Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 March 1952 — Page 22

~The Indianapolis Times

: A SURIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE : President : Editor

PAGE 2

HENRY W, MANZ Business Manager

Thursday, Mar. 2, 1952-

OBnsa S11 puciisned aus ¢?? tndtanapoils [ime punish ing aryjan nd ostel Zone 9 Mom ber o! United Press. Bcripps 10d Clad eneer” Alltance Serv ice and Audit Rureaid of Circulation ’

Price In Marton County 8 cents a sopy tor dally and iu tor Sunday; delivered by carrier dally and Sunday dc » week dally only 25¢. Sunday only 10c Mail rates in Indians dally and Sunday 21000 a vear datly $500 a year Sunday only $3.00; all other states ‘UU 8 possessions. Canada ans Mexico dally 81:10 a month Sunday 106 a copy

Telephone PL aza 5551

Give IAoht and the People Will Fina Thetr Own Woy

‘Home Rule’ Needn’t Be an Issue

THE QUICK reaction against annexation to Indianapolis . that suburban cities demonstrated in the Metropolitan rea Study Commission hearing this week was one to be ¢xpected. { It always appears in communities that have completed their own municipal organization, for a variety of reasons. One of them is local pride in institutions they often have worked hard to establish. Another is the presence in any such city of numbers of office-holders and city employees who have a vested interest in maintaining their jobs. And till another is the fear of being “swallowed up” as an nheeded minority in a large city that might very well be gnsympathetic to purely local problems. 4 Whether or not this sentiment is in their own best interests, it does exist and it must be respected. Instances ' Rliere such cities have merged with larger cities on thair Borders are extremely rare in this country, and the idea “might about as well be dismissed as one of the possible solutions for Marion County's problem.

THE problem is not one of small community “home ule” anyway. It is, rather, how to get better community service for lpss tax-money. i All these cities, including Indianapolis, already are part af Marion County. The county is organized to provide dertain necessary services. Fach one of these cities duplicates some, or all, of these services—the taxpayer pays twice, and often gets indifferent results anyway. A good many such services perhaps ought to be transferred to the county and abandoned by the individual ties. i There is little to justify half-a-dozen police forces in this county, when one could do the job better. There is absolutely nothing to justify two, or three, or more, sewer systems, even if the smaller cities could build them, which most of them can’t. There isn’t much to be said in favor of a whole network of municipal courts, overlapping and duplicating each other. Whole areas outside the cities themselves are building apidly into residential sections—without water supplies or Phe disposal or much hope of getting any. Already individual arrangements for such service are getting home owners into trouble in some sections, and affecting building in others. Disease and crime pay no attention to corporation limits, and eventually will have to be dealt with as a single county-wide community problem.

Ld . Tuite i ACTUALLY “the cities in this state ‘have relatively little . “home rule” anyway -— in our opinion not nearly enough. Everything they do is closely and tightly regulated Hy the state legislature. i What little they have need not be infringed upon—and could even be increased—by a sane metropolitan program in which the whole county could join.

Spread of the Gag

WE USUALLY think of censorship as a weapon of the totalitarian state, to be employed in a democratic country only on wartime military matters. . "Yet there is censorship in the U. S. today—far more than the public realizes. In Washington, President Truman's so-called “security order” has encouraged censorship by bureaucrats which threatens to block the most vital sources of news. Likewise, Congress— historically the stronghold of free speech and open proceedings—holds more and more “executive” committee sessions, closed to the press and the public. It is not a condition peculiar to any political group, as staff writer Allan Keller of tie New York World-Telegram and the Sun found in his recent survey. While the Democrats are in power in Washington, the Republican administration of Gov. Thomas E. Dewey in New York imposes such an ironclad gag on state employees that even the most routine information must come from a “public relations” official, Mr. Keller reports. (See CENSORED-—Page 21.)

® 8 = All v's = WE IN the newspaper business have always refrained from publishing certain things. Most of us do not publis} the names of juveniles involved in crimes, or of innocent victims of sex attacks. Nor would we publish any news of a military nature which might give important information to our enemies. ‘Beyond these obvious categories, however, what the government does is the public's business, no matter how much the publication of it may embarrass some official. That goes with emphasis for the armed forces, which are spending a large share of our taxes, and some of whose officers consider most military news as “restricted information.” Our profession knows from painful experience that if’ you give a censor an inch, he will take a mile, if not two.

