Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 238, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 February 1929 — Page 8

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Coffinism If any guileless member of the legislature, who has been voting as a matter of “party” regularity with the machine politicians of this county, has any curiosity as to just what Coffinism means, let him read the report of the grand jury on the poor house. The members have listened to glib spokesmen for Coffinism, blustering and foaming with baseless charges, trying to defeat one measure which would take away from the political machine the care and custody of the indigent, the unfortunate, the crazed. The members know that the measure to provide a control of all such institutions in this county and the distribution of all funds for the needy away from the Coffin machine, is being fought most bitterly by the machine. The reason is now disclosed by the report of the grand jury which should convince even the most skeptical that Coffinism in its practices and its methods is a hideous, cruel, ghoulish system. It begins at the cradle with its pillage and it follows through poverty, to the very grave for its plunder. The poor farm is the stupid, cruel, but very necessary institution supported by the people to house those unable to care for themselves. To it come the aged, the helpless, the suffering. To its care are given the derelicts, the victims of industry, the weaklings of societyhut human beings, with feelings,'emotions, appetites. The grand jury charges that these unfortunates are fed on the coarser fooci while the machine appointees, who draw salaries for caring for these wards, live upon the fats. °lt charges that the milk from the fine herd of dairy cows is skimmed for inmates so that the political cogs of Coffinism may hate the cream. It charges that these unfortunates raise the vegetables in summer—but never eat them. It charges that the inmates care for thenown sick. The one explanation is that the salaried attendants are busy in politics. No wonder that Coffinism fights against any change of law that would place the management of not only the infirmary, but of Julietta and the distribution of poor funds under a nonpolitical and trained management. Coffinism means the getting of the cream and the fats and the fine foods for its servants. It means callousness to poverty and need, a closed ear to the cries of the unfortunate. It means the use of public funds to gain votes and favor, the chance to force the unfortunate to beg and bark before they are fed, much as the keeper of a trick dog might bait his victim. Now, not only the legislature but the people who have been indifferent, can understand a little better what the fight started by Governor Harry Leslie against Coffinism. means.. It is translated now into actual conditions. It is no longer a game between two sets of politicians. It is no longer a contest between two sets of tricksters looking for power. The picture of the poor hourse is a sharp drawing of the result. But the same principle applies to every activity under the control of Poffinism. That is the reason that the machine fights fegainst honest elections, against registration of Voters, against the City Manager form of government, against a trained and non-political management of public institutions, against every measure that promises, freedom. Those poor, aged, decrepit and weak unfortunates at the poor house understand it well. They have learned on skimmed milk and unfit food. World Court Feelers The state department’s move to reopen negotiations regarding American adherence to the world court indicates that the administration’s policy has become at once more idealistic and more realistic. It foreshadows Hoover’s policy. It should, produce results. , Three years have passed since the senate by a large vote decided on conditional American adherence. Two years and a half have passed since court members accepted four of the senate reservations and invited negotiations regarding the remaining reservation. The state department, in reply to that invitation, and the President, in his gruff Kansas City speech, took the position that there was nothing to negotiate, that it was up to the other powers in handling the disputed senate reservation to take it or leave it. Prom a purely legalistic point of view the Coolidge policy was tenable, because under our constitution the executive has no authority to modify or to interpret senate reservations. But diplomacy can not succeed on legalistic subterfuges. The only way to reconcile differences between nations is to talk it out. Now the Coolidge administration reognizes belatedly that it is the job of the American executive to negotiate concerning the world court dispute, not to the end of usurping senate prerogatives, but to carry out the senate's Jnandate and, if that is impossible, to ascertain and report back to the senate a possible compromise. The Kellogg note is useful in preparing public opinion at home for foUow-up moves by the Hoover administration, and in creating proper foreign atmosphere for unofficial negotiations, ■which Elihu Root will undertake early in March at Geneva. Dwpite the partial responsibility of Washington for two years and a half of deadlock, it would be >3l--and inaccurate to absolve European governments

