Indianapolis Times, Volume 35, Number 63, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 July 1923 — Page 4

4

The Indianapolis Times EARLE E. MARTIN, Editor-In-Chief ROT W. HOWARD, President. I?RED ROMER PETERS, Editor. 0. F. JOHNSON, Business Mgr. Member of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers • • • Client of the United Press, United News, Untt<*J Financial and NBA Service and member of the Scripps Newspaper Alliance. • • • Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Published daily except Sunday by Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 25-29 S Meridian Street. Indianapolis. • * * Subscription Rates: Indianapolis—Ten Cents a Week. Elsewhere —Twelve Cents a Week. • r PHONE—MAIN 3500.

DETROIT FOLLOWS US DETROIT, the home of the flivver, is following Indianapolis in at least one traffic safety regulation that should make the citizens of this city feel sincere efforts have been made here to save life and limb. After years of failure to secure passage by the city council of a law giving traffic on main arteries the right-of-way, Detroit automobile clubs and police officials had come to consider the prove impossible in the greatest of all automobile centers. Then a Detroit newspaper went into action. It conducted a two months’ educational campaign. Asa result a ‘“'boulevard stop” ordinance was passed. It specifies thirteen streets as main arteries and provides that motorists crossing or turning into these arteries must first come to a full stop. Despite the fact the ordinance has been in effect only a few weeks its soundness and success seem assured. Police statistics show traffic accidents have decreased 14 per cent. We believe the boulevard stop system has proved its worth in Indianapolis and are mighty glad to see Detroit following in our footsteps. YOUR SHARE OF WEALTH HOW much money do you make? If your family's income is $636 a year for each member of the family, you are getting exactly your share (using simple arithmetic in determining the share.) For the income of all the American people combined now is around seventy billion dollars a year, or $636 for every man, woman and child. So claim the economists after studying the official records of the Treasury Department for the fiscal year ended -June 30. On this basis, to be doing just average well, a family consisting of husband, wife and three children should have an income of $3,180 a year. Some economists, however, believe that seventy billion dollars is too high an estimate of the national yearly income. Their opinions vary, down as low as forty billions. Which would pull the average person’s income to about $364 a year. How much are you “worth”? If your family wealth is more than $3,600 for each member of the family, you have more than your arithmetical share. - For the treasury figures indicate that the entire national wealth is equivalent to $3,600 for every man, woman and child. If any American has a fortune of a billion dollars, he has as much as the arithmetical share of 300,000 average Americans. Let that sink in. Our national wealth is mortgaged to the extent of sll2 for each of us, figuring on the basis of the national debt and not including the ten billion dollars or so that we loaned to foreign governments incident to the war. Even if this big sum never were paid back, it is just about balanced by American investments abroad. This, then, is the financial condition of Mr. Average American: He apparently has an income of $636 a year. He is worth $3,600. He is in debt, through his national government, sll2. Congress should keep these humble figures pasted on its desks, for repeated reference when carelessly handling millions.

