Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 December 1950 — Page 16

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W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONB HENRY W. MANZ “President Editor Business Manager

PAGE 16 Friday, Dec. 22, 1950 Er hi ober gai aod. Sunder 10 | Ee FEHR

g Telephone Ri ley 858) Give [AONE an the People Will Ping Thew Owns Way

Another Good Year NE reason the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce oper"ates more effectively than many others is that year aftér year it is able to get top men in the community to work actively in its program. “It didn't lower those standards a bit in the elections completed this week. Frank Hoke has done an outstand-

ing job as president of the organization this past year. He:

is succeeded for 1951 by Ralph J. Fenstermaker, a man whose achievements in business and public service leave no doubt about the kind of job he will do in that office. “The Chamber of Commerce, and the community it serves, again is to be congratulated in having for its leader a man of the stature and ability of Mr. Fenstermaker, and in the quality of the board of directors it has chosen to back him for this coming year

Don't Waste More Time

E government's economic stabilizers now are trying to curb inflation by asking for a “voluntary” general freeze of all prices at Dec. 1 levels. Behind their appeal, to be sure, is a threat of compu sion. But they are not prepared to carry out that threat. Nomachinery is ready to enforce mandatory controls. “The lack of such machinery is not the fault of Alan Valentine, less than 10 weeks in office as head of the Econotffic Stabilization Agency. Certainly it is not the fault of Mike DiSalle, appointed Director of Price Stabilization only three weeks ago. + The “voluntary” price formula these gentlemen have devised is hard to figure out. Good-faith efforts to comply with it will be difficult, evasions of compliance easy. And as yet there has been no appeal for even voluntary control of wages which are a large factor in business costs and prides. “But don't blame the stabilizers-because they've had to improvise a poor substitute for the compulsory price-wage controls which were urgently needed even before Congress void authority for them almost four months ago. ~ = ” n LA “BLAME those, who, ignoring all the lessons of experfence in World War II, refused to recognize that urgent need. “Long after Korea made the deadly menace of Commubist aggression plain for all to see, the government's offidial economic advisers maintained that mandatory controfs would not be required. ~ Until very lately, the administration clung’ to the thebry that a gradual rearmament effort would be sufficiegt; that higher taxes and credit controls could restrain infigtionary pressures created by such an effort; that, at mot, only a few selective controls might have to be applied. { That's why enforcement machinery is not ready now when the rearmament effort must be vastly and swiftly increased and when the headway of inflation is so dangerousy so clearly evident, that the government has to acknowledge the necessity for across-the-board controls, at least of prices.

: Precious time has been lost while the government was.

coming to the point of asking voluntary compliance with general controls. No more time should be wasted by failureito set up with all possible speed the enforcement ma-

chitery necessary to make compulsory controls more than

an gmpty threat.

Scram, Wu

AFRARIAN reform must be paying off in China. Yon ‘know agrarian reform-—the thing Chinese Communists were supposed to have been doing: ‘Dividing up the land, bettering the lot of tite peasant and proving’ gener ally that capitalism was poison. “Well, the so-called representative of the so-called “People's Government” of Red China departed from our own backward country this week, loaded down: with a monumental collection of horrible capitalistic goods for himself and.his delegation. Included were $150 tailored suits, orchids, cameras, radjos, record players and records, kitchenware and books on gtomic energy and economics (of all things). 2 To pay for the excess poundage, leader Wu carelessly peeled off a couple of $1000 bills from a fat bankroll, then handed out $100 bills as tips to his United Nations chauffeurs. Such money was accumulated, no doubt, from having improved mass living conditions in China. “«And—as a crowning touch—while Chinese Reds, who have swarmed across their border are killing Americans in a bloody, unwanted and undeclared war which Mr. Wu

refises to help stop, he wished us all “a merry Christmas

and.a happy New Year.”

The Moscow Cure

PpALMIRO Togliatti of Italy is the latest Communist leader _ “to be summoned to Moscow to take the cure. : #It ‘is just a coincidence, perhaps, that three other

or »

. European Communist big shots have vanished into Russia

forshealth purposes, in prompt response to the Kremlin's command. {They are Maurice Thorez, France's No. 1 Red, Wilhelm of Germany and Aksel Larson of Denmark, all of whom have been judged worthy of prolonged treatment.

