Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 June 1951 — Page 21

"WALTER LECKRONE = HENRY W. MANZ Editor” Business Manager

PAGE 22 Thursday, June 28, 1951

Ri rit og stall rates in Indiana essions, Canada »

junday Telephone RI ley 5561 Glos Light ond the People Wil Fina Their Own Wey

A Tyranny of Words? O GENTLEMEN from neighboring Illinois presented ~ two issues at a meeting of Midwest welfare officers we ~ believe merit attention. - : - ONE: Office of the township trustee is obsolete and should be abolished. TWO: Newspaper coverage of welfare matters is a “tyranny of words, barbed and poisonous, over the minds of men...” The former we agree with completely. Indiana has 1009 trustees, Marion County nine and Indianapolis five. The office is a ‘vestige of Elizabethan days which does no more than duplicate county and state functions. Actually the office has only two worthwhile functions, both of these generally badly managed: ONE: Poor relief. \ TWO: Schools,

= ‘oe ; 5» “= INDIANA'S poor relief, administered by township trustees, is among the 10 worst in the nation. The state public welfare, administered by the state, ranks among the best. 2 ~~ Record of the township trustee in Indiana is charged with shakedowns of school teachers, family and political favoritism, false claims and contributions from favored ielients, shortweighting relief groceries, increasing relief rolls just before elections. 2% The Times has published proof of many of these charges, Yet a bill in the last legislature to combine the five townships in Indianapolis under one unit died in wi. The trustees are still a potent political force, if vothing else. We agree with the gentleman from Illinois, the office is obsolete and should be abolished.

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THE case concerning newspaper

# » ® criticism isn't so

: Welfare work is supported by taxes and taxes come from only one place . . , the public. Since it is our money, We believe wé have the right to know who is getting it. ¢ It is a basic concept of democracy that public money shall not be spent without a-full and complete report to the public. | “: There is serious danger in keeping welfare or any other records closed , , , the danger of misuse of public funds. §F There is no evidence whatever that opening those & records exposes recipients to greater political pressures { than keeping them “secret.” : Sl Most of the criticism to which this speaker so vigory ously objected has been invited by welfare workers who y share his viewpoint . , . which is essentially, that it is none of the taxpayer's business what they do with his money.

Unreachable Source "YING before the Senate Crime Committee hearing on narcotie drugs, Dr. Victor H. Vogel said the first v Place to strike at the illicit traffic is the place of the supply. Dr. Vogel is director of the Federal Narcotics Hospital at Lexington, Ky. He knows what he is talking about and his suggestion is sensible. If foreign countries ‘would co-operate, it should be possible to dry up the principal sources of narcotics which are coming in to the United States. Most foreign governments concerned, notably Peru, , Mexico, Italy and Turkey, actually ere making vigorous “and even effective efforts to check the production of such according to U. 8. Narcotics Commissioner Harry

But not Communist China, which is a principal source, _.. Mr, Anslinger recently told a New York inquiry: “Com“wunist China is producing and shipping large quantities of heroin which is finding its way into this country. We . have presented’ this fact to the United Nations—even fur‘saished the address in Tientsin of one of the factories. The Russian delegation tried to get this stricken from the «+ “pecord, but it's there. That is the unreachable source.” ¢ Mr, Anslinger gave further details to the U. S. News and World Report this week. He said Communist China had put énough opium to supply the world for a year on the market at British-owned Hong Kong, and tried to exchange it for cotton in this country. The Narcotics Bureau

stopped it.

Don't Like Santa Claus RADICAL groups in the Arab nations are urging the common rejection of U. 8. financial aid by all members of the Arab League. They regard it as insulting to them that the American Foreign Aid Bill carries the same amount of money for Israel as it does for all of the Arab states * Bogether, Israel is a special case, because it is a new state starting from scratch and burdened by the constant arrival of immigrants. However, the Arab states remain in a "technical state of war with Israel and it is understandable why they may not be reasonable about anything which «suggests discrimination against them. : "This unpleasantness might have been avoided if these

Bom

3 funds had been set up in such a way that wouldn't have vited comparisons between prospective beneficiaries under ‘the bill. One of the purposes of the act is to create good will and now it is doing the very opposite of that even before it has become a law, .. This situation emphasizes anew that our government uch too eager to give away our money.

