Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1950 — Page 16

a SCRIPPS HOWARD EwsrArER 2 res w. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W’MANZ Presjdent Editor Business Manager

"PAGE, 16 Monday, Jan. 2, 1950,

BE ECE RW BH: FEA es

7 S¥jenesl, "¥ dajly RT SHE Rr] ley ite Give Light and the People Will Ping Phew Vion Woy

City Faces 1950 Problems IKE the rest of the world, Indianapolis faces many difficult problems during 1950. . The most pressing of these involve the planning that must be started to cope with conditions relating to a rapidly expanding metropolitan area. More progress will have to be made this year toward some solution of the increasing congestion of downtown traffic, especially off-the-street parking. Steps already have been taken to improve the city’s sewer system but much more will have to be done if the greatly expanded residential drainage needs are to be met.

3 . .» »- MANY of the heavier traveled streets will have to be repaired or rebuilt entirely after years of neglect. Some of them have fallen into such disrepair that they have become hazards to the lives of motorists. There appears to be little inclination on the part of public officials to make any start toward trying to solve the pressing problem of inadequate public buildings. Planning for a building program ought to be started this year. It's already too late. For more than 10 years, grand juries have condemned the Courthouse and Police Headquarters buildings as inadequate and even dangerous. Failure to provide better buildings wil Fesult in waste and inefliciency.

SOLUTION of these problems, of course, “will involve heavy expenditures. So, many reforms in governmental functions and the Jocpd Azm atrnctyne wil have to be. considered or the burden neh > ie : 80 SEE , x 3 2% gas ~ ". In this connection, taxpayers Er to get Bu once in support of a program to eliminate the costly inefficiency of cumbersome. and overlapping governmental : . [I a : ALSO more planning will have to be directed toward annexation 6f many growing metropolitan areas to the City - of Indianapolis in order to spread the tax.load more evenly among all residents to meet the increased costs of government. : These problems can be solved without ever-burdening

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Smokescreen for Blundering THE joint chiefs of staff will make a personal tour of inspection to Hawali and Japan early in February for a “first-hand check” of the critical situation in China, it has Formosa, the Impala trouble spot in ‘the Pacifie

Wha cheek” of Marsha Tito and et eT mu . altogether and conduct their survey from Palm Springs? * The California climate yields nothing to Hawaii's at this . season. 81 The explanation that the joint chiefs are going to . Japan to discuss the China crisis with Gen. Douglas MacArthur makes little sense. ~ Gen. MacArthur's views with respect to the Chinese | situation are known to the Department of Defense, and if

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. could be Sacamplishied by an exchange of cables within 24 .~ hours.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S meeting With the’ Security Council on the Formosa problem, the sending of an aircraft : © carrier and two destroyers to reinforce our Pacific fleet, ! and now this projecfed tour of the joint chiefs of staff all { seem to be parts of a pattern, .

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+ #8 a smokescreen it won't cover the State Department's _ gblossal blundering in the Pacific. bo The President faces a storm in Congress on this issue, | for Congress has been hearing from the people. But something more than face-saving gestures will be needed to convince the public that a sincere effort is being made to protect American interests in the Pacific.

How Long Is a Period? - i COTT LUCAS of Illinois, Democratic leader of the U. 8. Senate, regards an unbalanced government budget as “a terrible evil.” The taxpayers, he says, may hope for cuts of $3 billion “in military spending and Marshall Plan aid next year. However, he adds: “If we must make a choice between a period of deficit financing to strengthen our hope for peace, or running the risk of engaging in an atomic war, 1 prefer the risk of deficit financing." iy

- » LJ - . . . . THE Senator's phrase—‘‘a period of deficit financing” ~ has a reassuring ring. It seems to connote brevity; to imply that the government might choose to unbalance its budget for a short time to avoid a more “terrible evil," but would speedily end the policy of living on borrowed money. The fact is that the government has now been in “a period of deficit financing’ for almost 20 years. Since July

-1948-—have been balanced. The 18 unbalanced budgets have 4 added nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars to the Ration!

