Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 February 1951 — Page 20

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The Indianapolis Times

A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPABRER

pon

)Y W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ President

Editor Business Manager PAGE 22 Friday, Feb. 16, 1951

BE wis abst bu rr

ice and A reau Th rh Hit? Dy 1 § 4 tac Hi ; x Hexion ca iL finer stages. & ar. & 0opy. Telephone RI ley 5651 Give IAght and the People Will Pind Thelr Own Way

Building Men . . . Not Mice 0 congratulations and good wishes go out to the 32 = - Indianapolis lads who will compete this evening in the final rounds of The Times Golden Gloves boxing tournament. Their path to those finals has not been an easy one. Long weeks of training have built their strength and endurance. Successive eliminatiop matches have tested and re-tested their skill. Of all the hundreds who started, 18 of these young men will be champions, tonight, in their various weights and classes, wearing crowns they have earned for themselves, by their own efforts. But those who win will not get all the benefits. All along the way these youths have learned the lesson of American sportsmanship . . . to win with modesty, or to lose with a smile, to fight hard, but fairly, to abide by the rules. . Above all, they have gained self-confidence, and selfreliance. Not one of them, even the losers in the very first round, need ever again cower timidly before a bully. They have learned the most essential lesson of manhood . . . how to defend themselves.

. . " » ” . THERE are now, as there have always been, a few long- *" haired sophisticates who profess to scorn the sport of boxing on the grounds that boxers get hurt. . Of course they get hurt. They get hurt, too, at football, and basketball, and boating and skating and racing and polo and fishing and hunting . . . we even recall one athlete laid up from a rousing game of ping-pong. Statistics, indeed, will show that more people get hurt in the bathtubs in their own homes than most anywhere else. . ; Should we drop every human activity that hazards a bump or a bruise? In spite of the concern of our intellectual panty-waists we rather believe most Americans are going go right on playing and taking baths, whatever the risks. Regardless of timorous shudders, not unmixed, it seems to us, with envy, humanity is hardly going to be advanced by trying to raise a generation of sissies. ‘This nation wasn't built . . . nor will it be defended . . . by men, who never learned to give a blow, or take one.

Help Needed

PRICE Director DiSalle and Economic Stabilizer Johnston ~ are talking frankly. 3 i Mr. DiSalle says he disagrees with those economists who believe prices may go up three points more in the next five months. He thinks they'll rise considerably more. { Mr. Johnston says there was much too long a delay in applying controls—that inflation gained “tremendous momentum” and can’t be halted suddenly. : i Both recognize that wages are cost elements in prices. : As Mr. DiSalle puts it, we can’t expect 1951 wages and 1046 prices. As Mr. Johnston says, prices haven't been rolled back because, for one reason, wages couldn’t be rolled back and because, for another, the administrative difficulties were too great. : ” - " . » » i BOTH say some specific rollbacks will be attempted later. Both regard their recent price-wage “freeze” as a femporary expedient, which will have to be followed by much thawing. Both believe their efforts can slow down inflation. But neither predicts that controls will stop it short or soon. i None of this means that Mr. Johnston and Mr. DiSalle are falling down on their job. 4 : It's not their fault that price controls are less effective than consumers wish them to be. Nor is it the fault of their Boss, Mr. Wilson, who became defense mobilizer less than two months ago. : Nobody could apply controls until President Truman gave the word. And he let inflation gain momentum fo: More than a year after Korea before giving the word. i Nobody can enforce controls without an adequate or ganization. Mr. Truman didn’t recognize the building of ar adequate organization until a few weeks ago. ; Food prices, biggest factor in the cost of living, can’ be held down if farm-product prices are free to rise. Con gress put into the law the gimmick forbidding price ceilings on farm products unless they're selling at or above parity. - Rising wages increase the cost of things farmers buy. That keeps “parity” moving upward and keeps price ceilings off many major farm products.

» ” " . ~ » ; RISING food prices give union labor reason for demanding that wages ‘‘escalate” in pace with the cost of living, and for backing the demand with its political power. : Congress boggles at the quick tax increase asked by

the President, although that is urgently needed as a curb

on inflation.

