Indianapolis Times, Volume 37, Number 7, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 May 1925 — Page 4

4

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

No law shall be passed restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print, freely, on any subject whatever.—Constitution of Indiana. FUNDAMENTALS “fpl ROSPERITY” translated into millions of Ford automobiles, and billions I*l of feet of censored movie film! A noisy and continuous “patriotic” agitation, in a land where the spirit and the letter of the Constitution are constantly violated by courts and State legislatures in respect to freedom of speech, thought and publication; and where an “economy pro grain” at the expense of the American Navy and the supporting national Merchant Marine is welcomed on every side! A “pious” community of 110,000,000 “hundred percenters” raising the roof from California to Maine over the teaching of the theories of Charles Darwin in State universities; the “menace to our civilization” of Catholics, Jews and col ored races; and whether there oughtn’t to be new laws to save us from the danger of red revolution! A “reformed,” and still reforming, nation where social drinking as indulged in by Washington, Jefferson, Grant, Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt is already a crime, and where great societies discuss seriously the abolition by law of tobacco and any form of Sunday amusement! Great picture, this, isn’t it ? And a pretty good one of present day America, too, according to any recent week’s collection of news dispatches. * * * "pnNCE a wise old lawyer, whose opponent was much given to perfervid oraIjU tory, completed his summing up of a case something like this. He described the valley of the Nile. He spoke of the shimmering sands of the desert, the opaline green of the oases. In speech he journeyed to the mountain .plain above the great falls of the Nianza. “There, gentlemen of the jury,” he -cried, “floats the golden winged Bird of Paradise upon the balmy breeze, there bounds the timid zebra along the trackless turf,' kicking his unshod heels in the •air and snorting in the glory of that virgin pasture. But,” he said, “but, gentlemen of the jury, what has that got to do with this case? Not ad thing!” What the old lawyer said about the zebra applies equally to most of the activities of most of the politicians, reformers, patrioteers and new law agencies -in this country today. After all, this is America. And, after all, it is about time for Americans, /thinking about and tinkering with government and social affairs, to get fiack to fundamentals. * # * rjjyj HAT are American fundamentals? |WJ To begin with, what are they not? Certainly nobody who had anything to do with the discovery, settlement, of liberation of this country in the War of Independence and the War of 1812, had or expressed any ideas that could be included in the “picture” presented in the first part of this editorial. Nor yet Lincoln and his aids in the Civil War. Nor yet the statesmen who consolidated Texas and California with the : Union. Nor yet the creators of our later foreign policy, before, during, and after the war with Spain. Nor yet Woodrow Wilson and the leaders, political and military, in the war against the German Kaiser. The first idea, so far as the United States was concerned, was that of a free : society. A man could believe anything he pleased. He could think anything he pleased. He could say anything he pleased—subject to the laws of decency and libel. Finally, he could DO anything he pleased so long as what he did, did not constitute an actual overt act against his neighbor. It was this idea of freedom that made the long trek to America worthwhile to Englishmen and other Europeans who. came here to settle and build a I nation. *’ Government was created to fit that idea of the rights of a free people. The people were not to be regimented and drilled to fit some notion of all the fancy . things an all-wise and all-powerful government MIGHT do if given a free hand. Short of bloodshed and internecine strife, cities, counties, states were to have their own way in any matters they wanted to vote on. That was the doctrine of local autonomy and states’ rights. The second idea was that of self-protection. A Federal government was created. Its one big job was simply this —to keep the channels for foreign trade and commerce open, and to be ready to | protect, with an Army and a Navy, the whole Nation against any sort of foreign invasion or aggression against nationals. ,* * * SHESE are the fundamental facts about America. Every sort of activity or agitation that does not dovetail with them, however well meant, is a hindrance, not a help to the development of our civilization. Today this country is like a crab. It moves, but chiefly sideways. We will begin to go forward again only as we begin to get back to the fundamental ideas and ideals of our national existence, nr *

A Question: Is 'God's Stepchildren’ a Big Novel?