The Indianapolis Times (A BCBIPPB-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Time* 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 GCRLEY President. FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor. EOY W. HOWARD. Business Manager. PHONE!—RILEY 5551. FRTJPAY, FEB. 22. 1929Member 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.”

of blame. Four times the league council has sidetracked the issue as to whether a majority or a unanimous council vote is required in asking the court for so-called advisory opinions That issue should be disposed of for the sake of the league and of the court, in any event. But such decision is absolutely essential to American adherence. That, indeed, is the beginning and the end of the only point in dispute between the United States and the European governments. The senate reservation would prevent the court from giving, without consent of the United States, advisory opinions upon questions in which the United States has or claims to have -an interest. Since the United States can claim an interest in any question under the sun, that reservation would give us an absolute veto power over the court. The European governments have taken the legitimate position that they are willing to grant the United States equal, but not greater, power than that of league council members. But until they permit a decision on whether council requests for advisory opinions must be unanimous, thus giving individual members veto power, there appears no way to break the American deadlock. Certainly there is no sign that the senate will agree to Ameri--can adherence without such veto power. All this is deplorable, because that veto power by the United States and others would restrict seriously the court’s usefulness. Neverthel ■&, probably most Americans feel that it is better to have the United States in such a restricted court, than in no court at all. American Art Art in America is looking up. We are thinking, at the moment, of Deems Taylor, whose opera, “The King’s Henchman,” is being revived by the Metropolitan in New York. Two years ago Taylcr was commissioned by the Metropolitan to do a second opera. He has been working on it ever since. Now he announces he has scrapped it. He viewed his handiwork critically and did not find it good. He is starting all over again on anew work. And all the labor and love put into that discarded opera for two years has gone for nothing—that is, for nothing but the discipline and consecration of an artist big enough to be his own severest critic. Os such discipline and consecration is art made. Inspiration is not a rare commodity. But it is rarely wedded to patience and the capacity to drudge for perfection’s sake as in a Michelangelo, a Shakespeare, a Beethoven, or even a Rodin. About seven years ago two able biographies were published, one by an Englishman and the other by an American. Both were best sellers. The publishers demanded more. The American succumbed and has been turning out almost one a year. He has been doing good—potboiling. The Englishman Worked for seven years, writing and rewriting. At last he gave us “Elizabeth and Essex.” Strachey is an artist. The smart comment to make on American artists, we are told, is that they have a Furopean inferiority complex. They copy European models, it seems. We have not found it so. Rather the contemporary product here has a freshness and a genuineness which many foreign things lack. Too many American novelists have inspiration and ideas, no end—but they can’t write. So with most other American” artists who haven’t time to sweat and pray and wait until they master their medium. But a few like Taylor are so intent on becoming good-craftsmen, the genuis of great art may be added unto them in their patient labor. The army can’t get Its new dress uniforms because of a shortage in the supply of gold braid. At last, a legitimate reason for disposing of a few admirals! A headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune says. “Chicago Gets More Police.” Evidently some of the police have been growing careless. A headline in the Seattle Star intrigues and puzzles: “More Winter, Says Summers.”

. David Dietz on Science .

Earth Once Part of Sun

No. 286 -

OUR earth and all that is within it or on it—the green trees, the flowers, the animals and even our own bodies—came from the outer regions of the sun. They were all, once upon a time, white-hot gases in that blazing whirling globe of fire that we call the sun. This is the belief of scientists today. They believe that our earth had its beginnings in material hurled

- WKm

©MAT NEBULA M ORION.

