Indianapolis Times, Volume 36, Number 220, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 January 1925 — Page 4

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The Indianapolis Times ROT W. HOWARD, President. FELIX F. BRUNER, Editor. WM. A. MAYBORN, Bus. Mgr. Member of the Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance • • * Client of the United Press/and the NBA Service * • * Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. , • Published dally except Sunday by Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W. Maryland St., Indianapolis • • • Subscription Rates: Indianapolis—Ten Cents a Week. Elsewhere —Twelve Cents a Week. • * * PHONE—MA in 3500.

This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.—l Cor. 15:53. Dead I God, how much there is in that little word.—Byron. THE TEAPOT DOME RECORD mT might be well to record here the names of those United States Senators who went down the line for the Teapot Dome affair, who opposed Senator T. J. Walsh at every step in his efforts to get at the' truth regarding the Fall-Doheny deal. They fought Walsh to the last. A vote was taken in the Senate the other day op the question of accepting Walsh’s report. Senator S. D. Spencer of Missouri, chairman of the investigating committee, who overlooked no opportunity to hinder Walsh’s work, tried to prevent acceptance of Walsh’s report. Spencer lined up thirty Republican regulars’ votes against the report. Their names are: Republicans—Bingham, Bursum, Butler, Cameron, Capper, Couzens, Cummins, Curtis, Ernst, Fernald, Fess, Gooding, Hale, Jones of Washington, Keyes, McCormick, McKinley, McLean, Means, Metcalf, Oddie, Pepper, Phipps, Smoot, Spencer, Sterling, Wadsworth, Warren, Watson, Willis. Concluding, it might be added, that not in'recent history, at least, has a statesman ferretted out a wrong, single handed, against constant opposition, with the dignity, thoroughness and persistence that featured the work of Thomas J. Walsh, Senator from Montana. His was the service of a genuine public servant. LET THE STATES DO IT ENATOR Capper of Kansas says that because the time is _ so short he has little hope that his so-called Federal bread bill will be acted on at this session of Congress. It is to be hoped that the Senator is a better prophet than he is statesman, if his Federal bread bill is a test of his statesmanship merits. The Capper bread bill would regulate the weight of loaves of bread in interstate commerce. That is what seems to be its purpose. Its real purpose, however, is to add one more to the already far too many things which the Federal Government is doing that the States should do for themselves. *%■ _ Every State may regulate the weight of loaves of bread to suit itself. Many of the States have. If the people in the States which have not regulated the weight of bread loaves do not want to, that is their business. The ideal of Senator Capper and other statesmen and near statesmen who want the Federal Government to regulate every detail of the lives of the one hundred and twenty million Americans—what they shall eat, what they shall and shall not drink, etc., etc., etc.—-probably is a bread constitutional amendment, providing for a Federal commisison to regulate the weight and price and quality of bread and to say how much or how little each man, woman and child must or must not eat. We are now drinking or abstaining federally; if a lot of well meaning but misguided busybodies have their way, we roon shall be “educated” federally and Capper proposes that we eat federally. There are some things that ought to be done, that edn not be done unless done federally. The regulation and prohibition of child labor is one of them. But in our view the less butting in the Federal Government does in those things which the States can do as well or better for themselves, the better. Bread and education seem to come within this category.

PARDON OR RETRIAL?

By HERBERT QUICK 11 ■ AST month a desperado was } killed while resisting 'arrest 1 lln Mobile. He left a notebook In which he solemnly asserted that he killed Thomas Griffin In Dee Moines a year or more ago and that two young men now serving S fe sentences In lowa are "innocent as babes.” Whether or not this statement is true is not the question which I wish to raise. Rather frequently circumstances come to light which show that men In prison under conviction for crime are innocent. Let us suppose for the sake of argument that this is such a case. The convicts have on the books of the State a solemn record that they are murderers. Unless the law of lowa has been changed since I parcticed :aw there, there Is no way to change this record. That is the case In most States. Once convicted and the sentence affirmed on appeal, if here is one, the record stands. Baying to all the world forever, "These men are murderers." And the remedy? Os course, the State will not allow men clearly innocent to remain in prison. The Governor will pardon them. And by being forced to call It "pardon,” he Is obliged to repeat that they were guilty. The only person to pe pardoned is one who has offended. Tom Sims Says Being afraid to live is often called prudence. While an operation is painful It may improve your health. The same is true of cutting out a bad habit. Perhaps others don’t think as you think because they think more. A train of thought travels fastest -. hen It Is running express instead of local, but it is more likely to have a wreck. Being sure you are right before polr.g ahead would be better advice If you could ever be sure of lhln*The past is gone. And we would ave used up no more time in doing s we should than we have In doing w shouldn't. , Human nature Is what makes life ••rth livijig. ,ht, 1925, NEA Service, Inc.)

