Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 4 May 1934 — Page 1

FEARLESS

THE POST-DEMOCRAT “HEW TO THE BLOCK; LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MIGHT.”

TRUTHFUL

VOLUME 14—NUMBER 16.

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1934.

PRICE: FIVE CENTS

Skfiis: Mayor’s Comer; Some Interesting j Facts Exposed

“One thing about the nudists, you can’t pin anything on them.’’ A totally blind World War veteran is entitled to get a maximum of $150 per month plus $50 per month for nurse or attendant.

The smallest adult couple in the world is Clarence C. Howerton, age 25, only 26 inches tall and Lya Graf, 21 inches tall.

The city of Amsterdam, Holland, is built upon piles driven in the ground. It is intersected by numerous canals, crossed by nearly three hundred bridges.

President Zachary Taylor was the father-in-law of /'efferson Davis. Vulgarity and swearing are used mostly by the least educated because of the lack Of suffcient vocabulary to satisfactorily express themselves.

Dr. Rexford G. Tugwell, head man in the President’s brain trust, classifies himself as a liberal. “A liberal,” says Dr. Tugwell, “would like to rebuild the station but keep the trains running. Radicals prefer to blow up the station and do without service until the new structure is ready.

Now with daylight savings time, standard time and in many places, sun time, after we inquire what time, then we must add “which time?”

With a New Jersey tailor jailed for charging less than 40 cents for preying arimit^ome'xrf our readers inquire, “Is it a free country?” However, in a free country law is intended to protect the interests of the majority. A real patriotic and sympathetic minority will fall in line. Information at hand shows that all Japanese high schools have at least one course in English. In a wrestling match at San Francisco, Bonnie Muir, Austrian, and George Wilson, Seattle, collided headon. Both men were knocked out and the referee called the match a draw.

Another epidemic of “sleeping sickness” for this summer was recently predicted by the American College of Physicians and Surgeons.

It is suggested by some southern congressmen that the “House Restnirant” be closed rather than permit Negroes to eat there. However, hese southern gentlemen have never refused to accept the Negro rote. “He who hestitates is not necessarily last, as according to the old ndage,” says the Versailles (111.) Independent. “Sometimes he misses i good chance to get stung.”

The majority of our people seem o be tiring of the “new deal,” but hey do not want the “old deal tack—what will they get?

Bluffton to Hold Legion Meeting

he American Legion Post at ifton has issued a special invinn to the local post to attend a t meeting of Legionnaires and iliary members, in Bluffton on day, May 6. he host city has ma,de arrangeits to accommodate 8,000 regisions to attend the meeting and ake part in the mammoth pa- ? at 2:30 o’clock, very Legion and Auxiliary memnorth of and incluuding Indipolis, as well as many Ohio cithas been invited to take part he parade of twenty bands and m corps. he Bluffton Post has made ar?ements for 125 Legionnaires Auxiliary members to attend a this city. o— i SAME NET CURTAINS IN ALL THE WINDOWS is a wise plan to select the ie net curtain patterns for all windows of your home. Differkinds of glass curtains viewed n the outside spoil the unity of exterior. The same curtains in ry window are hiore pleasing do not give confusion of line.

George R. Dale

The political campaign now raging (that’s the word, isn’t it?) excites me to great

wonder.

The candidates for the various offices have all told you how good they are. They all admit it. I have even hinted at my own availability and have had a bunch of good talkers who have used the radio in my behalf. Say, did yomhear young Joe Reed, student at Ball State talk Thursday night? And Creamy Tuttle, and Lester Holloway. Others have talked, including Street Commissioner Bill Daniel, who told how he has fixed up the streets of the Southside and other parts of the city without one penny of charge against abutting prop-

erty. ^

City Attorney Taugh.nbaugh told you about the phony law suits brought by councilmen to embarass the mayor and others of his administration, and how the flimsy civil and criminal charges were kicked out of court by judges in Indiana, Chicago and Washington; judges of state circuits, judges of the United States Court of Appeals and judges of the United States Supreme bench, and lastly, but greatest of all,

by President Roosevelt.

