Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 February 1951 — Page 23

he Indianapolis Times

"A SORIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

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ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE = HENRY W. MANZ

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EDITOR'S NOTES . . . By Walter Leckrone

Take Another Look—Freeze

FAR FROM “stabilizing” wages, the federal wage “freeze” actually is going to force wages

“trozen” wage rates, a growing amount of “job shopping” and a trickle of actual new turnover.

Seaway project before his House committee. Since he is a man of sound common sense,

‘Hasn't Put Wages On Ice

right. But it would be hundreds of miles from any industries or population that could use it. To

SUNDAY

Washin New Und

0 Busi Manager Bdner uses ge! up in many fields. gor heory the problem is {SiPposed Jo be han- that will probably add up to a vote against the be Of valup oH Sansporied by Sunday, Feb. 11, 1951 Iready beginning in Indian- y federal machinery through which “wage project. PAGE 24 Wy a ap ae process is already beginning adjustments” . . . a government phrase meaning The St. Lawrence Seaway, Pletureq as a way thousands of pedple would hive to be ove . ne rt i a raise . .. can be made by getting approval for to make seaports out of cities like Gary an n v Ro 0S gO and PUR dl BY Sone 0 | Meinber of Employer A, let us say, has 10 men doing = To" os lh, governmental authorities. Ac- Milwaukee and Detroit, has been offered to al- interests, including union statisticians, have fig a - ew! er Alliance. NEA Serv- approximately the same kind of work. One or 8 United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspap PP tuall h hi ist d t Cc ss since the late Twenties, ures to show it would be cheaper to dig co ice and Audit Bureau of Circulations s two of them, because of skill and competence or ‘ually no such machinery now exists, an Tost. every, l-ongress ' and haul it where power is needed and convert Price in Marion County, 8 cents a copy for datiy ana 10c long service, draw $75 a week each. The others, workers and employers who had experience . and always turned down. wand nd A thar, to transport this Tiydro- Tu nr tor. Sunday: delivered by ‘carrier daily and Sunday. x # |ogq skilled Or newer, get maybe $65, or $60 each. With its occasionally whimsical and always very It has two alms, One ls to carry inland it nto electricity than 10 tatiapoyt, tH hy lio week, dally only, 26¢, 4 inday only, 106. Mall raves i nda Empl A is Torbiaden 1o.raise the pay of slow operation in World War II days expect freight directly into ocean commerce by ship. elec po : » Nea only, $500; all other states, U. 8, possessions, Canada and umployer 8 for ie the pay very little from that direction. The other is to provide huge quantities of cheap much of it is lost en route. Mexico. dally $1.10 a month. Sunday. 10c a copy any of the men. So the lower Paid workess, with INDIANA freshman Congressman William electri¢ power. Both sound fine until you look e ® " oo . RB > Telephone R! ley 5551 © no hope of getting an increase where they are, p..y of Martinsville was reported this week at them. THERE already is a “seaway” that permits WA : ; go over and get a job with Employer B. Nothing. ;xing a long hard look at the St. Lawrence The electric power could be produced, all ocean-going vessels to come right into Great ASHI Give light and the People Will Find Their Own Way prevents hin paying a higher wage, so long as ig Lakes cities from the seven seas, and while it costing mill I it isn’t higher than the highest he already is won't pass a luxury liner it is deep enough to paying others on the same kind of work, So he Th h h ’ accommodate the ordinary small ocean freight- land-Pennsy puts them on at $75. Employer A, meanwhile, roeug e ges By J. Hugh Oo