Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 253, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1929 — Page 4

PAGE 4

stKirrs-HOWAMD

Back Home What will the members of the legislature say to their neighbors when they get home? Perhaps they will say nothing. Or they may have no friends, and this latter presumption seems most reasonable from the manner in which they conducted themselves while in the state capitoL Asa body, they did not impress as being important enough to be either missed or noticed by the communities from which they came. But if they talk, what will they tell? And how will they explain? Some of them, very many or them, will perhaps dilate upon the lavish hospitality of one brand of utility lobbyist who saw that the grind of legislative work was apparently too much for the ordinary member and provided such oases of pleasure as the weary ones might desire. Or they may forget this part of their experiences. The legislature did some commendable things. But they did them under force of well organized public opinion. They did some very bad things, and these were in response to the bosses. They ignored some very crying evils. They took care of seekers of special privileges in a generous manner. In eliminating the state-wide features of the primary law, they obeyed the edict of Watson, who looks always into the future and who believes that the conventions will be more forgetful than the people. In refusing to abolish the fee system in Lake county, the legislature continued tne source of much of the corruption of state politics. In its final effort to reverse its own action in the establishment of a permanent registration list, the legislature revealed the fact that it has no real hatred of fraud in government. What the people will know, without telling, Is that this legislature heaped up bigger burdens of taxation than have ever before been placed upon the industries of the state. Part of this is an inheritance from the days of the ill-starred Jackson. But most of it is for new funds and greater appropriations. Altogether the people will pay into the state many more millions a year .for their government. There is an added cent a gallon tax on gasoline that goes to the highway commission. The necessity for this tax is doubtful, but it pleases the cement trust. There are additional appropriations for state institutions so that the tax levy next year will be increased by nearly half. Perhaps the members can explain. Perhaps they will not be compelled to answer. For it is just possible that when they get home they will be so inconspicuous as to be immediately forgotten. They gave that impression.

Uncle Sam’s Pocketbook Mounting federal expenditures and diminishing revenues are creating a very real problem for the new administration. Tax payments March 15 and June 15 will determine the condition of the treasury at the end of the present fiscal year July 1. A small surplus has been expected, but the margin is so narrow that a deficit easily might appear. Expenditures during the first eight months orrhe year were about $150,000,000 greater than for the corresponding period of last year. Receipts were less by more than $200,000,000. The congress which just adjourned voted the largest budget since the extraordinary demands of wartime years were eliminated. The total was $4,663,000,000, an increase of about $35,000,000 over appropriations for the current year. A small surplus is predicted for July 1, 1930, but any considerable additional outlay b/ congress, or any sizable reduction in receipts means red ink. Figures do not tell the whole story. The last congress, at the request of the administration, ignored the $48,000,000 river and harbors bill, and meritorius pay adjustment and retirement legislation, and other measures. There will be enormous pressure for action on these at the special session. It is admitted that pressure for economy and the utmost bare by congress in making appropriations will not be able to halt the tendency toward increased expenditures. The government is growing and its administration costs continually more. Congress has committed the country to a cruiser, building program, a large public building program, continued aid to the states in road building, a program of flood control, and numerous waterway and other internal improvement projects are pending. Unless expanding business provides increased revenues in sufficient quantities, it would seem that the time is approaching when higher or additional taxes must be considered to make Uncle Sam’s books balance. Russian Progress Enemies of Russia are encouraged by the usual spring crop of rumors regarding peasant discontent and party dissensions in the Soviet republic. They are heartened further by articles of the exiled bolshevist leader, Trotski, in whose minority movement they see the beginnings of the long-heralded, but ever-delayed collapse of the Moscow government. Curiously enough, these rumors of Russian disintegration come just at the time when American big business, after a long period of watchful waiting, has decided that the present Moscow regime is stable and that it is trustworthy in a business sense. General Electric has extended to the Soviets a five-year industrial credit of $26,000,000. Standard Oil, Ford, General Motors and various machinery companies and engineering firms are making large Russian contracts. New York banks finance the purchases which make Russia the largest single buyer in the American cotton market. What is the explanation? It is easy enough perhaps to understand how American liberals or radicals might be misled by alleged Soviet propaganda about conditions in that country. But what about these hardheaded conservative American industrialists and bankers, who never risk a nickel on an investment or a redit unless they are fairly certain of a *safe return on their money? These American business men obviously think Soviet Russia is a good bet from their point of /few.

