Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 February 1950 — Page 20
mt tenn _A_SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER _ 0
The Indianapolis Times |
ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W gan. President Editor - Business Manager
. PAGE 18
- ublished ‘dally by indianapoits Times Publian- : wea “Maryland St Postal Zone 9 Member of United. Press, Secripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. NEA Serv ice and Audit Buresu of Circulations
ily and Sunday 3% 8 kted bY carrie da Ma'l rates in Indians $00 a year Sunday
tor © and ay. eis and Sunday. $1000 & year. daily # un oy HY) all ot ner states. Dossessions. Canada and exico. dally $1.10 a month Sunday 10¢ A copy
Telephone Rl ley 8551
Give TAhE and the Pople Will Pind Thatr Nm Was
Source of Our Strength ge
HE distance traveled by the United States since the reJpubli¢’s founding could not have been better exemplified than it was by President Truman's speech on Washington’s birthday. Where the first President's primary concern was the state of the union, the entire world’s problems command the attention of his present successor. The great principles for which the American revolution was fought are at issue again today. But the battlefields are in Europe, Asia and Africa as well as in the Americas. It was with this present day struggle that Mr. Truman dealt
at Alexandria, Va. . ” . + » ~ ~
AS HE said, our security and the world's hopes for: peace lie more in the growth and expansion of freedom and self-government than in measures of defense or the control of weapons. There is much to say for his thesis that the _world's_peoples will be won to democracy only if it seems to them the best way to meet their urgent needs. But if “the preservation and strengthening of free governments depends in large measure on the creation of firm economic conditions throughout the world,” the maintenance of firm economic conditions here in the United States is a "first essential. : That is not possible if our policy is to be all give and take. To rest upon sound, foundations, our business relationships. with other countries must be two-way relationships.
” ” . ~ » . IT SEEMED to us contradictory for Mr. Truman to say that his Point Four program was designed to encourage American investment in under-developed areas “on a mutuaily beneficial basis,” and also to say that we are not trying to sell them “automobiles and television sets, " but to help them grow more food, obtain better education and be more healthy. We are going to have to sell a lot of things like auto-
Friday, Feb. 24, 1950
jee In Marion County &§ cents a copy for dally and 10¢
mobiles and television sets to get the money to extend ouwy
health and educational and living standards to the rest of the world. We have had money to lend only because of the profits made by people producing thinks like automobiles and television sets. Se "Let's not scorn the hand that feeds us. We have every reason to be proud of the system that has given us our forLost position in the world. We must never sell that sys--short.
Poor Example
HIS country, already in the grip of a menacing coal crisis, is threatened by a nation- Wile tgiephong. suite, . which had been scheduled for today. The CIO Union of Telephone Workers had once "post: poned the strike, at President Truman's request. Wednesday he asked the union to postpone it again, for 60 days, to provide more time for negotiation of a new contract. The union agreed to that.
The union thereby set a better example of co-opera-
tion with the government than, in our opinion, was provided by the. managemént of the Bell Telephone system earlier this week.
‘of eivil rights.
DEAR BOSS... By Dan Kidney Hoosiers Back
= Weak FEP Bill
* Teeth Pulled From Fair
Employment Measure - WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 Dear Boss. It is unlikely that the Senate will approve the Fair Emploment Practices Commission bill passed by the House, although it only provides for what might be called a “fair employment farce commission.’ Through~the customary GOP-Dixiecrat £oalHtion, the teeth were’ pulled from the original FEPC bill and a substitute adopted which sets up a- commission to investigate alleged discriminations, but provides no power to act or penalize. Fighters for FEPC realize that they drew a blank and the bill as passed is hardly worth wasting the South wind on a Senate filibuster, Yet it took ‘two .matinees and one ail night performance for the and bring forth this weak bill. Big, bluff Rep. Clarence Brown of -Ohilo, a Republican kingpin on the House Rules Committee which, when i had the power, prevented FEPC from coming to the floor, was well aware what was up. He looked at the crowds waiting to get gallery seats and boomed laughingly: I never knew so many people were interested in hearing a Congressman read Washington's farewell address.”
Rep. Brown House to labor
As is customary, the House on Washington's hirthday had the address read. When this was finished Dixiecrat, Rep. Gene. Cox of Georgia, a. Brown fellow-traveler on the Rules Committee or vice versa, moved that the House adjourn Tout of respect to the father of -our country.” Nobody fell for that one, It was caiendar
Wednesday and only by a motion from the Education and Labor Committee chairman on that day would FEPC he considered Mr. Brown had summed up what would happen. “Confusion will be turned into chaod," he observed.
