Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 May 1949 — Page 16

"A SORIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER ~ ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE

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HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

PAGE 16 = Wednesday, May 18, 1949

Owned and y by Indians) Times Publish WEA Sa, fndanepas Dimi Ey Ee SO aie ese WEA

Marion County, » cents for daily or Sunday; red by pret dsily a a. 300 8 Week, daily uly, 28¢, Sunday only, Sc. Mail rates In daily and Sunday, $7.50 a year, daily, $5.00 a year, Sunda} only, ; all other states, U. 8. possessions, Canada Mexico, daily, $1.10 s month, Sunday, bo 8 copy. Telephone RI ley 85861 Give TAOS and the People Will Fine Ther Own Wey

The Fall of Shanghai SQHANGHAL, metropolis of Asia, is falling to the Communists. This is of vast significance to the free world, and a sad commentary on American foreign policy. For it need not have happened. Shanghai is more than just another Chinese city. It is in many respects a Western city, It is one of the world’s vital financial and distribution centers. When the Iron Cur-

tain envelops Shanghai, Moscow will reap where we have sown,

The city was doomed when the Red armies crossed the - Yangtze. But the Communists might have been stopped far north of that river if our assistance to Chiang Kai-shek had not been too little and much too late.

The announcement that a large part of the arms-for-Europe program is to be made up out of surplus U. 8. stocks is of particular interest, in view of what is happening in China. Surplus stocks!

WHEN Congress voted the much more modest military assistance program for China last April, elements in the administration which had no sympathy with the cause in China contended we had no surplus stocks. So the Chinese were charged replacement costs for what they were allowed to buy. The price for ball ammunition, for example, was 24 times that charged Turkey and Greece. + Then deliveries were so delayed that nothing reached the Chinese mainland in time to be useful in the Civil War. Even now, part of the supplies remain in the United States. ~The will of Congress was balked by tricky bookkeeping and administrative sabotage. : . Shanghai is lost. However, a vast area of China, with 150 million people, remains free, behind natural barriers of desert and mountains. It can be defended, according to Gen. Chennault, if the Nationalists are given something to fight with, A beachhead there might be more important in the days to come than some of the areas we are protecting in Europe at twice the cost.

~ The ‘Upper’ Branch A N ANCIENT wheeze has it that the Senate is called the “upper” branch of Congress because it is always “upping” appropriations. Some Senators—mostly Republicans and a handful of Democrats such as Byrd of Virginia and Douglas of Illinois «are agitated now about'the urgent need for government economy. And well they maybe. ; nal tax experts have just estimated that, at ll present tax rates and on the basis of President Truman's spending proposals, a $3 billion federal deficit is probable in the fiscal year beginning July 1. They think declining activity will reduce federal revenue. be ihn OE Many authorities warn that higher tax rates could a sharper business decline. Latest is the committee for economic development, public-spirited organization of busi- - messmen. It advocates cuts in expenditures to avoid a deficit. But ‘the Senate, as usual, is upping appropriations. The House has passed nine big regular appropriation bills. So far the Senate has passed only one of them-the bill providing funds for the Treasury and Post Office Departments. On that one, Mr. Truman asked $3,173,000,000; the House voted $3,072,818,000; the Senate boosted it to $3, 113,000,000, then defeated a move to cut the total 5 per cent. A few Senate Democrats are talking of waiting until all appropriations for next fiscal yelr aré passed, then trying .to slash two or three billions from their total. That, however, is a most doubtful prospect. :

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Roosevelt, Again

“REP. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT JR., (Liberal Four Freedoms—N. Y.)" will be a new listing in the House of Representatives as a result of yesterday's New York congressional election. The first of FDR's sons to try for public office won a spectacular victory. His 41,000 votes were more than the total of all three of his opponents. .The four-cornered contest brought a record-breaking 80,000 to the polls in Manhattan's “melting pot” West Side District which for years had sent the late Rep. Sol Bloom to Congress. Even the most enthusiastic batkers of Mr. Roosevelt were astonished at the margin he rolled up. Many meanings may be read into the outcome when the dust is settled, but we suspect that Tammany’s ineptitude and general decline were major factors. Ordinarily this district might have been a walkaway for Tammany, but