The Indianapolis Times < A BCKUTMIOW4KI) AEWSfAI'KK) Owned nod published daily (except Sunday> by 'The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 2H-2UU W. Maryland Street, Indianapolis, lnd. Price In Marion County 2 cents—lo cents a week: elsewhere, 3 cents— l 2 cents s week. BOYD GURLbT BOY W. HOWARD. PRANK O. MORRISON, Editor. President. Business Manager. I’BONR—RILEY 865 L TUESDAY. MARCH 12, 1929. Member of Doited Press, Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Ar?o elation. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

Either they are wrong, or these recurring rumors of Russian disintegration are wrong. The answer, or part of it at least, may be found in an elaborate statistical book published today by the Soviet Union Information Bureau in Washington, entitled “The Soviet Union Facts —Descriptions— Statistics.” A study of the facts and figures recorded in this book so dispassionately will show anyone who is interested just why American business is ignoring the outworn rumors of Russian chaos and is, instead, serenely betting its money on Russian stability and progress. Here are some of the statistical facts from that book: Russia's agricultural production has doubled since 1921, and now is at prewar level. Industrial output has increased 800 per cent since 1921, and is onefourth greater than prewar. Large state-owned and operated industries are returning an annual net profit of more than $300,000,000. The government is spending $800,000,000 on industrial expansion this year, much of it under direction of American engineers. Co-operative organization with a membership of 35,000,000 are doing an annual business of $11,000,000,000. Russia is buying goods from the United States almost at the rate of $100,000,000 a year. The RussoAmerican trade turnover now exceeds $111,000,000, compared with $48,000,000 in czarist days. The total foreign trade turnover has increased one-third in tht last three years, while imports from the United States have increased 50 per cent in the last two years. The number of school children has been raised one-half since the czarist regime, and the death rate lowered one-third. Why shouldn’t American business interests have faith in Russia, present and future?

National Origins As had been expected, the senate was prevented by a filibuster from taking a vote on the question of postponing the application of the national origins immigration system. The house approved delay, but Senator Reed of Pennsylvania was able to keep the upper chamber from expressing itself. The result is that President Hoover presumably is directed by law to proclaim on April 1 that national origins quotas shall go into effect July 1. Hoover, as one of the commission of three directed by congress to work out the quotas, is convinced that the national origins system is impracticable. Determined efforts 4 *to get a vote in the senate were largely due to his conviction, which is shared by a large number of senators. There is one possible loophole in the ambiguous text on the act which may enable the President to avoid issuing the proclamation, but this is doubtful. The attorney-general will be aske’d to give an opinion on this question. Hearings and debate in congress showed that both advocates and opponents of national origins were swayed to a considerable degree by racial feeling. This was unfortunate, though perhaps unavoidable. The theory had been that it would be possible to determine to what extent the various racial groups had contributed to a theoretically compositic American nation, and to apportion future immigration on that basis. Data was found inadequate. And the quotas finally offered admittedly are based to a large degree on guesswork. Hence the only question should be whether an inaccurate and unscientific quota system should be substituted for the present one, which, by and large, has been satisfactory. President Hoover will be able to appeal to the special session for delay and will be able to give in detail his reasons for asking it. It will be impossible then for a few senators to prevent an expression of opinion by the majority.

