Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 September 1949 — Page 14
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The Indianapolis Times |
A SORIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER en ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President © fi Editor Business Manager
"PAGE 14 Wednesday, Sept. 28, 1949
Own; 30d lished dally by Indianapolis Times Publish. fag 4 oF areiand st 'owtal Zone 9 ember of Faued #88, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. NEA Serv. snd Audit Bureau of Cireulationa ' - on County, § nts _&_ecopy for dally ay: dativered hy carrier dally ah unday 30 week, a yr. 25¢, Sunday only {1 rates in Gas ~ nly 1350 SR her states, OU San. YCAnads and y i 8 r » ‘ ' Mexico. daly $1.16'a month Sunday. 5c & copy. »
Telephone RI ley 5551 ¥ Give Light and the Peonia Will Find Their Own Wow
‘Forgotten’ Prisoners
_ PERHAPS we must take with a grain ‘of salt the tales of | ~ some of the men held in Marion County jail. *
They've been in plénty of prisons, they have been proved guilty of various crimes, they are not, certainly, the" | most credible of witnesses. Py But the fact is clear that they have been held in jail, | without trial, for many, many months, that one got before a court after 11 months of waiting only after Times Writer Philip F. Clifford made public the story of unexplained delay, that they appear to have had some odd experiences
” ” . » » . WE ARE not much impressed by the-excuses from the bench and elsewhere that the delay was the prisoners’ own seeking. Courts and the prosecutor have power to prevent undue delay, and it seems to us it is a part of their responsibility to see that prisoners don't get it by “stalling” tactics. | Basic in our concept of justice is promptness of trial. | Every day of needless delay is a day of needléss expense to this county, and a diminished chance of conviction for the guilty. : The facilities for trial of criminal charges were doubled rather recently by the addition of another criminal court. We have heard no requests for further increases from those responsible since then, so presumably existing courts are sufficient to handle the business before them. The least we have a right to expect is a speedy disposition of cases like these “forgotten men” awaiting trial in the county jail.
Red Bomb and Union
Now that Russia has the atomic bomb, many steps must be taken to protect the American-people against attack by this fearful weapon. : i Electrical equipment — especially a so-called “radar fence” to detect a planes which might carry bombs
rations. lee : Yet, at the time the Russian atomic explosion was announced, Russia had just retained control over the labor union whose members largely make American radar and other electrical equipment. - The Cleveland convention of the CIO United Electrical
that the union will continue under the domination of men who follow the Russian party line.
. » . . » . A YEAR ago, Chairman Lilienthal of the Atomic Energy Commission barred members of this union from employment on atomic projects, on the grounds that UEW top officials had refused to file non-Communist affidavits under the Taft-Hartley Act. The Cleveland convention voted to direct the officials to sign such affidavits. If the government accepts their affidavits as valid, that may open the door for members of this union to work in atomic plants. But it would be folly to believe that the signing of affidavits signified that the officials had ceased to follow the Russian line. An essential first step for defense against Russian atom
trical industry, upon which America greatly depends for protection, and to make certain that no such beachhead is established in our own atomic plants,
HE true test of any pension plan's value to those who are pensioned can be stated in four words: “Will it be solvent?” - ; However attractive a plan may look, unless it is solvent ~unless it is solidly based on scientific principles which assure continued payment of its promised benefits—it con- | tains the seeds of disastrous disappointment. The coal miners are angry and on strike because pay- | ments from their union's welfare and pension fund have | stopped. The payments had to stop, because outgo from | the fund ran far ahead of income from the union's levy of | 20 cents a ton on all coal. mined. Hf John L. Lewis uses the strike weapon to increase the | levy, he will force the price of coal up, drive more coal users | to other fuels, cut the number of jobs for miners, and probably put many marginal, high-cost mines out of business. Mr. Lewis, we think, made the mistake of promising greater |
“benefits from the miners’ welfare and pension plan than - the coal industry as a whole can support.
« = = "aw AND, it seems to us, President Philip Murray of the CIO and the Steel Workers’ Union are in danger of making the same mistake as regards the steel industry. } It is natural for employees to assume that the institu- | tion for which they work iz making money and will go on" making money, and that any pension plan it sets up will pay off. he But all companies in the steel industry (or in other | industries) do not have equal ability to finance a pensidn | plan. Some companies ean afford a plan which would break others. President Truman's steel fact-finding board recog: nized this fact clearly. } 7 With the latest strike deadline only three days away, Mr. Murray and other union officials are now meeting with certain big steel compahies—a small part of some 1600 companies whose employees are represented by the union. The employees of all 1600 companies certainly will want, 1 and expect*Mr. Murray to get for them, whatever pension | plan Mr. Murray may succeed in getting from the big companies. . = .