(out a comparatively inconspicuous municipal court judge, ‘Benjamin Shalleck. It fought Mr. Roosevelt bitterly as an “interloper” but the son of FDR, who once bucked Tammany himself, retorted that the organization was controlled

the re-election of President Truman. For young Roosevelt, it appears to be a promising be- . We don't know much about his political convictions, but it is in his favor that he was strongly opposed by "the Communist Party. :

A Real Public Service

HE many chores done by public servants of local government usually go unnoticed and probably unappreciated by o majority of the citizens. In fact, we taxpayers are usually looking for something to criticize and complain “about, taking the services we get for granted. ~~ We are glad to recognize a real public service in City

|. i Building Commissioner Charles E. Bacon's order, closing -

the Riverside “Thriller” because of rotting timbers.

Ty

“I will not go before a coroner's jury and apologise for

‘not doing my duty,” he said. : It is ortable feeling to know that some public

cause

| DEFENSE... By Jim G. Lucas

e Indianapolis Times|

Labor Draft Plan Studied

Universal Service in Case Of War Being Discussed

WASHINGTON, May 18—President Truman’s top war plans agency, the National Security Resources Board, is circulating a staff study which calls for universal service—a labor draft—in case of another war, _ The 500-page report is called “a critical study of the economic mobilization of the mineral base of national power.” It was prepared by Dr. John D. Morgan Jr., one of the board's consultants on strategic minerals, when he was doing graduate work in mining engineering at Pennsylvania State College last summer. Dr. John R. Steelman, acting Resources Board chairman, said Dr. Morgan's cone

. clusions were “his own and not necessarily those

of the board's staff,” which so far has made no general recommendations to the President,

Public Support

NEVERTHELESS, Dr, Steelman authorized printing and distribution of the report to heads of the mining industry. This was done, Dr. Steelman said, “to stimulate wide discussion, thus facilitating adoption of a sound and vigorous policy backed up by strong public support.” Dr. Morgan's 11 conclusions affect the mining industry. Among them, however, is this one: “8ince there already are ‘too few miners to permit quick and adequate wartime production expansion, selective service . .. will be completely inadequate, Universal Bervice that assigns every usable person to the job where he or she is most needed will provide the only solution.” - The Morgan report asserts that “before we again draft men and teach them the art of war, we should first prepare the economic base to give the soldier a fighting chance.”

Draft Plan Pigeonholed

ANOTHER labor draft recommendation, prepared by Ferdinand Eberstadt for Arthur M. Hill, former Resources Board chairman, was pigeonholed by the President last year. Mr, Truman was reported to feel that the Eberstadt study-—which also recommended the board be given peacetime powers to “learn to walk by walking”’-—went too far. His refusal to approve it was one of the reasons for Mr. Hill's resignation last Dec. 15. Dr. Steelman, principal White House assistant, has been acting chairman since, The labor draft has always heen an explosive political issue in this country. In World War II, President Roosevelt delayed asking for one until January, 1944, Congress took no action, ! In all post-war planning, the board has acted on the assumption a labor draft is out of the question. It has proposed, instead, to control skilled labor through the United States Employment Service.

In Tune With the Times

Barton Rees Pogue

JUST BE YOUR AGE

If old age you have attained, There is nothing to be gained : To deny it. . If you're pushing sixty-one : 2 And you haven't tried to run, Brother—try it.

Your heart beats like a drum, And you feel all pale and numb And palpitating. Tho’ it puts you on the spot, You'll agree that I am not Exaggerating.

‘dnd read. And with a'look of guilt Say, “for comfort I was built, Not for speed.”

Lf PE gh

Those bifocals double track, - And you tilt your head way back To read the news. While you read, how good it feels, Just to slip your weary heels Out of your shoes.

