Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 October 1951 — Page 27

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* Amside Indiana By Ed Sovola

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“BETTER late than never” is what you can say about the copy of the. cab of a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway locomotive that chugged to the fourth floor of L. 8. Ayres. The kids (count me in) love to play engineer for one minute and 20 secorids of realism created with a movie projector, sound effects and an agitating engineer's seat. : But why, doggone it, have the railroads waited until the ol' steam horse is giving ground so rapidly to the’ diesel. They could have, checked me out on a locomotive 25 years ago. rie That's the only beef you can have with the Can-do Special. Everything else, the live whistle, bell, throttle, fire-box door with the fire showing and the engineer's sheet that bumps, is fine. If a man wanted to be a wee bit selfish, he could voice an objection that too many kids want to play engineer. Some can’t reach the throttle and have to have their daddies help them. Not that any objections can be heard from the big boys.

ENTRANCE IS MADE on the fireman's side of the cab. Of course, you have to stand in line. The little tykes won't let you go ahead. There is no respect shown elders anymore. One of the girls counting the visiting engineers and seeing that some order would be preserved in line, informed me, as I entered the cab, that “You can stand behind the seat or have your little boy sit in your lap.” She had a surprise coming. When 1 operate a locomotive I do it all alone. The movie projector voice said to drive the train to White Sulphur Springs. The “trip” is along the C. & O. trackage between Clifton Forge, Va., and Ronceverte, W. Va. Looking out of the window of the cab, the scene in the station projection booth is remarkably realistic. Steam is seen rising around the front of the locomotive and there is a clear track ahead. : . I suppose -it is necessary for the little tykes. Aor myself. the C. & O. people could cut out-all

ihe instrictions about finging che Heli and past

ing the throttle. = vr Lala og

THE SENSATION is so. realistic, 1 swear, when you see another train coming at you an ‘urge to wave to your fellow C. & O. crew members is hard to resist. : The best part of the trip comes when you drive your locomotive through a tunnel. Every éngineer knows you havesto blow two long blasts and two short ones on the whistle. The less experienced have to be reminded and the voice always does. My approach to White Sulphur Springs station was smooth as silk. The throttle was cut off just right and the bell was good and loud. Casey Jones couldn't have done better. @ While checking my gauges, pressures and fire preparatory to pulling out again, the lady attendant had the audacity to remind me that one ride was all I could take.

It Happ By Earl Wilson

NEW YORK, Oct. 18—Dorothy Lamour solemnly assures this columnist that the ‘“Movietime, U. 8. A.” tour made many friends for Hollywood—even though she did get clipped in the kisser with a lime. “We visited 68 towns and talked to more than a million people in a week,” luscious Dotty said. It was easy for Dotty in New England, because nine years ago she sold $900 million worth of War Bonds there in nine days. I didn't even have to ask her about the lime. “Some of these little kids, that had been waiting for 21} hours, were in a tree,” she said. “I know if my boy Ridge has to wait two hours, he's liable to throw something if he gets tired. “AH of a sudden—boing! “o_o & “A part of it got me right here.” Dotty patted her right cheek. “I sald ‘I don’t know what hit me, but I've been hit and I dare ’em to do it again!” “What was a kid doing with a lime?” TI asked. “I couldn't figure out either,” Dotty said. “It was a whole lime.” : “I think the kid was mixing porothy Lamour Tom Collinses up in the tree.” : - said Dotty's husband, Bill Howard. Miss Lamour must have been mighty persuasive—she even got some of the children’s groups to sing “Happy Birthday to You, Motion Pictures, Happy Birthday to You.” “ GO > THE MIDNIGHT EARL: Mrs. Toots Shor phoned her husband's restaurant Monday night: “Tell Toots to call the Fire Dept. The house is on fire.” When Toots got home by taxi, firemen had discovered tne short circuit and cleared out the thick smoke. The only damage was Mrs. Shor's makeup; she came out looking like a Mammy-singer.