Let Schools Be First

BY 1957, the U. S. Commissioner of Education reports, the nation will need 600,000 more classrooms and 130,-

000 more teachers than it has now, to take care of its grow-

ing public school population. This is bad news, at a time when taxpayers already are resentful over the high cost of government, because schools and teachers cost money. . Nevertheless, it is money well spent. In very few communities have the people voted against more taxes when the money was exclusively for schools. And schools are, under our system, primarily the responsibility of the communities and the states, as they should be. The federal government is helping pay for new schools in boom communities where sudden, overwhelming influxes of school children were due to activities of the federal government, such as the setting up of new Army posts-and defgnse plants or their expansion. That is about all the federal government can afford, in view of all its other burdens. ~The people, and the states, are going to have to figure out how to provide these necessary néw schools and the teachers for them. They should do it, even if it means giving %oo ter un seem badly needed. othing is more ‘important than ood SJucations for our children, :

A »

’-

DID LOVETT STEP ON SOMEBODY'S TOES? |

~— What's Behind French. Denial The Chinese Are’ In Indo-China? it

PARIS, Mar. 27-—America’s Defense Secre~

tary Robert A. Lovett seems to have got his signals crossed on Indo-China. But he also may have “treaded on a behindscenes move to end the Indo-China war—by armistice, by deal, or by cease-fire. Such a move has been rumored, but not conirmed. But, somethi®g of that sort may have been behind the rather gruff French denials of Mr Lovett's statement that some Chinese Commu-

. nists have joined the Indo-China Communists

in the fight against the French. Otherwise, it would have been more logical for the French to shout with joy, The French Rays been trying for a long time to get more 1. 8. and British. aid in Indo-China--or at least a gy or of more direct military help if and when the Chinese intervene. The Birtish and Americans have made only vague promises. “» @& &» NOW, Mr. Lovett has virtually conceded that the Chinese have intervened—If in limited manner. And the French immediately threw cold water on the suggestion, instead of prodding the U. 8. and Britain to do something. The only conclusion that can be drawn 1s that the French feared Mr. Lovett's statéement would upset’ some other more important diplonatic maneuver, > L FOR A week, the French government has heen trying to quash reports that Viet Nam Fmperor Bao Dal isAick and tired of the seven-

GERMANY . .. By Ludwell Denny

Allies Call Stalin’s Bluff

WASHINGTON, Mar. 27—The Allies have called Stalin's bluff on Germany—if it is a bluff. : * Thelr notes of Tuesday night reject outright his plan to separate Germany from a unified Furopean economic and defense community by creating an armed “neutral” Germany, which could be either his ally or puppet. This Allied refusal to walk into the Red trap leaves only two ways in which Stalin can accomplish his purpose. One is to prevent West German or French ratification of the Allied “European army” agreement, or to block essential American aid to that unified defense. is to start a war before West (Germany's merger with Allied Europe is completed. Gen. Eisenhower and his associates guess that Allied military strength already 1s sufficient to discourage a Russian attack, according to the current testimony of his chief of staff, Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . But, admittedly, that is only a guess. None of those military experts discounts the danger. German stupidity, French factionalism or American politics may achievé for Stalin what he has now failed to accomplish by tricky diplomacy. A drastic cut by Congress in American military aid would reduce the Eurgpean army to a helpless but provocative paper outfit, French internal conflicts so far have been the worst obstacle to joining Germany with Western Europe. The Paris parliament has specified unacceptable restrictions which would reduce Germany to second class membership. Now, however, Stalin's attempt to give Germany a separate army beyond international control may sober Paris factions opposing a French-German partnership. If the alternative of another Stalin-Hitler type deal doesn’t shake the French, nothing can.

Wide Appeal

BUT in Germany the Stalin plan has wide appeal. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer agrees completely with the American-British-French notes of rejection, which he helped to draft. But Adenauer is not yet assured of majority support in his nationalistic Bonn parliament. Stalin's bait is very tempting to two large German groups. The nationalists and the “neutralists,” who think they see a chance to get maximum power with the minimum of risk. His offer of unity for now-divided Germany has tremendous appeal. The Allied reply to Stalin examines the bait and reveals the deadly hook before the Germans= bite. Specifically: Stalin proposes a peace treaty to free Ge: many, following formation of an all-German unified goverament. Certainly, the Allies reply ‘nrovided it ‘is an actual representative govern ment. But a United Nations commission to in vestigate the possibility of such free elections and civil liberties—which has received full support from the Allles and Adénauer—has not been allowed into the Soviet zone,

‘Step Backward’

STALIN proposes formation of national Ger man military forces but limits Germany's right to enter into association with other countries The Allies reject this “step backwards,” and inist on Germany's right to join in “a purely de ensive European community which will preserve reedom, prevent aggression and preclude the sevival of militarism.” Then the Allies nail the Stalin lie that the Potsdam agreement fixed Germany's Eastern ‘rontiers. They show that, on the contrary, it ‘clearly provided that the final determination of territorial questions must await the peace settlement.” With every German wanting to get back the essential territory grabbed by Stalin for Russia and his Polish and Czech satellites, this could be the most important part of the Allied reply.

