Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 168, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 November 1927 — Page 4

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' Courts and Politics Whatever guilt may or may not lodge in , the Ijead of the Anti-Saloon League on the charge of using political threats or pressure to influence a decision in his own case in the Supreme Court will be decided by the judges. But the people are very much interested in the revelations of the two United States Senator* and the head of the Republican State committee concerning their own part in that case. There Js the frank sworn statement of Senator James E. Watson that he and his colleague, Arthur Robinson, met at Washington, talked the Shumaker case over and decided that the sentence of the court or a lack of any decision would have an important bearing on their own elections. The senior Senator says that he shrank from approaching any judge to personally persuade him. But he declares that he immediately, after this conference with Robinson, sent letters to the friends of Attorney General Arthur L. Gilliom in an endeavor to frighten or persuade the chief legal officer to change his attitude. In other words Watson admits that he tried to sneak into the back door of the Supreme Court. What he really tried to do was to inpence that court for his own political interests. To the legal mind there may be a vast distinction between directly approaching a judge and indirectly trying to mislead that same judge, - - e . ’ The Watson statement is even more indicative of his attitude to courts when he said that he believed that he did not trust to the slowness of mails, but used a long-distance telephone from Washington to some part of Indiana to get some close friend of Gilliom to journey to Indianapolis and personally appeal to him in the name of the party to change his attitude. Results show that Gilliom failed to respond to any plea or political persuasion. • In his plea to the Supreme Court, Solon J. Carter made this charge against Shumaker: Here we have a man, in furtherance of what he calls ft righteous cause, attempting to destroy the one thing we have left in Indiana. That is an incorruptible court. One things Indiana has left is the fact that her courts are incorruptible. The duty ot the court is to let the public know that no can bring influence to bear on this court. What then is to be said of Watson? What was he trying to do when he sent his political friends to argue with the attorney general that political expedience demanded that he stop a case in court which he had brought in the name of tlie people? What becomes of the theory of an incorruptible and fearless court if its chief law adviser is to be made the subject of pressure ? To the lay mind this might' seem to be an even greater assault upon the integrity of courts than a direct approach to one of the judges. The statement of Senator Arthur R. Robinson concerning the same episode casts little credit on his actions or his own conception of the high dignity of courts when a political matter was involved. He says that he quicky telephoned to Watson when Shumaker seemed disturbed about his own fate. There is missing from the record any statement that he considered any discussion of a pending case by candidates or the possibility of using political methods-to secure action at all improper. Out of the Rearing has come a very plain portrait of two United States Senators. They are shown by their own statements as placing their own election above any regard for justice. They paint themselves as willing to ' influence, in indirect manners, the decisions of .courts by attempting to discourage or per, suade the attorney general. The courts will deal with Shumaker. Ihe people will have a chance to deal with the Senators. A Foreign Policy—Or War The United States must soon evolve “a constructive foreign policy” or eventually the world will drift into another great war, so former Ambassador Henry Morganthau told a week-end audience in Philadelphia. Now is this were anew idea it would not be so startling. If it were the exclusive property of the distinguished diplomat, there would be nothing in it to keep us awake nights. Individuals, however brilliant, are frequently mistaken. But the creepy thing about what the ex-ambassador said is that thinking people the world over are inclined to agree with him. Our present foreign policy is extremely nebulous, aftd what there is of it is based upon thoroughly mistaken notions. We have a Monroe Doctrine ,but our policy is such that ft* Latin Americans whom, with ourselves, it would protect, are fast being weaned from us. We have an open door policy in the Far East, but, by a quixotic gesture on our part, we scrapped the navy which alone could uphold that policy were any first class western Pacific power to dispute it. We hwve a colonial, or overseas territorial, policy yet we lack the sea power necessary to enforce it. The Philippine Islands could be taken from us today and we would be powerless to prevent it. Our sea-borne trade is worth approximately ten Million dollafs a year to us, yet we lack a merchant marine to carry more than a third of it, or a navy powerful enough to protect it in tty* far places should

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally 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. , TUESDAY. NOV. 22, 1927. Member ol United Press, Scrlpps-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.