© We venture to believe that ‘prolonging that «period of deficit. * will not strengthen our. hope for peace: We believe that determined action to balance the next fed‘eral budget, and those thereafiar, \ would strengthen our hope for peace.

Suen It cannot afford to let. other peace-loving nations « go down for lack of éssential aid. : But, above al, it cannot afford to continue piling, on

of Svar meu revoked.

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* “his recommendations need ‘to be brought up to date that

© = But the whole pattern has little relation to reality, and |,

: Breaking Laws

Officials Can't Find Reason For "Backsliding Increase

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2—Backsliding is in- »

creasing among Federal convicts released ‘on parole. In the past year the U. 8. Board of Paroles revoked 27 paroles for every 100 it granted. In the three previous years revocations were 19, 10 and 13 per 100. Currently, a smaller proportion. of federai

. prisoners is getting out on parole than for

several years past, but the proportion that ao “sour” is rising steeply.

Federal officials are at a loss to account for >

tu: increase, It seems t4 be associated with A general tendency of prisoners to return to crime.

‘Conditional Release’ aa

BESIDES those federal convicts who are released on parole, there is a larger number of prisoners who come out each year under what 1s called “conditional release.” : These men failed to convince the parole examiners that they were good parole risks, but still behaved well enough to get some time off. They remain under parole board supervision until the maximum sentence has expired. Backsliding—parole authorities call it “recid-fvism”--is increasing among this type: ‘of exconvict, too, Dg, George Killinger, chairman ‘of the U. B, Boar of Paroles, thinks the failure of an increasing proportion of federal ex-convicts to go straight may be related to the passing of the easy employment market. Also, he suggests, “we may be scraping the bottom of the prison barrel.”

- Prisoners Changing

THE TYPE of prisoner in federal institutions is altering from year to year. Eight years Ago 46 per cent of all prisoners committed to federal Institutions were bootleggers. Now

.bootleggers are 11 per cent of new federal con-

victs. ‘Experience has shown that most bootleggers on parole go straight until the expiration of their maximum sentences. At least, the parole hoard has no further control over them after that. Meanwhile, the proportion of auto thieves has risen from 7 per cent of the prison population to 15 per cent. Auto thieves and juvenile @elinquerits are the. most incorrigible

Juvenile Cases

AT THE same time, juveniles sentenced under the Federal Juvenile Delihquent Act made up 11 per cent of the parolees and 28 per cent Of the parole revocations. _ Most of the 27 federal institutions still lack staff psychiatrists to treat prisoners and advise on their chances of going straight if paroled. Dr. Killinger comments that the board thereby is “greatly handicapped in dealing with the psychopathic delinquent, the mentally defective and especiully with those cases whose crimes point to the presence of sezval

The rise In parole violations i{# no reason, Dr. Killinger contends, to condemn the parole systém outright. He says the great mgjority of parolees do go straight and even for those who don’t it's better to let them out with parole strings attached than to turn them completely

_ free upon the community.

IN SOLITUDE

I know a place where violets bloom. Amid green grassy blades. And “tric! The ng 'S shades. ¥ There I can wander when oppressed And rest upon the sod, Unburdening my weary mind In solitude with God. — ~ Opal McGuire, 814 Broadway Barbs

IN LONDON two men knowingly married the same nurse. They both ee one! *

® WHEN {t comes to bank rolls, own” is a swell motto. ) ppd . : IN SOME big towns some traffic cops “who are polite might be ‘charged with conduct unbecoming an officer.

“roll your

* * UNCAIMED Srnine at a post office

sale included two grass skirts and a. derby. Re-

minding us ‘that we hope vaudeville will come

- back strong some day.

* 2» THE safest side for a man to take in an argument between two of his neighbors is the outside. *

* o A SICK Nebraska man married his nurse, }

Some folks will do anything to save money.

