Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 September 1950 — Page 12
Ra __In the third place, when Mr. Hoover left-office there
The | Indianapolis Times DEAR BOSS... By Dan Kidney
A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER er. OY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W.MAN2Z RO President : Editor Business Manager
PAGE 12 Tuesday, Sept. 26, 1850
Audit Buresy
Price In Marion County. § cents 4 copy for dally and 10s tor Sunday: deily by carrier nd 8 ay. . gone al only, putes on fol ri ited
Telephone RI ley 8551 Give Light and the People Will Find Thew Uwn Woy
First Installment -\N/AGE-EARNING and salaried Americans will begin ~ "next week to pay what President Truman has. called the “first installment’ of higher federal taxes to help "finance war and preparedness costs. On Oct. 1—next Sunday—personal income taxes will rise, on the average, about 17 per cent. Most of that, so far as employees are concerned, will be collected for the government by employers, through payroll withholdings. Under the new revenue law, corporation profits earned since last July 1 and hereafter also will be taxed about 15 per cent more heavily, on the average. And Congress, before adjourning to Nov. 27, ordered its committees and experts to get an excess-profits tax bill ready for enactment later this year or early in 1951, applying it to at least one-fourth of 1950 earnings. :
BUT this first installment is only a small. timid start toward the kind of taxation called for by the situation this country: faces. It will produce new revenue estimated at $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion a_Vyear. That will little more than begin to pay for the increased armament and mobilization spending Congress has voted since Korea. : It is not within sight of the “pay-as-we-go” taxation which Mr. Truman has said should be levied to “avoid an enormous increase in the national debt” and to “help hold down prices.” And it is still more remote from the kind of taxation which would be required to pay as we go for the all-out, high-speed armament and mobilization effort which has not yet been undertaken, but should be. : So, after the elections, the next Congress will be confronted by the duty of enacting a new and, in Mr, Truman's words, “more comprehensive” revenue measure— a duty Congress never performs with pleasure.
" : BUT, by the time the next Congress meets in January,
Tica Sailr 1130 aim" T 4 Be 8 COBY ang.
the war im Korea may have been, and we all hope will have”
been, won or nearly won. : If so, Congress may be tempted to avoid or skimp its unpleasant tax duty, on the theory that Communist imperialism’s threat to world peace, having been repulsed on one front, will subside, and that America can safely relax its preparedness efforts. Congress could make no greater, more dangerous mistake than that. The next installment of higher taxes should be big enough to buy all the preparedness necessary to deter Communist aggression and prevent a third world war or to win it’if it is forced upon us. :
Cheap Insurance WORLD War II might have been avoided, and there would be “no present menace of a third world war,” if Congress had provided a permanent system of universal military training at the end of the first war, in the opinion of Secretary of Defense Marshall. The wartime chief of staff made this observation in paying tribute to Rep. James W. Wadsworth (R. N. Y.), who sponsored a UMT bill while a member of the Senate in 1920 ang v 0D 18 abo 0 ptire [Le ong nd Sig J useful service in Congress, ?
» . HAD Congress passed such a law then, Gen. Marshall said, “I do not believe even a Hitler would have dared to provoke a second world war and, without the havoc of that war, there would be no present menace of a third world war,” : The Defense Secretary recalled that President Washington submitted a plan to the first Congress in 1790 based on the principle that “every able-bodied young man should be trained to defend his country.” } Unfortunately, our forefathers did not accept this plan of our first great citizen-soldier.
PAST ‘errors cannot be recalled. But by mobilizing our.
- resources to maintain the peace it may not be too late to “deter another adventurer from provoking a third great war. We need a strong standing Army today because we do not have a trained civilian army ready to defend us. But under a system which would provide new trained reserves "in large numbers each year, the need should soon pass for keeping a big force on active duty. CT This seems the cheapest insurance against war that our money can buy.
