Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 127, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 October 1927 — Page 4

PAGE 4

SCRIPPJ-HOWARD

Giving More Reason If the blind, obstinate attitude of Mayor Duvall and bis defiance of the sentiment of the city furnishes one reason for a special session of the Legislature, the actions of the majority members of the city council clinches it. A special session of the Legislature could restore to the people the right to get immediately the form of government which they have already voted. \ The last Legislature took away that right when the local bosses, a very important part of the State machine, demanded this law and got it from the Legislature and the Governor. Right now, had the employment of Duvall been on the same basis as private business is operated, he would be Out of office and the new form of government would be at least in the making. If the Governor needs any other reason than the demand of the City Manager committee for a special session of the Legislature to give justice to this city, the actions of the council members this week supplies it. There is a threat from one of the members, Boynton J. Moo-re, that'"he would bring impeachment proceedings against the mayor. He asks for an adjourned session of the council in order that the attorney, Sumner Clancy, whom he had engaged for this purpose could prepare the documents. In that twenty-four hours of delay important changes are made in city departments. The father-in-law of Moore is given a Job for which he is disqualified under the ordinances. Other city employes are shifted by the mayor, or with his consent, to meet the demands and the wishes of the councilmen and with no regard for the decent operation and conduct of city business, The only person who showed any decent regard for the city was Virgil Vandagrifft, who established a precedent that could be followed with profit by the mayor and others higher up when he declared that no man who is called upon to defend his liberty in courts can serve the people well. There is a peculiar tenderness and consideration for one Robert McNay, politician of the sort that inspires little confidence. He holds one job for twenty-four hours and then is given another which requires, by ordinance, qualifications which he readily admits he does not possess. One member of the council, Edward Raub, openly taunted Moore and his associates with what would amount in private business to blackmail. This is the sad picture of the chaos of matters at the city hall. It is dhe logical and expected condition of Duvallism. This city deserves better than this. It should be rid not only ot Duvall but of the councilmen who are showing themselves in an even less favorable light than that in which the mayor stands, and he has reached what was thought to be about the lowest levels of political degradation. It is now demonstrated that there are depths below the subcellar of politics in' this city. Every person who voted for the City Manager form of government should appeal to thq Governor at once. An organization by precincts and wards should march upon his office and demand that special session. The hour demands an old-time petition in boots that would demonstrate that this city is in earnest and refuses to be treated as the private property of spoilsmen. Thoe who are too busy to march could at least call the Governor on the telephone and tell him that they want action. That same pressure should be put upon every member of the Legislature. They should be told that their one chance to show that they were merely ignorant and timid when they obeyed the bosses last winter and not venal and a part of the whole scheme, is to demand that special session.

The Irony of Politics * Austin Peay will probably be remembered by history as the Governor who signed the strange bill forbidding the teaching of evolution irf the schools of ■Tennessee which led to the famous, if somewhat ridiculous, Scopes trial at Dayton. That is the fate which the irony of'politlcs has in store for the man who today is being mourned by Tennesseeans as a progressive statesman whose greatest achievement was the advancement of education in a State which had been backward. The well informed believe that Peay was too intelligent a man to sympathize with the anti-evolution bill. They even tell a story of his making contemptuous remarks about letters he received from the ignorant and the narrow, urging him to sign the bill. But when the time came he signed it. He not only signed it but actively championed it and spent the State’s money to hire expensive counsel to defend the law in the courts. It was a case so expediency. He was wooing the fundamentalist voters of his State. Peay even went to the absurd length of giving out a statement that the Florida hurricane was a visitation of the wrath of God on the people of that State because of their sins ! I

The-Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County, 2 cents —lO cents a week; elsewhere, 3 cents—l 2 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. W. A. MAYBORN. Editor. * President. Business Manager. PHONE—MAIN 3500. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5, 1927. Member oX United Press, Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau ot Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”— Dante.