Without « Country

of his passport in a French port? him 14 months to regain status as a man - ‘in that spell he was buffeted all over om one nation to another like a hand

Lis Times : SALARY TROUBLE . io. BY Charles Lucey ahh gi -- Senator Wants To Wipe Out Tax

WASHINGTON, June 28—Tax-free expense funds for President Truman and members of

: Congress may be dead pigeons before long.

The President gets $50,000 expense money for which he need make no accounting and on which he pays no taxes--this, of cSurse; in addition to White House operating expenses, It's also on top of his $100,000 salary, which is taxable, ; ¥ . Vice President Barkley and Speaker of the House S8am Rayburn do pretty well, too. They get $30,000 salary each, which is taxable, and $10,000 in expense money that is tax-free and nobody's business = Sherr own, CONGRESSMEN, by contrast, get only $2500 in tax-free expense funds in addition to their $12,500 salaries. This is exclusive, of course, of funds given for running their offices and hiring staffs, But Sen. John C, Williams (R. Del), a member of the Senate Finance Committee which begins hearings on a new tax bill to raise another $7 billion or so a year to help pay for rearmament, wants to wash out all tax exemptions which may make the government topside subject to “special privilege” criticism. The President especially has been a target of critics who insist that he should be subject to the same tax laws as everyone else.

"PRICES . . . By Earl Richert ‘City Boys’ Fight For Rollbacks

WASHINGTON, June 28-—The “big city” Senators appear to be fighting a losing battle in their effort to keep the Senate from voting a ban on price rollbacks not now in effect, Sen. Paul Douglas (D. Ill.) has been offerIng to give up one of the two scheduled beef price rollbacks to try to save the rollbacks scheduled on manufactured goods. But, so far, he’s been coldshouldered by those who argue that stabilization officials have had plenty of time to get the nation’s price structure in order and Congress hag got to let business know now that no further rollbacks can be put into effect. Leading this bloe are Chairman Burnet Maybank (D. 8. C.) of the Benate Banking Com-

mittee and Sen Homer CapeSen. Douglas , (R. Ind.), ranking mi- + + » an offer ~*~gority member of the bank-

ing group. Much more than the price of beefsteak is involved in the anti-rollback proposal offered by the Senate Banking Committee. It would knock out the millions of dollars in price reductions scheduled to result from the manufacturers’ ceiling price regulation which was to be effective July 2. And Sen. Douglas is more interested in preserving these scheduled rollbacks than he is in retaining the Aug. 1 and Oct, 1 beef price rollbacks of 4% per cent each,

La Decreases? SEN. DOUGLAS estimates.that roughly $5 billion in price rollbacks will be prevented by adoption of the Senate Banking Committee's proposal. : The general manufacturers’ ceiling price regulation would permit manufacturers to add to their pre-Kbrean prices the cost of production increases since Korea. Thus, it would allow increases, while rolling back those prices which were raised beyond the increase in cost. The Price decreases, it is sald, would be much larger the increases, Ih the building materials field, Price Boss Mike DiSalle estimates that price rollbacks would amount to $1% billion a year and that price increases of about one-half billion would be premitted. Brick prices, for example, would be reduced 5 per cent while cast iron furnace prices would be allowed to go up 15 per cent, In the chemical field, the manufacturers’ regulation would result in estimated price reductions totaling between $300 and $400 million annually. Involved are such items as alcohol, menthanol, DDT and certain plastics.

"Big City’ Fight : reductions would also result in 40

per cent of all sales of wood furniture, 55 per cent of cotton rugs and 80 per cent of electric light bulbs as well as a host of other lines, the Office of Price Stabilization said. It is for these price cuts that Senators are fighting hardest. Sen. Maybank argues that he is trying to maintain the 10 per cent price cut in beef animal prices already in effect and to take action which would give business generally a clear picture of the future, insofar as freedom from government rollbacks is concerned. He sald any “momentary savings” made by the rollbacks would be canceled because of the decreased tax revenues. ‘“The rollbacks,” he said, “would mean that less revenue would be obtained from the government by corporations.” It is expected that Congress will pass a resolution to extend the present price control law. for a few days to give Congress a chance to complete its work on the renewal bill without price controls expiring. The present law expires at midnight Saturday.

