Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 August 1952 — Page 20

The Indiar.apolis Times

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MAN2 President Editor Business Manager

PAGE 20 Friday, Aug. 15, 1952

ons 9, Member

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Telephone PL aza 3551

Give Light and the People Will Find Thetr Own Way

Common Sense and Vice Control

E HOPE our city and county law enforcement agencies are not about to be stampeded by a set of dubious Army statistics into another “vice crusade” like the one we had in World War II. That one, which started the same way, quickly degenerated into one of the most vicious little rackets this town has ever seen. Scores of perfectly innocent, completely respectable young woman--friends, fiancees, even wives of soldiers stationed here—were “arrested” for crime no greater than being seen on the streets in the company of a man in uniform, threatened with “publicity,” shaken down for whatever money they: could raise by certain shady bail bondsmen and shyster lawyers, held in jail without trial. High school girls changing buses in the Circle on their way home from school parties were quizzed, insulted, threatened with @rrest, embarrassed and humiliated by policemen assigned to ‘vice control’ and showing more enthusigsm than good judgment in their job. Professional prostitutes, meanwhile, were largely untouched by the ‘‘campaign,” wholly unimpressed by either fear of “publicity” or the minor penalties they paid when convicted. re This little reign of terror stopped only when The Times presented a long series of fully documented case histories backed by affidavits which shocked the whole community. We can do that hope it will not.

nu » ~ : t A a n ~ “STATISTICS indicafing- that Indianapolis has “the highest vénereal disease rate” in the United States are quite sensational-—as they evidently were meant to be— unless the facts are understood. It is much like saying that New Orleans, where one leprosy case was discovered some time back has “the highest leprosy rate in the United States.” Actually the rate here, even by the questionable military figures, is only a tiny fraction of 1 per cent—and it has been dropping steadily for years. No city in the world is, or ever has been, entirely free from “commercialized vice, and no means of. completely eliflinating it ever have beefr foitnd. The best-run, best--policed cities keep it at a minimum by steady, unrelenting, regular enforcement of the law—and especially by seeing that none of their law enforcement officers, great or small, make any profit out of winking at violations. “Crusades” and “campaigns” like the one that may be getting started here now have never had any real effect on the problem Too often they turn out like the last one we tried.

again, if it becomes necessary. We

The Farmers Were Hoaxed

NE of the most surprising results of the 1948 election was the way President Truman carried the grain belt. That was a year of bumper corn and wheat crops, and hence a year of falling prices. President Truman made an issue of that—a telling one. He said farmers were being compelled to sell their grain on a low market because the Republicans had tied the hands of the government's Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC). He said the CCC couldn't provide storage bins for the surplus grain because the Republican Congress—that “terrible 80th''—had forbidden the CCC to own or lease anything except office space. The farmers were taken in by that story-—and so were the Republicans, who didn't, or couldn't, answer it. Piecemeal, the plot behind that Truman-made issue has been leaking out. Now Sen. John J. Williams of Delaware, Congress’ one-man investigating committee, has told the whole story in the Saturday Evening Post. Sen.

Wililams has the evidence. n » o n o o

The CCC, long before the Republican law was passed, had ample storage bins. . But for three years it had been selling them, at a fraction of their original cost. It went right on disposing of them even as Mr. Truman complained -of its inability to help the farmers. It had all the power and means it needed to do its job, as Sen. Williams now contends. Moreover, the Senator shows, the Truman CCC, which had been a big grain buyer, suddenly stopped. Not a single bushel of corn was bought for foreign aid, military use or other government programs, in the six weeks before the 1948 election. When so big a buyer suddenly steps out of the market, price skids are inevitable. The day before the election, the CCC suddenly bought 3,850,000 bushels—and prices started upward again—too late to help many farmers, but not soon enough to upset Mr: Truman's great hoax. By this issue, bathed in deceit and ruthless manipulation, Mr. Tf¥nan staved off possible defeat. But he did it by sticking a pitchfork in the farmer's back.