But In such cases, the State has been misled and has Injured most deeply the convict. He should be remunerated for his ilnmayui jje should be able to say, his children and family should be able to say, “Look at the record! This man did not Injure the State by a crime. The State injured him. He was the victim, not society. The record stands thus.” Therefore, in all such cases the Governor or the pardon board ought to be free of the duty of saying that the men convicted are guilty or innocent. The thing presents difficulties to the legal mind, but there surely is a way in which it may be done and the rights of society still protected against such a thing as guilty men being freed by a confession In a notebook on the person of a dead desperado. The new trial should be freed of all technicalities, should be an act of conscience on th& part of the State, but it Bhould give those two lowa boys another chance, no matter what sort of men they are. Atta Girl By HAL COCHRAN Say, little tot, you’re a real inspiration. The smile ’that you’ve got simply seems a sensation. You take all the bitter from out of our cup ’cause your cheerfulness seems to just brighten things up. The world, after all, is a sad enough place, so the world ought to just take a peek at your face. The message It gives us should travel along and prove very plain that the frown stuff Is wrong. How easy you find it to spread forth in smile and giggle and laugh in the finest of style. No wrinkle of crossness appears on your brow. You smile, and we thank you for shownlg us how. I wonder, wee lady, If you’ll take a tip that is just meant to help as you travel life’s trip. Don’t ever forget, in the after-a-while, that it always will pay you to know how to smile. It’s sometimes too easy, as people grow up, to feel that there isn’t enough in their cup. That thought you may have, but 'twill easy erase, if you’ll keep up the h&jblt of cheer on your face!

FARM BLOC CEASES TO FUNCTION IN U. S. CONGRESS

Group Representing Agriculture No Longer Active in Washington. Times Washington Bureau, 1322 Mew York Avenue. J ASHINGTON, Jan. 24.—A VU lovely little four-letter word L TT meaning group, has Just about disappeared from the American language. In Its best known hyphenated form, farm-bloc, it is seldom seen or heard any more. This appears to be because the farm bloc Itself has lapsed into complete quietude. The farm bloc, as such, hasn’t functioned for perhaps a year. Three years ago It was bom and for two years it flourished, striking varying degrees of terror In the hearts of the Senate Old Guard, causing some legislation to be passed and some to be killed, and getting Itself admonished from time to time by editorial advisors of Congress. At the top of its strength It Included twenty-eight Senators. One became a member by the simple process of announcing his membership or by attending ore of the occasional meetings. It was a voluntary association without Initiation fees or dues, high signs of grip, frat button or colors. It didn’t even have a yell. The only officer was —or is—Senator Capper, who became the chairman when he gave the bloc Its first Kansas ham dinner. Group Not Radical The farm block never was a radical group—despite the alarms so frequently expressed concerning it. It was not even obstreperous in legislative matters. It was composed almost equally of Republicans and Democrats and could only be brought into action on questions where there was little or no division of opinion among the farmers of the country as a whole. When practically all the farmers’ organizations lined up together as they did In the case of the packer control act, the act to ease the formation of cooperatives and a few other issues of that character, the farm bloc could and did vote together. The informal organization aided In pressing the legislation through, helping to otbaln agreements to vote and avoiding delays.

Farmers disagree During the past year there has not been a great deal of unanimity with regarej to agricultural legislation, even among farmers’ organizations, and therefore nothing on which the members of the-bloc could get together. Capper himself In the past year has been a pretty regular majority organization man. His Kansas colleague, Curtis —who never was a member of the bloc, by the way—is now majority leader and it is possible Capper sees nothing to gain by maintaining a rival, even though Informal, organization within the Senate. -w On the other hand, ft Is fairly certain that if a solution of the farmers’ troubles should simultaneously appear to all the conflicting farming Interests, the farm bloc would immediately reappear for the purpose of expediting any legislation that was wanted.