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW YORK, Oct. 18—We have achieved very little by the resignation of Bill Boyle as Democratic national chairman, due to “poor health,” undoubtedly induced by the hammering he has recently taken in the RFC patronage hearings. But we have scored something in the growing awareness of, and indignation about, the loosely moraled car-ryings-on of the highbinders who infest the Truman era of our history. I say we have achieved little, because no top malefactors have been tagged and brought to book, and the resignation ftself leaves Harry's record of protecting his friends still clear. Of course, the resignation was for party good, and amounts to dismissal, but Harry's stubbornness is still intact. Harry doesn't fire his friends, even when they are caught up to their elbows in the cookie crock. But the last couple of years have been so full of scandal, and near crime, and intimations of immorality, that a national. indignation has aroused. Mr. Boyle's resignation under fire is a tacit admission that he was too much liability for the Democrats to handle in the upcoming elections. That fear is in itself a healthy sign that government, which has been so brutally contemptuous of what the people thought, is now beginning to sense a change. > & 4

NO MATTER how little of real effect has been accomplished by the lurid tales of corruption and collusion, at least the .temper of the nation runs pretty high, and the patience is shortening. dy 2 The burgeoning crackdowns on major-league erime, the proven tie-ups between crime and law, between crime and politics, has fetched us to an awareness of rottenness that wasn't around a few years ago. The common man's reaction was “more or less what-the-hell-everybody-does-it and let-me-get-mine-too. ’ 3 : I think that's beginning to change. ' There have been too many scandals, too many broad hints of outrageous exploitation of public funds and ‘office to escape unnoticed. . 'e had another recent resignation akin to the 's abrupt decision to

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Locomotive Draws Thrills for Kiddies

'CASEY JONES JR.'—Young engineers are being turned out by the hundreds at L. S. Ayres. A few old ones, too.

0 “There are a lot of other children waiting," she said. Ha. All right, al! right,

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THE ENGINEER who followed in my tracks, also didn't want to leave, ' His mother, speaking loudly (had a sneaking suspicion it was for my benefit), informed him it wasn’t “nice” to take more than one ride when so many other “nice” little boys and girls were waiting Little Johnny McCullough and his sister, Susan, 5130. N. Pennsylvania St., shared the engineer’s seat. Susan is going to be a fine woman Not once did Susan tell Johnny how to operate the locomotive. y Jobn Turpin, 438 E. Maple Rd; as fine an

class, offered to fake me along. John was a veteran engineer. It was his. second trip. The first

* was taken the day before. .

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WE HAD, to use John's words; “a spectacular trip.” John is pretty good but I think he took the curve just a little too fast. He didn't think he did. And his stop at White Sulphur Springs station could have been gentler. John said his stop was as good as mine. That's a matter of opinion and my opinion is worth more because I'm older. John is all for being an engineer when he grows up. The way he said it you'd think he thought of it first. I'm going to be an engineer when: I grow up, too, Thought of it long before John did, so there. If anyone wants me for anything between today and Oct. 27, you can reach me on the fourth floor of Ayres. I'll be in ol’ No. 490. Just stay off the tracks.

Dottie’s Not Sour About Lime Thrower

GOOD RUMOR MAN: Bill Boyle's in Georgetown Hospital. . . . Barney Ross soon becomes a grandpa. . . Joan Bennett's daughter, Melinda Markey, 17. is understudying Margaret O’Brien in “Child of the Morning”. . . . Oleg Cassini reiterates he isn't busting with Gene Tierney. Says

he joins her in Argentina, Nov. 20. . . . Lovely swimming-suited Phyllis Walker, “Miss West Virginia,” is in town to try show business. ... Abbe

Lane comes to New York soon to talk about, leaving Xavier Cugat’s band. She’s serious about being booked as a single. o Hb