Midnight Fight
DELAY followed delay as one tactic after another was. used to keep FEPC off the floor. After midnight the fighting still was {in full tilt, It was after 3 a.m. before the dental werk amendment was adopted 221 to 178, "104 Republicans joining 117 Democrats, mostly from the South. Yesterday the Job was finished. A motion tb recommit was rejected 177 to 239 and the amended measure passed 241 to 178 : sol The teeth extracting amehda ment was offered by Rep. Rep; Halleck Samuel K. McConnell Jr, a Pennsylvania Republican, It was so innocuous that even Rep. Charles A. Halleck, Rennselaer Republican, voted for it. He is against FEPC
“ff “ft means a Talr employment practices com-
mission with power to act and penalize. Mr. Halleck is the dean of the Indiana dele--gation and Hoosler Democrats, as well as the other Indiana Republicans, voted just as he did. “They were against recommital and for passage of the measure, Whether they lived up to the 1948 party platforms upon which they were elected is highly debatable. Here is what the GOP had to say on FEPC at that time: “This right of equal opportunity to work _and to advance in lite should never be limited
or COTY of origin. We favor the enactment and’ just enforcement of such federal legislation as may be necessary to maintain this right at all times in every part of this republic.”
Democratic Platform THE Democrats caused the Dixiecrats to march sut of the Philadelphia convention in 1948 when they adopted this platform language: “We highly commend President Harry 8. Truman for-his courageous stand onthe issue We call upon the Congress to support our President in guaranteeing these
Cyrus Ching, the government's chief labor-manage- - basic and fundamental American principles:
‘ment conciliator, was busy in Washington, trying to get John L. Lewis and the mine owners together on some agree-_ “metn to end the coal strike. | ‘wow . no» MR. CHING asked negotiators for the Bell system and the telephone workers to meet there, so. that—without . neglecting the coal crisis—he and his assistants might try "to help them settle their controversy. The union agreed to a meeting in Washington. The Bell system's negotiators said they were willing to meet the union representatives, but only.in New York. An according to Mr. Ching, they offered no “satisfactory” son for refusing to go to Washington. The issues in the telephone controversy are complex, and it is difficult to judge which side has the better case. But certainly both sides should be willing to give the govern-
ity of a telephone strike.
Meeting a Community Need OR several years there has been a serious shortage of nurses in Indiana and elsewhere in the country. , A notable step toward organized effort to do something about this shortage has beén undertaken by the Women's Society ‘Indiana. This society has outlined a campaign to get more young girls interested in nursing work by the preparation of catalogs and other, literature designed to inspire more women to enter nursing service.
; It ‘has been referred to as the * ‘Indiana plan” that has
been adopted as the basis of similar campaigns in 44 other states and Canada. The Women's Society of Christian Service's recognition of a vital community need by direct action to solve it is an example of commendable ‘public service.
Bad for Boosters
T WAS A gloomy week-end for boosters in— Sunny California, which got the official news that last month was the coldest January in its recorded history. The town of Water Proof, La., which was menaced ‘by flood waters of the Black River. And the city of Frostproof, Fla which had a frost.
Be} Yours? . =
HE HOUSE" Appropriations . Committee tistovered that the Interfial Revenue ‘Bureau in 1946 printed 500 million tax forms. and 115 million instruction sheets to 47 million taxpayers. : :
of Christian Service. of Methodist Churches in
Naturally, the bureau had a lot left, so it leased an-
- other building to store them. What is more worthless than :
-8 1946 tax form? Perhaps the ones left over from 1045.
“The right of full and equal political partici-
pation. The right to equal opportunity of employment. The right of security of persons. The right to equal treatment in the service and defense of our nation’
But when the final roll was called, so far as the Hoosiers were concerned, it looked as though they were trying te prove that these two old adages still are good:- } “The difference between the Democrats and Republicans, is that one party is in and the other is out.” “Platforms are stand on.”
made to run on, not to
TRADE HANDICAPS . . . By Earl Richert
Veo Taxes?
CRORE-ATY Possible: GO-OPEFALION That might avert-the ealam--
a 10 per cent tax on television seis—as President Truman wants. Argument is that the 10 per cent tax would deflate the in-
dustry's boom,
Industry spokesmen say the tax would mean ‘higher prices
for television sets and - fewer
sales. This would mean less by the
industry already was retarded “freeze” on allocation
No Strike Here
PRESSURE ON CONGRESS .
