Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 209, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1928 — Page 4

PAGE 4

SCR! PPJ-NOW AMD

A Call to Duty What former Congressman Fred Landis asked of the members of American Legion should be passed along to all other good citizens. He merely asked that they take an intelligent interest in honest government and furnish leadership with a conscience. He asked the Republicans to fumigate their elephant and the Democrats to change the backbone of the donkey from rubber to bone. “\Ve put out the cat and went to bed when we passed the primary law,” is his way of describing the situation which permitted the Klan and the Anti-Saloon League and little groups to take control of the government. It might be added that this year it will be very necessary for the people to be on guard against those who will try to get into office who have no very high motives but who will hope to mislead by a preteqse of fumigation in Republican circles and a false show of courage in the Democratic side of the political battlefield. The situation is one which invites demagogues. It is made to order for the trickster. / The people have pretty well determined that the old order must go and are looking for salvation from the shame which has been theirs. It may be assumecl that there will be very many Demcorats who were silent in the years when they should have voiced opposition now ready to denounce and wax indignant at the rape of the State. It requires no courage now for men of that party to come out into the open and denounce Stephensonism and the life term convict for iniquities. The people will be very wise if they can apply a few tests to those who seek office on that ticket and ask what those who ask for confidence were doing when there was need of courage and of leadership. . Fumigating the elephant is a popular pastime in Republican circles, so popular that •Senator James Eli Watson assumes the role of chief health officer for the party and is looked upon to tell his followers what must be done to be saved. There will be a reorganization of the machinery of that party this week when the indicted chairman of the party in this State retires from office and the State committee names anew leader. The people will be able to judge a little of whatever sincerity may be found within the present leadership of that party by the manner and methods of selecting a leader for the party. Will there be chosen a man brave enough to denounce any new Stephenson who may arise to challenge decent government in the State? Or will there be picked a man whose chief purpose will be to deliver the votes of Indiana in a national convention to the hands of Watson, who may trade them as he sees fit when the Old Guard meets in the small hours to pick a presidential candidate who will recognize his master's voice if he arrives at the AVhite House? . It would be rather a pity if the people, after the big battle for decency, found that they had arrived no farther than the tents of the sutlers. This is a great year. It is the year Avhen men of courage are needed. It is the year when the fakirs and the tricksters wi},l operate and attempt once more to fool the people. Will both parties have the wisdom to ask any man who offers his services to the public exactly what he was doing when all the shooting was going on?

Our Next President and the Nicaraguan Canal It is now only a question of time before the United States must begin work on a second inter-ocean canal across Central America. Already the Panama canal is outgrowing its capacity and plans are on foot to enlarge it. But while this should, by all means, be done to take care of the constantly increasing stream of commercial shipping, it fails utterly to solve the still more important problem which has to do with the National defense. In the event of war against the United States, experts agree, Panama would be difficult to safeguard. For while the danger of actual capture is negligible, the canal, by the very nature of things, could be quickly put out of commission in any one of half a dozen different ways leaving it worthless so far as the Navy is concerned. A fleet bottled up in the Atlantic, if needed in the Pacific, or in the Pacific if needed in the Atlantic, would be equivalent to no fleet at all. A second string to the navy’s bow is needed down there and a Nicaraguan canal would be such a string. We are now about to spend $800,000,000 on our Navy. Yet the Navy's tactics are based on the existence of one tiny waterway which, in a twinkling, could be destroyed by a resourceful enemy. Thus a second canal, in time, will pay its way commercially, would be well worth its cost meanwhile, purely as insurance on our national safety. And certainly our country rates this insurance. We are worth over $400,000,000,000, twice as much as England, France, Italy and Japan combined. We have 20,000,000 tons, or $3,000,000,000 worth of merchant shipping. Our overseas trade amounts to nearly $10,000,000,000 a year, or more than all the property in the United States was worth at the close

The Indianapolis Times (A SCBIPFS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and oubllshed dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-2201? Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price In Marlon County. 2 cents —lO cents a week: elsewhere. 3 cents—l 2 cents a week. / BOYD GURLEY. BOY W. HOWARD. PRANK O. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE—MAIN 3500. MONDAY. JAN. 9. 1928. Member of 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.