By Walter D. Hickman

r-T-j SENSATIONAL theme is to I |be found in "God’s Stepchildren” by Sarah G. Millln. In a nutshell here is the theme: , A white man marries a Hottentot native of Africa, Result equals social, moral and spiritual eonfus on, even ruin. This one act of mixing the races r forces upon socit ty a tremendous problem. How wh te and how black 3 are the many descendants and de- :! cendants of those decendants? | That’s the question—Just how much? S Such a theme is sensational because of its very nature. It is not ( pleasant. If "God’s Stepchildren,” \ published by Bonl & Liveright, if. New York, receives the universal <3 verdict of being a great and big novel, it will be because of the literary ability of Sarah Gertrude Millin, the author. Its very theme will keep many , from reading it, but she has handled the problem in the modern realistic way, not harsh but true. A fact is a fact, you know. The story covers much space of time because four generations of mixed blood are created in the 319 pages. To avoid any confusion, I will state now that the locale of the Story is Africa, The Theme The Rev. Andrew Flood, an Eng-lish-missionary, is sent to a far-away post In Africa, He goes tempera- ' mentally unfit for the job. The superstitions of the Hottentots, their ;! strange life and their life of flesh i soon get into tbe Rev. Mr. Flood. He 1 is unmarried. The fight of the flesh and the

■ Weekly Booh Review

spirit begins In earnest. He Is cut off from the civilized world with its white men and women. He is no match for the natives. He finds that he can carry religion only so far. He becomes confused and thinks that if he becomes one of them he would be nble to “save” them, these "brown children,” styled as God’s stepchildren by one of the natives. And that he does—marries a Hottentot native. He gives a woman of another color his name under Christian marriage. Then the trouble starts. He sinks into the very depths. The natives consider him less than themselves. He becomes an outcast. From this harsh introduction of certain fictional facts, Mrs. Millin paints picture after picture of human despair. The first child of this union was less black than its mother. This child grows up and marries. More children are the result, until the black nearly becomes white, but the mixed strain always crops out. Black Is black. Wnite is white. That’s the warning and the tragedy of this story. A Thought It is a tough job to handle such a problem. You have emotional compassion only for the characters. The reader may become tremendously interested in the way the author draws character after character molding them into one generation after another. There is no doubt that Mrs. Millin is a great thlnkft ’ and knows how a difficult theme. And yet I.£eel that it will hot prove universal reading ttpause of its theme. At

any event It should be for adults only. Here is an author who knows her South Africa with all of its emotional sexual Intensity. She has handled it in a masterful fashion. “God’s Stepchildren” is a serious book for the serious minded only. It Is great only from its technical Side and not Its theme.

New Books New books of fiction at the Indianapolis Public Library include: "Unity,” by J. D. Beresford; "Fighting Westward,’’ by Aline Harvard; "The Monster,” by Harrington Hext, pseud.; “Temescal,” by.H. H. Knlbbs; "In the Hedrt of Hoosierland,” by Louis Ludlow; "Moment of Beauty,” by Samuel Merr. '.n; “Inevitable Millionaires,” by E. P. Oppenheim; "Obedience," by Michael Sadlelr. New books of literature and essays include: "Best Continental Short Stories of 192324,” "Sitting on the World,” by H. C. Broun; "Points of Vlqw,” by S. P. Sherman. New books of economics, religion and sociology include: “Our Harbors and Inland Waterways,” by F. A. Collins; “Contributions of Science to Religion,” by Shailer Mathews and Others; "And Who Is My Neighbor’’ "National Conference on the Christian Way of Life, New York;” ‘Year of IYophesying," by H. G. Wells.

