Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 October 1949 — Page 12

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' RDY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE

into one bill, and to fix a limit each fiscal

The Indianapolis Times! x sommrRowARs Sev

HENRY W. MANZ Business Manager

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1949

PAGE 12 : br Jutinapats fing BEng EEL n_ County, : cents a inde. Joc 3 Ha hs Ral a WEEE

Telephone RI ley 5551 ! Give Light and the Peonie Will Find Their Own Wow

Serw-

Purse-Strings Reform

things are more important than that Congress should regain ability to do its Constitutional duty by congrolling the government's purse strings. The legislative-budget requirement of the 1948 La-Follette-Monroney act was intended to restore that ability. Early in each annual session Congress was to: Estimate the government's probable income for the next fiscal year; make the estimated amount a ceiling on spending{ either hold total appropriations below that ceiling or admit failure to balance its budget and vote to increase the public debt. But this idea hasn't been made to work. Now the Senate has voted for two other plans. One of these, proposed by Sen. McClellan (B. Ark.), was passed as a rider on an appropriation bill. It would require the President to follow a “two-budget” system. If his annual budget message next January called fior deficit spending, he would have to submit a second, balanced budget, which Congress could use as a cutting guide if it decided that federal outgo must be kept within }expected income.

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THAT looks like buck-passing—trying to make the President do a job which is, primarily, the responsibility of Congress. i The other plan, adopted by a unanimous Serate vote, is one long advocated by Sen. Byrd (D. Va.), and} it seems more courageous and, probably, more workable. | Under the present system, Congress passes esich year a dozen or so major appropriation bills, taking thesn up one by one over a period of many months, never halving any clear notion of how much they will total until the last of them has been passed. : Sen. Byrd's plan is to consolidate all the apprgpriations rf on total " spending from current and prior appropriations. m the day it starts working on the single, consolidated #bill, Congress can know what it totals and can more infielligently reduce the aggregate figure by trimming its various parts. Chairman Cannon (D. Mo.), of the House A)ppropriations Committee has announced that his branch of*Congress also will handle the major money bills as a consolidated measure next year. So there is reasonable hope ‘that this reform will get a fair trial, It would be surer td succeed, however, if there were a legislative budget such as the Laact requires, and we still beliewe a genuine effort could make that idea work. |

The Real Test in China

JFORMATION of a central government for the half or more

of China, controlled by the Communist ‘armies will shift em from the purely military to the ecompmic and political problems in that area.

: { The new regime proclaimed by Mao Tze-tung) faces its Acid test in dealing with these matters. ! There have been few major battles in the Chinese civil war. The Nationalist failure has been due tog economic collapse more than to military reversals. Inability to pay and feed their troops forced Nationalist commanders to live at the expense of the countryside and alienated support by a people already war-weary and in distress. Now the Communists are confronted by the necessity of restoring an economy which they helped to wneck. And, having promised the peasants the Chinese equivalent of “40 acres and a mule,” they may find themselves expected

to provide something much better in the way ofa people's livelihood than China has known before. That}s a large order. A | . - » . - .

MEANWHILE, too, the war continues in the ISouth and the Northwest, with the Communist forces spreadjaimost as thinly as the Nationalists were two years ago, when they began their long retreat out of Manchuria. Thus, in some respects at least, the situations of the two forces (have been reversed. : Unfortunately, the Nationalists appear to be'in no condition {o attempt a counter-offensive. Acting President Li " Tsung-jen, in another appeal for American aid, sidmits his position has become critical, without enough riflesfor ammunition to go around. \ Vice-Adm. Badger, until recently commander of our Far Eastern fleet, reported to Congress that the $§5 million it had voted for China would be sufficient to stem¢the Com- - munist advance, “if properly applied.” But littlej prospect appears that any of this money will be made awailable to Presidént Li's hard-pressed forces.