relative unimportance of this earth to the rest of the universe and the conviction soon grew/.hat the rest of the universe must be much older than our little earth. Astronomy showed conclusively that our little earth was just one of the family of planets revolving around the sun, and so it became apparent that the problem of the earth's origin was the problem of the origin of the solar system. The first theory to try to account scientifically for the origin of the earth was advanced by the great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, in 1754. Kant imagined that the solar system had its origin in a great diffuse nebula. The telescope reveals great clouds of gaseous matter scattered among the stars. They are called the diffuse nebulae. Kant thought that the sun had its attendant planets originated in such a nebula. He imagined that at first the nebula was a great cold mass of gases, but that in time it began to contract through the mutual attraction of the particles of the nebula upon each other. He also assumed that in some way the nebula gained a rotary motion He assumed that thei- were spots in the nebula which were denser than the nebula as a whole. These, he believed, acted as centers of condensation or nuclei about which the material of the nebula began to gather. In this way, he believed the central portion of the nebula contracted into the sun, while portions contracting around other nuclei became the planets and their attendant moom

M. E. TRACY . SAYS: “We Suddenly Have Been Brought Face to Face With the Fact That We Can Not Live Alone.’*

DENVER university is undertaking to promote the study of foreign relations, not only through special courses for students, but through lectures and other activities designed to interest the community. The work was made possible through an endowment of $1,250,000 given by James H. Causey for “the advancement of the social sciences.” At first glance, Denver may not seem the most logical place or social science the most logical reason for intensive study of foreign relations. At second glance, however, one perceives not only the propriety, but the significance of both. It is the interior of this country that needs to be waked up to the importance of our contacts with the outside world, while the social order, not only here, but abroad, reaches its climax in those contacts. A country’s foreign policy reflects its political system, while its political system is a follow-up of its social order. The American social order has been, and still is, fundamentally different from that of most other great nations. That is one reason why it has been so hard for us to approach foreign relations with sympathetic understanding or to recognize their intimate value. * tt tt Founded on Isolation THIS republic was founded on the idea of breaking contracts with the old world, on repugnance to the colonial system, on the theory that the best way for nations to live in peace was to let each other severely alone. A wonderful theory, but impossible and impractical, because it ignored the effect of trade and took little account of what inventiveness was about to achieve through improved means of travel, commerce and communication. Other countries sought to grow by physical expansion, by acquiring new territory, by extending their political sway over lands and seas. The United States pursued an opposite course. It grew, to be sure, but in a compact way. Having been born as a group of revolting colonies, it conceived colonial rights as more important than colonial possessions. Other countries were compelled to think in terms of world relationship because of their far-flung dependencies. This country took the position that such an attitude was not only unnecessary, but wrong. a a u Carried to Extreme WASHINGTON’S dictum that entangling alliances were to be avoided at all cost was carried to the farthest possible extreme. Jefferson’s dictum that the least possible government was the bestfound expression in nothing so vividly as the American foreign policy. Isolation, especailly from a diplomatic standpoint, became the great objective. The people of this country became obsessed with the idea that by refusing to acquire colonies they could dwell apart from the world. Other nations were permitted to claim islands which our sea captains had discovered. We were content to explore and chart islands in the polar regions for other flags to fly over later on. The excuse for this most peculiar course was that it enabled us to keep out of trouble, serve humanity and develop anew basic of foreign relations. tt t> tt Nation Is Awakened CAME trade, inspiring us to seek supplies and markets all over the globe; came wealth, inducing us to establish branch houses, create industries in other lands and make loans; and finally came the World war, dragging us overseaes, lining up our boys on a foreign battle front and leaving many of them to sleep the last long sleep in France in spite of all we had preached and dreamed. It is a shock. It presumes little less than a revolution in our attitude and ideals. We suddenly have been brought face to face with the stubborp fact that we can not live alone, can not ignore world affairs, can not prevent ourselves from playing the part and shouldering the burden which goes with the greatest nation on earth. tt tt tt What Have We Gained? WE tried to keep out of the World war. though shouting that the allies were right; tried to contribute nothing but moral support at a profit: and were so blind to the drift of events as to be “thanking God” we had succeeded, only six months before we were engulfed. Thus far we-have kept out of the League of Nations, though we were first to shout that such a league was necessary, to force the idea on other people, to applaud it as the one and oniy product of victory which could make all the slaughter worth while. But what have we gained that we would have lost by taking a seat at the council table? What problem have we avoided? From what obligation have we freed ourselves? We haije joined the World court with reservations, as though reservations would count for much in the long rui, as though they served any nobler purpose than a cheap way of saving our face. We have pretended that the reparations problem was no concern of ours, but have been represented by observers, unofficial experts, or something of the sort at all the conferences concerning it, as though that amounted to more than a thin quibble. No one can review what we have preached compared to what we are practicing without realizing that one of our greatest needs is a better understanding ol what foreign