SIDE GLANCES

Adenauer

«+. he agrees

- The other way_

By Galbraith

GT CT. M Beg. U.S Put. ON. - Cope. 1982 by NEA Se : Did you tell Dad my new boy friend was in the dental corp”

year war and Ras been exploring the possibili-

ties of settling it directly with the Viet Minh and the Chinese Reds, . ¢ One report was thdt Bao Dal's representatives already had contacted Mao Tse-tung's

government. Another was that the Viet Namese

apppo oached India about being a mediator, he reports persist, The hasty French denials of Mr, Lovett’s statement only whetted speculation. These developments come as France, in the midst of a serious financial crisis, is unable longer to hide its thorough depression about the Indo-China war, which promises to get bigger and bigger. The French Viet Namese are get-

Mr. Truman Says. He's Not Tired.

OLD PROBLEM

By R. H. Shackiord i

ting powerful U. 8. weapons, while the rebel Viet Minh of Ho Chi Minh are getting more and more weapons from China and Russia.

There's a growing group in France, including military men, which wants to throw in the

sponge and get out of Indo-China. This feeling has increased since the death of the brilliant Gen, Jean De Lattre De Tassigny ind the subsequent French withdrawal from its fortress of Hoa Binh. An anonymous French major general wrote for France's most influential and respected newspaper: “The hour has arrived teday, .no longer to choose, but to apply the only remedy which will

— al QL BURT ee

By James Daniel

VA Hospitals Need Patients

WASHINGTON, Mar, 27 — The Veterans Administration {8 running into that old problem of where to get the staff and patients for those new hospitals it's putting into service at a rate of more than one a month. Right now, the problem insolvable. From July, 1950, to the middle of last month, 20 new VA hospitals were opened up. How many beds they were built to hold isn't known for sure. VA officials refer to the “constructed capacity” of their hospitals only when local communities are being dazzled by the nrospect of ‘‘150-bed,” “200bed” or “1000-bed” VA hosritals in their midst. After the introductory pubfeity, the records are kept on he basis of “authorized capacity,” which may be more than constructed capacity—or Mr. Gray ‘ee may he less. Some people sus- close 'em down pect that talking about aauthorized capacity is one way conceal wasted space. But whether this is true or not, as of Feb. 15 the “authorized capacity” of the 20 newest VA hospitals was 12,407 beds. Of these, 9270 beds were “operating”—that is, available if needed. And of these, only 7979 were occupied. The best-run hospital nearly always has acancies. But a vacancy rate of one-third the uthorized capacity is unusual. The VA is not happy about the waste. Official explanations begin with the fact that any of the new hospitals, like many of the Ider ones, are in small and remote communities selected by Congress. These communi(ies with surprising frequency turn out to be the home towns of the most influential congressional committee chairmen. Decorating the old home town with a shiny new hospital performing services without charge to an articulate segment of the voters, has a certain appeal to an elected office holder. But

‘NO SIR’

looks almost

the VA can

WASHINGTON, Mar. 27— Let us consider today Harry Easley, the rural Missouri insurance agent and long-time friend of President Truman. He is an honest man. And conscientious, too. The two Harrys grew up together in the same neck of the woods, They both were Democrats, of course. But never did the big-time Harry do the small-time Harry any political favors. On his honor the latter swore it. The lesser Harry, who looks a little like the President when he puts on his" glasses, took time off from the insurance business at Webb City, Mo. to organize Midwest Storage & Realty, Inc. This firm rented part of an abandoned Army post from the War Assets Administration at Camp . Crowder, Mo., and then leased the building back to the Commodity Credit Corp. to store 2 million bushels of government grain, Harry and three associates, good Democrats everyone, paid

in something less than two years, but they o garned every cent. Their

Tam.

it's hard to find enough doctors, nurses and: technicians to staff the hospitals, when built. The VA has tried to force professionals to transfer from big city hospitals to the remoter institutions. Mass resignations were the result. A second factor in the empty bed picture is the dwindling number of veterans seeking hospitalization. Since 1946, there has been a drastic drop In service-connected admissions.