TJdLE JJNDIANAFOLIfc XJLMUiO

Tom Sims Says rullman conductor tells us If he judged by clothes all women passen-

gers would ride for half fare. Motor ing is very arresting. Straw hats are very slow about making a nian feel at home. When money talks too much it tells a lot of secrets. You can’t keep tit as a fiddle by just fiddling around.

|o

We would like to see a golfer who made a hole in one meet a woman who held a perfect bridge hand. An optimist is a Milwaukee girl who Is an actor’s sixth wife. Some June grads have two degrees. World will give them the third. Tito Sc hi pa. singer, had an operation to stop sneezing, so now how can he pronounce his name? Pig iron prices are off a dollar, maybe due to the supply of bride’s buscuits coming in June. A miser’s safe opened in lowa City, lowa, contained 1100,000. which some c.ie else will spend. Maybe this rum war was started by the bootleggers so they would have a chance to boost prices. Friends of a secretly married Boston phone girl got her number. (Copyright, 1925, NEA Service, Inc.)

RIGHT HERE

IN INDIANA

MAKING HOLD-UP UNPROFITABLE mUDGE JAMES A. COLLINS, in Criminal Court, recently sentenced three filling station bandits to ten to twentyone years each in the reformatory.

The crime for which they were convicted netted them $30.92 in cash. If they serve their minimum sentences before feeling the soothing, caressing touch of the parole law, they will be real dollar-a-year men. So that particular hold-up was decidedly unprofitable to the executors. They

Nelson

have scarcely made living wages out of It. There Is nothing soft and mushy about such punishment. But that’s the only way to suppress banditry. Hold-ups don’t operate for love of adventure, or as a revolt against society. They operate solely for profit. Consequently no new-fangled judicial weapons—no embattled array of special constables or horse thief detectives—are needed to cope with the problem of bandits and hold-ups. If every hold-up Is morally certain that upon conviction he will receive at least a ten-year sentence whether hls "Job” yielded him 10 cents or $lO, he. will think twice about pawning hls gun and going to work before he commits a depredation l on a peaceful citizen. Harsh sentences can suppress most of the hold-up business without an uprising of armed and outraged citizenry. They can make the business unprofitable. STATES AND RAILWAY PROJECTS IHAIRMAN JOHN W. McCARDLE, Indiana < public 1.... -J service commission, has protested against the Interstate commerce commission’s disapproval of the Owensboro, Rockport & Chicago Railway project. The proposed road, eighty-four miles long, would lie almost wholly in this State—extending from Owensboro, Ky., north to Elnora, in Davlesa County. Coal and stone territory, with at present transportation facilities, would be tapped. The enterprise would be largely financed by foreign capital. i Examiners of the Interstate commerce commission say public convenience and necessity do not require the line—and application for permission to construct it is denied. Twice the projet has been Investigated by the Indiana public service commission, and approved. Yet a Federal commission blocks it. The situation reveals how little power is left to the States to regulate transportation matters within their borders. No doubt the interstate commerce commission Is a useful body. It has abolished some of the more flagrant evils of of raijgoad promotion. Nevertheless three-fourths of the railroads in the United States would not have been built if the projects had been forced to comply with the commission’s critical interpretation of public convenience and necessity. Perhaps southwestern Indiana can stagger along without the proposed railway. However, the public service commission in Indianapolis is as competent to determine the matter as the interstate commerce commission in Washington. It is as much Interested in Indiana. 7 But States can't look croep-eyed if Federal bureaucrats

Ask The Times You can ret an answer to any queatlon ot tact or information by writing to The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau. 1322 New York Ave., WaahIntoo, D. C.. inclosing 2 cents In stau.ps for reply. Medical, legal and marital advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be undertaken All other question* will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential.—Editor. What relation does lower California have td Mexico? Mexico is divided into twenty-eight States, one Federal district and two territories. One of these states is Baja California (lower California.) It is the strip of land which lies between the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean. Its area is 58,338 square miles and the population 62,141. The capital is La Paz. What is the percentage of persons who graduate from high school and the eighth grade? According to statistics of the United States Bureau of Education, out of every 1,000 children who enter school, 634 reach the eighth grade. 342 enter high school and 139 graduate from high school. Who presides over the United States Senate at impeachment trials? At the impeachment of United States officers other than a President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, by virtue of his office as President of the Senate, presides. If the impeachment proceedings are against a President, the Chief Justice presides, as the Vice President might be an interested party, being the successor to the presidency in case the President is convicted. Is there anything that can be put on the skin that will cause it to tan instead of burning red when exposed to strong sunlight? Vinegar is said to be good in this instance. What is the meaning of the name “Maximilian”? It is derived from the Latin and means “great worker."