There are those who say that Governor Peay’s wooing of fundamentalism was not even necessary. They say he could have killed the evolution bill promptly by a fearless and frank appeal to the com-mon-sense of his State. They write down the evolution bill and Peay’s capitalizing it as the Governor’s one ggreat moral failure. But none would deny to Austin Peay credit for bringing about vast progress in Tennessee. He gave the State a splendid system of highways. He taxed the wealthy cities to give the children of poor farmers a universal eight-months school term. He put appropriations for the State university on a permanent basis and provided for its expansion. He officially launahed the movement for a Smoky Mountain national park, great museum of nature where the scientists of the world may study nature’s processes in a region of the most varied flora on the continent. The backwoods of Tennessee are disappearing. Chlidren ride over Peay’s roads to Peay’s schools where they are taught by teachers from a university which Peay made prosperous—and where evolution is still taught. For the evolution law which Peay blazoned to the world is a dead letter, but the progress which his statesmanship devised is an ever-growing fact.

The President Should Go Abroad _ President Coolidge appears definitely ~to have chosen to visit Cuba in January when the sixth international conference of American States will meet at Havana. This is a wise decision and this newspaper sincerely hopes nothing will arise between now and the time for the President to leave to cause him to change his mind. The visit, in our opinion, can be made into one of the most epochal acts of his Administration. The notion that our President should not leave American soil while in office Is as out of date as sailing 6hips carrying passengers. In. fact they date from about the same era. We can see vast good and little harm coming from a tactful President’s visits to foreign capitals and receiving at Washington the return .visits of foreign rulers. And now would be a particular opportune time to establish such a precedent. That we are losing friends in Latin America there can be no longer the slightest doubt, particularly in the last year or so. Our course in Mexico and Nicaragua has been attrociously bungled. In situations requiring the utmost tact we have employed the methods of the man who used a ten-ton tractor to plow the weeds out of his pansy bed. Asa result our relations with Latin America are perhaps cooler today than they have ever been. To the south of us we are viewed as “the colossus of the north,” instead of the traditional “big brother.” We are suspected, hated and feared. Our prestige is on the toboggan and unless something happens to check its downward flight, sooner or later it is bound to hit the bottom with a splintering crash. Admittedly to remove suspicion from the minds of our Latin American friends is not easy. Once planted it is difficult to uproot. It can only be done in one way: First, deserve to be trusted, then to make our neighbors know that we are really their friends. This is a long-time job for our State Department and our diplomats and it should never be entrusted to lame ducks and other chosen hap-hazard. To succeed at it requires many very special qualifications —tact, imagination, racial psychology, a broad knowledge of humanity and history, and, perhaps most of all, sympathy with the problems of others as well as loyalty to the people at home. There is reason to believe President Coolidge is giving the Latin American situation his personal attention and study with a view to improving it if he possibly can. His proposed visit to Havana is but one of a number of recent signs pointing in that direction'. This newspaper wishes him a hearty bon voyage. The wisdom of the older generation was in doing what the younger generation is doing before it did them. " V There is a point in the race for scanty clothing at which the girls must stop, says a physician. Just give them time, doctor, and they’ll And it. An official American trade union delegation, after studying conditions *n Russia, reports serious unemployment. Well, isn’t that what Russia wanted? A Quebec senator has reached 100 years and never had a headache. Congress must be a lot different up there. \ -- When a pedestrian succeeds in getting across a busy street unscathed he’s so surprised you could knock him over with a fender. I Bonding the prohibition agents is well enough. Any reliable prohibition agent can get a good bootlegger to go on his bond. It’s a strange country where bargain sales can be advertised and moving pictures of prize fights are very evil.

Law and Justice By Dexter M. Keezer

On the advice of the cashier of a bank, a man bought $30,000 worth of stock in a manufacturing company. The bank had no interest in the manufacturing company either as an owner or a selling agent of its securities, but it had made large loans to the company. Shortly after the man bought the stock, the manufacturing company failed and he lost the money he had invested. He sued the bank to recover what he had lost, on the ground that he bought the stock on the cashier’s advice and that the cashier had deceived him that the manufacturing company might obtain more funds to pay off its loans from the bank. The banlr contended that it was not liable for losses on investments in which it had itt direct interest, and about which the cashier had no bank authority to give advice. HOW WOULD YOU DECIDE THIS CASE? The actual decision: The Supreme Court of Wisconsin decided that the bank was not liable for the man’s loss on the stock. The court said that unauthorized statements by the officers of a bank iu response to inquiries as to investments in which the bank has no interest as owner or selling agent, do not bind the bank. t

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. TRACY SAYS: The Practice of Shunting Patients From One Specialist to Another; of Splitting Extortionate Fees, is the Worst Disgrace That Attaches to the Medical Profession.

