The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 16

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 194 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR FAGS 16 TL- Vmtar Vnrm Wifo STV "Gee A Home Of My Own!" The Indianapolis Star Wegtbrook pler sr mm- If mm Anti-Nazi League Outdoes Ilitlcrism luaKe a List Deiore i ou Dive Into Shopping Jam Fair And First Established Tta Indianapolis Journal In 128 TIM Indianapolis Sunday Stntlntl Absorbed la 10 Published Every Day In the Year by STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY Pennsylvania and New York Streets, i Indianapolis 6, Ind. EUGENE C. PULLIAM, Publisher MEMBER Or THE ASSOCIATED PRESS i Th Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to use for republication all En credited to It or not otherwise credited In this paper and local news pushed herein. "Let the people know the facts and the country will be saved." Abraham Lincoln. Christmas shopping, like the stuff listed on a farm sale bill "must be seen to be appreciated." Even then, some people don't appreciate it, and regard it as one of the annual penalties imposed on 1 them for being human.

One salesgirl, though she looked fresh as a daisy, told me with angry emphasis, "I wouldn't care if it NEVER came." I could symphathize with her. I've felt the same way while a neighbor was asking the blessing over a threshing dinner I'd spent two days preparing for 20 hungry men. But the Christmas stores are full of beautifuL wtiti(f inil WAnffarflll thin fro tn KllV orA nannl. trying to make up their minds what to buy or not. Christmas is the only time a farm woman feels justified in spending money extravagantly.

She may not have much to spend then, but she can BJCllU Alt TV1U1 uiaiuuv.ui, auatiuuii, wiu.VUb CUIJ purely practical consideration, and that's fun. City shoppers, seeing the stores dally, probably get accustomed to the Christmas bait and have more resistance. For all I know they can even pass the toy department without a second glance. Provided, of course, they don't have a small child, or parent of one, tagging Ml i 'haSSK Farmers have learned that Saturday, their traditional "trading" day, is not the best day for Christmas shopping. They go on Monday.

Whenever two farm women meet in the stores, they wedge themselves into a vacant inch and take time to visit. It slows down the shopping, but adds greatly to the fun of the season. If you don't get everything done by choretime that day, you can come back next week, meantime giving the hens a chance to lay more eggs to sell. You keep going back until finally some kind friend tells you Christmas is past and your shopping is done. Farmers shop in nearby small towns.

Smalltown people shop in cities. City people go to bigger cities and greater glamour. I don't know how it all ends. Neither can I figure out when the salespeople get any shopping done themselves. Maybe they don't.

Maybe they stay up all night, making their gifts. In the stores they are so busy you feel you should hurry and make your selections by the childish way of shutting your eyes and counting out "My mother told me to take this one." Have you ever noticed how everything seems suited, to one person and you could buy that person a dozen gifts in the time you spend wavering like a jello salad over somebody else? The way to happify Christmas shopping is to "make a list." It's efficient, too. First take a complete inventory of all the belongings, needs arid wants of all your friends. This takes the first year. Go through the mail order catalogues, noting prices and information about parcel post zones.

Order The People Speak everyining num ine catalogues, ai leisure, in your NEW YORK, Dec. 16 Oswald Garrison Villard of New York, one of the genuine liberals on the original roster of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, strongly disapproves the secret police activities in which the league boastfully revealed itself in the attempt to purge a small organization called the Columbians, in Atlanta. In this coup, the anti-Nazi league planted a New York woman as a secretary in the office of the Columbians and obtained photographs of the Columbians' -correspondence by means of a camera disguised as a fountain pen. The expose amounted to nothing more than publicity for the anti-Nazi league and against the Columbians at the time of the denunciation, for no formal charges were made of illegal action by any individual and no person was arrested. In the reaction, however, the anti-Nazi league stood seJf-disclosed as a secret, snooping organiza-' tion and dispatches from Atlanta said that when the Columbians had caught their breath they swore out warrants against James H.

Sheldon, the directing chairman of the league, and two secret agents, including the woman secretary, charging them with making investigations illegally but the charges were dismissed. Mr. Villard does not recall precisely why he quit the league but he said he "supposed" he did so because of general dissatisfaction with "the way it was going." lie withdrew several years ago. "We didn't do anything of that kfad," Mr. Villard said.

