Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 28 February 1936 — Page 1
uifei iiai. i»
“It is a synthetic, manufactured, poisoned fear that is being spread subtly, expensively and cleverly by the same people who cried in those other days—‘Save us, save, else we perish’,* -—President Rooseveit.
THE PO
“there are determined groups that , . . steal the livery of great national constitutional ideals to serve discredited special interests.” —President Rooseveit.
*
VOLUME 17—NUMBER 4.
MUNCIE, INDIANA, I RIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1936.
PRICE: FIVE CENT3
SCHOOL IS TAUGHT MURDER IT I
B B B _ m B B _ E . : " I
Social. Seeurity Legislation Ready for Special Session
Governor McNutt Expects to Call Assembly For March 5th; Proposed Enactments to Har- v monize With Federal Program.
The joint senate and house committee of the state legislature is reported to have nearly completed the drafting of social security legislation in advance to the call of a special session of Indiana’s law-making bodies predicted to convene on March 5. Bills to include unemployment insurance, old age pensions, public health and welfare measures, expected to be enacted by the special session, will be sent to the printers today. Copies of such measures will be 'sent to the federal security board for approval. In spite of some conclusions that a special assembly of the legislature may grow into a longer session dealing with present statute revisions, it is expected that only social security legislation will be enacted with an early adjournment as requested by -the governor. It is the purpose of the state administration to 1 co-operate with the federal social security program as authorized by Congress several months ago. Such action is taken to more equitably distribute the wealth of the nation, provide for the needs of the aged and indigent through old age pensions, secure the living of the laboring class of people by means of unemployment insurance, prepare for the health and opportunities of children throughout the
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country, and prevent the possibil- j itles of future economic depressions such as has been nationally experienced during the past seven
years.
New Farm Program Passed The new farm aid program, substituted by President Roosevelt for the AAA legislation declared unconstitutional several weeks ago by the U. S. Supreme Court, was passed Thursday by both the House and Senate members of Congress. The new law authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to make payments either direct to farmers or to states adopting the
^ federal formula in proportion to
lands taken out of crop production. This program provides for fhe conservation of the soil of our country, increasing the fertility of
Force Must Match Force to Obtain Justice for AH, Declares Father Haas
Unionization and National Labor Standards Held First Step to Recovery; Change Constitution If in Way.
4-
And Firemen Sweat
Low wages, long hours, unem- j touch with the problems will ployment and farm distress are j gard them as anything but Hercusome of the effects of uncontrolled j lean. Nevertheless, they are the ect^omic might. The remedy is to ; first steps to be taken toward ulfi-
Strange as it may sound —the colder it gets, the hotter the firemen and insurance adjusters become! That heart, of course, is not caused by the v/eather; it f is brought about by more work. Statistic* compiled by the National Board of Fire Underwriters reveal that severe winter weather causes an epidemic of fires. It is not difficult to see why this is so. In an effort to be comfortable, people force their furnaces to the limit and also use makeshift heating agencies. Under these conditions, it is natural for more fires to break out and this means more work for the fire departments and more losses for the insurance companies to adjust. Hence there is an extra
such lands, and reimbursement of 1 ;, ' t f , ' ‘ /f v. y, the farmer for lost, crops during a - m ° Unt ° f WOrk for a11 who handle
the next two years while a portion of his land is relieved from crop production and allowed to refer-
tilize.
Immediate action is being prepared to administer the new program and Congress is soon expected to approve an appropriation with which to meet the costs for agricultural relief. The agency to administer the soil conservation program provided by the new law will continue to bear the same AAA designation.
Stewart Tells Why He Was Fired; Hoover Didn’t Like His Figures
Miami, Fla., Feb. 20.—Breaking | -
a silence he has maintained forj " . tour yeacs^ P^lwd'bef4-4ytewHi-t'; who I
looks enough like Mark Twain to | be a brother of the famous writer, j
revealed here this week why he -
was a retired as chief of the Unitrd States Bureau of Labor Statis- I
tics after a long and distinguished j
service. ^ The 78-year-old statistican, whose devotion to accuracy won him ap international reputation, said he was kicked out because President Hoover didn’t like his employment
figures.