FLASH: A new heir to the world-famous Colony Restaurant was born the other day. He's Gene Cavallero III, to the Gene Cavallero Jr's at Le Roy Sanitarium . . . Franchot Tone, at the Little Club with old friend, Jean Dalrymple, didn’t look rested or well. He's joining his bride in Atlanta. “o. 9 & ny

B'WAY BULLETINS: Frank Sinatra took Nancy's long-awaited divorce-filing calmly at El Morocco and the Copa. Ava’s health problem is exhaustion. She's on a vitamin buildup. sis Friends predict Bill Dozier and Ann Rutherford will wed. . . . Joey Kaufman's $225,000 offer to buy Stillman’s Gym and con- NE vert it for TV programs was rejected. .. . Bill Veeck wants Larry Doby for the Browns— to try at 3d base. . . . Buster Crabbe makes his East Coast cafe debut Nov. 15 at Iceland.

= = = TODAY'S BEST LATGH: v “First I did an hour and a half Dorothy Sarnoff TV show, then last year I did an hour, now I'm doing a half hour. What's NBC doing-—bui'ding me up for a station break?’—Bob Hope. + S #» EARL’'S PEARLS ... A censor, says Dorothy Sarnoff, is a man who knows more than he thinks, * & © A FAMOUS COMEDIAN deleted this from his scrip: “I used to be on radio—you know what radio is—that box in your living room with the weeds growing out of it.”—That's Earl, brother.

Boyle's a Beginning, But Look Who's Le t

abandon the mayoralty of New York City when the heat of the crook-politics and GOP-graft scandals started to unfold. That O'Dwyer was made Ambassador to Mexico, while tacitally guilty of class association with mobsters, is one of the more outrageous aspects of the Pendergastian-type reign, and it is still an insult to the nation that he is allowed to represent us ak Ambassador to one of our biggest neighbors. 5 9 THE DELEGATION of O'Dwyer to Mexico, while under heavy suspicion as a result of his strange attitude toward the attempted police cleanup, was a directly thumbed nose at America by hack politicians who never confused morality with practicality. Things have been pretty rocky in the incumbent camp lately, and there is tremendous conversation about it around the nation. Good old Harry, poor, humble old Harry, cocky, spunky little Harry is fading fast into an ill-tempered, sometimes unbearably arrogant picture in the American mind, and a couple of his recent aberrations, such as the recent censorship hassel, have lifted eyebrows from one end of the land to the other. It is axiomaticithat repetition of little offenses eventually builds into a more permanent indignation that one big kick in the pants which can be buried under a fresh crisis or a diverting fire against the opposition.

> Sb & THE LAST three years of Truman government have consisted of a steady series of offenses against the public good, a vast parade of incompetence and heavy suspicion. At no time has the President been anything but bullheaded about the sins of his friends and the sloppiness of his assistants. . Well, the Boyle resignation points at least one slim finger at the future. It means finally that the Democrats have admitted guilt, and have attempted to remove a source of political contagion. . , It means that the old mob of five percenters and fixers and influence peddlers are beginning to worry about next year, and to-recognize the awareness of us comnion folks that there are just too many rotten eggs in one particular basket. I hope we keep on being aware of the stench, and do something drastic about it at polling time

next fall. Up to now the more important rascals 21% 14.0% out, and Sasting time Bas some, | ‘ sh f .

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~The Indianapolis Times

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PAGE 25

Verdict Next Thursday—

British Soci

By LEON DENNEN Times Special Writer

ONDON, Oct. 18—British socialism is fighting for its

life against heavy odds.

With the approach of the general election set for Oct. 25, there are strong indications that many Britons who

voted for the Labor government in 1945 and 1950 may be in a mood to say “No” to all further “Socialist experiments.” Winston Churchill ‘has described this as the most crucial election of all time. So has Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison for the Socialists. Labor chiefs especially realize that much more is at stake than Britain's welfare state. A Socialist defeat on Oct. 25 will inevitably promote a swing to the right throughout Europe.