- » . » . . SSEVERAL interesting things have been Sappering to r Togliatti recently, any one of which might require tion of Moscow specialists. He's had a love affair a prominent Communist gal 27 years his junior; he

conked on the head by an automobile, and required a ~

speration; 2, more importantly, another Italian been making speeches insisting that he, is now the leader of Italy's Reds.

hay b be sent back to ed out that despite the Indiana

i ie hhh i b,ob A

. Seventh District, kept the

. he had intended saying to him.

Allies will Get Tou

LONDON, Dec. 22--If West Germany rejects the Allied offer of friendship and a defense al-

Hance, as threatened, the Allies are prepared to.

get tough. The North Atlantic Council! meeting here instructed the Big Three high commissioners who are opening negotiations with the Bonn government to act in a spirit of give and take, without fixed terms and ready to meet all reasonable German demands.

_But any attempt at German blackmail, such °

as is currently expressed in public speeches and editorials, will find the Allies hardening. They take a dim view_of the mounting propaganda in West Germany that this conflict is simply between the Allies and Russia and therefore Germans shouldn't become “cannon fodder.” aa

THE theory that West Germany in the event of war can play safe as a neutral, and escape destruction by letting Red armies ‘march through Belgium and France, isn't such a decisive bargaining point with the Allies as supposed. On the contrary, it's considered an absurd

"mixture of bluff and stupidity. Granted that

many totalitarian-conditioned Germans in their present mood would rather live as Stalin's slaves than fight in self-defense, no such alternative exists. They can’t trade freedom for ‘safety because there would be no safety for Germany if Russia attacked the West. Geography and the Ruhr industrial prize decree otherwise. It’s doubtless true that, without German troops, Allied Occupation Armies soon would be driven back across the Rhine by Russian aggressors—and that the Reds would then devastate France and the other countries instead of West Germany.

PRICE CONTROLS . . . By Earl Richert

Industry Yells U. S. Is Unfair

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—The government is finding that price roll backs are easier for the other fellow. CE This situation, at least, applies to the Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC),

The RFC says it can't roll back the recently

increased prices of synthetic rubber—a key material in national defense-—because raw material and labor costs have risen too much. This argument sounds like that made by General Motors and the West Coast Oil Refiners who are fighting a price roll back to Dec. 1 levels. Chief difference is that the government's Economic Stabilization Agency (ESA) isn’t holding a club over its sister agency, the RFC.

Would Go in Red

THE price increases in synthetic rubber were much greater than in any of the private industry products' with which the government price stabilizers have so far concerned themselves. The increase on one grade of synthetic rubber, effective Dec. 7, amounted to 12 per cent and on another to 32 per cent. Asked what he intended to do about the

¥SA’s appeal to hold voluntary the Dec. 1 price’

levels, RFC Chairman W. Elmer Harber said: “Nothing.” He explained: “We can’t roll them back without going in the red and putting the burden of producing synthetic rubber on the taxpayer. The new prices are designed to return just enough to cover costs, We're trying to operate on a basis of no loss and no profit.”

No Profit Made Tidgr

A SPOKESMAN far the price agency said the new “pricing standards” would not prohibit price increases by RFC since no profit was being made on the product involved. RFC officials make much of the point that synthetic rubber prices had been held at 18'j3 cents a pound from the start of the program in early World War II until this month. The new prices are 24%; cents a pound for one grade and 20% cents a pound for another. Only a few months ago, natural rubber prices were lower than synthetic. Now natural rubber prices are hovering around 65 cents a pound. Despite the arguments justifying the synthetic rubber increase, industries feel that the government is in no different situation than they are. General Motors has referred repeatedly to the government's own rubber price action in defending its now suspended increase of about five per cent 1951 model autos.

MAKE LIFE" WORTHWHILE

THIS world of ours could do without . .-. many and many a thing ... like frowns and . and the misery they bring y should prevail is love... for each)and everyone . . webs of kindness should be . or If the chance presents itself . .. eachvone should spread some cheer ... and radiate from heart to heart . . . goodwill that is so dear , ,. and then I'm sure . . . that this old world . . . would always wear a smile . . .

and each unto the other make . ... the other's :

life worthwhile. —By Ben Burroughs.