7s MONEY
=
— TL ALRURT
. By Peter Edson
Biggest Lobby Now on Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24—Every so often, is useful to make a list of what some bimser lobbies and pressure groups in Washington are working for and are up to. It gives a better idea of what goes on here. It helps explain why a lot
of things are or aren't being done by Congress.
Biggest lobbying activity in town right now is on tax reduction. Over 200 organizations and individuals wanted to testify on this subect before the House Ways and Means Committee. "The job of chopping down the witnesses to manageable numbers was tremendous. Perhaps the newest organization to appear on the lobbying front in this. connection is a . National Committee for Repeal of Wartime Excise Taxes, of New York. President Truman has of course recommended cutting excise taxes only to the extent that other taxes are raised. But the repeal committee sent a high-powered delegation to town to insist on “across the board’ repeal of excise taxes. Among its witnesses were Eric Johnston of the movies, Andre Bulova of the watch company, Louis Ruthenburg of Servel. Stanley Ruttenberg of CIO also favored re-.
. Henderson
“peal of the excise taxes, but the similarity stopped there. . Up Same Alley : INCIDENTALLY, the economic adviser to
the repeal committee was none other than your old friend Leon Henderson, once boss of OPA and generally damned then as the enemy of all
businessmen. Right up the same alley, the Radio Manu-
“facturérs Associdtion was on hand to register a’
protest against Treasury's proposal to slap a 10 per cent tax on new TV set purchases. James. C. Petrillo of the musicians’ union ‘wants the 20 per cent entertainment tax cut. He says this tax is responsible for the 23 per cent drop in cabaret and dance hall business in the last two years, with resulting unemployment for his musicians. But he doesn't explain why admissions were so high before, under the same tax. American Automobile Association, Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, American Trucking Association and similar groups are concentrating against automobile and lubricating oil ‘excise taxes. National Associated Businessmen, Inc., announces a two-day crusade to have Congress put a tax on all co-operative businesses.
SIDE GLANCES
“levy
National Highway Users Conference is interested in seeing that gasoline and auto tax receipts are used only for the building and maintenance of roads. Railroads are fighting Post Office and Justice Department efforts to get a full Interstate Commerce Commission trial on the railroads’ request for a small pay increase, without trial.
Opposing Boosts
AMERICAN Farm Bureau Federation is opposing boosts on parcel post rates, The national magazines are bucking proposed increases in second-class mail rates. Pacific American Steamship Association and a number of West Coast chambers of commerce and trade associations are waging a campaign to have Panama Canal tolls reduced. Aircraft Industries Association is plugging a proposal to have the government finance the
building of jet-powered transport and cargo
plane prototypes, on the grounds® this subsidy is necessary for defense. Veterans’ organizations are all attacking Hoover Commission reports, as they would affect Veterans Administration reorganization, the handling of vets’ insurance, GI benefits and hospitals. National Association of Home Builders and
National Association of Real Estate Boards are
trying to block passage of the administration's
middle-income and co-operative . housing aid bill. The United States Cuban Sugar Council is protesting against restrictions on imports of raw sugar from that island. National Petroleum Council has a war on against British decision to cut down on imports of oil from the U. 8. and other areas which require payment | for the oil in dollars. And so on. But-of all the pressure groups operating in Washington, union labor headquarters are now the most vocal and put out the largest volume of stuff. They take stands on everything, whether this issue has anything to do with labor or not. For instance, they. protest to the State Department on the furnishing of arms to the Arabs by the British. CIO Executive Board, at its recent one-day session, passed. resolutions on 22 different subjects now before Congress and the administrative agencies in some form. It takes a smart Congressman to chuck all this stuff in the wastebasket, or let it flow in one ear and out the other, in order to make up his own mind on all issues, in the national interest.
By Galbraith Lh
2
Mr. Petrillo
. well,
By Talburt
A 1 ONLY ei
‘Ideas of long Ago’ Es
. é
‘Hoosier Forum
"| do not agree with a word that you say, but |
By E. Bowman, 2831 Station St.