LABOR DRAFT IS TRIED OUT APROPROS of the reported shortage of farm hands in some sections of Indiana, come dispatches telling that Bulgaria is trying out a labor draft. It’s modeled after the military conscription system, by which all able-bodied males have to serve a certain length of time in the army. This labor draft applies to women as well as men. It requires all members of both sexes —unless legitimately entitled to exemption —to perform a certain amount of work on behalf of the state. The period of service is eight months for men and four months for women. It may be demanded at any age between 20 and 40 years for men and 16 and 30 for women. Here, we believe, is something new in history—conscription for peace-time service. It’s a novelty. But it’s workable, for the average person unquestionably would rather be drafted to work during peace for the common good than for battle service. The labor draft, being tried out in Bulgaria, has interesting possibilities. Playing no favorites (theoretically, at least) it should help break down any caste system and eliminate snobbery, just as army service under conscription places all draft victims on a common level. A common level is the ideal of what we call democracy. The idea of a peace-time labor draft might not appeal to Americans, but we have plenty of drones for whonj a little compulsory work would do worlds of good.As our money aristocracy continues developing along roads aow clearly laid out, something like a labor draft may become an Imperative necessity, to put the brakes on the system and help maintain a semblance of balance. For rich and parasitic idlers, we’d recommend a few months’ service at street cleaning or highway building. As you ponder the possibilities of a labor-draft system, maybe the same thought will strike you that occurs to us: We are creating in our country a financial aristocracy, with hundreds of degrees of money caste. And this is the gravest danger facing our democracy. Autocracies usually are destroyed from without, democracies from within. Democracy is born as a co-operation of the impoverished. It has its source ih money. And in money is the fatal germ most apt to kill it. The snobbery and idleness that are made possible by wealth, coupled with greed for more wealth, destroy the democratic spirit of working for the common good. A labor draft, in. the form of a net from which none could escape, might be an antidote for many of the problems that our nation is attempting to handle as matters of education and emotion. As in war, a labor draft could be camouflaged as “selective service.” And, while we were at it, we might during the draft period sentence the poor to a taste of the luxury enjoyed by the rich, and the rich to a taste of the terrific grind and near-privation endured by the poor as habitual routine. A social leveler? You bet! IRENE CASTLE isn’t going to get a bit of sympathy from us in her domestic troubles. She started the bobbed-hair craze. * • • WHAT Mr. Bryan is trying to convey is that he stands at Armageddon, too. ♦

RETAIL COST OF BREAD IS STILL HIGH Price Remains Same Despite Drop in Wheat —Cut Is Unlikely. WHEAT prices have tumbled from their high places to prewar levels. But it doesn't mean anything yet to the consumer. American consumers of bread need not look for a reduction in the price of bread for some time, if at all, according to a nation-wide survey made for The Indianapolis Times by NEA Service. Upward trend of wheat prices sent bread skyrocketing in 1916. But bakers insist now the price of flour is but a small part of bread cost, and scoff at hopes of Old Nickel Loaf doing a comeback. The most optimistic reports come, strangely enough, from opposite ends of the country. New York and Los Angeles buyers MAY in thirty or forty-five days, have a cent clipped from the price of a loaf. They MIGHT be able to do it, but that’s as far as grocers, millers and wholesalers will venture in the business of prognostication. In other large cities of the nation, the prospect of a cut seems dim. Flour to the wholesaler has slumped, but the latter has at least a month’s supply on hand that they bought at the high figure. Moreover, they complain that the cut in price of a barrel of flour would have to be very sharp before it would make a dent in the retail price of a loaf of bread, because labor is the biggest item of cost to contend with, 4nd not flour. Dispatches from Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are printed below.