DEWEY Y FACTION . . + By Marquis Childs

Conflict Within GOP

candidate for President

It was unlikely to point of downright impossibility that a twice- -defeated candidate could capture the Republican nomination for

moving himself from" consideration as a is no more than recognition of the reality. the

At the presidency,

With. the Heking of November us, Gov. Dewey's political

~ In the past year auto thieves, many of . ME: SM, wp 7 per cenit af the on

ii enty-four “cent Indicated

‘though ‘not ‘the luxury taxes on jewelry,

MEET i itors air WASHINGTON, Jan. 2—President Truman's “Fair Deal” program will not be repudiated by the voters in the 1950 election. And the Democrats will not lose control of either the Senate or the House. These are the predictions of 70 per cent of the 345 U, B. newspaper editors responding to a political poll conducted by this column. Only 21 per cent of the editors said they thought there was a chance for a Democratic defeat. Nine per cent sald they didn’t know. This editorial prophecy for the New Year

—is- made in spite of the fact that 63 per cent of

these same editors reported they were opposed to President Truman's re-election, and opposed to his program. As for the things the editors don’t like about the Truman domestic program, the editors were very specific. They cited taxation, spending, farm, civil rights and welfare issues before the new Congress. With reference to the $5 billion deficit which the federal government faces this fiscal year, the editors were asked: “Should the 1950 Congress raise taxes to balance the budget?” Sev-: ‘per cent voted “No!” Twenty-one Por. they would

however, preferring it to operating the government in the red. Five per cent of the editors expressed no opinion. But opposition to a tax Increase was five-to-one in the South, three-to-one elsewhere.

Majority for Reduction

ALONG A similar line, editors were asked, “In spite of deficit financing, do you think ex¢ise taxes should be reduced?” Here the opinion was 65 per cent in favor of reduction, 25 per cent ‘opposed, two per cent expressing no opin-

lon. Eight per cent of the editors said they -

would like to see the transportation tax cut, cos" metics, admissions and the like, §entiment against excise taxes ran three-to-one in the industrial North-East, only two-to-one elsewhere. What the editors seem to think the country really wants and needs is reduced government spending. So they were asked where they would economize—on national defense, foreign aid or domestic programs? The answers were something of a revelation. Only 37 per cent said national defense expenditures shauld be cut. Those who expressed this opinion said they should be cut the least. _Fifty-two per cent of the editors said they thought foreign ald should be cut. But they

qualified this by saying that the amounts should

SIDE GILANCES

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be cut gradually. In another parallel question, editors were asked, “Do you favor continuing the Marshall Plan two years more?” Seventytwo per cent said “yes,” but again emphasized cutting gradually. But 87 per cent of the editors voted in.favor of cutting domestic expenditures—vociferously and sometimes with profanity, There was strong write-in voting in support of the Hoover report. There were abundant .vitriolic com-

Jwnls about the extravagance of bureaucracy.

nst Price Supports ERE again the editors backed up their answers with specific proposals, as on farm policy. “Are present farm support prices too high?” they were asked. “Yes!” answered 87 per cent, This vote was four to one in the South, nine to one in the Midwest and almost unanimous on East and West Coasts, A natural question to follow that one was, “Do you think the Brannan farm income support plan is workable?” Nine per cent said they didn't know, but 79 per cent voted “no.” Many of the 12 per cent who Yoted “yes” indicated it 7 might be worth a try.

for consideration before the coming Congress fared no better. Did the editors support Mr. Truman's health insurance plan? per cent said “no.” What did they think oY the idea of pensions of $100 a month for all over 65 years of age? Eighty-one per cent were ag’in it. those who favored it said they thought it should be set up inside the present contributory old-age insurance plan. - And how about the controversial matter of federal aid to public schools? a little better than the others. One-third of the editors said they were for it, two-thirds against.