Pot and Kettle . AROLD J. Gallagher, retiring president of the American Bar Association, told the association's members in Washington the other day that, since 1933, Democratic national administrations have been appointing federal judges under a political “spoils system.” All but eight of nearly 200 appointments have gone to Democrats, he asserted. E i Now comes the Department of Justice with statistics apparently intended to take the sting out of Mr. Gallagher's charge. In the first place, says the department, Mr. Gallagher was inaccurate: The correct figures are: 289 appointments, of which 17 went to Republicans and 272 to Democrats. in the second place, if politics has dominated the selec“tion of federal judges under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, so did it under their Republican predecessors, Pregidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. For, from 1921 to 1933, only 20 of 214 appointees were Democrats. “-
were 57 Democrat judges, 25 per cent of the total number then on the Federal bench, whereas this year there are 84 - Republican judges, or 27 per cent of the total number, ~*~ And, finally, when Woodrow Wilson's eight-year Democratic. administration ended in 1921, there “apparently” were 83 Republican federal judges, who outnumbered 79 * Well, those statistics certainly do indicate that President Wilson did not hand out judicial appointments on a - But what they may prove as to his successors Repub-
Congress Folds Quietly Now
- No Histrionics, Just Calm Folding of Tents
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26—Dear Boss— Hoosiers who™have witnessed the closing night of the Indiana.state legislature would be disappointed at the way Congress folds up and goes home these days. What with hot and cold running wars, the national legislators take off to go home and campaign as quietly as possible. There is none of the horse-play which used to make the final sessions as in the prewar days when William Bankhead was Speaker of the house. The father of Tallulah would step down from the rostrum and make a tear-jerking speech worthy of his actress daughter. He would congratulate the Congressmen for work well done and he made no distinction between Democrats and Republicans. A piano would be rolled onto the floor and a quartet quickly organized. To a veteran of last night sessions of the state legislature, the scene was indeed familiar. Now, however, the word adjournment “sine die” isn't even mentioned. They merely took a recess until Nov. 27. They will return then, lame ducks and all.
Rep. Kruse Spells It Out
WHAT WAS accomplished by this 81st Congress was spelled out In the Congressional Record by one of the freshmen from Indiana. Rep. Edward H. Kruse Jr. Ft. Wayne Democrat, pointed with pride to the things which the Congress had done. )
No man to go along for mere party purposes, Mr. Kruse emphasized the Congressional accomplishments from an independent ‘viewpoint. He cited Congressional refusals to act on President * Truman's program, whenever it was considered advisable to do so. “It cannot be disputed,” Mr, Kruse said, “that the Congress as a whole has been a very Independent Congress. It has, generally speaking, been a Congress subservient to no one except the people of this great nation. “This Congress has on several occasions over-ridden presidential vetoes and has on other occasions taken action directly contrary to the wishes of the executive.
“It has also taken action in accordance with .
the position of the executive, and the sum total of its accomplishments is indeed substantial, regardless of whether or not one may happen to disagree with certain of the legislative enactments.”
Mr. Kruse then proceeded to list the ac-.
complishments, heading his listing with. the governmental reorganization acts which were recommended by the Hoover Commission.
Cites Social Security Hike
HE CALLED attention to the fact that this Congress was the first to extend and improve the original Social Security act by bringing 10 mfllion additional . persons under its benefits. It also increased payments to meet modern prices, he pointed out. Upping the minimum wage to.75 cents an hour also was cited. Agriculture, internal security, international affairs, national defense, veterans, the national -economy, ajl were dealt with by the Congress, Mr. Kruse pointed out. He then concluded: “The significant development of the past
- two years has been the President's firm and
historic decision in accordance with a resolu--tion of the United Nations, to stand fast against armed aggression by those forces who are avowedly committed to world domination.
‘Far Overshadows . . ’
“THIS ACTION has in itself far overshadowed all other developments of the past two years. And I, therefore, welcome this opportunity to set forth the over-all picture of the past two years. “In conclusion, I wish to state that it is easy to criticize the actions of those who have the responsibility of rendering decisions day after day on matters of grave import. Surely it is far better for all of us to join together in a constructive and enlightened manner to mutually solve our common problems in the interests of one and all.” . :
"MODELS"
OW y—arepthe girts a ake their place upon a stage . . . they show the world the fashions and . .. the styles that are the rage . . . how gracefully they stroll along , .. like swans in silken dress . . . and what they show will guarantee . . . to make a man say yes . . . these girls that wear the gowns you buy ... are trained to pose and walk . .. and though they do not speak -a word... the things they do will talk . . they are to me like real live flowers . . . blooming sweet and fair. . . . filling all the world with joy...so fine and debonaire . . . but very often when I look . . . a little bit too long . . . my missus kicks me in the shins . .. to show where I belong.
, —By Ben Burroughs.
WOMANPOWER . . . By Douglas Larsen
‘Rosie’ Hunts Slacks
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26-—Hold on to your jobs, men, they're getting ready to put the American housewife back in slacks and
give her a welding torch.
