Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 145, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 October 1927 — Page 4

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Jim Watson On Hoover Jim AVatson, professional politician de luxe, gives an interview in which he indicates that he will be for Dawes in 1928. During the interview he turns for a moment to Hoover, saying: “I consider Hoover a man w T ith a marvelous mind. My contact with him causes me to believe he knows more about more things than probably any other man in the country. He is a human encylopedia of information. Indeed, he knows about most everything under the sun, save one, that of politics. His lack of understanding about politics makes it difficult for his friends to convert sentiment into delegates.” We have never been impressed with Jim Watson’s ideas in matters of real statesmanship. On the contrary, far from it. But when it comes to vote-getting and delegate-getting and convention-engineering, and other things having to do with attaining and holding a choice stand at the public trough, he is a pastmaster. Otherwise, he’d have been retired to private life a long time ago. 1 And what he says about Hoover’s handicap is just about 100 per cent true. Hoover’s abilities lie along lines other than practical politics. That fact constitutes both a recommendation and a warning; a recommendation for Hoover as a statesman, and a warning to all those who, realizing his qualities in that regard, lull themselves into the belief that such qualities alone will assure him the Republican nomination in 1928. If Hoover is nominated, it will have to be through political guidance other than his own. And it might as well be understood at the outset, that such a nomination, if accomplished, will be against the combined opposition of the Jim Watsons and the others of his kind, to whom skill at professional politics is more highly rated than all the other knowledge in the world.

Duvall’s New Affrontery John L. Duvall, who continues to act as mayor despite the fact that a jury has ruled that he rightfully belongs in jail, has moved to abolish the civil service system. And, of course, you know what that means. It means that, with civU service gone, politicians will be given a free hand in the building of political machines in their own behalf. It will give opportunity to choose men for the police and fire departments on the basis of their votegetting ability, rather than on the basis of their ability as public servants. An amazing character is Duvall. By night, through public meetings, he seeks to defend his official actions. By day he offers some new affrontery such as the abolishment of the civil service system. Surely this man does not believe that the public Is incapable of analyzing him. Surely he knows that the public has weighed him in the balance and found him wanting as did the jury that convicted him of violating the corrupt practices act in his campaign. Oh, it takes more than a policeman-fireman band to induce the Indianapolis citizenship to rally 'round the Duvall flag. Nothing could be more futile than is oratory in behalf of DuvalL For above the blare of the horn and the booming off the drum comes the echo of that verdict solemnly arrived at in a jury room. "GUILTY I” Above the oratory that rolls from silver tongues eomes the added verdict of the jury: “JAIL FCB DUVALL!” No, music cannot drown out the facts—ugly facts that assert themselves and that will not be erased. Mr. Duvall owes it to the people of Indianapolis to step down and out, voluntarily. Since he will not do that, the people of Indianapolis owe it to themselves to force him into private life. The machinery of the courts was erected to serve the public well-being. Let’s utilize it. We have had far too much of Duvall as a public official. Better Barracks For many years Army chiefs and war secretaries have been complaining that housing conditions at many of the Army posts are intolerable. They have told of the deplorable surroundings in which officers and men and their families are compelled to live while serving Uncle Sam. For one reason and another the protests and demands have been ineffectual. Nothing has been done. Recently General Summerall, chief of staff, made a speech in a Western city and in the course of it he said some of the same things he had said before and which other Army heads had been saying for a long time. He didn’t put the matter any more strongly, if as strongly, as it had been put in the past. \ But, by chance, the Summerall speech attracted the attention of President Coolidge. General Summerall was recalled to Washington to explain, the President meantime allowing it to be known that he considered Summerall’s picture of conditions to be exaggerated. The President was really exasperated. It is told that he kept Summerall cooling his heels for three days ia Washington, after the general had hurried thither at the President’s command. The President’s annoyance has had an interesting result. It has caused the pouring into Washington of a vast amount of information supporting Summerall’s complaint. It has made a real issue of Army housing conditions. And the prediction is now freely made that the coming Congress will move to provide better quarters Jar the Army folks. (

The Indianapolis Times (A SCREPPS-HOWAKD NEWSPAPEB) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price In Marlon 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. 26, 1927. Member of United Press. Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”— Dante.