Mr. Truman and his Secretary of ‘the Treasury insist that the Federal Reserve System maintain a cheap-money market for government bonds, thus, according to many wise authorities, making the Federal Reserve “an engine of inflation.” , Yo : _ Mr. DiSalle and Mr. Johnston are trying bravely to do 4 terribly tough job. Théy don't, they couldn’t honestly, promise complete success. i To have any success, they must be given a lot better support fast by the President, by Congress, by agriculture, by labor, by industry, by all of us who will be hurt badly if they fail. fr

100 Per Cent Right -

PRESIDENT TRUMAN said yesterday that the House ~ Ways and Means Committee was endangering the suc¢ess of all efforts to curb inflation by delaying action on his

request for $10 billion in new taxes. dg . Truman was never mbre right. ii

DEAR BOSS . . . Dan Kidney School Boy's Idea Praised

Indianapolis Pupil Submits

Hand Grenade Suggestion

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16—When 11-year-old Thomas McHugh, 1214 Blaine Ave, a apt at Assumption School in Indianapolis, ote to his Congressman suggesting the United Nations

soldiers use white hand grenades he really start.

ed something. For Rep. Charles B, Brownson, Republican, Indianapolis, passed the letter over to the U. 8. - Marines and the National Inventors Council, Today he sent the imaginative youngster a

national defense, having received it from Direetor J. C. Green of the Council. . He also passed along the Marines’ opinion of the white grenades and the thanks from that service and the Council also, Here is what * Brig. Gen. E A. Pollock, director of the division of plans and policies of the U. 8. Marine Corps, wrote the Marion County Congressman regarding Tommy's suggestion:

Idea Reviewed With Interest “THE recommendation submitted to you by

Thomas McHugh has been reviewed with interest. During the early stages of World War II,

the hand grenade in use at that time was

equipped with a 7-second delay fuse. It was found by experience that when this grenade was thrown immediately after the fuse was activated, there was sufficient time for the enemy to pick up the grenade and throw it back among our troops. “It was, therefore, recomended by troops in the field that tHe fuse time be reduced. However, until such grenades with shorter burning fuses were received, troops resorted to the fleld expedient of painting grenades to blend with the terrain where employed. : “When the improved grenade with the shorter fuse was received, it was found that it was no longer-necessary to camouflage the grenade by painting, as the short fuse time generally precluded the enemy-throwing the grenade back.” - The National Inventors Council reports that colored grenades are not new and have been used by U. 8. troops in the field. “In conveying these findings to Mr. McHugh, will you kindly assure him that the armed services and the Council appreciated the patriotic motives which prompted him to submit his idea for review. We are enclosing a list of mnonconfidential inventive problems which may stimulate further thinking on his part.”

Other Snow Motif Ideas >

CARRYING out his snow motif, young Master McHugh could get to work on a snow vehicle or a snow and ice mole which are included in the list. There {8 a need for an extra light weight vehicle gasoline operated the list states, but so far experiments haven't provided the adequate results, The snow and ice follows: “A device capable of burrowing a large vehicle-sized hole or tunnel through hard compacted snow or solid ice to produce rapid undersnow storage and protection.” Down and feathér substitutes and a per-

mole is described as

" sonal heating system for sub-zero temperatures

are among the other things the Inventors Council Bulletin mentions. The list should keep Tommy busy, indeed.

What Others Say—

WHILE the Soviet Union has 10 to 15 million people living in slave labor under conditions which amount to torture unto death, no person anywhere in the world can sleep nights with any sense of security --Guv. Thomas Dewey. >» < : THE best years of my life lie ahead of me. — Pfc. Robert Mullen, who lost both legs in the

Horean fighting. ¢ 9 +

THE reason I am where I am today is because I am fighting for what I think is right. That's one thing I always want both of you to remember. If your conscience tells you something is right, always stand up for it.—Pfe. John McCormick, in a letter to his infant daughters received shortly after he was killed in Korea.

MY PRISON My prison’s not surrounded by . . . iron bars and walls . . . nor do I answer guards that give

« + « the orders and the calls . . . there are no hardened beds or cells . . . wherein I will abide « » +» or windows that are banked with steel . . . to keep me there inside . . . to all I meet I'm just as free . .. as they themselves might be . .. but that's because my shackled chains , . . no one will ever see . . . my prison is within myself +. and holds me rather fast... from conscience walls I can’t escape . . . I'll be there till the last, —By Ben Burroughs.

"TOUGH HORSE TO RIDE . .