Donnell er. As many as 10 or 12 ships a year do come Tunneli Abraham Lincoln replaces the men who have left him at the best i in. They rarely have been able to find cargoes, ht : fate he can legally offer, likely i Rot getting FULLER HIRI AT] ITH either in or out, to justify the journey, which sought. : 5 “ ’ em from Employer B's lower pald ranks. {| is why it isn’t used extensively now. Making Defense M and Nancy Lincoln and the old “granny woman, In the end they've traded workers, but now 8 it bigger would hardly change that. Signal Corp: - Aunt Peggy Walters, warmly welcomed Abe into this: the men all draw more money, the less compe- Biggest obstacle, of course, is the fact that world Feb. 12, 1809 . . . a world of blood and battle . . . tent men getting as much, or nearly as much as the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River thousands o . the more competent. freeze up in winter, and are impassable for ships mountain re where the 155UCs stood as clearly as they do today. : >» of any size for at least six months of every year. in Gettysb His cousin, Dennis Hanks, gave the squalling Abe a WHERE that happens the “freeze” not only” Since freight must move all year railroads haves n ysbur different kind of greeting: “He'll never come to much.” hasn't frozen, but actually has raised wages, vo 1 [ks lo be juaintained anyway, aid have ls ave Best. 'g But he did. He rose from a patch of dust i tral Ren. Promoted costly.turnover and put a premium of a faa operation of . p n cen incompetence, or at least a penalty on com- \ enough without them. They®would still have ttacked tucky to take the helm of a young, rugged nation, then petence. : - | %4Y \ FSS IN NE to be maintained If this project were completed, attacked. suffering growing pains. The federal government itself is contributing J Foil) | PH ad be Jone yoy aie. sumer ration . to the problem in Indianapolis by announcing i 8 ’ 1 8» He led that nation through war to unity and became plans to employ large numbers of office workers | ET ready exist into Churchill, on Hudson Bay north Democrat: 8 y t bst ree high h 1 i! i ‘of Winnipeg, and some volume of wheat moves In I St 0 ntrov ; th i ; ov : at wages substantially higher than prevailing PW SL ’ n lowa, al one of the Rot col io osial hames i its history: The wily rates here for the proposed new Army Finance \ y AR A out of there, chiefly to Liverpool. Although houncement a politician vs. the sincere humanitarian. Center at Ft. Benjamin Harrison. If this new 0.1 that route is theoretically open all year actually Pries Sta] Every town of any size has its cluster of Lineoln ex- Project. as federal offices usually do, employs | NE pong - Ehrougls ue Huson Sas hi for : ; about three times as many workers as are re- Yj ; 8 100 hazardous. to be practical. perts. Scores of books have been written about every phase quired to do the work there is to be done, those ¢ 0) D € | BN) IA Expenditures now asked are relatively small, Justice De Yet there is no satisfactory answer telling us - jobs will be quite attractive, and the resulting 1 would barely Start est, which Jronany will set up . > og shortage in Indianapolis business will be acute. would cost aroun ons to complete, an handle enfor how this man of common stock ascended the nation’s most Employers here already report considerable BG d T involve great quantities of critically scarce la- like justice's coveted position. intrest: among employees theoretically under i . bor and materials. handles cases » 2:8 n ERY ea Internal Re EDITORS annually dip into Lincoln lore and apply a DEAR BOSS By Dan Kid i WY BIH Uibul torent HOOSIER FORUM— . Socrates a ” literary gem to current affairs. Politicians daily propound - - - By UJan Ridney ith CUI amb slo matin i IT ¢. cutions hand legislation with Lincoln thrown in for good measure. His- | Wage Fa Le Promi Ses attorneys, Price Boss

