Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 August 1931 — Page 1
I
THE POST-DEMOCRAT
VOLUME XI—NUMBER 29.
MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1931.
rKICE 5 CENTS
GOV. WHITE OF OHIO LABOR DAY RALLY SPEAKER
HOOVER DIFFERS WITH LAMONTON CUTTING WAGES
Thompsonism is an issue in the
coming campaign.”
What the central state voters interested in, according to the Tribune, is “what the Republican chieftains have to say about $6.00 hogs, 30-cent corn, and cheap wheat. They are interested in the Smoot-Hawley tariff which was supposed to help them and didn’t. They want an explanation of why the Farm Board scheme turned out to be such a flop. They want to know how the Republicans proposed' to make up that billion-dollar Treasury deficit . . . Emphasizing Tammany’s sins makes it clear
wages;, was they (Republican party chieftains) indicating- „ don’t want to talk about commodity a paling a prices> tariffs> the parm Board ^
Treasury deficits.”
Washington, Aug. 7.—Contradictory statements by Secretary of Commerce Lament and President ^Hoover relating to the administration attitude on wage cuts are commented upon by Representative John N. Garner of Texas, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, as “just one more instance of the inco si stency of the administration and the general muddiness of its policies.” Mr. Garner
says :
“Secretary of Commerce Lament s statement, that various corporations find themselves in such a position that they must either shut down their mills or make temporary reduction (of wages) was
generally taken as
modification of the administration s position as to maintenance ot labor scales. However, a direct
statement from the White House Jt does seem a little inconsistent advises us that no such interpreta- ror Presi dent Hoover to declare tion of the Secretary’s letter is jus- that unless a11 tlle laws ar e respecttified. ed and enforced the republic can“Naturally the public is puzzled not live ’ and for the Government for if Mr. Lamont did not mean to be collec t4ng rent from open that the administration recognized saloons on its railroad property in
that in some instances wage reduc- po * on » Panama,
tions were inevitable as a result of the Hoover panic, what did he mean? . . . The Commerce chief said :T do not believe it is the duty of the Government to interfere in such cases; neither do I think such interference would be effective.’ “The^ President’s attitude has been understood to be that all his power and influence would be exercised to prevent wage cutting. Just how he was to do this without l^terfering , is difficult to figure
out.
The contradiction must impress the laboring man, who is worried at the threat of having the burden of the depression passed on to him, as indicating just another campaign expedient, pecisely as valuable as those of 1928 which promis- ^ continu ation of prosperity if Tne Republican party was continued in power. “The letter in which Mr. Lamont expressed his foreboding and advanced the alibi was in reply to a missive addressed to the President by Congressman Condon of Rhode Island, in which the latter besought the President’s interest in behalf of the fabric workers of his state whose pay had been reduced. It is hardly possible that the Secretary of Commerce would not have advised the President how he was answering Representative Condon’s inquiry. Either he expressed the President’s own views or he was guilty of an insubordination to which no Chief Executive would submit. The White House is perhaps the only organization or individual that can read from that letter anythingn but a departure from teh implied promise of the administration. There is bound to be speculation as to w-hether or not the publication of Secretary Lament’s letter just on the eve of the action of the Steel Trust was merely a coincidence. The financial publications make the deduction that the lowering of officials’ salaries and the cutting of dividends is precedent to a reduction of workers’ wages. Was Mr. Lamont’s* announcement meant to prepare the country for such an unfortunate happening and to absolve, in advance, the administration for not intervening. “The incident cannot fail to have a depressing effect on the morale of the sorely tried workingmen and to encourage the very , thing President Hoover sought to prevent.”
Central State Voters Not Fooled by
"Red Herring” Tammany Device of G. O. P. Leaders
crats to -stress the horrors of Republican misrule in Chicago
But neither Tammanyism nor enough, you are a scientist.
Congressman Cannon Blames Tariff and Farm Deflation for Eco-
nomic Depression
Washington, Aug.—7—The deflation of agriculture and the effects of the Republican tariff policy for the last ten years are large contributing causes to the present depression in the opinion of Representative Clarence Cannon of Missouri, who in a statemtn, says, “The inability of the farmer to buy what he needs because of the curtailment of his income cooperating with the effects of the tariff account in no small measure for the great depression which is paralyzing business today. The extent of this loss in buying power is demonstrated by the Census reports on thirteen major farm crops whimf^Rdw"a value"' in 1920 of $7,990,000,000 and for 1930 a value of only $5,888,000,000. If the 1931 figures were available they would show an even more disastrous con-
dition.”