Fanner Sutlers Other telegraphed news from New Orleans, Denver. St. Paul, Cleveland. Seattle and San Francisco reveals about the same conditions, except that in these latter cities the belief that the price of a loaf won't be cut for a long time, if ever, is more positive. The fact that the farmer is getting only about §o‘ cents for a bushel of wheat—said to be actually below his cost of producing it—seems to make no difference in the price of bread. In San Francisco, lower wheat prices caused a drop of 60 cents to $2 a barrel. depending on the grade. The demand is off. as bakers are waiting developments In an agitated market. No immediate bread reduction is in sight. The same condition holds for Seattle, where flour dropped 40 cents a barrel—but bread prices remained stationary. S. B. Asia, large wholesaler, says sugar, labor and delivery constitute the greatest expense in making bread. Flour men of NJlnneapolis and St. PauJ. big grain centers, expect the price of wheat to rise soot, consequently. instead of further reductions, they expect Increases in flour and consequently no changes In price of bread. Dealers at Denver say the drop In price of a barrel is negligible when split among 200 loaves. There Isn’t a chance of a reduction, they report. “Little Fellows" Bakers in New Orleans complain that millers, despite the drop in price of wheat, have quoted them no lower figures on flour. They believe this is the time for the "little fellows" to get together and cut In on their wholesale opposition. The grocery trade is of the opinion that housewives will get busy with their ovens again if millers allow the price of flour to drop along with that of wheat. As to the dining-out public —bah!—they will continue to pay as usual. Cleveland prices of bread will not change, according to present outlook. Flour Is slightly cheaper, due to the wheat drop, but- as Jn other cities, bakers say this slight cut can’t possibly mean lower price for the loaf. A Thought They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.—l Tim. 6:9. . * * THERE Is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one.—Bruyere. Observations There is now one automobile to every eight and five-tenths persons in the United States. The fraction represents those who have been maimed, but not killed, no doubt. Scientists say the earth is 3,000,0000,000 years old. Those fellows handle years like the shipping board used to handle dollars. Mr. Harding, having announced himself as “an apostle of understanding," ought to get a kick out of that Minnesota senatorial election. "Judge Lethy was a rough rider,” says a writer, describing the jurist in New Mexico who is doing his level best to throttle a free press. Not only “was” but "is."

Heard in Smoking Room

THE TALK in the Pullman turned from funny stories to experiences. The Old Editor told one. “When I was an assistant editor of the Capital News, in Boise, a few years back, a good-looking- young girl came in to see me. She said a friend of hers had been in trouble. That this friend had committed suicide In room 24 in the Agnes hotel at Weiser, Idaho. The suicide blamed a young soldier for her trouble, but she did not mention it in the three notes, left at the side of her body. She wanted the soldier to learn of her end through the newspapers, and for that reason sent the young lady to tell me about the true circumstances.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

| | - - - Says While censoring books considered unhealthy for people, they might include cook books. ♦ * * About seven times out of ten a man with his hands in his pockets is about broke. • * * Os course there are exceptions, but wives 'usually have more relatives than husbands. * • • After forty years’ eating practice some men still never know when they have had enough. • • • Nearest approach to perpetual motion is a real fat man wishing this summer was next winter. • * * Best acting in the movies is done by the man who smiles as you sit on h’s straw lid. * * • Among the things looking better going than coming are boils and unexpected company. * • * While tripping the light fantastic a Boston girl tripped Her partner also and broke his leg. • * * A Cleveland ball player’s hands are a foot long, so his son never makes him very mad. * • • Don’t worry about the heat too much. When fall comes we will all see better days. Finding a four-leaf clover is not considered good luck if you fail to see the bee on It. • * * Best place to go for a vacation is out where they use calendars for time tables. What Editors Are Saying Laws (Alexandria Tlmes-Tribune) We ought all help enforce the laws. We could stop liquor law violations. we could put an end to sudden deaths from automobile speeding, we could put the closed season oh wanton murders, we could see the finish of the yegg and safe blower, we could do all the this If wo but helped to enforce the laws instead of negatively accepting them and passively watching them being violated from day to day.

Crossings (Huntington Press) Another fatal accident has occured at Whip-Poor-Will crossing east of Huntington. How many deaths will be required to pay for the customary grade crossing safeguards there? Several deaths and a number of serious Injuries have been caused at this crossing when automobiles or other vehicles have been hit by lnterurban cars or railroad trains. ‘Vocational’ (Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel Down at Anderson the other day several men were found making white mule In the basement of a schoolhouse, which leads one of our exchanges to exclaim that this Is carlylng vocational education a little too far. Sanitation (Seymour Tribune) The breakdown In the present system for the removal of garbage In Seymour has reached the point where It cannot longer be Ignored by tbe city council. There are garbage containers In all section of the city that have been neglected for weeks. With the approach of the melon season garbage will accumulate more rapidly than at present and unless It is hauled away regularly It will result In odors even more noxious and offensive. This condition strikes at the sanitation of the city and the health of the people. Science Dr. L. E. Houghjey of Concordia. Kas., recently announced that interesting experiments were being made by Prof. Blair-Bell of the University of Liverpool, Eng., that might result In a cancer cure. The agent reported as a possible cure, colloidal lead. This is mejallic lead In which the particles of lead are so small and so peculiarly arranged with reference to one another that they form a jelly-like substance. There has been no later Information indicating further success with these experiments. Therefore, there Is still no announced cure for cancer. Scientists and doctors agree, however, that one will be found. Cancer, if discovered soon enough, is now curable with X-rays, radium and surgery. The reason it is so deadly is that it is seldom discovered in time. Large sums are now being donated by philanthropists for experiments along this line, thereby removing the chief handicap that generally confronts scientific research.

