Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 280, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 March 1928 — Page 4

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SCRI PPJ - H OW A *i>

One Issue Above All One outstanding issue is before the Republican voters of Indiana as they ponder over how they will express their presidential preference at the (State primary May 8. It is: Shall Indiana's thirty-three delegates to the Kansas City convention support Herbert Hoover. a candidate with a record ot‘ years of achievement for his country, or shall they be delivered to James E. Matson,, to be used as swapping material at a midnight bedroom conference of machine politicians? ■Strive as they may, Indianapolis and upstate and down state newspapers have failed signally to find Haws in Hoover's record. Their attempts to establish entangling alliances have fallen miserably flat. Their efforts to raise oil, religious and foreign issues have proved a boomerang. It is significant that they have sought to tear down Hoover, rather than to sing the praises and shout the virtues of James E. \\ atson. For even the most rabid supporter of TV at son would find it difficult to declare that the senior senator from Indiana ever made a decision or took a definite stand or answer to Hie Senate roll call without first basing it all on “What political effect will this have.’'’ If James E. Watson ever has rendered unselfish service to the people of Indiana, uninfluenced by political considerations, bistory is amazingly quiet on the subject. Watson is in power not because of tlie service that he has given, but solely because he has built up a machine of Juggernaut proportions which has rolled over all opposition, a machine which gets its motive power from certain selfish business interests, the Ku-Klux Klan, and other forces of intolerance and greed. The greatest appeal which Herbert Hoover has to the voters of Indiana is that he is not a politician. lie has placed public service first, with no thought of political reward. There will be no surer indication that Indiana means to clean house politically than a sweeping victory for Herbert Hoover on May 8. There will be no surer sign that all this talk of anew deal is empty prattle than a majority for James E. Watson in the primary. Indiana voters must lie on their bed as they make it. Hut it would be more appropriate to call that bed a sty or a kennel if they vote to continue the present Republican leaders in power. Railroads Helping Agriculture The president of the Sanca Fe railroad recently announced that the railroad would pay all the expenses of stock judging teams from each of the twelve States to the Agricultural Congress in Kansas City next fall. That sounds very fine and public spirited, and it is; but, at the same time, it is a good investment for the railroad, too. If the railroad can promote better stock raising in the Southwest, there will be more prosperity and the railroad will make more money. More and more our big business concerns are discovering that they can best help themselves by helping the communities of which they are a part. It is a mighty encouraging sign; a million times better than the old, discarded “public be damned” attitude. Our Fruit Exports When we speak of American exports to other nations we are accustomed to think of automobiles, machinery, grain and such products. It never occurs to us that fruit is an item of any great importance. But Department of Commerce figures for 1927 reveal that the country's fruit exports in that year were worth $60,000,000. Furthermore, they are rising rapidly; the 1927 figure is nearly double the figure for 1923. Apples -led the list, with a value of $30,000,000. Oranges came next, followed in order by pears, grapefruit, grapes and lemons. England, it is interesting to note, is the leading market for the first threg items on the list. America Sprouts Wings How long will it be before flying an airplane is an every-day experience to the average man—before you and I buy airplanes as casually as we now buy automobiles? Probably it will be quite a long time; but, after all, you can’t be sure. A recent issue of a Chicago newspaper contained no less than eight advertisements of schools offering to teach flying. Grouped with them were two advertisements of planes for sale. A news story alongside told of the coming airplane show at Detroit, where more planes will be gathered under one roof than ever before; Signs of the times, these. It looks as if the average American is going to sprout wings rather fast, after all. Oil Men and the Public Doubtless it was unfair that people should assume some additional corruption was about to be disclosed just because the Senate committee learned that Mr. Osier had engineered some kind of a $4,000,000 deal in Liberty bonds aside from the Continental case. But, after all, it was the fault of the oil men. themselves. They have given the public grounds for being suspicious of their every action. Senators Nye and Walsh believe this latest deal of Osier's was purely a private affair, in no way connected with the Teapot Dome affair. Doubtless they, are right. But, we repeat, the oil men have only themselves to blame if some people insist on suspecting otherwise. &

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPFS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (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. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE—MAIN 3500. TUESDAY, MARCH 20. 1928. Member of United Press. Scrtpps-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.