forth from the sun. Speculations concerning the origin of the earth have always held the attention of mankind. The writer of the Book of Genesis attacked the problem in the opening sentence of that book. “In the beginning,” he wrote, “God created the heaven and the earth.” But the development of astronomy taught man the

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

SHOULD some foreign power come to steal our political rights, we would meet that power at the border. Yet a few home-grown Mussolinis seek to perpetrate this very outrage by mutilating the primary law; by driving through this legislature a bill to take from the men and women of Indiana their right to vote directly for their party’s nominees for President, United States senator and Governor. Our ’.f-made Mussolinis say the platform had this ax in it, but if you know anything of criminology, you know how state platforms are plotted. First the tricksters have the convention. delegates agree to refer all platform amendments to the platform committee without debate, then the delegates can not change the platform when it is presented; they can not rise and protest tney must take it all or reject it all. - Thus manipulators make monkeys out of delegates! Such a platform is a fraud, with no more binding force than the joker in a lightning rod swindle! No legislative candidate told the people he would disfranchise them. No, that was concealed. No legislator was elected “on” a platform to do this thing; eveiy legislator was elected by Hoover, ably assisted by Smith, and the result would have been the same had the state platform declared for pig’s feet—and nothing else. Nothing could have defeated a Republican last November, but a public parade of this Fascist platform pledge to disfranchise plain men and women! tt a t* Our Mussolinis hate the primary because they can not control all the people in a primary election, but they can control delegates in a state convention. Four hundred thousand men and women voted in last year’s primary —four times as many as ever participated in nominations before the primary law was enacted—and while the patriot hails increased interest as the vindication of free government and the best assurance of its pepetuicy, our Black Shirts hate this increased interest because it will put them out of business! tt u One hundred fifty-three years after the declaration of independence is rather late for our dictators to present the proposition that plain people are not capable to select their party's nominees and that such nominees should be selected for the people by delegates of superior virtue and intelligence. That royal rot was shot to pieces at Yorktown! a u u Our Black Shirts should take to Italy, the land of their adoration,

v&Kt i Ipy; j I l| k 3TAKI UtfLOAwW yy 111 I v fnlii r li

Statistics Give Hopes for Longer Life

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. A LARGE insurance company with more than 18,000,000 policy holders keeps accurate records of the causes of death because only by such records can the company definitely provide for the future. It just has announced reports for 1928, which contain several factors of great significance in relation to public health. The figures indicate that the expectancy of life among wage earners was, in 1928, 56.42 at birth, whereas in 1911 and 1912 it was 46.63 years. . The life expectancy of the industrial population has gained 9.79 years during the sixteen-year period, as contrasted with the gain of only 6.06 years for the general population. No doubt, this is a reflection to a considerable extent of the increased

Reason

This Suspense Is Awful!

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

attention being given to industrial hygiene and industrial health. During 1928, the dath rate from typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, diarrheal complaints and conditions associated with child-birth were lawer than before. On the other hand, the rates for heart disease rose, as did also those for cancer. These rates are associated perhaps with increased longevity and with the fact that people are now dying of diseases of advanced age rather than the infectious diseases which carried men off early in the past. Os greatest importance perhaps was the increase in death rate from diabetes. Since IS 11, the death rate from that disease has increased 34 per cent, notwithstanding the fact that insulin has prolonged the lives of thousands of diabetics. Since the introduction of insulin, the death rates from this disease