“The young lady left. I called the marshal at Weiser who informed me there was no Agnes hotel there, but he searched the little hotel in vain. I tried several other nearby towns without better success. "Suddenly it dawned upon me to look in the Boise directory and sure enough there was an obscure rooming house named the Agnes. Without another second’s delay I dashed to the police station, took two policemen to the Agnes and we broke into room 24. “We were too late. My visitor lav still upon the bed, three notes at her side. “She had simply foretold her own suicide!” ' 4

COOPERATIVE BODIES GROW IN ENGLAND Societies Started 90 Years Ago and Thrive Despite Opposition. By MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Writer LONDON, July 25. —Nearly ninety years ago, twenty-eight hardworking, poorly paid weavers in the Lancashire town of Rochdale saw a vision, called it cooperation, put their pennies together and started a little shop at which they themselves should be the chief customers. Out of that little acorn has grown the mighty oak of the English cooperative movement with 1,195 shops run by 1,195 retail cooperative societies whose total membership is 3,494,335, representing perhaps, with their families, more than one-fifth the purchasing power of the English people. Furthermore, these retail societies are shareholders in the immerise Cboperative Wholesale Society whose net sales last year were more than 300 million dollars, which has financial resources amounting to more than 170 million dollars, its own factories all over England and estates abroad. No Legal ITo! action On Dec. 21, 1844, the Rochdale pioneers opened their little shop. The law offered them no protection. They had no credit. The landlord demanded fSO rent per annum and wanted it in advance. Painfully the weavers gathered together a capital of' $l4O, spending half the money on fixtures and the rest on flour, butter, sugar and oat meal. By the end of the year their membership had increased to eighty and the shop had sales amounting to $l5O per week. How’ meager were their resources is shown by their first books, which state that the two men who attended to their banking business should get 10 cents each for their services every weekThe Rochdale pioneers believed it possible to run a shop taking the profit element out of it. The ordinary shop was run for profit only. Theirs should be run for service. So successful has this idea been since they started that over a billion and quarter dollars have been turned back to the customer# The cooperative movement had no bed of roses. The way was not smoothed for it. Government gave It no subsidy, support or encouragement. Capita! and the banks were against it. Parliament was and in some instances still Is hostile to its demands. Big business still makes Its opposition felt. Banks Still Dislike ’Em The banks didn’t like the cooperatives because ~ the latter sell shares to their member customers and pay a fixed Interest on these. In this way money pours into the cooperative societies Which the banks would get” otherwise. Even today, thanks tAthe machinations of the banks, no cooperative society may sell more than SI,OOO worth of shares to any one person. Other things the co-operative societies had to fight for and finally got from Parliament after long battles were: The right to deal with the public instead of being confined to their own members. The right to sue and he sued in own name Instead of by trustees. The right of one society to hold shares in another, thus paving the way to the creation of the Cooperative Wholesale Society. Even today there are insidious attacks upon the whole cooperative system. The little scheme has so far been hold up, largely due to the activities of the Labor Party representatives In Parliament.