Nonservice ‘connected admissions also have

declined in the past year. VA officials think Korea may reverse the

trend. The President's budget experts don't agee. 13 Should Be Closed

AS NEW VA hospitals come into service, .he normal course for VA Administrator Carl Gray would be to close out the older hospitals, which the VA has always said are too expensive to operate. Mr. Gray has closed many such hospitals. But he says there are 13 more which should be closed. And every time the VA tries to shut one down, the local townspeople, the veterans’ organizations and the affected Congressman complain. The House last week voted a substantial cut in VA salary funds, and did not provide Mr. Gray any earmarked money to staff the 20 more hospitals scheduled to come into service by mid1953. Provided the Senate holds firm against the lobbying already beginning, this fund cut may go part of the way toward reducing the VA hospital program and solving Mr. Gray’s problem. To get the new hospitals into service, Mr. Gray said, he will be compelled to close the older, unsuitable ones.

What Others Say—

THE AMERICAN tourists have tost their zip. Ernest Hemingway (writer) could down 20 whisky sours at one sitting—and then go back to his hotel to work.—Harry McElhone, of famous Harry's New York Bar, in Paris

. . By Frederick C. Othman

‘save us—stop hostilities in Indo-China.”

Recent political meetings sounded the same

sentiments—or at least sentiments for more aid from the U. 8. - <® > &o NO .ONE can deny that Indo-China is one of the major causes of France's troubles. There are others too, including an inefficient tax system, feather-bedded socialisecurity, high profits and low wages, poorly run socialized industries and irresponsible. politicians. Statistics on the Indo-China war are staggering. The French have nearly 200,000 men there, not counting 100,000 Viet Namese. A fourth of all French officers and 40 per cent of their noncoms are in Indo-China. oo o oo REBEL forces are estimated at about 350,~

000. Another 200,000 Communist Chinese forces

are poised near the border. French army losses — not counting Viet Namese—from 1945 through 1951 were 27,000 dead and missing alone. From 1945 through 1951, the war has cost the French $2.8 billion—more than all the U, 8, aid given France since World War IL In this year’s budget, a third of all French military spending is earmarked for Indo-China —$1,120,000,000, The French might be more willing to hang on if there were any chance ‘of a military decision, or of the Viet Namese taking over the burden themselves. There's no such chance.

ORNs ANA RRNA RRA RRRIRANRRREARIRARARRRANSE

Hoosier Forum

“I do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right to say it.’ Volto

ssesssnasensssstnERREn, ssssssessssnssessansese”

‘Homer and Bill’ MR. EDITOR: Evelyn Walton tells us in all seriousness; “If the people review the records of Capehart and Jenner, they will see them run true to form against any measure for the good of the great2st number. If the people of Indiana want proper and cleancut representation in the Senate, it will be necessary to fill the seats in the Senate with men besides the irresponsible Jenner and unpredictable Capehart.” Come, now, Evelyn. Let's don’t be too hard on Homer and Bill. They have managed to keep their noses clean as far as mink coats, deep freezes, Florida vacations and all the things that are doing so much good for a few people. Even the two political Macs, McKinney and McHale, didn’t help any great number of people in their deals with the Empire Tractor Co. ° Evelyn, maybe if the voters start looking around and see the parade of war, scandal, graft and corruption, possibly they will decide they are lucky to be represented by a couple of fel-

‘lows like Homer and Bill that just don’t go in

for that kind of stuff. —C. D. C., Terre Haute.

‘A New Courthouse Needed’ MR. EDITOR: Your editorial the other day proposing a combined City Hall and County Courthouse struck me just right. You published a letter of mine Dec. 4, 1949, advancing this progressive idea for the civia cud. Our city has a ruminating mind . . . it is like a cow standing in the midst of a trash strewn, smoggy civic pasture. Decades hence-it may wobble over to a corner of the pasture, look over the fence . , . and see how other cities manage things. Like to see The Times push this idea before

' jaundiced civic eyes.

—Mary E. Studebaker, 515 Tecumseh Place.

‘Sermon of the Week’

MR. EDITOR: Do you read the sermons of the week in The Times each Sunday? Well, if you don’t, do, and start with the Mar. 23 issue if you still have it. “The Supremacy of the Invisible,” by Dr. C. W.. Wharton, was the best yet and we have had many good ones. I'm clipping this one for my scrapbook. —Jeanne Seymour, City.

Lenten Meditation

Jesus Answers Questions About the Kingdom

THE BRIMMING CUP

You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that | am to drink? Matthew 20-22, Read verses 20-28.