He said, and said truthfully, that during my four years and four months in office I have never instituted a suit that might embarass of harass or disturb the lawful functioning of any political unit within the city or county. And in this connection, and while talking about lawsuits,

you are continually hearing , —

from daily newspaper sources that “a sorry mess of things” ’has been made here by reason of this constant litigation and they are vainly looking for some great big man to lead

us out of the wilderness.

It is significant that they do not attempt to name this big man. If they did, I fear that he Would be promptly identified as one who helped to promote this senseless litigation and would shrink at once from the proportions of the world’s champion fat man to

the Tom Thumb class.

It has been a “sorry mess” for the great big men who hurled their mighty boomerang at me, only to have the weapon describe a beautiful parabola and on its return trip leave them with a surprised bump on their own heads. In the beginning I said I was excitea to wonder, and I want to take issue with repeated newspaper statements that there are so many candidates that the poor people will be like the lady in the shoe, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. It has been my observation that the men and women of Muncie are not fools, even if they do read the Muncie daily newspapers.

Let us analyze, somewhat.

Two of the leading Republican candidates for mayor, Curtis Rector and Wayne Adams have publicly asserted their main issue is opposition to the paving trust. They use those

very words,—“paving trust.”

I coined that expression in my campaign five years ago and was elected largely on my promise to bury the paving trust alive, and did I do it, and how! Within two weeks after I took office I put the paving monopoly out of business, for-

ever, I hope.

I have no objections whatever to any candidate, Republican or Democrat, running on my platform, but why kick a dead mule? j John Hampton, another Republican candidate for mayor, was, himself, THE paving trust. I will say this, though, Hampton admits it and boldly points to his record of having

paved everything but the cemetery during his administration.

Later on, of course, I may have some joint debates with John over this “highly controversial” question (that’s what us statesmen usually call things that are vital) but I’m not quarreling with John now. ( What concerns me most is, that the strong man of the paving trust, Cliff Cranor, has

deserted Hampton and gone to Bunch.

Cliff, you know, was a member of John Hampton’s board of works, and was he good! He testified, you know, against me in my Federal trial. He told on the witness stand that while he served on the board of works he owned a half interest in snaky Walburn’s gambling joint. - He swore that I promised him before thp election he could keep on going big when I took office, and that I double-crossed the gamblers and wiped them out when I got in. He told the jurors that he really suspected that I was not right. It was a sad story and the jury convicted me at once for breach of promise. And now Cliff is boosting Doc for mayor and on the platform, in certain strategic points, greets him as “My Pal,” or words to that effect. Southsiders who are still groaning under Barrett law improvements at double price, inflicted on them by Cranor, and who remember a curious sale of a broken down truck in a dark alley, are rather hesitant about endorsing a candidate for mayor who publicly greets Cranor with open arms. : : ;; Mr. Cranor is a first class coal dealer, but I still maintain that although he was a grand little promoter for the paving trust, he was a rank failure as a representative of property owners as a public officer. ! That he was not a good gambler, living up to the traditions of that noble profession, was proved when he went on the witness stand to complain that he had been double-

crossed. Real gamblers never squawk.

Let us go further into this strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Two preachers always appear on the platform with Bunch, Eddie Thomas and Dewey Hole. It is Eddie’s great ambition to be township trustee and Dewey wants to be auditor. They have thrown in definitely with Bunch, Billy Finan and Cliff Cranor and are ready

to sink or swim with their bedfellows.