Morrow, Key to the Mexican Muddle Dwight Morrow, our new ambassador to Mexico City, has reached his post. “Morrow will begin a study of the entire Mexican situation in so far as it affects the United States. He probably will spend several weeks, or even months, in study before he makes any important moves,” says the United Press. In which Morrow show himself as different from the average American ambassador. Too often they assume the attitude of a professional lion tamer entering the arena prepared, whip and ail, to make the animals jump through the hoop. Ambassador Morrow would seem to have a somewhat different conception of his job. Instead of commencing by informing Mexico where to head in, he seems to want to know what the shooting is all about and sets himself the task of understanding the problems with which he will have to deal. All of which sounds very much as if he really wishes to end the Mexican-American squabble on a basis fair to both sides. The new ambassador faces one of the hardest jobs an American diplomat has undertaken in years. Inside Mexico there are native interests which do not wish him to succeed. They do not want the Callesregime to stand. If possible, they would overthrow it. And there are certain American and other foreign interests inside and outside Mexico which do not want him to make good. These, too, are opposed to Calles —and to General Obregon, likely to be Mexico’s next president. They know that Morrow’s failure would probably mean increased friction between Mexico and the United States and to play into their hands. Add to all this the fact that during the next ten months Mexico will be in a state of unrest aiid anxiety incident to a presidential campaign south of the Rio Grande, and it will be clearly seen that the opportunity for mischief will not be wanting. Thus Morrow becomes the key man upon whose acts MexicanAmerican history will likely depend for a long time to come. But far more depends upon success in Mexico City than is apparent on the surface, however important Mexican-American relations undoubtedly are. All Latin America will watch the outcome just as it has been watching events for the past several years. A vast amount of suspicion is aimed at us not only In Mexico but from all along the line. Our policies, particularly since Secretary Kellogg has been at the helm in the State Department, have been regarded as contradictory, wavering, provocative and intended to foster conflict for selfish and sinister purposes. Settlement of the Mexican-American muddle and restoration of friendly relations thus would be a tremendous feather in the cap of any man who can bring it off. We hope Morrow can manage it.

The Comet Schaumasse On our desk is a penny postal card, an important announcement from Harvard. It is ANNOUNCEMENT CARD NO. 33, from the Harvard College Observatory. Let us see what it says. It says:. "COMET SCHAUMASSE—The following ephimeris of Comet Schaumasse, communicated by Professor Leuschner, was computed by Berman and Shipple from Merton’s elements (M. N. 87,567, 1927) with perihelion October, 1.4326, based on Van Biesbroeck’s position announced on Harvard Card No. 32.” Below this there are three columns headed U. TANARUS., R. A. and Dec., and these are filled with various mystifying numerals. The work is signed by Hivlow Shapfey. We hadn’t known Mr. Shapley was coaching the football team and don’t think he should give away the Harvard signals that way. This is a clear breach of professional etiquette. But no, wait! Maybe this isn’t the football code after all! There are minutes and degrees on this card. Maybe it’s a way of checking up on your Chinese laundry ticket. After all, Mr. Shapley may not be spoofing us. Let us apply it and see If it agrees with Hang Li’s reckoning. We thought at first it was a guide for channel swimmers, but nobody’s swimming the channel any more. Maybe it’s just one of those things! The parents are to blame for youth’s shocking disregard of conventions, says a New York judge. Now will some other judge tell us who’s to blame for the parents? One way is open to Indiana farmers to make their land profitable. They can sit on juries all winter trying public officials. A pedestrian in Southampton, England, carries a horn which he honks when he crosses the street. At last, a way of talking back! A Chicago woman gave a beggar a dime and then discovered he was her husband. Moral: Don’t marry beggars. At least it never can be said that the designers of women’s clothing aren’t giving’ every chance to the "survival of the fittest” idea. New York’s mayor has ordered the law enforced closing cabarets at 3 a. m. If a patron isn’t robbed by that time he doesn’t deserve to be.