By Frederick LANDIS

their cynical contempt for the masses of their countrymen, and they should lay at the feet of 11 Duce their plans to make plain men and women “know their place!” Their imperial scorn would be most becoming in the land of their beloved Mussolini but it is most hideous in the land of Abraham Lincoln! a tt u One parting word tc our new Fascista, if you would nail Indi-

Fellowship in Prayer

Topic for the Week “LENT AND MY WORK” Memory Verse for Friday “For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). (Read: Hebrews 11:23 to 30.) MEDITATION Now praise we famous men. I may not forget that this is Washington’s birthday. It appears that Washington was a thriftv and prosperous mail of business. He took care of the property which he inherited and sought to increase it by all honorable means. At the same time the lack of selfseeking, the sheer unselfishness of his patriotism are an example of public men and to those in private life as well. This combination of

This Date in U. S. History

February 22 1732—George Washington bom. 1856—First railroad in California opened. 1862—Jefferson Davis inaugurated under permanent confederate constitution. 1872— Prohibitionists held their first national convention at Columbus, O. 1890—John Jacob As tor Sr. died.

Daily Thought

Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.—St. Matthew 7:15. nan OH, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, and with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile!— Shakespeare,

have come down for all age groups up to 45. Between 45 and 65 years of age no important change has occurred, and the deaths from diabetes after 65 years have shown a distinct and significant rise. It must be understood that insulin does not cure diabetes in the true sense of the word “cure.” It takes the place of a missing secretion from an organ called the pancreas, which provides a substance that aids the human body in sugar digestion. The speed and stress of modem life are definitely associated with the increasel incidence of diabetes. It is known that great mental stress of great physical exercise can cause sugar to appear in the urine, hence the battle against diabetes would seem to be associated with the warfare against the speed and strain of modern life, as well as with the purely physical attempt to provide assistance for incapable human organs.

THE COMMON PEOPLE m 0 m ARE GOOD ENOUGH u * m TO VOTE DIRECTLY

ana’s feet to reaction while all her sister states march toward progress; if you would strangle the people’s growing interest in their own government; if you would be true Black Shirts and false Americans—go on—drive through this legislature your repudiation of popular rule; take Indiana’s political destiny from the firesides of her people and put it in the boss's dirty, slippery hand! tt tt a If the legislature would serve Indiana, let it strengthen this primary law, so the voters may have a first and second choice, so the people may rule. If common people are good enough to pay taxes directly and fight for the flag directly they are good enough to vote directly for party nominees.

conflicting traits is pertinent to this series of meditations. The clew here as elsewhere is in the sense of God’s presence and authority. If I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all things else will take carv. of themselves. PRAYER: Lord my God, Thou only sovereign of my life, through all the temptations and trials, through the storm and stress of my fife enable me to see Thee who art Invisible that the things which are visible may neither allure nor affright me. Amen.

Questions and Answers

You can get an answer to any answerable ouesUun of fact or information by writing to Frederick M. Kerby Question Editor The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau, 1322 New York avenue Washington. D C. Inclosing 1 contain stamps for reply Medical and legal advice cannot be given, nor cani ex- I tended research ee made. All other Questions will receive a personal reply Unsigned requests cannot be answered Alt letters are confidential. You are cordially Invited u> make use of this service What is the address of Maxfield Parish, the artist? Windsor, Vt. Who is the leading man in the picture “Smilin’ Through?” Harrison Ford. How much postage does it take to send a card to Canada? One cent. Which is faster, the eye or the hand? The hand is very much faster. It takes nearly a twentieth of a second for the eye to receive an impression and focus upon it. Hence the hand mave move so rapidly as tc appear only a blur to the eye. Sleight-of-hand performers makb good use oi this fact, *

TEB. 22,1329

IT SEEMS TO ME • By HEYWOOD BROUN

Ideas as. opinions (Ipressed in this column a r r those ot one of Am erica’s most interestins writerand are presented wll hout retard to their asreemrnt pith the editorial attitude of this "SK'Mlur.