An analysis of figures on agriculture and statistics compiled by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Mr. Cannon says .shows that “from 1920 to 1930 thevalue of all farm lands and buildings in the United States dropped from $66,000,000,000 to $47,000,000,000; that the value of farm equipment decreased $293,000,000 and the annual farm income during that time decreased $2,534,000,000. “How can the farmer patronize the American markets and support American industry in the face of losses of this character and with a depreciation on his farm lands, and stock and equipment which amounts to confiscation?” Mr. Cannon asks. Mr. Cannon also points out that the Census figures show a decrease of 365,696 farms operated by owners and an increase of 209,561 farms operated by tenants between 1920 and 1930, thus showing 147,135 farms on which cultivation has been abandoned. Within the last ten years there has been an increase of 4.3 per cent of farm ten-
ancy.
o Trade Barriers Caused Depression Any practical person must now realize that if this and other nations could have profitably exchanged their respective surpluses since 1921 .there would have been no surpluses piled up, no stagnation with resultant widespread unemployent, no agricultural collapse, no vast concentration of gold in one country, no serious German
Washington, Aug. 7.—The Re- crisis—no domestic and world publicans are using Tammany as a panic.—Senator Cordell Hull (Dem. red herring to divert public think- Tenn.)
ing off the main trail, according to the Sioux City, Iowa, Tribune. “It would be equally as logical,
Nobody questions the value of
lugiucti, education. What causes the row is says the Tribune, “for the Demo- the definition of it.
If you rob a new grave, you are a criminal. If you pick one old
From Muncie Real Estate Board
Appreciation of The Muncie Real Estate Board of the 8-cent cut in the city tax levy embodied in the ordinance introduced in the council by Mayor Dale and Controller Holloway is expressed in a letter received yesterday by the city controller. It reads: “We, the tax committee of the Muncie Real Estate Board wish to compliment your effort and stand for a liberal reduction~in the cost of our government for the year 1932. ,, It is signed by Roy M. Friedley, Minor R. Benson and George N. Higman, the tax committee of the board.
RADIOICALLY SPEAKING. (Last night Mayor Dale gave the first of a series of radio talks on current topics over WLBC— another will be at 5:30 o’clock next Friday evening.)
I was just introduced as mayor of Muncie. I prefer to think of myself as your hired hand, forgetting the pompous title that seems to go with the job. This is the first time my voice has been heard over the radio in Muncie in a public address since the night after the city election in November, 1929. As your servant it is due you that I report from time to time to the boss, and render to you an account of my stewardship. When you elected me to this office you were well advised in advance that certain definite things would be done. You voted for me not perhaps as an individual, but as your agent, to perform the things, as chief executive officer of your city, that were needed to promote the civic welfare of Muncie. During the year and seven months I have been in office many things have happened, and I have been charged with many things by those who did not approve of my candidacy before the election and who still hold to the belief that a large majority of the electorate made a fatal blunder on that tragic day in November, 1929. Strangely enough it has apparently not even occurred to one of these critics to charge me ’jvith being either crooked or dumb, so after all, Muncie may not be a total loss, with no insurance, as one would infer by casual reference to the daily public prints. Those who fail to read between the lines and who accept as gospel truth the things they read, without taking the trouble, to dig beneath the surface, may well be excused if they have formed an ill opinion of my worth To the community as an execu timetive officer. I am charged with fighting somebody all the time, and that my frequent conflicts with elective and appointive agents of various political units point to an absence of discretion on my part. If I would only give in and submit to the dictation of every little political vagabond who steps up with a chip on his shoulder, the same crtics would no doubt put on the reverse English and refer to me, truthfully, as a weak brother and a total failure as an executive. I have been compelled to fight, every inch of the way, but in every instance there has been a principal at stake, as you well know. When the municipal court decreed that a red light is not a red light, I met the decision with a general denial. I am not color blind and neither are you. Yet, in spite of what you know to be an effort on my part to protect the public from injury and possible death, my indignant repudiation of this murderous edict was published here as a “squabble” between myself and the judge. Up until the time I became mayor these same critics-enjoyed the smell of the river and the stench of almost unbelievable corruption in the conduct of previous city administrations was to them a delightful scent wafted from a bed of roses. It was nothing to them that the city was broke, that the street department, filled with political wire pullers failed to function, that the police department took orders from professional gamblers, that a paving monopoly was draining the lifeblood of helpless property owners and that overlords of vice and crime and women of the underworld had the right-of-way in the city hall over law abiding citizens. It was nothing to them that a city clerk went wrong with the funds of the city, that worthless | lots were bought for park purposes at treble their value and left unused, that one of their school officers is now in the penitentiary for stealing an immense sum and that the funds of the v taxpayers were ladled out to political favorites who have erected a mountain range of gravel piles in Delaware county that cannot be used in twenty years. For years they saw the county infirmary run by a political boss and apparently they have not discovered that the infirmary is now conducted by an honest democrat who operates the institution at half the cost imposed under former political management. Everything smelled sweet while the old gang was in power, but how everything changed when the voters of Muncie placed me at the helm. Olfactory nerves that had not functioned in a decade suddenly became intensely acute, and when the awful news was confirmed that I had actually
been elected by a great majority, they cried out with one voice: “Let’s all be honest now* and save
money for the taxpayers!”