’ . . L . . 0» IT 18 idle to suppose that a pension plan of real value to all the pensioned—a plan that will be solvent in the case of all the companies—is to be established by this method. Setting up solvent plans for the many companies with
which Mr, Murray's union deals would be a long and difficult |
task. It would require patient negotiations with each com- | pany and careful study of its ability to finance pensions. + But this longer, more diffiqult way would prove sounder,
“safer and, in the long run, far more satisfactory to all con-.
cerned than the way Mr. Murray amd his union have seemed |
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poumic: .... By Eorl RidNert GOP Planning Hot Campaign "Party Leaders to Blast
Truman Farm Program
.BIOUX CITY, Jowa, Sept. 28—The Republicans have come out of their corner fighting. The 1950 campaign —announced by President Truman to have started Labor Day--is on In earnest, with the challengers determined to give Mr. Truman “just as much hell” as he gave them
80 successfully in 1948, L
The all-important farm vote policy, as set by the National GOP. Farm Conference just
ended here, is to use pithy, down-to-earth lan- |
- guage, no high-level platitudes about harmony, ete.
e i Example: “Now, figure out for yourselves |
who put the pitchforks in the backs of you | farmers. The administration made you cut back |
your wheat production by 17 per cent while
letting England use $175 million of money taken | out gf your pockets to buy Canada’s surplus | . . ‘
wheat. : “Have thé Canadian farmers been forced to curtail production? No, they're increasing it. Now, who put the pitchforks in your backs?” (Mr, Truman in 1948 charged the 80th Republican Congress with putting pitchforks in the backs of American farmers.) Over and over again, this question will be asked by GOP orators throughout the farm belt.
Hit Brannan Plan SEN. MILTON YOUNG (R. N. D.) contends
he can win re-election easily on the Canadian |
wheat deal alone,
As for the Brannan farm plan, the Repub- |
licans Intend to tear into that with charges
* which, If they get the farmer's ear, will create
doubt about the Democratic plan, It will—and already is—being presented as the scheme of the CIO, not of farmers. GOP orators will say: “The Brannan plan actually. would give you farmers lower prices. It would subsidize the food bill of millionaires and the\rich who can very well pay for their 0 n._grogeries, It would throw overboard the concept. ‘of parity prices as fair prices. You fa rs would depend on a dole from the government. And it would mean absolute government control of your farming operations.” Crowning point of the anti-Brannan plan
oratory will be the reading of penalty sections |
in the Brannan plan bill, which would require the keeping of farm sales records and provide fines from $500 to $1000 and one year in jail, or both for violation. Over and over again will be repeated the statement made here by Rep. Clifford Hope (R. Kas.): “So if there is any chance of the Brannan plan going into effect you had better start looking for an extra hand to be used as a bookkeeper. .It will be cheaper than paying the fine and it will at least be a little more comfortable than spending a year In jail”
Penalty Sections
FARMERS are to be advised to get a copy of the Brannan plan bill and read the penalty sections. But while the Republicans are all set on their line of attack, they are anything but clear about what they're going to offer on the constructive side of the farm question. Conference Chairman Axel J. Beck of South Dakota insists that the Republicans have a concrete farm program of their own to offer farm voters by mid-1950. But some influential Republican Congressmen and Senators—knowing how difficult fit would be to get party agreement on a specific
program have different ideas.
They are for passing the Democratic Anderson bill now pending in the Senate and wiping the Republican Alken-Hope law off the statute books. This, they say, would leave them clear of responsibility and able to tell disgruntled farmers--and they know there will be many— that “this is what the Democrats did to you.”
Set Ideas
OUTCOME of this aispute will depend on the ability of Mr. Beck to sell his views to top party leaders. The two-day conference here was highly successful from the standpoint of getting grassroots thinking from dirt farmers. But the dif-ficulty--from the Republican standpoint of formulating a program from the testimony presented is that they got so much of every shade of opinion, ve. The free enterprisers were definitely in the minority, however, and Republican leaders left the conference certain of one thing-—that at least 99 per cent of the farmers want the government to maintain high farm prices with as little production controls as possible.
