Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 October 1949 — Page 20

Telephone RI ley 5551 : ive Liohs end the Peovie Will Pind Ther Own Wey

Too Well?

years ago this week the bubble burst. The frenzied stock market boom of the 1920's ended in Rich and poor alike had been infected by the mania for quick wealth through speculation. The average of industrial stocks had climbed 57 per cent in 12 months. . Millions of people believed—or behaved as if they believed—the rise would go on forever. Speculators had borrowed money, at interest rates as high as 10 or 15 per cent, to buy stocks on margins as thin 88 20 or even 10 per cent, at prices 50 to 100 times the actual yearly earnings per share of the companies behind them. . . =» . = SIGNS of weakness in the market went unheeded. Then, on the morning of Oct. 24, 1929, brokers’ offices were swamped by selling orders. Sales on the New York Stock ‘Exchange that day totaled nearly 13 million shares. Five days later that record was shattered when nearly 1614 million shares were traded. And, despite all efforts to restore confidence, the market went down and down until it hit bottom at the depth of the great depression in 1932. But, while the present generation may be making serious mistakes of its own, wild speculation is not one of themy Whatever happens in the next few years, the stock market can't be blamed forit. : * = » . 8 » 80 FAR in 1040, sales on the New York Stock Exchange have averaged less than 878,000 shares a day, and prices - have stayed within a fairly narrow range, although money is far more abundant than it was in 1929, A survey made for the Federal Reserve Board shows that almost 39 million American families—about 77 per cent of the total number—hold life insurance policies. Almost 36 million families have savings in bank accounts or government bonds. Almost 26 million families own automobiles. Almost 31 million own homes, farms or other real estate. And about four and a half million own full or part 5 ”

REAL . » ‘BUT ONLY four million have one or more members who own corporate stocks. ‘The total number of individual owners of such stocks is estimated at about six million. ~~ Only 8 per cent of the family heads questioned in the survey considered stock investments wise. Sixty-nine per cent flatly opposed making such investments, regarding them either as too risky or as requiring too much knowledge of All of which suggests that the lesson of 1920 may have learned foo well. For it means that the market for ks is largely among the higher-income groups—that a ¢ share of the American people's savings is seeking

‘when the country urgently needs. more risk capital

to finance the establishment or expansion of job-creating, Headstand on Communism

’S Prime Minister Nehru in an Ottawa press conference this week said that, in his opinion, the war in China was more of a “farmers’ uprising” than a Comm rebellion. wd nknY He added, perhaps needlessly, that Russia's “charges” that India is leaning to the West were ‘‘completely wrong.” So there we are, just about where we came in: Chinese communism is a simple agrarian reform movement and India, under Nehru the Marxist, is going to keep on being friendly with Russia. Earlier, in London, he had told Prime Minister Attlee that Western nations should not delay too long in recognizing the Communist government of China, And, in Washington, he dismissed as premature the suggestion of Presi dent Qurino of the Philippines that Asiatic nations form a alliance against communism similar to the North Atlantic pact.

» . " " - . ALL THIS from the recent visitor to this country who had an extraordinary buildup as a possible “Western counterpoise of Red China's Mao,” as a “historic figure of Asia” whose India might be the natural base for a democratic counter-offensive against commynism—and so on. To be sure, the idealistic Nehru did not come to this country seeking a big cut in Uncle Sam's funds ladled out to foreign nations to help fight communism. And we can concede India’s right of self-determination, as well as Nehru's logical desire not to take sides in the world struggle between Communist and non-Communist forces. . But we think the buildup and subsequent deflation of the Nehru myth is going to have some unfortunate results. This conclusion is based on a report from Hong Kong reflecting a growing spirit of defeatism in southeast Asia as & result of the Pandit's remarks in this country. - » - . » WITH INDIA refusing to join in attempts to stop communism, it was said, there was little hope left that international communism could be halted at China's borders. There were reports that even the Philippines were now considering recognition of Communist China in light of Nehru's ~hands-off policy. And a member of Chiang Kai-shek's staff said flatly that Nehru had failed the countries of Asia in a time of need. «+ From other sources we learn that Pandit Nehru, given to Yogi exercises, stands on his head for a half hour each ‘morning. He explains that his troubles and worries seem ‘to fade away when he looks at the world upside down. Maybe so. :

RI SE Ais en I ME SA HPN TO I SW

paper in Crechoslovakia boasts that “vel-

Nothing is left after taxes for the small luxuries

in new enterprise.

p Ba diminish as the world moves toward something ! Sormal ‘

ECONOMICS ..« By Marquis Childs Socialist Bloc Seen in Europe Scandinavia and Britain Move Toward Welfare State

pe is considered within

f : g i : f

there is nothing you can do about it. attitude has strongly colored the British Labor Party and it is observable in Scandinavia.