of the Civil War. Foreign nations owe us $25,000,000,000—a stake in foreign countries greater than we had in our own country sixty years ago. Our overseas possessions, our investments abroad, our shipping and foreign trade facilities alone are worth no less than $50,000,000,000. Destroy these and you destroy our prosperity and our unparalleled standards of living. Britain, with no more to insure than we, not only maintains the greatest navy in the world but the greatest chain of canals and naval bases to support that navy. Gibraltar makes the straits under Gibraltar’s guns a British canal and the Mediterranean Sea into a British lake. Then there are Malta, the Suez Canal, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Hongkong, pape Town, Bermuda, Tripidad, Jamaica, the Falklands, and so on, to protect her overseas wealth. Our coastwise commerce may legitimately be compared with Britain’s inter-empire trade which, she claims, is why she must have a powerful navy and convenient bases. The distance between Massachusetts and California is about that between India and Australia. From England to India is about the same distance as from Maine to Seattle. Our coastwise trade, approximately 100,000,000 cargo tons per annum, about equals all our import and export tonnage combined in the ships of all flags. And, most surprising of all, this purely domestic ocean-going business of ours exceeds by ten per cent the value of the total foreign trade of Great Britain herself. Here, then, is something well worth insuring. Our cotton, oil, Lumber, Steel, Grain, fruit and other trade depends largely upon freedom of the seas—in other words upon a naval establishment, shore stations and all, second to none. In addition, the United States has vast obligations, duties and interests both In the Atlantic and in the Pacific. Notably it has the Monroe doctrine to uphold, a policy which underwirtes the security and independence of the entire western world—two whole continents, North and South and Central America and the countries of the Caribbean Sea. This, in Itself, is a tremendous and imperative undertaking. Today the backbone of our national defense, the defense of our vital interests as outlined above, is the Navy. And the keystone of the whole naval edifice is the Panama Canal—that narrow ditch of water over which mountainous headlands of loose earth hang menacingly, ready to block with a slide the passage of our ships, and whose six delicately controlled locks afford a facile and Inviting target for an enemy’s bombs. We are putting too many eggs in ?oo frail a basket. Nicaragua offers us another and, contrary to certain tales more lurid than true, both sides in Nicaragua are eager to have us make use of it. So here is another problem which our next President, to be nominated and elected this year, will have to face. It is another of the national Issues which, as this and other Scripps-Howard newspapers recently pointed out In a general statement of policy, must claim our attention during the coming campaign.

Privileges for Coal Operators Senator Copeland and Representative Jacobstein of New York, propose that Congress exempt the soft coal operators of the country from the provisions of the Sherman anti-trust act. This, they believe, might pave the way for cooperative associations of operators which would serve to set the grossly mismanaged industry in order. Such a proposal has at least two weaknesses. One is the assumption that the Sherman anti-trust law, at present construed by the United States Supreme Court, prevents any cooperative efforts among industrialists which, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, could be called legitimate. In recent trade association cases, brought under the terms of that law, the Supreme Court has validated virtually everything in the way of industrial cooperation, short of actual agreements to fix output and prices. The Copeland-Jacobstein proposal would not authorize price fixing agreements, but it would make them easier to effect. The other weakness in the proposal is that it involves special governmental dispensations to a group of men who have shown little disposition to cooperate with each other, their employes or the public. When Labor Secretary Davis recently pleaded with the leading soft coal operators of Ohio and Pennsylvania to counsel with him and representatives of organized labor about the disgraceful industrial situation around their mines, most of them flatly refused. When the soft coal operators give evidence of a desire to cooperate in the solution of the country’s most persistently glaring economic problem and find themselves clearly blocked by the Sherman anti-trust act, there may be occasion to modify the act. A psychologist says the modern girl Is adept at concealing her feelings. Well, the modern girl surely should be expected to conceal something. The Government wants more college men to take up aviation. Or aviation to take up more college ment, it doesn’t make any difference. An arctic explorer says Laplanders rub noses when they meet. Americans rub fenders. Nature balances things. It is hard for a felloe to keep above suspicion when his stock gets below par, Don’t Judge too quickly. It is difficult to get the goods on the modern girl—that is, more than a yard or two. The hardest thing in the world to hold, besides a royal flush, is your own. Biologists devote a great deal of their time to cell life—criminal courts too little. Be circumspect. One of the disadvantages of being a recognized liar is you may want to tell the truth sometimes. Economist: A fellow who spends all his money trying to figure out how to save a little of it. i You can’t always tell. Just because a man is using flowery language is no sign he is handi-~ out bouquets.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