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‘Let's See
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Nowe--Where Were We 7”
———— "RUSSIA'S ToM EXPLOSION
PEDDLER'S PASSAGE . . . By John Loveland Surprise on Fishing Trip Film
LET'S GO to the movies. Yes, I know you saw some movies last night, but you've never seen anything like these movies. They won't be shown in any theater, because so far as the fellow who has them is concerned, they're just some shots he took on a fishing trip to Canada. If he only knew! A few weeks ago, Jim Young, who does much
: to keep Kokomo from getting too thirsty, was
a member of a party of sportsmen who drove to Kenora, Ontario, way up in the Lake-of-the-Woods country, for a fishing trip. Dr. Bry Brandt, dentist in Kokomo, drove his car for transportation, and Jim took his movie camiéra along in order to be able to prove some of their fish stories. Jim likes his home movies, and like many another enthusiast, has quite a time showing his films to his friends. We don’t have a full report on the fun they had on the trip, or how many fish they caught, but we learned they must have been exhausted on arrival home, for Jim didn’t even bring his camera in from Bry's car, ,
Camera Left in Car
AS A matter of fact, the camera was still in the car when Dr. Bry and Bob Grant, professional at Kokomo Country Club, went to Wabash the next Sunday to play golf and visit the Fred Squires, who live north of Wabash not too far from the new Honeywell golf course. Incidentally, Bry Brandt and Dorothy Squires are brother and sister. . The Squires farm is located on the level land
Barbs—
THIEVES robbed a 260-pound North Carolina:
man of $600 worth of clothes. And it probably was his best suit. ° * * A CASE for ‘the public welfare guardians: The railroad yardman who threatened to take aA switch to his son,
north of Wabash, and it’s easy to tell that it is a well-managed operation, run by a good dirt farmer who believes in getting things done on time or a little ahead, if possible. The whole family, including Dorothy and the voungsters, Freddy and Janet, digs into the
- work to be done. . Last year, Freddy's Angus
calf was the grand champion in the Wabash County Fair, while Janet's placed high. Fred senior is a good hog man. He once managed stock yards for Ike Duffy and is a mean hand with a shoat. This year, he is raising Hamp-shires--those are the black hogs with the white belly band. And herein we begin to get to the point,
Hogs Begin to Multiply
THE Sunday of the golf game was also the
day that the Squires’ drove of hogs began to.
multiply and the woods over on the side road would soon be full of little squealers. ; . What a time for Jim Young's camera to be 80 far away from home! You guessed it. The Squires farm immediately became the Squires Studio of Documentary Films, birds and bees division. We don’t have a full account of who directed, and who was cameraman, nor who styled the costuming. It really doesn’t matter, because no costuming was required, and the old sow didn't pay much attention to the script, because the cameraman had to wait almost two hours before she would take her cue. Nevertheless, there is a fine litter of little striped wigglers who made their first appearance right into the lens of Jim Young's camera.
Other Farm Views
WITH the pigs’ entry inscribed on celluloid for posterity, there was still some footage left, 80 other views about the farm were taken, such as before and after shots of the two white-face steers being readied for the county fair and other earthier exposures. I want to see the expression on Jim Young's face when he shows that roll of film for the first time. .
FIVE PER CENT TRADE . . . By Douglas Larsen
‘Influence’ Fades
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28
has also ceased.
- Not only has the 5 per cent business folded up completely since the summer's congressional probe into it, but the more widespread ‘no-per cent” activity !
SIDE GLANCES
“No-per centers” is the name which government officials
have given to the people in and out of government-—-who are “Will you send me “Would you mind expediting “Would you get my letter
constantly asking them for small favors. four extra copies of that report?” “Mr. X's visa, he's a friend of mine?” in to the chief as sogn. as possible?”
No cash or gifts ever change hands for doing these petty | That's why there is no percentage in it for anyone But that's all over now, at least for the time being, thanks to the experiences of”!
coricerned. It's just sort of a nuisance.
Gen. Vaughn, Maragon, Hunt and the others.
turgid channel of government business flowed so peacefully.