GAYLORD NELSON

TOO MUCH ATHLETICS? EHYSICIANS of the Ninth congressional district, meeting at Noblesvllle the other night, condemned present high school athletic programs. They favor strict medical supervision of all high school athletic activities. Probably foOtlmii, basketball and the like, have assumed too much importance and are over-organized. Victory over rival schools and not physical training Is too often the object. Many have criticised this tendency. Educators and physicians declare it la damaging to scholastic work and to students’ health. Even college coaches complain that too many promising athletes are being "burned up" by strenuous high school athletic activities. A1 lof which may be true—but what can be done about it? As long as athletics are glorified by college students and college games retain their popularity with the public, they will he equally important to high Bchool beys. The public is more interested In the fents of "Red" Grange than in those of Euclid. Naturally then the high school boys strive to emulate the former rather than the latter. Perhaps high school athletics should be toned down—but shouldn’t be suppressed until some sort of competitive activity is devised to take their place. Tatting, oratory and music memory contests aren’t satisfactory substitutes. High school boys thrive on contests of some sort. Athletic activities, despite occasional excesses, offer a better outlet for that competitive spirit than white mule and Jazz. DUTIES OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN mUDGE ROBERT C. BALTZELL of Federal Court, toid & Bible class Sunday that unless parents shoulder the responsibility of rearing their children the nation’s future will be endangered from Increased criminality. "Fathers and mothers who neglect giving their children proper training are largely responsible for bringln on our so-called crime waves,” he said. The lot of parents is a most unhappy one. They get It coming and going. If the careers of their offspring culminate on the gallows, the parents .vr*> blamed. If the offspring became city councilmen or otherwise famous, they are said to be self-mace—no credit is given to the parents. Since the first parents raised Cain and Abel with such disastrous consequences, rearing children has been a major human occupation. Still no method has been devised ;hat is uniformly successful. At present the tendency Is to shift the burden of training to to schools, welfare organizations, and juvenile courts, agencies operating on a wholesale scale. The method falls to produce gratifying results. Troop can be trained in masses. Dogs, performing seals and children require individual treatment. Proper attention to the individual child can only be given by the Individual parent. Hence raising children is, and must remain, essentially a home Industry—a hand industry. OTHER THEATERS Other theaters today offer*: "Declasse," at the Circle; "The Mad Whirl,” at the Colonial; "The Little French Girl" at the Ohio; "The Way of a Girl,” at the Apollo and "A Roaring Adventure,” at the Isis.

Y SENATOR// when it comes”! YOU WOULD rramm MOT AIR I I HURRY. AND CTS 4A 15 A ReFR ‘i E r?ifTi opoV 0 poV TALK 6/ I 1 ! fcWILI BE MERE ) AT/ ** V/HENTHECOWTRV, HOVJ " J COMING S BRggn * tuaT LOUD SPEAKERF again tonight j ~ r?ANOHA 'free* • ,MW sS-j , m fe-wss®.