BRIDGE ME ANOTHER . (Copyright. 1927, by The Ready Reference Publishing Company.) BY W. W. WENTWORTH

(Abbreviations: A—ace; K—king; Q—queen; —jack; X—any card lower than 1— What punishment is imposed in Kahara for failure to draw trumps? 2 Why should you watch all discards? 3At what point in the game is bluffing permissible? The Answers 1— Death by having tricks shot at the culprit. 2 They give valuable information as to position of cards. 3 Toward the end, forcing opponents to discard high cards of a suit so that your small cards may make a trick.

Mr. Fixit Indiana Ave. Fall Creek Bridge Will Be Repaired, City Engineer Promises After Complaint of Mo~ torist Who Cut Tire.

Let Mr. Flxlt. The Times’ representative at city hall, present your troubles to city officials. Write Mr. Flxlt at The Times. Names and addresses which must be given will not be published. You can’t All a hole in paving with dirt and expect it to stay there. “Reader’’ says this in his letter complaining a member of his family cut a tire in a hole in Indiana Ave. bridge over Fall Creek. “It needs repairing,” he suggested. City Engineer A. H. Moore agreed with him and ordered the repair gang to get busy. Dear Mr. Fixit—ls there any way we can get gas and water installed In Rowland Ave.? The city board of works ordered this street improved over three months ago and today it is impassable almost. Our taxes are as high as any other township and we have absolutely no city benefits. We want gas and we want city water and we would like garbage collection in the summertime. I believe we have thfe cooperation of the Indianapolis Water Company and the Citizens Gas Company, but that is all. Any information or help you can give us will be greatly appreciated. B. H. M. File petitions for gas and water with the works board. Requests for cinders as follows have been turned over to the street commission, who promised aid: Alley north of Tenth from Summerset to Olin Aves.; 700 block in S. Drexel Ave.

Questions and Answers

You can get an answer to any question of fact or Information by writing to The Indianapolis Times Washington .Bureau, 1322 New York Ave.. Washington, D. C.. Inclosing 2 cents In stamps for reply. Medical, legal and marital advice cannot be given nor can extended research be undertaken. AH other questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential.—Editor. Was there an earthquake in Jerusalem recently? An earthquake occurred at Jerusalem July 11, 1927, shortly after 3 p. m. The reports received were meager and indicate that between 200 and 300 were killed, about 1,000 persons were Injured and the property damage amounted to around $2,000,000. What Is “mountain sickness?" It occurs in the rarified air at high altitudes. It is characterized by hemorrhage of the nose, nausea and sometimes by bleeding at 'the ears. What Is the absolute zero of temperature? It is that point at which a body would be wholly deprived of-heat, and at which a perfect gas would exert no pressure. From the standpoint of the kinotic theory this would be the temperature at which all motions of the hydrogen molecules would cease. It is supposed to be 273 degrees below zero Centigrade. What name was given to the type of bombs thrown by the Germans in the photoplay “The Big Parade” by the American troops? “Potato mashers.” What is the annual production of plate glass in the United States? In 1926 the production was 165,380,000 square feet. Polished plate glass totaled 117,369,000 square feet.

SIPI I IRIE ploi i Inlt

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 on 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 can not be changed.