‘DEAR BOSS .

with pneumonia.

So his new Indianapolis law partner, Rep. James E. Noland,

defeated Démocrat from the back in 19486. White House date, accompanied by Rep. John R. Walsh, this Fifth District Democratic- lame duck, In a few days, however. Mr. Jacobs was out from under the oxygen tent and writing Harry ocratic 8. Truman some of the things ~ - ~ THE keynote of the Jacobs letter was to warn the President against “appeasement.” = go. n That word took on a& new meaning as Mr. Jacobs spelled it out, He maintained that it was appeasement of the newspapers and the so - called “China Firsters” in the Republican Party that landed us in the Korean mess. >

sheriff lost

tended.

issues” and

+ and we should prac-

. By Dan Kidney Jacobs Warns Harry About ‘Appeasement’

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—When the time came for Rep. Andrew Jacobs, defeated Indianapolis Democrat, to keep an appointment with President Truman at the White House and say farewell, he was in the Naval Hospital in nearby Bethesda, Md.,

Compared with that off-year, the GOP gains time were minute, the Jacobs letter said.

- ” » MR. JACOBS wrote the President the debacle in Indiana, where he and four other Demfreshmen lost seats, could be attributed to “scandals in Lake and Allen Counties, disloyalty of our National Committeeman and an incompetent Senatorial cangi-

A dishonest Cook County the Democratic ticket in Illinois and another ‘incompetent’ candidate for the ticket in Ohio, Mr, Jacobs con-

Such matters were

But in that Alle retest, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower would be forced to a scorched-earth and German what was left would be subject to a type of Allied bombing with which the Germans are familiar—even apart from the atom bomb,

are aware that a country

goguery. But they think the Germans at ‘least

have learned something from costly experience,

that most of West Germany would rather fight

than suffer the fate of East Germany, now

SE ————

“| for freedom and survival

ert he S a (RM

THE OLD DAYS

By Frederick C. Othman

Gather ‘Round, Boys, Let Us Pray That We'll See No More of OPA

~~ WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—The cynical, suggestion has been made that the government is setting up a new OPA for the sole purpose of giving me a subject for funny Pleces in the paper. Perish the thought. I hear tell, without being able to confirm it, printed. With that ration books already have been airplane stamps in ‘em, I bet, for use in_buying shoes. If the present so--called - voluntary controls don't work— and such iweetness-and-light ideas .never have panned out yet — then a 1951 OPA is a lead:- pipe cinch. Gives me the shud- . ders. Let. us, memories. Chester Bowles and his charts. These came in designs of lightning flashes, striped barber poles, writhing snakes, little men with the last man. cut in half, mountains, cart wheels, sliced pies, and checkerboards. They might have been amusing to.read about, but ~the poor devils trying to figure ‘em out weren't laughing. Then there was the time toward the end of the war when I wandered into a “steakeasy” not far from the White House. In front was a ‘hamburger stand, with a peephole was a paneled dining room

refresh our I remember one item I did about

as the lawyers say,

where . well-heeled. heels could have all the . —sirloin steaks, genuine butter, and sliced ham

they wanted.

their

President

An ardent admirer of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Mr. Jacobs told the President to hang on to him and not appease the GOP or the papers any surther. President Truman issued a formal statement at His press conference Tuesday saying

that is exactly what he intends

to do, The Jacobs Jetter ‘also point-

~ feelings

shouldn't harbor any guilty about them in the departing Marion County Congressman’s opinion. ¥ » » = “A. BIPARTISAN foreign policy is very desirable,” Mr. Jacobs: wrote, “But this does

not mean that the Srposition agreement. If you aie. in 3 to .

that now, you might as

—

"It never fails to cheer me up when |

in back through a door

EMT

One of the customers, to my amazement,

was a United States Senator, who (to make it .

even worse) was engaged at the time in an investigation of black marketing. Well do I remember the complete dry-goods store that The W. T. Grant Co. set up in the House office building to prove to the Congressren how highbinders were taking advantage of

* the OPA to cheat the customers. The general idea was that an old-line brand of union suits, _

for instance, was held by law to a price of $1.10,

but that a new manufacturer of the same neces-

sities could produce 'em of sleazy materials and sell them, say, for $2.85. So the good underwear inevitably disappeared from the market. "And there was Sen. Homer Capehart (R. Ind.) protesting on the fact that his own union suits had so many holes they looked like lace curtains. That was nothing, said Sen. Homer Ferguson (R. Mich.), the munitions workers of Detroit were so bereft of shorts that they were wearing ladies’ nylon panties.