What Others Say—

THIS UNJUST war has not brought . . . anything good to the American people. No maneuvers whatever will help explain future American Far Eastern policy.—Alexander Vasilevsky, Soviet war minister.

SIDE GLANCES J 7 | 3!

“Big City"

plbeZi>~

Ware

i _COPR, $961 BY NEA SERVICE, ING. T. M. AED. U. 8. PAT. OFF, ,

“Maybe it was a ood break | got drafted—my girl and |! ng

. were fi over a wedding date!’

By Galbraith

The Constitution doesn’t permit change of a President's compensation “during the period for which he shall have been elected.” But Sen. Williams isn't going to touch the salary part of Mr. Truman's take-home, and has been advised by tax consultants that it is possible to slap the usual income tax provisions on the $50,000 expense fund, Without having all the computations at hand, Sen. Williams estimates that a big chunk of the $50,000 would be headed right back into the Federal Treasury if his proposal becomes law. . Then the Senator proposes a further change, to apply to all Presidents after the current term,

which simply: would “stipulate a White House salary of $150,000, all of which would be subject to the same income. taxes paid by all taxpayers. Vice President Barkley and Speaker Rayburn, under the Williams plan, would be given a stipulated salary of $40,000 each, all taxable. Members ‘of Congress similarly would get a straight $15,000 salary, all taxable. The President's salary was pushed from $75,000 a year up to $100,000 in 1940. At that time it was figured, though, that the $75,000 salary as granted in 1009 would have been equal to almost $200,000 in terms of the inflation in the dollar which has occurred since.

Would You Mind Repeating That, Joe?

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THE BIG THRILL .

. . By Frederick C. Othman

my wa.

What Kind of Guy Would Make

A Little Kid Into

WASHINGTON, June 28-1 have no idea of the name of this tragic youngster. He was 17 years old, a Puerto Rican from New York's little San Juan, and—to his shame and bewil-

derment—a veteran dope addict. . There he was in his double-breasted brown suit and gay necktie being led by a federal turnkey to the senatorial hot seat to tell what he knew about baby dope fiends, like himself, and how they got that way, So let's call him Juan Doe. Juan balked at the television cameras ordered up by the Crime Investigating Committee, He did not want his old mother, from whom he stole household treasures to buy heroin, to see his face on a TV screen. So, Sen, Herbert R. O'Conor, (D. Md.) the chairman, told the video experts to keep their machines from looking into his handsome young face. : One of the cameras focused on his hands. In his slim fingers Juan clutched a handkerchief until it turned into a tight ball, The other camera in the rear of the glittery caucus room kept its eye on the back of his head. It could not see Juan's valiant efforts to blink back the tears. I, myself, think he made a mistake about his mother, She could have felt a little proud watching her boy, who took up dope at the age of 13, helping those Senators figure out new laws to catch the harples preying on children with reefers. These are cigarets made of marijuana. First one Juan smoked was free. One of his schoolmates, himself still much too young to think about shaving, gave it to him. It made Juan feel wonderful for a while. Then he wanted more cigarets. They cost 50 cents apiece. And the more he smoked the less effect they seemed

WASHINGTON, June 28— Washington is a crazy place — in case you hadn’t heard. On the one hand, here is the Congress going through all the motions of, trying to reduce the BUmBeRS of governmental employees. } And on the other hand, here is the General Services Administration, which is the government’'s housekeeper, doing its darndest to try to find more office space and more records storage space to meet demands of the rapidly expanding defense agencies. They say they need nearly 2 million square feet of additional floor space for the 18,460 new employees they intend to hire in the next fiscal year, This is for the Washington area alone. If that much floor space doesn’t mean anything to you, it's roughly equivalent to onethird of another Pentagon. Or, it's the equivalent of two seven-story office buildings a block long and a block wide. » - ” 2

THE GOVERNMENT now figures it needs 100-square feet of floor space for every new bureaucrat and hireling, A “ couple of years ago there were

THE BIG SPREAD . alll U.S. Housekeeper Wants More Floor Space

a Dope Fiend?

to have. Soon he simply was feeling headachy. And b0-cent pieces were hard to come by in Harlem, One of his fellow reefer smokers gave him a capsule of heroin, a white powder, which he sniffed up his nose. This caused him to feel good again, But when the effects wore off, Juan was sick. He suffered nausea, jumpy nerves, butterfly stomach. So one of the peddlers sold him more capsules, 25 for $10. The Senators couldn’t understand how Juan located a drug peddler. Juan said he didn't have to.