Franklin Vonnegut

RANKLIN VONNEGUT was born in Yadizimpolls when Indianapolis was about the size that Anderson is today. -___ He grew up with this city, and he contributed tremendously to the growth of this city—not only in size, but'in culture, and humanity and commerce, and all the factors that are a part of our American civilization. For more than half a century he was a leader in most of the worthwhile things that got done in Indianapolis. He helped to found the local chapter of the Red Cross, he was a moving spirit in the Community Fund, he was one of the organfzers of the Merchants Association, and the commercial group that ultimately became the Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, first of its kind in the nation. His unflagging interest and activity in music and drama are responfible for much of the city's finest achievement in those fields. For most of a century his presence has made this a 3 greater and a better city.mT hiliauepols is fortunate. to have had such a citizen

so Jong. . “

Owned and oibljshed dally by IndianaPolis Times Publish. ©

Can Science Control This Menace?

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DEATH RATE (N Bau (AST FIFT YEARS

DEFENSE OF EUROPE .

’'M STILL HOLDING UP MY BATTING AVE RAGE

. By R. H. Shackford

Lack of Unity on Conscription Period Setback to NATO Plans

LONDON-- France's refusal to boost her military conscription period from “18 to 24 months—the minimum held necessary to defend Western Europe—-is another setback to NATO, the plans for German rearmament and creation of a European army.

. The greatest danger is not just the matter °

of the additional six months of military training,” but the bad psychological effect on the entire joint Western Europe defense effort. The tendency among E yropean NATO nations niready is to point a finger at their neighbors and complain that the rearmament burden is not shared {airly.

“I'm doing more than -you are,” is the common cry. THE ROW OVER the length »f military

service is a symptom of a disease which affects

all NATOers, and is beginning to hurt rearmament, Britain, perhaps with more justification

than others, never. passes up an opportunity to point out that her defense effort is second only to that of the United States. British Socialists even complain that the United States is not carrying a full share.

Retards Rearmament

FRANCE, ALSO with some justification, complains that the rest of the world always forgets her efforts in Indo-China-—costing about §1 million a day plus .a terrific toll of France's best soldiers, Belgium's Socialists are stirring up the public to protest, with mutinies and strikes, against two-year military service because France only has 18 months. The Germans are still outside waiting to- get into Western defense. But former Wehrmacht Gen. Ernst Falkenhauser gave what may be a preview of later German complaints in an interview in which he charged: “The French are worse soldiers now than they were in 1940. The only country able to stand up against Russia would be Germany.”

RED REVELATIONS By

Belgium called the meeting in Paris - this week of all European army nations—France, West Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy—to try to agree to a uniform length of service and thus take the sting

- out of the Socialist propaganda.

France

- rejected - the Belgian plea for 24 months on

“juridical, political; military and

" financial” grounds,

Now Belgium has reduced her service to 21 months. . British Socialists will scream louder for a cut in Britain's 24 months. Other nations will stay where they are, under two years. But the Paris meeting on conscription may have far more serious repercussions.

Army Within NATO

UP FOR RATIFICATION in the six countries is the unprecedented European Defense Community (EDC)—A European Army within the NATO, Only through this can German di-

visions be «created. Only through German divisions, according to the best military minds, can Europe be defended. Gen. Matthew Ridgway himself has warned that NATO's military forces ‘are still seriously inadequate.” The EDC idea is that the six European nations no longer will maintain separate national armies. . They'll: contribute. all their armed forces at home for common defense. The fundamental premise of the European army is the merging of all separate armies into one-—the same uniform, rate of pay and term of conscription, with standardized weapons. The same training programs and a common command-—-even a common military budget. It doesn’t require much military knowledge to realize that the failure to agree on these separate issues makes the whole concept only a theory. Failure to agree on conscription, for example; would be similar to some of the states not letting their men be drafted for more than 18 months while others agreed to 2 years.

Frederick C. Othman

Bathing Only Once in Five Years You Sorta Get Out of the Habit

WASHINGTON -—The way to find out what is cooking is to read the newspapers, including

the Russian, Having spent this day doing exactly that, 1 can report everything behind the Iron Curtain is wonderful—until you get

back among the want ads.

There, the news, which never was intended for your eves or mine, is what you might call grim, Such as the item in the daily Kommunist Tadzhikistana of Stalingrad, which says: “The stores of Stalingrad do not sell toothpaste, or toothpowder. The managernt of the city trading agency does not deem it necessary to bother about such trifies.” . My freshly smuggled batch of news from the Fast goes into glorious detail about the glories of J. Stalin and Co. on page one. Inside are the unhappy little items about life as it is halflived under the Communist yoke.