LABOR . . . By Marquis Childs Tragic Results

Seen in Strike

Walkout Casts Shadow - Over Peace of World

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4—The tragic consequences of the steel strike can hardly be exaggerated. It may well mean the difference between a continued relatively high level of prosperity and a new dip toward recession and, perhaps, depression. Beyond this, the shadow that it casts can darken the hopes for peace and security in the world. Who wanted the strike, then? If you look at the circumstances, I think you have to say that Philip Murray, head of the CIO Steelworkers Union, did not want it. When the President's fact-finding steel board declared that no wage increase was justified at this time but that the companies could pay the whole cost of a pension-social insurance system, Mr. Murray knew he would have a bad time with his locals. He immediately got telegrams from eight union locals saying they could not accept the board's terms.

Pleaded With Men

THERE followed a meeting of the Steelworkers’ Executive Council in Pittsburgh. For nearly five hours Mr. Murray talked to the top men representing the rank and file of the halfmillion workers in the steel industry. In his quiet, soft-spoken voice with the Scottish burr, he pleaded with them. He said that it was essential to accept the board's recommendations because they have the force of public opinion behind them. The consensus finally was that they would go along with Phil, if that was what he wanted. From that moment Mr. Murray knew that he could settle for nothing less that the full recommendation of the board: To take less would be to risk disintegration of the union, In the background was the looming figure of his enemy, John L. Lewis. He had wrested from many of the same steel companies, that have held out against the steel board's recommendations a company-paid pension plan-giving retired United Mine Workers $100 a month,

Strike for Raise IF THE plan wasn't actuarially sound, -as Mr. lewis must have known that it wasn't, then he could strike to boost the ante of 20 cents a ton. That is what he is doing now. He has ordered part of the miners back to work with the arbitrary authority of a dictator. The miners remaining on strike are those

who serve the steel industry. So long as they

refuse to mine the coal essential to steel, the strike of Mr. Murray's union is secondary in its effect. It will be hard for Americans, every one of us certain to suffer from a prolonged conflict, to understand how such a tragedy could occur. In a speech last week Agnes Meyer pointed out how many employers, in the years when labor was scarce, had been willing and even eager to pay the cost of pensions and social security. Some of these same employers had opposed a national old age pension system providing adequate pensions for all on a fair and just basis.

Greater Insecurity

BUT to give a minority of highly organized workers extra large pénsions and insurance benefits, without any contribution from the workers themselves, is to create greater insecurity and frustration among those on the outside who have no such benefits. The response is immediate political pressure for radical proposals like the Townsend plan. But the steel board recommended com-pany-financed pensions, and the tragedy is upon us. In the White House there is the deepest gloom. The strike has come—and when and how it wil end no one in authority can foresee-—just as the recent recession was Snded and production was evening off at high vels, a ’ In the White House is a firm conviction that the executives of the steel companies wanted the strike, or, at any rate, the view is that they were not reluctant to see a showdown. The showdown will compel the President to resort to the Taft-Hartley Act and therefore the steel executives, all Republicans, will be able to say that the law so hated by the labor leaders was the only salvation in a national crisis.

Serious Emergency

A8 VIEWED from the White Houde, the Taft-Hartley emergency provisions cannot be invoked until there is a real and serious emergency. Presumably that would not be until the steel workers had been on strike for several weeks, by which time the automobile plants and probably the electrical manufacturing Industry would also be shut down. By that time, the damage to the economy would be done. Production and employment would begin to turn downward. We should all of us soon feel the pinch. If that happens, and there seems every likelihood of it happening, no amount of explaining by either side is going to make the average citizen understand why disaster was invited down upon the country.

HOOSIER. TALENT . . . By Douglas Larsen

® ® Craig Going Places? WASHINGTON, Oct. 4—Back in his home town in Brazil, Ind. they predict big things for their No. 1 hero, George N. Craig. His becoming the first World War II veteran to win the high post of National Commander of the American Legion is just ‘the first step, they think, governor next, United States Senator along there Supreme Court?

somewhere. After that who knows? even President.