« What's the matter with your clothes? They're the same size that you chose In days of yore; Now they fit you 'round the middle Like an E string on a fiddle, Aft and fore.

So—if bulge and bunion type you, Chimney corner, cap and pipe you, That's your lot. ‘ Just you try to grin and bear it, For with you we all will share it Boon--80 what?

~RUBY 8. HINSHAW, Fortville.

WELFARE COSTS . . . By E. T. Leech ‘Cold War’ in Social Security

WASHINGTON, May 18—A cold war is going on in the social security field. But, before this year ends, it may get very hot. So hot, in fact, that it could wreck the system of insurance for the aged so dear to American hearts. The warfare is between two major social security plans now existing in this country. The government runs one, John L.. Lewis the other. Each plan is now seeking to expand. But the costs involved in expansion are enormous.

And there is much chance that neither plan can .

grow as it seeks to grow without wrecking the other, The government social security system is 14 years old. It was created in 1935, and two years later Uncle 8am started making both workers and employers pay one per cent on all wages and salaries up to $3000, to finance it. It is

- based on contributions by both sides, as are

most other pension schemes. Then, two years ago, John L. Lewis came along with something brand new for his coal miners. It is a pension health and welfare plan that costs neither miners. or owners a cent. They made the public foot the whole bill. Already it pays far better benefits than does the government system. And now Mr, Lewis is out to raise the ante again.

Second Boost Sought WHEN his plan started, it was fihanced by a 5-cent fee on every ton of coal mined. This was added to the price. Since then Mr. Lewis has used his strike power to boost the fee to 20 cents a ton. Now he wants to raise this private tax to 40 cents—eight times the starting rate of two years ago. Other union leaders are already green-eyed with envy. This private tax system has given John L, a great advantage over his union competitors. So they want to take his scheme and spread it to other fields. = Union leadership is like political leadership. You can't let some rival do better by the boys than you are doing. Benefits are the key to votes and power. Hence the coming struggle over extension of the Lewis scheme. Mr. Truman also wants to get into the game. He realizes that government social security payments to the aged are inadequate. Also, they don't cover enough people. By comparison, the Lewis plan pays $100 a month, while the average government social security payment to the

. aged is only $25.48. Even direct relief for the

aged—toward which the recipient contributed nothing—averages $42.98. To make matters worse, those who get either Lewis pensions or direct relief never had to pay anything toward them, while government social security charged them half the cost. Most private pension plans do the same thing.

»

traditional scheme of worker and employer (or

. worker and government) sharing pension costs

if the Lewis theory spreads.

Privileged Class

A CRISIS looms when the Truman expansion

program and the union expansion both try to

succeed at the same time. The cost will knock

- somebody out.

Moreover, spread “of the Lewis system to other industries will set up a highly privileged class getting big benefits at little cost. For example, all that most workers can hope for is government old age insurance. The maximum present payment—to a man and his wife both over 65-—is $67.80. And, remember, he paid half of the tax to finance it. But a coal miner of 60 years—the age was recently cut from 62—can’'get $100 a month. Also, at age 65 he can get the same government social security payment as any other worker. The same will be true if other big unions can force other industries to adopt the Lewis plan— and put the cost on the consuming public. Extension of the Lewis system into steel, automobile and other industries in which there are nation-wide, monopoly unions will be the great labor issue of this year.

Public Will Pay

BUT Mr. Truman also is fighting to put across a government social security expansion which will cost an estimated six billion ‘dollars a year at the start, and soon may run several times that amount. The public will pay for both systems— through payroll and income taxes for the government system, through higher prices for the union system. Yet most of the public will be able to qualify only for government social security—and a lot can't even do that unless the coverage is extended to workers not now included. The enormous cost of these two competing systems could be ruinous to social security— both government and union.