Anew law places the Cuban sugar crop under Government control. Curtailment of production is provided for by a system of tariffs and penalties. The President is empowered to withdraw 150,000 tons of sugar from the market this fall. Cuba is undertaking to regulate the sugar market, just as Great Britain undertook to regulate the rubber market. The idea back of both schemes is to override the law of supply and demand by creating a scarcity. This is a revolutionary idea in the field of economics and one which would be impossible without Government interference. Graft on Grand Scale If the theory that the less they have to sell the more they can get for it becomes popular among nations, and if they arbitrarily curtail production in order to increase prices, we shall have commercial graft and thievery on a grander scale than was ever possible under the tariff. Hitherto, governments have gone little farther than to stop goods from coming in, but this new idea strikes at the source. It knocks the tradition that the law of supply and demand cannot be repealed into a cocked hat because that is the very thing it does. Dangerous Fashion There is hardly a nation in this world but what has a monopoly over some essential product and that could not levy an exorbitant tax on other peoples through its control. For each particular group of producers, it may seem a glorious idea, and it certainly has attractions for political leaders who like to mobilize their support in blocks. But it is a game that every group of producers can play, ana that would result in nothing but lessened production all along the line if it became the fashion. Nature Kinder Than Law After fifteen years of fruitless struggle to shield and protect her idiot boy, Mrs. Iwanska mixed a dose of poison of which she gave him a part ar:d drank > the rest herself. He died immediately, but she did not, wherefore the authorities charged her with homicide as she lay on a hospital bed. She would have been tried, and, perhaps, convicted had she Recovered, but nature was kinder than the law. You cannot condone such an act as she committed, though you can see the reason for it. It is just one of those tragedies which seems beyond the reach of human justice. The demands of mother love simply proved more than she could bear, especially that sense of humor on the part of her neighbors, which could see nothing but a huge joke in her tireless devotion to a clumsy, overgrown child who could not talk plain, could not take care of himself and could never amount to anything. Fee-Splitting Doctors Judge Harold Stephens, general counsel of the American College of Surgeons, denounces the practice of splitting fees with specialists by ordinary doctors. “The dangers of this system are palpable. _The doctor in need of money is tempted to adopt this method of handling cases of a borderline character which may not need operation or specialists’ treatment. He does it for gain. Many a patient has gone under the knife unnecessarily because of this practice. Their lives are wantonly jeopardized. Death rate statistics tell a pitiful tale.” Disgrace to Profession It is high time that somebody called attention to the abominable custom, and no one is in a better position to do so than the general counsel of the American College of Surgeons. The practice of shunting patients from one specialist to another, of suggesting that they need operations or costly courses of treatment when it is doubtful, of dividing responsibility until no one can be held accountable for fatal results, of splitting extortionate fees that can only be collected because people are too sick or too distracted to realize how they are being bunked, is the worst disgrace that attaches to the medical profession. Revolt in Mexico With three generals in the field as presidential candidates, it is not surprising that Mexico’s political campaign should have taken a military turn. The revolt in favor of Gomez and Serrano is still too new for an accurate apprisal. Gomez and Serrano, who are not only opposing former President Obregon, but who are antiCalles, seem to have' over-esti-mated the number and enthusiasm of their adherents. It is rumored, that one of them already has been captured and shot. Whether tlus is trie or not, the chances are that both will be driven from the countrj* and that the mutiny in their behalf will accomplish nothing Tnora' distinctly Obregon’s flection.