I don’t know what is the matter with Eddie, except that he is one grand little doublecrosser. He was president of my park board and to my face was my dearest political friend, but when he took up with strange gods I fired him. Once a bartender always a bartender, says I. And charged my mistakes up to experience. I won’t say a word against Dewey. Early in my administration he was my park superintendent. That I changed park superintendents and got the results that the people want should not be charged up to me. ’ But Dewey is human, even ig he is a preacher, and his chief reason for asking for your votes to make him auditor is that I fired him from a job for which he was wholly unfitted. It might be stated that I offered him another position, but he refused it, assigning as

(Continued to Pagt> Twoj

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Refutation of pandidate’s Claim For High Prices

Here ’There, Everywhere

repeatedly stated by Mayor George T |U T 11 V D| A KICC Contractors’ Trust” existed in Mun- L 11 L Irl I iLnllLO

30 MILES AT SEA BOMB NEW YORK

It has been

R. Dale, that a “

cie, during the former administration and that prices charged for concrete and asphalt pavements, were extbrtionate, and which extortionate prices caused several people to lose their homes, due to their inability to pay the amounts levied against their prop-

erties, in the way of assessments.

A candidate for mayor of Muncie, who was chief executive of Muncie from 1926 to 1930, in a radio addrses, delivered May 1, 1934, attempts to justify these extortionate prices by saying: “The cost of materials were never so high as during the period in which these improvements were made.” To which exception is taken by Mayor Dale, after a perusal of a report submitted by the Depan\nent of Engineering,

in 1931, and which report is as follows:

“In the yrars 1928 and 1929, the price of cement was $2.66, loss 40 cents for sacks, or a net price

It can the ma-

of

?°.26 per barrel, F. O. B. cars at

Muncie.

In 1930 and 1931, cement was quoted in car load lots at Muncie, at $2.61 per barrel, less 40 cents for sacks, or $2.?1 per barrel net.

How Prices Compute

| "During the same period from 1928 to 1929, sand and gravel was sold and delivered on the work for $2.00 per cubic yard, while in the years 1930! and 1931, sand and gravel was sold and delivered at

$1.75 per cubic yard.

Where the component parts of

the concrete mixture are given at one part cement, two and one-half parts sand and three parts pebbles or broken stone, (State Specifications), it requires 1.70 barrels of cement and 1.33 cubic yards of sand and gravel to make a cubic

vkrd of concrete in place,

he seen that the cost 1 ffruUs which enter vartt. based on T>rio j -f of

for the vears 1928 and 1929, would be as follows: 1.70 barrels of cement of $2.26 T>er barrel, equals $3.8420, and 1.33 cubic yards of sand and eravel at $2.00 per cubic yard, $2.6666, making the to+al cost of the materials, $6.5086 for

a cubic yard of concrete.

.7Where the concrete is laid six •inches in depth, a cubic yard will lay six square yards, so that if we divide the total cost per cubic yard by six. we will find that the actual cost per square yard of pavement is within a fraction of a cent of $1.08 1-2 cents, and for which members of the “contractors trust” collected from the

propertv owners, $2.44.

In 1930 and 1931, as stated above, cement was quoted and sold at a net price of *2.21 per barrel, a difference of five cents per barrel less than the price paid in 1928 and 1929, while sand and gravel was quoted at $1.i5 per cubic yard, so that the cost of the materials entering into a cubic yard of concrete, based on these prices was as follows: 1.70 barrels of cement at $2.21 per barred, equals $3.7570, and $1.33 d’bic yards of sand and gravel at *1.75 per cubic yard, equals *2.3333, making the total cost of the materials entering into a ubic yard of concrete, based on the prices stated, $6.0903. dr a fraction of a c^nt. over $1.01 1-2 per square yard, and which was l°t and constructed under the Dale Administration at. an average price of $1.52

per square yard.” Then and Now

It will be seen from the above computations, that although there was onlv a difefrence of 7 cents ner square yard in the cost of matprials a« shown above. THAT THERE WAS A DIFFERENCE IN THE COST PER SOTTARE YARD OF 92 CENTS IN THE BIDS RFGFIVED UNDFP THE FORMER REGIME MORE THAN WAS PAID FOR SIMILAR WORK UNDER THE DALE ADMINISTRA-

TION.

Just what this means to the nronerty owner can he better explained, by stating, that if the width of the pavement between the curbing is 27 feet, ther° is 3 square yards per foot, and if vou own a lot that is 40 feet in width, it means that it cost you $1.38 per foot mo^e under the former administration than it would have cost under the Dale administra-

lion.

