Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 October 1949 — Page 14

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The Indianapolis Times TA SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER «e+

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President Editor Business Manager

PAGE 14 Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1949

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Telephone RI ley 5551 Give Light end the Peotle Will Find Their Own Way

Who's to Blame?

WEVE been waiting for a week or more now for some disavowal by Rep. Andrew Jacobs of remarks attributed to him about the United Mine Workers and the National Association of Manufacturers and this miner over in Pennsylvania who wanted to know what became of his money. Up to now we haven't heard any denials, and till we do we suppose we'll have to assume he said what he was quoted as saying. This miner wondered, like a good many of us have been, what had been done with all the millions of dollars poured into the United Mine Workers welfare and pension fund the last few years, and why there isn't enough left now to go on paying pensions. Having a direct, personal, part-owner-ship of that money, this miner finally went to the courts, as any American has a right to do, to find out. He was immediately deprived of his union membership, his interest in UMW funds to which he has been contributing for years, and, in common practice, his right to work in a coal mine for the rest of his life. This, Mr. Jacobs is quoted (and hasn't denied) saying is the fault of the National Association of Manufacturers, who ought to reimburse the man. The NAM, according to Mr. Jacobs, published advertisements which said that a union couldn't drop a member, and bar him for life from a job, for any such offense. These convinced the miner his union membership was safe, and so made him bold enough to file his suit in court. Ergo... the NAM is responsible for his present plight. ” . »

ss = » THAT USED to be the way it was. A union member could be dropped from union membership almost any time on the whim of a union boss, and then put off his job and in effect blacklisted for life from working at his trade. It isn't any more, as Mr. Jacobs ought to know. A new law, passed two years ago, forbids it. Mr. Jacobs" opposed that law and seeks it repeal. So do a good many union bosses. : It does strip them of this almost life and death power over union members that they once had, and they don't like it. They call it a “slave labor” law. Its real title is the National Labor Relations Act. Most of us know it as the Taft-Hartley law. It specifically guarantees that where holding a job depends upon being a member of a union a member can be dropped by the union only for refusal to pay his dues— and for no other reason. He can't be dropped for asking - what the union boss did with the money. That's what the law says. What the National Association of Manufacturers has to do with that we don't quite see. If there is any responsibility for the failure of this law to protect the people it was enacted to protect, it would seem to us to be the responsibility of those charged with eiforcing it, and who try instead to weaken and discredit and ignore it. We still haven't heard any denials from Mr. Jacobs— but maybe we will yet. Ey Just doesn't sound like our Andy.

The Communists Lose Again

N° untry in the world has chosen communism at a free

on and the election in Austria Sunday shows that the closer people live to communism the less sympathy they have for it. : , Although more than one-fourth of the country is occupied by the Red army, less than five per cent of the Austrian people in the country as a whole voted for the Communist candidates. Even a new “third party,” which appealed to former Nazis, polled twice as many votes. It is easy to understand why the Austrians feel as they do. The Russians have systematically looted their country. Thousands of Austrian war veterans know something of life in Russia itself, having served in Soviet prison camps. Red propaganda falls on deaf ears in such cases. Austria also is bordered by three Communist states, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, where large numbers of professional men and small businessmen are being thrown into Communist labor camps without trial or other formalities. > Even the Socialists lost ground in the election, possibly

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would open the door to communism,

We Can Hardly Wait »

AT his news conference the other day, President Truman was asked whether the ‘‘economy wave’ he ordered for the Department of Defense some time ago had been extended to other government departments. He replied that, while others talk about economy, it's always the executive that carries it out. Investigation, he said, would show that most departments had been cut down tremendously since the war. And he promised, some day he will get the newspapers some figures on the subject that will startle them. Speed that happy day! It would be a treat to be startled; for a change, by news that the government had been swept by an economy wave of tidal proportions. If and when such news comes out many citizens will be more than startled. They'll be astounded.