W| I |R|E W O__R.E _B__o__R__E_ B OW N BURN,

THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION Democratic Rome Becomes An Empire " Written for The Times by Will Durant

CARTHAGE had been founded by the Phoenicians eight centuries before Christ. Five hundred years latec it had become a city of a mil lion people, busy with industry and trade, and strategically situated on an African promontory that reached out toward Sicily as if symbolizing that land-hunger which runs like a theme of death through the sound and fury of martial history. Inheriting from the restless Phoenicians their knowledge of ships and the sea, the Carthaginians sailed not only the Mediterranean, but even the stormy Atlantic as far as England. Arming these ships as men of war, they closed the Straits of Gibraltar, and all the western Mediterranean, to non-Carthaginian trade. As long as Rome was weak, and tilled her soil in rural simplicity and content, she saw no great harm in these all-too-human moves. But when she needed silver, and found the richest source of supply—the mines of Spain—controlled and monopolized by Carthage; when her trade grew and spread, only to find Carthaginian gunboats telling it where it might go and where it might not; when Roman commerce with Greece, the Orient, passing through Messina (as Germany’s trade passed hrough the English Channel), found Carthage established in Sicily, capable at any moment of stifling Roman trade by closing that last

Mancie Press (Republican) Although there is need of a change in the Indiana law governing the authority of the State tax board as it affects the control of cities’ expenditures, as we here in Muncie have seen, it would be unfortunate from the standpoint of the il the board's powers were to be seriously affected; so the outcome of the suit decided by the Circuit Court in South Bend, yesterday, will be watched with interest. There Judge Deahl rendered a sweeping opinion that the Legislature which enacted a law permtting the board to revise downward but not upward the budgets of local taxing units, had no authority to enact a law of that kind. . In other words if this decision were to stand, there would be no outside control of the expenditures of a village, town, township or county, and grafting and incompetent local officers could tax the people of their community to the limit every year if so minded. The State tax board since 1921, when it was authorized to scale down the budget of local taxing units has saved the taxpayers of Indiana many millions of dollars and Muncie and Delaware County have been among the principal beneficiaries of the law. It is, of course, impossible to discuss this decision intelligently without a full text of the opinion before us, but on the surface of things the ruling appears to conflict with the well-established principle that any smaller corporation within a State is merely a creature of the commonwealth; that is, that its government is derived from the authority of the State government and is amenable to the latter. In general the cities, counties, townships, and towns govern themselves only through the delegated authority of the State. Under such a theory it would seem to be certain that the Legislature would have the power to create a commission whose findings would be sujerior to those of any of the constituent units of the State government. Doubtless it will be found, however, that in the opinion of the judge in this case the constitutional rights cf the taxpayers in some manner have been invaded by the legislative act creating the State tax board. An appeal has been taken to the Court by Attorney GenHll Gilliom and until this appeal

4 Among My Souvenirs 1

avenue; then Rome secretly prepared, gathered her forces, and in 264 B. C„ declared war. We shall not speak of these “Punic Wars,” which waxed and waned recurrently from 264 to 146 B. C.; nor even of Hannibal, the brave young Carthaginian, what at the age of 25 marched an army through Spain and over the Alps, defeated the Romans at Cannae, yielded to them fifteen years later at ama, and died by his own hand when he saw his city’s independence gone. an For more than a century the struggle raged, punctuated now and then with a temporary peace, and the peace disturbed by Cato’s violent demands that Carthage be destroyed. Finally the Romans laid siege to Carthage, blockading its ports and shutting it in from th’ rest of Africa. For months the Carthaginians fought and starved, until of a half million people only 50,000 were alive. The Romans broke in through the gates at last, hacked their way through a six-days’ resistance from street to street, sold all the survivors into slavery, burnt every building in the city to the ground and asked the gods (of Rome, for the gods always belong to some small portion of the human race) to curse any man who should dare to build upon the ruins. Carthage gone, Rome turned west and subjugated Spain, working its