David Dietz on Science

Maxwell Explains Light

IN 1873, the world saw a furore like that which attended announcement of Einstein’s recent theories, or, for that matter, like the one which had attended the announcement of Newton’s theory of grayitation. In that year, J. Clerk Maxwell, famous British mathematician, published his monumental treatise, “Electricity and Magnetism.” Two chapters in par-

ticular were the center of discussion. One was “The Dynamical Theory of Elect r o m a gnetism.” The other was the “Electromagnetic Theory of Light.” Maxwell worked out a set of equations known as the Maxwell equations to explain the behavior of electromagnetic fields. But Max-

well was ahead of his day. His equations showed how electromagnetic waves would travel through space. But no one had ever succeeded in generating such a wave. Today, of course, they are familiar to all of us, for a radio wave is an electromagnetic wave. Since, in Maxwell’s day, no one had ever succeeded in generating an electromagnetic wave, it will be seen that when he insisted that light was electromagnetic in nature, his meaning was not very clear. A few of the great physicists of his day—Heimholtz, Rowland and Heaviside—adopted his theory. But the great Lord Kelvin insisted that h; did not understand the theory. But the meaning of the theory was to become plain in time. In the vear 1887, the brilliant German physicist, Heinrich Hertz, succeeded in generating electromagnetic waves, the first radio waves ever generated. With the passage of Li-ne, it was demonstrated by many experimenters in Europe and the United States, that a whole series of waves existed in space. Visible light constituted only a narrow band in the whole series. Shorter than visible light, are the ultra-violet waves, the X-rays, the gamma rays of radium and the recently discovered cosmic rays. Longer than visible light are the infra-red or heat waves and the long electromagnetic or radio waves. In order to explain the transmission of these waves, it was assumed that space was filled with an elastic but intangible medium. This has been called the ether of space. The picture of the wave theory of light is a beautiful one. But there are certain flaws in it. Einstein helped to point these out as early as 1905. We will tee next what they are.

No. 301

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. TRACY SAYS: “There Is No Such Difference Between 30 and 60 as There Used to Be.”

TI7E speak of this as “the era * Y of flaming youth.” Actually, it is the era of flaming old age. | It’s real triumph consists in the multitude of folks above 70 who are either hard at work or enjoying themselves. Youth always has been vigorous. Old age has not. That more thari anything else gives the present generation a right to pat itself on the back. Civilization has done well by grandpa and grandma. The jungle could show as great a percentage of flappers and jelly beans, but not as great a percentage of happy, healthy old folks. There never was a time before when gray-haired men and women played such a part in life or got so much out of it. You have to look through a good many ( pages to find a man of three-score and ten doing much of consequence in the past. The kings and captains of old died, young, as a general proposition. This was so common, indeed, as to create the belief that men could not live long if they worked hard or assumed any great degree of responsibility. tt n Old Thought Useless A DOZEN treatises have been written about such men as “old Parr” and Jenkins to prove that selfishness or laziness, or both, accounted for their years. Until recently people grew up with the idea that those who wished to live long must eschew ambition and suppress their energy. Great age was regarded as a proof of uselessness, and those who attained it were treated accordingly. This helps to explain the witchcraft delusion, in which most of the victims were grandmthores. Civilization has not only given people better health in their declining years, but —what is just as good—it has given them a degree of respect and consideration they never before enjoyed. tt * Old Difference Gone THERE is no such difference between people of 30 and 60 as there used to be. One sees this not only in business, but on the golf course. Even two generations back, fathers and sons had little in common, much less grandfathers and grandsons. An old man who tried to play with young folks was considered silly, while a young man who presumed to take part in the conversation of old folks was looked upon as an upstart. Such attitude was carried to even greater extremes with regard to women. There was a definite cleavage all along the line because of age. Children stood in of theeir parents, and in too many instances had little but contempt for their grandparents. More or less tyranny over both old and young was accepted as the right of middle life. Affection had a way of dying with the wedding ceremony, and “duty” became the watchword. Children and old folks were taken care of if they kept their places, but not without a great deal of complaint.