ITALY ... By Ludwell Denny

Pope and Politics

SIDE GLANCES

It is easy to see what will happen to the"

‘Hoosier Forum

#1 do not agree with a word that you say, but |

will defend to the death your right fo say #.*

Keep letters 200 words or less on any subused will be edited but content will be preserved, for here the People Speak in Freedom.

‘More Charity at Home' . By Edward P. Maddox, City

It is a national shame and scandal that our blind war veterans should become beggars on our streets. Or that our needy blind people who are not war veterans should have to beg on our city streets. ] And also that our old age pensioners should be made to feel that they are the objects of undeserved generosity of snooping welfare ine vestigators who play politics with old age pen= sion funds. Every blind and totally disabled war veteran who is not financially able to support himself should be given by Congress a minimum of $125 a month pension. Every blind person who needs a pension should be given $75 a month with no strings and no red tape tied to it. Every old age pensioner should receive a pension of not less than $30 a month and up to $50 a month in special cases with a strict ree quirement that such pensions be used solely for the necessities of life. Then let these pensioners have the right and liberty to earn what they can to supplement this very inadequate pension. Our politicians are wonderfully liberal with our tax money in foreign lands, so let the American people who pay the bill demand that lavish and wasteful squandering of billions abroad be rigidly scrutinized and reversed so that sve can afford and practice more Christian charity at home. Instead of the government compelling every body to become the paternal ward of Uncle Sam, let us take better care of the needy who already qualify for assistance. : Billions for deserving needy Americans; not one cent for political fpagling.

‘Public and Private Schools’ By Mrs. W. A. Collins, 1402 E. New York St.

To Mrs. Frank Adams: It happens to be people like you who make people like me appreciate America. In the first place, I didn’t know private schools asked for help. I wonder what you would do and say if all the private schools in Indianapolis alone dumped their children in the public schools. You would protest when you saw the tax bills—that is, if you pay any. You quoted the Bible, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.” Good. Then let the people who send their children to the public schools pay the bills or don’t tax the others who receive none of Caesar's money. You know sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, too. I went to the public schools and am in no way opposed to them, but at that time they didn’t have Jehovah Witnesses teaching the children of America not to salute the flag. Or that communism was not a brutal setup. A public school teacher once taught us a

sayire, Never look for trouble, you will find it if you do; as you measure to your neighbor, he will measure back to Jom. 2 ® .

‘Decadence of Capitalism’ By H. Bartel, 930 N. Belle Vieu Place

To Charles F., Jacobs: As a representative of the Socialist Labor Party I offer a short explanation of those things that “confuse” you. Your minister wasn’t half right. If he'd said the ruling class needs more religion in their

souls he would have been more correct... The = -. .

masses have heen “more sinned against than sinning.” ; Your economics professor was 100 per cent right. The capitalist system is no longer adequate; it is no more than we predicted 50.years ago after having analyzed the past and present. The decadence of capitalism is due to & shrinks ing of world markets and hastened by our ever increasing improvement in technological science in production.

What Others Say—

YOUNG offenders between the ages of 18 and 21, not now within the juvenile court's jurisdiction, are the forgotten group in our penal and social system.—Charles L. Chute, executive director, National Probation and Parole Associa~-

tion. ¢ 4

THE public never had taste (in music)—only an appetite . . . They'll listen to anything just as they'll eat anything, however ill-cooked— Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra.

By Galbraith

FEDERAL AID . . . By Marquis Childs.

Subsidy for Profits

jt passed up Mr. Roosevelt for the nomination and trotted -

by gambler Frank Costello and*that it had not worked for

ROME, May 18-The Pope versus Stalin. That is the way the election struggle was described here a year ago. It is not an adequate explanation now. E The Vatican is not the Rome government it helped to elect. And the Kremlin is busy elsewhere today to concentrate on the Italy it failed to capture then. The Pope's friend, Prime Minister De Gasperi, has become the outstanding political figure of the country in his own right. And the clever Palmiro Togliatti is left to carry on the Communist conspiracy here because Stalin has found it expedient to let him do so. ‘ This shift in leadership is related to a public trend to make Italian politics Italian. The Christian Democratic Party is now almost as anxious to convince the public that it is free of papal control as the Communists are determined to show themselves as an Italian rather than Russian party.