What Other Editors Think

is decided the South Bend decision will not, of course, affect other communities. South Bend Tribnnt (Republican) The finding of a judge sitting in the Pennsylvania Superior Court that no law was violated when a faith healing pvactitioner advised an insomnia victim to sprinkle salt in his shoes and bed is a triumph for the common people. The court ruled, in effect, that the advice was tinged with foolishness, but .decided that foolishness is no crime. This makes us all breathe easier, because if we refrained from doing anything that is not dictated by common sense we might find time hanging heavily on us. The fact that a cure for insomnia was the object of search makes the decision more pertinent. Most insomnia sufferers will contend that no remedial suggestions are foolish, no matter how much they conflict with the ideas of their neighbors who can woo sleep without effoit. An insomnia victim will try anything whether it is putting salt in the bed or reclining under the bed. However, it appears that the Pennsylvania practitioner laid himself open to a charge of cruelty when he suggested the use of salt. We can think of nothing less conducive to sleep than a salty couch unless it be one shared by a person addicted to cracker eating in bed. Cincinnati Enquirer (Independent) Whatever may be the outcome of the suit filed by Attorney General Arthur L. Gilliom, of Indiana, ,for the ousting of the Ku-Klux Klan order from his State, the country generally, it may be believed, will applaud his effort and wish him Godspeed in his courageous action. Gilliom is a real leformer. He distinguished himself by defying these twin iniquities of the present day—the Anti-Saloon League and the masked order which together brought upon the great State of Indiana so much of contumely, odium and disrepute. He called to account the man who assumed on the part of the league to libel courts and outface distinguished Senators from that State and sent the most powerful Klan representative in the commonwealth to the penitentiary for murder, where he still abides. The attorney general maintains that the Klan should be ousted and condemned, because it

silver mines with Carthaginian slaves. Unrivalled now on the sea, she turned east at her leisure, conquered Greece (146 B. C.), and nearly all of the Asiatic realms that had fallen under Alexander's rule. Egypt, without waiting for a battle, acknowledged herself a vassal of Rome. The republic became an empire, and at once began to decay. The Senate, heretofore successful under the stimulus of victory or death, was now corrupted with provincial spoils. The Senators appointed to govern the conquered peoples brought to them the Pax Romana (or Roman Peace), stopped their petty wars, established religious freedom, and gave each kingdom and administration better than it had had before. Roads and bridge? were built, trade flourished, and .’ife was made comparatively secure. As the slaves came in, the yeomanry disappeared. Rich men bought up the farms, united them into large estates, and turned them over to be tilled by listless serfs, upon whose backs they branded with hot irons the symbol of their owner. Soon the soil under such careless husbandry lost its fertility, and the ultimate basis of a sound economic and political life was sapped away. When Caesar was bom only 2,000 persons in all Rome owned land. (Copyright, 1927. by Will Durant.) (To Be Continued)

fraudulently won its charter by concealing the real purpose of the order. He issists that this organization now holds ten millions of dollars worth of property upon which it pays no taxes and asks the appointment of a receiver to administer this wealth and for an injunction to prevent the Klan from further functioning as such on the soil of the State. For more than a year this official has been putting the Klan on the defensive by his militant attacks. He has disclosed the political power and motives of the order; has exploded its claims to “pure patriotism” and fidelity to the constitution, pointing to its repudiation of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, particularly,. The^complaint filed by the attorney general also discloses that more than $2,000,000 has been collected in membership fees, the most of which went to enrich officers of the order. Doubtless many good and respectable people in Indiana became members of this organization, as the attorney general claims, because they were deluded into believing that it was what it represented itself to be to the State. But the revelations of the past few years and the history of the order in Indiana must have disillusioned these citizens. It is to be hoped by all really patriotic citizens throughout the country that this public official is adding a successful finishing touch to his great work of breaking the back of the malign and dangerous influences which have so disgraced the State of Indiana in recent past years. How much nicotine is contained in tobacco? The quantity varies from 2 to 8 per cent, the coarser kinds containing the larger quantity, while the best Havana cigars seldom contain more than 2 per cent and sometimes less. Turkish tobacco contains scarcely any. From what did the St. Barnard dog develop? The breed developed from an unknown origin at the hospice of St. Bernard in the Alpine pass of that name. Who composed the music for “The Silver Slipper?” Leslie Stuart in 1901. From what is the word aviation derived? From “avis” meaning “a bird.”