No Hips? No Good

THIS struck me as a desperate expedient and 1 purchased in the ladies’ department of my favorite haberdashery a pair of pink pants, size 40 waist. These I tried on in the men’s dressing room, only to discover that I couldn't keep 'em up. This was because they were built to fit wider hips than a mere man possesses. That made a funny story, all right, but I doubt if it seemed hilarious to the Senator's Jacy-panted friends in Michigan. Toward the end of the OPA the black marketeers kept most of official Washington busy. Well do 1 remember the ex-gangster from Brooklyn who organized his own ste¢l company to sell ‘cola rolled sheets at nearly three times their: OPA prices. I did a piece about him, too, and , he didn't like it. He phoned to say that he thought _he'd just have one of his torpedoes shoot me. I got no giggles from that. 80 -when the new OPA is established, probably under another alphabetical name, I'll be doing. stories for the paper about it. If they should sound funny, dp not even smile. Just think

again, and weep.

SIDE GLANCES

By Galbraith

Workers argue that if these controls are to work they must be on adn “all or none”

Motors, in arguments Wednesday before the Wage Stabilization Board,

points:

.. Hving index

INDUSTRY .

pasis. General go

made these 7

- “Mr. Reuther “The cost of , , , about ‘face

is made up of 40.6 per cent for food items, 124 per cent for

wearing apparel, 12.5 per cent for rent, 5.1 per cent for fuel,

under Red rule. Certainly, West Berliners have © - demonstrated where they stand. Therefore, the Allies believe W political, cultural and labor leaders, if they can turn the public away from dangerous lusions of neutralism-pacifism-revenge ins by demagogues. ‘It's recognized here that Kurt Schumacher, Socialist Party boss, is the key. In the heat of politics this leader of the: powerful ‘opposition party probably has gone further than he intended. Neither his sincerity nor his anti-come munism is doubted. There's hope he can be . persuaded that the Allies are acting in good faith and reciprocate. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer favors close alliance with the West as Germany's only hope. - But the swing of public opinion in the fall elections forced him to bow at least temporarily to anti-rearmament sentiment. The present German demand for “full equality” as the price of joining the Western Alliance will be granted by the Allles as raply : as possible. but it can't be done overnight. On - the Politica) level the Allies are ready to hasten

n_ occupied 1o IOVEICIRI

coun try.

On a military level equality will be granted in principle, but can’t be applied completely in

practice until rearmament has progressed. The Allies feel that since German troops

Bre

oo an 77

would be solely in the Eisenhower army—and

not also in a separate national army—there’s no need for a German general staff. Schumacher ‘and other anti-militarists should be anxious to prevent revival of a German general staff,

2 2

LIKEWISE, in military aviation, the Allies

are willing that the Germans have planes for

The less discussed industrial issue may prove mor= difficult. German aggression was based on an armament industry which the Allies can’t forget. Nevertheless, they're willing to increase

of light arms,

steel production and permit the manufacture

Another sore point will be paying for the

German army. The Germans want free de. . fense. They object to Allied occupation costs, They owe the United States about $4 billion on that score plus about an equal sum for civilian relief. Now they want a “fully equal army” of their own, but they don’t want to pay for it, The Allies, however, think all these difficult problems can be worked out together in a spirit of partnership if German leaders can throw off the inferiority complex and arrogance of a beaten nation and co-operate, The chances are believed to be 50-50.

'l do not agree with a vord that yeu say, but. 1 wil defend to the death your right to say it."

‘What Does GOP Want?’ By F. M., City WONDER whom the Republicans will start on after, and if, they succeed in getting rid of Secretary of State Acheson? For there will have to be someone for them to hound in order to keep themselves in ‘the limelight and to keep

. the people from looking at their very bad

legislative records... ..