"It was purely an anti-Hitler movement. I was very much astounded by what I have read of sending people south and acting as detectives and trapping people. All I can say is that no action of that kind was taken when I was in it. Actions of that kind never were considered. I think the whole thing must have changed very much.

"If it were the same organization, I should say it was time for it to pass out of existence. It never was in its functions to undertake to purge anything in the United States." Case Has Been Mostly Publicity The Columbians are alleged to be anti-Semitic and anti-Negro and there seems to be no reason to doubt that. There have been inexact references to sticks of dynamite but the value of the case, if any, against the Columbians, will not be established untrt-" the evidence is presented. Thus far, the "case" has consisted of publicity which, on second thought, and on research into the background of the anti-Nazi league, leaves the league in an exposed position. As these dispatches have related, the trt-'rer of this organization, which presumes to spy on Americans, violating their confidence and their privacy and exposing their private records to public view, is Isidore' Lipschutz, a Belgian refugee who describes himself as an importer of diamonds and whose application for American citizenship has been held up by the government.

A writer in a publication strongly sympathetic with the league wrote in June, 1943, that Lipschutz was doing a gigantic job for the league and had "turned his vast business organization into what is virtually an adjunct of the league," His "vast business organization" is not further described. In a book called "I Find Treason," published by William Morrow in 1941, an author calling himself "Richard RoIJins" wrote: "During February, 1939, the executive secretary oC the anti-Nazi league called me. The league was about to develop a large department of investigation. He wanted me to head it. I liked the possibilities for more action and power.

The secretary had not exaggerated when he described the league as the world's greatest aiiti-Nazi organization. Over 500 organized groups fraternal, religious, industrial, labor, educational made up its more than 2,000,000 membership. In March, the league appointed me its national director of investigation. The department was my responsibility to run exactly as I thought best." High-Handed Tactics "Rollins" writes that he began as an individual snooper, spying on an American organization in New York called "The Order of 76." He says "The Order of 76" was anti-Semitic and tells proudly of robbing sailors' lockers aboard a German, ship in the harbor. He writes that Samuel Dirksteln, then a member of Congress and chairman of the House Immigration Committee, engaged him, Informally, and without putting him on the government payroll, to "see what you can find." He claims that he robbed lockers aboard the Deutschland pursuant to his engagement with Dlckstein and came ashore with two small German pistols which he had stolen.

He did not declare them and, obviously, firearms were contraband. "When I was working alone and unofllcially," he writes, "freebooter tactics may have been all right." But the committee was limited. The difference in methods is described on Page 41 where "Rollins" says Dlckstein promised him the first appointment as an investigator as soon as the committee was selected, but asked him, meanwhile, to. clean up "The Order of 76." He did that by rifling the desk of the man who employed him, with the help of a woman spy, also planted on the "Order of 76" and known as Dorothy Waring, or "Agent 89," and, finally, looting the safe. In accepting the help of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to "investigate" the Columbians in Atlanta, Eugene Cook, the attorney general, and E.

E. Andrews, the solicitor general, may not have considered the implications of this indorsement of irresponsible espionage by private organizations. An efficient, energetic public oflicial with a small staff of intelligent investigators could have done at leas as well under oflicial conditions. Now these officials find themselves in a compromising association with an ouflt whose former chief investigator proudly tells of feats of theft, burglary and smuggling, and boasts of the league's collaboration with secret, private foreign spying groups and whose treasurer, an alien refugee, is "doing a gigantic job for the anti-Nazi league, having turned his vast business organization into what is virtually an adjunct of the league." Uneasy as they may be over the activities of the Columbians, the citizens of Georgia may be no more complacent over the invasion of their privacy and their rights by the non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League. living room.

A few days before Christmas your money will come back with the sparkling information "This item out of stock." There goes the second year. "Next check your list with other people's lists. You will find that every item you had selected is already bought, wrapped and labeled for the same person you had in mind. On your revised list, make alternatives, in case the store doesn't have what you want, which of course it hasn't Set down an approximate cost after each item. This will add up to much more money than you can possibly spend, but you can always hope to win extra money in a radio contest Put your list in a safe place where pickpockets won't get it.