‘Mechanical Difference . “’T°AKE an American Senator. You press a button and he's a Republican. The weather changes—he's a Democrat” —Excerpt from a newly published Soviet poem satirizing bipartisanship in our Congress. : Well, take a Russian. He has no Senator because Senators are elected, so, just take a Russian, Stalin can press a button—and there's no Russian,

Fundamental ? i E Supreme Court has refused to decide whether play- * ing draw poker is “a fundamental right of free men.” Whether our “right” to play poker henceforth is in legal jeopardy we cannot say, but at the mere suggestion of it we feel exactly like that oratorical legislator who didn't

EUROPE . « . By Ludwell Denny Issues Deep in French Crisis Real Showdown of Forces

Might Cause Civil War

PARIS, Oct. 12—No quick solution to the French political crisis seems possible now. The issues are too deep and the conflicting forces are too evenly divided to permit a peaceful settlement. A real showdown might ‘even cause civil war. The alternative is more stalling for time by another unnatural center coalition of free enterprisers and laborites, like the Queuille cabinet, which has fallen after a record of 13 months in office. Either that or a general election—which would profit opposing Communist and Gaullist extremists, make moderate government impossible, and cause general strikes and violence, if not complete civil war, Nothing less than this constant danger has held together or can restore the temporary coalition of three parties as hostile as the Socialists, the MRP (Catholic Laborites) and the so-called Radical Socialists who are bitterly antiradical and anti-Socialist. They are divided on labor, inflation, the welfare state, religion and most other things. Only exceptions are their common loyalty to national and international democracy

and a common fear of either Communist or

Fascist dictatorship.

Prolonged Partnership BOTH patriotism and party interest hitherto have prolonged their distrustful partnership through. the rise and fall of so many similar governments since overly ambitious De Gaulle tricked himself out of office. Even if one of the three refrained from joining the next coalition, it probably would cooperate when necessary in most parliamentary tests. Otherwise, the other two would lack a sufficient majority even in this unrepresentative parliament. Radical Socialists (conservatives) held the premiership in the fallen Queuille cabinet because earlier coalitions under the MRP and then the Socialists failed. Although no basic solution is expected, a cabinet change was inevitable. This is true not because of personalities or outside influences but f6r the fact that in such an unnatural coalition situation, the cold deck must be reshuffied ever 80 often to keep the game going.

Hastened Crisis

IN THIS case, personalities and foreign forces hastened but did not cause the crisis. Queuille was exhausted, physically and emotionally, Britain's lone-hand currency devaluation without consultation with Paris forced devaluation of the franc, which upset the precarious balance of prices and wages here. But Socialist and MRP unions, as well as the Red federation, already had threatened mass strikes if the government at the mid-October session of parliament refused relief to labor. Neither the Socialists nor the MRP could hold the rank and file without wage adjustment. Due to recent price increases, lower-paid labor and the middle classes are now suffering acutely. Their real income is below pre-war and falling, But any large wage increase now certainly would set off the inflation spiral again, which has been prevented this year for the first time—and which still is under relative control,

Dollars Melt Away UNLESS France can hold its price line and monetary rate, recent devaluation of the franc will go for naught and Marshall Plan dollars will melt away. So the Reds will gain if labor's demands are ignored, but will gain even more if inflationary wage increases reverse national recovery. The difficult feat of a democratic coalition— regardless of how the cabinet is reshuffled and which of several old hands takes the helm again —i8 to stall labor with more crumbs until national recavery permits a fair settlement or at least a peaceful election showdown.

OCTOBER DAYS

From woods near by In treetops high, The crow’s shrill note is calling; While to the ground With clattering sound, The ripe, brown nuts are falling.

In sheltered nooks, By singing brooks, Gay summer fondly lingers; While autumn’s breeze Wooes from the trees Leaves dyed by frosty fingers.

The corn shocks stand, A soldier band, . In rows all trim and stately; And apples show With ruddy glow, On boughs that bend sedately.

In purple haze, October days Wraps all her golden treasure; And each bright day Brings new array Of beauty beyond measure. -IDA E. GALIMORE, City.

WHO'S GUILTY PARTY? ... By E: T. Leech

‘Selfish Interests’

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12—Are you a whodunit fan?