A Delicate Question

THE exact relationship between the government and the Vatican is the most delicate question in Rome today. Though the situation defies precise definition, it is hard to find anyone of intelligence who believes the Red propaganda that De Gasper is metely a stooge. Certain facts are clear. The prime minister is a former Vatican librarian, His Christian Democratic Party is a Catholic party. . It owes its election success chiefly to the Pope, the parish priests and the lay Catholic action organizations which got out the vote, Logically, it might be assumed from this that De Gasperi now {s the ‘man of the power that made him--{inless there has been a break. But Italian affairs are rarely logical. ¥ To assume that the Vatican runs, or wants to run, the government is to miss a determining factor. It is against the Vatican's interests to be responsible for the governmbent, and it is against the government's interests to be responsible to the Vatican. This is true for religious and legal, as well as political, reasons. The church is not allowed to function as a political agency under the constitution, That is not a mere legalism. It represents the overwhelming sentiment of the Italian people, and they are loyal Catholics. J

Extreme Measures

TECHNICALLY this was violated last year when the church played a decisive political role. This was approved by the vast majority of the electorate on the grounds that the Soviet threat to the republic justified extreme measures—the sheer right of survival. But when the crisis was passed they were as much opposed as ever to priestly political rule. The Vatican as a religious body could not risk being a political party. As a world body it could risk least of all being a national party. Though interests of the Vatican and the Italian Christian Democratic Party met for a moment in the 1948 election here, there are now inevitable divergencies and even cons flicts between Italian interests and the Vattcan's international interests. ' Certainly the Vatican has influence. But there is no evidence that the Pope tries to dictate to the prime minister, or that De Gasper! would take dictation. That is simply Red propaganda. Also, according to the Moscow line, the Vatican's influence

Pos

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DOP. 1540 BY NEA SERVICE, WC. 7. M. RO. U. & PAT. DAP: _

“But all | did, mother, was fry his eggs a little too stiff and

brown—he thinks more of an old egg than he does of me!"

on the government is reactionary. ‘The fact is that the Vatican secretariat of state has two acting heads. On social issues ‘one is progressive and the other conservative—which perhaps is not altogether accidental. In any case, the present trend of Vatican policy is that of the progressive. ow” It is true that on the hot Italian issue of land reform, there is opposition from large Catholic landowners and some other Catholics. But the Vatican and the Jesuits favor land reform, as do many lay leaders of Catholic action. Of course, there are also Catholics who are members of the Communist Party, and who have to accept the Kremlin line that nothing good can come out of the Vatican. Final proof that the government is not run by the Pope is that it is a coalition containing key ministers who are well-known anticlericals, De Gasperl, with a clear Christian Democratic majority in parliament, did not have to include these minority leaders in his cabinet, The coalition is evidence enough that the Fovgninent whatever else it may be, is neither glerical nor reac-

WASHINGTON, May 18—When Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan put out his plan to subsidize the farmer and at the same time allow the consumer to buy food at comparatively low prices, there were loud outcries. This was an evil scheme, so the critics said, to get government to underwrite permanently a large sector of the economy. What the defenders of free enterprise often overlook is that important business interests are also subsidized by the government. If there is something inherently wicked in a government subsidy, then perhaps the time has come to look more closely at certain practices. A conspicuous example is the airline industry. The govern= ment is now paying airlines, in airmail pay and subsidy, ape proximately $100 million. The Civil Aeronautics Board believes this must go up to $125 million in the next fiscal year. \ Chairman O'Connell of the CAB said in a speech before the New York Bar Association not long ago that of this total he could not tell “whether the subsidy element represents $30, $40, $50 or $60 million dollars.” That is a pretty remarkable admis sion for a responsible official.

