Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 June 1952 — Page 20

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The Indianapolis Times

, ARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ ROY W. HOW

. PAGE 20 Thursday, June 19, 1952 gE

Telephone PL aza 5551 Give Light end the Peeples Wilk Pind Ther Own Wey

The Fight for Julietta

THE REAL REASON for the fight against the Marion County health and hospital law passed by the last legislature came right out into the open this week as hearings began on whether it is constitutional. The Marion County Commissioners want to keep Julietta. : So, in Superior Court 3, we witness the amazing spectacle of the attorney for the defendant in this suit, paid by Marion County to uphold this law against a legal challenge, joining the counsel for the plaintiff and arguing against his own side of the case. One county commissioner was even frank enough to admit that their interest in it was simply to keep control of Julietta, which the new law makes a part of the county

hospital system. -~ » . . ” x

MARION COUNTY COMMISSIONERS — a whole series of them—have mismanaged Julietta for years. Pitiful inmates have lived out their miserable lives there in squalor and filth on starvation diets of slops while the taxpayers of Marion County paid huge bills for costly foods they never got. Violent deaths—that have leaked out in spite of of“ficial attempts to hush and conceal them—have given horrified citizens an occasional glimpse of the conditions under which the place is operated. Nobody has been able even to find the contract one board of County Commissioners let for the newest addition to the building there—nor ever come up with an explanation of why it took 10 years to build it, or why it cost some three times the contract price, or what became of the

. hundreds of thousands of dollars that just disappeared

“in the deal. We have exposed those conditions again and again. Our own writers have gone there and got jobs, worked

"in the dirty kitchens, checked the faked “menus” against

the actual meals they served, saw the beds crawling with

“: vermin—and repdrted the whole shameful, wasteful,

- fantastically costly mess County Commissioners have made . of this operation. ~ The stench ultimately rose so high that the state

legislature itself moved to correct it.

“That is the law the County Commissioners now are

trying to “repeal” by court action.

~ JULIETTA has been treated as a rich political plum

- by a succession of county political rings over the years.

Commissioner after commissioner has been voted out of office by the people of this county on the sole issue of

‘ the way they handled Julietta. :

The present incumbents appear to have learned nothing

; from this experience.

They want to keep Julietta.

Political Pap THE SENATE is about to vote on three proposals sub-

mitted by President Truman in line with Hoover Commission recommendations on reorganizing the federal government, \ These proposals would make postmasters, customs offi-

' cials and U. S. marshals subject to the merit system, rather

than political patronage. The Senate Committee on Government Operations is urging the Senate to defeat Mr. Truman's proposals—which

: go into effect June 21 unless vetoed by either branch of

Congress. It is purely a question of whether some 21,000 government employees—the last large group still appointed on the basis of political qualifications—will be selected on merit. The Senate committee has voted to hang on to the political pap, rather than improve the quality and morale of officials in these jobs. After the Internal Revenue scandals were well exposed, President Truman sent a reorganization plan to Congress calling for merit appointments instead of political appointments. This plan was approved by the Senate. The proposals now before the Senate, involving post-

1 niasters, customs officers and marshals, are just as neces-

sary.

The Company He Keeps

(GEORGI ZARUBIN, new Soviet ambassador-designate to the United States, certainly has a regrettable habit of falling in with wayward aids and shady embassy employees. Look at what happened to poor old Georgi when he was ambassador to Canada. The NKVD (Soviet secret police) used his embassy as headquarters for an elaborate espionage ring, complete with a passport-forging department, and nobody bothered to tell Georgi what was going on. At least that's what a Royal Commission decided after the spy ring had swiped bales of information on radar, submarine detection devices, the proximity fuse and, of course, the A-bomb. z Georgi's next stop was Great Britain, It was just his tough luck that arch-traitor Klaus Fuchs was caught during his tour as ambassador there. > . 8 =» IF ANY further proof is needed “that Ambassador Zarubin is truly a child of misfortune, look at what happened in England over the week end. A radio operator in the British Foreign Office was arrested for passing secrets to—you guessed it—one of secretaries in Mr. Zarubin's embassy. The radio man secretary is on the lam, the secrets are in

is in the Moscow and Mr. Zarubin is en route to Washington. Well, we all know you can't get reliable help these and we sympathize with Mr. Zarubin's personal probWe'd like to suggest that our FBI give Ambassador as much help as it can in keeping his sticky-fingered ‘aids in line. Otherwise Mr. Zarubin is likely to be embarrassed during his stay in Washington by having one Pico swipe the directions for building

