The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 10

NATIONAL WHIRLIGIG 10 BROOKLYN EAGLE, FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 1942 RAY Our Need Is More Work, Less Crying Over Past TUCKER'S LETTER I Roosevelt and Joe Doakes on the assembly line, working our heads off today and tomorrow. That is not to say that such work as that done by the Truman Committee, investigating our war effort, is not valuable. It is valuable if we use it to guard against repeating tomorrow the mistakes we made last week. If we use it to discredit a personality, to grind our own axes, it has less than no value.

It becomes a hindrance. Remember General Dawes, when he was called upon after the first World War to explain why this or that technicality had been ignored? Hell 'n' Maria, we had a war to win, the general said, in effect. We have a war to win this time, too, but a harder, costlier, bloodier war. We won't win it by suspecting every one but ourselves of selfishness. Until each of us can honestly say he is devoting all his energies and devotion to the common task, we'd better not be so ready to accuse every one else of lacking in patriotism.

We'll get along a lot faster. A little less yelping about past mistakes and a lot more work today and more planning for tomorrow's work would help our war effort considerably. There seems to be a disquieting tendency to spend more time hunting for some one to blame for yesterday's omissions than in doing the job we have to do right now. Because we don't like to admit our own mistakes or weaknesses, we look around for a scapegoat. We blame Knudsen or Tom Girdler or Roosevelt or the War Department or the admirals or Leon Henderson or John L.

Lewis or the auto industry or Lindbergh or any one else we don't like. We load all our own sins of omission and commission on the goat and try to drive him into the wilderness of oblivion. Then we can brush the dust off our hands and settle back, confident that, having got rid of that so-and-so, everything will be all right. Well, the war won't be settled so easily. The war won't be won by proving that Roosevelt or Knudsen was wrong yesterday.

It will be won by all of us, you and me and Tom Girdler and FROM WASHINGTON The President will soon ask Congress to remove a few of the teeth which give the Anti-Trust Law Its bite. Although he dislikes the Idea as inconsistent with his New Deal philoso. phy, his more realistic advisers have warned him that the nation's full productive facilities cannot be geared for wartime needs without such a dental operation. Truman Arnold has stubbornly refused to compromise the Clayton Act out of existence for the duration of the conflict. The temperamental Assistant Attorney General will not listen to such men as Jesse H.

Jones, Lessing Rosenwald, Donald Nelson, Secretaries Knox and Stimson. They have told him again and again that manufacturers will not pool resources wholeheartedly lest they suffer the fate of oil producers whose compliance with NRA orders yanked them into court some years later. Today's patriots may become tomorrow's jailbirds under the present system. He has made a few concessions, but they fail to impress harassed industrialists. One of his suggestions Is that they submit their merger schemes to him in advance, and he will advise whether their arrangements violate the statute.

He will even help them to frame legal agreements. But he cannot guarantee that some post-Roosevelt trust-smasher will respect these deals. Another of his proposals is that they obtain clearance from the specific agency War, Navy, Maritime Commission for which they are making weapons. But the Supreme Court has ruled that Theodore Roosevelt's pet legislation cannot be set aside by administrative action, even if it is underwritten by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Hitler Raises the Fare To the commuter, who has a tendency to picture himself as the most abused fellow on earth anyway, the ip percent increase in railroad rates comes as another in his long series of grievances. But there's little he can do about this except grumble. Increased railroad operation costs, due to wage increases and rising material prices, have made the increased fare inevitable for some time. When he forks over the added 10 percent the railroad passenger would do well to remember that one man is to blame for it an unpleasant looking person in Germany with a small black mustache and a strident voice. GETTING HEAVY The basic trouble with the United States war effort is that there is only one Franklin D.

Roosevelt and he cannot be in more than a single place at one time. Secondary difficulties are his dread of delegating authority and the dearth of able executive aides at the Capital. Several startlingly unhappy experiences high- 4 light the dangers in the situation: HEFFERNAN says The Chinese Keep Faith Maybe it's time we paid a little more attention to the Chinese. We seem to overlook the fact that they're doing better against the Japs just now than any one else. At Changsha they inflicted a crushing defeat.

That was only a few days ago. Now word comes that a force of Chinese soldiers, muddy, ragged veterans of four and a half years of conflict, have marched 1,000 miles into Burma, to take up positions with the British defending that vital outpost. Their commander, General Liu Kwan-lung, said they came to Burma -they carried their rifles and dragged their heavier arms behind them as a token of China's determination to stand by the ABCD alliance. He promised more would come if they are needed. That demonstration of solidarity with the other democratic powers is welcome right now, particularly as it follows statements indicating that certain Chinese elements might begin to suspect they were being left In the lurch in the struggle against Japan.