SOMEBODY should speak sharply to Colonel Charles Lindbergh, for he has fallen into a rude and unreasonable habit in his dealings with reporters. Even a young god should have in him sufficient earthiness to respect good manners. There is an ancient legend, I believe, that invigoration comes to those who occasionally touch as much as one toe to courtesy. I quote from a recent news story in the New York Times which says, “Colonel Lindbergh affably answered every question till his interviewers sought details of his forthcoming marriage to Miss Anne Morrow. “Then he almost broke up the conference. Declining to take notice of the questions. Colonel Lindbergh rose from his chair and said, ‘Are there any more questions?’ “ ‘We are sorry, colonel, but that is the one thing people are interested in,’ his questioner replied. “Colonel Lindbergh repeated his question and was about to go when he was asked about the plans of the Transcontinental Air Transport Company.” It is important to know, of course, just what question the newspaper men asked which caused the colonel to elevate his chin and Ignore the presence of his guest. I have made inquiries and find that a representative of the United Press said to the aviator, “We are sorry to intrdue upon your privacy, but is there anything you would care to say about your engagement?” This mild query caused the colonel to look frigidly over the reporter's shoulder and to behave as if some fearful breach of etiquet had been committed. His silence was intended as a stinging rebuke to a man whom he treated as if he had violated every canon of decency. a a a Engagement and News VTOW that was silly as well as rude. The question was entirely proper. ,If a reporter asked, “Just what did you say when you proposed to Miss Morrow?” of course the colonel would have every right to resent it. When the press representative pointed out that the public had a keen interest in Colonel Lindbergh's engagement to Miss Morrow he spoke an obvious truth. The aviator must realize that he is a public figure and that newspaper men can not possibly avoid touching upon topics which might be considered wholly personal in the life of a more obscure individual. Naturally, no one expects the colonel to take reporters into his confidence and relate the details of his courtship step by step. On the other hand, the date and the place of his marriage are both matters of legitimate news interest. The colonel is under no obligation to satisfy even a legitimate news interest. He would be well within his rights in replying, “I'm sorry, but I don’t want to say anything about that.” He might even omit the “I’m sorry” if pressed for time, but he is behaving like a haughty schoolboy whqn he takes the attitude that reasonable inquiries are insults to be brushed aside by a lordly silence. Nor is this the first time that Lindbergh has availed himself of this same technique. Several months ago he attempted to send a reporter of the New Ybrk World to Coventry because the newspaper man dared to inquire, “Colonel, are you to receive compensation for your flights under the auspices of the Guggenheim Foundation?” That, too, seems to me an entirely proper inquiry. I am aware that anybody who undertakes to chide the colonel will find himself deluged under a flood of disapproving letters from angry readers. But even so. journalism is an even older profession than aviation and just as honorable. . a a tt Senator Borah AND I wish that somebody would speak to Senator Borah. There is no more tragic figure in our public life than this lost leader of American liberalism. I am not contending that to be dry is stand-pat, while wetness is necessarily a mark of progressivism, but it Is monstrous that Borah should be willing to abandon every time-honored tradition of American liberty to clear the road for Volsteadism. There is a heady quality in dryness which makes men gibber. Thus we find Borah, the avowed disciple of democracy, shoutjng out a plea for bigger prisons, harsher law*, longer sentences and more criminals. “I believe in free speech," shouted Senator Borah, “but when a man preaches a doctrine against his government he ought to take the responsibility of violating free speech.” This is the old dodge which was tried out upon us during the war. Advocates of espionage and sedition acts said that they had no in‘ention of doing away with the constitutional guarantees of free speech. Os course not. A man could say what he liked. They merely insisted that he must go to jail if he chose to espouse a minority opinion. I wish it were possible tc appeal from Borah sober to Borah drunk. Surely no senator save one in a swindel of abstinence could seriously suggest that evgn the most strained construction of the Constitution is a crime merltim five years in jail. If Borah actually believes this we may expect another flood of amateur spies waiting to pounce upon and imprison the luckless persons who dare so much as to whisper, “I wishl had