RESULT OF SECRET TESTIMONY . . . By Charles Egger

Probe Justice Dept. Coverup For Liquor Firms

WASHINGTON, June 19 — House investi-

gators are trying to nail down secret testimony -

charging that the Justice Department stifled an inquiry into four big liquor companies after they had contributed liberally to the 1948 Democratic campaign, i Le pt The Chelf Committee, investigating the Justice Department, will hold. public Benrings on the case next week. Much testimony has been obtained in closed sessions from Justice Department and liquor industry offictals. Branham, an attorney in the Justice Depart. ment’s antitrust division, who ducte investigation of the four big liquor con

to his secret testimony before the subcommittee. However, his Justice Department superiors failed to push the case. i

In the closed hearings, Mr. Branham also odd

testified that a lawyer for one of the com told him of the campaign contributions. not identify the lawyer.

Tne congressional investigators were told that the liquor companies gave campaign money to both the Republican and Democratic Parties, but that the Democrats received the most. - In one case, the committee was informed, a liquor company gave $25,000 to the Republicans but nothing to the Democrats. After the surprising 1948 Democratic win, however, ithe Den

BIG JOB. . . By Orland D. Russell

Fighting Jap

Trade in China

TOKYO, June 19—One of U. 8. Ambassador Robert Murphy's biggest tasks in his new post is to keep Japan from starting trade with Red China. With vigor and with able assistance from his big staff, he has applied himself to this pressing task. In the past seven weeks, he has given half a dozen major speeches and interviews to emphasize that Japan had better not fall for Communist trade bait,

esi

But is he gaining ground? He has Japanese -

government commitments on his side—official pronouncements at least—but there's a lot of cold logic on the other side. In the face of mounting pressure from Japanese businessmen, British reluctance to let Japan trade in South east Asia and American high tariff moves, Mr. Murphy may be losing ground. :

Critical Stage

IN ANY CASE, the situation is approaching a critical stage. There's a deepening business recession in this country. Japan is casting about for new places to dispose of stocks piling up in many lines of industries. All the while Red China keeps bidding apd coaxing for products presently kept from her by rigid regulations laid down by the United States when Japan was still occupied. It is little wonder that the idea of trade with China tempts Japanese industrialists. The prevalent Japanese view is that the Americandictated blackout on trade with Red China is much harder on Japan's economy than the same restrictions are on any other country i the Western camp. This is because of Japan's nearness to China and her pre-war dependenck on China trade. ’ Continuing his effort to talk Japan out of any strategic trade with the Reds, Mr. Murphy spoke to the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and industry.

‘Great Confidence’

“JAPAN'S very existence depends on fis ability to trade,” he acknowledged. It's easy to say this, Mr. Murphy admitted, but it was

“not as easy to say how this is to be done. I~

have great confidence, however, in the resourcefulness of Japanese businessmen , . ..they will, I know, find access to raw materials.” But he didn’t say where. He continued, “A few Japanese businessman appear to be under the illusion that a Sovietdominated Chinese mainland will offer trade opportunities as favorable as those of pre-war days . . . most economists believe that such trade would not materialize beyond a few million dollars—an insignificant amount when compared with Japan's trade with the United States and thhe rest of the free world.

‘War Potential’

“IT 18 difficult for me to uriderstand how some businessmen can advocate trade which would contribute directly to the war poténtialof that very system which is seeking to destroy every principle on which Japan's private business thrives. $ E “Clearly, the political aspects of this prob-lem-—faced by every nation of the free world— far outweigh the small commercial benefits which might be reaped over a limited period.” Japanese businessmen listened politely and seemed to indorse Mr. Murphy's sentiments. But most observers here believe that what Japan finally does will depend not so much on such arguments, but rather on whether America and Britain continue heedlessly to erect higher and higher barriers to Japanese goods and services. *

SIDE GLANCES

By Galbraith

ERE SRI

same company kicked in $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Some estimates of the total contributions to

‘both parties exceed $250,000.

In at least one instance a cash contri-

we Sution was made directly to J. Howard MecA -Grath, then Democratic national chairman, the

"The Sky Writers ising Al [ a uk A

Under subpena to testify publicly fe Eenest

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WILDEYED DOINGS . .