There's good. precedent for such hope. Being national! commander of the Legion has always been big time. And since the war, with all the World War II members, it's even bigger. The post launched the career of Paul V. McNutt (incidentally he nominated Mr. Craig for the commandership at the convention), who comes from Mr. Craig's congressional district, and who was

Mr. Craig's law teacher at Indiana University.

Other past national commanders who first achieved national fame through the Legion include Secretary of Defense Louis

Who's Loony Now?

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ope

-—_ LAQLARURT

OUR TOWN . . . By

Anton Scherrer

‘Miracles’ Here in the Nineties

THE PROCESS of growing old has its bitter out touching it, guess its weight within five

moments and one of the most difficult to put up with is the braggadocio of modern kids. To hear them talk, you'd think the generation 1 was brought up in produced next to nothing in the way of miracles. Let me tell you insufferable brats about Eugene Sandow, a strong man who operated back in the Nineties. The night I saw him at English’s, he came on the stage and played with 56pound dumb-bells as if they were jackstones, (chances are you modern kids don't even know what jackstones are). That was just a warming-up exercise for Mr, Sandow. When he got down to business, he turned a back somersault with his feet tied together, his eyes blindfolded, and a 56-pound dumb-bell in each hand. No fooling. He left the better things of his act for the last, I remember. Four big meg carried an enormous dumb-bell onto the stage. The bars were of brass about four feet long. The bells wer every bit of three feet in diameter. Mr. Sandow spit on his hands and raised the gigantic affair over his head, dropped it suddenly, and caught it just before it reached the floor. Then he placed it tenderly onto the stage whereupon the attendants released a full-grown man from each bell. With the two confined men, the loaded contraption couldn't have weighed less than 450 pounds.

Held Three Horses

HIS MOST spectacular act, however, was the one with the three white horses. Sandow planted his hands on the floor with his stomach toward the ceiling (quite a trick in itself). A heavy wooden platform was then placed on him resting

for the most part on his shoulders, chest and

knees. With the help of a bridge, three trained horses then walked up and stood like statues on his stomach. They stayed there until the audience stopped cheering and with every second Sandow’s muscles grew tenser and more taut until finally they stood out like the whipcords of some fabled giant. Rhody Shiel, who had the luck to see the act the same night I did, ventured the opinion that with the three horses and all the other paraphernalia, Mr. Sandow’'s stomach supported at least 2600 pounds that night. Back in the Nineties, Mr. Shiel was the best judge of weight

around here, He could look at a hog and, with-

SIDE GLANCES

Maybe

sour joke w

ounces, He did it every day in his business at the Stockyards. Mr. Sandow’s act was all the more amazing because of the fact that he was only an aver-age-size man. He wasn’t more than 5 feet 8 inches tall. As for his weight, it wasn't an ounce over 190 pounds. The circumference of his waist measured only 29 inches which was considerably less than that of a lot of corseted women living at the time,

52-Inch Chest

HE MADE up for it, though, in other parts of his body. Added together, the circumferences of his two biceps amounted to 10 inches more than his waist. His normal chest measured 52 inches. Deflated, it went down to 42 inches; expanded, it shot up to 58 inches. All of which is by way of saying that Eugene Sandow was a mighty convincing specimen of the male species when undressed. The first to recognize this fact was Louis G. Deschler, an Indianapolis tobacconist, who honored the whole male sex by dedicating a cigar to Mr. Sandow. Offhand you'd suppose, of course, that the “Sandow” was a strong cigar. Quite the contrary. It was a good, mild, nickel cigar and, with Mr. Sandow's naked body in technicolor on the lid of every box, it enjoyed a popularity which, starting in the Nineties, extended far into the 20th Century. Indeed, the Sandow cigar was going good all the time’ Tom Marshall was Governor of Indiana and even when he was United States Vice President. Which is why I, for one, never got the point of Mr. Marshall's classic nifty that what this country needs is a good 5-cent cigar, Mr. Marshall could could have found it right here in Indianapolis had he only taken the pains to look around.