Sometimes the cup of life overflows with trouble, as i* did for Jesus. Sometimes the cup: of life overflows with joy, as it did for St. Francis. Sometimes the cup of life is an overflowing mixture of joy and sorrow. Our tears and our laughter are often closer to each other than we think, because our joy is so often the ending of a deep sorrow, and our sorrow is so often the tragic fracture of an exquisite joy. One is bound up in the other. The mother of James and John wanted a promise of favoritism for her sons in the future kingdom, one to sit on the right of Jesus, the other on the left. What e misundersanding of the kingdom! No wonder Jesus had to set the record straight. “You do not know what you are asking . .. [It] is not mine to grant.” Only God can grant such honors. “Are you able to drink the cup that | am to drink?” And James and John did drink of that cup. In Acts 12:2: we read that Herod killed James with the sword. And tradition tells us that John was exiled to Patmos. _ Can you and | say, “We are able” to drink the cup with Jesus, not asking whether it be sweet or bitter?

Let Us Pray: O God our Father, help us to hear and heed Jesus when he says to us today, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant,” as was Jesus. Amen.

Insurance Agent Harry Hits

bles, still continuing in the form of a senatorial investigation, were presidential in size. For one thing, 2 million bushels of corn is a lot. It arrived at Camp Crowder all at once, by the trainload. The Webb City Harry and friends, who knew none too much about the grain storage business, filled up one of their rented

.barracks with the first couple . of cars of grain. The danged

thing collapsed. They shored that up. Then they strengthened all the other

alone cost ’em $5000. With a bantam cornstalk vou ceuld have knocked over the Harrywho - stayed - home when he received a $3325 bill from the railroad company for maintaining the track alongside his makeshift warehouses. There wasn't any track; the Am had torn it out. Harry had to haul all his grain in by truck. Finally, after the first 20 months, Harry and Co. got rid of all the bugs. I mean that literally. They fumigated until there wasn’t a weevil in

buildings before they hauled .in more corn. The lumber

themselves wages of $83,672.99 %

easy street, it

SING A JOYFUL SONG

" EVEN though I have my troubles . . . life to me is just a song ... that I try to sing more sweetly . . . as each new day comes along . . . many are the ugly discords . . . that I hit while on the way ... but somehow I end each chorus +++ with a note that's light and gay ... I am not a cultured singer . .. and the song I sing is old . . . but it tells the greatest story . . . that the world has ever told . . . for 1 sing a song of «+. and a song of wondrous love . . .

gladness letting notes soar to the hilltops . . . and the . heavens up above . . . keep a love and sing a

love song . . . sing it sweetly from your heart

“+ + » snd you'll conquer all your worries . , ,

and, great peace and joy impart. | |

«-By Ben, Burroughs ¢

the place. Now they were on looked

Grain Charges

maybe. Along came the Army to demand its camp back for soldiers. Get that corn out of here in a hurry, the Army said. The homebody Harry did so, To the amazement of the ine vestigating Senators, who have heard horrid tales of corn spoiled and wheat stolen, the Webb City Harry's corn was n - perfect condition, except ‘or a dollop which had been ruined by a leaky gutter. He paid for. that. Nor did one bushel turn up missing. Home -town Harry and friends had $22,000 left in the treasury. They were cogitating

congratulating themselves on a good job well done, when the Army presented them a bill for $59,000. This, said the Army, was for putting windows back in the military bedrooms and stairs at the front doors, plus screens to keep Sut the mosquitoes. : On his solemn "word of honor, he said, and testifying under oath: He did not receive.

any favors from the Harry

now wearing a fancy shirt in Key West, Fa,

Robert

“Service

Services local hotel ¢ 2 p.m. ton Askin Fune: followin Crown Hill ( ‘etery. Mr. Gra died last 1 in the Vo Nursing H He was 91. Born in ( gow, Scot he came to dianapoli 1883. He former emp] of Atlantic Pacific Tea Co, and Ind At the time finishing 20 Washington Mr. Graha the Capital His wife, M died several Surviving Mrs. Ruth |

R.C.S

. Ad Mc

Services today for R vertising exe while, on vac vesterday. | 5275 N. Cap He organ erated Stev Agency. Pr the advertis dianapolis firm origina svndicate se Canadian lu Mr, Steve land, Ind.. olis 43 years Highland Ge Surviving thy M.; two M. Seiler, In William Joh a son, Gord« er, Harold ter, Mrs. R Palestine; h: Foust, Indi grandson.

Near Mis

WAUKES Arthur Hea car to avoid and succeec survey the s slipped on over by a p fered a brol

ALL FOR ONLY