(Kolrtirao Dispatch) (Democratic) , . . . Attorney General Gilliom has not improved his position before the people of Indiana by his illadvised exchanges with R. Earl Peters, State Democratic chairman. Gilliom Peters stoutly defended his party _ against the attacks of the attorneya Swash- general who accused Democrats of hu rider cowardice and dared them to attack the Ku-Klux Klan and the Anti-Sa-loon League as he has done in many speeches over the State of Indiana. Chairman Peters quite properly reminds the gallant attorney general that at the time he was a candidate for his office in 1924 he was uttering not one single word against either the Ku-Klux Klan or the Anti-Saloon League, organizations which he considers such serious menaces today, although Dr. Carleton B. McCulloch, the Democratic candidate for governor in that campaign, did oppose the KuKlux Klan and undoubtedly owes his defeat to that plank in his platform. The Democratic State chairman further reminds the attorney general that it was a solid Democratic minority in the State Legislature last January that voted for an investigation of unsavory political conditions in Indiana and Marion county and that it was a solid Republican majority that defeated the investigation. Quite as much to the point is Chairman Peters reminded tha tit was after a breakdown of justice, as indicated by Marion cotmty grand jury investigations with which Attorney General Gilliom was connected, that the move for a legislative investigation was started, and that grand jury invesigations did not succeed until Gilliom had ceased his "connections with them. We are quite willing to leave it to the people

Bill Fields Spills His Oats as Well as His Corn in Speaking of Jones, Green and What They Do Now

I received a large envelope from New York with the name of the office of “Jones and Green.” Knowing that William A. Fields has his business address with “Jones and Green” following the close of the Stuart Walker season at Keith’s in Indianapolis I opened the It was one of the hundreds sent out by Fields announcing that Blanche Yurka in “The Squall” was going to sail out on some Main Streets The hint is that this well-man-aged success will land in Indianapolis, and I feel that Fields would not 'have sent me a duplicate of the several hundred copies of this general letter unless there was hope that Yurka in “The Squall” might come here. So under this very “personal” letter from Fields, stating the residence of the hit show and the name of the press representative, I print his “personal” letter as follows: On Oct. 13 “The Squall,” the fiery, tempestuous drama of Spain, by Jean Bart, will reach its 400th performance at the Forty-Eighth Street Theater in New York. “The Squall” got off to a slow start, but has developed into one of Broadway’s most substantial successes. A. L. Jones and Morris Green, the proprietors of “The Squall.” have decided to keep the play in New York through the current season, and their new production, “People Don’t Do Such Things,” which was being made ready for the FortyEighth Street Theater, will be shifted to another house. The original fcompany of “The Squall,” which includes Blanche Yurka and Lee Baker, will be sent on a tour of the principal cities of the country within the next few weeks. An extensive tour is now being laid out for the piece. Jones and Green have in the past been identified with Greenwich Village Follies productions and it is likely that anew “Follies” will be presented on Broadway in December. The road, however, will miss this attraction this season. “Rain or Shine,” a musical comedy with a circus background, will be another of this firm’s undertakings this winter. Joe Cook and the elongated Tom Howard will be the principal buffoons in this show. The cast of “The Squall,’* it is interesting to note, has a decided international aspect. Blanche Yurka, the Dolores Mendez of the play, was bom in Bohemia. Barbara Bulgakov, the vixenish Nubi, is indigenous to Russia, and Ali Yousuff hails from

The New Advertisement

What Other Editors Think

BY WALTER D. HICKMAN

Damascus, Arabia. Mervin Williams, the juvenile, is from California, and Dorothy Ellin is from Cincinnati. Lee Baker is a New Yorker and Henry O’Neil, who takes the part of the wooden-legged seaman, lies hard by in Orange, N. J. Indianapolis theaters today offer: “Old San Francisco,” at the Circle;