THE BEAUTY OF TAIS LITTLE MODEL IS vou CAN GO

BOTH WAYS AT THE SAME TIME

. By Frederick C. Othman

Johnston Gave Up a Lush Office To Land in a Bed of Thorns

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Bravest man I know at the moment is Eric Johnston, the Direcrector of Economic Stabilization. Or maybe ‘he . just doesn’t care what happens to Erie. Three weeks ago he was boss man of the movies, at a whopping big salapy, and with nothing much to worry about except what > Sen, Edwin Johnson Q (D. Colo.) velieved was wrong with Ingrid Bergman. He had a super-duper office with palm trees in hand - carved pots and a private theater with .soft seats in which he could watch movies in comfort. If = he didn't like ‘em, he could touch a button. Of his own free will- -at least I don’t think anybody held a gun at his head-—he ditched this idyllic job in favor of the meanest spot in all government. Whatever he does from now on, he's wrong. He says he's already learned to say “no” in 27 languages and he feels like he’s trying to ride a wild horse.

How long he can keep from falling off with a thud, as the villain did in those Western movies he used to enjoy in his theater de luxe, is the question. “I'll hang on as long as I can,” he told the House Ways Mind Means Committee, “but I've got to have some help from you gentlemen.” Mr. Johnston is a handsomé man in a Robert Young kind of way. He has a persuasive, Walter Pidgeon sort of voice. And in the glare of the movie newsreel spotlights, he had a hopeful, Mickey Rooney expression on his face. He immediately ran into trouble. First off, he wanted the statesmen to boost taxes high and in a hurry. Rep. Robert L. Doughton (D. N, C.),

LABOR . . . By Fred Perkins

Railroad Workers Write Red-Hot Letters About Wages and Hours

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16—Railroad employees have turned to letter writing in their effort to get a satisfactory scttlement of their wage-and-hour dispute now 23 months old.

The thing that hurts most is that we live and work with men who have enjoyed

the venerable chairman, wasn’t so certain about the speed. “If you want to perform an operation on a man,” Rep. Doughton said, ‘you've got to give him an opportunity to know something about what you're going to do to him. That means hearings, and hearings take time.”

The longer Congress dillies about boosting taxes, Mr. Johnston insisted, the deeper will the thieving fingers of inflation (his phrase) steal into the people’s pockets. A number of the tax writers, mostly Republicans, suggested that if the people are forced to make sacrifices, the government, itself, should do some sacrificing, too. They mentioned sums up to $9 billion which they said was fat that could be fried out of President Truman's

budget. 3 And along came Rep. Richard M. Simpson (R. Pa.) to ask: “Do you know of any reason for inflation, except the poor fiscal policies of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations?” Mr. Johnston blinked into the blue-white lights. He'd be in trouble if he said yes, and also if he said no.’ “Pm sure, Mr. Simpson,” he said after a pause, “that you don’t really want me to answer that.” . ; ‘ Rep. Simpson said he guessed he really didn’t. And then the subject got around to the soaring cost of eating, Mr. Johnston said one Teason for that was the farm parity price system, whereby a farmer gets more money for his produce every time the cost of threshing machinery goes up. Mr. Johnston said he’d soon be back before Congress asking for a law to fix that. Ooops. The parity price law for farmers is a congressional pet. Legislators from rural districts would rather lose their arms than tinker with it. They so informed Mr. Johnston. He tried to conceal his disappointment. He's a solid citizen. And an intelligent man. I hope he makes good at his new job, but already I'm beginning to have my doubts.

nothing but a general decline in living standards. Don’t think we don’t appre-

That's how the letters read. The four rail unions involved —the engineers, firemen, con- 4 that last November railroad

do not agree with a word that you say, but defend to the death your right Yo say it." ‘Give R. R: Workers a Break’ MR. EDITOR: I am®one of those unpatriotic railroaders, One of those unpatriotic men whose job calls for him to work 365 days a year, regardless of the weather, and I like it, I like it s0 much I want to tell others about my job,

1 have a job that begins at 2:30 p. m. each day. It's known as an Industrial assign.

‘ment. We place coal at coal yards, switch manu.

facturing plants, deliver interchanger cars from

one raiiread to another, classify ears for out- - bound trains to pick up and switch the freight .

less than car load lots of freight

One of the plants we switch at present is doing government work. They are rations for the boys in Korea. They don’t have much switching at this point though because they work five days per week, eight hours a yay . va ST THESE rations must not be very important because many times a car will be loaded and then sit around the plant for a week before it is sent on its way. This plant never works on Christmas or any other holiday for that mat. ter. The railroader worked though because he doesn’t receive any more for working Christ. mas and holidays than he Woes working week days. YS other plant we switch makes parts for one of our best selling automobiles. They don’t work but 40 hours a week either. Don’t think

house

are handled.