And how they begged for harmony! During the years before the election my newspaper had simply been a voice of protest against the wrongs that were being heaped upomthe citizens of Mun-
cie and Delaware county.*
But then they were in the saddle and wore the spurs. The normal republican majority was so great that they could, and did, tell my newspaper and honest, protesting republicans and democrats
to go jump in the lake!
j Their idea of harmony then was to harmonise with a hickory club and occasionally, just to show who was boss, they would send me to jail for objecting in a polite way to perennial grand larceny.
They are seeking harmony now, the miserable
minority who object to the thin pickings of a new political era, but the brand of harmony they advocate would mean the death knell of the aspirations of a clean citizenship, who stand ready to guard to the death the new-found liberty guaranteed by a city administration that seeks only the welfare of
the complex interests of a great city. »
| Cunningly the newspaper mouthpieces of the old regime have adopted'a catch phrase—“Clean up the River.” And they point accusingly at the may-
or every time they spring this ghastly joke. In a future address I will give you the low down
on the clean-up the river-campaign. If the old mob had held control there would have been a “clean-up” all right, all right, but the cleaning up of the river would have been but a minor objective to these gentlemen, whose nostrils have suddenly become so sensitive and perceptive that one of their press agents, sniffing the aroma of the river at the Minntrista bend, has officially handed down the decision the snUll came wholly from domestic sewage, and that nothing had been contributed to the sublime odor by
packing houses and industrial plants! What a nose! And what a shame that this
gifted beak should be wasted on an editor. If I had
a coon dog half that good I wouldn’t take a million chairman of the Fair Tariff League,
in a public statement, referring to the war debt moratorium, says: The eagerness with which all nations follow us is made clear by the debt moratorium; also their inability to act without our lead-
ing.”
Applying these facts to the tariff Situation, Mr. Miles continues: “We have prevented the return of prosperity by refusing to lead or permit of reasonable tariff reductions by all nations, reductions permitting of full production because of the freer exchange of commodities between nations with in the limits of moderate tariffs. jNothing is easier if the United States will lead, hut present indications are that it would sooner Jlose billions and continue the present situation essentially unchanged. All this because a relatively few over-protected industries here which control elections and dictate tariffs will not give up billions of tariff graft over and above honest
protection.
Mr. Miles’ statement makes it clear what kind of products might be exchanged beteen the various various nations under a reasonable tariff, and thus set in motion one means, at least, of economic recov-
ery. Hesaid:
“An essential point, commonly overlooked or concealed, is that the highly-finished products which Europe would send us are so different from our own as to be supple-
Muncie Democrats To Stage Free Barbeque and Speaking Events Together With Many Other Features At McCulloch
Park.
for him.
I still claim that with the industrial waste elim inated from the river ninety-five percent of the filth would disappear and just as soon as the manufacturers here start the clean-up Muncie will find me right in the harness and the distressed proboscis of the clean-up-the-river editor can turn to its legitimate task, that of smelling out impartial news for
his readers.
This administration inherited a corpse and injected life in the remains, although rigor mortis had set in and the smell rivalled that of our famed
rivulet.
Without a cent in the general fund when the coroner was called in on the sixth day of January, 1930, in one year the dead has arisen and the balance in the general fund Janury 1, 1931, starting from zero one year before, had mounted to over
$70,000.