fThnilromiTfiir

themselves whether Attorney General Gilliom did not attempt to discredit the investigations conducted by Thomas H. Adams and Prosecutor Remy, and whether, as the days of the first grand jury were coming to a close, he did not attempt to discredit its labors and the purposes of the crusaders by making a speech in Mr. Adams’ home town on Saturday before the election last November in which he was moved to use tfye words “character assassins” as applied to Messrs. Adams and Remy. We only ask whether this was not the attitude of Attorney General Gilliom, and whether he was not one of those engaged in an attempt to whitewash the entire outfit until two months ago when he suddenly flowered forth in the role of flambouyant crusader against organizations he pleases at this late date to call “the forces of super-government.” His exchange with Chairman Peters has only succeeded in revealing him for what he is—a swashbuck’er whose speeches are like the ever changing skin of the chameleon. (Princeton Democrat) (Democratic) Recent elections in Indiana cities seem to have chosen men for mayu who are not fitting in with the general order of business in their cities and considerable local disci-rbance is the result. Indianapolis, Muncie, Evansville and other of the larger cities are experiencing this trouble. Why any man who has been chosen to head a city government where he must have resided for years before his selection a property owner and will probably expect to live in the city following his term of office, should dissipate and disgrace the office, the people have entrusted to his care, is difficult to imagine, yet we have them in this and other States.

Tunney-Dempsey fight pictures at the Band Box and Rialto; “Swim, Girls, Swim,” at the Apollo; “Tell It to Sweeney,” at the Ohio; “Smile, Brother, Smile,” at the Indiana; “Jazztime Revue,” at the Mutual; Count Berni Vici and "others” at Keith’s; “Hell’s Bells” at the Colonial, and movies at the Rialto and Isis. *

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OCT. 5, 1927

Times Readers Voice Views

To the Editor: ■ Well, by golly, as Lew always said, and in my opinion he was nearly always right, there comes a time in all our lives when we feel that we must have our say or “bust,” and if I am not badly mistaken, many of our citizens wish to avoid the calamity, so I suggest that when an inspiration of this nature comes, as it has to me, we pitch right in and give our self-chosen weak-minded mayor the hell as he so richly deserves. Too many citizens figure that because they are not prominent in business or politics, they must adopt a hands off policy, and sit back with an air of watchful waiting, and a boiling desire to bust up something, forgetting, fearing, or neglecting to use the equal rights they have with any one who goes to the polls, and that it is their duty to remonstrate when a “bird” of this kind tries to play the fiddle while we all dance to any tune our Nero chooses. It is a good thing for Mayor Duvall that he happened to pull this stunt here. I ask you what would happen in a good old red blooded part of the country where principle is most prevalent? I’ll answer for you. Some handy guy with a muscle that needed exercise would gently, but firmly lift John out of the chair he refused to relinquish, and create an overwhelming desire within him to go once again out to Old Aunt Mary’s or some equally pleasant place. Why can’t that be lone here in our no mean city, I ask you? THAT’S ME.

Thumb-Nail Sketches

One little calicoed orphan, fastening the dress of a small orphan at the Indianapolis Orphans’ Home, sighed vary deeply. It wasn’t a sad sight. It was a glad sigh, one of that special brand that sees visions and dreams dreams. For every Line she helped tha governesses in the nursery, every button she fastened on the little ones’ frocks, was going to count for something, and count big! Every stitch she worked into her embroidery would be accomplishing twice as much. Every dish she wiped when her kitchen duty came around was actually going to be a sacred trust. And when she made her bed in the mornings, tucking the bedclothes at the end into such carefully tailored corners tl;ere was going to be an even greater reward than the bow of ribbon tied on tht best-made bed! For there was going to be a Camp Fire Girls’ group at the orphans* home. All those little daily duties were going to count on htr homecraft honors. All the embroidery she made, the baskets she wove, the other fascinating things she could do with her deft little hands would be counted in on her Handcraft honors. And that sight that saw visions was stretching ahead to the delights of hiking, cooking out of doors, building fires that would count on her Canjpcraft honors. She was to be a real Camp Fire Girl. That was yesterday's sigh. Today that little girl and nineteen others between 10 and 14 have been organized into a Camp Fire Girls group. The Great Event took place last night at the orphans* home. Tp, provide a home, a place of shelter and training, and to give a real reward for that training as well as to provide other characterbuilding activities for these little folks, two organizations have joined hands through YOUR COMMUNITY FUND. Does the unexpended portion of the President’s allowance for traveling expenses revert to the treasury? The unexpended balance if any, reverts to the general funds in tha treasury at the end of the fiscal year.