Three Strong Women

EVEN more mysterious than Mr. Marshall's the discovery that a group of women tried to steal Mr. Sandow’s act. There were three, I remember: “Minerva,” whose real name was Hanna Woodford; Mary Kansen, whose stage name was “Yucca” and Flossie La Blanche who, believe it or not, traveled under her baptismal name. Of the three strong women, Yucca was by all odds the best. She could lift a 170-pound man with her teeth. And in the category of dumb-bells, she could hold a 56-pounder at arm’s length—one in each hand, mind you. Yucca's waist measured 34 inches, five more than that of Sandow’s. None of the gals good enough, however, to have a cigar named Tor her.

By Galbraith

terrific.”

Hoosier Forum:

"1 do not agree with a word that you sey, but | will defend to the death your right fo say ib

‘Shertage of Doctors’ i By W. H. Edwards, Gosport, Ind. The recent articles by Robert Bloem in The Times are a mixture of truth misinformation. z Li Doctors of the past generation were family doctors of general practice. Now, the few doctors in small cities and towns have mare patients than it is possible for them to treat, so in this town some people die without medical attention. This town of around 1000 people and & surrounding farm population of that many more, has one: doctor, whereas, it once had four when it had fewer people. Our one doctor is well versed in medicine, but just try to get Rim even in cases of emergency. He has more patients than any one doctor should have. In a nearby town with close to 3000 popula~ tion there are four doctors, good ones too, each having more patients than they can adequately treat. All are family doctors and are unable to take on more patients, with the result that many people in the low income bracket cannot get-a doctor when they are badly in need of medical attention. As a result, they are forced to turn more and more to paiumt ne Present day graduates of m start their practice in large cities where the concentration of money flows out in a stream, Small cities and towns are bled white by taxation on real estate and so have no money gushout of their shoe tops. - Ig oe read propaganda pro and con about socialized medicine, The Administration plan of compulsory medical insurance, an of pi doctor shortage and too high fees for too little medical service would not cure anything, for ,the very people it is intended te serve are not financially able to pay its costs, The claims of the American Medical Associa tion that therd are plenty of doctors is far from the truth, and is therefore propaganda against the so-called socialized medicine. In some of the western states, especially Kansas, the state university is urging its graduates to begin their practice in the small cities and towns where their expenses would be much less. But in our own state, the Indiana Medical School has not made one move to divert the flow of its graduates away from the big ine dustrial centers, As a substitute for so-called socialized medi= cine, the AMA offers the Blue Cross medical plan. That is fine for the ones who are able to afford it, but there's a large segment of the people whose financial ability is too hampered with the high cost of living for them to keep up with the Blue Cross plan. So here we have the true picture of the doctor shortage that, in essence, is driving us toward two plans, neither of which will solve the problem. : > &

‘Why Prison-Like Building? By Mrs. Evadne H. Hibben, 2038 N. Meridian St. Where is the power of the press? It would almost seem sometimes to be suppressed when a great project for the good of a community goes unpublished save for a few sporadic instances. The present case in point—the erection of a suitable building in the Circle to meet the real needs of the city. The ruthless, needless manipulation that led to the destruction of the English Hotel and theater is a disgraceful thing. Let us make up for it now with another theater, a really good hotel—yes, and a roof garden to top it all off. I cannot understand our three good newspapers not voicing daily, no less, the will and desire of the people to improve and build the city up with a structure of this kind. There is no question of the demand for it. The newspapers are the main medium of voicing the people. Why don't they begin now, and fast, to stop the erection of a prison-like, blind, uninspiring, depressing type of building now contemplated for commercial purposes only on the Circle.

What Others Say—

OUR nation will not long be a world leader if it permits soil resources to deteriorate too tar.—Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan, ¢ 4 9 WE will not hesitate to do what is necessary to help the free nations preserve their independence and integrity. —Ambassador-at-Large Philip C. Jessup. ' ¢ ¢ ¢ IT IS insinuated the documents were deliberately omitted in order to falsify the record, These insinuations are not supported by any evidence. They could not be supported because there is not an iota of truth in them.—Secretary of State Dean Acheson, on the China White Paper. ‘

®* 9 . A UNITED Europe can only come about by giving up some sovereignty.—Georges Bidault, French minister of foreign affairs.