Convincing Evidence It may be further added, that this difference in cost means, that hundreds of property owners in Muncie have paid 455.20 more for ] naving in front of a 40 foot lot i than ist being paid under the Dale ; Administration, and when it is considered, that the number of assessments, that is Barrett Law assessments, are more than thirty thousand, and that each lot has been assessed *5.20 more than it should have paid, you can realize, just what happened to you in the (Continued to Page Two.)

ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED FOR LARGE CIRCUS

Will Surprise Community by Its Magnitude and Merit. I

Russell Bros, three-ring circus, with its menagerie is the circus and date for this city is Wednes-

day, May 9.

Depression may come and go and so may the “new deal,” hut every

into a' cuiidc I healthy human being always welof niatdViaJs | cofmes the coming of a first class

clean circus, for it is beyond any doubt the greatest bargain counter of amusement in the coun/ry. Human nat/re does crave relaxation and amusement and people of this nation seem to recognize in the circus an apportunity to satisfuy

such a desire.

Good, Clean Acts. Russell Bros, is known as a Sunday School Circus”—that is its hanagement ooes not tolerate any graft or immoral acts and strives to please the public witn an unusual thrilling performance by arenic artists of international reputation. It lists a great galaxy of stars, most of whom have never been seen here before. According to the press criticisms and letters which we have seen, the Russell Bros. Circus will Surprise this community by its magnitude and mer:!. It uses three rings and the hippodrome track, and presents more at one time than any pair of eyes can see. The management guarantees a thrill a minute, in fact in some minutes we may expect two thrills. Everything in Readiness. The advance agents completed all local contracts here today and the billers have posted the brilliant announcement and date in all colors of the rainbow. Put th!s date in your date book and let us make our city seem like old times on “circus day” and bury the “old man depression,” at least for one day.

Could Happen, Says Gen. Mitchell—Japan Covets Alaska.

Enemy aircraft could bomb New York from a distance of 30 miles, utilizing a new type of glider bomb that would travel that far when released from a height of 35,000 feet. The Vinson naval bill, now law, is “pouring money down a rat hole as far as heavier-than-air aircraft is concerned” and unless some of the money is used for development of first-class airships “the money will be just more grist to the mills of the profiteers.” Alaska Is Desirable. Japan is “misleading us with naval preparation w’hich really will be quite secondary to air power that ultimately will decide the contest between East and West.” Alaska is more desirable to an enemy than Hawaii, because from Alaska the principal centers of population in rue Unkea States could be attacked by air. The foregoing are among the statements of General William Mitchell, storm center in the controversy surrounding American military aviation in Libery Maga-

zine.

Dirigible airships are far leSs vulnerable and more effective than battleships, and cost about one-

General continues, in what is prob ably his most sensational utterance

on the subject to date. Profiteers in Control.

“The navy backed by the great interests which keep it up, always downs propositions looking toward a separate air service," the General writes, “and indirectly keeps the profiteers in control. The army seconds it, as they know very little about aeronautics and are jealous of its growing importance.” “Our national defense in this country is practically insensible to this (foreign) development going on all aroimd us,” the General goes on. “We are wrapped in the dense fog of the ‘valor of ignorance.’ We cannot and will not have a real national defense until our air power is regarded as our great and principal weapon, not as a small auxiliary of the army and navy.”

Until Last Moment.

Giant bombers have been developed by pricipal nations which have been assembled and will not be put together until the last moment in order that no detail of their structure be known. The writer speculates upon their possible fine points. They would have 150 feet of wing, powered with Diesel-type motors geared to a thirty-foot adjustable pitch propeller. They would make 350 miles per hour at an altitude of 35,000 feet and carry var-

ious types of bombs.