Not Expected
THAT effect of the §5 per cent probe was not expected dy { Neither was such a complete collapse of the government-influence
the committee, more lucrative anticipated. Some of
branches of
the Senators on
boom their trade,
{ § right representatives, those representatives would do a land-office { business. Co Instead, Sen. Clyde R. Hoey (In N. C.), chalrmar of the | a
committee, reports: “The business of collecting money from | , businessmen In exchange for getting them government contracts has been stopped completely, We are most gratified with that
result of this summer's investigation."
Willlam P, Rogers, the committee's general counsel, has kept
close tab on the 5 per cent business since the probe recessed. He reports a severe depression in the ranks of most of the men in |
that activity in Washington.
Apparently the businessmen who handled their government | | contacts in this manner have all been scared off. advertising for a firm when one of its officials is | & congressional committee.
Satisfactory Results
ALTHOUGH the investigation is only recessed, there is a | good chance that there won't ba any more hearings before the final report is handed to Congress. Practically, all of the evidence which the committee staff gathered has already been revealed in
the open hearings. . Most of the members of the committee the
: : | ‘ Raia ma - \ /
op
the committee were actually concerned lest the publicity which the 5 per centers got might They thought that when businessmen learned how easy it was to get fat government contracts by hiring the f
feel that by stopping | influence trade in Washington they ‘have satisfactory goal, It was admitted at the outset that James V, Hunt's operation, which launched the whole Investigation, was | not illegal, The only person who has a chance of being punishéd is Johh Maragon. The Justice Department is stulying all of the
| |
Never has the |
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peddling |
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The ‘committee is still
It's not good called before
help for this purpose,
getting the contract. achieved, & | will be a crime,
| close track of just who ng And it will tend to
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By Galbraith
BEN
WOM. 194 BY NEA SEVIOH, We. T. 48. MU. ¥. 8. PUT. OW. "No use punishing him that way—he can't do his homework without the radio going!"
facts surrounding his statements to the previous contacts with government officials. considering the possibility of Introducing some kind of a law which would stop, or control, | the 5 per cent business. Meanwhile, most of the government agencies have already set up special offices where businessmen can go for all the information they might need to do business with that agency. Secretary of Defense Louis’ Johnson reports A that the one he opened at the Pentagon is working He believes that it has eliminated the need for businessmen to hire
Another check on the activities of 5.per centers which will soon be made In all government contract forms | ‘Blanks will bé intluded where ‘the businessman must list all the names of persons other than full-time: employees who helped in : And he must include just how. much the | person was paid for that service. ‘Failure‘to do so mccurately .,
1 / of With this device the government hopes to be able” fo keep the 5 per centers are, if there are any. an : ageiits,
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committee and his | : competitors,
successfully.
is a change the ICC,
| |
‘ overlap to some extent,
. For example, the ICC has reached the point in trucking industry where it m#ist now consider In whether spinach that has been washed and wrapped in cellophane is a “manufactured that carry it to market must come under ICC's wing.
Hoosier Forum|
“| do not agree with a word that you say, but |
| will defend to the death your right fo say i.*
‘Markets Must Be Expanded’ By Chas A. Hubbard, Martinsville, Ind. Great Britain has too many h food. ou. The English people cannot eat enough and the interest nn British public debt, so they repudiate.30 pet cent of their debt—there ing else to do. Wh} noth ye with billions of deposits worth yesterday $4 to the British pound, will today pay their depositors with pounds worth only $2.80. A depositor of 10,000 pounds worth $40, 000 yesterday, will receive only $28,000 today, A worker, earning five pounds per week, worth $20 American, now receives only $14.00, American wheat and cotton costing one pound yesterday now cost 1.43 pounds. American imported féod costs as much as before. Obviously, a British worker, earning 30 per cent less, must have a wage “hike” or eat less. Exportable surplus British goods, produced with imported American food and raw material, will cost as much as before the repudiation and e markdown of the pound. h However, if Britain can produce a surplus of goods for less than America can produce, and if America accepts such goods, it is obvious that unemployment will begin here. If Germany and Japan are permitted to proe duce exportable goods with their cheaper 'abor, Great Britain will never come back as a factor in world trade. British labor (like American labor) must have a living wage, plus old age and disability pensions, or there will be another devaluation of British debt—an economic revolution that may destroy all private property. British and American free enterprise must have an expanding market to furnish full eme ployment at a living wage, plus a profit for cap ital. If world or domestic markets are saturated, unemployment begins, followed by a depression with all the trimmings. Every idle factory, producing consumer goods, should recall a full complement of workers to produce the maximum possible quantity of consumer goods. The private owners of the factory would, naturally, sell all possible for conventional cash; any excess production would be sold at the same price and profit to mer. chants operating as a public warehouse in exchange for warehouse receipts, redeemable in
Ss. The private owner of such a factory would pay wages and buy raw materiaFwith warehouse receipts—the workers would exchange warehouse receipts for goods which they would con« sume, and the process would be continued. It matters not who owns the capital, or how much it earns—the more the better—if profits are spent for consumer goods, fine homes, steam yachts, or reinvested to produce more goods for better living for more people.