FUGITIVES . . . By James Daniel

Tax Dodgers Abroad

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4—Henry F. Blackmer’'s return from self-imposed exile to face trial in this country on old income tax charges may shake loose a number of other wealthy fugitives who have been living abroad to avoid court action. Justice Department officials say they've never tabulated all the big and little fugitives, but that their number is considerable. Some are living in France, where Blackmer went after fleeing the Teapot Dome investigation. popular with exiles. “Hardly a week goes by,” on: Justice official said, “without a lawyer for one of them coms gn to talk to us about his client wanting to come home. The pressures from all sides for them are

But Canada and Mexico are more

Some of the fugitives, like Blackmer, were indicted for income tax fraud. Their attorneys try to strike bargains with the

AAT rE

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post-war surplh and wait for t come to them. does not want pay check that living has kept piling dollars. Seek Ji The specter living, and prot itself felt yeste: I. Schricker’s strikers made smployment co: ing a principle ernor could n one not support John L. Le this walkout He put 100,000 back to work testing househ to compete wi volume of nor marketed. The longest in recent year: Motors tieup months. This that long. B train and mos be hog-tied by and steel. Best guess between two 2 Two W The devalue most America are beginning a mild way, tl made by Engl benefit, not ou In Indianap tomers are prices. And so canceling their ducing the qu: ders 30 per cer the shrinkage Men with and carefully r disappointed t pound devaluat about a $5 red of an expertly selling (three (two-piece suit English V The finest E about $3.50 to takes about | yards to mak

~ man who sell

per cent com is a 45c a yar another 50¢ i on weight. The rest of fit—tailoring. scarce, and lo the prices pre they have bee years. When you pepper on you probably will millions who

Official W UNITED STATE

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Johnson, former Sen. Bennet C. Clark, now U. 8. judge, and a Justice Department on a basis of “we'll pay whatever you say PON an x host<6t top business executives, such as Franklin D’Olier, chair- the tax is, if you will drop the criminal charge.” » x Canada to the Fram man of the board of Prudential Life Insurance Co. Had to Make Rule — ct ‘ JE LECTION of Lester B. Pearson, Canada’s minisfer of ex- Golden Opportunity OFFICIALS of the'income tax section which was established ~ B+ ernal affai chai ‘i : IF FATE has willed that all this is in store for George N. during the early 30's when income tax rates rose and evasion ‘the United N rs as Raia of he polities) Soufiuiztee Of | Craig, he will be the last man to try to Intertere With the detsion : became a problem, say they've had to make a rule: “Never talk ; y alions, emp asizes our sister republics increas- | or the gods. With all of the Influence that the job carries and the money while a criminal suit is pending. v - ing voice in world affairs, cong chance to make important contacts a good man could hardly fail “We have found,” said one, “that if you do get into a situai i i i to make a lot of hay for himself. And George Craig shows every tion of taking their money, then when you get before a jury, you : When the dollar discussions were held mn Washington, evidence of being a good man. He loves to refer to himself as are apt to lose your case. The jury considers that if the money > SAN gp, 0 [Canada participated as a full partner with the United States | a “plain old country lawyer.” At the age of 41, it's a safe bet has been paid and accepted, then the government has no case.” Rang s : and Britain. Currently, the same three powers gare con- | that Mr. Craig's plain old country law days are over. To give tax evaders relief from the 6 per cent annual interest a : . 3 They say that Mr. Craig is second only to Mr. McNutt as which continues to pile up until a claim is settled, the Bureau of PINy KAN Serglag on atomic problems, for which they have joint re- being the handsomest national commander. He's got a clean-cut, internal Revenue has established a apecial set-aside fund where 3 . sponsibility. Canada and the United States areithe two | all-American look, a firm grip and hearty voice. Added to that is such money can be kept until the case is closed. . .. western hemisphere members of the North Atlantiej Defense | a lot of black curly hair graying at the temples. His smile is . : Ta: % Council. { warm and friendly. Settled His Debt ; "1 . . }, One of the reasons for his successful campaign for thé com- 4 ~ +. These things point up a fact not fully appreciated in | mandership is his great energy. In 10 months he traveled 108,000 . Som we orn bone ve tb enon. [04 BLACEMER settled his tax debt by paying $3.670,784 In ol