torians constantly root through aged documents to sift

truth from myth. And lawyers fight their cases with the great emancipator beside them. :

X

But to most Americans Lincoln is not a matter of business or research. He's a symbol of what it means to be an

Unshakable faith in his country and his convictions. Unselfish dedication to basic human freedoms. Unquestioning trust in God. Determination without malice, fear or claim to glory. ; American thought is now clouded by fear, prompted possibly by too much security and too little individuality. An antidote to this fear and a means of securing world leadership can be had by a rededication to the principles coveted by a simple, homely man—Abe Lincoln.

he Truth About Welfare “HE MOVE of 100 responsible representatives of Indianapolis civic groups to get the truth about Marion County

welfare before the public is a good one. We hope it succeeds.

Wild charges about welfare administration here have been bandied about for days and have even reached the state legislature.

Every one of them, in every case that could be identified and investigated, has proved to be entirely false.

They had to be investigated, though, outside the Welfare department. State law now forbids Welfare department officials revealing the facts that could so readily spike these fantastic fabrications. It even undertakes to forbid newspapers revealing such facts . . . although of course no newspaper with the courage to justify its existence, or with the slightest shadow of confidence in its Constitutional guarantees of freedom, ever has hesitated to publish them or ever has been challenged for State and county employees, however, can be punished if they make such things public. Strafigely, the very statute designed to hide from the taxpayer what is being done with his money now hampers the defense of those who have to handle the money.

~ 5 # 5

THE “secrecy” law was forced on Indiana and some other states by federal New Deal bureaucrats of the “tax and spend and elect” school, and they still cling to it. Elsewhere on this page Dan Kidney quotes the defense of Oscar Ewing, who infers it came about because the late Gov. Davey of Ohio improperly used the names of relief clients for political purposes. There is no doubt that Gov. Davey did, but Mr. Ewing overlooks first, the fact that the regilation already existed before he did it, and second, that it wouldn't prevent him, or any governor, from doing it now. Politicians who are in office do have access to those names . « +» only the “outs” are actually forbidden to see them. - Whether or not abuses in welfare spending exist . . . and

Fwing Defends [lleasatm i

Woe'fare Stand

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10—Federal law and

not the Foderal 8ccurily Agancy prevents making the names of recipiénts of U. 8. financed assistance pub.i¢, FEA Administrator Oscar R.

Ewing declared today. He spelled out his .gency’s reaction to charges of “bureaucratic bullying” made in connection with bills pending in the Indiana legislature to make recipients names public in one way or another. Any such measures would be contrary to the federal law and deprive the state of U. 8. funds Mr. Ewing explained in a four-page statement, of his side of the case. ! Hep. Charles B. Brownson, Indianapolis Republican, hag a bill drafted to repeal she 1938. Social Security Law amendment which precludes such publication of names. - 2 Mr. Ewing explained how the law ‘ame to be amended, using the “horrible example” of the late Democratic Gov. Martin L. Davey as an example of what can happen when names of pension recipients and others are accessible. The net of the "Davey abuses was co impress upon the recipients the idea that if they didn’t vote for his re-election as Rovernor their funds would be cut off. Citing the amended statute, Mr. Ewing stated that this does not mean that programs, as such, ‘may not be investigated and publicized but that persons receiving assistance must be protected.

Taxpayers’ Concern

“THERE can be no question that the various aspects of social security are matters of vital public concern,” Mr. Ewing said. “As regards the federal-state public assistance programs, they

are nf concern not only to the beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries but also to the taxpayers.

“However we believe that indiscriminate publicity would. not promote but would hamper efficient administration and would impose needless humiliation and insecurity on public assistance recipients . . . : “Indiana Senate Bill requires the filing of lists of the names and addresses of recipients of old age assistance with the county auditor, the county council and the prosecuting attorney four times a year. It also adds a new section to the welfare law making it unlawful to misuse the lists. But how this would avoid the evils that Congress was seeking to prevent, it is difficult to see.

“The Federal Security Agency not only has no desire to discourage, but actually wishes to encourage, the State of Indiana taking all proper measures to prevent old age assistance payments being made to persons not entitled thereto. When. however, a proposed measure is in direct conflict with a duly enacted law of Con gress, then it is our clear duty to insist on adherence to the federal law. If the state objects to adhering to the federal law, then the state’s proper course is to ask Congress to change the law rather than criticize the Federal Security Agency for doing its duty.”

YER RU [add i ih Vos

Zz _ oF Je

Click, Click . . . By Frederick C. Othman It May Be Just Ordinary Snow But Why Does My Stomach Glow?

McLEAN, Va., Feb. 10-80 now that we've got atomic snow, my stomach has interior lighting in blue-white neon, and if the U. S. Bureau of Standards has got its geiger counters on the drifts out front, I'd be pleased «if it kept the results to itself.