Income Tax It should be noted that the revenue act of 1924 provides specifically that the status of a taxpayer relative to the amount of his personal exemptions shall be determined by apportionment in accordance with the number of months the taxpayer was single, married, or the head of a family. Under the preceding act the amount of the exemption to which a taxpayer was entitled was determined by his Btatus as a single person, married person or the head of a family on the last day of the taxable year. A taxpayer, who was married on .June 90, 4924, Is entitled to an exemption of $1,750. For the first six /months of the taxable year he is classed as a single person, entitling him to an exemption of SSO0 —onehalf of the SI,OOO exemption allowed a dingle person who Is single for the complete taxable year—and for the last six months he is classed as a marriad person, entitling him to an exemption of $1,250, one-half of the exemption allowed a married person living with wife or husband for the fall taxable year. If on June 30 he beqame a widower, he is classed as a rriarried person for the first half of the year and as a single person for the latter half. In such computations a fractional part of a month is disregarded, unless It amoflnts to more than half a month, In which case it is considered a full month. These figures are based on the assumption that the return is made on the calendar year basis, as most are. If on June 30, 1924, a taxpayer ceased being the head of a family—the support in one household of a relative or relatives being discontinued—he is granted the same exemption as in the case of a taxpayer mairied on June 30, a total of $1,750. With regard to the S4OO credit for a dependent, however, It is provided that the taxpayer’s status on f the last day of the taxable year (Dec. 31, If the return Is made on the calendar year basis) shall determine his right to such credit. If on that day he was the chief support of & dependent who is under 18 years of age, or is incapable of self-support because mentally or physically defective, he Is entitled to the S4OO credit. If during the year bis support of such dependent ceased, the credit la not allowed. A Spectacle The outstanding feature of the year in Hawaii National Park was .the spectacular eruption of Klla,uea Volcano In May. For several months the crater had been only a smoking pit drained of lava when suddenly the volcano gave vent to a series of terrific explosions, hurling rock and ashes for miles into the air. Red-hot bowlders weighing many tons were hurled over a mile away. All this was accompanied by an amazing tary of the Interior.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

RIGHT HERE IN INDIANA By GAYLORD NELSON

Precaution Hthe House, after a private investigation, demanded the summary removal of the House engrossing clerk Thursday—which was done. • No charges were made. The move was simply precautionary. Investigation dis c 1 o sed — that the dismissed clerk had been arrested *s eve ra 1 times although never convicted—on charges of vag rancy, blind tiger, and gun-toting. Despite this record, however, he was appointed to the place in the House organization when the “plunder commitNELSON tee’* dispensed its patronage. Then his personal character and fitness weren’t Investigated. Was he right politically and geographically? That was the only question entering into the appointment. An engrossing clerk may seem a minor legislative employe, but no one through whose hands pass laws in the process of manufacture is negligible. The alteration of a word In a bill —by accident or resign—might nullify a law or change Its intent. One misplaced comma-in a tariff act cost the Federal Government over a million dollars. Therefore, like Caesar's wife, an engrossing clerk should be above suspicion. The speaker is to be commended for his vigorous precautionary act. It would be fine if dispensers of patronage would likewise exercise precautions as well as politics.

Sovereignty mHE Ohio public utilities commission informed an Indianapolis motor bus operator that 1t would arrest his bus drivers crossing the line Into that State without Ohio bug licenses. The action affronts the dignity of Indiana. However, war hasn’t been declared, Ohio and Indiana militia continue to eat their meals In peacetime placidity. Frobably the horrors of bloodshed will be averted, and the dispute adjusted by mail and telephone. Nothing more than retaliation will be proposed. If Indiana busses are molested on Ohio soil reciprocal action will be taken against Ohio busses invading Hoosier territory. The controversy reveals what an artificial barrier a State line Is v© the natural flow of trade and commerce. No State lives In a hermetically sealed compartment. Its action may affect the business and welfare of its neighbors. The doctrine of States’ rights and State sovereignty colored the political history of the Nation for a long time. The phrases remain, but the substance long since crumbled to dust. The old doctrine did not die at Gettysburg, as frequently said. The locomotive that first puffed across a State line killed it. It’s now too dead to resurrect for hampering interstate motor traffic.

Ask The Times You can set an answer to any question of fact or information by writing: to The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau. 1322 New York Ave., Washington. D. C.. inclosing 2 cents in stamps for reply. Medical, legal ana marital advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be undertaken. All other questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential—Editor. Name some of the largest oil burning vessels? Leviathan, Olympic, Acquitanla, Berengaria and Majeetic. Where should one write to find out about the Civil Service examination for rural mall carrier and what is the entrance salary? Write to the Secretary of your Civil Service District or to the Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C. The entrance salary is $1,400 per year. % How may hens be cured of the egg-eating habit? There are various methods. Two good ones are as follows: (A) See that the nests are properly supplied with straw or other nesting material and have them darkened so that If an egg Is accidentally broken the fowls will not be likely to discover it. Supply plenty of lime in the form of oyster shells, bone or similar substance. Remove any one of the fowls that you discover has the habit. (B) For ten hens take about two large slices of bread and spread about one-quarter Inch thick with good lard; break In pieces one inch square and feed to the chickens once a, day for three days and keep plenty of meat scraps In front of them at all times. Inrease tha number of slices of bread according to the number of hens. Give larger doses In bad cases. Can you give me a clear definition of a “vltamlne”? A vltamlne Is a substance that occurs In various food products, especially In the outer coat of cereals which apparently Is an essential element In rendering foods healthful. Os what nationality Is Adolphe Menjou, the movie actor, was he educated in this country and what Is his address? He was born in Pau, France, Feb. 18, 1891, of a French father and an Irish mother. He was educated at Culver Military Academy and Cornell University. Hls home address is 1911 Carmen Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. Is there any way to prevent apples from bursting during baking? i ft Prick the skin a little before