_JAN. 9, 1928

M. E. TRA C Y SAYS: “Even the Earth’s Greatest Financial Center Would Rather Bet on the Advice of a Couple of Men in Whom It Has Confidence Than on What It Thinks It Knows.”

Disclosure that brokers have gone to the banks for as much as three billion dollars gave the bears a chance to yell “wolf” at Wall Street last week and they were quick to make the most of it. Thursday and Friday saw stocks tumble in such a selling campaign as scared the timid and alarmed some who were not so timid. Ti en President Coolidge came to the rescue with a few well chosen words, while WilliarirC. Durant explains that instead of worrying everyone ought to be thankful that the banks had so much money to loan and such a good place in which to loan it. Saturday found the market struggling back to normalcy, with what had promised to become a serious raid virtually stopped by two brief, but reassuring statements. The moral of this episode is that even the earth’s greatest financial center would rather bet on the advice of a couple of men in whom it has confidence than on what it thinks it knows. b b b Hotel Owners Get Break Kansas City hotel keepers and the Republican committee in charge of arrangements have agreed that the former will be permitted to raise their rates by 25 per cent during the convention. The hotel keepers wanted a little better break, but were told that it was not in line with what had been promised. As in all such cases, the hotel keepers had been taxed along with other commercial interests to help raise the fund necessary to get the convention. Trial Balloons Go Up Ever since “Old Hickory” left the heel marks of his elevated feet on a White House fireplace it has been customary for Democrats to celebrate his birthday with a dinner. In President years the piece de resistance is usually made up of trial balloons to test the strength of candidates and issues. That is precisely what we may look for Thursday night. Friday morning should find the atmosphere clearer, especially with regard to candidates. Senator Reed, of Missouri, is scheduled to be present, but unless all signs fail, Governor Smith, of New York, who is not scheduled to be present, will have a monopoly of the bouquets. n Hoover Campaign Gaining The Hoover campaign certainly is gaining and that, too, without Hoover himself doing much of anything to help it along. New York is slowly but definitely slipping away from Charlie Hillis, who still wants an uninstructed delegation; New Jersey practically has gone over to the Hoover camp; Ohio almost certain to refuse a solid delegation to Frank Willis because of Hoover support, and the three Republican representatives from Kentucky have come squarely out for Hoover. * The drift of events In this respect is not what many of the leaders wahted or looked for, and in that, more than anything else, lies the evidence of its strength.

Alien Property Bill The alien property bill now before Congress calls for the return of 80 per cent of the property of German nationals seized during the war and the retention of 20 per cent of guarantee payment of American claims by the German government. Some Congressmen think all the property should be returned, in accordance with the traditional American policy, while others think a greater percentage should be returned. Germany’s inability to meet her obligations, except by small installments spread over a long period of years is the real issue. tt u u Claims Against Germany Back of this issue is one of those complicated and tangled situations which usually grow out of war and in which the interests of governed citizens usually are confused. During the war, Gerjnany nos only injured many American citizens and concerns, but property belonging to the United States. During the war, also, the United States seized and sequestered a vast amount of property belonging to German citizens and concerns. Germany has agreed to pay such claims on the part of this Government and its citizens as might be allowed by a commission, while this Government has agreed to return the property seized when these claims have been satisfied. tt tt tt Whittle Down Debs Five years ago, a commission with Judge Edwin B. Parker of Texas as umpire was appointed to consider and adjust the claims. Some 12,000 claims were filed by the Government and citizens of this country against Germany involving a total of nearly $1,500,000,000. About one-half of them were dismissed by the commission, while more than 1,000 voluntarily were withdrawn. With the exception of 286, all the rest have been adjusted, and the amount which Germany will be called upon to pay has been whittled down to about one-eighth of which originally was demanded, or $180,000,000. Germany cannot pay even this comparatively small amount in less than seventy or eighty years, as the two governments have agreed so that it becomes necessary for the United States to satisfy the claims of individuals and private firms if they are to receive compensation immediately.