Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 April 1950 — Page 10

Page PDF (7.65 MB)

Back to issue view

OLE,

| ing mug bo just 2 alittle i total otal revenue. 32 25 oe

s somreomann xrwarares ARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W, MANE - ~ Bditor Business Manager

PAGE 10 Monday, Apr. 3, 1950

EAE I rae

a Telephone KI ley 5551

Give Tone and the Peosle Will Pind Theatr Nuon Wat

Let's Grow . . .

"FHE story we published yesterday of a big new subdivision planned for the outskirts of Indianapolis reminds us. that there have been very few of these around _here for a long time.

If we're going to have living room for all the ‘poople

who apparently want to come here to live, there will have °

to be & lot more. Indications “pile up that Indianapolis is in the first stages of one of those “growing periods” that come only occasionally to any city. New industries have moved in. New population is moving in, too. Realtors report the briskest sale of vacant lots for home building they've ever seen. If we're ready to welcome these new residents the city may grow more in the next 10 Years than it has in the last 40 yours, “\

\. ‘-

BUT Growing per iods can ve checked; oo and opportunities lost. It is all very well to point out that there are vacant lots for new home building within the city limits. There _are, but they won't meet. the needs that. are apparent right “now.

If Indianapolis i is not going to be choked into a straight-

“pe A Vw planned. with vision and foresight, and they wil have to be developed wih ihveatment and Wajed with confidence.

MOST of all | they'll . need water, and sanitation and

en ~-transportation. -

They can’t all have that, rlvie right away. Many can be tied at once to the city’s water supply. Most may have to wait awhile before they can be hooked on to the city's already “overloaded sewer system. Fortunately mod‘érn methods make it possible to handle that problem with shfe, inexpensive disposal systems of their own until the city, or the county, can find other means to serve them. And * . fransportation can follow swiftly as enough ‘people move Ly those areas to justify such service. So it is a sign of healthy growth, it seems to us, when

refudly planned developments of new residential areas ch 94 this one are opened. It means a lot to the prosperity. angt the security of every citizen of Indianapolis for the

ety, to have that growth.

How the Taxpayers boys Money

HE waste of taxpayers’ money through an outmoded +%* and inefficient system of purchasing supplies for the Marion County governmental institutions was illustrated graphically in a Sunday Times article yesterday: -. The comparison of prices paid by the Marion County Puberculosis Hospital at Sunnyside under its new system of apen market purchasing and the prices paid by other county stitutions under the Commissioners’ antiquated quarterly epntract system shows that the taxpayers are losing thousands of dollars under the latter plan. . - ae . ~ Y THE improved system of open market buying at Sunnyside was established by a special law passed by the legislature following a purchase scandal exposed by The, Times several years ago. At that time investigation revealed excessive prices paid for meat that was under weight and for

milk that was watered.

}

os . %

- In light of similar conditions at other county institu-. ° ~4ions-as-shown-by excessive prices under the three-month

contract plan, a movement ought to be started at once for a bill in the next legislature to provide for a central, open market purchasing system for the whole- eonhly govern. ment. There can be no excuse for the taxpayers of Marion County to permit continuation of a costly, inefficient system of purchasing.

There's Still Time

—— "JHE Council of State Chambers of Commeree;-appraising the omnibus appropriations. bill, supports our ‘earlier opinion that the House Committee's $1.3 billion slash was good but not enough. : The committee recommended a total cash “outlay of - $27 billion to finance a score of federal agencies during fiscal 1951, which is $1.3 billion less than the amount requested by President Truman for the same agencies. And it trimmed by another $182 million their authority to enter into contracts for which money would have to be appropriated in later: years.

Rg Pg TRC BC a a RR JUDGING solely by these figures, it" is a step in the right direction, says the Council, which represents 32 State Chambers of Commerce. But it is “a pitifully weak step when viewed in. the light of two important realities: The impending 1950 and 1951 federal deficits totalling: over $10 billion, and the opportunities for curbing wasteful and excessive government spending revealed by the Hoover Commission and thers.” The report considers that the House Committee applied only a mild slap-on-the-wrist treatment to many agencies found engaged in wasteful and inefficient practices. - i=: We think that is true, noting for example that the ‘caimittee made no cut in the Veterans’ Hospital appropriation, despite warnings by the Hoover Commission and President Truman against overbuilding. Moreover, two- - thirds of the veterans receiving hospital treatment ‘through the Veterans Administration during 1949 had nonserviceconnected ailments,