Even now I hear

i. a humming noise ~~ Hie. from those atoms .~ £ yg down below my I : “at Adam's apple. 'm _— ~ afraid to open my / “WY

mouth on account of the headlight effect. Gad. Those scientists said our current snow was radioactive, all right, but not dangerous. Why, added one 4 of these test-tube’ gents after examining the beautiful white, this atomic snow was so harmless that he wouldn't mind eating some of it. He didn’t. I did. Even as he was peering at the snowflakes for their X-ray action, my bride was burrowing into a large drift behind the kitchen, as is her custom. for the main ingredient of what she calls snow ice cream. She came in with a large pan of snow. Into this she poured ‘somié milk, some cream, .some sugar and a slug of vanilla, Then she stirred, quickly. I had a large dish of this. It tasted elegant, as usual. I had a second helping.

At the moment I suppose I am the only radioactive man this side of Las Vegas, Nev. I'm afraid to walk by the Bureau of Standards in Washington. I'd surely throw out of kilter every Geiger counter in the place. That is not all. I came within an ace of being atomic snow-

bound. If I hadn't made the mistake of buying a snow plow to fit my tractor last August, I'd be sitting in front of the fire now, not worrying about anything. But I bought the blame thing. Half the day I spent’ hitching it to the tractor; the other half I spent; plowing. The second coldest place there is, I guess, when it is 8 above zero is the driver’s seat of a tractor. No windshield. No heater. Not even any floor. The No. 1 coldest spot is beneath this same tractor, reversing the drawbar and hitching up the linkage to the snow blade. The trouble with tractors is that®the pieces fit together with large bolts and nuts. Somehow these always turn out to be rusty. The colder the weather the harder they move and sometimes I wish I lived in an efficiency apartment. . But I did get the pieces all strung together. I did manage to start the engine (with the aid of the crank), and what if my knuckles are dripping blood?’ I plowed that snow from my road with the greatest of ease, just ilke the advertisements say. It looked like. plain snow to me as I piled it into windrows in the gutters; I saw no atomic sparks, no mushroom cloud. . Bo Click-click-clickety-click. That's me, is all, scientists, digesting my atomic ice cream.”

cies, parking meters and chuc

_ Involves

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nelson P. Swift, Perry Township trustee, pens a reply to William Book’s letter of last week concerning citycounty merger and annexation. MR. EDITOR: The term city-county consolidation, certainly as William H. Book, Chamber of Commerce, puts’ it, is not descriptive of the solution of the growing pains of Marion County, Its use should cause many people to freeze up when they think of past promises. Many of the people living in the fringe areas used to live .. in the city, but they swallowed all the false promises they | could and decided to migrate | to the wide open spaces. Here they are free from high taxes of a do-nothing city govern- ; ment. They have found an es-. 5 cape from boss politics, cor ruption in law enforcing agen

holes... Hers : The answer to the annexa-$ tion or consolidation question making a decision satisfactory to all the people involved, and I don't think that can be done by either method. * ¢ ‘CONSOLIDATION will only increase the magnitude of government sickness, and it is only a prescription, and not a cure. Annexation is only a stooge for consolidation, and ine

ORR

Mr. Swift

variably creates disappointment.

Until the city is able to give its citizens needed services, annexation can’t do the trick. The city would like to have them go along and help pay the taxes for services they probably can receive in 20 or 30 years. The slow progress Indianapolis has made in the last 10 years is indicative that some force is detrimental to its going ahead. However, I favor the idea of research and for the betterment of our daily living. ¢ o o WHO IS crying for this gratuity from an overburdened city government? Not the so called fringe area peoples. Perhaps it is Mr, Book who lives in one of these perilous areas. Why did he migrate to the rural area and why his partiality for a city he doesn’t live in? The administration of our government in this nation comes from ali the people and their elected officers, and no self-styled intelligencia should be allowed to dictate the manner in which another group should be governed. Now if the projections placed before the people were to become a reality in any reasonable time, then annexation might not be as painful as it has in the past. T > & $ 00 LET US take an area near Mr. Book. What has the city done for the people in University Heights in the last 26 years? Nothing, until recently. Now they are getting a small drain pipe which will not take care of the socalled perilous sanitation problem. . To increase the autonomy of local governmental units, permitting them to have the same rights as cities and towns, would come closer to solving governmental problems than »ither consolidation or annexation. 3 ~—Nelson P. Swift, Trustee of Perry Twp.