“Among other things,” Stewart recalled, “we were gathering unemployment and payroll statistics. I said the volume of employment was rapidly going down, down, down. But Julius Klein of the Department of Commerce was always says things were going up, up, up. “As a matter of fact, I never crossed Klein!. I didn’t think it was necessary. We just kept right on with our figures in the Labor
Bureau.
“But. Mr. Hoover got mad about it. And then Mr. Doak—W. N. Doak was secretary of labor at that time and he and I had been quite friendly—suddenly began to get mad, too. “I told him we hadn’t changed our figures to suit any administration since I’d been in the bureau over a period of 45 years, and I’d be damned if I was going to do it
now.”
Shortly after this declaration Stewart was retired, he said.
-Boom Days-Ahead
Says Babson
the reports and other matters in-
cident to the claims.
If you don’t want your house to become so hot that you have to park outside, you should exercise the utmost care in operating your heating plant—especially when the mercury drops to low temperatures. . Far better to take more time for increasing the heat in the house, than to suffer a destructive fire from an overheated stove or chimney. “Forcing” a furnace is definitely danger-
ous.
A little time spent inspecting a heating plant is a good step, too. If, for any reason, you do not feel that absolute safety is assured, you will do well to call in a heating expert and follow his advice.
If anyone longer doubts that President Roosevelt’s recovery program has succeeded and that America is not going forward by ’ leaps and bounds in the next few years, let them read what the Babson statistical organization reports. Babson tells his clients that America is now the depository for 10 billion dollars of gold “which can expand credit to four times the peak of 1929,” and that, in addition, the Federal Reserve System banks have 3 billion dollars of excess reserves, and that depositors in Federal Reserve banks are receiving no interest on 12 1-2 millions of deposits. Babson comments: “This flood of idle funds must some day be released. This can only lead to a substantial industrial and stock market boom as business men and investors transfer their assets from banks to business and securities.” Take the word of unbiased, non-political business statisticians—“it’s going
to happen.”
acquired in
Illinois, Iowa or Missouri by the Federal government under the resettlement program will be left idle. If not suited to farming enterprises it will he turned into forest reserves, narks, recreation’al sites or wild
life preserves.
resist pressure with pressure, re straint with restraint and coercoin
with coercion.
That ringing challenge to industrial autocracy is sounded by Dr. Francis J. Hass, rector of St. Francis Seminary, St. Francis, Wis., in a forceful artDe published in the 7 current issue of “The Sign,” publication of the Passionist Missions. Father Hass is an outstanding economist. For years he was director of the Catholic school of Social j Service at Washington. He also render’ed conspicuous service as a J member of the Labor Advisory | board of the NRA and a member of a number of other tribunals dealing with labor questions.
Employer Rules Field
Since the slaughter of the NRA by the Supreme Court, Father Hass says, the employer “is master of
the field,” and lower wages and I Father Haas emphasizes, “cutlonger hours are the consequence. | throat labor competition will enn“If we are really concerned about j tinue to ride roughshod over the the suffering millions and the cour- | rights of vast numbers or individageous enough to be practical,’ j pals and families, rendering dis-
rnate national well being.’
Whatever the difficulties, a way must be found to correct intolerable conditions, Father Haas pro-
claims.
Unthinkable Conditiions It is unthinkable he says, That one-fifth of the workers of a country blessed with abundance should be condemned to enforced idleness and degradation, and hundreds of thousands of industrious farmers to
servile tenantry.”