They Have Troubles

THE TROUBLES range from leaky roofs to no baths ta thievery among the bureaucrats and from dull movies to bum steel to fountain pens that won't write, Then there is the sorry case of a Warsaw husband, who wrote the newspaper. Glos Pracy, about how he grew tired of his wife, Sophie, complaining, always complaining. about her shopping problems. He decided to teach her a lesson by laundry supplies. ~ “1 can't say she was reluctant,” he wrote. “Shé gave me the soap and the laundry powder coupons. That night I slept at a friend's. I was ashamed. to go home, I got the soap, but they couldn't sell the powder because they forgot to order scales. * They promised to get some. “I slept a second night at my friend's, because I couldn't face Sophie without the powder. They had the scales now, but no bags to put the powder in. I asked them to pour it in my pocket, but this was against the regulations. “Another day passed and no laundry powder again. The new scales were out of order. And I lost my plece of soap and my friend said my continued residence at his house annoyed him. I returned home without soap, or powder, but with bowed head and deep admiration for my dear Sophie's patience. She has to do all her

shopping at this same store.”

There were tales in this load of newspapers about cheating farmers, busted automobiles that

coMin’t be fixed, coal miners jailed for six

offering to buy her

months because they were lazy, and great stores of steel rusting because somebody was too tired to build a roof a roof over it, Then there was the item in Warsaw's Express Wieczorny, which said: “Yesterday we met a lady who has had only one bath in five years. At 18 Marszalkowska St. no one ever has a bath because there is no coke, or the boiler is broken, or nobody is there to light the fire. Days, months and years pass like this. Not only do the tenants get out of the habit of having baths, but the housing administration has gotten out of the habit of carrying

out {its most elementary duties toward the tenants, 5 Years Without Water “MATTERS are still worse in the 6-story

apartment house at 6 Florianska St., where there has been no water for five years. The administration of the block is not to be found, the block committee is indifferent, and the doorman is not worried because he lives on the ground floor and does not have far to go for water. In this way 200 families are living today as though in the Sahara.” . There also was the sorry case of Mrs. Andreas Durko, in charge-of the nursery at a Hungarian hemp mill, who went shopping for 10 chamber pots for the children under her care. ~The-elerk-at-the -state-hardware-store tried.to sell her Japanese flower pats. These would not do. She signed a standard contract for requisitioning those that would. The hardware trust now promises delivery early in 1953. Small matters, maybe, but you add 'em up and they bode no good for Uncle Joe.

‘INSPIRATION

Inspire me toward my goal .° . of happiness and love . . . instill in me the hope I'heed .. . to reach the stars above . . . console. me with a tenderness . .,. that's soft and kindly too . . . inspire me so that I may . . . make all your dreams come true ... impart to me your own sweet smile . . . and guide my every thought «..80 I may know a happiness . . . that never can be bought . . . guide me with love . . . console me too . . . with Sgeden adoration , . . I ~ ask you dear to WAYS be ++ +My greatest

ins tion. irs \ ~—By Ben Burroughs

ECan T dba Heidi ti Sein lh rei

‘MAY COST MORE .

ALIIART

. By Jim G. Lucas

No Letup in Defense Spending Is Expected in 1953-54 Budget

yy Expect expect a letup in defense spending in the next (1953-54) budget. Defense will cost more. The Defense Department asked for $52 billion in this year’s (1952-53) budget. Congress gave it $46.6 billion to finance a force of 3.7 million men. W. J. McNeill, assistant secretary and comptroller of the Defense Department, says the next budget will provide the same size military force—3.7 million men. But, so far, President Truman hasn't set a price ceiling. Mr. McNeill is sure, however, that 3.7 million men will cost more the next time. Mr. McNeill says salaries, clothing and food probably won't cost too much more. He believes the final price tag ‘could vary $100 million either way--a fluctuation of a few cents in the cost of living could do that.” He doesn’t think we'll spend much more on upkeep of bases. ’ It's the cost of “heavy hardware”’—guns, tanks, planes—that worries him. Heavy bombers, for instance, cost $15 million to $20 million. And prices are going up.