An editorial comment on the President's speech at the Jackson-Jefferson $100 dinner said in part... “It seems to us that the Democratic programs have encouraged more and more pressure groups to demand larger and larger benefits, ete.” Pressure groups ‘have always ‘been present,” but they were not out in the open in the old days. The editorial cited the fact that President Jackson paid off’ the nation's debt and accumulated a surplus. Well, President Jacksom didn’t have two world wars to finance, paid no benefits to millions of veterans and wasn't . furnishing food and money and equipment to most of the ples of the world. Then the ®ditorial quoted President Jefterson as saying. “I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest of dangers.” . But how could he have avoided our present public debt? Quoting Jefferson further, “If we can pre-
“vent the government from wasting the labors
of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.” Well the quotation hardly applies to our present welfare program, for it Is not a “pretense” that is being made. Here I quote Thomas Jefferson, “I vision a people living in comfort on the fruits of their industry.” His vision hasn't materialized. Abe Lincoln said, “To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor .or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government. ”
-defend-4o-the: douh-your-right $o-3ay-#. —
“Theése men lived a long time ago and no one
knows what they would do or say if they were living now.
‘Rights Violated’ By Mary Kanable, Executive Secretary, Indianapolis Chapter, Civil Rights Congress To Porter Seidensticker, City Councilman: I wish to express my disgust for the method
in which you conducted the open hearing of the
City Council recently. I am sure that every decent-minded, thoughtful citizen in Indianapolis must share my reaction to the high-handed way in which you violated our traditional right to freedom of speech for everyone. I refer to your refusal to allow Ben Cohen the right to testify on rent control. I wonder whether you realize the full implications.of your action. May I remind you of Article I of the.-Bill of Rights. ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speéch . . . or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a Tedreds of grievances.’ - Do you feel your official powers transcend the limits which have been placed on Congress by the Constitution of the United States? Whereby are you given the power to decide who shall speak and who shall not speak in this city? They are the forces of violence and fury
one man fears his ideas cannot compete with another man's ideas. They are forces which
always spring forth’ unless every ‘man’s right to Speak is guaranteed. There are poor, deluded
people who are always ready to silence anyone with whom they disagree. Some of the people in the City Council meeting were like this. They are the bitter, frightened people who cannot face another man's ideas. Your ejection of Mr. Cohen from the meeting unleashed threats of this nature, and they were not all directed at him alone. I was in the audience and heard these threats of violence.
‘People Well Satisfied’ By John A. Cory, 1127 Brunswick Ave. This is an answer to criticisms of President Truman by Miss Mitchell of Greenwood. I think the country's leader today is further
ing democracy in the United States as much and perhaps more than some of the men you have mentioned. He is carrying on FDR's
program. The country is no doubt in better —--shape-than-it-has ever been before." -
Pertaining to the .strike, it is not J. L. Lewis who has the coal tied up. It is the mine operators. Men cannot be expected to work without —a contract “which has provisions in’ black and white for their hours, wages, pension plan, etc. As. for the President, he has turned the
- situation -over to the law, which is the best
that can be expected. Miss Mitchell no doubt finds it easy to sit on the sidelines and tell the President " how to play the game. The late Jimmy Walker once said, “If everybody could be mayor of New York for a day it would make my job a lot easier.” I am a 21-year-old barber and hear many people’s viewpoints. I think, on the whole, people are well satisfied with our country and its leaders today. I also think the point will be proven in the ‘coming elections
SELF-CRITICISM . . . By Bruce Biossat
‘Admit Labor Faults’
~which threaten always to spring forth when
f
Civic Will
Gues
Party I For. Ma.
The Affai Civic Theat day party a the theater. + Mrs. Irvin chairman. S| ceiving line 1 president. J director, will
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Play on Ac
Mrs. Kurt John Kingh: refreshments are Mesdame Hilligoss, Fr Wolff, Georg R. C. Dorr, Hatfield. Hostess are Mesdame man R. Bax Jack Hardin ler, Charles
~-Chauneey-E#
H. Nathan hart, Willi Bowes, Rick K. Scheiden] and Paul T. The Back a play for f bers. The r served in "tf the program
Climk Prope
Descen Perfect
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For desce avoid swayin Keep your t ahead, your the forward f on the outs foot, not on
NEW “SHIP;
We had such an instance the other day wuen George M. Harrison, president of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks,
"this -ecountry
employment among both manufacturers and suppliers. ” - -
INFACT, say the spokes- .