” = ” THE British brand.of modorate democratic socialism—as opposed to the Communist slave-state and ‘Stalin's dictatorship -— may be set back for decades. : Prime Minister Clement Attlee's’ government was- first swept into power in 1945 by the votes of the “little people,” who

‘engineer ag vou Wold “WHAT Hig heady Rol Dero dade eines, peneboiary of

the welfare state. Now if 3s he “little people” — ironically enough who may tip the scalés in favor of: their traditional enemies, the Tories. The unfolding ~ British electoral drama reflects in a sense the limitations of human nature. Britain's lower income group, once the backbone of the Labor

government, is in “revolt” against the welfare state. u = =

ESSENTIALLY, it is a revolt of the small shopkeeper, white collar worker, and the housewife “against six years of rationing, inflation, the housing shortage, ~ the all-devouring purchase tax and other “hidden” taxes -— against the austerity any drudgery of the welfare staté. “In 1945, man, we'd something to fight for. We were tighting for - socialism, for a better life,” a textile worker told me in Manchester. “But what are we fighting for now? Where do we go from here? More nationalization? Haven't we had enough of it?” Manchester, once strongly pro-Labor, is a key to Britain's industrial northwest which will be one of the main political battlefields in the coming general election. The British common man was promised by the Labor government ‘socialism in our time.” He would have settled for a bigger meat ration, more butter, eggs and other “capitalist luxuries.” (Seven years after the war the long-suffier-ing Briton still gets a weekly ration of two eggs.) = = ” NOW HE IS TOLD by Aneurin Bevan, leftist enfant terrible of British socialism, that he must: tighten his bélt again. But the “little people” of Britain (let alone the overtaxed, ‘“disinherited” middle class) are tired of the welfare state. They are also tired of “pressing” world issues. All they want is a breathing spell from austerity, rationing, “‘utility” clothes, economic regimentation. No sooner were the British ejected under the threat of force from the Abhadan oil refinery in Iran than the Conservatives raised -the cry of “Britain's humiliation.” “The complete withdrawal from Abadan is a political, economic and strategic defeat,” said Anthony Eden, Mr. Churchill's 54-year-old “young man” and white-haired boy of British Conservatism. “Its consequences are so far reaching that it is not easy to measure them at this time.” 8 = x TRAN, THE NEW crisis with Egypt over the Suez Canal, and Britain's loss of face in the Middle East have become the main issues in the Conservative Party’s political campaign. But much of this Tory propaganda is falling on deaf ears. The ‘little people” have but a slight interest in Britain's position ¢n the Middle East. Iran, the Suez Canal—these are not issues that stir the heart and make a man clench his fist with angry determination, unless that man is Winston Churchill, But the soaring cost of living does. The danger of a new war does, too., The character of a British general election is usually not get firmly until very close to the polling day. But already it is the liveliest election campaign I have seen in Britain in many years. In no other election was the middle-of-the-road voter so aware of the issues at stake.

~ ” » IN PROTEST against the welfare state, the laconic Briton has even become vocal and eloquent. Everywhere worried or irate citizens heatedly debate six years of Labor rule. Every pub, restaurant, worker's canteen, butcher shop or barber shop—wherever free English men and women gather—has been turned into a public forum, an expanded Hyde Park. Britons as a rule are critical, if not disdainful of the American type of unrestrained, free-for-all political campaign. But they, too, are now giving vent to their resentments and pentup emotions. Though the British may not like it, their electoral campaign resembles closely a typical U. 8.

election. !

None of the trimmings are missing—ballyhoo, m :

udslinging,

character assassination as well as the extravagant (though obviously false promises) made both by the Conservatives and Labor,

» » .