> THE study also held that some of the cuts made by the committee were phonies. in that they eventually will have to be made up by deficiency appropriations—unless . basic authorizing legislation is changed in.the meantime. ! The omnibus bill is now in the House and action on it may not be completed until after Congress returns in midApril from its Easter recess. Then it goes to the Senate. . There is still time to suggest to’ your Congressman that if we are to have a safe and sound fiscal policy, total spend-

Bama

ZR,

“Halleck Sees Kerr Bill OK

Positive President Won't 2 4" i

Veto Natural Gas Measure

| WASHINGTON, Apr. 3—Dear Boss—Rep. Chatles A. Halleck, Rensselaer, who joined Speaker Sam Rayburn (D; Tex.) in the” Kerr no-control natural gas bill . through the House by a margin, is positive that President Truman will not vate the measure.

As the bill had been labeled as ‘pro-producer =

and anti-consumer, it got only three Hoosier votes in both the House and Senate. In the House, Mr. Halleck Jersuadad Rep. Earl Wilson, Republican, Bedford, to vote for it, after he had already sald “no” to the first roll call. Sen. Homer E. Ca (R. Ind.) both voted and spoke for it in the Senate, Republicans voting against it were Sen, William E. Jenner and Reps. Cecll Harden and Ralph Harvey, All the Hoosier Democrats. in the House “voted against the bill and Rep. Ray Madden, Gary, fought it both in the rules committee and on the House floor. He still is fighting it, for he sent this telegram to the President at Key West: “Gas consuming public in my district and throughout the state of Indiana are very anxfous that you veto the Kerr bill.”

Backed Similar Proposal y MR. HALLECK says the President will not do so since he (Mr. Truman) was backing a similar measure in the 79th Corigress when it was Introduced by. Democratic Whip Percy ‘Priest of Tennessee. Mr, Priest was in there pitching for the Kerr bill, which is just a Senateamended version of the bill which earlier passed the House after being put into the hopper by Rep. Oren Harris (D. Ark.). Mr. Rayburn and other powerfully placed Democrats were for it. In the Senate it was sponsored by Sen. Robert 8. Kerr (D. Okla.).

His state of Oklahoma. and Speaker -Rayburn's- spree

state of Texas stand to profit the most from the measure. Some of the millionaires there

is an lection year.

Power Commission at. their source: .but duly after entering interstate commerce through the . pipelines. He explained that the FPC hadn't done so, but a Supreme Court decision indicated that they could and should and that the Kerr bill is “I6 prevent them Trom doing #6 where companies” are “independent.” “That term, as used in the Kerr bill, means they own tio pipelines of their own.

Aids Small Operators” MUCH of the plea for the measure was based on helping the smaller operators. Here is what Mr. Madden had to say about that: “Eighty per cent of the nation's gas reserves are controlled by the so-called independent producers, Independent companies are simply companies which do not operate their own pipe-

* lines.

“That list inc tudes Phillips Petroleum, Humble—which is the Standard Oil of New Jersey; Magnolia —- Socony-Vacuum; Stanolind — Stan«dard Oil of Indiana; Gulf, Tide Water, S8un Oil, Conoco, Sinclair, Texaco, Shell and Cities Service, “Ten companies in 1947 sold half of the gas piped out of Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The price of gas per thousand cubic feet has already more than doubled in three years. It has increased from

less than five cents in 1947 to as high as 11 ~

cents in 1950. “The sole and only reason for the Kerr bill is that producers would like to profit from the growing demand for gas without fear of regulation from the federal government.” It is that kind of talk from such ardent Truman supporters as Mr. Madden which has put the President on the spot. So far as the Indiana delegation is concerned, President Truman must make up his mind whether to follow the leadership of the New Deal Democratic dean of the delegation or the Old Guard Republican one.

SIGNS OF SPRING

The meadow stretches brown and serene, The snow’s been gone long since, The meadow-lark’s returning To his home beside the fence.

The cat has kittens in the barn, The baby pigs are due. The sun strives surly in" the morn’ == “To wake the world anew.

Small boys fly their kites on high; Play marbles everywhere. The world awakens with a sigh For Spring is in the air.

—<Dorothy Mae Parke, 15 N.. Edgehill St.