Increased Control

THE effort to buttress the economy against all possible shocks, both from withia and without, calls for an increasing concentration of control. Here in Sweden the increasing degree of control has called forth a protest that seems to me to be, in its intensity and bitterness, a new phenomenon for this country. You hear from the middle class the ‘complaint that the government intends now to level e down to the same condition.

that give variety and color.tp life. And those

#4 The tndustriaiist 1s ie Dos Jakes and |

price control. He complanis that under present tax laws the worker has no incentive to do more than a limited amount of work. - Absenteeism rises after pay day. The businessman protests that present high tax rates take 80 much that little or nothing is left to invest

” Very little has been done to free the move.ments of trade even among the Scandinavian countries, An army of customs inspectors on the border of each country fill out forms and levy their charges.

Move Toward Normal

PERHAPS the complaint and the protest produce. a post-war. phenomenon t will

ever to turn out the present government and replace it with one more moderate and conservative. Nor do the Labor-Socialist administrators regard it as likely that their work will be interrupted by political reversal. They consider that they are making the practical alterations necessary to keep the economy on an even keel. With families included, at least half the voting population is in the trade unions and they are * grateful for the benefits and pensions of their ° labor government. ’ ; So, as one of the younger men in"the top trade union administration put it, why debate political {deas? Let the other side use the big words, we're too busy carrying out the practical that are essential. This: carefully managed economy, in which the freedoms of speech and religion are carefully preserved, is in a sense a new kind of society that has no resemblance to the totalitarianism of the East and little resemblance to the -planiess free entérprise of the West.

‘TIS SAID

That ‘half the world hates us. If so, is it the hate of envy of just plain every day hate of

perity app . and Italy, is an uncertain quantity. Free enter. in devastated

* bless him—that you can say

- his. idea to aH

a borrower for his creditor —B. C., Indianapolis.

money to save money.

. GOVERNMENT ECONOMY .. . By Douglas Larsen

Spending to Save

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27—Jess Larson, the man who boldly struck out ta cut $250 million worth of fat from the government's operation last summer, now reports that you've got to spend

The big Oklahoma rancher is in charge of government re-

OUR TOWN . , . By Anton Scherrer

‘Basic English’ Old Idea Here

EXAMINE any of the latest cults and the first thing that strikes you is" their appalling lack of originality, There isn't anything basically new in any of them—certainly nothing that we didn’t know 60 years ago-#vhen IT was a kid, I bring up the subject .be+ TN : cause of C. K. Ogden of Magdalene College *(Cdmbridge, England) whe, at : last accounts, was also the = director of the Orthological Institute over there. Prof, Ogden has a notion — God

¥

everything worth saying (at least in the English lan- - . guage) with a vocabulary of 850 words instead of the 20,000 or so the average person handles today—Ilet alone the million or so the presentday ad writer has at his command. Prof. Ogden has progressed sufficiently with e it the name of “Basic English,” and aing now ig to put it across, He couldr’t have picked a better time. With the British Empire . (or what is left of it) and the U. 8.7°A: now striving to be their brother's Keeper, it » imperative that we have a common nguage—if for no other reason than to understand one another: = A To tani ) e another means, of course, that eventually we will have to correspond, communicate and trayel. All right. As matters stand today, the English travel in prams, trams,

* tubes and lifts; the Americans in baby buggies,

streetcars, subways and elevators, See the fix we're in?

Caugt of My Help IF PROF. OGDEN needs any encouragement to promote his idea he can count on my support and, indeed, on my help for I was brought up on Basic English long before he ever thought of it. Maybe even before he was born. Facet is, I was Just a little shaver when I learned that a man’s stock of words is no guaranty of his ideas. And I guess I was only a year older when I became acutely aware of the fact, largely because.of the kind of father I had, that a man of few. words usually packs the biggest punch. Of course, I was no exception. Everybody of my generation used Basic English. Indeed, it might amaze Prof. Ogden to know what we could do with a small vocabulary, especially in the way of verbs. I'll bet we didn't use more than 20, none of which comprised more than four letters. It didn’t cramp our style a bit, for we always knew how to help out in a pinch with a liberal use of adverbs, prepositions and nouns. You have no idea how it made for a picturesque language. For example, we never used thé goldtooth word “irritate.” We simply said “to make mad” and it was more than enough to convey the meaning. I guess if the truth were told we said everything worth saying with the verbs “get, give, go, come, make, let, put, ‘keep, seem, take, do, be, see, send, will” and occasionally “may.” How-

SIDE GLANCES

<1

ever, the verb “may” was a border case so perilously close to exhibitionism that for today’s thesis it might as well be dismissed. Having these words we could express all the necessary nuances. And if you don’t believe it, permit me to point out that the robust thing known as American slang is nothing but a survival and extension of our simple and primitive use of sturdy verbs. “Put me wise,” “Put me next,” “Get wise,” “Get busy,” “Put it over,” are all healthy upstanding examples of the kind of we kids were brought up on, which (I repeat) was long before Prof. Ogden of Magdalene (pronounced Maudlin) thought up his Basic English.