It's all sort of secret, and, as they say here, “in the early stages of confidential advance planning.” But when mobilization gets into high gear in the next few months the ladies. will get
Pe
ve
‘RICE BOUND’ . . . By James Daniel Food Peril Seen in Red Threat
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26—Red aggression in Asia has caused some concern here over what might happen if the Communists should take the “rice bowl” of the Orient. If the Korean War is followed by a stab at Indo-China, Burma and Siam, as periodic rumors indicate may be the plan, then the nonCommunist position in Asia would be seriously threatened. These three countries supply 90 per cent of the world's export trade in rice. Their rice meets the food deficits of India, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines "and Indonesia. To lose it, says Stanley Andrews, director of the U. 8. Office of Foreign Agriculture Relations, would create a “truly terrifying problem.”
Pressures Too Great?
“WE doubt seriously,” Mr. Andrews said, “whether India and Pakistan with their multimillions, Japan with her teeming crowded islands, or even the Philippines and the United States of Indonesia, can resist the pressures of this drive of communism in the Far East if the areas from which they must draw to make up their food deficits fall into Communist hands.” Unlike the situation in Europe, where the Reds came out of the war in control of the major food exporting areas of Central and
* Eastern Europe, the Reds so far have not won
very much in the way of food surpluses from their conquests in Asia. Manchuria, which they obtained early, did have some soybean and millet surplus. But North Korea, for example, was a food deficit area, until the Reds unloaded a third of the population upon U. 8S. relief authorities
in South Korea as refugees. And China, after
What Others Say— |
PS #eT'N3 to speak and to act for himself in complete freedom—is less likely to swallow hook, line
the Communists took the coastal cities, became a net deficit area. Red China now wants Formosa, among other reasons, because of the Formosa sugar export, which last year was two-thirds of a 600,000 ton crop. The China Reds now are buying some Formosa sugar through the British at Hong Kong. However, most of the Reds’ food problems in Asia would be solved if they could control the rice of the southeastern peninsula. And in solving them they would have a weapon against the hold-out countries. : Our food experts say we could ship in more grain—recent feeding experiments in the Philippines have shown that Orientals accustomed to
. eating rice will eat white flour.
and sinker Lorelei songs of the East German
puppets.—Michael J. McDermott, State Depart‘ment press officer. } > P @ : ASK us for work, ask us for industrial production . . . but do not ask us for a German
army until after a European political authority
is set up.—Dr. Carlo Schmid, German Social Democrat leader, in Council of Europe. eS -I'M A realist and when I'm licked I don't hesitate to admit it.—Seott W. Lucas (D. Ill), U. 8. Senator.
mast
-
SIDE GLANCES
the “come-on” sign.. Tip-off on what's coming is from the watch-dog of all lady toilers, Friéda 8, Miller, director of the U. 8. Women's Bureau. She says: ". “A striking difference between the current emergency and 1940 is the absence today of a large reserve of unemployed males.” Then she adds: “Women constitute the only sizable labor reservoir for industrial production.” ' ~ . > PAST - experience reveals that once ybu let women start doing some kind of work it's
pretty tough to get them out —
of it. World War [I firmly planted the female among the ranks of white collar workers World War II put her in the U. 8. factory for good and always, . Before the last war there were about 12 million women holding down jobs in business and industry, There were about two million willing to work but unemployed. Today there are close to 18: million women working, «with one
} — = CIASS eq as
\
ie pioyea.
3 u ) THE Women’s Bureau has
a lot of wordy explanations as te why six million women hung on to the jobs they got during the war, but the simple explanation boils down to the fact ‘that a pay envelope gives more satisfaction than a well-baked chocolate layer cake. : National Security Resources Board and, the. Women's , Bureau now have a joint study. under way to see just What the English and U. 8. experience -with wgipen war workers was
_ duing the last war, And (he
million the coming big call.
» ficient Thats partly the reason why
Women's Byreau on its own is making a study of the attitudes and practices of employers and labor unions in con: nection with recruiting a lot of housewives for work in fac-
tories.
” J » IT IS the housewife who'll ‘get the call. Practically all of the single gals who want to work are working. The rest are too old. It was housewives who comprised most of the six million who went to work in war plants during the last war. In many ways the housewife makes the best worker, too. according to the experts, Running a home has already given her some work experience. And she's not as giggley and man crazy. as the average single
. gal. But the housewife needs a
lot of special attentioh from the government and the plant if she goes to work. This attention w ovided her, mostly at taxpayer sxpense “before, and the thinking on the subject is. that she'll need more of the sa'hie kind of attention for
5 ~ » UNCLE SAM provided speclal nurséries and schools for the kids of working mothers along with special health services. Stores were képt open later for shopping. Beauty parlors were set up in plants and the women were given time off to use them. .- : -.. - Women were-able to be used
in factories and plants through .- breaking down the tasks the men did into smaller units, ° “shaky American. home life is
Some of. this breaking ‘down: process even proved more efthan the old way.