NEWS NOTEBOOK .. . By Peter Edson

‘Behind the Scenes

are powerful Democratic contributors and this

LONDON, Apr. 3—The most subversive idea -4hat-has--hit-the--Economic-Co-Opera ministration offices abroad in 1950 is that the Europeans pay for their aid themselves. This idea—dangerous from the point of view of the ECA officials because it would annihilate the program right now-—is not so impossible .as it sounds.

Few Americans realize that the Europeans

-.~are already paying for all the wheat, cotton,

oil dnd, machinery they buy through their governments. The money the Europeans, as private consumers, pay dn their own currency for these imports, goes into the treasuries of their governments. America’s gift is to the governments, not the consumers. : .

(Editor's note: Views expressed in this article are those of the writér, Géorge Weller, whose extensive background as foreign affairs reporter, qualifies him to provide testimony in the current debates on foreign policy).

Nobody can argue that -the Europeans are

“unable to pay” for imports, because they are paying already. What they cannot pay is dol-

lars. They can pay, as they are today paying their governments, for everything they get in ' pounds, francs and lire.

Question Raised

/ THE rugged question now being asked is: “Why can’t they pay the Americans in these currencies?”

"© - When this question was first raised in Wash-

ington several months ago, the ECA -leaders thought they had killed it. They said: “Who is going to persuade an American farmer or manufacturer to take these foreign currencies for

- his crop? American exporters all demand dol-

lars In. the past Amertean farmers and manufacturers, before the ECA filled the foreign market, were ready enough to sell for foreign currencies and use exchange brokers like anybody else in business. The ECA point of view seems to be that they now are accustomed to getting dollars on

the line and that no one will ever dare offer

“then An Vthing “else. It is certain that ECA was sold in the southern tobacco states partly by Gen. George Marshall promising the farmers, in person, exactly that bounty. The question is now ripe for answer whether the American farmers, who-get the bulk of the ECA dollar, have a special right to this kind

SIDE GLANCES

WASHINGTON, Apr. 3— Newest lobby to put in an appear- ~~ §

ance is “The Association for the Abolition of Farm Price Sup‘So far it hasn't opened Washington offices, but is soliciting memberships from New York. Later it plans to work

ports, Inc.”

for reduction of price supports, which it now

$1,400,000, 0ap a year, and to.stop the Branhan plan.

esitmates cost

‘Money Angles in Foreign Aid

tion Ads

y esis Wale

crop subsidy program: The ECA spokesmen argue that the program must go on and the “dollar gap” be methodically reduced.

‘No Special Right

THE “free currency” people say that neither the American farmers, nor the oil exporters, nor the machinery manufacturers, have any spe-

cial right to be protected from the fommon- oT

place vagaries of currency exchange. - With the French franc and Italian lire now hard as rocks, and the British pound devaluated. the American exporters stand to lose as little by the removal of the ECA crutch as ever before. Both sides agree that the best way, for Europe and America to link up is for the Americans to buy more from Europe. : " The ECA way is for the Americans to spénd more dollars, and. for the Europeans, through a $600 million clearing fund of ECA funds, to start a-tiny free trade in the commercial world. The ‘free Inoney Americans” argue that if \e American exporters took the pounds, francs 'nd lire that the European consumers offer, these moneys would be used to buy from Europe the things Europe is eager to sell. By starting now, perhaps, they argue, the gradual and inevitable slide of America’s export market could be eased preventing a crash in 1952.

Governments Use Funds

THE strongest allies of the ECA Americans in arguing that ECA must go on are naturally the foreign governments themselves. These governments take the funds paid in by their own people and use them for various purposes. In Britain most of the funds have been used 80 far to pay off the British internal debt. The same system has been used in Norway. In each of these countries production is sky-high. In - France and Italy production has far outrun the highest pre-war figures also. But here the funds are being put aside for capital investments, in some cases to meet war damage, in some cases to improve utilities.

What Others Say— :

“eX LARGE Huniber of our appalliiig divorces

result from the wife's failure in homemaking: — Dr. Lucindia Templin, El Pasa, Tex. school principal.