Family Fun It Never Fails An old lady was oh a visit to her married daughter. One day there was company, and ljttle Theodore, the hope of the house, was doing his bdst to amuse his mother’s visitors. Presently he left the room, to return soon afterward with a zinc bucket. This he planted right in front of his grandma. "Grandma,’’ said little Theodore, "will you kick it?” “Bless the child,” said the surprised old lady, "why do yoil wish me to do that, darling?” "Because I heard pa say we should be awfully rich when you kicked the bucket!” —Brisbane Mail. Road This to Daughter “Physical culture }s awfully interesting!” cried the eager girl who had Just come back front boarding school for a vacation. "Look, papa! To develop the arms I grasp this rod in this way and then move it slowly from right to left. Do you see?” "Wonderful!” replied the father in admiration. “What extraordina-y things teachers have discovered! If yqu h ’ a bundle of straw at the end of the rod you’d be sweeping.”— Youth' Companion. One on the Wife “Isn't this wireless wonderful? You can now talk thousands of miles.” "That’s nothing! I took rpy wife to California and she talked all the way from New York to Los Angeles!” —Film Fun. Mother’s Statecraft “So you persuaded your husband to join a glee club?” "Yes,” answered Mrs. Bliggins. "When he starts to sing in the house now I can advise him not to tire his voice.” —Boston Transcript. A Use for Baby Brot.ier "Willie!” "Yes, mamma.” "What in the world are you pinching baby for? Let him alone.” “Oh, I ain’t doin’ nothin’! We’re only playing autos, and he’s the horn!”—Boston Post. Father Reminds Mother WJiat have you ever done to save Others from suffering and misery? I ro#yritd you, didn’t I? —Chicago Nows.

QUESTIONS. Ask —The Times ANSWERS You can yet an answer to any question of fact or information by writing to the Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau.' 1322 N Y. Avenue. Washington. D. Q.. Inclosing 2 cents in stamps. Medical, legal, love and marriage advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be undertaken, or papers, speeches, etc., be prepared. Unsigned letters cannot be answered, but ail letters are confidential, and receive personal replies.—Editor. What is “hard-tack,” and is it still used? Is it wholesome? The hard bread used during the Civil war vVas known as "hard-tack,” and Is also used In modern war-time rations. At the time of the Civil war no extensive study was made In connection with the food of the soldiers, and hard-tack aiid bacon or salt pork were the principal articles of food. In modem times the United States War Department has conducted extensive studies in conection with the rations supplied the soldiers, and they have put up In hermetically staled packages food for two meals' which are planned with the object of supplying all the needs of the fighting man so far as food is concerned. The object of hard bread is to supply the bread ration in such form that it will not become moldy or unfit for food. It is made of flour and water, and seasoned with salt, and baked In either little square or round biscuits. These are put in tin containers and sealed. Such bread Is known to have kept in good condition for seventeen or nineteen years and It Is estimated that It could be kept longer and still be fit for food. When did tile leap years come in the past thirty-four years? In 1892. 1896, 1904, 1916, 1920. There was no leap year In 1900 as leap years do not come at the end of the century unless the number can be divided by four. There will, for example, be a leap year Jn the year 2009Is there any reference to blood in connection with the institution of the Jewish feast of the Passover? Yes, see verse seven, chapter twelve, of Exodus. What is the best method of preventing horns from growing on cattle? As soon as the budding horns of the calf can be felt as small "buttons” they may be stopped by clipping off the hair oyer them and rubbing the spot with a moistened stick of caustjc potash which has been wrapped with paper to protect the hands from burning. The caustic must not be moistened enough so that ft will run, for It will remove the hair and 'cause unnecessary irritation. A spot about the size of a dime directly over the "button” should be made raw by rubbing with the caustic stick. Calves rsust. be protected from rain to keep the caustic from running over the face.