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Fr
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But Asia’s rapid birth rate—15 million persons added yearly—would make the free world’s job constantly more difficult.
Red Disruption UP TO now the non-Communist nations have been able to overcome the Red disruption of the normal food trade. Before the war, Eastern Germany, East Austria, Poland and the Danube basin annually shipped six to 12 million tons of food grain, fodder, oil seeds, livestock and poultry products to the West European markets. The Reds have let that go as high as three million tons only twice since 1945 and our experts say these exports follow no plan but the whim of the Kremlin. . The American taxpayer has made up the West European food deficit. Sixty per cent of the European recovery funds have gone for food and fibers (chiefly cotton and wool) which West Europe normally would receive from pations behind the Iron Curtain. Carrying Big Load IN addition to feeding Europe, we and our Allies are carrying a big part of the Asiatic population. Prewar, South and Southeast Asia had a net food export trade of about 1.5 million tons annually, mainly to West Europe. Last year in one category, food grains, we, the Canadians and the Argentines shipped in eight million tons. - Over-all, the non-Communist nations still have some major surplus food assets. Not counting the U. 8. production, they have the meat and dairy products of Australia and New Zealand, the meat and wheat of Argentina, the wheat of Australia and Canada, Caribbean and Philippine sugar, all of the exported coffee and cocoa. But they need Southeast Asia's rice.
By Galbraith
| do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it.
‘Question Marshall Appointment’ By L. A. B,, Indianapolis I question the advisability and motive back of the appointment of Gen. Marshall as Secre-
tary of Defense. The motive, no doubt, is to
_ allay the mounting distrust of the administra-
tion's foreign policy with the thought, perhaps, - that the appointment would dispel the fear and distrust and at the same time in no way change -
“the dictation of the State Department under
Dean Acheson. Let us look at the record of Gen. Marshall, not from the standpoint of strictly military tae-. tics and strategy, but as it has affected the overall grand strategy relating to foreign policy. . No one can question the fact that this country today is in the greatest danger of its entire history. No one can question the related fact that the danger is directly the result of our fumbling, bumbling Russian policy. It is just as certain that all who are responsible for these blunders and consequent deplorable situation, have forfeited all rights to the confidence of the American people. Te ® & FROM the published record we ‘must con‘clude that Gen. Marshall in his various advisory capacitiés has approved all decisions granting Russia everything she requested with little regard for the likely consequences. ; I want to cite just one characteristic instance: After months of unwavering insistence by Russia and over the objection of Winston Churchill, our administration acquiesced to the demand for a “second front” through France. That' decision undoubtedly stands forth as the greatest strategical blunder in American history and has brought us to our greatest peril. It gave Russia the mastery of the future. It was perfectly obvious that while we would be fighting through France, Russia would be occupying everything In Eastern Europe including Eastern Germany. It should have been equally obvious that Russian insistence on that front was dictated by her inflexible purpose to seize and to hold ail that territory as her own. We are now reaping the deadly harvest of that blunder. Is it sensible to continue in power those who made these blunders? eS @ THIS criticism is not hindsight. I have before me a copy of a letter I wrote at that time predicting that, as a result of such strategy, the only result of the war would be to exchange German for Russian aggression. If Gen. Marshall objected to these blundering decisions he should make them public. Otherwise, he is equally responsible and should not
. be continued in any responsible role affecting
foreign policy,
‘Brewing Political Stew’ By Theo. B. Marshall, 1114 Tecumseh St. As the days grow shorter and cooler, politics grow louder and hotter. Everything is filled to overflowing with words intended to hurt someone and help someone else. In this way they intend evil to do good. ! If not taken too seriously, it can become very. amusing. I can very well understand why one who makes his living from politics or is trying to make his living from politics would uphold anything the party sanctioned, but for an average voter to become so blind as not to see the faults and blunders of the party, especially when these faults are harmful to himself is beyond understanding. ® o ¢
THEN when this same voter attempts to -
smear the other side by misrepresentations and lies and displays such a lack of understanding and intelligence as sometimes appears in these columns, it makes one wonder. It's quite understandable that our officers should try to keep us in the dark. Right now they seem to think we are living in the realm of make-believe and would give us each a drum and a whistle and have us dance around the caldron while they call the tune and brew the political stew which outstinks anything the witches ever made, in spite of the ingredients. What we need is a lot of independent voters who wili vote for the men they think will do the most good for the greatest number of people. This is intelligent voting as opposed to political voting. : .