> 4 * WE will have to find that either war must go or mankind will go. Arthur,

i Gen, Douglas Mae-

of ' protection as well as to the huge domestic

continue to .

their tom-toms against the Russians. Dean Acheson tells the Russians bluntly we are not going to be suckers, which will be quite a change if we should quit being. one after all these years. However, there is an election this fall and the best way for the American people

"to stay out of war and stop being suckers is to

start throwing that whole gang of internationalists out of office and put soméone in office that uses some sanity about foreign: policy. , Incidentally, T would like to add that Andy shows a decent perspective about war in spite

“of the Fulr-Deal-company.that he keeps and we need more like him who are Hot afraid to opeak the truth, :

jo a Much is said concerning the poor condition: of highways and streets. Much is said about politics in highway building and of the diversion

of tax money rightfully belonging to road re-

pair. Reams are written regarding overweight trucks. Bountiful are the words on bridges.

(Fas burning cars and trucks -are-users-of

these thoroughfares. The tax on gasoline is high enough to keep our roadways in excellent condition. Why not repeal all'gas tax and turn i building over to the oil companies? . The government doesn't tax for telephone wires and poles. We don't have the city lay water pipes. Our gas mains are done privately, Electricity is handled by private concerns. Rail« roads maintain their own rallways. Knowing the motorist is their chief purchaser, their best customer, the gas companies would be all out for better and bigger road service. Expensive equipment could be used beyond county and state boundaries. Duplication would be avoided. Scales could be a part of gas station equipment. An attendant could report over-

- loaded trucks.

Now, too little of the motorists maze of fees

and taxes are channeled to’ street repair. One

license plate for identification purposes should be enough for a lifetime. One driver's license,

renewable every five years by a physician should - be adequate protection against disabled drivers.

Of course all this would cut down a political plum tree wouldn't it? But, it would ‘give the motorist a better break and the politician a brake.

‘Men of Science and Art’

By Maurice L. Donellan, Martinsville, Ind. We believe in peace on earth and we believe in good will toward all men. As America looks about for proof of this belief, is it not proper that she should first look among her church folk? - It is with these thoughts in mind that I am pleased to voice my appreciation of The Times

. publishing excerpts from the sermons of the “late”

eter Marshall. Insofar as all Christians believe in Christ, it is not quite right to say we are of different beliefs. I am convinced that we must show more co-operation with each other. We have great “adniiration and a deep appreciation for all men of all the sciences and all the arts. But when we come right down to

TACs, TU18 the men” Tike the Tate Petér Marshall ——=

who have the: greatest science and the greatest

art of all. Why? Because they study the science .

and they practice the art of Christ. . The fact that Peter Marshall was outstand-" ing anfong his. kind is because he did a better job of studying his science and he tried more earnestly to practice his art,

By Galbraith GERM WARFARE . . . By Jim G. Lucas

Dafoe: Education

~~ WASHINGTON, Apr. 3—Civil defense planners intend to teach state and municipal public health officers how to cope with I | germ and gas warfare, a National Security Resources Board official has informed Congress.

‘He said courses were being °

A PLEA “to permit the importation of more Europeanmade goods . . . on the basis of fair competition,” has just been made by the U. 8. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce, in support of Marshall Plan _ objectives:

~Eresident of this IL. 8. council...

is Phillip D. Reed, who is also chairman of General Electric Co.'s board of directors. G-E is the company which recently succeeded in- beating out e British manufacturer-“on the basis of fair eompetition’—in bids to sell electric power transformers in the Northwest, ~ ~ - SERIAL numbers assigned to men .in the armed services during the war, for their “dog tags,” were supposed to identify them as distinctively as fingerprints. So when GI insurance dividends were mailed out, they were checked against serial numbers on the assumption that no two persons would. have the same number, The serial number bookkeep- |

ing has now been found to be a —

little faulty. The first check by Veterans’ Administration when they set up their mailing priority list disclosed nearly a

_ million ‘men “with duplicate

numbers. A second check ~~ showed that only a few of these duplications were the result of writing wrong numbers on application forms from veterans. The great bulk were simple mistakes and duplications by the various services. In one

* case the same serial number had been assigned to_ seders — SWing round -and support the

different officers. - - -. FXSY gxplanation for recent

drops In coffee sales. has been gress,

iis

+ coffee

carry with, it the explosive re- troller General Lindsay

that consumers have been on a buyers’ ‘strike against high prices. A variation of that explanation is that during. the “shortage”. of last fall and winter, many consumers hoarded supplies. That shot up the price and njade the SHOI{aAEe Worses NOW RR -colw, «lion fee is more plentiful, the hoarders are using up their reserves. That. is supposed to have cut sales. Paul Hadlick, counsel for Sen. Guy M. Gillette's. Agricul ture Subcommittee investigating food prices, has another explanation. When - coffee prices are high, he says, people aren't so wasteful, They don't make that extra cup for the pot, and they don’t throw leftover coffee down the drain. They save it, and warm it up. and drink it later instead of making fresh. - . ”