Lineup Is Changed WE have a wholly new lineup these days. Grandpa no longer sits in the chimney corner, whinning or reminiscing. Grandma no longer rocks and knits. There is companionship where there used to be aloofness, and that has helped medical science to achieve its triumph. One can think of many conspicuous examples of men who stay young in spite of tl}eir years—Edison, growing rubber at 82; Rockefeller, playing his regular game of golf at 89, and Robert Dollar, in command of his shipping business at 85. What counts far moie is the general average, the common grouping, in which young and old commingle happily, whether it has to do with business or baseball. You see it in every sort of gathering—in work, in play, in politics, in education. Go to a beach, a museum or a Rotary Club, and you find an association of age and youth which is utterly different from what it was even as recently as fifty years ago. n n st Some Bad Points AS mighc be expected, the first results of such a radical change are not all satisfactory. Older people have shown a tendency to become frivolous, while the young have shown as equal tendency to presume on their privileges. In the end. it will work out all right. No revolution can occur without some confusion at the start, and this altered attitude with regard to youth and age hardly can be described as less than revolution. It is the socially democratic ideal breaking down one more barrier, the passing of one more type of class rule. In the end, we are all going to be better, happier and wiser because of it. a tt tt Faith Mor£ Joyous LIFE was a tough proposition when it left only a few short years in the middle for anything like free action—tough for princes as well as peasants, and tougher on old folks than any one else. Youth could stand it, because youth had something to hope for. Old age had nothing except what it could get oat of religion. The way old age was treated until a few years ago furnishes much of the explanation for the peculiar drift of religion—its weird' conception of heaven, its glorification of death, its pretended longing to get Say from the here and go “up ider.”

' , ' ' ■- -. 'V;- ‘ ' ■

Reason

Mr. COOLIDGE was wise to decide to write, his first magazine article being very interesting in what it tells and very attractive in its revelation of the ex-president as a home-spun gentleman of the best type. He tells what he has to say in simple, neighborly fashion, as if he were talking tp you at his fireside, and this is art. His statement that all the glory of his high office passed with the death of his boy brings him nearer to the people than all his official acts and utterances. tt tt tt Fay Lanphier, ex-beauty queen, got a divorce when she told the judge her mate threw light bulbs at her. If he really lid it, he was not only a brute, but spendthrift. tt tt tt This Mexican “revolution would be very serious if it had as many privates as generals in its ranks. tt tt tt An effort is being made to rescue two gentlemen who fell into the crater of Vesuvius, but if they get out the chances are that they will be very hard-boiled.

Pyorrhea Is Real Menace to Man

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. PYORRHEA means a flow of matter. However, the flow of maty ter, or to speak of it scientifically—pus, is not the most significant

Q. —Is it possible for the hair to turn gray over night? A.—Several people have claimed that they have seen the hair of an individual turn gray over night, but the evidence is not thus far sufficient to convince scientific investigators.

thing about the disturbance of the mouth and teeth. The important /act is that the condition becomes chronic and that as a result of this the tissue of the

i 381: 17

GRANT’S APPOINTMENT March 12 AT the beginning of the year 1864 four great battles—Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga—Lad turned the tide of the Civil war in favor of the North. All of them had been won under the leadership of General U. S. Grant. They were, in effect, disastrous blows to the south’s left flank, but its right flank—in Virginia—still held its ground. At this point, just sixty-five years ago today, General Grant’s success in the west was recognized, by his appointment as commander-in-chief of the entire Union armies. Grant’s first move was to forsake his original plan of trying to lead his western army to Atlanta and the sea. Instead, he assumed personal charge of the Army of the Potomac. Then a ponderous march of united federal forces began against the south. The appointment of Grant to supreme coimtftnd of the federal armies crowned the military career of a man who entered West Point against his will, and who admitted in his writings that military life was distasteful to him.

Laying the White House Ghost

m m By Frederick LANDIS

IT detracts greatly from the dignity of his great office to think of President Hoover showing his tongue to Dr. Boone every morning at 8 o’clock when the medico comes to inspect his condition. tt tt tt The postmasters of the United States are trembling in their boots lest Mr. Hoover place all of them on the wate -- wagon behind the members of the cabinet. St tt tt Jim Reed is trying to preserve his museum value by denouncing fellows who talk dry, but drink wet, but the only way an ex r statesman can keep the limelight is to take a trip round the world. tt tt u 'Our government is worried, lest these Americans, crossing the Rio Grande to see the war, will get shot and Mexico is worrying because they get to see it without buying tickets.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