Law and Justice By Dexter M. Keezei

A man made an agreement to sell his farm which contained no provision concerning an insurance policy covering the buildings. Before the property was transferred, the buildings burned. The buyer claimed that he was entitled to the insurance on the buildings of which he said he had become the owner when he had agreed to buy the farm. The seller contended that he was entitled to the insurance on the buildings. He said that the man who had agreed to buy the farm had done so subject to the risk that the buldings might bum and was not entitled to any insurance payments resulting from a contract to which he was not a party. HOW WOULD YOU DECIDE THIS CASE? The actual decision; The Supreme Court of lowa decided that the man who had agreed to buy the farm was entitled to the insurance on the burned builS* ings. The court said that when the sale agreement was made he had become the “equitable” owner of the buildihga, and so was entitled to the insurance payments resulting from this destruction.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. ' TRACY SAYS: The Fact That Cities Have Been Obliged to Enforce Fireproof Construction Indicates More Emphatically Than Anything I Might Say the Tendency to Do Away With Lumber Structures.

On Friday, Oct. 14, I made some rather enthusiastic observations with regard to the possibility of steel houses and some which were not so enthusiastic with regard to lumber houses. I have received several letters of protest, the majority of which appear to come from paid publicity men of the lumber trade. What is more to the point, Robert P. Scripps, editorial director of the Scripps-Howard organization, was sent a telegram which, after lodging a similar protest, suggested “That you kill this article in other Scripps-Howard newspapers and syndicate papers if not too late.” One of the letters which I received explains that the lumber trade is launching a five-year campaign to extend its business, in which $1,000,000 will be spent annually, “a large part of it in advertising.” I not only marvel at the efficiency of these gentlemen in tracking down copy which fails to coincide with their views, but I confess to a feeling of elation that my modest efforts should be taken so seriously. • • * ‘Retraction’ Provided One writer was kind enough to provide a carefully written out “retraction,” which I could have incorporated in this column without too much humiliation, except that it, too, referred to the trade extension campaign and to the large sum of money that would go for advertising. Though such suspicion may be entirely groundless, as I very much hope, it is hard to escape the thought that someone is trying to influence the Scripps-Howard newspapers and discipline Tracy by waving an advertising contract. Just as a matter of information not only to the lumber trade, but to anyone else who may entertain a similar illusion, the Scripps-Howard newspapers are not run on that theory. Neither is this column.

Fireproof Town Urged I have no disposition to be unfair to the lumber trade I realize the difficulties it faces because of the substitutes for lumber that constantly are making their appearance. Insofar as a wider lumber market for employment, profit and reforestation, I am for it. Insofar as it depends on the construction of houses, especially in large towns, which increase the fire hazard, insurance rates and which involve avoidable loss of property and life I am against it. The fact that cities have been obliged to enforce fireproof construction and that business interests have found substitution of fireproof materials desirable, indicates more emphatically than anything I might say the tendency to do away with lumber structures. I believe this is a wise tendency not only from the standpoint of safety, but from the standpoint of economy. I am for the fireproof town, the lasting structure, the lower insurance rate, less taxes for the maintainence of fire departments. ♦ * * Steel Ships, Cars Stronger The steel ship has succeeded the wooden ship because it is a better ship, a stronger ship and a safer ship. The steel car is succeeding the wooden car for exactly the same reason. The lumber trade could offer about as good arguments for building ships, cars and automobiles of wood, instead of steel, as it offers for building wooden houses. The fact that threp-fourths of the dwellings of this country are of wood is not particularly reassuring. It reveals nothing so distinctly as avoidable risk, and stands for nothing so conclusively as the tribute which the public pays through unnecessarily high taxes and insurance rates, not to mention loss of life and property. * * * Lumber Uses Multiply If the lumber industry were threatened with extinction, or even near extinction, by the substitution of fireproof materials for building purposes, it would be in no worse plight than was the horse breeder when automobiles came Into existence, the candle manufacturer when petroleum was discovered, or the sail maker when steamships came into being. I cannot visualize the difficulty of thus readjustment as more important than the desirability of relieving the public from the risk and expense which go with wood construction, particularly in large towns. * ♦ * Right to Opinion The lumber trade is in no different position from the steel trade, the cement trade, the tile trade or the brick trade, when it comes to the production and sale of structural materials. Each of them has as good a right to advertise its products as the others and no better. If the inventor and manufacturer can produce a type of dwelling which is healthy and comfortable, which involves less danger to the lives of its occupants or the property of other people through Are, and which stabiliezs value through its lasting qualities, I am for them, no matter whose ox is gored.