a first class power object to its .presence. We say we intend to remain aloof from the rest of the world yet a coalition of foreign nations could force us to our knees eventually merely by withholding from us certain raw materials. We pretend that what happens to the rest of the world is none of our business, yet foreigners owe the people of the United States more than all our railroads, all our telephone and telegraph lines and all our street railways are worth all put together. We are constantly pleading for world peace. We entered the great war, so we said, to make it a war ’to end wars. Yet we appear to recoil from the mere thought of cooperation with the rest of the nations in a common* effort to make world peace secure. Small wonder, then, that peoples everywhere look upon us with wonder and suspicion and sometimes fear in the face of these conflicting policies. If we really intend to have isolation, we require the mightiest fleet the world has ever seen—a fleet greater than those of any other two powers combined—to make that isolation even half way secure. For against us one day there would surely arise a coalition and we would needs be able to defend ourselves against any such combination and make ourselves self-sustaining over long period of years while we were so doing. Unless we are prepared to go in for such a monster program of armament as this—and, in our opinion there is not one American in a thousand who would stand for it—then we must drop our pose of isolation and evolve a constructive foreign policy based upon world cooperation instead of foy;e. That is what we are going to have to do if we wish to safeguard the Philippines, keep the open door open, protect our fast growing foreign trade and investments and regain our fading prestige abroad. It is the only alternative to another world war. Keeping Out Bananas There is something appealing in the frank and simple selfishness of this latest of our lobbies which seeks to put a tariff on bananas. It isn’t that they wish to encourage, the growing of bananas in the United States. Climate prevents. To any appreciable extent. They want to keep out the banana. They want to keep the banana out so it will not compete with other fruits. So there you are. Here is a cheap nutritious food which even the poor can often afford. At ten cents the dozen they are one of the cheapest and best foods in the market. Keeping them out will not mean that 'the poor family will eat apples at ten cents apiece. It will merely mean that they will not eat bananas. If the tariff is made sufficiently high bananas will be added—the few imported—to the ten cents apiece fruits which are the choice of the family with an unlimited food budget. And such families are about one in ten. That is the heart of the tariff theory. Starve the many and fatten the few. One Court Reform The courts are clogged, and the jury system is inefficient. So run two common complaints against the administration of justice in this country. Yeo Maryland, later Connecticut and now Michigan have in effect a simple system which goes a considerable way toward answering both complaints. For seventy-five years those accused of felonies in Maryland have had the privilege of being tried by a judge (or a panel of three judges) or by jury. Large numbers of them have elected to be tried by the judges. The time, expense and uncertainty of selecting a jury and trying the case before it have been eliminated. Connecticut has had the same system for something like twenty years, and Michigan has lately tried it. It seems simple enough and efficacious enough to warrant consideration by States whose courts are clogged and whose jury system is unsatisfactory. The Boy Must Educate, Too A college education is essential if the boy wishes to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer, but in all cases he must have not only the wish but the will to etudy, according to Father Fox, president of Marquette University. In a recent address Father Fox estimated that of the 600,000 young me* now in college, it would have been better in nearly 100,000 cases if they had never gone. Colleges exist to train the mind by exercising it in study, he said, but much of the present-day rush to colleges is a result of ypung men’s and young women’s preference for the society of other young men and young women to that of their elders. “We guarantee satisfaction,” Father Fox said, “or we return the boy. In every case we mean it is the boy who must provide the satisfaction.” There is a thought for parents whose sons are in college or about to go. Is the boy ready to provide satisfaction? A doctor sewed hairs or. a girl’s head in New York. That makes Nick Longworth a presidential possibility. * That five-day speech of Kemal’s could be done in Turkey, all right, but not in Palestine. Why, if a man talked that long in Palestine his arms would drop right off! te The scofflaws of St. Paul who call up Andy Volstead In the early morning hours to kid him about his famous act may have discovered a method of attack which, if effectively organized, might soon have all professional drys calling quits. At least it might force them to do enough daytime sleeping to prevent them paying much attention to prohibition. News irom Nicaragua reported that the Conservatives had licked the Liberals in most of the municipal elections. Ii was added, parenthetically, that marines closely guarded the polls. Mince-ieat is so popular with Uncle Sam’s sailors that the navy has asked bids for 75,000 pounds of it. And here we had been thinking the sailors made their own mincemeat—of the marines. A statistician figures that Adam would be 5,931 years old now. And he’d probably say that an apple a day did it.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. TRACY SAYS: “A Companionate Marriage Means Nothing; They Might Just as Well Try to Find Out Whether They Can Swim by Sitting on the Beach in Bathing Suits.”