The Subject of “Tainted Money” Senator Borah lias confronted the republic with another pestiferous and vexatious problem; and that is, what to do with tainted money once a political organization is frisked and caught with the goods. That bundle of bonds the grateful Harry Sinclair handed ever to the very receptive Will Hays which conveniently was transformed into cash money, isn't the only tainted money being dangled before the public eye. For instance, there is that $500,000 wad the great five-and-ten moral crusader handed over to the highly moral Anti-Saloon League. If handing back to Sinclair clean money for soiled will purify the Republican national committee, then by the same reasoning the Anti-Salmon League could purify itself and preserve its sanctity by collecting from good prohibitionists, whose morals never got tangled up in a divprcc case, $500,000 perfectly moral money and handing it back to Kresge. < Os course, it must be admitted that there is some difference between Sinclair bonds and Kresge money, and when one begins to get morality and politics mixed he is apt to find himself in a mystic maze. Sinclair didn’t give money to a party committee for the purpose oi making Republicans moral, or to raise the standard ot civic virtue in the land. On the contrary, he invested it like a shrewd business man, or planted it like a farmer plants seed. But no matter what Kresge's personal outlook on the sanctity of the marriage vow might have been, his purpose in giving half a million to the Anti-Saloon League was to make other people moral, righteous and good. Most ol us are that way. We get a vicarious thrill or kick out, of reiorming other people and making them be good in the way we think they ought to be good; and if we can keep busy enough making others be good, we don't have time to waste on being good ourselves. And it wc begin hunting down the source of all money spent tor dubious purposes, it is apt to have a sad effect on the circulation. Senator Borah may succeed in raising $160,000 for Sinclair, but it's a cinch Kresge won't get his $500,000 back. The Anti-Saloon League needs the money for righteous purposes and Sinclair has so much already that he doesn't need Borah's $160,000 at all. In childhood days some parents put soap on the tongue of children who told lies, and slapped the hand of the child that stole cookies or jam. It will be about as effective by way of purification of grafting politicians to slap Sinclair’s hand with a small part of the bundle he gave to buy Teapot Dome. What the Republican party needs now by way of house-cleaning is to drive out the grafters and give party leadership to honest men. All this oil trouble grew out of the vicious policy of-picking presidential candidates in midnight conferences .where political bosses and crooked financial backers got, their heads together and arranged for salve to soothe itching palms. J The success of the conference was made possible by the old army game of tying up Stave delegations by running third-rate favorite sons. Pickett’s Letters The letters written by Gen. George E. Pickett ' C. S. A., to his wife during the Civil War have just! been published by Houghton, Mifflin Company of Boston. One imagines they must be well worth reading. Pickett left a name chat will endure as long as the Civil War is remembered—which is to say as long as America lasts. Other Southern generals were more distinguished for tactical and strategic ability; no one can rank with Lee and Jackson, and no one matches Jcb Stuart or Nathan Forrest for dashing color. But Pickett occupies a niche by himself. The charge of his division at Gettysburg is the climax in the story of the Civil War. To Pickett was given the honor of standing at the high-water mark of the Confederacy. For that reason his name will endure for many, many years. David Dietz on Srienoe __________ An Argument In Greece No. 2 IT began wdth a philosophical argument in ancient Greece over the nature of matter. It is surprising how many of our modern ideas had their inception in the Hellenic groves, where philosophers and their disciples argued about the nature of the universe. Our modern theory of the atom, with all its many ramifications, is one of the things which we must

Could he keep this up forever? You will see that the pieces would become smaller and smaller all the time, soon becoming far smaller than the eye could ever hope to see. One school of philosophers argued that you could keep the process of cutting going on indefinitely. The other school argued that this was not the case. They said that eventually you would reach a stage where you would be dealing with small, hard grains, out of which the gold was formed. These tiny grains, they maintained, could not be cut. Therefore, they called these grains “atomos.” This word was formed from two Greek words, “a,” meaning “not,” aryl “temno,” meaning “to cut.” It meant, therefore, “uncuttable.” Our modern word “atom” is, of course, the same word. These Greeks believed that every substance was formed ’Tom atoms. They explained the difference between solids and liquids by supposing that solids were made from atoms with little hooks which caused them to cling together tightly. Liquids they believed were formed from smooth atoms which moved freely in all directions. It is startling to realize how good an approximation of the truth these ancient Greeks formulated without any experimental data to guide them. The atomic idea dropped more or less out of view during the ensuing centuries. But another idea of the Greeks, as we shall see, motivated the alchemists of the Middle Ages.