RITAIN is moving irresistibly—- almost fatalistically toward a new economic crigis which neither the Tories nor Labor will he In a position to solve without additional U. 8 aid. Coal production is running at least 3,000,000 tons behind consumption. There. is “an oil shortage primarily due to the Iranian seizure of Abadan. Cuts in power and more rationing this winter seem inevitable. The more than 8,000,000 Teng bers organized in Trade Union_Congress are get{ing Testiess. x

"The ‘Labor Sowernment Was . largely the TUC's baby and the

unhappy union leaders had to toe the line in the face of mounting criticism from their membership. For six years they had to subsist on the tasteless

diet of wage stabilization—while_

their American counterparts in the AFL and CIO engaged in dramatic struggles for higher wages. a ~ »

DESPITE THE eloquent (and desperate) pleas of the Labor Party's speakers, .the union members now insist that “it's the job of the unions to square us with the cost of living.”

“Labor government or Tory government—and God help the Tories if they do get in—we are going to make it difficult,” said a railwayman. “It's our duty. We're going to get a decent living for our men.” .The national wage average in Britain is seven pounds per week (about $20). This may have been sufficient for a family of three or four—in addition to all the other benefits they get from the welfare state—to exist before inflation set in. But now the lower income groups find it extremely difficult to make ends meet. Some millions of Britons, at the bottom of the income level, are exempt from paying income tax. But none is exempt from the purchase tax and other “hidden” taxes. The purchase tax on clothing, electrical appliances and leather goods runs from 33 per cent to 125 per cent. On tobacco, cigarets and other luxuries it is almost 200 per cent. - Rationed foods are relatively cheap. But no family can siibsist entirely on the meager rations. Unrationed goods are practically inaccessible to the average Briton. A Conservative. victory will free the hands of the frustrated union leaders. Already—under Communist and left wing pressure “from below”—there are demands for immediate wage increases and threats of strikes. = o ” WINSTON CHURCHILL'S return to power might unleash a. strike wave that would rock Britain and have wide reperesussions throughout Europe. In the furious battle of “Election Manifestos” the Tories blame Labor for all of Britain's domestic and, foreign troubles, including the debacle in Iran and the new crisis over the Suez Canal. They profess to see in Labor as a whole, not merely its left wing “lunatic fringe” led by Aneurin Bevan, but a deliberate drive towards the totalitarian state. Labor goes back to the 1930's to try to demonstrate not only Tory incompetence but also Tory ill-will towards the wage earners. Labor speakers denounce the Conservatives as greedy ‘“capitalist profiteers” and .*“warmongers” who will plunge Britain into war practically on the day of their election victory. Unfortunately, both the Laborites and the Tories (as the authoritative London Economist recently wrote) appear to be as firmly united as ever on one main proposition — that the voters should not be allowed to give a verdict on the real issues facing the British people.

» » ~ MAJORITY of Britons will vote AGAINST austerity ahd the welfare state—and not FOR Mr. Churchill's Conserva-

tives—should the Labor government suffer defeat in the general election. On- the surface Labor's troubles seem mainly economic.

alism

the British.

‘THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1951. + »

sm mE———

EE a

Is On Scales

CLEMENT ATTLEE—The typical

TORY POSTER—They blame Labor for all Britain's troubles— both domestic and foreign.

Britain is spending much more than she earns. Her trading deficit with the rest of the world is now running at the rate of about $1,700,000,000 a year. The British exist largely on imported foods and earnings from overseas trade. Britain must export to live. But British exports are dwindling while the costs of essential raw materials are rising. Because of an unfavorable trade balance Britain is facing another serious dollar shortage. This is in part due to the tense international situation and Britain’s heavy rearmament ourden amounting to about $13,000.000.000 annually. + 2 ” ” ” BUT THERE are other -perhaps weightier—reasons why the Labor government has lost the confidence of many “little people.” Reckless spending, costly “social experiments,” mismanagement in the nationalized industries are major contributing

factors in Britain's economic plight. British socialism has many

traditional virtues, such as integrity and idealism. But it has little imagination, energy or initiative. The myriad of labor bureaucrats sitting on the management boards of the various nationalized industries have few skills and less executive ability. As industrial managers they are

little more than parasites gnawing at the vitals of the pro-

" ducers:

~ n ” ALMOST the only concrete proposals put by the Tories to the voters are the return to private ownership of the recentlynationalized steel industry and trucking. But all other industries nationalized by Labor— coal mining, railroads, aviation and even the BanR of England would stay in the hands of the state The Conservatives pledge to check inflation, increase production and introduce rigid economies in government spending. But in the same breath they promise to build 300,000 new houses.and retain the more extravagant trimmings of the welfare state, including food subsidies, Labor’s costly social servjce—free dentures, spectacles and all. ~ With Britian on the brink of bankruptcy, who will pay for these costly social and economic schemes? Labor “will disarm the capitalist tiger claw by.claw,” says Aneurin Bevan. Another squeeze

on the “capitalists” who haves.

been getting “fatter and fatter” will pay the bill. Ld ” tL J BEVAN DOES not speak for the. majority of the Labor Party. But he has strong support in the lower ranks. At the Labor Party's recent convention he scored a spectacular victory getting four out of seven contested seats in the executive

* council.

Meanwhile, little beyond indulging in pious generalities about the *“abundant life” and the advantages of “free enterprise” over “planned economy.” The chief distinction between the two major parties 1s that Labor does not admit the existence of an unsolved economic problem for Britain while the Tories recognize its existence but do not say what a Con-

-servative government would do

about it, the Economist recently commented.

Yet so disgruntled are the British voters, especially the “little people,” that they may give the Conservative Party another try;

i

AT YALTA—Russia’s Stalin joked with England's Churchill, never missed an opportunity to say a friendly word to him.

Po as

AT POTSDAM—Stalin was sulky and unfriendly with Atflee seated, left) and with rade union leader

?

Bevin (standing, second from left), first among Westerners to say “Ne" fo Messow.

the Tories say

ON WAY OUT? — "Little People" who put him in power may sweep Labor's Clement Attlee out of the picture.

RIME MINISTER ATTLEE’S most ardent socialistic sup-

* porters concede that Labor has

lost the confidence of many of its supporters. “Attlee promised us socialism, He should have let us buy a few more eggs for the kids and a decent dress for the wife,” a taxi driver I interviewed in one of London’s pubs said. workers put Attlee into power and the workers will put him out,” he added. “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich, just as you cannot further the brotherhood of man -by encouraging class hatred,” exclaimed a Hyde Park speaker, misquoting Abraham Lincoln. » ” ”

BRITAIN'S foreign policy— despite the present fierce elee~ toral duel-—is’ traditional and continuous. Short of fighting a war with the Russians, there is little that the Conservative Party could do to improve on Labor's conduct of foreign affairs. Mr. Churchill also would face the problems of Iran, the Sues Canal, China—the hot-cold war now raging in Asia and Europe. Only a national emergency government composed of Labor« ites, Conservatives and some Liberals may be able to get Britain back on ‘its feet eco= nomically, in the view of 2ompetent London observers. Mr. Churchill has gone so far as to hint this would be his intention,

o n = THOUGH the extremists in both parties are far apart, thera actually is more agreement than is generally assumed between the moderate wings of the Labor Party and the Conservatives. Both profess a determination to maintain peace abroad and reduce the cost of living at home. They give general backing to Britain's defense program, just as they agree food subsidies and the social services must be maintained. All three parties are united in an aim to increase production. A national government achieved wonders in Britain in the depression and again in the critical war years. It may produce another miracle if given a chance.

$8000 in Prizes And Lots of Fun

YOU CAN WIN ... one of the 245 prizes worth $8000 being offered in The Times big “Movietime, U. 8. A.” contest. :

It doesn’t cost a cent to enter this fun-packed contest. Compose a short-short story, paragraph or sentence using your own words and movie titles clipped from The Times.

A NEW NASH AUTOMOBILE . .. will be yours if you win first grand prize. It's easy to enter and easy to do. For detalls see Page 20,

~

©

ER CRE RA

“The - ..