Personal liberty rAM FmD*FI?EE SPEECH"T LIKE A MAN SAYING,/WELL |§ * SS a 1 BOVS, WNATU IT BE? SOUNDS (ft A 1 (GOOD BUT DOESN'T MEAN tmfJ d i {anything % the only | Jr mters madea -’ 3 j 1 mistake our ancestors I— - when THEY seU r MADE WMEN THEV SET our ( ifjg COHSTITUriON- TO A FREE COUNTRY \ 52r !^AAT E TMFY mVant U/Aq TV WAS THAT THEY DIDN'T GET 7 #5 VjggSSSjg) % j j

Deciding When Drama Is Not Drama; Variety Bills Contain Some Big Names

By Walter D. Hickman eAVE arrived at the thought that “The Silent Witness" is Just “one of those things." And being "just one of those

things.” this play presents some interesting thought. As a play it is poorly written, several little anti - climaxes prevents the dramatic crash registering as it should. In the prologue, Otto Harbaeh lets the audience in on the first secret — the illegitimate parentage of Bud Morgan. By the time the first act arrives, the author has permitted Bud to reach the age of eighteen.

I +*

Bob Fay

Naturally Bud had the right to think that he was brought into the world in a legal and moral manner. When college gossip enlightens him of the fact, Bud ‘‘murders’’ In sight of the audience (or nearly in the sight of those present) the chap who was circulating the rumor. The author permits the audience to see justice administered. but . And that Is supposed to be the surprise of the drama. It isn't a surprise, because most of us knew that a happy ending would be the result of the evening’s going on. And yet the strange thing about this poorly written mix-up of murder and mystery, is that the Berkell Players actually cover up many of the faults of the playwright. And credit this week gde first of all to Edytha Elliott who must "ago” right before your very eyes. This woman knows her drama. She knows how often to cry and above all she knows how to create and sustain the dramatic pose. She doesn’t overact and that is greatly to her credit because the part Is "overacted” from the start by the author. As an actress, Miss Eliott docs the Impossible thing with a stagey character. ’And that is a triumph. Larry Sullivan as Rigsby, the college gardener, advances several steps forward in the art of characterization. Mary Hill has a quiet method all of her own in making an audience laugh when the dramer becomes too meller. You can count on this woman delivering at every performance. Robert St. Clair as Bud Morgen Is easily doing the best work of any that I have observed by Idm this season. Idabelle Arnold Is supposed to be sweet and nice and she Is just that. Bob Fay shows that he can wear a black eye in the right way —with a terrible grouch. A1 C. Wilson is splendid in a thankless part. Milton Byron has a chance to dish out the high sounding patriotic stuff and he gets away with it with as much ease as a Fouith of July speaker. In other words, the Berkell Players are so much better in every way than the play is or deserves to be p'ayed. At English’s all week. -I- •!• -!• DALEY PLAYERS DO ANOTHER TABLOID REVUE This week’s musical stock production at the Capitol Is called “Morning. Noon and Night.” The setting, appropriate for those periods of the day, is in a restaurant. Bozo Mack and Arthur Harrison get the laughs as the inexperienced chef and waiter. Jack "Smoke” Gray is in another funny scene and also offers another song and dance specialty. Lena Daley Is herq and there In comedy scenes and song numbers. In the supporting company are Dorothy Alexander, Lew Denny, Alma Arliss, Tommy Seymour and the chorus. Still more of Daley’s apparently inexhaustible supply of scenery and pretty costumes are on view. At the Capitol all week.—(By Observer.) -1- -1- -!- AND SOPHIE IS SURE VERY BROAD MINDED Margie Is dead, but Sophie still lives. Sophie is a wise old "girl.” She admits that she is so broad minded

THE SPUDZ FAMILY-By TALBURT

Stage Verdict English’s—" The Silent Witness,” a poorly written play, played a thousand times better by the Berkell Players than it was written. Lyric—ls you need a spring tonic then take a dose of the travesty fun of James Watts. He is a riot. Palace—Walter Weems and Demarest and Doll are comedy hits on the bill for the first half of the week. Capitol—Jack “Smoke" Gray and Bozo Mack keep up their good work for the Daley musical show.