(La Porte Argus Herald) __ , ... (Republican) _ Detroit s mayor, who wants to be re-elected, has taken the bull by the horns, and announces that he doesn’t believe in the prohibition law, doesn’t keep the law himself and does not and will The Issue not; try t 0 enforce it. This statement • constitutes one of the most amazing actions ever taken by a man in high Detroit public office in this country. If John W. Smith were merely a candidate for the office and not the present mayor his defiance of law would not be so unseemly. But Smith now flouts the fact that he has violated his oath of office, and intends to continue to do so. He makes such dangerous statements as “the public has vetoed the prohibition law, therefore why should I try to enforce it.” This is anew philosophy of government, one which borders closely on anarchy. Smith proposes to substitute mob rule for government by law. Whatever the “public” wishes at the moment will become the fundamental rule, Smith making himself the arbiter as to what is wanted at the time. The Detroit mayor believes the people as a whole don’t want the prohibition amendment, and acting on that belief he refuses to live up to his oath of office. Imagine the chaos if every public official acted on the same impulse; government by law would disappear amid a riot of opinions and untrammeled actions. Mayor Smith has adopted one of the most dangerous policies that can be conceived in a democratic government; namely, that laws are made by the public whim and not in an orderly, sane way in legislative halls, and he thinks he has interpreted the public whim.

You oan get an t.nswer 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 lor reply. Medical, legal and 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. What causes a short circut in an electric wire? It is produced when a defect or fault in the insulation of an electric wire allows the bare wire to come in contact with another wire or with metal that is grounded. Due to this contact an electric arc or flame is produced which will ignite

Thumb-Nail Sketches

Five-year-old Steven and his brother Jamie arose every morning with their small backs covered with large round Qs—the result of sleeping on bed spring without any mattress. They gallantly played a game about which one had the most Qs—which may have sufficed for them, but which failed to appeal to their harrassed mother. She was expecting a third baby daily. Their daddy was jobless. He had tried for work but so many discouragements had taken all the fight out of him. He had settled into a gloom of discontent. It was late fall, and winter was about to find them with only two meager quilts to keep them all from the cold night winds. Eventually, without food, or coal, it became necessary to call on a relief agency for help. A worker from the Volunteers of America went to the home, to find the children almost naked, and the little family trying to keep warm by and cook on a broken down laundry stove. The mother was removed to the hospital to wait delivery of her little one, and the two little lads were taken to the Theodora Home until their mother could return. Relieved of the responsibilities weighing upon him, and his courage strengthened by his contact with the pleasantly brisk worker, the man once more set out to find employment. Before he was able to obtain it, however, the Volunteers of America sent a stove, and mattresses and provided the family with coal, groceries and clothing for the little boys and the new baby. When at last spring came around, it found Steve’s Dad employed at fair wages and in full support of his family, proud that he was able to do so, and grateful for the help in time of need he had received from the Volunteers of America and YOUR COMMUNITY FUND.

