Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 262, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 March 1929 — Page 8

PAGE 8

SCRtPPJ-HOWAJtD

That $20,000,000 Fund The state this year will spend $20,000,000 for state highways. It will come from the 4 cents tacked to the price of every gallon of gasoline. It will come from license fees for automobiles. Governor Leslie has asked the highway commission to secure the resignation of John Williams, the director of that fund. Williams sends back word that the law gives him a public hearing before he can be removed. The public has a deep interest in more than the politics of the situation. This fund is the largest tax levied for any purpose* There can be no question of the right of Williams to a public hearing, if he presses his desires for such an inquiry. That is desirable for many reasons. The highway department has been under fire at different times for a number of years. The cry of “polities” has always been raised. Often the issues have been clouded by this cry. And in the past the people have most properly had the idea that change, even if justified, could only be for the worse. The time for dragging the whole conduct of highway department into the open seems to be at hand. For it is true that the public have had very little knowledge. The meetings of the commission have been infrequent and secret. The actions of the director have been cloaked with the general theory that the public had no right to know. It is a matter of common knowledge that the charges in regard to the sale of war materials, resulting in indictments, were followed by the pulling of secret political wires. The indictments were finally dismissed. A public hearing would determine whether the whispered charge that the indictments were the result of political intrigue, the price being a judgeship, was correct or untrue. Governor Leslie has built for himself a reputation of being somewhat determined when he reaches a decision. His defiance of Coffin politically added to that impression. It is not likely that he will retreat from the fray because of the underground rumors that he * dare not press his demands for anew director because of fear of counter charges on behalf of Williams. Any hesitation on the part of the commissioners who have asked Williams privately to resign, to make public the basis of their demands for that action could only have a most disquieting reaction in the public mind concerning the commissioners themselves. They should not place themselves in the attitude of consenting to a purely political change. That should cause the dismissal of the commissioners ti smselves. Os course, the answer to any suggestion that the demand of the Governor is for political reasons will be found in the selection of any successor who may be named, if it should be found that the retirement of Williams is advisable. The selection of an engineer of outstanding reputation to carry on the important work of spending twenty millions of dollars of the people’s money each year would be a complete reply. Oklahoma Ousts The peoplel of Oklahoma have given, and have taken away. Two years ago they voted and cheered Henry Johnston into office as Governor, and now they hoot him out. The state senate court of impeachment has found him guilty of “general incompetency.” * Thus ends the seventh Governor of that state, who is the fifth to be impeached and the second convicted. it :s not only the right, but the duty, of the sovereign people to oust their incompetent representatives. Doubtless Oklahoma now has that glow of selfpride which comes with doing one’s duty. But perhaps it would not be too ungractions to suggest that an angry populace, in kicking out an incompetent official, does not clear itself of incompetency in olectinp. such man. Johnston is the same man today as two years ago. He was the same friendly, wellmeaning incompetent when the voters acclaimed him. Persons of other states who turn up their noses ’ at Oklahoma's weakness for gold-brick politicians, will do well to remember that most states have been deceived by similar false fronts. For that matter, the American voters have on occasion put such a politician in the White House. Small wonder that democracy is at a discount these days in view of the people; willingness to pick an official for his baby-kissing prowess, his voice, his wife’s social position, his lodge and club connections, his religion, his party regularity, or almost anything that has nothing to do with his fitness for a specific public office. T’ e electorate's capacity for electing second-ra f *rs is amazing. We should and do always fall back on Lincoln’s reservation that you can not fool all the people all the time, which makes democracy with all its faults a better protection of popular rights in the long run than autocracy, malevolent or benevolent. But democracy can be better than autocracy and still be mighty poor—as it was when it made Henry Johnston Governor. What’s the answer? Nothing dogmatic, no cureall, surely. Probably there is no answer, except that which time can give in the patient working out of the experiment. Meanwhile, the problem may not be the incapacity of the rank and file for self-government, but rather their indifference. Perhaps the explanation of a Johnston’s temporary popularity is that he supplies the color which makes politics palatable to the people. m * *

The Indianapolis-Times (A BCKim-aowsaa newspa^ck) owned and pnbhflhed dally (except Sunday! by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis, lnd. Price In Marlon County 2 cents—lo cents a week: elsewhere, 3 cent*—l2 cents a week. BOYO GURLEY. BOY W. HOWARD. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE—RILEY 553 L FRIDAY. MARCH 22, 1929. Member of United Press, Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau Os Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