gums separate from the roots of the teeth. When they have once separated they are ndfc likely to become attached again. Moreover, a constant presence of infectious matter leads to secondary disturbances in the body, which may be exceedingly serious. The blood picks up the germs from the pus pockets around the teeth and carries them to other parts of the body where they set up new infections. Because the teeth are loose and the mouth is foul, the-person with pyorrhea is likely to lose his appetite. He is unable to chew food satisfactory, his digestion is interfered with and he becomes in general much sicker than he would be with a clean mouth cavity. Because the mouth is easy to get at, because the gums are tough and because the saliva keeps the mouth constantly lubricated, the tissue stand a great deal of punishment before the condition becomes so severe that it is impossible to delay attention. For this reason pyorrhea is usually a chronic rather than an acute disease. For this reason also it is necessary to remind people again and again that the mouth should be

Questions and Answers

You i an get an answer to any answerable question of fact or information by writing to Frederick M. Kerbv. Question Editor The Indianapolis Times’ Washington Bureau. 1322 New York avenue Washington. D. C. inclosing 2 cents in stamps for reply. Medical and legal advice cannot'be giyen. nor can extended research be made. All other questions will receive a personal reply Unsigned requests cannot be answered AT letters are confidential. You are cordially invited to make use of this service. What Is the difference between hail, snow and sleet? All three are formations of particles of ice, but they differ in form as follows: Snow Is tiny particles of ice formed in the air when the watery vapor is condensed at temperatures below freezing. Snow c-ystals have several typical forms which are very beautiful in geometric patterns. Sleet is formed when small compact particles of ice fall from the clouds. They differ from snow in being compact and more or less spherical in shape. When sleet masses are as large as one-fourth of an inch in diameter or larger they are spoken of as hail or hailstones. There are thus four forms

.HE'S A GOOD WRITER SAY IT WITH BULBS ON THE WATER WAGON

MnEah* jadiaa

AXiADY has sent Lindy a twentytwo pound wedding cake, which is almost twenty-two pounds more provisions than he carried on his flight to Paris, but the trip across the Sea of Matrimony is much longer. tt tt it This endless quarreling between the statesmen of America and England convinces one that a common language is not a tie that binds, but a fuse that sputters. It would be much better for both countries if they had to employ an interpreter. tt u tt Borah gave * British Minister Churchill the word with the bark on it when he denounced those who never see the firing line for brewing wars for others. Wars will end when statesmen are put into the shock troops. tt tt tt If the papers have assured the country that the Dempseys are not going to be divorced, we hope they will stop publishing their pictures in their bathing suits. ( tt tt It is becoming fashionable to christen airplanes with champaigne and it’s much better to spill it on the outside of the plan than on the the inside of the pilot.

| looked at by a competent dentist at least once in every six months, so such conditions may be detected early and given adequate care before they become so serious that- the only hope lies in removal of .all the teeth, surgical attention to the gums and provision of artificial plates. Among the causes of infections of the gums are continuius irritation from the edge of rough crowns or of fillings. A good dentist will see to it that a crown or a filling is absolutely smooth and continuous with the suriice of the tooth to which it is applied. Food particles may accumulate between the teeth and set up spots of local irritation and decay. The regular use of the tooth brush and of dental floss is necessary to prevent such occurrence. Toothpicks, and especially pins, knives, forks or other objects used in lieu of toothpicks, do severe damage to the delicate tissues when manupulated by a careless hand. Tartar deposits are just as Irritant as rough fillings. Moreover, they are easily susceptible to the accumulation of bacteria. Pyrrhea is one of the most menacing diseases known to man and its prevention depends on constant vigilance.

in which condensed moisture falls to the earth: rain, snow, sleet and hail. They differ in form, shape, size and density. Are there any wild bison left in America? There are three centers of wild bison in North America: Yellowstone Park, the Montana Bison Range and Northern Athabasca. There are preserved herds in Yellowstone Park, the Montana and Wichita Ranges and Canadian reserves. How long does It take to cremate a body? Cremation is completed two hours after the body enters the furnace It takes from twelve to fifteen hours for the ashes to cool sufficiently to be removed. What is the average cost for each pupil who attends school in the United States? For 1923-24 it was $74.86 for current expenses and $20.30 for outlays.