Better pin It to your underwear. You'll never look at it again, anyway; it's your money you must hold in your nana ana consun irom time xo ume. The mission of the shopping list is to serve as a conscience. For this reason it should be written on something durable and unignorable, like a scrap of galvanized roofing. This, pinned to your brassiere strap, will be a persistent reminder that you are about to spend too much money for that item you are looking at The certainty that the money won't hold out is an ever-present, often-neglected reality, like the air you breathe.

Even with the list, you won't be satisfied with all your selections. But there'll be one or two over which you'll glow lik a Christmas candle. And of course next year you'll shop earlier, know more and have lots more money. MRS. R.F.D.

Sugar A Necessity To tha Edifor of Tha Indianopolit Siart I think of all the downright mean stunts committed these days by heartless persons, is that of depriving Americans of sugar. Especially their denying us of this all-important requisite at Christmas time, when mothers need to make cookies, candies and the like for the children. Sugar is a necessity for the American table. It is not a necessity for the Europeans to the same extent. MRS.

DAISYDEAN DEEDS. 2353 North Talbott Avenue. Production, Not Strikes To tha Editor of Th Indlanapolli Star; The public is being misled into believing that the labor leaders alone are to blame for the strikes and layoffs in our country. It was the politicians who, for their own enrichment, put the power to restrain trade into the hands of unscrupulous and irresponsible leaders. They passed the Wagner act vith full warning of the consequences.

Still the politicians fool along with strikes and idleness spreads. They want to pass the buck to the new Congress. The unions think the public should take it and say nothing. That time has passed. If the unions and politicians are going to persecute the public, naturally the public will be against unions and their unscrupulous leaders.

John L. Lewis thought he could defy the government and get what he wanted. My opinion is that the public has had enough of Lewis bossism. And it mlcht be well for other labor leaders to get wise to public sentiment. Such happenings as that Allis-Chalmers plant riot in Milwaukee, where that UAW-CIO strike repeating a promise and fact He had given His followers before.

Thus it is true. Therefore, dear "grown-up little boy," my wife and and we trust millions of our helpers, will join you in asking God to restore your body and nerve system so that eyes can be transplanted "in your head" as you say, and so you may see well again. The reporter who is taking this dictation from me has two bright, shiny blue eyes. When young her friends always told her they danced and laughed and gave away any secret she might try to conceal. She fells me that others have offered you their eyes, one or two at a time.

Knowipg the doctors say you yourself are not ready yet to receive then), she hopes that by the time the angel of death calls her, you will be ready for physical vision. If so, she hereby gives you two bright, shiny blue eyes, to be taken within one hour after her death. She feels you might find it fun to see the world as a woman sees it, and this may be your opportunity. All of us up here and all my helpers join in wishing you, your wife, little sisters, buddies, and loved ones a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. You can make others happy by publishing more and more letters telling truthfully how the sightless see the world.

With love from SANTA CLAUS. Reported by Faye H. Norris, 3331 Guilford Ave. Another Sugar Stamp To tha Edifor of Tha Indianapolis Star: I'd just like to add- my voice to those who are asking for another sugar stamp before Christmas. I would rather stretch the amount allowed the next period and have a little more for Christmas.

I certainly can see nothing generous in the extension of the use of the canning sugar stamps. No one I know has any. They have used those long ago for canning. ESTELLA RICHARDSON. Franklin, Route 1, Box 56.

Bookies Or Baskelball? -iThe attempted bribery of New York Giants players to throw the professional football championship to the Chicago Bears in Sunday's game brings into the national spotlight a condition of gambling on football and basketball contests that has become a national disgrace. The bookies found a lucrative field in Indiana during the football season in selling parlay forms. In Sunday's Star the story of their invasion of the high school basketball field was set forth by Reporter Joseph K. Shep-ard, who found local basketball officials alarmed at this growing evil, about which Chief of Police McMurtry said he had no knowledge. Intense support of rival basketball teams will always produce private wagers, of course, but parlay forms which give the bookies an opportunity to make big business of petty gambling lead on to just such incidents as the Brooklyn College basketball scandal and now the charges that have ruined the finish of the professional football season in New York.