A considerable amount of unfavorable comment is being heard around town these days about the large number of men on poor relief, who are refusing^to work when assigned to jobs on public projects. According to current reports, a number of men that have numerous dependents and have been drawing their grocery orders from the public commissry for the past several years, are refusing to work eighteen hours per week in order to earn about $8 and 10 cents—prefering to live on the county, from now on, rather than to engage in work. Everybody seems to feel sorry for the man wno cannot find employment and nobobdy begrudges him enough groceries for himself and family. But, judging from the remarks now going the rounds, most citizens are greatly opposed to continuing to support persons who refuse to work, even when jobs are thrust upon them. Nor does the public seem to have much regard for the type of individual that reluctantly accepts work on a public project and appears on the job to “soldier and stall” conspicuously, in hope that he will be “fired.” It will not be surprising if weary individuals, who eat well and sleep well, but who have no desire to work, soon find their “tap shift off” at the public commissary. And it is said that a movement is under way at Indianapolis whereby such tired gentlemen will be sent to the penal farm, under the lazy husband act, and the groceries given to their families.

It won’t be long before some of the old-time politicians and “wheelhorses,” who have long represented the various financial interests in the House and Senate, to the exclusion of the public welfare, will he trotting out the deed of Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton and other dead notables of the past in an attempt to get your minds off the present-day conditions and issues, in hope of thereby getting

fourteenth as much to build, the your vote. Wise citizens will not

lose sight of the fact that the relating of by-gone deeds of great Americans, waving Old Glory and “viewing with alarm” every progressive step, will provide the American people with but few

meals.

MAYOR’S PROCLAMATION WHEREAS Sunday, May 13th, is Mother’s Day, and WHEREAS every year as this occasion approaches, it is fitting that our thoughts should turn to what our mothers means to us, if living; or, if dead, what they have meant to us, and to express our sentiments as may seem most appropriate, and WHEREAS no tribute to motherhood could be greater than to reduce the number of women who lay down their lives in motherhood, and WHEREAS I am informed that leading authorities have found that two-thirds of the women who die in childbirth could be saved by adequate maternity care: NOW, THEREFORE, I, George R. Dale, Mayor of Muncie, do hereby proclaim Sunday, May 13th, as Mother’s Day and call upon the people of this City to observe it not only with those remembrances and amenities which have become the custom in connection with the day, but also by informing themselves of what constitutes the care which will make motherhood safe, to the end that such care will more likely be provided for expectant mothers. GIVEN under my hand and seal of the City of Muncie this 4th day of May, 1934. GEORGE R. DALE, Mayor

It is generally understood that the present public w'orks relief program will be continued for a year or more, and according to state authorities it will be necessary for us to pick out some useful projects here in Muncie that can be completed without involving the city in a large amount of expense for materials. It seems to us that as soon as the swimming pool at Tuhey Park, the retaining wall along Wheeling avenue, and some of the other jobs are completed, some of the men employed on those projects might be put to work constructing a road from the intersection of State Roads No. 3 and No. 67, north of town, south to the river and steps be taken to obtain PWA assistance in constructing a bridge over the river at Macedonia avenue, where traffic on the new road would cross the river. This projects has been discussed by numerous civic organizations and recommended as one of the best means of relieving traffic conjestion in our narrow uptown streets. The labor needed for such project is available free of cost and it is thought that the materials involved in constructing the proposed bridge, would cost approximately $30,000. What is your opinion about this project Would it be better to employ our relief men on some 'project of permanent importance, even if it cost the city $30,000 for materials, rather than permit them to “tinker around”' raking leaves and picking up sticks for the next year or so, for want of a comparatively small amount of materials? The authorities in charge of relief operations will co-operate 100 per cent towards furnishing men to complete useful and permanent improvements.

You may not agree with every detail of the Roosevelt program, but the chances are about 10 to 1 that you prefer it to what the backnumber statesmen, who are trying to get back in the picture, have to offer—namely a return to Hooverism.

The long-suffering taxpayers of Pottsville, Pa., arose in their wrath and battered their way into the office of the county commissioners, where they seized those two dignitaries and forcibly escorted them to the scene of a large mass meeting, which was being staged to protest against the fact that the taxes of the small property owners had been increased, while the large coal mining companies—some of them owned by “big steel”—were not increased.