‘Loyal Leadership’
12:00—
|<
By An Indiana Mother If my boys have to give up promising careers and again go to war, I want them to have the benefit of support from leadership of unquestioned loyalty and outstanding ability. I want a general overhauling of the State
Department. The results of these men’s judg-
ment—whether deliberately traitorous or just plain stupid—are clear for all to see . . . MacArthur. and boys like my sons are heroically trying to salvage a situation for which our diplomats and politicians are only to blame. Should not Republicans and Democrats all insist that the Achesons, Lattimores, Jessups, Services, etc., be routed from their positions of influence? ot : : %
EUROPE . . . By Ludwell Denny Foreign Aid Crisis
Hoffman as chief of the Economic Co-operation Administration (ECA) comes at a bad time. His deputy and probable successor, William C. Foster, is. equally capable of administering the Marshall Plan, but lacks the Hoffman prestige at home and abroad.
The resignation of Paul @G.
MayRe he's never been taught to jump!"
.. 50 many women have stayed in —=—==—fgetories:— Another reason why"
s0 many have kept jobs is because the labor market has been short €ver since the war, with minor qualifications, and
plants have been content to -
keep the women working at a less efficient rate of produc
tion. el
: in» : JUST what this big recruitment of A is liable to do to the already
not yet under study by the Na-
tional Security Resources or the Women's Bureau. Miller. makes a pass at
Boa
SBE Ee NO a
erican housewives
the problem in a press release
~ by saying:
“It 18 necessary _ that those who must make decisions about the organization of the life of the nation under circumstances here assumed will mike certain things clear. Any plan for women's participation in a mobilized economy must recognize and make provision
for their other essential con-,
tributions to the life of th: nation. Mothers of young chil-
"dren and other women who
have fulltime family responsi-
. ‘bilities must have these basic Wes
ored” ~ >
This is a critical time for the project because of changing personnel, shifting policies to meet new situations, Congress’ increasing interest in foreign military rather than economic aid, and insufficient co-opera-tion by some foreign govern-
ments. = » »
MR. HOFFMAN'S ‘decision to quit is typical of the ECA personnel problem, especially in key posts. In the beginning, Congress insisted, and the President agreed, to man the organization with experienced and successful American businessmen. how Mr. Hoffman was chosen and how he, in turn, picked his associates and mission heads in foreign capitals. : Persuaded is a more accurate word than picked, because they could not easily leave their own businesses—many of them only recently had re-
were induced to go with ECA for one year. } ® » =
MOST of the original men
~—h#ve long since left, and their
places taken by others who
have left or must do so soon. .
Now the rearmament program
competes with ECA for such
men. ; "The rearmament program also competes for money and public interest. It is not that the Marshall Plan is unpopular: There is widespread official and public recognition of its suc-
sess in restoring’ European production to prewar levels and
above. :
It is credited with turning “back the tide of communism in
rips cess in aising production.
“Europe by:
That was"
turned from war work. They
standards and stabilizing currencies.
® 8 = : NEVERTHELESS, Congress now is more interested in mili-
tary aid. This is partly because .
of the very success of ECA in diminishing the need for economic aid. Another factor is American dissatisfaction with certain foreign governments which have failed to keep their part of the bargain for selfhelp. ’ Of course, the main reason is the Korean War, and the belated American awakening to the extreme lack of military preparedness of our European Allies as well as of ourselves.
»_ = o SO FAR Mr. Hoffman and other FECA defenders have managed to prevent unwise appropriation cuts. There is even a swing back here from the extreme position that military aid should replace economic
aid, and a new appreciation °
that the two are interdependent. Both are needed. But, as taxes rise and the fear of Soviet aggression grows, it is probably inevitable
that future economic aid will -
decrease faster than planned and be keyed more closely to military priority. : » This is opposed by most foreign governments. So ECA's job will be more difficult. :
* = = AT THE same time ECA is
nearing the crack-down cris
It must deal with the laggards. It has just cut its funds to
Greece and Is talking firmly to =
Italy. And the over-all problem its failure to reduce trade bar-
riers has been ximost as