Messages Tjl . F. DUNN, inventor, 824 N. Jpj East St., has constructed a —-I device that he believes receives signals not of earthly origin. He is convinced they come from another planet or the spirit world. His contrivance includes a telegraph sounder. At times the sounder chatters mysteriously. These sounds he-interprets as definite dot-and-dash code signals. If he has succeeded In. establishing communication with Mars, Jupiter, \yilliam the Conqueror, or Cleopatra, it Is a noteworthy achievement. However, a skeptical world will have to be shown. The possibility that other planets are inhabited by beings, with whom we may some day exchange messages, fascinates human imaginations.' j Man is a supreme egotist. He assumes, as a matter of course, that If intelligent beings inhabit other planets communicating with them depends only on perfecting a suitable device. Perhaps other planets are Inhabited, but it is doubtful, even If direct mail service or the Bell Telephone was extended to them, that communication would be possible. The inhabitants might be of such a different order of Intelligence that man could have no mental contact with them. An exchange of ideas with a Martian, though man should meet him face to face, would probably be as difficult as conversation with an angleworm.

Constitution S* - "" - "” ENATOR CANN of Frankfort, during a debate in the Sen- " at Chamber, decried the lack of reverence for the Federal constitution. He would fine and imprison any person who criticises or speaks lightly of the document. His attitude Is not uncommon. Frequently some speaker shudders audibly because the constitution isn’t worshiped blindly by everybody. Perhaps there is too much loose criticism of our governmental charter. The ribald jests about one wellknown amendment are certainly Worn somewhat threadbare. However, the instrument was not a divine revelation handed down on Mount Sinai. It was forged in a highly political atmosphere by plain men. The framers didn’t consider the instrument possessed of a sacred character. Even such a profound student of government ns Jefferson thought it might well be rewritten* every nineteen years. The constitution succeeded not because of its inherent perfection, but because of the capacity of the people for self-government. The same constitution, practically unchanged, In Latin-Amerlcan republics produced a century of internal discords, civil wars and dictatorships. Making an Idol of the constitution and compelling reverence for it would be beneficial neither to the doument nor popular government. Criticism will do both good—if the crtlcism Is intelligent.

In New York BY JAMES W. DEAN NEW ORK, Jan. 24.—Bootleg Is in the heart and core of New York. Bootleg, not only of liquor, but of many of the commodities and luxuries of life. Bootleg of human life Itself. Bootleg is In the very spirit of New York. No new laws will stop It. Nor will the repeal of any present laws stop It. It Is the great indoor and outdoor sport here, known to exist by officials of the law and by law-respecting citizens and more or less winked at because of the futility of trying to stop It. set In any block of this vast city liquor, some good, most of It bad, can be purchased. Rum sellers make the rounds of offices. Hooch can be bought at furniture stores, restaurants, delicatessens, barber shops, butcher shops, drug stores, . shoe shine parlors, hotels, hardware storse, gasoline stations and In private homes. School children of Jamaica, arrested for stealing SIOO worth of whisky, confessed they had been peddling liquor for two months. • * Cigars are bootlegged. Men, who profess to be Spanish go from office to office to sell genuine "Havana” cigars at very low prices, the intimation being that they have sneaked them into the country without paying duty. That, as a rule, is not so. The cigars, like as not, have been made on the East Side. The Spaniards may be anything but a Spaniard. • * e Panama hats are bootlegged in much the same fashion, the peddlers professing to have smuggled their wares Into the United States. • * • Walk along Sixth Ave. In the Thirties and Forties of an evening. A man will slink out of a hallway, furtively glance about and then whisper, "Say, boss, if you’ve got a second I’ve got a great bargain for you.” Stop, and he will tear a hole in a bundle and show you a few inches of a fur piece and offer it to you for $25, or whatever you will pay. He implies that he is an express wagon driver and has stolen the fur because he needs money for the wife and kids. Buy the fur and when you get home you’ll find that somebody has lost a cat or tw *. ■

YOUR EYES AND YOUR WORK

Times Washington Bureau. 15 22 Mew York Avenue. IFyJI ASHINGTON, Jan. 24.—1f [yyl your work requires you to i I use your eyes a great deal, don’t worry about It. Chances are that the more you use your eyes, the better your sight will be. The United States public health service discovered this fact In testing the eyes of twelve thousand school children to find out about defective vision, where it appears, when and why.