Too Hot to Handle

THE $64 question before the coming Congress is, of course, President Truman's civil rights program. The editors were asked what they thought about the three most controversial parts of it—anti-poll tax and anti-lynching laws and Fair Employment Practices Commission. Twenty-one per cent of the editors shied away from these questions as too hot to handle.

Of those who did give their views, there was

far greater opposition to the permanent FEPC than to the other two. to one against FEPC in the South, two to one opposed in the North and four to three opposed in the West.

By Galbraith

m2 PRT wesw gsi Samm Aid soy By Er ak

TOther parts-of the “Fair-Dealt-progren Hp. Year's Eve

8 8 a i i 3 i! g 2 8 ME

than 30 of silver, Then one ; Le A undo there was election. It was a God's blessing at that time, You still can re member. The people spoke and how they spoke, The same people who you, Mr. Hogan, will describe as the modern Adam, Where was Santa

Thanks again to our American way of life, These ballots were the only weapon left to defeat the modern Goliath and the rest of the swivel chair politicians. To this day their per centage still stands at no. The artists you spoke about, who went to cabin in the woods to think and sketch; the thumping and ticking noise he heard wasn't the butterfly, it was him self, who was beating his brains out against : | the tree Hyg to Bure out why the butterfly SET

pu ha il yn we ST Ee

sons who ho Rit from i PA-— bu “they got their sheepskins from the swivel chair politicians. ;

‘Oath Means Nothing to Red’

By F. Bowmah, 2831 Station St. I can’t understand how our government can recognize a Communist country or toderate any Communist Party or organization within our domain, nor give financial help, or or enter into a reciprocal trade agreement with any country , that does recognize Communist countries. Such organizations, parties, and countries carry out the mandates of Soviet Russia whose t alm is world domination and the destruction of all democracies and religions by revolutionary methods. An oath means nothing to & Communist unjess taken in the name of the Soviet Union: How can a decent nation put any confidence in, or tolerate any country or organization : or party advocating such doctrines?

‘Century Not Half Over’ By Mrs. Aldona Yanky, New Castle, Ind. In The Times recently a writer made this statement; “At the stroke of midnight on New i “the 20th Century was haif over.” — I question this statement for the 20th Century did not begin until Jan. 1, 1901 and the

1, 1030, only two annual budgets—those of fiscal 1047 and -

“THIS country cannot afford to aiect its military de-.

stock dropped nearly to zero. It has revived scarcely at all And the defeat of his good friend, John Foster Dulles, in his race for the Senate in New York state has acted as a further depressant.

» » . BUT while Gov. Dewey no longer has the power and the prestige of a leader who can show the way to victory, he has remained ‘the head and front of an important wing of his party. That wing might be designated as the eastern sector. of the GOP, although its

limits are by no means geo-

graphical. In this wing of the party are those who believe the United

States must assume a role of

world responsibility through such means as European aid and the program to restore the military strength of Western Europe. They are for the bipartisan foreign policy as it has been spelled out’ by Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michi. gan.

THESE Republicans have n

recent months been turning hopefully in .the direction of Gen. ‘Dwight D. Eisenhower, Now that Gov. Dewey has

publicly removed himself, they will feel far more urgently the -

need to rally around a potential candidate in whom. they can believe, Without such a

himself to become a candidate,

"in America. An& Gen. Elsen.

: speak out,

swamp the GOP if only by volume of noise. The Wherrys and the Jen ners mean to reject Vandenberg and back of them tis Sen. Robért A. Taft with his own

curious definition of how America can live alone and like it.

R = » , } : BUT the difficulty in trying to use Gen. Eisenhower as a rallying point is formidable. First and foremost is the fact that, in the political sense of the word, he is not a‘ candle date. That is what he continues to teil his visitors with considerable emphasis, *' Nor could he at this time, even if he wanted to, permit

That would be the surest way to reduce to ‘the vanishing point any influerice he may exert on the course of events

hower feels a responsibility to

His views have not changed. They are just the same as they were when the {ll-advised attempt was made by some of the labor-liberal elements.