It may be necessary to change the Constitution to make national legislaton possible, Father Haas concedes, but he insists that the hurle be taken if there is no other way. If unbridled economic force, as represented by employers, is permitted to have its way uncontested,
Cross English Teacher at Burris Said to Proposed Queer
■IIIIIIIIHIIIIItHMttlllMIIIIIMIIIIItlMIMlilUMIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIItlllllltMttllllHIIIIIIIIIililMMi Observations
Uncle Jeb Pruden sez: “Ther’s an old sayin’ “show me yer companyuns, an’ I’ll tell yo’ who yo’ air’,, but yo’ cain’t alius tell what kind of a feller a dead man was, by lookin’ at the pallbarers. Be-
sides,
’ed”.
President L. A. Pitenger of Ball State, Who Has Launched an Investigation, Says Text Book Written by Harvard Professor Was Basis of Grisly Subject of Disposing of Father and Mother—Local Newspaper Publishes Many Protesting Letters.
Mr. Cross, English teacher in Burris school, is the storm center of another Muncie tempest in a teapot, but it’s a kind of a shuddery story, it wasn’t him thet picker { which some people cannot exactly understand. For a few days the Muncie Press lias contained communications from indignant parents who declare that a “teacher in the Muncie' schools,” whose name has never been disclosed until the Post-Demobrat publishes it today, has asked his students in the class in English to write a thesis describing how they could murder their parents without
Father Hass adds, “we shall insist that economic force making for jus tice shall be matched with equal
economic force against it.” There can be no hope for recov-
ery, the noted economist insists, until our social institutions are overhauled and there is a reason-
able measure of justice for all.
The problem which he visions, j
charge of moral and spiritual obligations well-nigh impossible.”
Black Blots on System
; Child labor—“one of the blackest blots on our national life”—and inability of young people to marry tind bear children are declared to be two of the heaviest liabilities of
the existing system.
“This spiritual and moral wreck
Father Hass says, can be success- £ge,” S ays Father Haas, “cries to
fully attacked in two ways; Unionization Necessary
1. —Federal legislation requiring employers and processors of farm products to meet nationwide standards, with the proviso that states may raise
smA. wJ-andwTVts tf Thrnv
2. —Complete unionization of workers, )yith recognize ton by employers that the right of a worker to ioin a union of his own choosing “is innate and
natural.”
“These,” savs Father Hass, “are the tasks ahead, and no one in
heaven for redress and, above all, for protection against future wrong. Irresponsible economic might must be made responsible. Making due allowance for the necessity of moral reformation, the result can bf attained only by exerting ec-
restrain;.”
SURE TO BE BIG “Well, Johnnv,” said the uncle, who hadn’t seen him for some time, “you are getting to he quite a big bov novg aren’t you ” “Yep.” reolied the kid. “nop s' 1 ' ,T s I’m growing like the public debt.”
The difference between Representative O’ConnoV and an ordineary jackass, is that the latter doesn’t do so much braying before
he kicks.
The man who is out of work is not so’ much interested in what Abraham Lincoli# said, nor as to how the Supreme Court decided the Dred Scott case, as he is in knowing when he will get a job and three square meals a day. That Van Wert, Ohio, Lincoln’s Birthday banquet, is somewhat significant when one considers that Governor Alf Landon, of Kansas, copped off 209 “buns,” while all Hoover got was three." Graduates of Universities are generally recognized as outstanding citizens in their respective communities, but the university of Atlanta has furnished more men of “nerve” than all other instituTTTrfirTir tKe'Trffi.
Tax receipts in many of the poor farming sections of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa “find Missouri fail to meet the cost of road maintenance, schools and other public service which must be given families existing In these sections, resettlement administration figures show.