A companionate marriage, such as that sanctioned by Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius in the case of their 18-year-old daughter and her 20-year-old husband proves nothing. It is merely courtship with a marriage certificate at the beginning, instead of at the end. A wedding ceremony brings no knowledge to young people if they go on living as before. They might just as well try to find out whether they can swim by sitting on the beach in bathing suits. # tt u More Worry for ‘Big Bill’ In his second volume of George Washington’s biography, Rupert Hughes opines that Patrick Henry never said, "if this be treason make the most of it,” that “the picture of Washington crossing the Delaware is ridiculous,” that “Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga with rum, not bullets,” that “the credit for designing the American flag belongs to Francis Hopkinson, not to Betsy Ross,” that “the Boston massacre was the work of ruffians and not a deliberate British attack, and that “the revolution was one gigantic civil war with little civil wars going on madly inside everywhere.” Something more for “Big Bill” and his “America first foundation” to worry about. tt u u Unimportant Details American history has grown voluminous. Our library shelves groan with thousands of volumes, the majority of which express some individual viewpoint. Though the basic facts may be well authenticated, there is confusion and disagreement over many of the details, the very unimportance of which should cause us to pass them by rather than quarrel. It really makes no difference what Ethan Allen said when he confronted the British commandant all dressed up in his “undies” aijd no place to go, or what Patrick Henry did not say in flis immortal speech, or whether Betsy Ross originated the design of the Stars and Stripes or patterned it after another’s idea. It does make a difference whether this republic represented anew form of government, anew conception of liberty, anew interpretation of human rights, and it makes still more of a difference, . whether we are acting faithfully toward the original ideals. tt tt tt Prefer Legends to Gossip So far as real respect for the fathers goes, it will be determined by the way we emulate their example, and by nothing else. By and large, the chattering* over such controversies as whether George Washington cut down a cherry tree, whether John Hancock was a smuggler, whether Samuel Adams paid his bills, are of no great consequence. The real object in teaching our children American history is to help them solve present day problems through the application of those standards and principles on which this government rests. It is more important that they understand what the fathers would do about farm relief, flood control, foreign debts and the coal situation than it is for them to be confused with a lot of trivial Incidents. Patriotism, like every other virtue, can only be trusted when it rests on the power to think. Loyalty of the mocking bird kind never protected a State, and never will. a tt Mines Real Problem Putting aside some half a dozen other problems, what would the fathers do about such a plea as the coal miners of Pennsylvania have presented to President Coolidge? What would they do if told that thousands pf policemen and deputy sheriffs were paid and housed at the expense of private corporations, and that courts had issued injunctions which might be construed as frobidding union miners Ur assemble at church If, and when strike breakers were in attendance? a a Issue Stumps England' It is a curious fact that both England and the United States should be facing trouble in the coal industry at this time. England has shown an almost complete Inability to solve the problem. This gives us an obvious opportunity to prove that the American Revolution meant something of vital importance. Busy Tory Chiefs A. J. Cook, secretary of the British miners federation, leads 248 leg-weary followers on a 170mile hike to London only to find that the Tory government has no ears for his petition. The Tory government is too busy thinking of foreign affairs, of plot and intrigue, of where the next European explosion will occur and how it can be used to the advantage and glory of the empire. ~ The Tory government is about the same as it was in 1776, .occupied with dreams of imperialism and lacking time to consider the problem pf human welfare,

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(Elkhart Truth) • (Republican) A Greek myth relates that Pandora, the first mortal woman created by the gods as a revenge upon man for the theft of fire from heaven by Prometheus, was induced by curiosity to open up a certain box, thus letting out into the world all evils and disease. The myth does not describe the color of the box, but it can be presumed that receptacle for so many evils should have been blacksomething like D. C. Stephenson s famous black box. or boxes. The story of Stephenson’s box and its contents does not coinside in all details with the beautiful story related by the Greeks, but it has is resemblances. In the first place, it would appear that the gods, or fate, wanted revenge upon a number of Indiana politicians for something or other, and sought to connect them by rumor with the contents of the black box. Again, doubtless the box is full of evils or accounts of evil doings. But Pandora, in the form of the special prosecutors in charge of the Marion County grand jury political inquiry, no sooner opened the lid of the Stephenson box than she closed it again, and everything was not allowed to escape to the public. The lid was raised just far enough for the contents of alleged letters written by Congressman Ralph Updike and former Mayor John Duvall of Indianapolis, to escape through the crack. Why was it slammed shut and sealed up again with official reticence if thejre is any other evil in it? Why should a Con-

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The Rules 1. The idea of letter golf is to change one word to another and do it in par, a given number of strokes. Thus, to change COW* to HEN, in three strokes, COW, HOW, HEW, HEN. 2. You can change only one letter at a time. 3. You must have a complete word, of common usage, for each jump. Slang words and abbreviations don’t count. 4. The order of letters cannot be changed.