Salle is unhap ment set-up b to White Ho trial will cor cerned — inclu that OPS mus to prosecute own. DiSalle cites attorneys are Joaded; that plan any big e sonnel to han During Wor

. enforcement ¢

civil suits for restraining ord care of crimir Jets Outsl ONE OF the

side ‘news . fr jets, so far, hs

sian MIG 15s one. On pape up superior action, they'v

"five to every OI

Lt. Gen. Ge er, Far East mander, believ {s in the cock are better. FT MIGs and th our Sabres, he come would be Army’s try the Loki a1 antiaircraft g it'll have ah tracks and si jets flying ab Skysweeper } vice which ke ing on friend

Orders ‘Bl

DEFENSE ghall had to clamp on Arm ing rail strike lease, issued tc roaders’ “sick

ing defense, T¢€

of arms over: it would be un Marshall als was too much ger of amn shortages in F to all services, ed out such in be extremely enemy.

‘Alters Tac

STORY WA the time, but fense Secreta Rosenberg cal selling hersel military draft ghe went to testify for it. Senators—e had fought ! confirmation —

FOSTER’S FOLMES . . . By Ben Foster

Full Speed Astern’s Something We Spurn

UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.—The General Ass voting 44 to 7 to adopt the United States’

no single shred of evidence that they exist here has been produced . . . the very presence of such a law casts suspicion on every hidden operation.

" ” os u un = THERE ARE two schools of thought on the whole welfare and public relief program, with honest, and legitimate differences of opinion about it. Both are entitled to be heard, openly and calmly, and

at Mrs. Rose answers, othe: She ‘realized wrong, asked committee me He gave her & down, told h questions, ave much in answ massive char

STRIKES . . , By Peter Edson Boys Will Be Boys Experienced Men ER Needed in RR Fights

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10—Why didn’t the National Mediation Board machinery work to prevent the rail strikes?

ly, after resolution branding

Plainly this cannot be done in an atmosphere of shrieking groundless accusations, nor by hiding the facts. The bill now pending before the General Assembly, as currently amended, can contribute much to the sensible above-board. administration of public aid without infringing any right of the persons to be aided. We believe Mr. Ewing’s threats from Washington should be ignored and this measure enacted. : yom The civic group which has demonstrated its sincere interest in good welfare administration can render a great service by helping to make public the truth about this whole program.

How It Works

ITH the price-freeze order now two weeks old, food

prices have hit another all-time high and the prospect is for further advances in the next few months before they are “stabilized.” It is not hard to see why this is. administered thus far work somewhat like the insurance policy which was being sold on the Peter Lind Hayes tele- “ yision program the other night. : The salesman had a policy which paid $100,000 if a man got run over—by a buffalo, $200,000 if a man was run over by an automobile, Very’ liberal, conceded the prospective buyer, since the chances of being hit by a car. were much greater than by a buffalo. “Of course,” said one salesman, “the car must be driven + by, the buffalo.” ~~ : :

Price controls as

Then another which paid

»

able to handle most of the rail-

basic and underlying cause of this whole mess was that a griev-

ance was allowed to go for two years unsettled. Why? It would probably take a hotshot congressional investigating committee a winter's work to get at the answers. But a few facts seem to stand out. Without going too far back into railroad history, the starting point is the Railway Labor Act of 1934. This act was written by a conference of railway executives and railway labor leaders to bring industrial peace and

hearings

stability to the industry. It is 8.8 THIS QUICK background brings the case down to the recent emergency. goes back over two years. Late in 1948 the railway non-op-erating brotherhoods made a demand for a 40-hour week. This case went through NMB to a presidential émergency

still regarded as a good law. The main trouble now js that administration of the Rallway Labor Act seems graduaily to have been allowed to fall down. ” » ” IN THE early days of the Railway Labor Act, the government had good administrators. From 1934 to about 1941, the three members of the National Mediation Board were

board.

mendations,

way labor grievances themselves, In this period it was necessary to call on the gervices of only about one presidentially appointed emergency board a year, . Gradually, however, political lame ducks began to be appointed to the NMB as vacancles arose. Some of “the ap-

brotherhoods

neers,

boa 31 ener

about railroading. The result was that they couldn't settle railway labor grievances themselves, Presidential emergency boards had to be appointed in increasing numbers. year there were over 20.