Work Started on Next Budget

WORK WAS STARTED on the next Defense budget in February when Mr. McNeill sent certain ‘budget criteria” to the Services. Thede,™ in effeota" are the. ground - rules. For instance: “No new construction will be requested unless the cost of upkeep exceeds one-fifth of the estimated cost of replacement.” Or: “It will be assumed that all deferred maintenance has been completed and budget requests will reflect current upkeep only.” Within the Services, the various corps, bureaus and branches have completed their original requests. These reflect their “asking price” —probably a lot more than any expect to get. On Aug. 1, the Army, Navy and Air Force budget chiefs took over. They'll do some pruning, The Army comptroller, for instance, must rework the requests of the Chemical Corps, the Quartermaster, the Transportation Corps, Army ground forces, etc., into a Department of Army budget. The Navy must do the same with requests from bureaus of Yards and Docks; Personnel, the Marine Corps, etc. On Sept. 1, the Army, Navy and Air Force will hand their proposed budgets to Mr. McNeill. He'll. call’ in the Budget Bureau and they'll work on it through October. By Nov. 1, he

ana

MR. EDITOR: If I were a Democrat I certainly would keep

"my mouth shut about “prosperity” and ‘social

gains” made under 20 years of Democratic rule. This so-cglled prosperity is not real because it is very largely based on borrowed money. . Sure, jobs are plentiful and pay, in most

cases, is pretty good. But if you had $40 per mortth, “in addition to present income -taxes, taken out of your pay for the next 20 years to pay: back the money the Democratic administrations have borrowed and handed out as “social benefits” you wouldn't feel very: prosperous. > >

NO PART of the taxes now being taken out of your pay or which you pay as a part of the price of everything you buy is being used to reduce the federal debt. On the contrary, we are going deeper into debt this election year. And you know why, Furthermore, this so-called prosperity has for nearly 20 years been based on a war economy. It ‘is bought and paid for by the blood of thousands of our finest young men. If you are

willing to sacrifice the lives of our sons to gain

a paper prosperity and a false security, vote the Democratic ticket this fall. They have pledged to continue giving you just that. But don’t come around proudly boasting about it. —J. L. Schanbacher, Kokomo.

PRICE FIXING

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HOOSIER FORUM—Is Not Redl|

'l do not agree with a word that you say, but | will defend to the death your right fo say H."

NEON EERE OEE PEON O NNER TOE EN CRN RR OIE RENNER Nase Rana s ter TNE EReS sevsvsesnennnae®

expects to have it ready for President Truman,

Last year, service budgets totaled $76 bil. .

lion. Mr. Truman, Mr. McNeill and the Budget ' Bureau lopped off $24 billion. Congress cut ans other $5 billion. Mr. McNeill ‘said he doesn't think the Services will be quite so year, although ‘the temptation to ask for everything is great.” He'll be “‘geatly surprised” if ‘their budgets total more than $60 billion.

Will Be Ready for New Chief

BY THE TIME the next President takes over in January, the Defense -budget—a voluminuous document—will be ready. The new chief executive can, of course, throw it away and start over. But that’s not likely.

Mr. McNeill, who has handled every Defense budget since the Department was created in 1947, says the new one is his toughest. “In the past,” he said, “we could deal in generalities. We could appropriate so much for ammunition, so much for tanks, so much for planes because we knew we needed them. “Now, however, we've reached the saturation point in som fields. For instance, we have 20,000 medium tanks on order. That's as many as we or our Allies conceivably ean use. Our problem is to keep the tank industry alive— and available in an emergency—without buying tanks we don't need. Tanks are almost indestructible. Once you've bought them, you've got them. And they're good for 10 or 15 years. “The same is true of ammunition. We have a reserve worth $8 billion or $9 billion. We have all the 30 and 50-caliber stuff we could ever use, But in the 105 and 155 categories we're hurting, So we've got to cut down on some ammunition and speed up on other types. But you can't simply go out and buy ammunition. You've got to be selective, “We've been trying to get the Air Force to spend “more to train pilots, It wants to put everything in planes. Then, all of a sudden, it rung out of pilots and wants to train them all at once. - That's costly. We're insisting on a bigger, sustained training program. The next budget will provide that.” The Air Force budget, he said, will continue to buy a wide variety of warplanes. Mr. McNeill doesn’t think much of a suggestion it concentrate on fewer models to get faster production. “When you try to build everything into one airplane—when you try to make an interceptor, a fighter, and a fighter-bomber out of a reconnaissance plane—ijt's no good,” he said.” “That's poor economy.”