When we took office the physical properties of the city were in a state of collapse. Overcoming the handicap of a temperamental council funds were found to supply equipment for the various departments. New fire apparatus was bought and new automotive equipment was purchased for the various deportments to replace the junk that had dis-
graced the city.
The interior of the city building was remodeled, traffic signals were installed, street corners were rounded, streets in the outskirts were made passable, the parks were brought to life an made real play grounds and streets were paved for one-third less than the trust price fixed by the monopoly created by those who are now pleading for harmony and ham instead of hominy and a swift kick. During my administration the gasolines tax fund has been used for the purpose that the law intended. Formerly it was used in its entirety each year for the paving of one particular street, for the benefit of the paving monopoly. This administration has used that particular fund where if will help everybody in the city, so it was natural that selfish interests would object, but the courts sustained my
position in that matter.
And incidentally Muncie has cut the municipal tax rate eight cents on the*hundred dollars this year. As far as I have been able to learn no other city in the state has gone that far to alleviate the
tax burdens of its citizenship. 1
This means that taxes in Muncie next year will be in the neighborhood of $60,000 less than this
(Continued to Page Two)
George White, governor of Ohio, will be the principal speaker at the Indiana Democratic Rally and Labor day celebration at McCulloch Park all day Sept. 7, Mayor Dale has
announced.
Sponsored by the Muncie Democrats Club the all-day celebration and free barbeque bids fair to be the biggest event of the kind in the state and a banner gathering lor
Muncie.
Mayor Dale heading the general committee has extended invitations to all Democrats in Indiana to attend the celebration and barbeque and already state officials, Indiana mayors and party leaders from all parts of the state have
assured their attendance.
Governor White is one of the outstanding presidential possibilities and is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In response to the invitation of Mayor Dale the Ohio governor cancelled .a previous engagement in
order to be here.
Charles A. Greathouse, the Democratic national com-
mitteeman, a close friend of the Ohio executive has been invited to present the governor to the audience. R. Earl Peters, state chairman, has assured the mayor that he will be in Muncie for the event and members of the state cen-
tral committee have been invited for the affair. One of the big features of the celebration will be a free
southern ox roast barbeque beginning at 11:30 a. m. and continuing until all have been fed this delicious menu and
trimmings. * Two bands, a radio broadcasting orchestra, the Ala-
bama Jubilee singers, the Thompson radio baloon ascension, a baseball game between the Lafayette team and the Muncie city nine and a host of other events are being arranged for the occasion so that it will be one of the high spots of
the year.
TARIFF BLOCKS PROSPERITY IS VIEW OF MILES
Washington, Aug. 7—H. E. Miles, mentary rather than competitive,
differing from ours in design or quality. For instance, linens, which we do not make, Scotch tweeds, Haviland china, French gowns, distinguished for their hand work which we won’t do, special food preparations not produced here, etc. All-these to be paid for by our farm products and our ordinary factory products that other coun-
tries crave.”
Mr. Miles points out that imports that strictly compete with 35 per cent of all our manufactures equalled only one-half of one per cent of domestic production, and with other competing imports added only one and one-half per cent. The competitive one per cent, he says, came in less because of low foreign costs than because of excessive tariff profiteering prices here. “By closing our doors on these,” he adds, -“we close all other doors against us. Instead of lowering our tariff in 1930, we raised the average duties actually paid 26 1-2 per cent. In so doing, we shocked the economic and moral sense of the world. Many duties -are doubled, some quadrupled, and worse, on products produced here about as cheaply as there. This is protection perverted and gone mad. South America shares the misery of Europe on which it depends for exports and income.” Only a mighty manifestation of public sentiment will put our few profiteers where they belong, Mr. Miles says, “and hen this is done, the world will be back to work.”
Canless Alleys
Bill Daniels, street commissioner, was somewhat abashed yesterday when a woman called the city barns and declared she wanted to register a complaint. “What’s the matter, Madame?” Bill replied to the notification. “Well, I wanted to tell you that your men cleaned up our alley and I can’t fihd a can to wash out a paint brush,” was the reply of the woman. Bill suggested that perhaps the brush might be washed out in some other container. The conversation led one of the street employes to inform Bill that a neighbor hunted up the alley for two blocks each way to find a can to put night crawlers in and finally gave it up and put them in a • jelly glass. And this led the street commissioner to declare that the canless alleys service only cost each taxpayer of Muncie about thirty cents a year and this Bill added was a lot of real service for a small cost. ■ 11 M ■ ' ■ —