Gloried in ‘Ain't’ I ALSO note that Prof. Ogden doesn’t make any distinction between “shall” and “will.” Neither did we. (Maybe you've noticed it without my telling you.) We even said “ain’t” and

gloried in it. : Something precious went out of Indianapolis

when people stopped saying “ain't” and sub-

stituted the sibilance of the word “isn’t.” At any rate, something horrible came in. Almost immediately we had two social classes—those who lined up on the side of the Nice Nellies and those who went right on saying “ain’t.” The split, which amounted to a schism, didn’t do the town any good for just as soon as the smart guys learned how to hiss the word “isn’t” effectively, they began to show off.” Chuck Connors of Bowery fame sort of sized it up at the time when, speaking of diamonds,’ he said: “Them as has ‘em, wears ‘em.” We have something of the same thing going on right now in the department of noun verbs. To “contact a man” makes some of us wince, including me. On the other hand, “to ground a plane” sounds all right, in fact a lttle on the elegant side. The confusion, which is precisely that of “ain't”. and “isn’t,” suggests the possibility that English words are doomed to die if they offend the ear.

Pure Always With Us

IN SUPPORT of which I cite an experience of E. B. White who, for my money, writes the most plausible and best sounding prose today. Back in the days when Mr. White was a police reporter, his editor sent him to a morgue to get the story of a woman whose body was being held for identification. A man believed to be her husband was brought in. An attendant pulled the sheet back whereupon the man took one agonizing look and cried: “My God, it's her!” When Mr. White submitted his grim report, the tone-deaf editor changed it to read: “My God, it's she!” Thus proving again that except for the perfectionists, we might have a more understanding world. Even more alarming is the discovery that nothing can be done about it at this late day. The pure we have always with us, as the timehallowed saying goes. 3

i. By Galbraith

mot

settled soon.

what they know or think they know. It con= cerns IY employee and every home in the . 8. A. i y We have elected some 500 Senators and Repe resentatives to serve us in making laws to pro« tect the general welfare, We elect a President who takes oath to enforce and uphold these laws, but we have in the White House a man who tells us he has more wisdom and judgment than our chosen representatives, and he does. not intend to enforce a law that can end these strikes. We hear much about “inherent power” and “implied power” of this President. Indeed, it is unspeakable power that enables one man to take the welfare of this nation in his own hands and brazenly evade the law. . According to the Constitution a President cannot be impeached for anything except trea= son. The Constitution should be amended pronto, Mayors and other officials have been recalled for evading the laws or playing into the hands of special groups, gamblers, radicals, racketeers, (all brothers under the skin), but we have a President who is afraid of, or winks at, labor leaders who represent 2 per cent .of the popu= lation while 98 per cent of the people suffer loss and hardship. One squawk like this avails little, but if 98 per cent of the people deluge our Senators and Representatives with protests, we will get action, Three cents for a stamp may save you $300 in lost wages and get Some tal 0 heat your home,

‘Selfish Lobbying’ By Theo. B. Marshall, 1114 Tecumseh St.

For some time I have been reading Edward Maddox's contributions to the Forum. His ar< ticle of Oct. 19 is radically one-sided and filled with opinion not based on facts if one will consider the issues deeply and broadly in a faire minded manner. His writing reminds me of the ravings of a precinct committeeman. Mr. Maddox attempts to place so much blame for the so-called Red menace to our way of life, on labor unions, which are composed largely of law abiding, free thinking citizens and not boss-ridden slaves as he states. Labor unions are doing no more than othe organizations, National Manuufacturers Asso= ciation, farmers, doctors, transportation come panies and others to have laws enacted by Cone gress that are favorable to themselves. This writer thinks that it would be much better if all these organizations were prevented from lobbying Congress. Congress would then have re freedom to consider the country as 3 whole and enact better laws. : Mr. Maddox undoubtedly knows that it fan't possible to make all laws favorable to all the people directly. This, too, must be considered broadly and sanely in a manner that in the course of time will be of the most good for the nation, x Mr. Maddox could do much more good by calling upon all the people to help clean the , graft and dishonor from both our old political parties. Labor unions, over the years, have done as much good for the people as any other organ« ization. Of course, they are selfish in their actions just as the different clubs and churches ‘are selfish in their aims. They also do wrong sometimes, as do other powerful organizations,

What Others Say

-I BELIEVE that the connection between the dietary needs of the American people and a conservation system of farming should be emiphae sized. — Secretary of Agriculture Charles F, Brannan. ¢ oo ¢

EVERY citizen in a democracy has a right to gainful employment. The physically handicapped become valuable assets to the community when given this opportunity. —— Murray D, Lincoln, Ohio Farm Bureau leader. ir elle THE real degeneration of the Bolshevik Party leadership is revealed and cannot be hidden any longer.—Yugoslavia’s elder states. man Moshe Pade, oe

WE have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the USSR. President Truman.