Mr. Truman said he would roll car prices back and this company as well as other leading car manufacturing companies said re-

they fuse to make their cars unless they d sell them at their price. Who can call un patriotic? Maybe we don’t need cars. All the coal yards we switch have just an. nounced they will raise their coal because the miners have been given a raise. One man told me he thought it was very good the way the operators and John L. worked it out this time without a work Roppage. »

THE RAILROADS, as anyone who rides as a passenger will tell you, has had about nine freight and passenger increases since 1946. The railroad needed the money because of the upward spiral in cost all along the line. The man who works for the railroad also feels the pinch of the upward swing in prices. But it’s unpatriotic for him to say“anything about it. It may not be long now before I myself have to go into the armed forces. If and when I do, I wouldn't be able to tell anyone what I was fighting for. Today in the U. 9. we have forced labor, The railroads have been taken over by the Army™>but the Army nor the go ment received the profit. The Army’ is uSed to force the railroader to work. Forced by threats and intimidation. Is this the free country that men in Korea are dying for? In this comedy of errors, we are being sold “nto bondage by a “Mad Hatter.” —C. A. W., Frankfort.

‘Let's Use the V-12'¢’ MR. EDITOR:

Where are the V-12’s the government trained and educated during World War II for just such a crisis as this? Throwing college educations around on thousands of obsolete V-12's sure cost us plenty. There are other married men and some with three or more children that have been called up. Why not make an army up of the V-12s. . ~Mrs. Carson, City.

FOSTER'S FOLLIES

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has announced an inquiry into TV shows, ranging from the plunging neck= line to crime and horror programs and off-color humor. v Maybe the jokes are a little bit low, As well as the cut of the V-necks, Maybe with horror and crime on the show We viewers will one day all be wrecks,

Maybe it's bad as some people might claim, Yet who wants TV programs duller? It seems the commission is somewhat to blame That video still 18 “off color.”

Figures of the U. 8. Bue reau of Labor Statistics show

Letters by the hundreds are pouring in daily to the White House, the National (Railway) Mediation Board, Congressmen, ind national officers of the rail unions,

Many cite long membership in the union, indicate patriotism by mention of sons now or formerly in the Armed Forces, and accuse President Truman and his administration of havng taken management's side Following is a composite of he phrases and sentiments hat occur most frequently Food prices have soared be

SIDE GLANCES

phate

COPR. 1951 BY NEA SERVICE, ING. 7. A. REO..U. 8. PAY. ofF.

yond all reason and just to get by my wife has been forced to take on some light work in the new defense plant just opened up nearpy. Milk is 22 cents a quart, and my son, who has six ‘children and who glso is a switchman on our railroad, is having a tough time of it. The other men can tell you the game or worse.

By Galbraith

"My [other wants to buy me an Eton suit for spring—I'll sive

you a quarter if you say. you don't carry them!”

-®

for a long time the conditions we seek, such. as the 40-hour week and overtime pay on the sixth and seventh days. When we see auto workers, steelworkers ahd others making much more than we do as a result of their militancy we begin to wonder if perhaps we ought not be a more radical organization. Our patience and sense of responsibility through many years has brought us

MIKE DiSALLE . .

ciate the difficulties our union leaders have been up against, but our suffering makes us desperate and we simply must have relief. Get busy and figure out some strategy that will make the carriers bend.

- = ” MR. TRUMAN will never get a vote of mine again, nor those of the men I work with. We have to get a President who will be really fair and not just talk about it. :

. By Earl Richert

‘How Can Ya Get Mad At a Gu

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16—If this city were Hollywood, it'd be staging a gigantic premiere right now for a brand new star. "The capital, to put it mildly, has been captivated by the man President Truman picked as price boss last Dec. 1 after 31 others had turned down the job—roly-poly Mike DiSalle of Toledo, O. It's not the job he’s done. No one is ready yet to pass

nt on that. . It’s his brand of humor and personality. It's as refreshing as an ogean » breeze In A smoke ~ filled room. 2 He makes his appear ances before the congressional committees ' jolly affairs, with the Republicans usually laughing the hardest. And there's no clowning. The humor just comes naturally in serious 'testimony—and the

Mr. DiSalle “re scored E'

serious testimony shows an

amazing grasp of problems for a man who has been In one of the most complex of all

‘government jobs for only two

months. “You surprise me,” Rep. Waiter Granger (ID. Utah)*told | DiSalle in the midst of a hearing before the august

Spats Zo

times,”

House Ways and Means Committee. “I'm surprised you know so much about this business.” “I, surprise myself somethe price boss observed, Mr, DiSalle has had several appearances before congressional committees and in each one of them has won the outspoken approval of both Republican and Democratic members, . “I have to confess that my impression of you has gone up 300 to 400 per cent today,” Rep. Noah Mason, an Illinois Republican who almost never has anything good to say about

- & Democrat, told Mr. DiSalle

at the Ways and Means hear8 R . Quick as a flash, Mr, DiSalle came back: “I'd like to have you write a létter to my wife.” The committee and audience roared. .