Governor May Advise MR. EDITOR: A recent contributor made the statement that Gov. Schricker has been the most expensive governor we ever had and gives some figures to prove it. Appropriation bills originate in the legisla-

ture and are passed by the legislature. The goy.érnor may advise, sign or veto.

The Housé and Senate organize themselves, set their own salaries, ‘and approve their own expense accounts. The governor may sit and Feith The last legislature was largely Repubcan As for the cigaret tax being lowered, I do not care one way or the other. I have no sympathy for anyone who cries about this one. It is the one tax a man or woman can pay or refuse to pay, and if he or she refuses to pay, then, he or she will be that much better off mentally and physically.

Publish in Every Paper MR. EDITOR: The letter by N. L. Shepard, which appeared in The Times on Tuesday, Aug. 5, should be sent out over UP and AP wires and published in every paper in the United States, and about 10,000 copies of it sent to our boys in Korea.

—E. F. Ashley, 30 N. Grant Ave, City.

By James Daniel

Justice Department Is Probing

Legality of

WASHINGTON —The Justice Department's antitrust division is making a detailed study of the new McGuire ‘fair trade” law, The law permits manufacturers, by agreement with retail-

view of

fairness which the powenAs used, vio--lating the De, The argument is tHat a retailer who didn’t consent to have his prices fixed and wants

‘Fair Trade’ Law

the

with own state. His family has two stores. One supermarket ine cludes a drug prescription coun< ter where he advertises hulk prescription prices, contrary to custom.

greedy this

ers, to set the prices at which their products can be sold in each ‘state. Any store which sold an item for less would violate the law, The department is trying to decide whether the law is technically sound and constitutional. If the decision is no, the probable next question for the policy makers will be how far the department can, or should, go in trying to have the law overturned. The study represents no change in department policy, officials say. The Justice Department was against “fair trade” —on the ground that it fs price-fixing—before Congress approved it. And President Truman, in signing the bill, said he was dissatisfied with its provisions. s = ” TWO QUESTIONS ting intense study. Without outright repeal of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, is it legal to compel a retailer who chooses to stay out of a

are get-

“fair trade” agreement to abide by its minimum price provisions? Ardent “fair traders” view

this compulsion as the heart of their system. Unless an unwilling retailer can be forced by lawsuits to sell at a fixed price, they say their system ~preaks down: The. to punish him is to try to get manufacturers, or wholesalers, to shut off his supply of goods. This isn’t always possible, and may give the deprived retailer the basis for a suit

charging restraint of trade.

Many state “fair trade” laws contain such ‘non - signer” elauses. And the new federal law _ specifically authorizes them. The Supreme Court has never passed directly upon the possible conflict between such clauses and the Sherman Act itself. . ~ - THE SECOND question under stydy is directly constitutional:

_Are the sfates in delegating : price-fixing powers to private

nividuals, ‘without. aay ree

only..way..

to sell his goods for less, has been deprived of a property right in his merchandise without the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution. Regardless of whether the Justice Department itself takes the “fair trade” law to court, some privately instituted court cases appear likely.

” o o JOHN SCHWEGMANN JR, the New Orleans supermarket owner who got the old feder:l law overturned, is advertising that he will not he bound by ‘fair trade” prices set in his

SIDE GLANCES

8-15

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ope. 1962 by NEA Servos, Bh | "Dad's joking all the time—how did you He he was in » samuk. 4. ; WHER PE ropes fo your. : ole Te pai

2 os 2 MR. SCHWEGMANN has vowed that if any supplier sues him, he'll fight the case up to the Supreme Court, as he did the last time. Or if they try to cut off his supplies, he says he'll sue them. £ The “fair traders’” dilemma is whether it's less dangerous to ignore Mr. Schwegménn than to take him on in court. Either way, they run the risk of losing the protection for retail price fixing which they lobbied so hard for in Washe ington,

By Galbraith

—F. M,, City v

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