No Monopoly

(Read Hickman on Following Page)

What Other Editors Think

Questions and Answers

any inflammable material in the neighborhood. What was the real name of the only English Pope, Adrian IV? Nicholas Breakspear. What is a photostat? A camera designed to photograph documents, checks and other writings on bromide paper. What is the number of foreign born Italians in the United States? According to the last census there were 3,336,941 Italians In the United

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This is open to debate, of course, but the point is that the Detroit mayor has nullified and defied the fundamental law of the land. A civil war in this country was fought over the same principle. (Columbus Republican) (Republican) ' Take time to observe the so-called weather these days and then be glad you live in Indiana. Michigan and Florida both have their advantages from the standpoint of weather and so Indiana’s does Indiana It does not require a person of poetic nind to appreciate the October beautiful October days that we now are Days enjoying. The most prosiac man or woman cannot help but feel an urge to get out into the open, to commune with nature and to express a great feeling satisfaction over the fact that he is alive and is privileged to appreciate to the fullest some of the most wonderful days that could be experienced on this earth. Sometimes the residents of Indiana are deprived of their beautiful October days because of a rainy season and then there comes a feeling that some other State might be a better place In which to live, particularly in the fall. But when the beautiful ’.reather for which October is noted does come, then the native Hoosier would not exchange places with the man from California or Michigan or Florida or jjliy other State. The rainy Octobers then are entirely forgotten, unless perhaps they help us to appreciate the more the delightful days, such as we have been enjoying recently. Think of the days and be glad you live in Indiana.

States, of whom 1,615,180 were foreign born and 1,721,761 native born. Can you suggest some way to clean soiled spots from an alligator skin purse? Moisten a cloth with strong ammonia water and rub the soiled leather until clean. Is olive oil and sweet oil the same? Olive oil and cotton seed oil are both sweet oils. The term sweet oil is synonymous for table or cooking oil.

OCT. 28, 1927

Times Readers Voice Views

The nime end address Os the aut ior must accompany every contribution, out on request will not be publlehcd. Letters not exceeding 200 words will receive preference. To the Editor: It seems to me that it has taken Mayor Duvall a long time to find out that civil service won’t work in the police and fire departments. His excuse that it will take a State law to make it function properly is rot. Why didn’t the mayor ask the last Legislature, which obliged him with the Sims amendment to the city manager law, to pass such an act? Is it because he didn’t know last winter the predicament he would be in this fall? Or is it because he did not want his administration handicapped so that he couldn’t do the very things he is now doing? How long will it be until he r---ders the board of safety to appoint the seven men selected by Fire Chief Hutsell. who did not pass the necessary tests, now that civil service in Indianapolis is a thing of the past? And just one more question—what have these seven men done to merit appointment to the fire department without being able to negotiate the examinations? P. J. F. To The Editor: Having seen nothing in The Times to controvert the opinion expressed by at least two of your late cor- ! respondents, who condemned your : policy of exposure, especially in rej lation to certain alleged acts of some j of our present public offliclals, the following is submitted: Was it Josh Billings or Artemus Ward who wrote that this world would never have amounted to anything if it had not been for the kickers? Let those who think it wrong to correct existing evils read these words from W. C. Brann: “We should not forget that every reform this world has known; every effort that has lifted men another notch above the brute level; every star 1n our flag of freedom; every line and letter in our constitution of human liberty; every gem of knowledge that glitters in the great world’s intellectual crown of glory was the work of pessimists—so called—of men who were not satisfied with the world's condition and set determinedly to work to better it.” At this time, especially, there Is a worthy place in Indianapolis and Indiana for The Times. C. E. F. To the Editor: It would seem that Mayor John L. Duvall had already imposed every insult possible upon the common intelligence and dignity of Indianapolis citizenry so his latest outburst seeking to blacken the character of a man now dead is nc at all surprising. What he can hope to gain by trying to assault the memory of “Lew Shanks who has passed beyond and cannot defend himself, is beyond me. Even if Duvall is successful in uncovering graft and corruption in the administration of Shank and his controller Hogue, would such proof make his own misconduct less serious? Is it possible that such an act of malicious impropriety is Mayor Duvall’s idea of appealing for further tolerance or renewed confidence on the part of the people in his administration. The writenis only one of several thousand citizens who are blessed with perhaps average Intelligence, but what source of reason and Intelligence I have tells me that in so far as MayorDuvall’s ability to regain public support is concerned h!s recent insults is the straw that >roke the camel’s back. Dqvall, It is evident, has adopted the policy of “I'm right, it’s the world that's wrong.” T. E. HALSEY.