L. V. Phillips, state high school basketball commissioner, will have the support of all good citizens in his move to scotch this evil menace before it corrupts a single player or puts a blot on one of the 780 teams in Indiana. Crookedness in any amateur sport injures not only the principals involved, but casts a shadow on the ideal-Ism of youth that is far-reaching in ill effects. Youth-ful cynicism as to who is to be trusted is an unhealthy state of mind.

Public cynicism as to whether our basketball games, or any other games, are on the square would be the quickest way to destroy the healthful athletic competition which plays so important a part in American life. Shall we let the bookies make money or save basketball for the kids who will display the same energy in civic leadership tomorrow? People Want Direct Primaries It is becoming more evident each day that the people of Indiana, from all groups, want their state Legislature to return the direct primary. The leading organizations representing farmers and factory workers support it. The recent announcement of the Indiana Si ate Federation of Labor that it would support the return of the direct primary should give added impetus to the passage of a new voting law. The CIO previously had expressed its stand for all nominations by a primary vote.

This support, added to the backing of the Indiana Farm Bureau, insures early consideration of a primary bill. It is no wonder that so many Indiana citizens want a chance to decide who their own party candidates for Governor and United States senator are to be. Under the convention system they never had a chance to buck the plans of the political cliques in both parties. Each candidate was hand picked and his selection duly approved by convention delegates. The nominations were settled by the politicians even before the delegates assembled.

2 That Is not representative government. Only by a direct vote of the people can our citizens be sure that the candidates of their are the people's candidates. Delegates to the state conventions are slated by the party chairmen. The public has no assurance that their decisions in the convention are not controlled by the party machine. Politics is the lifeblood of our government.

But you cannot leave politics to the politicians alone. Unless the people choose their own representatives they are in danger of losing control over their own government. The direct primary will restore government by the people in Indiana. That is why the people want it. I Tax Plight Of The Cities fi Something should be done by the Indiana General Assembly-r-aad-aiso-by.

Cong.res.vlQ revamp.aM.Co-Qr- dinate our taxation machinery. Almost every city and community 'in Indiana is operating under restrictions that have become archaic and do not spread the tax burden equitably. The state should pass enabling legislation that will open up new sources of revenue for units that are now too greatly dependent on real estate levies. And Congress, which is promising a reduction in the Federal budget, could be helpful. The proposal has been made, for example, that authority should be given to local units to collect admission taxes at movies, football, baseball, basketball and "other amusement events.

That is one item the Federal government might well relinquish to the states. Those games arid entertainments are strictly home affairs. It was agreeable to all that the amusement revenue should go-4oashingtog. emergency. People would not have their taxes raised if the admission levies were now to be turned into local treasuries.

The real estate rates in most communities have been pushed up about as far as the traffic will stand. Something else must be done to meet the needs. i Hoosiers in 1945 paid $1,215,507,591 in taxes, of Vfhich the government got more than two-thirds. We expect to pay a lot this year and next, but are entitled to look for some relief. That must come primarily from Washington, and will.

But whatever the total is, the people will pay it and the load should be distributed as, equitably as possible. We cannot close our state and local public institutions, and we cannot expect real estate to carry an increase in its present load. The answer is to pass enabling legislation that will open new and local sources of income to our taxing units. The government can be helpful by releasing the sources of revenue that are local and have been tapped as a war emergency. Take A Bow, Mr.

Editor A labor of love has been completed to supply an enduring record of Middlebury's contribution to World War n. Fred A. Walker, publisher of the Independent, weekly newspaper in that thriving Elkhart County community, has compiled an anthology of all war news, correspondence and local activities printed during the war years. "No More Reveille" is title of the 462-page volume. Much of the material is chiefly interesting to the town and environs but its value will grow with the passing years.

The wealth of historical material is appreciated most by those have delved into musty records, scattered newspapers and family Bibles to unearth the thrilling story of Hoosierdom's pioneer era. 7. The Middlebury publisher has demonstrated the important place which the home town paper occupies in collecting material of historical value. He printed only enough copies to meet expected requests, with no effort to commercialize the enterprise. Hats off to Mr.