“They could see I was sick,” he said in English with only a hint of Spanish accent. “They came to me.” 80 he sniffed heroin for-a while. The longer he used it, the more he had to have. He quit school and took a job as a clerk to get the . money for his vice. He didn’t earn enough to buy all the drugs he needed. By now they were a necessity. He took to injecting them into his veins with a hypodermic needle. Without them he was too sick to work. Then he stole jewelry from his mother and her best silver dishes.

He Told the Truth

SHE discovered finally what was wrong with her son. For weeks she’d worried about the ‘vay he stayed home in a kind of nervous stupor, He told her the truth—it wasn’t easy —and she financed his train fare to the federal narcotics hospital at Lexington, Ky. For Senora Doe, finding that money was not easy, either. Now Juan is under treatment. The doctors believe he'll be as good as new in a few more weeks. Now I'm inclited to ignore the testimony of all the officials, the specialists and the physicians who told about the evils of narcotics among teen-agers, They all meant well, but nothing they could say was as impressing as the softly spoken words of young Juan Doe, His evidence is expected to result in stiff new penalties for those who lure youngsters into the drug habit. Juan's mother at long last can feel happy, a little happy, about her son.

. . By Peter Edson

-Free Pay In Government

But Mn Williams’ quarrel isn't with the salaries of the officials involved, but with the idea that the same tax laws should apply to everyone. . : “hog President should be very well paid and I won't argue that his salary is too mucin or not enough” the Senator says, “but I think he should be subject to the same trials and tribulations as everyone else when there is a tax increase. The first thing any citizen does when he hears about a new $7 billion tax bill is to ask how it affects him. The President ' certainly should be no _exception, Similarly, Congress should not be a different Tou -wise.” group tax Tv MR. WILLIAMS has a score of Republicans and some Democrats, too, as co-sponsors of legislation he is introducing to bring these tax changes—the Democrats, including Senators Guy Gillette (Ia.), J. Allen Frear (Del.), Harry F. Byrd (Va.) and John McClellan (Ark.). This is only a start on closing of loopholes planned by Sen. Williams and other finance committee members. The battle to tax income of co-operatives, fought repeatedly in Congress in recent years, will be taken up again. There'll be another move to tax earnings of husinesses operated by charitable institutions and churches. And still another move will seek to reduce depletion allowances on oil.

Hoosier Forum

"I do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it."—Voltaire.

SESE ERR BERNER RENEE NORE RARER IRN RRR ERAN RE ERARS

‘A Matter of Safety’

MR. EDITOR: A lady signing herself merely “Street Car Rider, City” wrote in The Sunday Times, Hoo~ sier Forum, making fun of another writer because she complained of having to walk a little farther than usual. If this were all there were to the situation, none of us would say a word against it. She is under the impression that New York St. has been made a one-way street to speed up traffic.

- SARRRERRRANANNANNRNNS PERINAT ENE RANA NTA

This is for only five blocks. New York St. .

used to be one of the few streets in town where traffic flowed in both directions and was still able to make fairly good time. Now part of it stops at Highland, has to turn either right or left, and the next street south is not wide enough to take all the exfra traffic, $ ¢ WE HAVE a great number of small children in this neighborhood and now the mothers are all petrified every time they hear a brake screech. Even though they watch their children almost constantly they will dart across to the park te play. We now have two one-way streets going north, adjoining each other, and to get from Michigan to New Yori is impossible for a space of four bloeks. + Do not the people living and having business in that area have any rights either, or is it more important to speed up traffic, and save one minute for the motorists? From the railroad tracks to Oriental St. there are no stoplights to let pedestrians cross the streets, but the bus will not stop until it has turned north off New York St. one block short of the oneway traffic end. * SS OUR STREETS going east and west out here are more than one block long and have no cross streets to get to the Washington or Michigan: streetcars, or busses. Several women, within one year, have been hit on the head and their purses snatched between New York St. and Michigan Bt. Yet that is the safe way for us to get to transportation. One street, Arsenal, has no sidewalks and four of those cross streets are up steep hills, which are wonderful in icy weather. No, it is not a matter of us trying to impede progress. It is a matter of our own safety and the lives of our children we are fighting for. —Mrs, Dorothy Griffin, City.