LABOR BARGAINING . . . By Bruce Biossat

Damage to Public

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27—Predictions are being freely offered these days that President Truman may seize both the coal mines and the steel mills if strikes in these basic industries are not

Apparently the affected labor unions would welcome the move

ry working brigades” of barbers are going to spend |

organization Plan No. 1. The plan is mostly the baby of the Hoover Commission. And it's the commission's estimate—not Ldrson's—that it's supposed to save a quarter of a billion a year. Crux of the idea is to make the savings by combining all of the federal housekeeping functions, such as the handling of records, traffic management and purchasing into one, super-efficient agency. Congress bought the idea 100 per cent, and in line with the Hoover group's suggestion, combined into one outfit the Federal Works Agency, Bureau of Federal Supply, National Archives and War Assets Administration, . With the law passed and the able Mr, Larson administering it, everybody sort of sat back to wait for the savings to roll in. After a month or two, however, Sen. Byrd from Virginia, who believes that the way to end up saving is to start saving, needled Mr, Larson. Mr, Byrd claimed that the new combine had actually added help instead of cutting, as he had expected.

Important Issue

THAT raised an important issue. Whatever Mr. Larson himself thought about cutting personnel when he took the job, he now contends that if General Services is going to do any saving, as per congressional instructions, it must hire a lot more people. Here's the way he explains it: “Saving is not going to occur as a result of our internal operation, but as a result of our supervision over the housekeeping functions of the other agencies. We are setting out to do something in the government that has never been done before. It's a brand new function so naturally we've got to increase our staff to perform it. We're like a new business that has to live on the original investment for awhile before it can show profits.”

Streamline Operation AND in trying to help the other agencies save, by showing them how to streamline their traffic handling, it's not possible to borrow their traffic personnel,” Mr, Larson says. “While we

studying ways of improving their > to continue eos. Tuy ys, Sot 1 wou A major plan under eopsideration ia to have the military

* item, it is a simple matter for it to buy a little mare for the gov-

10-27 ogre. 10 ov 4a SEOL, 0 T. 180. 8. & AT. OP)

“We're making a survey, madam—how much of your leisure time do you spend in the public library?’

agencies buy all the medical supplies for Veterans Administration and Public Health hospitals. The m buys so much of this

ernment’s civilian hospitals and clinics. Mr. Larson is by no means pessimistic on the chances of his | new organization eventually saving money. He even goes so far as to say that the Hoover Commission's estimate of $250 million is low. However, he thinks it won't be much before 1052 before

real sa! show. As he puts it: -. "You've got to spend money to save money, in this operation.”

in the belief that the government then would proceed to apply union terms in working agreements. But if seizure does come to pass it will provide notice to the American people that the collective bargaining process as now conducted is definitely getting out of hand. It is obvious that these stalemates between giant industrial and union forces are not in the public interest. No matter who is right in these or any similar disputes, neither side has the right to inflict the kind of damage upon the economy—and hence people generally—that is almost inevitably the outcome of such widespread work stoppages.

On Company Basis THE President's steel fact-finding board itself suggested that labor controversy ought hot to be allowed to reach the massive proportions of today’s typical conflicts. It advised the steel ine dustry and the steel union to go back to bargaining on a come pany-by-company basis. Were bargaining to be conducted once more at the company level, the vast crippling effect of industry-wide strikes would be eliminated from the picture. A strike would still hurt, but not as much as now. ! ; Furthermore, negotiations on this narrower footing would mean an end to huge aggregations of power arrayed against each other in a war of attrition. It is the very scale of these battles that seems to make government intervention so.often the only solution. For both management and labor commit so much of theirs

strength and easily give ground. The nationwide scope of the disputes puts thé pub lic spotlight upon them and thus intensifies the difficulty.

Depend Upon Government

WHEN bargaining is attempted under these conditions, it

se) bears much resemblance to the man-to-man horse trading tion of t views.

tion by W But under different the could as go the other h the government clear it will not a BAI 45 $14 paities together in something roughly like the & (Hg x The delimma we are in today will continue to recur. u gunine . mu ow all basic industries,