Who is the author of: "Ever insurgent let me be, Make me more darling than devout; From sleek contentment keep me free. And fill me with a buoyant doubt.” Louis Untermeyer. The title of the poem of which this is a part is "Prayer.” When do you use "farther” and when "further?” "Farther” Is used to denote distance, for example, "He went farther than I did.’! “Further” denotes something additional, for example, “Jones said nothing further.” What was the "Thermopylae of America?” The Alamo, a Franciscan mission later used as a. fort, where, in 1836 Col. David Crockett, Col. James Bowie and Col. W. B. Travis held out against the Mexicans led by General' Santa Anna uptll only five of the Texans remained alive; these five were killed In cold blood by order of Santa Anna after the capture of the fort. What was Cleopatra's nationality? Egyptian or Macedonian descent. What is meant by the indeterminate neuter? In cases where animals and children are referred to by neuter pronounce, this Is called the "indeterminate neuter.” We refer to an animal or child as if it had no „ sex. For example, "Tb bgby crlel for mother.”

Such Polite Fellows, They Are

The Idealist By FERTON BRALEY In factory and* grimy shop, Where 6hafting whirls and hammers J drop,He hears —not strident dissonance — But rhythm of the true romance. The thunder of the rolling mill, The shriek of shears and plane and drill Make mighty music to his ears, A march- song of humanity That throbs with strange deep harmony, That lifts the soul and makes the blood A tingling and torrential flood. He knows that in this noise and murk Os dull machinery at work, There is a purpose and a plan Which shall make fair the world for man. Out of the clamor and the grime He knows there shall arise in time Ships to go forth on high emprise And towers soaring to the skies. The Realist can only sense The tumult and the toil immense, But the HeaHst has seen The dream that springs from the machine. (Copyright, 1923, NEA Service, Inc.) Consolation a Two-fifths of our country’s imports in the last twelve months consisted of raw materials to be used in manufacturiftg. American labor gets the job of working this stuff up into finished produces, a lot of which are exported. With imports exceeding exports, it’s consoling to learn that 40 per cent of the "flood of foreign goods” is raw material instead of finished products of foreign labor imported In competition with American .labor.

THE GROWTH OF The- Broom Industry DURING THE LAST FIFTY FLETCHER-AMERICAN YEARS The last half century has marked a very stqady growth in the manufacture of brushes and brooms in the city of In/dianapolis. In 1870 the value of the finished product was about $23,983. Last year the retail value of the brushes and brooms manufactured amounted to more than one million dollars. In 1870 there were ten firms engaged in this business, while last year a big majority of the total was fiffgwHa produced by two manufacturers. The broom industry has repeatedly accepted the sound counsel of the Fletcher American National bank and profited because of the close con- clean tact this organization has had with strong all Indianapolis industry since 1839. Progressive Industry has banked at the Fletcher American National for more than half a century Fletcher American National Bank Capital and Surplus $3,300,0Q0

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1923

Editor’s Mail The editor is willing to print rtev of Times readers on interesting subjects. Make your comment brief. Sign your name a3 an evidence of good faith. It will not he printed if you object. *

Rules To the Editor of The Times: At a time when the railroads are installing automatic control for niachines running on a definite Hne Os rails and already in charge of experienced men and controlled by signals, the city powers and automobile interests continue to attempt to handle auto traffic driven by untrained and selfish persons, by rules—and more rules. Ye Gods! Are we children? OBSERVER. • * * Slogans To the Editor of the Tihe§: Here are some safety slogans it might be well to reprint. They w r ere carried in New York’s Safety Week parade: "Jay-walking ic a short-cut to the hospital. ’* "An elephant lives a hundred years, but he’s careful all the time.” "The A B C of safety is—always be careful.” “A cat can risk eight lives — a boy can't risk one.’ "A rash minute —a human wreck.” "Better be alert than a cripple." “A moment of caution or a month of pain.” "Don'; dash in front of a trolley— It ipay aide an auto.” “A word to the wise—use your eyes.” x "More headwork at crossings—less surgical work at hospitals." A SUBSCRIBER.