Agricultural advisers tried for wppIcs to nh- sw Did You Read How Churchill Was Greeted at Paddington? tain an appointment to explain the price problem as it affects farm products but F. D. R. was unable to squeeze them into the White House list. The upshot was that the Wickard-Henderson clash hit the headlines and drew Letters must bear signatures and addresses of writers but pen names will be permitted at the discretion of the editor, who reserves the right to cut them down to meet requirements of space.

would be setting a very unfortunate example in "raising prices." Real estate interests can meet existing deficits much more easily than those w-ho are compelled to use transit facilities in pursuance of their livelihood, The present deficit of the transit lines need never have been if a reasonable rather than an exorbitant price had been paid by the city in its purchase of the subways, as Socialists have long pointed out. The low-wage earners should not be made to suffer for this mistake. IRVING BARSHOP, Executive Secretary, socialist Party. Manhattan, Jan 15. and Murray wanted a moment to propose a LETTERS TO THE EAGLE Support of Measure to Increase Wages for Postal Employes Sought To the.

Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: The Government has been very generous in the past year to England and Russia, giving them billions of dollars. Now their own postal employes are asking Congress to consider a raise in their salary, which is insufficient to live decently on at the present time. The last small raise that Congress voted was in 1925, and they would not have received it then, only the Congressmen increased their own salaries from $6,000 to $10,000 a year. The letter-carrier pays 3i percent toward a pension fund, and he has to be 65 years old to retire. In comparison with the policemen and firemen, the letter-carrier gets $900 less a year.

Postal employes would be grateful to those who would write to their Congressmen in behalf of our cause. J. MCCARTHY. Brooklyn, Jan. 16.

They Just Don't Care A shoe dealers' convention reports that the average woman today wears a size 7 shoe, compared to a size 6 a few years ago, and the inference is drawn that women's feet are growing larger. Maybe so but we're more inclined to the thought that the girls just don't give a darn about shoe sizes any more. A glance at the feet of any group of high school or college girls will prove that. Not so many years ago the girls tortured their feet into the smallest shoes possible. Now they wear flat-heeled, husky looking numbers their mothers wouldn't have been caught dead in.

Wearing brogans like that, a size larger or smaller, doesn't make much difference. program which might have prevented labor wrangies. They were shunted into Madame Perkins' salon. The Business Advisory Council, which runs Interference for both Government and Industry, recently sought an engage- ment for discussion of their headaches. They are still waiting for a telephone call from headquarters.

Not a single official at Washington can make a major decision without first obtaining Presidential okay, whether it involves diplomatic, military, political, financial, economic, hemispheric or global problems. That goes for Henry Wallace, Harry Hopkins, Cordell Hull, Donald Nelson, General Marshall, Admiral King or "Joe Doak." But nobody seems to have enough gumption to tell the Bass that he cannot run the world's greatest war as a one-man show. Typhus in the East Reports that the British are inoculating their Middle East troops against typhus indicates that the deadliest warrior of them all is riding again. It seems well established that typhus is one of the troubles afflicting the Germans in Russia. If ever It gets out of hand it may well kill more Nazis and Russians than are killed by bullets.

During the World War, it will be remembered, typhus took hundreds of thousands of lives in the stricken Balkans. The disease raged so fiercely, in fact, that the German army withdrew from some of the areas. Filth, the destruction of sanitary and medical facilities and the lowered resistance to disease of starving populations may cause as deadly an epidemic in this war as in the other. One Job Enough for Any Official To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: I believe the people who voted to put men in positions to represent them in city, State or Federal government should have 100 percent representation with the official holding only one job, especially during present critical conditions. This applies to Congressmen, Senators or Mayors or whatever offices they are elected to JAMES S.

FINNEGAN. Brooklyn, Jan. 16. Feed the Birds To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: I wonder how many people in our great city feed the birds during the severe Winter Weather. During the Spring and Summer they can find their own food and help us rid our gardens of insects.

They appreciate bread crumbs, small pieces of suet or any small morsels that can be spared. EUPHEMIA G. LINEN. Brooklyn, Jan. 12.

The Government Is going to take the nickel out of the nickel. But most of us won't mind as long as a nickel continues to be worth 5 cents. How to torture your wife: Call her attention to the meals Borough President Burke of Queens says can be prepared for four at a cost of 48 cents. How the wife can get even: Set those meals before your husband for a week. War has its compensations as well as its inconveniences.

Guards with bayoneted rifles have done sentry duty outside the doors of Congress since December 7. Unaccustomed to hobnobbing with the great, the young doughboys snap to "present arms" whenever a House or Senate member makes his exit. Solons admit that the receipt of these unusual honors gives them a glow and makes them feel like statesmen. Since the soldiers cannot distinguish a majestic Congressman from the run-of-mine American, office attaches, janitors and even newspapermen sometimes get a salute. Fare Increase Opposed, Suggests Other Sources to Meet Deficit To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: If the recommendation of the Committee of Fifteen to increase transit fares is carried out, a most serious burden will be placed on those least able to carry it.

It is the sincere conviction on the part of myself and the organization I represent that the needed $45,000,000 can and should be raised elsewhere. The proposed raise of 50 percent in fares would in itself give a substantial boost to the already rapidly rising cost of living. The average wage earner in New York City has an annual income of approximately $1,250, according to available wage statistics. On the basis of a weekly average of 15 fares, each wage earner would have to pay an additional $18 in fares each year. This would increase the cost of living by V.i percent.