. By Frederick C. Othman

committee was told. Mr. McGrath later became Attorney General, but was fired by President Truman last April. ; At one point in his secret testimony, Mr. Branham was asked whether he believed the campaign payments were related to the Justice

Uncle Sam Handed ‘A Dirty Deal’ On Purchase of Flaxseed Supply

WASHINGTON, June 19—If I'd only known the government was paying $6.01 per bushel for plain, old garden dirt, I'd have unsheathed my shovel; my acres of it in Virginia would have made me a millionaire. » ‘What I mean, taxpayers, is guard well your own dirt, because this tale of the sand in the flaxseed seems to be the wildest-eyed one of inept bureaucrats yet. As for the rural swindlers, they're still laughing. The government didn’t intend to pay more for dirt than most people pay for peaches, you understand. Its masterminds thought they were buying flaxseed, from which comes the oil that goes into paint. -From 1948 through 1950 the Commodity Credit Corp. paid for 29,707,798 bushels of the seed. Turned out it bought a few hundred thousand bushels of dirt, too. Those rural slickers in charge of numerous country elevators shipped the seed in boxcars to Minneapolis. They lined the bottoms of the cars with dirt, sick wheat, twigs and no telling what all eise. They piled this valuable refuse high in the corners. Then they poured in the flaxseed and filled the cars so full that inspectors couldn't crawl in with their testing gauges.

Some Phony Cars Spotted SOME OF these phony freight cars the government spotted. These it rejected, but it did nothing to the cheater it caught. So they tried again (there being no penalty if their subterfuge came to light) and frequently managed to peddle us taxpayers a car three-quarters filled with seed and one-quarter full of dirt. The whole sorry story was spread on the record of the Senate Agriculture Committee by Kirk W. Johnson, investigator of the general accounting office at St. Paul, Minn. He mentioned one carload of flaxseed that came into Duluth with 44 per cent sand, clay, weed seeds and old overshoes. he had estimates that 75 of the cars that rolled to that particular depot ‘were plugged. He had no idea how much dirt we actually did buy for better than $6 per bushel, but he figured a good guess was around $3 million

WASHINGTON, June 19— Speaking socially, this guy, Georgi N. Zarubin didn’t draw any prize when he was named Soviet ambassador to the United States. As Joe Stalin's errand boy, he'll be given about as much freedom of movement as a husband at a chorus girls’ convention. 3 Mr. Stalin apparently always has figured that if his ambassa~ dor never talks to any Ameri- - cans, he can't give away any . secrets or start yearning for » decadent capitalistic pleasures, 80 wherever the Soviet ambas-

'. bassador, speaks good English, + but he never even went out for o! a breathiof air without his in i 0 1 | aly ‘ ~' had to an extra chair Loads ) q —next to Alex—for his private { NS ll ol bloodhound. . art’ Obviously, too, the inter. preter ran the show. It was

i i

4 # LH £ i

STALIN'S ERRAND Red Envoy

worth. This made the Senators sore and, in particular, Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (D. N. M.) who used to be Secretary of Agriculture, himself. He pounced on the parade of officialdom trying to justify the government's dirt-buyi program. :

‘A Bargain, Kind of’

JAMES A. COLE, the boss flax buyer at Minneapolis, said he did not either buy all that dirt by mistake. He only purchased 349,000 bushels of it, or $2,368,000 worth. He also said this was a bargain, kind of." He meant it's an old custom for flaxseed shippers to sneak in a little extraneous matter. This being the case, he continued, the warehousemen themselves are suspicious of every carload. And to insure the government against loss they would have charged more than the dirt cost. Hence, he said, we maybe made a profit on $6 per bushel garden humus.

What Sen. Anderson couldn't understand was why the government didn’t jail the cheaters when it did catch ’em. The officials agreed they couldn't do that, because once the dirt was discovered, they didn’t buy it. Hence, they insisted, there was nothing to prosecute. Came up then the case of the Kerkhoven Grain Co., of Kerkhoven, Minn., which, tried to sell the government $2000 worth of dirt. Washington ordered no prosecution, because the dirt was discovered before the money changed hands. George Prichard, head of the fats and oils buying department here, said the solicitor had ruled in a similar case that no fraud had been committed. So he ordered the Kerkhoven proceedings closed. “What would a man have to do to get into trouble?” cried Sen. Anderson. “Here's a fellow who tried his best to defraud the government. ..."”: “No, sir,” interrupted Mr, Prichard. “Only half-tried, then,” snapped the Senator. Boy, hand me down my shovel. I'm going into business.

BOY . . . By Andrew Tully

Department’s failure to go further with the liquor industry case. . Tr. Branham replie¢ that he assumed so. Since the start of the committee investigation, Mr. Branham has refused to sign a letter which the Justice Department wanted to send to the committee to show that all Justice Department officials concerned agreed there was no strong basis for action against the liquor Mr. Branham began his Investigation after the department. received complaints from small businessmen that the big liquor companies were moving into the barrel-making business. But his investigation also covered possible pricefixing and monopoly angles. He finished his work in late 1948 or early 1949, but nothing ‘more was done about it. ‘ > After Mr, Branham's i RA iy th, Committee Chairman elf (D. at and Kenneth Keating (R. N. Y.) charged that Mr. Branham had been “mentally horsewhipped” by his Justice Department superiors, Mr. Chelf and Mr. Keating said the come mittee “had been hearing testimony concerning an attempt to intimidate a key witness (Mr, Branham) within the Justice Department. “If it isn't exactly intimidation, it most certainly appears that the recommendation of the witness for prosecution of certain cases has been ignored. . . .” Besides Mr. Branham, other Justice Department officials as well as liquor industry repre. sentatives gare expected to testify next week.