THis started a trend. Instead of the Mediation Board doing its job itself, only preliminary were everybody rushed to the White House to get a presidential board to handle cases.

After making this panel." was hired by the railroads and the to help them work out the full agreement. In the meantime, erating brotherhoods—engifiremen, trainmen, switchmen and yardmen—had come in with their 40-hour-week demands. This case went through the Mediation Board with the usual expointees didn’t know anything press train speed and ended

In one

held. Then

n

It really

/ ila / in the lap of another presidential emergency board. Recommendations of this presidential emergency board, filed last June 15, failed to take Into consideration the gains already granted to the non-operating brotherhoods. It recognized. the 40-hour-week “ principle, but denied yardmen, trainmen and conductors pay demands on a new work-week

-

basis. ; *

its recom-

the op-

conductors,

. a ” n

session,

those

When the brotherhoods refused to accept these recommendations the case went back to the White House, where Presidential Assistant John R. Steelman’s two efforts at settlement ended in failure even after government seizure of the roads. The case is back in the NMB lap again, but who's really going to settle it remains to be seen. :

for the

his heel.

-

And after a long, lengthy

The United ‘Ndtions has done all we figured it would— They've charged Chou and Mao with aggression.

They moved to adjourn, let's hope they return To a straightforward course that's well beaconed. Just two things we'd spurn: One is full speed astern; The other a week-end that weakened.

YES, we've got to admit the Assembly has progress with the adoption of that resolution. And it didn't take 'em long to learn. Why, it may not be any time at all now before the United Nations gets around to realizing that Chinese Commies are not mere agrarian reformists. Some pessimists say that no concrete peace plan is likely to emerge from all this. Even so, nothing could be any worse *, than what we already have. : And a few of our allies” in all. this hassel are like the friend who helps you search half-dollar dropped. With chewing gum on

: - X. SPEAKING of losses, New York police are mystified by the sreport of a bass fiddle _ missing from a ‘locker in

us of the conductor of ‘a re- . turning excursion train. Exe asperated with the inability of a somewhat moistened picnicker, who ‘had searched pocket after pocket without result, ‘the trainman reprimanded, “Come, come, my good man, you couldn't have lost your ticket.” Whereupon the chap in the next seat wearily opened his eyes long enough to observe, “Heck he couldn’a. Lost his bass drum, didn’t ’e?”

THE DRUGGIST

THE average drugstore now-a-days . . , sells almost everything . . . from soup to nuts and back again .. , to birds that chirp and sing . , . but that is true only in part , . . for I am here to state , , , that where I buy my medicine , . . I can most highly rate . . . for my drugstore is run by one . . , who really knows his trade . . . for years he’s been established and .~ . his kind will never fade . . . the druggist that I speak about. . . works hand and glove with Bde . . , and he Is at your service when... it's midnight by the clock . . . his kind is a necessity... and that Is true I'm sure . . , for he will be: there when you're sick _. to help compound a cure,

—By Ben Burroughs

but

made some

you

os

a sane program evolved for meeting such human needs as With the country just now getting out from under its second Fed China as an aggressor, adjourned for the week-end. manner. the community is able and willing to meet with public funds. narrow escape of a complete rail transportation tie-up, that is the ere’s nothing like progress Results sh py 8 P number one question, For regardless of who is to blame, the ‘to make one feel good, Carnegie Hall. They remind Committee ¥

fn her corne grasp of mar

‘On the S

RACE FO scheduled in tween U. S. § tors (Demc and state in publican-contr into underwo New. York Cif Both Kefau mittee and C Committee, W! Hanley letter paign, have on New York Now Repul legislature, Ww of GOP Chi Pfeiffer, are look at rack ups. Democratic on a spot, wi they're trying resolution to New York citi have Republi tions.

IMW Op TROUBLE’ coal fields. United Mi starting a campaign, ha sessment whi million for