SINCE defeat of the Federal Aid to Education bill in a noisy wrangle of the House Labor Committee, proponents of this measure have taken a different tack. The plan: they are dis-. +

cussing now is to concentrate . on a bill which would appro- CONGRESSIONAL move for priate federal funds for extra & Probe of the whole veterans payment of teachers’ salaries Insurance program grows out only. Such a bill would not Of a dispute between Compren and the Veterans’ Admin istration. The question that started .it was a criticism by Education Association, which ~~ Warren on the payment of has been backing this legisla- - Sovernment insurance divition for years, is expected to dends to former: -aviation cadets. modified teachers’ salary bill, The law setting up the aviaas the best that an be ob- tion training program provided tained at this. session of. Con- that government pay the: . cade insurance premiums.

ligiou®¥ issue which ‘has hamstrung federal aid to education legislation thus far. National

"I don't like to alibi, Mr. Jenkins, but the only reason I'm ever late i is my wife—she can't seem to start screaming : early enough!"

When it came time to distribute the GI insurance dividends, the Veterans’ Administration ruled that the bonus should be paid to the men. .

Jt is Warren's contention:

"that inasmuch as the govern-

ment paid the premiums, the

“former cadets are not entitled

to the dividends. The comptroller general claims VA has illegally paid $20,000,000 to 500; men, and that this sum should have been returned to the Federal Treas-

ory.

“5 tacks. 2 aca

classes for doctors and public health officers would start this week. But Dr. Nervin C. Kiefer,

= director of health resources for

the Resources Board, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that was not enough. = = =

cep SATD the board: thes Dew:

fense Department, the Public Health Service and the Agriculture Department's Bureau of Animat Industry had agreed to

make public. many of their _

secrets about biological and chemical warfare. The Public Health Service and the Bureau of ~Animal Industry will conduct classes. Graduates, in

turn, will be sent out to teach

others.

Dr. Kiefer predicted that 20

million Americans - eventually will know the basic facts of atomic first ald—including how to treat victims of radiological, biological and chemical at-

{ . ss = =

DR. KIEFER told the committee that the nation's deagainst modern warfare never will be “completely adequate.” Even a theoretically perfect set-up can be destroyed or unhinged. A large number of doctors and nurses would be killed or injured, and hospitals- destroyed, he said. Replacements would be hampered- by debris, fire and .bombed-out transportation. Thus, he told the committee, our ability to cope with atomic, biological or chemical warfare

“~—no matter how painstaking

our preliminary planning — is relative. No one can predict what will Ly

we’ >

prepared. 1 ~Previously, the Atomic Energy Commission had announced that radiological defens

one knows how heavy a blow will fall. It will depend, he said, on how many enemy planes get through. . = = ” « NEVERTHELESS, Dr. Kiefer gave an encouraging report

«n.. Somme of the preliminary... Qo oof

work already done or under way. For instance, he said, priorities on certain foods -— particularly milk and. fresh vegetables —had been assigned to children, old people, the il or injured or those on special diets. Food priorities would be

, handled by the Labor Depart-

ment’'s Children’s, Bureau and the Public Health Service. Dr. Kiefer reported that plans had been worked out for the emergency treatment of public water supplies. Eventually, he suggested, stockpiles of special treating chemicals would be cached near all large cities. He said studies were

. being made of means to re-

store or replace bombed-out sewage disposal plants. v

PLANS also are under way for the joint use of

. ment hospitals, for the Erdefly

evacuation of hospitals and for the establish-. ment of emergency ones, The .National Security Resources Board also is studying plans to cache stockpiles of emergency medical supplies throughout the nation. : Dr. Keifer is serving with the National Security Resurces Board on loan from his position as chief of emergency the Publie

fict ., health planning in

In recent ye that many: have — ston stomach ps i nervousnes: f due to defic | This amazi : deficient sy mins for wi and helpful —vital heal

s Some prc ets at the - due to defic it’s more qu creases the ~there.is.an precious vit even to the “cell and tis may be cau Everywh pouring in get from ta working me tributions 1

keep anything | than a few min | take HADACOL 81