BRIDGE ME ANOTHER (Copyright, 1928. bv The Ready Reference Publishing Company) BY W. W. WENTWORTH

(Abbreviations: A—ace; K—king; Q—nueen; J—jack; X—any card lower than 10.) 1. What is the penalty for making an initial bid with less than two ! quick tricks? 2. Should you take out your partj ner's no-trump with major suit | weakness? j, 3. Holding J XX in dummy and | A Q X X X in his own hand how J should declarer finesse? The Answers 1. Six months confinement in the S Sahara. > 2. No. only with strength. : 3. Finesse small from dummy to Q in hand.

Times Readers Voice Views

The name and address of the author must accompany every contribution, but ! on request will not be published. Leti ters not exceeding 200 words will receive I preference. i Editor Times: What is to become of our primary ! law? From present indications, the j, attitude of much of the press and ! many of the candidates, it appears, ito be seriously threatened. It has bitter enemies in both parties. These enemies confidently are hoping to destroy it in Indiana, as they already have succeeded in doing in several other States. In other States where it has been abandoned, the people evidently have been persuaded into believing hat they were too indifferent, to th c importance of the high privilege of determining who should be their | candidates, therefore did not use it. | Also, that they were lacking in in- ■ telligence to enable them to choose candidates best fitted for office Hence without much if any protest, they have lost the primary and returned to the “boss-ridden" conven- | tion. These are the alleged causes for forfeiting the primary: Indifference, and ignorance. The first cause, indifference, is shamefully and sadly j ! too true. The second cause, ignor- | ance, is absolutely groundless and ; infamously insulting. The cause for the spirit of indifference is the fact 1 that the administration of the law has been such that it has failed to inspire confidence and respect for the law. Had the convention system possessed any virtue, it would not have been abandoned. To return to it ] | is to return to whit universally is | conceded to be extremely bad and defective. Only after years of experience with this rotten convention ; system, with its vices and consequent woes, which made it unendurable, did a sense of common decency j ; (always possessed by the majority \ of men), cause them to turn to the primary as a remedy. Now to return to that unbearable political filth and shame is the ! height of folly and a stigma upon I the intelligence of our citizenship.! But the “bosses” and the “would-be-bosses" propose that very thing. j The friends of the primary never iiave claimed it to be a perfect and faultless law. But none dare to challenge the fact that the principle of it is right. The primary recognizes the voter as both sovereign and subject. This is the basic principle in our American democracy. The convention system primarily is assuming an illiterate electorate that easily could become venal voters and that our government is a medium and guise of republican forms, an oligarchy of profligate and flagitious men.

During April and May, 30,000.000 out of a total of 54,000,000 voters will have the right (and it is their duty, too) to indicate at primaries their choice of presidential candidates or convention delegates. There are twenty States that have primaries. This is the greatest weapon that the people have against a "bossridden” convention. God forbid that they should lose it. But unless the people awaken to their opportunity to use this important instrument of our Democracy, the primary surely will be eliminated. There has been no lack of warnings. It does not require a prophet nor a son of a prophet to see that the abrogation of this law is freighted with portentious consequences for evil. GEORGE H. REIBOLD. Danville, Ind. Editor Times: The 8-A class of Whittier School No. 33 wishes to thank you for your kindness in sending us copies of The Times. We found them very interesting and useful. Through them we learn many new things about our hero, Colonel Lindbergh. We enjoyed very much Lindbergh’s successful story “We."' Thanking you again for your courtesy, we remain, THE 8-A CLASS OF SCHOOL 33, Mildred Langdon, Secretary. Questions and Answers You can get an answer to anv answerable question o( (act or information by writing to Frederick M. Kerbv, Question Editor. The Indianapolis Times. Washington Bureau. 1322 New York Ave., Washington. D. C„ enclosing two cents In stamps for reply. Medical and legal advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be made. All other Questions will receive a personal reply Unsigned requests cannot be answered All leters are confidential. You are cordially Invited to make use of this free service as often as you please. EDITOR. What Is the meaning of the name Leona? It is derived from the Latin Leo, which means a lion or lion-like. What is the weight of a yard of stone? It depends upon the kind of stone. Limestone weighs ninety-five pounds per cubic loot; sandstone weighs eighty-two pounds per cubic foot. How do the Seminole Indians in the Florida everglades support themselves? For hundreds of years they have made their living by hunting, traping and fishing. What is “legal tender?” Coin or other money that may be legally offered as payment of a debt.