One Man's Family

ALRURTZ

PEDDLER’S PASSAGE . . . By John Loveland A Boy's Memory of Hoosier Poet

THIS IS the story of a boy, a dusty road, and a poet. It began in midsummer, 1916, when the boy, just turned 7, was bringing the mail home to the cottage where he was spending the summer at a lake in the northern part of Indiana. Life was good and life was poetry and the boy still remembers that morning—not just because it was the beginning of a fine day, but rather the whole picture became burned into his mind because at that moment he became aware of the headlines in the paper he carried: James Whitcomb Riley Dies. It revealed the calamity befallen to a child's world, and the passing of the poet was the first deep impression of the tragedies of life and death, True, he had never seen the poet. He'd never been to Lockerbie 8t. The “Ole Swimmin’ Hole” could have been along any creek he'd ever seen, because the Brandywine meant nothing to him. But in the world he lived in there had always been “Orphant Annie,” “The Lil Boy That Went a Bear Huntin’,” and all the other rhymes of childhood that had been read to him around the family circle. : Behind them all, accepted as part of life and good feeling, every bit as much as the sparkle of the early sun on the wavelets and the oak leaves, had stood the knowledge that somewhere was a great poet who liked to write things for children,

Tragedy in Boy's Life " ES, the passing of the poet was an early awakening tragedy in the boy's life. Years later during a break in his schooling the boy found work in Greenfield, and very nearly decided to take a room in the Riley Home where the two sisters, fast approaching their 90s, still moved about in their own mementos of the Hoosier Poet. Interested in the Riley Story, the boy asked other people his own age about their memories of the author of the Boone County Ballads. They had remembered the poet only dimly, but their grandparents who had been Jim's contemporaries had chosen to show them a picture entirely different than the one which had enriched the lives of so many school children over the country,

SIDE GLANCES

Do you

They saw his escapades through the prudish eyes of the 19th Century and it may be that the green of envy had scaled away much of the honor due the prophet among his own people. Barbed with disdain, the tales of the poet’s youth failed to shame as had been intended, but rather in the boy's mind, they increased the stature of Riley, the poet, the humorist and humanitarian. The boy wished secretly that he had a Jim Riley to “bum around with.”

The Riley Statue

ON THE centennial anniversary of the birth of Hancock County's most famous son, the boy came through Greenfield homeward bound. A 77-foot obelisk of corn fodder and flowers, guyed by many wires, stood on the east courthouse lawn. An ample bandstand and s rostrum filled the west lawn, while directly in the center of the north walk, sitting as he has for many years, was the bronze of Riley, the poet. But on this eve of “elebration the figure was overshadowed by giant mattresslike background. To be sure, floodlights poured candlepower all over the place, but dull things don’t stand out even in the greatest brilliance, and the statye was not only dull, but spilled down the veneMgble brow and over what once was known as an immaculate vest, were the calling cards of innumerable visiting starlings and pigeons. It gave the appearance of a spector at the feast— a shabby figure huddled before splendor. Later the boy stopped in a filling station for his usual five gallons. “Quite a celebration you're having,” he re-

. marked to the attendant.

“Yes it is, but I can’t understand it,” came the reply. “I've lived here only a few years, and I was down at the bank this morning. There were three old-timers there who were in their glory. They were recalling every binge Jim Riley ever went on, and they didn’t spare any of the details.” : Whether you think of Riley on the way “Out to Old Aunt Mary’s,” or en route to the New Palestine druggist with his jug, you still must finally raise your eyes to the picture of a man who emerged from all those things—dusty road, medicine show, boon companion, brown jug and all to become the great Hoosier poet.