‘Don’t Leave Pets’ MR. EDITOR: I should like to ask people not to abandon their pets, because of the vacation season. This is a cruel and inhuman practice. Any animal handled ‘with affection and intelligence can be .taken with the family and if that is impossible, for a few cents there is always someone who will care for the pet whife the vacationer is away. It’s heartbreaking to see these devoted little animals half starved getting killed on busy highways. Our pets have brought us much joy and companionship and we have taken them on all our trips. Many a lonely {ll person is missing much happiness in not having a devoted pet and there is always someone who will care for a pet, if you can’t take it with you. 80, may I ask, please do not turm your little animals out homeless ‘and friendless?

~Mrs. Lane, City. SO RARE

SIMPLICITY is beautiful . . , in people or in things . . . because the plain and average + + + always pulls on our heart strings . . . like babies when they're smiling . . . or amber fields of grain , . . or just the pitter-pat we hear... when falls a gentle rain . . . the neat and ancient fireplace . . . that forms a splendid view + + + the prayers of our Holy Book . . . that give us comfort too . . . I could go on and on but I... will end with just one thought -, . . what makes simplicity so rare . . . is that it can’t be bought, «By Ben Burroughs.

110 feet avallable. Today the crowded Pentagon is down to an 87-square-feet-per-employee basis, Defense Production Administration. National Production Authority, Office of Price Stabilization antl Wage Stabllization Board need over half a million square feet of space for 5000 new employees to be added in the next year, ” » » INTERIOR needs 34,000 square feet for 340 new defense activity employees, Commerce needs 20,000 square feet of storage space, Atomic Energy Commission needs 20,000 square feet for 200 more employees. Department of State which already occupies a main building, three former apartment houses and 20 other annexes, still needs room for 319 new employees in its information and education programs. Biggest demand of all, however, 1s for a million square feet of space for 10,000 new

employees In Department of

eDefense, There are now 31,000

* people in the Pentagon, Armed

Services offices slop over into 45 other buildings where there are 34,000 employees. - When the Pentagon ordered 10,009 desks for the

"20,000

10,000 new employees it expects to hire next year, there was no place to store the furniture. General B8ervices Administration advertised for two million square feet of warehouse for this and other records storage space within 15 miles of the District of Columbia. It got 38 offers but none was acceptable, All wanted government loans and tax amortization (speedy tax write-off) to finance the construction of new buildings. Every plan to solve the government’s space problem by dispersal has thus far been stymjed. A proposal to build eight new buildings at a cost of $197 million, to take care of employees within 20 miles of Washington, was killed by the Senate.

~ ~ . TWO BILLS just introduced in Congress may offer some hope for relieving the space situation. One is a proposal by GSA Administrator Jess Larson, presented to the Senate by Sen. John L. McClellan of Arkansas, to move 50,000 government jobs out of Washington within the next two years. This is intended to decentralize government offices all over the country, instead of tying to

"bill,

disperse them around Wash ington. The second is a proposal by Rep, James Trimble of Arkansas. It would permit the government to acquire space just as a private home-owner now buys his house on the installment plan, Private capital would build the offices to gov= ernment specifications. The government would lease for 15 to 25 years, at the end of which time it would be given title.

” ” ” AT PRESENT the government owns 20 million square feet of space in Washington, This includes four World War I and 49 World War II temporary buildings with 6 million square feet of space and 31000 employees. Under the McClellan all the “tempos” would have to be torn down. The government now rents 2.6 million square feet of space in Washington, for which it pays $2.9 million a year rent. During World War II, the government leased 7 million square feet of space for which it paid $6 million a year rent. These government rentals have advanced from a little under 85 cents a foot to nearly $1.10 today, .

THUR

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