THE “WAILING WALL” MAKES GOOD It is somewhat gratifying to note that the present river crisis has proved the utility of the Wheeling avenue retaining wall, a FERA project approved both by the former city administration and by Arthur Ball, local administrator of the FERA, later merged into the WPA. The retaining wall was constructed in 1933 and 1934, at considerable expense, most of which was borne by the national government. That retaining wall was the pet peeve of the Press “Comment” column, which insisted that it was valueless and destroyed the esthetic beauty of its surroundings. It is important to know that if the river had risen but a few feet higher, and if the flood had not been restrained by the retaining wall, the resulting inundation would have proved to be a calamity of major proportions, entailing untold loss to property and possibly the loss of lives of those living in the endangered locality. Its importance is now conceded by the present city administration, which proposes that the wall, as a WPA project, be extended farther east, the original idea of former City Engineer Will Harley, but which was frustrated by unwarranted intervention, which threatened to kill the erttire project. It is quite true that the retaining wall is not “a thing of beauty and a joy forever,” but it was put up there to keep people from being drowned and from having their homes deluged with devastating floods. The rosies and posies which “Comment” suggested as more appropriate than a retaining wall would look beautiful in the good old summer time, but when torrents rage in the early spring a good old cement wall separating the home from a raging flood is somewhat of a comfort to people living in peril. The esthetic beauty of “flowers and shrubs” is conceded, but when people wake up in the night and find themselves floating down stream on the chicken coop, with the horrified thought that thennext public appearance will be in the morgue with a lily in their hand, their first impulse is to yell for a life preserver, not a gardenia. The retaining wall has been justified and the wisdom of its construction thoroughly demonstrated. It is hoped that the former interference in its continuation to the point originally intended, will not again become manifest.
Maynell Dalby, Local Druggist, Loses His Store Liquor License
State Revokes Permit After Ex-City Clerk Pleads | Sinclair Elected
Guilty of Selling to Minors—Attempts to
Save License Proved Futile Before Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
The state alcoholic commission took action last Wednesday to revoke the package liquor permit held by Maynel Dalby, who operates the University Drug store in Muncie. Dalby was arrested several weeks ago by excise enforcement officers on a charge of selling liquor to minors. He plead guilty to the charge and-was fined for the offense, which according to law made it mandatory for the alcoholic beverage commission to revoke the permit. . Considerable maneuvering to save the license has been attempted the past several days but the commission advises that its action is final. Dalby has held a drug store liquor permit since the legalized selling of liquor by repeal of the Eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the reepal of Indiana’s
dry laws. He admitted selling package liquor to minors of whom several are alleged to have been Ball state college students. The state liquor law strictly prohibits the sale of any intoxicating -beverage to any persons under twen-ty-one years of age. Dalby has operated the University drug store since his retirement from the city clerk’s office January 6, 1930. In 1931, he was charged with a shortage of funds by the state board, of accounts which examined his records as city clerk. At that time he admitted his records as not being in balance explaining tha he became confused with mixing public funds with his own pocketbook. After paying back to the city several thousandsi of dollars which he had used individually, he was exempted fr'Om further prosecution.
Phone Director
W. Richardson Sinclair of Indianapolis was elected a director of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company at a meeting of the Board of Directors held Thursday, February 27. IMr. Sinclear is Vice President and Treasurer of Kingan and Company internationally known firm of Meat Packers. The new director takes the place on the board made vacant by the resignation some time ago of Charles P. Cooper of New York, Vice President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Com-
pany.
o DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN Wlho can rememlber the good old days back in the SOs, when Dad, Mom and the rest of the family had the seven years itch, and when one woke up at night all the family were scratching, and it sounded like a dozen sandsaws, sawing sand-paper?
Heeding the birds when the ground is covered with snow, is quite commendable and all those who can do so, should not wait to be asked. The thing that worries us however, is to know who is going to feed the poor “birds” that feed the poor birds'? It’s all right for someone to try duplicating George Washington’s feat of throwing a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River, provided of course, they don’t ask us to furnish the dollar.
Insurance Promotion Scheme Held Up by the State Tax Board
Legality of $5,000 Appropriation to Pay Insurance Premiums For City Employes Questioned by Commission Representative.