back taxes and penalties. This was in 1932 before the rule of not I taking money was adopted, Justice officials say. PORT WOR Blackmer’s attorneys wangled an agreement out of the Jus- | dn tice Department to recommend dropping of four counts of perjury (a felony) outstanding against him, if he would plead guilty to two of tax evasion (a misdemeanor). This was more than the Justice Department has been willing to do for some other fugitives. Generally, their lawyers have been told: “Produce your client in the court where he was indicted, arid we will see whether we have any case against him.” Right now, there's some question how much trust a fugitive could put in such an expression of opinion from the Justice law- 33 og vers, if he could get it. In Denver Blackmer heard Federal Cir- 7. M REGUS] cuit Judge Orie L. Phillips say nay to the government's motion to quash the perjury counts against Blackmer. TONIC

- this country—ihat Canada has become one of the great _ powers. Statistics of World War II show that Canada was - the third sea power, the fourth air power and thi® fourth _ supply source among the United Nations. y : Canadas was the only Allied nation which did rot apply - for assistance under the American lend-lease program. All goods and services obtained from the United Stakes have been paid for in cash. Under her own “ “aid” program, Canada supplied goods and services valued at $2,500, ‘000,000 to the Allied cause. : Witen we search the Rorizon for potential Alles in the

miles, visiting local posts in 38 states without once fagging out. The going was made tougher because he doesn't like to fiy.. In the service he survived the toughest action with Patton's Third Army, fighting through the campaigns of northern France, Rhineland and the Ardennes. He left the service as a lieutenant-colonel.

‘No Need for Change’

AS TO what change his being the first World War II veteran to hold the reins will have on the Legion's direction, Mr. Craig says flatly there will be none. “1 am bound by mandates of the convention and will do my best to carry them out.” He adds that he sees no need for changing “any of the Jegion's traditional programs, aims or actiyities.” The one big thing which he considers the first duty of the

"There seems to be a lull in their conversation—shall | ask them if they'd like to tle the color movies | took in Yellowstone?"

waver from its traditionally non-partisan stand in national politics, he thinks that local posts have the responsibility to fight any individual candidate “who does not have the best interests of the country as his first goal.” 7 But he doesn't hesitate to tell you his own politics. He's a Republican and willing to elaborate. One of his best personal friends and former college classmate is Republican Senator from Indiana, William Jenner. They share close political views. Mr. Craig says:

: : , : ! Legion is “to awaken all Americans to their responsibilities as “A lot at the laws which Congress has passed in the last few Instead, Judge Phillips said he would take 30 days to re- \'} and 2 of another world catastrophe, we should mot over- | citizens” He says, “It is a shocking fact, for instance, that 10 | years shows you the direction in which we have been going. We | view the perjury evidence for himself and reach a decision in the Yalay A A 0 one sure bet we have in our neighbor to the north, | Per cent less people voted in 1948 than in 1944 and that less than ve always celebrated an Independence Day. If we don't light of his own “judgment and conscience.” the fot ena : half of the qualified voters in the U. S. bother to go to the polls.” | that direction we'll soon be celebrating a_.‘dependence day.’ We Many of the fugitives are hoping that time and to on though Mr. Craig doesn't think that the Legion should | want a healthy state of welfare, not a welfare state.” will work in faver. . v bois a 5 4 8 : c 2 a Xo x RE i a NR Ta SS Sk a Eee sd A ATR TR REST ? A I I HET EI Mn Ss on mean pe AE BG SE i RE . * = Lg ahs % 2

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