veterans publicized as opposing any pension law are the ones who have salaries or incomes so large that they could not come under the reconsidered bill's provisions. One of them, in particular, is already drawing down four or five times the pension provided for broken down, aging veterans of the war that sent hundreds of them to selling apples on the streets. > 2

‘All-Day Parking Permit?’

By H. M. J., City Information is requested as to which city bureau issues permits for parking all day, or the greater portion thereof, in 11-hour parking zones. 1 am positive that such a permit is obtainable, as for the past several weeks I, and a number of my coworkers, have observed a new (’47 or '48) Oldsmobile sedan, two-tone gray in color, four-numeral Indiana '49 license available on request, that parks on Capitol facing south between Ohio and Washington, Monday through Friday. A very fashionable lady drives said car and arrives as early as 11:15 a. m. to as late as 2 p. m., and it is still parked there at 5 p. m. The fact that a space is not readily available does not worry this lady. She solves the problem by double parking until someone pulls out. Although different officers check that block, not one of them lays a glove on her car; yet those in front and behind her get stickers for illegal parking.

WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By Charles T. Lucey

Will Reds Quit UN?

WASHINGTON, Mar. 31—Minus fiery Andrei Vishinsky and V. M. Molotov, but with the grimly rigid Andrei Gromyko standIng In for Stalin & Co., the next big United Nations show gets under way at Flushing Meadow, N. Y., on Apr. 5. o Coming before the General Assembly are a whole battery of issues which can light with a short fuse. But perhaps the biggest

question is: Will the Soviet Union pull out?

From the outset the Russians have followed with bitter fidelity a course of obstructionism calculated to block the United Nations in most of its major moves toward world peace. It has used its Security Council veto power repeatedly. It has stopped establishment of a United Nations military force to stamp out aggression. It prevented world agreement on atomic weapons control. It has thrown up difficulties on Germany, Korea, the

Balkans, Indonesia and other trouble spots.

Now some foreign observers wonder if Moscow may decide it has used the United Nations sounding board long “enough. They speculate on whether, as a dramatic gesture of protest now against the North Atlantic Pact and all that goes with it, the

Soviets may walk out of the approaching meeting.

Three Big Issues

AS FOR issues before the coming meeting, there are three which may stir delegates’ passions most— first, finding a means of restricting the use of Security Council veto as a world-affairs hobble; second, the question of ‘possible re-entry of Spain into more normal relationship with United Nations countries; and,

third, disposition of Italian colonies.

A proposal to reduce abuse of the veto without eliminating it is ready for General Assembly action. It would have-the Big Five agree on issues that could be moved outside the veto, and recommends that this include admission of new members. Nobody expects the Soviets to accept this, of course, but the attempts show a recognition in the United Nations of need for

more affirmative action. The U. 8. is for it.

Sharp conflict will grow out of the Spanish question. From United Nations’ first days the organization has criticized Franco's government. In 1946 the General Assembly passed a resolution recommending withdrawal of ambassadors and mintsters from Madrid. Most nations, the U. 8. included, went along. But chiefs of mission of a number of nations have been returning to America. Our own top policy-makers are taking a new look at our relations with Spain. They are convinced that our

needling ‘of Franco hasn't pald off.

Pact for Spain?

-_ THE ISSUE is related to the North Atlantic Pact, on which Spain is being cold-shouldered. Some military men believe we're foolhardy in not dealing for the strong Pyrenees defense line. In the coming United Nations meeting we may favor re-establishing full diplomatic relationships, though not United Nations member-

ship, for Spain.

The question of Italy’s colonies lands on the United Nations doorstep after failure of the Italian peace treaty signatories to solve it. It is complex because it involves many interests in Egyptians and Ethiopians among general strategic way too, of 80 are the Rugsians—for their own purposes. :

Africa—the Bpitish, French, them. The

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Italy. probably would be willing to settle for a United Nations:trusteeship over part of its former territories. Still another issue is Bolivia's proposal for the United Na-. tions to take cognizance of Cardinal Mindzenty's persecution. Bolivia probably will seek a United Nations condemnation. This matter could light a fire under discussion of the whole broad question of civil rights denials in the iron curtain countries. United Nations hasn't power to do much except “resolve” on such

Admission of Israel to United Nations is likely. A human rights issue is involved in Russian refusal to allow nationalists of other countries to take their Russian wives out of | the Soviet Union. The Russians may tear their hair when. the

A civil rights fight may develop over discrimination against natives of India resident in South Africa. . The U. 8. delegation includes Warren Austin, John Foster Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Philip C. Jessup, and a i

By Galbraith

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Fun in Hotel

IN THE first few days of the occupation, the newcomers had great fun with the light switches, flush toilets, elevators and telephones. Communist “People’s Bank,” grabbed for himself a swank hofel room. He hung his clothes on the wall and climbed into bed with the ceiling fan going at full blast—in the dead of winter. Disliking the ‘breeze, but not knowing how to turn off the fan, the Commy banker hauled out his pistol and tried to stop the fan with a fusillade of shots. The noise fetched the hotel manager who hung the guest's clothes in the wardrobe and politely explained to him about the wall switch which the banker had mistaken for a clothes hook. In Tientsin it was reported: the Communists found themselves stymied when they tried to take over the customs office. Records there were kept in English instead of Chinese, They postponed seizure of the office and sent a hurry-up call for Reds who could read English. ’ Chinese are not forbidden to leave Peiping but elaborately drawn, Red-sealed passes are required for exit through road blocks in the Communist rural areas around the city.

American Money Popular

ONE fugitive said American currency was commanding record prices in Peiping because the bills could be sewed into clothing easily and obscurely, Sometimes it is necessary to facilitate the issue of passes with courteous little gifts—such as flour, cigarets, wine or a few silver dollars, Many of the . read even Chinese—which helps, particularly when have drawn up their own travel papers. A common excuse is that the to see a sick father. to this gag. Sometimes without glancing at the laugh and say: “Oh, so you want eh? Ha, your sick papa 1s Chiang in good humor, the guards official Communist attitude isn’t known, but the Reds invi

COMMIES IN ASIA . . . By Clyde Farnsworth

New Life of Luxury

SHANGHAI, Mar. 31—China’'s “agrarian reformers” had quite a time of it when they swarmed into Peiping, according to travelers who have come here from that Communist-held city. Their women were 1 cosmetics. There was dancing in the streets and the jubilant Reds sang their favorite songs, one of which goes: “The north its heaven and Mao Tse<tung Mao is head man of the Chinese Reds. In the Hotel Des Wagons-Lits, the Commies darted about in excited wonderment. pats for soap and coffee for medicine. chose -the Peiping Hotel, for their headquarters. tenants on short notice they put anti-aircraft guns on the roof. The hotel soon became the busiest place in Peiping. informant foreign-style food, and the hotel parking area was filled with some of the best automobiles in Peiping.

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