“men, the decline in manufacturing would cost the government more im withholding and corporation ‘tax receipts than the $40 million
pick up through the 10 per cent tax. Treasury Secretary John Snyder argued ‘before .the
House Ways and Means Com-
mittee that the proposed tax | - was equitable since a 10 per
cent tax is now levied on the manufacturers’ factory price for radio sets. The television tax would be on the same basis. The first excise tax was not
placed on radio sets until 1932 .
when radio was a going Industry, G. Emerson Markham, television director for the National Association of Broad-
casters, told the Ways and
Means Committee, : . ~ ” “TELEVISION,” he said, “is in its infancy. And the protection of young industries in has been traditionat. To do less in the case of television would be a reversal in our treatment of néw private enterprise, and an ex_cise tax ‘on- television Treceivers. has a’ Pymalaing effect.” Mr. Markham said’ only a third of the nation's 99 television stations would meet ex-
-. penses fp year and that the
it expects to .
. cent,”
tion
of television channels, ] a - HE SAID _ that from the broadcasters’ standpoint it was imperative that the ptice of television. receivers continue- downward so more people would buy sets and more advertisers would find it worthwhile to use television broadcasts. ~ David B. 8mith, vice president of the Philco Corp.
the House committee that
price was the reason why five *
out of every six families do not have television sets in areas now served by television stations, ' “It has been estimated that 3 further 10.per cent reducin price would increase the market in areas where programs are heard by 20 per he “said. “Obviously, it follows that an increase in price would restrict the number of people who would purchase television receivers. This would be a serious blow to a young industry which by its nature ntust be in mass production- to survive.” o
. =» » RICHARD A. GRA VER,
vice president of ‘the Admiral Corp., predicted -that a 10 per ‘cent tax on the manufacturer's price would be: pyramided through repeated markups so that the increase in cost to the purchaser would be much greater than the tax itself, - David E. Kahn, chairman
told ~
"You look grand in your first dress suit, George — you It be the - town's tid Brummell just like your father was!"
® of the Thomasville Furniture Corp., "of Thomasville, said the television: tax would “hurt “too. He said funiture factories
were humming because of or- . television - cabinets, °
ders for ‘and that television set buyers also were purchasing new
‘rugs and Hving-room furniture - to entertain their friends who :
Sump | to wail. 1slevision,
N.C,
-the furniture business,
The real volume in televi--
sion sales today is coming from , workers earning under $4000 a year, said Mort F. Farr, ‘a television: retailer of Upper Darby, Pa. He said that most television dealers must have a mass market in order to stay in business and that a price resulting from ‘impogtition of the tax would limit the number of potential prensters, .
“in .
"
took his fellow unionists to task for too often Ignoring the general good while serving their own in vi yindicti selfish interests, ctive fashion. But many
» . : THE labor movement, he said, probably ‘places too.
much emphasis on the narrow policy of higher wages and shorter hours to the neglect of other important matters.” Mr. Harrison's words are refreshing. It's the first inkling we've had that Tabor may not be as. faultless as its spokesmen so stoutly maintain.
No reasonable person wants
- labor to mod an eager second
to every charge leveled against it, or to indulge in & rash of self-censure. But it would be welcome proof of growing maturity if unions would concede they are as much guilty of human error and excess as the next fellow. ” . .
UNFORTUNATELY
" the chief offenders in promot-
. Murray, head of the CIO One:
ing the idea that labor is without sin have been its highest
leaders, William ‘Green, president of the AFL, and Philip
may comb their public’ re. marks diligently without encountering the slightest hint that all is not perfect within their domains. This attitude. was most pointedly evident in the 1947 and 1949 SPngicasionsl hearings on the Taft Undoubtedly many lawmakers ‘approached labor law revision
artley law. .
others were moderate men earnestly worried by the ime pact-of labor strife on the gen.eral welfare,
” » » THESE men sought “vainly first to get labor to admit shortcomings .which were Plainly written in the nation’s economic history, and second to propose its own plan for better labor relations, Unions took the view that no problems
existed and hence no law was..
needed. It's hard for a bystander to see how this juvenile 'stubbornness is any more commendable than the blindness of
the many industrialists who so - _ long insisted there was no
“labor problem.” » LJ » TAFT-HARTLEY will loom large in the 1950 election cam-
paign. And if the Democrats ,
retain their grip on Congress, next year is certain to see another try at repealing that act. The - best thing Mr. Green
_ and Mr. Murray can do mean- - time is to engage in the sort of.
searching self-examination suggested by Mr. Harrison in his recent Detroit speech. When _ they -come to ‘Capitol Hill a third time, let them be ready - to offer an honest iabor proam of their own. The counhas had enough of these absurd feta of lly-white Innocence,’ 2
WASHINGTON, Fe G2 LAbEE eaders dont ORR THAGTge wo in self- -criticism, so when they do the event should be marked
Just like You'll say
used. Eas