Ml AIRIY MAN V MAtii JD AIN _E D OfN~ E DQ N & plolulg-'

Maybe He Has an Alias

What Other Editors Think

gressman and a former mayor be singled out lor public scorn and silence be kept as to others who might figure in the box’s contents? Rumors have been going about State for months concerning this and that person having been foolish enough to write promises to Stephenson, and if they are true the black box must be a wonderful storage of scandal. The public is entitled to have the lid raised completely, for after being permitted to know a little, it should know all. If certain officials who are said to figure in the black box are innocent, their innocence will be established by throwing, the contents wide open. According to newspaper dispatches, Senator Arthur R. Robinson has expressed the hope that the prosecutor will publish everything in the black box or boxes in order that his name might be cleared from annoying rumor. The Senator relates frankly that on one occasion he and his law partner presented Stephenson with Beveridge’s “Life of John Marshall.” No doubt Stephenson was so busy at the time making his famous collection for (he boxes that he had no time, until later, for heavy reading. (Rensselaer Republican) (Republican) A small girl was shot in the face while she sat at her studies in a rural Indiana school. It was little short of a miracle that she was not killed by careless hunters who were shooting in an adjoining field with no thought of where their ammunition might find lodgement. ’ Every State, every community has its quota of thoughtless hunters who are so intent on killing that they never think of the peril , in which they place others. Hunting seasons are always notable for the mistakes of some of the hunters. It is so much a matter of course to read of accidents and tragedies in the woods and fields in hunting season that

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it has become a subject for the jokeemiths. Probably the human victims of hunting accidents do not see the joke. Neither do the animals that die to furnish sport for men. There are people to whom hunting with firearms does not seem a wholly civilized pastime. And in this generation it is obviously a blundering pastime. The hunting age is gone. (Rushville Republican) (Repubtica) Emerson High School students started something recently when they walked out as protest against bringing Negro students to their building. Now students of the Kouts High School have struck because township authorities refused to build a gymnasium, in which the high school team could play basketball. Encouragement came from the fact that the Emerson students won their point, at least temporarily, when Gary school authorities decided to keep the Negroes out of the Emerson building while they investigated the possibility of erecting a temporary structure for them. The Kouts students figured, logically, that if the pupils of the larger school could succeed they could also win. Discipline is one of the most vital things an adolescent must learn, for the reason that life is discipline. These student strikes give those involved a swelled sense of their own importance and create in their minds the idea that there is no authority that cannot be coerced into yielding. Instead of accepting discipline, they accept the mob principle. There are better ways, always, of settling such difficulties. What countries are included in the term Scandinavia? The term as used today includes only Norway ahd Sweden. An older use included all the lands of the Norsemen, comprising Iceland and Denmark as well as Norway and Sweden.

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NOV. 22, 1927

Mr. Fixit In Need of Sidewalks, Visit Board of Works for Form on Which to Make Application.

Let Mr. Fixit, The Times’ representative at city hall, present your trouolea to city officials, write Mr. Fixit at The Times. Names and addresses which must be given, will not be published. 4 A request to aid a Hamilton Av® resident in getting sidewalks was received today by Mr. Fixit. Dear Mr. Fixit: Will you pleas* help us get our sidewalks fixed. I live on Hamilton Ave. We are getting our home remodeled and fixed up but the walks are bad at the * New York and Hamilton intersection. It is an old brick walk and half the bricks are gone. Can’t be fixed. Unless very careful one frequently stubs his toe and fa’lr. Our homer have cost us a grat deal and we would like to have things look as nice as we can. MRS. B. You should file a petition bearing names of all property owners, asking the board of works to improve the sidewalks. Mr. Fixit could not relieve this situation for you. The board will furnish you a petition blank at its office. Dear Mr, Fixit: Radio reception in my neighborhood is practically a failure on some nights due to some kind of “local interference" that sounds like somebody turned on a great buzzer. Then, too, somebody in the neighborhood who has a “regenerative" set makes a nuisance of himself. Can anything be done to remedy either one or both of these evils? G. R. P„ 2014 Southeastern. This complaint does not fall in the province of Mr. Fixit, Times representative at city hall. However, we are glad to refer you to •- Andrew J. Allen, secretary of Broadcast Listeners’ Associatidh, 1407 Merchants Bank Bldg., who probably can straighten out your difficulties.

Old Masters

I stand upon the summit oi JE\>V years; Behind, the toil, the camp, the march, the strife, The wandering and the desert; 1 vast, afar, Beyond this weary way, behold t the Sear The sea o’erswept by clouds and winds and wings, By thoughts and wishes .manifold, whose breath Is freshness and whose mighty pulse Is peace. Palter no question of the dim Beyond; Cut loose the bark; such voyage Itself is rest, Majestic motion, unimpeded scope, A widening heaven, a current without care. Eternity! Deliverance, Promise, Course | Time-tired souls salute thee from the shore. —Joseph B. Brown: “Thalattal Thalattal”

Questions and Answers

You can get an answer to any questlon 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 and maritM advice cannot be given nor can extended research be undertaken. AU other questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential.—Editor. Is it correct to say “I had my picture took?” | “I had my picture taken” is the j correct form. What debt does the United States owe to foreign nations? | The United States owes no money | to foreign nations.