By Galbraith

|

Hoosier Forum,

“1 do not sgree with word that you say, Buf | wil defend fo the desth your right fo sey W.°

:

‘Action Needed on Housing’ ,

bear to put there was no other place anywhere for him and his family. Not in Indianapolis, that is. City Council, shortly public low rent housing proposal pa hs after that operating successfully in aver 600 American communities. The builders beat their chests and promised a roof over every homeless family, including Bobby Joe's. Next year, that is. The next year and the next year eame and once again City Council pondered low rent housing. Rents had risen and the housing of the poor was being demolished right and left, and no few ones were built to take their place. It was as if ‘all the bakers should suddenly bake cake when people cried for bread. There was lots of strawberry shortcake. * But no bread for those who had only -a penny, like Bobby Joe's folks. And a Times’ writer peered out of his ivory tower and wrote, “City Council was wise in deferring decision. . . . The federal government is going to spend the money anyway . .., but that is bardly worth considering. There's no proof that the proposal will add to the total homes built here. . .." (Notwithstanding the possibility that the proposed housing might be bread, not cake, for those who need it most desperately.) “Public housing always costs more,” he added, contradicting every published record available. “It would cost less to buy units already built,” he dreamed on (forgetting that some of them won't prove as durable as the mortgage covering them.) . However, it would be still cheaper to buy old houses, throw out families in them, and . .. of course the tity is already doing that in the redevelopment a and it doesn’t seem tq help them a bit, shifting people around. Maybe we should just" them money so they can pay more hent for hovels they're in. Down below huddiéd.a dark and silent throng. They said nothing, but thetrimploring eyes beckoned. It Jas Bosty Joe's: Lobby, * “Nv

‘No Dictators Needed’

By Mark W. Sweet Sr.

For over 30 years I have lived under a po= litical order something like that which brought on the first and second world wars. The United States disregarded the experi ences of the fathers who helped found this republic, and disregarded the advice they gave “Beware of foreign entanglements.” The dictators of other nations endangered the policies of this country until it became neces sary to send our soldiers out from their own land and firesides to help put down those who would take from other peoples the right of men to live in freedom of thought and to use their own incentives for better lives for themselves, their children and for their nation. This should teach our people that the U. 8. needs no local, state or national dictators of any kind—political or religious. ._ ~ The founders of our great tepublic built by honesty of thought a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which has withstood the. years, A small man who seeks to fost. his™ on the people of a locality, or state in this republic must be considered a man whose ego exceeds his Americanism. He has lost sight of “all men being born free and equal,” deserving of the same rights he himself enjoys. . : This is the very same condition which sent our American boys overseas in two great world wars. It is a condition which must be fought here at home wherever its poisonous head appears. :

What Others Say

IT is better to have no control of the atom than an ineffective control which would set up a Maginot Line behind which civilization would rest in false security.—Chalripan Brien McMahon (D), Connecticut, Atomi¢ Energy Come mission. N > * ¢ o

MY government aspires to full recognition of the political status of the government of Israel in Jerusalem.—Aubrey S. Eban, chief Israeli representative to United Nations. ¢ 4 o ABOVE all else we want to keep the United States prosperous and strong because we know that our prosperity is the best guarantee of peace.—President Truman. & @ THE difference between a career and a job is the difference between 40 hours and 60 hours a week, —Historian Douglas Southall Freeman, * ¢ @ I MAKE few speeches because, during ree cent months, it seems that anything I say is held aghinst me.—Maj.-Gen. Harry Vaughan. . ¢ <*> @

ALL women dress alike all over the world, They dress to be annoying to other women, ~—Designer Elsa Schiaparelli.

PRICE SUPPORTS . .. By Earl Richert

Farm Vote Trading

after, held a hearing on a -

because of the opposition argument that a vote for them °

wagt to change the name of. Arkansas. . :

like to hunt the guilty party? If so, you might like to try your hand at identifying America's newest Public Enemy No. 1—the “gpecial interests” or “selfish interests,” as they are variously called. These interests have taken quite a kicking around of ate. They actually have replaced “Wall Street” as a political whipping boy. Mr. Truman repeatedly has said the “selfish interests” are trying to defeat his program. And the other day Mrs: Roosevelt started one of her columns with a charge that “when the special interests cannot quite carry their point against some public servant . . . they are prone to fall back on the accusation that at some time in the individual's career he had a tie with the Communists.” She ugdoubtedly had a point there. It is true that many a person has loosely been accused of communism. But often there at least has been some act or statement or writing to support the accusation. While neither Mrs. Roosevelt nor Mr. Truman nor any of their supporters seem to offer even a bit of evidence when they refer to the “selfish” or “special” interests.