trace back to that golden era of the world’s history. The question over which the Greeks argued was this: Let us suppose that some sort of su-per-man. cuts a piece of gold in half and then cuts one of the resulting, pieces in half and then repeats that process thousands of times.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

IT was Albertus Magnus who first undertook the task of coordinating the varied works of Aristotle into an encyclopedia of Catholic learning. Albert was a scholar and a saint, a man whose greatness be- ; came almost part of his name, one of those geniuses whose scope is equalled only by their modesty. Born in 1193 of a noble <i. e. congenitally wealthy) Swabian family, he abandoned his Inheritance as Count of Bollstadt, joined the Dominican order, came to Paris in 1228. taught there in that Rue Maitre Albert (near Notre Dame), which still bears his name, and then passed on to lecture at Cologne whence his fame spread to all the Christian world. Through his long life of honor and achievement, as philosopher. Provincial, and Bishop of Regensburg. he persisted in the poverty and simplicity of the early monks: he held nothing as his own, not even his manuscripts, and walked barefooted on his journeys through the vast bishopric he ruled. For fifty years he held to his purpose, to reduce all Christian knowledge to orderly and consistent form, with Aristotle as his guide; it is a sign of the hold which the Stagyrite yet had upon the philosophic mind that Santayana, in our own time, has modestly limited his own majestically-phrased philosophy to the application of Aristotle to the problems of our day. Here, in Albertus: Opera, or Works, we find everything: in the first volume, logic; in the second, physics, astronomy, metorology and mineralogy; in the third, metaphysics; in the fourth, ethics and politics; in the fifth, psychology and vegetables (De vegetabilibus—let us say, with more dignity, a treatise on botany); then several volumes of commentaries on the Bible; then two volumes on theology, one “On the Creation,” and one on the Virgin Mary. No man lias read them all, except perhaps in Dominican loyalty; and the reader does not have to be told that he need not read them now. They belong to another world—as great as ours, but unintelligibly different: and in all those patiently accumulated tomes only three words concern us: “Experimentum solum certificat"—(Only experiment can give certainty.) Far off in England, in,a Franciscan monastery, another monk, called Roger, would soon say the same thing; not in a sentence lost in twenty volumes, but with a passionate iteration that would shake the world. a a a 11. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS THOUGH Albert did not himself follow the clear principles which he laid down, it was good to have it uttered; and though his philosophy followed Aristotle’s slavishly, it was invaluable that once again a man should reason, and raise in the minds of Christians the hope that their faith might bear the sharpest scrutiny of knowledge. Bonaventure might carry on Anselm’s hope that men would believe even where they could not understand; but Thomas of Aquin would come forth boldly and undertake, with reason alone, to prove every Christian doctrine to the heaten world. This was the historic role of scholasticism: that it would try by reason to demonstrate the Faith, and so, by failing, liberate reason to try in its turn to build a civilization. Abelard was to win after all. The greatest of the scholastics was born near Monte Cassino, in southern Italy, in the year 1225. His father was the Count of Aquinum, and his mother too was of aristocratic lineage, having in her the blood of Norman princes of Sicily. His family raged when he joined the Dominicans; they had hoped that he would be another count, and not disgrace the family by becoming a philosopher. A monk at 18, at 20 he was assistant to Albert at Cologne; and Albert's nobility never shone so brightly as in the love which he bore to his pupil even

There's Not So Much Love for It!

THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION Saints Put Reason in Christianity Written for Thc Times by Will Durant

when Thomas had surpassed him. After four years with Albert, Acquinas went to Paris, and was made full professor there, at the unprecedented age of 25. From that time to the end of his brief life he toiled with a diligence that endeared him to his fellows, in that task of making reason Christian. which was to be the first step in thc far greater task of making Christianity reasonable. He lived but twenty-four years more, dying at the age of 49; but in those fleeting years of what today would be philosophic immaturity, he encompassed all the knowledge of his time, and produced, as Henry Adams puts it, “a mass of manuscript that tourists will never know enough to estimate except by weight." a m a HE was a stout man, and had some difficulty at meals; he had not been architecturally designed with a view to sitting at a table, and gossip said his table had a semi-circ'e cut into it so that he might get r ear enough to eat. Nevertheless he sat at his desk resolutely, hour after hour, year after year, carving a cathedral of logic in which his mind, as well as his heart, might worship; and when weariness assailed him he would turn back to his pursuit of reason.

With Other Editors

Terre Haute Tost John W. Esterline, chairman of the Indianapolis city manager league, told a State-wide city manager meeting that “Indiana slowly is slipping behind the Nation in the march of progress of American cities.” That's a challenge to Hoosier cities that must be met. A few Indiana cities have met it by discarding the old mayor-council system and Installing the city manager system. Indianapolis voted five to one for the city manager plan, but can not install it until 1930. The voters of Vigo County should not forget the part that Senator Sims of Vigo County has played in the city manager setup in Indiana, When the last Legislature was in session strong movements for the city manager plan were on in Evansville and Indianapolis. The thinking and progressive citizens in these cities were tired of boss rule. The politicians in the saddle in these cities figured out a scheme to block the city manager sentiment. An amendment to the city manager law was prepared which made it impossible for a city to install a city manager form of government until the incumbent administration had served out its term. That amendment was fostered by Senator Sims of Vigo County. It was passed in the house and senate and became law with the signature of Governor Jackson. That means that Indianapolis, Evansville, Terre Haute can not have a manager form of government until January, 1930. That amendment also means that if Terre Haute or any other Indiana city hasn’t voted for a city manager and isn’t otherwise ready to install it by 1930 they are barred from putting in the plan for another four years, or until 1934. The passage of this amendment is one reason why Indiana cities are “slipping behind the nation in the progress of American cities.” Kokomo Dispatch An amusing thing if it were not serious enough, possibly, to fool a few voters here and there, is the antics of some politicians and newspapers in Indiana seeking to discredit the candidacy of Herbert Hoover for the Republican presidential nomination. It is amusing to those who know the motives behind these tactics; realize the hidden meaning of it all, and compare the personal quali-

Philosophy was everything to him, the world a vain garment of reality; wherever he went, its problems were with him; and one day when he was a guest of the king, and the talk was all of hunting and hounds, Thomas interrupted suddenly to say, with inspired countenance: “I have a decisive argument against the Manicheans!" Philosophia magister vitae: philosophy was, in no mere phrase, the master of his life. He began with commentaries on the various works of Aristotle, and then passed on to his two masterpieces—the “Summa contra Gentiles,” and the “Summa Theologiae.” In the first of these he puts aside all authority of revelation and tradition, and though he does not fail to point out the scriptural and ecclesiastical support of his doctrine, he proposes to rely on reason and evidence alone in his attempt to demonstrate to the “Gentiles”— those who had not yet accepted Catholic Christianity—the reasonableness of the orthodox faith. To our minds it seems a failure; but it was a magnificent failure, like Spinoza's effort to /educe a living universe to mechanics and geometry; there is something sublime even when life and truth have left them. (Copyright, 1928. bv Will Durant) (To Be Continued)

ties and the qualifications of the secretary of commerce with the feeble qualities and qualifications of his attackers. It is as though a dwarf were challenging the side-show giant to battle. Mr. Hoover is not, of course, an eminent politician—merely an eminent, although very human person. The chances are that those who are assailing him could give him cards and spades and beat him in the political casino game, but there is quite a common belief that maybe a good many of the old rules of politics are going by the board this year.