He disarm his eritios with

his complete frankness, , a

w hie

> iv : 2 i’ a

-'wasting our

ductors and trainmen — declared today: “The men we represent have not had a wage increase since October, 1948, and our men in yard service continue at this late date to work 48 and 56 hours per week at the straighttime rate while practically all othér American workers receive time and one-half after 40 hours per week and have had two or three increases since October, 1948.”

“I'm just an ordinary human being, with no magic wands or mirrors to do tricks with.”

The other day, columnist Fred Othman wrote a story about long telegrams, filled with gobbledygook, which Mr. DiSalle has sent to mayors of cities of over 10,000 population asking them: to appoint advisory committees for price control. Mr. Othman, who hates taxes, like everyone else, figured the telegrams were a waste of $17,253 of the taxpayers’ money, : That night at 11:15 p. m. the telephone rang at the Othman house, with a girl's voice j saying that Mr. DiSalle was calling, . § “I thought he'd be sore as a -billy § goat,” Fred sald, “but I was mad, too, and I started in on him, asking him what he meant by

® “sa floored taxpayers’ money.” §

Fred was tompletely floored ~ when Mr. DiSalle cut in: “I

era Te

employees were third highest in average weekly earnings of any large group. The top five were: Building construction, $78.29; bituminous coal mining, $7337, Class 1 railroads, $64.63; all manufac turing, $62.38; wholesale- trade, $62. Union leaders say the rails road figure was boosted by the long hours—up to 48 and 56 a week—which their members work without overtime pay,

y Like That?’

sure pulled a boner on that, didn't 17” In a more friendly tone, Fred then sald that he had been amazed at the whole deal. “To tell you the truth, I was amazed, too, when I found out about it,” Mrg DiSalle replied, (Mr. Hisalle obviously had not read the telegrams, but he ase sumed the responsibility for them anyway.) “How can you be mad at a

guy like that?” asks Mr, Oth-:

man. Mr. DiSalle continually makes wisecracks at the short life expectancy of a price ads ministrator, oy The other night a Toledo group threw a cocktail party for him. 3 “I told them,” Mr. DiSalle said, “that they'd better hurry up and throw a ‘welcome to Washington’ party before they had to throw a ‘welcome back

- to Toledo’ one,” (Mr. DiBalle,

incidentally, went back to his office and worked to 2 a. m: te make up for the time lost.) His motto as price adminis= trator is: Whatever action is

taken must be tempered with ‘reasonableness and justice.

“ar to he time,” he says, ave en. no’ to any particular headache 2

GOP Po Is Defe Party | Rally

By NC The Repub mittee, attack Representativ the “hidden votes in the fended today Rep. Glenn majority lead: phatically de by Rep. Hug cratic floor le committee wa ernment” ruli House. “The policy ly a group o trying to find follow on legi interests of Slenker said. ' “The group any one,” he providing inf gestions value the legislature + Cracl Rep. Dillin GOP was ~rac legislators “c majority bloc Members of tee, which R« setting up a d legislature, ar Cale J. Hold chairman. Mabel Fras chairwoman. Ralph Gate and national ( Leland Sm State. Frank Milli: William Fo urer. Edwin Hae GOP chairma

wyer. ‘Mr. Slenker maiority lead Sen. John V dent pro tem Rep. W. 9. |

Bpeaker of th

Vernon An¢ Hammond. Charles Da: Heutenant gov Walter Heln feated candid governor nom! Mrs. Cecil | 8th district Co Rep. Lawrer ville Republic: Rep. Kennet! lin GOP leade! William Ba former State Sen. Roy Cc legislator. Sen. Lucius farmer. ; Byron Stew: nessman. Mrs. Marth district GOP + Sen. Samuel GOP leader. Sen. Hoyt M ty farmer anc Dr. Harry | lin, Seventh man, Kenneth Ost GOP chairma ‘BIKE RIDER, BTRMINGH. (UP)—Thice 72, was being broken leg. He

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