Branded ‘Wall Street’

IT 1S a term which roughly serves as a synonym for the old all-inclusive epithet “Wall Street.” For many years anybody who thought or talked like a businessman was in danger of being branded as a spokésman for “Wall Street,” despite the fact that often he was doing business on a small scale on Main Street. Now, however, such a person becomes a part of the “selfish” or “special” interests, This seems to be an all-inclusive group that is destined to be nameless. There is only one sure clue for the whodunit fans to follow in their search for the culprits. The “selfish interests,” in all cases, are those who don't agree with you. However, the mere fact that they are seeking hand-outs for themselves does not make them selfish — if you favor the hand-outs. .

Not Selfish

FOR EXAMPLE, those who want bigger farm subsidies, greater social benefits or larger union rewards are not selfish. It is true that their votes are being openly solicited with promises of rewards, to be paid out of the public treasury. This has become the standard form of buying votes.

“selfish” or ‘special’ interests by the ones who try to do the

g. Only those who are opposed to this kind of vote shopping are characterized as belonging to the “interests.” The trouble is that it's‘going to be rather hard to continue for very long the righteous indignation against these selfish Interests unless, in some way at some time, the identification is

&

Yet those whose | votes are believed to be for sale are not classified as either |

10-12,

"Sometimes | think maybe he's right, Mrs. Jones—he should be a cowboy instead of another Paderewski!"

COPR. 1980. BY NEA PERVICE, INC. 7. ML REG. U. 8. PAT. OFR

made a little more specific. And that is hard. Suppose, for example, Mr. Truman just referred to “my opponents” as trying to defeat his policies. That wouldn't impress anybody, because it is generally understood that it is the duty of opponents to oppose. Suppose that Mrs. Roosevelt said that this worry over the former Communist associations and activities of various citizens existed in the minds of people who either don't like their policies or don't like Communists. That accusation also would fall flat,

- for such opposition is to be

We seem destined to go through a campaign of “right” versus

the “special dey wink, in sich everybody in

the country can be identified as the guilty

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12—There has been more log-rolling on the Anderson flexible farm price support bill than the capitol has seen in a long time. | Vote trading on a sectional basis has been as popular as In the tariff-making days. Involved in the battle for a preferred position in the lineup at the federal Treasury door are honey, tung nuts, mohair, cote ton, wheat, commercial frying chickens, tobacco, citrus fruit and “pulled” wool. Senators from cotton and wheat states ganged up at the outset to try to keep 90 per cent of parity price floors for the six basic commodities, which include cotton and wheat. They didn’t like the lowered floors provided by Sen. Clinton P. Andere son’s sliding scale (75-to-80 per cent of parity) price support bill, Sen. Anderson, who said he believed the flat 90 per cent amendment would cost the Treasury as much as $2 billion a year more than his bill, beat the cotton-wheat bloc. He won by satisfying the other commodity groups—which would take much smaller chunks from the federal Treasury.

Wool Senators Happy

THE Anderson forces made the wool state Senators happy by changing the bill so the Agriculture Department would have to support the price of “pulled” as well as “shorn” woal. The Agriculture Department has been supporting the price of “pulled” wool because it must under present law, But officials say it is doubtful that the growers get any benefit from the wool which the government must buy from slaughter houdes, And Sen. Anderson left “pulled” wool out of his bill. He quickly consented to putting it in, however, when it became apparent he

| could pick up votes by doing so.

Surplus Horses

ONE Senator, who declined to be quoted, remarked that it was a good thing we didn’t have price supports when tractors started replacing horses or we would have ordered the Departe« ment of Agriculture to buy up surplus horses. : Sen. Anderson was in good shape for the big cotton-wheat fight because he had pleased other producing groups: outset. He gave tobacco what it wanted by providing 90 per cent support. when it is under marketing quotas—which means all the time. : The horse-trading for the various commodities was too muc for Sen. John J. Williams (R. Il.) who comes from #& big come chicken raising area. Although he doesn’t like price supports and doesn’t know whether the commercial broiler SceTs even want them, he decided he might Just as well gets aboard the gravy train. BS : #t supports any poultey peices A +

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