Gen. Eisenhower believer in states’

"well-being of the whole nation. od through the mails. = But When the General tries to express these deeply held but

GOP. 1900 BY NEA BERWOL WT. 00 WIC. B. %. aT. OOF. "Your mother ‘will miss the tree<-we'll have to be extra nice to her #ill she gets used to the vacant place where = | it brightened everything up!"

._ drive for A reduction of the

federal tax from $9 to proof - gallon — Bhs

would “make possible a

price *. reduction of about 60 cents a But officials

bottle or more. But aren't optimistic. hee

Many of thm dre trate 3 toms. such as he tect « National Association ¢

Eighty-four 20th Century will not be half over until Dec. 31, 1950. It cannot be half over for it has only run 40 years. Many of Come What Others Say— Ses Our WE IN the Army know the greatest danger Many is in over-expanding the armefl forces and over- “ARVIN” This one fared purdening the civilian economy. — Maj. Gen. Styles Clovis Byers, Army personnel expert. You I SHOULD say that the friendship poe 3 aus Army and Navy officers) goes in direct propore 0 tion to the distance you get away from Washe With All! ington.—Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. ’ * ¢ 9 : BECAUSE your social apd economic conditions are better than ours, I have to go a little © further, and use a little more drastic measures, - —Shah of Iran, 6n Iran's 7-Year Plan which - is similar to “Fair Deal.” ¢ & o The opinion was nine FOR midre than half the world the old chronfc undernourishment continues and hunger is aoe one meal away from milllons.—Norris Bod, sop United Nations. food authority. ne LIQUOR SALES . . . By Earl Richert . Tite rig] : : 4 n your-che Drinkers Changing? Fir g g » ... won't =... WASHINGTON, Jan. 2—Are our liquor tastes changing?" our supply Some people in the industry think so. : co Americans are drinking twice as much wine as they. were 10 years ago and about 80 per eent more beer. But per Look! capita consumption of distilled spirits—whisky, gin, brandy and rum-==iy “just-about" the same as prewar: ra . wi Ana since end of the post- see war hook year of 1946, con- thé prohibition era veterans "what's righ sumption of all types of dis- that. they've got to, get. hold . - “M tilled spirits has dropped 26 Of all the whisky they can and genuine per cent while wine and beer - drink it up because tomorrow Chef , , . ¥ siles have boomed. Wine con. ~ there may be none. I think finest name sumption, for example, will there is spmewhat of a. shift ranges .- show afi increase of about 4 to temperance which may ac- 4 8 ve per cent for this year while Count for a greater gonsumps you get a ligior consumption will be tion of lighter drinks. This one | down slightly trom last. “+ Although consumption fig- Chef new . ures aren't available for. the wheel regul CONSIDER Bconih whisky. past two months, liquor indus- sils space. "The National Association of try officials say they are off ° 1 Are Alcoholic Beverage Importers More sharply than the 3 of 1 erms hopes that Scotch consumption Per cent drop for the first 10 t this year will come close to months of this year, c Se 3,000,000 cases—last year it ..n 8 o ome was 3,080,000 cases. But this THEY say the strikes are re- MAGI will just about equal prewar sponsible — consumption in ‘Scotch - consumption in this ‘Pennsylvania being off 16 per country. ev cent in October as against 51% g And considering the fact per cent for the first 10 ; that there are 10 million more = months. - Whisky consumption people in the country and in. In West Virginia in October comes higher, Scotch isn't do- dropped 31 per cent under a Ing as well as it was before ~ Year previous, the war, '- They point out, too, that Officials of the Distilled Spir- liquor consumption. country~ fts Institute are inclined to Wide is down slightly, although blame high federal ard state Sales of liquor became legal taxes which average $2.10 a