s+ 0 ‘Why Print Red Lies?’
By J. P. C. City. The ‘Indianapolis Times recently carried a United Press dispatch from Prague, Czechoslovakia quoting from a speech made by the Min. ister of Justice, wherein he accuses the Roman Catholic Church with every erime in the book against his “Communist Government.” Most any thinking newspaper reader can easily understand the methods being used by the Communists to send out propaganda te make the only organized moral force opposing them look bad. { How any of the American press can choose to print such untruths as the article contained is beyond my understanding, unless, of course, the Scripps-Howard papers subscribe to such propaganda.
(Editor's Note: The Times does not “subscribe” to Communist doctrine of suppressing news of statements contrary to Times views, has no fear intelligent, informed readers whe know the whole truth will believe Communist lies, plainly labelled Communist source of story in question.)
What Others Say
ECONOMIC expansion today presents a strikingly different challenge from that of a hundred years ago. Then, the frontier development was opening up our great Western resources. The geographical frontier is gone, but we still have a frontier of development, That frontier is technology.—Thomas B. Mee Cabe, Federal Reserve Board chairman. * ¢ WHEN I came here, I started to see what I could do to help the merchants of Oklahoma get their share. of government contracts. I've be gun to have a little luck. I do it for nothing, You can call me a “no-percenter.”—Sen. Rober 8. Kerr, Oklahoma. . :
| UNIFIED PROGRAM . . . By Bruce Biossat
Tangle in Transport
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28—By Dec. 1 Secretary of Commerce: Saxwyer will report to President Truman on ‘the major issues that must be resolved before the United States can faghion the unified transportation program it so badly needs. In asking for this report, Mr. Truman noted that the gove ernment spends abouts§1.5 billion a year in regulating-the trans portation industry through the Interstate Commerce Commission and other agencies, The President wrote Mr. Sawyer: “A unified and co-ordinated federal program for transportae tion is «clearly essential in order to assure maximum benefits . from thé ‘government's activities in this field. In the broader sense, such a program is necessary tq assute the efficient and economical transportation service.” . We applaud Mr. Truman's interest and lament only: that action is. long overdue. As far back as 1935 the late President Roosevelt said it was “high time” to deal with the U. 8. transe portation system as a unified whole. But nothing was done, More recently the Hoovier Commission on government reorganization proposed a national transportation authority.
Basic Issue
THE problems are legion. But basically the issue is: How can we keep. rail, motor, air and water transport ‘in healthy, vigorous competition with one another and yet prevent ruinous warfare among them? { To get a sound answer the government must undertake exhaustive economic studies to determine what role each form of transport ¢an play. Inevitably, their respective spheres will But a survey may show that in some. areas of the field existing competition is doing neither the in dustry nor the public any good. 3 These studies are so vital to a unified plan that they should be approached with the most detailed impartiality the gov ernment can muster. This is an-industry wherein the competing members are inclined to reach for each other's throats at the drop of a harsh word. It won't be easy to sift fact from fancy in such an atmosphere, * But no orie has more to gain from a sound survey and a wise allocation of function than the industry itself. For once an acceptable division of labor is worked out for the various transportation media, they are likely to devote more energy to'their allotted jobs and
public the most a
less to- propaganda broadsides against their
Free Enterprise $a vo
AT LEAST one group in the field appears to recognize this, The committee representing the eastern railroads has hailed the President's action, saying that each type of ‘transport in its own sphere “can pull the load best fitted to it under the free enter prise system.” S iy ’ Not the smallest gain from a co-ordinated U. 8. program would be a re-examination of the tangled skein of regulations that has been woven through the years by: federal agencies ‘like
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