11AJRCH 13,1929

Idea* opinion* ex * orcsKd In thl* column tt. those of n of Am erica's most interesting writer and aro presented without retard to their agreemrnt with the editorial attitude of this paper. The Editor.

IT SEEMS TO ME m m By HEYWOOD BROUN

T TAVING heard much of Ed Howe for many years, I was naturally anxious to read his autobiography, "Plain People,” as I had seen almost nothing of his works. I began the book with a preconceived notion. The internal evidence has strengthened my estimate. There is an Ed Howe myth. Howe seeks to perpetuate it in the very title of his book. Let me say at the outset that the myth has nothing to do with Ed Howe’* ability, but merely seeks to place him in a role which he has never played. When a man gets to be known as “the Sage of Potato Hill,” it is fair to assume that the community thinks of him as a homespun fellow who is at least first cousin to the famous “average man’’ discovered a year or so ago by the American magazine. This same assumption has been made in the case of Americans greater than Ed Howe. Many speak of Lincoln as if he were in life the typical product of the prairie somewhat glorified.

Myths GETTING away from the Lincoln myth, it is fair to say that Ed Howe is not a plain person at all, but a highly complicated and unusual individual. To be sure, there are points of resemblance here and there to other country editors, since Howe went through the same mill. In fact, Ed Howe's closest spiritual relative in America is the very urban Henry L. Mencken. There is also a distinct strain of Clqrence Darrow in the man. Fifty years of Atchison made Howe politicallly a Kansan, but he seems by some miracle to have escaped wholly from Kansas idealism. In fact if the truth must be told, Ed Howe is a gentle cynic. He is even a wisecracking columnist. So much of Howe's material in the adhesion. He was reprinted in metropolitan eastern papers and it seemed extraordinary that he was never drafted by the big city. He explains that nobody asked him, but there is ample evidence that he would not have cared to go. It seems to me that he picked the proper forum for his philosophy. Synicism is not popular in America unless it comes from men with straw behind their ears. Asa city columnist, Ed Howe would have been assailed as irreligious, wanting in reverence, egotistical beyond endurance. But what is known as a wise crack if it originates on Broadway is received as homely wisdom when it springs from a small middle western city. This digression is impaired by the fact that Howe himself speaks somewhat dubiously of columar devolepments along the Atlantic seaboard. Like every veteran journalist he makes the traditional salaam to the importance of news above all else. Specifically he is not one of the plain people because he is essentially a stylist. What he has to say is rather less Important than the manner ir which he says it. tt tt tt

Sedate and Settled BUT this will no longer get a rise out of me for I find in the autobiography that this praise of the sedate and settled comes from a man who spent his early life as an itinerant printer, whose greatest love is orchestral music and who sold a thriving newspaper property while still hale and hearty to express himself in a tiny weekly publication where all barriers were down. At no point in “Plain People'' does Ed Howe convince the reader that he possesses the soul of a business man. His tributes to those who can make $2 grow where previously there were none arise simply from the familiar Freudian spring of defensive mechanism. In Atchison an artist has to pretend that he is something else. Ed Howe writes prose of a sort to make every other journalist bite hi? nails in envy. It is seldom beauti* ful but few have ever written with more clarity. And I suppose Ed Howe is one of the plain people because he never went to college and left school for the printing shop while still a boy.

Deficiencies AS A REPORTER, the author of “Plain People” has certain deficiencies. His account of his early life in a semi-frontier community at the time of the Civil war is fascinating and vivid, but of his long adventure with the Atchison Globe he says very little. Nor can I agree with those critics who say that Howe has spread out a long panorama of middle-western America. \ He has done something better than that. Instead of tracing that progress of a nation he has traced the development of an Individual. iCouy right, 1929, for The Times)

Daily Thought

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.—lsaiah 66:13. an b IT is a little thing to speak a phrase of common comfort, which by daily use has almost lost its sense: yet on the ear of him who thought to die unmourned it will fall like choicest music.—Talfourd. What is bright stock motor, oil? This is a term applied to highly viscuous oil having a fairly light., color and that is free from turbidity. Many motor oils are made by blending bright stock with light oils in proportions that supply proper viscosity or body.