This estimate is very conservative, because it does not take into consideration the additional fares required by dependents of the wage earner. At a time when so much attention is being paid to inflation and rising costs, the city A fine young lawyer sat in my library. He had majored in the science of government at Yale with high honors. He had failed In the practice of politics. Why? Because he had a conscience.

The day after Pearl Harbor he went to a police station and enrolled as an air warden. He spoke of the Truman Senate Committee report. "I am deeply shocked and discouraged," he said. "How about Nelson?" I asked. "We shall have to wait and see.

I shall be more hopeful when he gets rid of the leeches and the bunglers, if he can do that." "Mac Arthur I said. This American's eyes brightened. "He makes me proud of my birthright," he said. Later in the evening I picked up my favorite news commentator, George Sokolsky, who happens to be of the, same faith as my visitor. And as I read in the Sun his blistering indictment of officialdom, predicated on the Truman report, I thought of the wailing prophet at the gates of Ninevah.

Hark to a paragraph "The truth is that there is a moral degeneration in the public life of America. It runs through from the top to the bottom. We have become tolerant of corruption because we no longer regard as corrupt and indecent what heretofore would never have been tolerated in American life. We honor men who openly denounce the rigidities of American tradition. We glorify individuals who flout the ways of the Fathers of our country and who imitate the doctrines and practices of European secularism and materialism." I can remember an occasion during the World War.

President Wilson was contemplating a tour of the nation. He hatl in mind the feeling of his people and he knew that the sycophantic crew that walls a ruler 'round was no reliable channel of information. So he said, "The President should know; yet how can I know?" Parenthetically, I think it was the accumulated distrust of his most intimate advisers which caused him finally to go personally to Paris for the peace negotiations and thus reduce the power and prestige of the great republic to the will and wit of a single man involved in a web of international intrigue. War with Its breaches of the moral law has an effect not of the best on the public mores. Since Mr.

Roosevelt's third election his associations have grown more and more remote from the commonalty. It might be well if in this crisis he would break the walls of bureaucratic environment and, like Anteas, revive his strength by such a contact with the common people as keeps his recent distinguished guest. Mr. Churchill, young and alive with the feeling of his people. He would find no apathy among them, but he would find them wondering why any one has to tell them how to become patriotic Americans.

They are giving the sweat of their brows, the bulk of their earnings and the blood of their sons who are fighting heroically as Americans always have fought on far battlefields and distant oceans. These people, literate and intelligent, do not like the picture of the profiteers at Washington. it '(ft aJ li A FACT A DAY ABOUT BROOKLYN The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, opposite Prospect Park on the Flatbush Ave. side, is nationally famous. Garden lovers, amateur photogra- 4 pliers, and horticulturists make this garden their first stop in Brooklyn.

GRIN AND BEAR IT Aoout iu acres in area, it nas a natwe 4 25 YEARS AGO IN BROOKLYN January 23, 1917 In an address before the Forum of All Souls Universalist Church, Dr. Arthur F. Griffiths, president of Oahu College, Hawaii, held that there was little ground for fear of war with Japan unless the United States made some diplomatic errors. THOUGHTS ABOUT NEED By EDGAR A. GUEST I hold no brief for poverty.

'Tis good to be from worry free And being rid of want and need I'm sure is very nice indeed, But riches seldom spur a chap To work to build a better trap And riches seldom prod the mind Till something useful is designed. Sometimes I think 'tw-ould better be Were young men held to poverty, And riches, silver, lands and gold Permitted only to the old. The old should always be at ease, Should spend their twilight as they please But youth should never come to rest Till it has stood to every test. For young men it is better far When born to want and need they are. They'll work; they'll sit up half the night Machines to make or books to write For there is nothing like desire To keep boys going though they tire.

And here's a truth we can't escape Tis want that keeps a lad in shape. I do not say that youth should be Condemned always to poverty. But think that, granted sense and health, All boys should work their way to wealth; Should think and dream and work and plan And serve their fellows while they can And rich at last sit down at ease To do exactly as they please. wild flower garden, rock garden, Japanese Garden, rose garden, water garden, iris garden and several hothouses for rare plants and flowers. Courses of instruction, a bureau of information and labels on the plants help visitors learn about the specimens.

By Lichty Frank Dowling, president of the Board of Aldermen, and Frank C. Munson of the Brooklyn Committee on City Plan, made known their opposition to the plan to make the Brooklyn marginal railroad a surface line instead of an elevated road. BROOKLYN EAGLE (Trade Mark Eagle Registered) IFounded by Isaac Van Anden in X841 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLS PRANK D. SCHROTH. President and Publisher W.

p. CROWELL. Secretary and Treasurer Eagle Building. Johnson and Adams Streets Brooklyn. New York TELEPHONE MAln 4-6200 Subscription rate by mail for the Brooklyn Eaglr In the United States, one year, $11.00 Entered at the Brooklyn Postolflce at Second Class Mail Matter Col.

Ernest E. Jannicky announced that Capts. George A. Wilson and Marcus T. Hendricks of the 47th Regiment had been recommended for detail to the regular Army for services at the Mexican border.

"What if I am the only one in the club that you can lift' How will I ever learn first aid if I have to be the casualty all the time!" BUY DEFENSE BONDS AND STAMPS.