‘Fifty Famous Farmers’

THIS Is the name of a book. Does It startle you? Had It U" ever occurred to you that anyone is entitled to the appellation of "famous” through farming? If it did surprise you, you ought to read it, for it shows a weak spot in your intelligence. This book Is intended for readers like you and for schools and colleges. It Is by Lester M. Ivins, of the faculty of Kent College, Kent, Ohio, and A. E. Winnhip who has been a foremost figure In educational affairs In this country since 1886 as the editor of the Journal of Education of Boston and in many other respects. These authors ought to be able to make a proper selection of the fifty men who may be called "famous” In agriculture. They have selected one for a place in the list who disclaims any right to be Included. Aside from that error, the book is one which has great merits. It ought to be widely read. It fills a real need. At a time when the condition of agriculture Is confessedly our greatest problem, a book which tells how and why fame may be acquired through agriculture will enlighten many people on a subject which Is Inexcusably dark to them. It may lift the word “farmer” to a level something as high as called for by justice in the minds of reflective people who are oblivious of the claims of farming to consideration among the great fields of human endeavor. This book may, at a time when farmers and their children are depressed in spirit by their economic woes and the avalanche of urban influence which has covered the entire field of thought and the arts, help to restore courage and Stimulate pride. Such stimulus Is among the great spiritual needs of the time. The principle of selection adopted by the authors Is interesting. One might suppose that Washington would have been In the list of fifty; but he is not, though he was not Telling It to Congress Court Business Rush At this time there are more cases pending against the Government in the courts than ever before In its history, and these cases involve millions of dollars; the ablest counsel in the nation are employed to prosecute the cases against the Government, and It Is Important that the Government be represented by counsel of recognized standing and ability.—Rep. Oliver (D.) Alabama. • * • Spreading the Guard Thin To guard a border of four or five thousand miles Is very difficult when such great numbers are trying to enter as immigrants and so many liquor and narcotic peddlers are trying to eneak In.—Rep. Box (D.) Texas. • • • * The Dry Navy Invaluable assistance to the customs has been rendered by the Coast Guard In the enforcement of the laws of the United States in the matter of the attempted smuggling of illicit merchandise into the country along the coasts,—-Report of the

‘Git fer Home, Bruno!’

The children tested were between the ages of 6 and 16. At the age of 6, the tests showed, only 68.8 per cent of the children had normal or better than normal eyesight. From that age on, as the children learned to read, as they discovered story books and as their school work was more and more from books, the percentage of normal eyesight Improved steadily. In the last two years the children tested were in high school and using their eyes more than ever before, for

only famous but illustrious and an excellent farmer. The book waits in point of time, however, until the time of Sir John Lewes and Sir Henry Gilbert, the real originators of the agricultural experiment station. It includes individuals only whose activities have been directed in some large way toward the betterment of agricultural conditions. This selective principle accounts for the omission of many significant names. While not a perfect list, It Is in the main an excellent one. I hope it will have a wide reading and a generous adoption in our educational system.

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SATURDAY, JAN. 24,1925

night study as well as day work. Yet lass defective sight was found In this group than In any other. Boys, it wos found, have better eyes on the whole than girls. At the age of six, there were more girls who could see perfeotly than boys, but in the high school years 70.8 per cent of the boys had normal vision as against only 60.7 per cent of the girls. Twenty-seven per cent of the children tested were found to have moderately defective -vision. These minor defects, in many of the oases, disappeared as the children grew older. But where a child had downright poor vision in his early years, this grew more marked as he became older. Probably because of the fact that defective eyesight does not mar a child’s face as defective teeth, for instance, do, or perhaps because glasses are hated so by children who like to play actively, there Is a dangerous inertia about correcting such defects, the tests showed. Nearly 90 per cent of the children with eyesight under normal were without g’asses. Boys in pa.-tlcular were shunning the corrective measures. In contrast with the defective children, IS per cent of all ages had eyesight 20 per cent above normal.