Last Tuesday afternoon, the state tax board conducted a hearing in the county auditor’s office on the proposed premiums for city employees and their families. Erwin (Surley) Walsh, councilman, and • insurance agent, represented the tax commission representative. The authorized ordinance passed
I ance is carried on all city em- | ployees, except police and firemen, which pays disability claims, medical ancT hospital bills, and death benefits to the extent of $5,000. This protection is justifiable inasmuch as nearly all corporations and- business institutions carry
compensation insurance on their by the common council on Febru-1 employees. The city administraary 3rd appropriating the “five ! tion proposed to pay for an addigrand” for such purposes was not I tional $2,500 policy on each of the approved by the state board and city employees at a cost to the it was stated that the legality of taxpayers of $5,000. The compensuch an exenditure would first i sation insurance now carried by have to be determined. the city will cost approximiately
The Post-Democrat stated a t $1,500 per year,
week ago that compensation insur- It appears 1;hat the entire pro-
posal was a neat sales promotion by Insurance Agent Walsh who sponsored the ordinance. The commission to be received on this amount of insurance would have netted a good year’s salary for most insurance agents today. If Councilman Walsh is able to promote the premiums to be paid by the city then he need not worry about delivering policies for we’ll all take one. At least he had the mayor and council memlbers sold on the idea since they all favored the proposals with their votes and signatures. Digging into the pockets of taxpayers has" become too great a temptation for Muncie’s officialdom. The recent law which provides that all municipal and public appropriations must be aproved by the state board is one hoe to save the credit of Muncie from present administration vultures. | ,
Radio fans who prefer something clean, shtmld tune in on the soap programs, which are on the air every afternoon from 2 to 2:45 and which can be distinguished from other programs by the number of bubbles the announcers blow. No other city in the United States has produced so many presidents and vice-presidents as the City of Muncie. If you doubt this statement all you have to do, is to study the “pen pictures” of prominent citizens,- now being published here.
The difference between Herbert Hoover and the proverbial ground hog, is that the latter has sense enough to crawl in his hole and stay there, after seeing his shadow, while the former persists in coming out of his hole and casting a shadow over the entire Republican party.
being caught. The Perfect Crime The story is further elaborated by the 'allegation that the teacher required that the essay should be written as a death-bed confession of the murder, disclosing how the parental extinction was accomplished in such an adroit manner that it constituted “the perfect
crime.”
Inasmuch as hone of the published letters mentioned the name of the teacher and since the whole thing appeared so unbelievable, the Post-Democrat started an investigation. and scon learned that the affair was centered in Burris school, an adjunct to Ball State college, and not in the city of Muncie school system. Learning this a reporter at once interviewed President L. A. Pittenger, head of the college and dtiger 1 . maw -“rtmr veyed the name of the teacher and stated that an investigation of the entire matter would be started at once and that the public would be fully informed j^s to the findings. Text Book Charged President Pittenger has been out of the city for sofne time, and returned to find the argument on and naturally wants to assure the people that no taint attaches to any department of the great institution over which he presides. He states that Mr. Cross is the son of an eminent college president in a western state, and that he was under the impression, which may also be modified as his investigation proceeds, that the question was in a text book used by Mr. Cross for submission to his students. Of course no one outside of an insane asylum would ever think of compounding such a ghoulish idea and presenting it to young folks for solution: If the idea was that of Mr. Cross, he should of course be removed as quickly as possible. If it was that of some text book writer who .wanted to present such a/ horrible problem to students, there is another state institution at Richmond where he | might find sympathetic 'and understanding listeners. Hard to Believe It is hard for the Post-Democrat to believe that there is any basis
for the report that such a question was ever submitted to Mr. Cross’ class in English, and it is sincerely hoped that the investigation of President Pittenger will develop this to be a fact. The frequent letters of protest in the Press are for the most part unsigned, and since none of the printed letters made mention of the particular teacher charged with the weird offense, it seemed to the average reader that somebody with a disordered mind might have started a huge hoax of grisly import. Charles Dana once said that the New York Sun would print anything the God allowed to happen. That was in the day before de ceptive journalism twisted and - diisfrnfcfclj f aetMfJ behind annonymous communications fabricated in order to obtain some objective unknown to the general
public.