LIOINIG Hi A1 I 113.

The Rules 1. The idea of letter golf is to change one word to another and do it in par, or 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. Youmust 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.

Blaltlh IAH _R A.X JL R. OH rToible

M ARCH 20,1928

M. E. TRA C Y SAYS: “More Cities Would Adopt Municipal Ownership of Tra nsportat ion Syste i8 Were It Not for the t ear That They Would Become Obsolete Before the Ink Dried, on the Deeds of Transfer

Transportation is one of the biggest problems faced by thc modern city. Most people realize its physical, financial and political difficulties. What they do not realize, but what remains a constant source of confusion is thc element of human ingenuity. Because transportation as applied to the modern city is the product of invention, it continues to be the victim of invention. No sooner has one system been perfected than it faces ihe risk of being wrecked by improvement. Horse cars were replaced by the electric cars within thirty years, and now comes the bus. The chronic wrangle over rates, revenues and valuation is rooted in the effort of private companies to make their pile before some innovation puts the system out of business. More cities would adopt municipal ownership of transportation systems were it not for the fear that they would become obsolete before the ink dried on the deeds of transfer. What brains might do to existing tracks, vehicles and power production scares everyone. ana Semi-Aerial Lines The proposal to install semi-aerial transportation lines in Paris is a vivid example of what may happen. The vehicle to be operated on these lines is a cross between an underslung cable car and an airplane. It will be suspended from pulleys running on a monorail, supported by towers some 500 feet apart, and will be pulled by an airplane propeller. It is said to be capabe of a speed of two miles a minute. The cost of such a line, with all necessary accessories and equipment, is estimated at about onetenth of that of the average subway. tt n n New York’s Problem New York's transportation problem, about which so much noise is being made just now, would be much easier to solve if every one concerned were not afraid of such innovations as this Paris venture. The bug under thc chip consists of absolute knowledge that some parts of the New York system have become obsolete and must soon be abandoned, coupled with a pretty good idea that others are doomed to a similar fate. So far as surface appearances go, the rumpus would seem to amount to no more than a struggle over the fare question. But that is due to a smoke screen of law and politics. The real issue is who can get out from under, and who will be left to hold the bag. ana Fear of Scrap Heap Private companies would like to get rid of those lines that are going out of date and losing revenue, but those are just the ones the city does not want to take. Get that idea straight, and you have fathomed the controversy. New York surface cars are losing traffic, elevated lines do not pay well, subways show increased earnings and busses are becoming mere common. Those who own stock In one or another of the operating companies see which way the wind is blowing and work accordingly. Some lines probably are headed for the scrap heap. Others promise bigger returns than ever, provided some inventor does not do to them what Henry Ford did to Old Dobbin. What New York needs for guidance is engineers, not politicians. nun Marvel of Safety Wherever the engineer has been let alone, he has made a good job of it. Last year the New York transportation lines carried more than three billion passengers, with not a single death and only fourteen injuries. So far as safety goes, the New York transportation system looks like the biggest thing man has ever achieved. Outside of that, it looks like the biggest mess. nun Municipal Ownership New York is headed for municipal ownership, or such centralized control as will amount to the same thing in her transportation system. She has come to a point where lack of unification and conflict of interest promise too much disturbance to be tolerated. With half a dozen private companies struggling for existence, with the city financing the subways through which they run, and holding the bag, if they lose, with unification inevitable and no private concern big enough or bold enough to undertake it, with the public committed to a nickel fare, no matter what happens, with most of the transportation workers underpaid and labor troubles constantly threatening and with unscrupulous politicians ready to take advantage of any and all developments, New York faces a difficult situation. ana influence on U. S. It is a situation, however, which goes with the modern city and which rapidly is assuming a more and more important part in city development. How New York meets it will have a profound influence throughout the country and how the country meets it will have a profound influence on the drift of things.