Walker Xor a community of which any newspaper, larj-e or small, might jQ proud. Drew Pearson Says: Home Folk Will See Nation's Historic Relics Washington Merry-Go-Round Letters to the editor should be written' on one side of the paper only and be not more than too words. Anonymous letters will not be accepted, but names of writers will be withheld from publication if desired and initials will be used. is going on, is a disgrace to the name of sensible men. The responsibility for this state of affairs belongs in Washington, D.C.

There is still a Constitution and those who take an oath to uphold it should be made to deliver the goods. There must be an about face. Power stolen from the people must be restored to them. Production is what we need not strikes. LILLIAN FITCH.

Kokomo, Ind. Proud Of Our Capitol To the Editor of Tha Indlanapollt Star; I had an occasion to visit our state Capitol building and I was amazed at the transformation that had taken place. Its dark, gloomy corridors were replaced with an array of soft, beautiful colors. The people of Indiana should feel proud of 'their state Capitol. Upon inquiry at the information desk I was advised that the general supervision for the re-decoration of the building was upon the shoulders of our state auditor, A.

V. Burch. He certainly is to be commended' on his eye for beauty; I hope that many of our citizens visit the building and express themselves as I have tried to do here. We owe it to honest officials. Trafalgar, R.R.

No. 1. Found Two Blue Eyes To tha Editor of Tha Indianapolis Star: Dear "Grown-up Little Boy:" Greetings from Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.

May you. have a Merry Christmas and a. very Happy New Year. Your letter asking to find beneath your Christmas tree "two bright, shiny blue eyes," -out of which you might again see the beauties of nature, and the faces and forms of your loved ones, touched us deeply. My wife often cries when she reads the letters from children or parents who ask us to remember them, as if we do not always remember every single but I seldom- do.

But your letter made me cry. The reason I cried was because at first I thought you had given me an impossible task. But I thought of Matthew. 18:19, which says: "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Jesus was the one speaking, and who was WASHINGTON It won't" be announced for As The Day Begins TWO WORDS A DAY By L. E.

CIHRLES INSOLENCE. Noun. The Latin insolens literally means contrary to custom, and so we find that such an attitude becomes haughty or contemptuous and the resulting actions are insulting or impudent. Insolence is disrespectful action or speech, contempt for Inferiors or those thought to be inferior, or overbearing pride. The emphasis is on the first syllable, which is short, in-So-lens.

KISMET. Noun. This is the Turkish form of the Arabic word qismat, for fate, from gismah, to divide or apportion, and when used in English is generally as an exclamation expressing resignation to the will of Allah or the Divine Spirit. Kismet may be synonymous with "destiny." The first syllable is just like "kiss," and is accented, kis-met. American people.

He will send a special train through the 48 states carrying some of the priceless treasures of American freedom. It was Clark, working quietly behind the scenes, who had more than anyone else to do with organizing the President's special committee on civil liberties which will study Southern lynchlngs and race problems. Clark, who comes from Texas, has been prompt to Invoke Federal law in South Carolina-Louisiana race disputes, but believes that more can be done by education. Accordingly he has evolved the idea of sending a special train across the United States containing the most sacred documents of American history which guarantee our freedom. At first Clark proposed equipping two special cars with showcases which would display the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Constitution, and so on.

However, he found that the Proclamation of Emancipation by which Lincoln freed the slaves was in the hands of Abraham Roscnbach of Philadelphia, famous collector of old manuscripts. Clark, therefore, called Rosenbach to tell him about his plan and ask for the loan of the proclamation. Rosenbach said he would be delighted to cooperate, but asked: "Why are you having only two cars? I've got lots of old Americana. Why not get up an entire train?" "We haven't got the money," replied the attorney general. "Haven't you heard that we're trying to economize down here?" Rosenbach then offered to help raise the extra money and, as a result it is now planned to equip an entire special train with showcases in which will be displayed the most cherished documents of American history.