It is extremely difficult for me to understand °

just ‘what it is the Republicans want in regard - to foreign relations. They profess they want to’

fight communism in Asia, yet they made the at

Korean War an issue in the election. They vote, against every bill to aid Allies in Europe. They have protested that we should include Franco in our plans. If such a bill would be introduced,

they would vote against it, on the basis of their

past record. They were against aid to Greece and Turkey, yet no investment has paid “as excellent dividends as our aid to Turkey. They don’t say much about that, of course, for in that they have been proved to be wrong. ¢ & *

THERE is no doubt that politics is playing ~*’

a heavy hand in the drafting of manpower which we need so badly. We should have had

universal military training, as the President

has repeatedly stated, all these years. It is not popular, of course, no draft is going to be

popular. No draft is going to be easy and free Lo

from hardships. Taking men out of their homes and off their jobs is going to hurt, but no one .

can tell us how we can protect our country y

without soldiers. All we can do is be as fair and democratic about it as we can.’

My personal feeling is that we should set an n

age limit which the Arniy feels is best from the

standpoint of use in the field, then draft every- ...:

one in that age group, regardless of his marital or social status, exempting only those who are absolutely essential in some war factory, those : who have already served in the armed forces, and ‘those who have invalids depending upon them. I fail to see why a wife's tears are any-

justice of some déferments and the politics that enter into it that causes so much bitterness.

. 8.»

Automobile

ent policy, v know, “why don't they do something about steel, rubber,

that go into automobiles?” The : union leader made a lengthy argument on this despite his = recent declarations that added. costs in making automobiles - could be absorbed by the come’ panies from their profits. .The only effective method, Mr. Reuther declared, is:

WALTER REUTHER, presis bY dent of the Auto Workers" Union, also opposed the press. and wanted to

" more impressive than a mother’s. It is the ihe

. By Fred Perkins ~~ Economic Stabilization Due for Bigger Jolts

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22—Efforts of the government to proe duce economic stabilization may be in for further unsettling jolts, -. Other big industries are said to be preparing to follow the lead of important automobile manufacturers, assisted by the ‘powerful labor union in their plants, in resistance to so-called, “gelective” control over prices and wages. Spokesmen for General Mo--tors, the Ford Motor Co., and the CIO United

- 5 bei Py § > 2

textiles and other products A

> “a

- %

Rides

through “an overall price program. The people are concerned

about the main items in .the <«

and rent. Until the government takes them on we're just kidding ourselves that we have

family budget—food, clothing"

"we Po sit you—yoly re oy.

much more discouraged than | am!" : /

happened if. instead of writing a letter to a music critic, Harry 8. Truman, instead of

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, had . made the statement ‘we will have the bave home from

his underslung pipe and"

showed up at his office. He

also paid a $191.25 hospital bill

to prove that the service to

4.7 per cent for household 24.7 per cent for

all other items. Only 25 per cent of the entire index is

aceounted for by fhe prices of passenger cars.

“Freezing the of auto-

mobiles at the 2 sg 1 level (as Sta

Congressmen Befe Asn all for ir

inflation coming under con~ = trols.” pas ~The Auto Workers’ Union is Ak concerned with the possibility that frozen prices on automobile might op to

a i al iu

GENE the rollbacl Bet yo General Mo GM sir tinue to gc would stag losses. And whe

fnto a posit make a fair didn’t wait t coming, anc everything ui stood.

What I th that the gov its blueprint:

‘and the ni "AND IF ¥

when, it will government set up to ha appeals. The price | trols will be

‘And meats a

4 ONE FRE] inequities th will move qi out to keep from falling We are he World War

will take fror

to stitch it |

That Wa

DOWN AI

sity they tell

business inde no better ti they ought t« What hap side work, bite of winte vious Nover relatively hi,

4 TU FOUNI men have 1 that the go money to ma very little of amount vote - JU says } still exceedin ting is mildly

a trip throu

store today.

Baby A MAN Ci: little out of excited, but | He was H Delaware St his

their pennie: count in a when he m their money

“4 branch bank

He told mo all about ti bank, how money, orl Ie the ways in WHEN H) to the windc youngest wh up couldn’t teller said st cept account That was Ward to exp the child sal the $3 still our money

YOU GET