Bending the Twig Your child, if he is told in school that government development of water power or other resources is dangerous radicalism, probably will hold that to be the truth until he dies. Earliest impressions are fixed most firmly in the mind. That is why private power companies have spent so much time and money in the last few years putting their Side of the power question before children who will have no voice at the polls or in business for years to come. They have been building a future. That is why, also, the National Education Association has been studying the extent to which propaganda has found its way into the schools and why a special committee of that body will meet in Washington next week to guard against future propagandizing. Today we are faced with the necessity of deciding not only what we wish done at present about private or public power development, but also what we want the next generation to think about it. It is fortunate in one ay that the issue has arisen. We have been muddle-headed on the subject of education. We never nave given enough thought to the direction in which children’s minds should he shaped, it was left for a shrewd self-interest to discover that the way thus was open to mortgage the future. Propaganda in the schools is the most serious of the things uncovered by the federal trade commission. We may feel indignation and wounded vanity when we discover, as in the California probe, that we have been bilked into casting a vote under false pretenses, that power companies have paid money to labor leaders, civic leaders, social leaders, in whom we had confidence, to deliver our votes to them. But in this day and age we are somewhat hardened to our own disillusionments. It is a different matter when our children are involved. We are trying to build the best possible future for them, gropingly and with many mistakes. But most of all we want them to be clear sighted and able to do for themselves what we can not do for them. The minds of our children are not for sale. Another Liar Repents There apparently is a complete and unanimous lineup of the liars who swore away the freedom of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. The two men have been in San Quentin prison, California, for .twelve years, convicted of bombing a preparedness parade in San Francisco in 1916. Yesterday, Estelle Smith, who swore at the trial that Billings was the man who threw the bomb, made aft affidavit which said her identification was false and she never was sure about the matter. One by one every other witness who helped the state convict, beginning with the preposterous Oxman, “Oregon cattle man,” who was many miles away from San Francisco at the time of the explosion, has been exposed and discredited. Miss Smith’s affidavit caps the climax. Already the judge who tried the case, all the living jurors, the captain of detectives and captain of police who made the arrests and helped work up the case, repeatedly have asked California’s Governors for a pardon. Governor Young belatedly has promised to review the case later this spring, Mooney and Billings were labor leaders. It h? been charged that California employers took advantage of the war hysteria to convict them and get them out of the way. Young must act, or permit the blot of this case, which has done so much to blacken California’s name, to continue. In the face pf the new array of evidence, it is inconceivable that he will delay freeing the two men. Warden Lawes of Sin Sing finds that the average robbery nets $30.75. He ought to get some figures from a coupe of the senate investigating committees. Senator Heflin called the reporters squirrels the other day. You can’t reproach a man for being a little squirrely with so many ripe nuts around. Well, if the styles continue as they are, we’re not in any danger of a petticoat government.

David Dietz on Science-

Weather Prolonged War

No. 310

THE WORLD WAR might have ended three years earlier if the weather had not changed as suddenly as it did in a certain part of the world in February, 1915. That is the opinion of Prof. Alexander McAdie, meteorologist of Harvard University. The change to which he refers frustrated the British

gales, forced the British ships to run for safety to the open sea. Weather had defeated the British attacks when success had been almost within reach. “The hour passed, never to return,” says Prof. McAdie. “Ten thousand men landed then could have taken and held the heights, which later a hundred thousand could not hold.” The British fleet tried later to bombard the forts. But the Turks were prepared by then and floating mines and submarine:; prevented the British fleet from closing in as it had tried to do the first time. The weather fought on the side of the Turks throughout the entire campaign against Turkey. The siege lasted eight months. During that time the killed, wounded and missing on the side of the allies numbered 150,000. It has been estimated that the Turks lost 300,000. But the weather finally forced the allied troops to withdraw. During the summer months, the hot scorching winds, known as the Etesians, worked the greatest hardship upon the allies. Then as the winter months approached weather of extreme coldness set in. A blizzard which lasted three days in November cost the aliles 30,000 men. The allied leaders saw that evacuation was inevitable and on Jan. 8 the last stronghold was abandoned. Had the campaign against Constantinople succeeded, the war might have been brought to a quick close. Instead, it dragged on for three more years.