Underwriting Profits THE NET operating losses of the airlines, both domestic and international, before mail pay in 1948 was $91,636,000, which compares with $76,748,000 in 1947. It is fairly clear, then, that the government is underwriting the profits of the airlines in a period of high business prosperity, while the passenger is getting his airline ticket for a lot less than he would have to pay if it were not for government subsidy. Here in essence is the Brannan ‘Plan—-subsidizing producer and consumer. This subsidy may be vital. It may be essential to the development of a relatively new Industry, although the ‘‘temporary period” when subsidies were theoretically necessary should not be at an end. National defense—the maintenance of a going air transport system-—may be sufficient justification. But, at the very least, the taxpayer has a right to an accounting that wul show to what extent he is subsidizing this private industry. One of the recommendations of the Hoover Commission was as follows: J “We recommend that the amounts of these subsidies should be. paid to the Post Office by open appropriation from tax funds and not imposed upon the Post Office or the mail users in this hidden manner. By such a course, the President, the Congress and the public may know what the amounts of the subsidies are.”

Overdue Reform

THIS 1s what Sen. Edwin C. Johnson of Colorado proposes to do in one of a series of bills now before the Senate. In hear ings before the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, of which he is chairman, Mr. Johnson has indicated that he intends to push hard for passage of this long overdue refofm. Mr. Johnson has taken a strong line in spite of the fact that the CAB seems inclined to postpone any change by proposing that the bill be held up until CAB completes long drawnout studies of the cost of carrying airmail. Similar bills have been introduced in the House by Rep. John ¥. Kennedy of Massa-

chusetts, who is likewise urging the right of the taxpayer to .

know what he is getting for his money. Mr, Johnson and Mr. Kennedy propose an allocation system that would fix the costs between passengers, cargo and mal. This would be a yardstick to apply to airline revenues, -

i

Milner is the p: ond Presbyteriar Vale, the Tabe rian Church. Split Int. The present sy lines. But in t plan, the whole the United State into regions wi Presbyterians ir ecutive, employe council with the synod, will adn od’s business. The general c to be enlarged : increased autho gested also tha of general secre cil be created. various synods to promote and cies initiated council. It is possibl change will b rather than an of the general ever, this is spec entire committee this suggestion. Dr. Sharp Dr. Alexander appointed admi tary of the deno of National Mis the general asse capacity for th week. Dr. Shar] fice of executive Indiana Synod tional missions |

Husband Mate in

Jealousy- | Uses But

A jealousy-cr slashed his est: a butcher knife mestic quarrel ¢ in a store in f Virginia Ave. Police said 8 25, of 1914 E. | three severe wo neck and hand Eloise Cargile, fontaine St., wit She was tre Hospital and s gile was arreste

Witnesses sai around several

«finally cornered

her when she fle a plumbing sup Virginia Ave. Deputy Sher: stopped Cargile Mrs. Cargile dr« of the store. Police said broken-pointed smeared with b in the store. Cargile told of followed her on They had been 8 week, he sai

Kokomo To Head

Dr. C. T. Ma was chosen pre; Indiana State I and Dr. Frank Evansville was dent at the 92 Yesterday. Dr. Mayfield May, 1950. A K the last 25 yea as association clinics and trus Dr. Wilbur F Wayne and Dr. of Richmond + gates to the Association -mese cisco in Octo Draper, Dr. B. Dr. Frank Den and Dr. E. A, \ Evansville wer: nates. Officers re-els E. Ewbanks, Ki manager; Dr. F Hammond, tre Nulty, master Crum, executis and Dr. H. Wayne, editor-i Dr. W. N. Ke named supervis Convention over 2000 yest day meeting ° afternoon with and a hobby s

RCA Offers

Consolette The latest n price television RCA with a $269.50, plus ta Lou Randle, tributors, Inc. nounced that t set has an ° screen” and is matching table The set is test nels and is sl against moist and signal int It is being ¢ RAC’s 250 dea diana, Mr, Ran

Dance Set

A square and

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ers Club will b