that she can’t tell the difference between right and wrong. And what a back Sophie has. She allows that her dressmaker tells her

wm lM m JFte W p $$

James Watts

travesty Instead of burlesque. It depends on how many mental earthquakes you have had to determine how much you will like Watts. To mo he is a scream and a wow. Rapid, wisecracking fun done in a broad, slapbang travesty manner. Sophie must have been the rival of Margie. Both are “some dames." Watts is quite the sensation at the Lyric. Mixed acrobatic dancing and acrobatic work is presented by Tilyou and Rogers. Nice work. "Fairview" has the services of Dorothy Waters, an eccentric female funmaker. She rather reminds one of Charlotte Greenwood. Both have long limbs and arms. She makes this little affair quite unusual. Murand and Leo open the show with an acrobatic offering. They Work with quiet ease. Didn't care for the work or the material of Ulis and Clark any second they were on the stage. Olympia Desval is again present with her dogs and ponies. McWiniers and Fox operate a wicked banjo apiece. Saw about half of the movie, "The Lion's Whiskers” and what I saw of it, it was a hokum howl. Jimmy Watts will either cause you to be carried to your bed In convulsions or you will die of heart failure. Rich fun. At the Lyric all week.

PACK YOUR BAG AND GO ♦ We can equip you with steamA --—"-i Js L r- L ship tickets over all lines for various trips, ranging from a Reliable Travel Information. TRAVELERS’ CHEQUES RICHARD A. KURTZ, MANAGER TRAVEL BUREAU THE UNION TRUST COMPANY MA in 1576 120 EAST MARKET STREET

TUESDAY, MAY 19,1920

STUDIO MOVIE FUN ON VIEW AT PALACE Haven MacQuarrle Is offering at the Palace, the first half of the week an act called "Twenty Minutes in Hollywood." In this act MacQuarrie and company present what they term a true picture of the way movies are made. Never having been to Hollywood I can not. speak .for the authenticity of the production, hut us a vaudeville act it is rather entertaining. MacQuarrle gets a lot of fun from directing an apparently Inexperienced, but ambitious actor. The one comedy Idea Is carried farther than necessary, In fact It gets a little tiresome. Following Macquarrie cornea Walter Weems and company. Weems is a blackface comedian with a *line of new gags. He also announces that since the audience has never been in a studio he will give his Idea of a motion picture. Weem s scenario Is better than Mac Quarrie’s from an entertainment standpoint. .In fact, Weems is a really funny comic. Another comedy turn that is different from the mine run of vaudeville acts is that of Demarest and Doll, who offer “A Cuckoo Concert.” It is a burlesque on concert acts of the pianist and vocalist type. Broad but funny. The Bird Cabaret is with us ngaln. offering acrobatic and talking birds. Avery talented mud beautiful group of feathered actors. They are “assisted" b ya couple of cats and an exceptionally small dog. The Follis Girls open the show with a dancing act worked along original comedy lines. The feature picture is titled, for no reason at all, “The Night Club." It Is an amusing though "slapstloky” comedy starring Raymond Griffith. Chief in the supporting cast are Wallace Beery and Louise Fazenda. At tho Palace today and Wednesday. (By Observer.) Lad and Lass I By Hal Cochran I tal.ted to tho Man in the Moon last night, and I said to him, frankly, said I, "Say, what do you see by the rays of your light, that’s the most pleasing thing to your eye?" He Just klnda beamed, as he often has done, and he answered my question with, "Wei;, the scene I llko best, after all. Is the one that I really had better not tell.” I coaxed for a while, as he held to hls smile, and kept straining his gaze on the earth. Then, loath to confide, “tuke a look,” he replied, "at the scene, for whatever It’s worth.” And what do you think that I saw, far away? 'Twai merely a lass and a lad. I quickly Imagined Dan Cupid at play, as the thought that the Moon Man had had. "Now, there," he explained, "is the very best sight, that I see every night, from above. For I feel that the best use that’s made of my light, is the use by young people In love.”

that a woman with a back like hers can be as low as she desires. And Sophie certainly wears her hack low. Just telling you that Jimmy Watts with blazing red hair (not his own) and a complexion that would startle a flour barrel, is present at thjs Lyric this week. Watts is a burlesque female impersonator, probably should bo smart and ultra and say