No one accuses the Press of composing these letters, but occasionally editors have a way of “editing” letters sent in for publication. There is no doubt in the minds of anybody that the letters were really received by the Press, but it has seemed queer that none of the indignant writers have been mad enough to expose the name of the teacher. Teaching Murder? Most of the letters are along the line of “shame, shame on the Muncie schools, which teach murder to our children.” I Until President Pittenger conI eludes his investigaflon, the Postj Democrat is going to believe that ) the story is ail wind. The reporteiI who interviewed Professor Pittenger suggested that if in the course of his investigation, he found that - the question had been submitted, that he might secure some of the theses, if .any, and study them carefully as an aid in reaching his final conclusions. President Pittenger said he would do that, adding that Mr. Cross seems to be a mighty fine young man and that his pupils seem to be “one hundred per cent for him.” He states further that he is informed that the text book, advising (Continued on Page Four)
What has' become of the “Antiseptic” Sewer and Disposal Plant? Just now it looks as though it was progressing “like nobody’s business.”
Those ten or twelve hundred men who were promised jobs prior to the last city election, are now lined up and waiting for the administration to build a second story on Madison Street, at the railroad.
One trouble with the farmers at present is that there are too many high salaried men and women instructing them what to do over the radio. If these salaries were divided up and paid to the farmers, it’s a cinch they could get along without all the advice.
Judging from the flow of oratory one hears every evening over the radio ,the Republicans must be figuring on running either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln as their standard bearer in 1936. But why pick men who have been so long dead, when, they have Herbert Hoover, who so peacefully reposed in the White House from 1929 to 1933?
Gentlemen: After listening to your radio program, extolling the virtues of Cottonseed Oil for cooking, I purchased seven cans of your product, and after emptying (Continued on Page Four)
AP0UCEMAN0NICE Policeman Harry Mullen demonstrated Tuesday afternoon that there are other things in the life of a cop besides catching burglars, pursuing: the elusive bootlegger and rounding up the deadly crap shooter. When ice gorged alarmingly in White River, just below the High street bridge, Policeman Mullen remembered his former calling, that of blasting in a stone quarry. So he accumulated an armful of dynamite sticks, walked out on the ice pack and planted them where they would do the most good. Most people would have balked on such a job, or at least would have planted the explosive and rushed to safety, but Harry had one more stick of dynamite left. The others'exploded while the policeman was looking for a strategic position to plant tW last one. The mighty ice floe was torn from its moorings by the series of explosions and Officer Mullen, with a stick of dynamite in his hand, found himself sailing down stream on a wild cruise on a resistless mass of ice cakes. Liza crossed the river by jumping from one cake to another. She was merely chased by bloodhounds and carried no excess baggage in the way of dynamite. Officer Mullen had two things to look after. He had to keep his footing while scrambling from one huge block of ice to another and to think fast about the stick of dynamite in his hand. He handled both jobs and is alive to tell it. He juggled the dynamite into the depths of the river as he scrambled 'from one cake of ice to another and kept himself on top of the ice until he reached the bridge where he grasped a rope that-w r as thrown to him and was hauled upward to safety on the floor of the bridge. It w'as a perilous adventure, but his lone act of heroism in dynamiting the ice probably saved the city from disaster. Clearing the river of ice probably prevented a flood and the light plant was threatened with a /less of its water supply that might have plunged the city in darkness and shut off the supply of steam «pon which the business district and many homes depend for warmth. It is human nature for the average citizen to grumble about policemen, but an outstanding act like that, where a policeman cooly gambles with death, with the odds distinctly against him, is worthy of careful thought. Harry Mullen is a policeman who stands out as an officer who has never shown a yellow streak during his six years on the force and who recognizes his obligation to the public who employ him.
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