Soldiers will guard the train, just as guards stand watch continually over these documents in the Library of Congress, In addition, as the train arrives at each state border, an extra car will be added displaying the historic documents and civil rights mementoes of the state. Finally, Clark plans to have large-size duplicates of the freedom documents "blown-up" as permanent exhibits to be left behind in the high schools of each c'ty through which the train passes. Suppressed Mac Arthur Book More background is now leaking out regarding the remarkable top secret cable sent by -Gen. Mac-Arthur to the War Department banning editors of the New York Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and several other newspapers from taking a special trip to Japan on the ground that they verged on "downright quackery and dishonesty." It now appears that one reason for MacArthur's ban on the staid and conservative New York Herald Tribune is a so-far suppressed book written by Herald Trib Correspondent Lewis fiebring regarding MacArthur's wartime publicity machine. Sebring covered the MacArthur campaign in the Southwest Pacific from the day Doug arrived in Australia until 1944.

His book not only takes apart the commander's super-publicity setup, but tells about the luxurious mansion he built for himself on the hills of Hoilandia and dissects various parts of the MacArthur claims to heroism. It is a book which every Navy man would delight to read. Meanwhile Frank Kelly, who replaced Sebring as New York Herald Tribune correspondent also had some clashes with MacArthur, and when censorship was finally lifted, wrote a scathing story on how newsmen were ordered to play up the su prtSie commander. All In A Lifetime The faces of three somewhat prominent Hoosiers are still red. They would remain a brilliant scarlet if a police squad car had happened along several nights ago.

A water company official, living about 65 miles northwest of here, was driving one of the higher priced automobiles. His passengers were an Indianapolis attorney and an insurance official. All three had been attending a fraternal gathering. They walked to a nearby parking lot, climbed into the car and went their way rejoicing. The driver planned to take the local companions home before heading out for Roads 52 and 39.

Car and tongues were running smoothly when the driver suddenly gulped and sputtered. "This isn't my car," he stammered. His own speedster carries a compass attached to the windshield partition and there was no sign of the gadget on the job purring over the far North side. The three brethren turned pale. They imagined warnings of a stolen car crackling over the police radio, of screaming sirens and guns held point blank at bulging breadbaskets.

Innocence eventually could be established, of course, but meanwhile there would be ticklish moments, perhaps publicity and the jibes of sarcastic, so-called friends. Hurriedly the car was turned around and the dash started back -to that parking lot The trembling trio found the car's owner in high dudgeon and the parking lot attendant in seven kinds of lather and dither. Everything was explained except ability of the erring driver to use his keys on the wrong car. And he'll pay more attention to the compass to kep him straight on automobiles as well as directions. FXR.

MATTER REQUIRES YOOR SM1 TVHJ GRAVEST ITJli. YEAR A Hi MIUiONJ ARE INVOLVED. SSsgSf SHUCKS EVC ETC RB' 6O00 RIEF WHATSS Hf CAV I 6ET THE ril 1 iirne woman ffi llp fj wjwTig Honest Law Observance Liquor's Best Defense The Elkhart Truth: Anti-liquor activity in the south part of Elkhart County indicates that this community is going to be vitally interested in the forthcoming battles in the state Legislature, that convenes in a few weeks, over liquor issues. There are at least two such issues. One centers around Governor Gates's promise, in his keynote speech at the Republican convention last June, to get liquor out of politics to break up the so-called and 'aptly named "unholy alliance." The Legislature will provide the opportunity for him to make good on this pledge, and there will bt much public interest in just how he proposes to-do it.

The other acute issue which concerns liquor is the drive, on the part of dry forces, for local option. Dry sentiment in the Hoosier state is undoubtedly at the highest point it has attained since repeal. It3 actual strength is yet to be determined. There is almost certain to be a test of this strength in the upcoming General Assembly. One sign of this is that the liquor interests are bringing up their big guns.

The Indiana Brewers' Association has just fired a blast in the form of a booklet entitled "Handbook on Moderation," which marshals all the arguments in favor of legal control of the liquor business and against local option and prohibition. The booklet is effectively organized and documented, and indicates the seriousness with which the brewers apparently look upon the antagonism that has been aroused against legalized liquor sales in Indiana. While a good press agent, such as prepared the booklet is an effective aid in a struggle of this kind, the most eftctive defense the liquor interests coijld have would be a good, clean record of legitimate operation, strictly within the letter and spirit of the laws that already exist This record is, in too many instances, lacking. i.