SATA A d

Hoosier Forum

"I do not agree a word that you § , but | will defend to the death your to say it." NL ITINERANT TI TROT! Why Work? MR. EDITOR:

If there must be a limit to the amount a person can make and still receive Sqcial Security, let it be: enough for him to be able te live, and not merely exist. Can a mother keep three or more children on $140 or $150 a month? granted, the amount was $74 to $76 a month. When the smaller amount was paid, a person receiving Social Security was permitted to earn the grand sum of $14.99 without losing his benefits. : ' ® © & - NOW YOU can make $50. ‘Isn't that wone derful? If you secure part-time employment so you can be with your children most of the time, here is the joker: : 8ay you work three hours a night, making an average of $3. There are an average of 22 working days in a month, so you're making $66. But you're allowed to make only $50. So

:you are over your limit.

Hurry. Notify the Social Security Board so that next month they can deduct that from your monthly allowance. If they find out before you tell them, they will deduct two of your checks. * + ¢ OH, I'M SORRY. I misinformed you. You are not to wait until you receive your pay, You are to notify them as soon as you know you are going to make over $50. Well, you worked 66 hours for about $26, because you are going fo lose at least $40. ~ A few years have passed. One of your children is now old enough to work after school. Some employers are understanding enough to know this extra financial help .is needed and will adjust the hours to meet the $50 limit. But be ever on guard lest a slif-up occur, If it does, report it immediately. * ¢ 4 I ALMOST forgot to: mention, should the child for whom you are being penalized obtain gainful employment, making an amount over

_- $50 to make it worthwhile reporting him off, or

should he reach the age of 18 before you have been deprived of a sufficient number of checks to cover full restitution, another child’s check will be deducted to make up the discrepancy. Always keep in mind the fact regardless of whether the amount over is one cent or $100 You still will Jose the benefits for each month this happens,

‘=M. R. B, City.

Raps GOP MR. EDITOR: It is to be noted that many Senate Republicans, aided by Dixiecrats, have voted to discontinue rent and price controls after Mar. 1, 1953, despite the conceded necessity of their continuance beyond that date. This action ime plies a callous disregard for the plight of Amer. icans who are not home owners, and conse quently the victims of a rental-housing shortage caused by the success of the real estate lobby in influencing congressional action in its favor. 2% & THOUGH I HAVE been an enrolled Republi can for over 20 years, I now feel the necessity of using my vote and influence to help rid the party of those members of Congress who have neglected the welfare of those .of ‘their constituency who lack the. organization and funds to maintain a paid lobby in Washington with easy entree to legislative favor. Parallel action by the same factions in Cone gress on the Tidelainds Oil and Fair Trade easures, serve to cast serious reflectio; their integrity and lack of roy gums majority of their constituents.

—A. L. V, City,

Lonely Among 150 Million of U

English.” Once, when Mr. Panyushkin, in an unguarded mo-

ic eyebrows. Even then, the ambassador usually comes

Georgi Zarubin won't even be able to turn to. the

Before the raise was

ment exchanged a few words with a reporter, the interpreter literally ran - from the buffet table nearby, clutched the ambassador's arm and hauled him away.

THE AMBASSADORSHIP

job here probably is the lonelest in the world. Mr. Stalin lets his ambassadors go to only. carefully selected parties —usually those at which his absence might raise diplomat-

late and stays only a few min-

utes before the interpreter guides him firmly to the door. ~ . »

ANY personal friendships among the diplomatic colony are out. Mr. Panyushkin never entered an American home during his stay here. No Americans were invited to the Russian embassy, ‘except on official business or for the annual reception in honor of the October revolution,

CHILDISH THOUGHTS

satellite embassies for genuine comradeship. Russian staffers here do mingle with satellite diplomats, but it is a strained relationship—one between master and subordinate. A Yugoslav diplomat once summed up the satellites’ feeling toward the Russians. “They treated us fine,” he said, “so long as we deferred to them.”

» » ~ DESPITE the life he led—a virtual prisoner in the embassy —Mr. Panyushkin usually managed to preserve a cheerful countenance. He even displayed, on occasion, a kind of humor. = - od There was the time, for instance, when he attended the

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