M. E. TRACY SAYS: “ ‘What Would You Do ’ Is About the Idlest Question That Can Be Asked Young Folks”

Knoxville, Ten., March 22.Three University of Missouri ; professors are looking for work. 1 They sent out a questionnaire to ! 1,000 students with regard to sex ' and sex relations which could not | possibly be answered, except on the basis of personal prejudice and belief. The professors themselves could not have answered on any other basis, and that is by far the most important point. Teachers are asking too many questions and answering too few. Students, whose right it is to do the quizzing, can’t seem to get in a word edgewise. The big idea, we are informed, is to teach young folks to think, but how can they think progressively, except they are given the chance to begin where the past leaves off, unless they have been made reasonably well acquainted with what human experience has to offer? Intelligent thinking is not the mere act of cudgelling one’s brains. To be the real thing, it must start with a background. tt tt tt Problems for Individuals THESE three professors who wanted to know what a young man would do if he found himself engaged to an immoral girl, or what a young woman wuold do if ‘she found herself married to an ‘.mmoral maan, were merely asking questions which they could not answer and which no human being knows how he or she will answer until confronted with the actual problem. It is only necessary to scan court reports, or follow the daily news, to realize how bewildered all of us are, how definitely the personal equation enters into each particular case, or hew suddenly people can change their minds when such questions arise. What tb do about them, in so far as it can be done through law, obviously is an enigma for the most mature minds to tackle, while interest in them so palpably is stimulated by nature, as well ,as human nature, as to need no artificial piodding on the part of our educational institutions. The best our educational institutions can do is to lay bare the results of human experience, the deductions of those who have studied the subject of human experience, the deductions of those who have studied the subject thoroughly and conscientiously, and quit the quizzing. tt n n What Would You Do? “'V)S7'HAT would you do?” is about ▼ V the idlest question that can be asked young folks, especially when it has to do with personal relations yet to arise and manifestly is dependent on the peculiar set-up in each instance. Men have proclaimed what they would do under a given set of circumstances since the dawn of time, only to find out that it was not what they would do. I know a hard-boiled puritan, a fundamentalist dominated by the narrowest kind of prejudice, who believed in the double standard and who professed to have nothing, except contempt for immoral women, but who married a harlot and found happiness without even so much as realizing that he had swerved from his convictions. . I know an allegedly liberal-mind-ed soul who asked nothing of his wife that he was not willing to give, which meant nothing, who contended that women had just as much right to be irregular as men, but who actually kicked a daughter from his door when he discovered her delinquency. tt a u Quiz Age—Not Youth WHEN you get right down to brass tacks, this matter of human relations, especially in the field of sex, is not entirely the product of. environment, custom, religious teaching, or moral code. Individual emotionalism has a great deal to do with it, and that generally involves, not one, but two or more Individuals. You have got to know what kind of a woman she is before you can tell what the man will do, and what kind of a man he is, as well, not to mention the way they react on each other at the precise moment of trouble. It does little good to know what they were ten years previously, how they felt, what they believed, or •even how they had dealt with someone else under similar circumstances. Some, who have never shown the slightest indication of violence in their lives, adopt the gun-shot remedy, others content themselves with weeping in the beer, while still others yell for anew law. We gain a little in our attitude toward such matters, but only by thinking in terms of principle—never by imagining what we would do. What enables us to think in terms of principle better than anything else is a good working knowledge of results, a knowledge that follows the incident through and includes the end of the drama, as well as the second act. Who have been the happiest people when the curtain went down, and how did they deal with the ; problem? On the other hand, who have been unhappy, even though they seemed to triumph at one time or another? Nothing proves how a given idea of marriage, divorce, or sex relations works like the condition of old people who have tried it. If we were to approach the problem from that i standpoint and demand less vaporizing on the part of young folks, we might make more headway. Whaf is Fenway Park in Boston, Mass. It is the baseball park of the j Boston American League Baseball club. - -

attempt to force the Dardenelles and capture Constantinople. In February, 1915, the British tried to run past the forts in the Dardanelles. The attack came as a surprise to the Turks and it looked at first as though it was going to succeed. But a sudden change in the weather, bringing in southwest

THE- INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Is This What Government Is Coming To?

j.• ."""I.. M|

Reason

IN his speech before the Florida State Bar Assocaition, criticising uro expenditures for the national defense, Senator King of Utah said this country had no enemies. China had no enemies, but she did have some things other nations wanted, and they took them; the citizen, walking home at night, may have no enemies, but some highwayman may desire his money, and take that; and if this, the richest power on earth, were utterly helpless, other nations would help themselves to its belongings and direct the course of its national existence. tt an Senator Hfeflin, who is from Alabama, objected because people who resented his speech in Massachusetts threw mud at him; but if a Massachusetts man should go down to Alabama and make a speech, advocating the rights of the Negro, they would throw something harder than mud at the gentleman from Massachusetts. How happy we would be if all our blatherskites would just keep still! a tt it We are glad to hear President Angell of Yale say that his university will limit membership rather than enlarge, for this helps the small college, and the small college is a great national asset.

Fish Isn't Valuable as Brain Fqpd

The theory that fish is a brain food is exoioded in this article by Dr. Fishbein. The first of a series on generally accepted superstitions about health. BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. THE human brain consists largely of a fatty material containing chemical substances known as cholesterol and lecithin, and the tissues of the brain are comparatively rich in phosphorus. Brain material is digested rapidly in the stomach and will not make brains any more than any other food that may be taken. The idea that fish is especially valuable as a brain food is grounded on the belief that fish is especially rich in phosphorus Many yeajs ago a student named Buchner said, “Without phosphorus there is no thought.” This statement is true only in the sense that the brain contains phosphorus and without the brain, thought is unthinkable. There is no proof that an increased amount of phosphorus in the food is especially favorable to

“^dOAV-IBTHe—-/UMU’CAMftV -i-dffifc-r W+— nl- .■tr-sTHrA-riihtf*

SIEGE OF VERA CRUZ March 22

EIGHT Y-TWO years ago today General Winfield Scott and his force of nearly 12,000 men began the bombardment of Vera Crub in our war with Mexico. Two weeks before, on March 7, 1847, the fleet carrying Scott’s army anchored a few miles south of the city, and from here the troops were landed by means of surf boats. Vera Cruz was a strongly fortified city of 7,000 inhabitants. The attack did not begin immediately, but on March 22, after a summons to surrender had been refused. The siege lasted for four days, and on March 27 the city surrendered. The battle was a spirited affair in which the advantage of superior numbers, which the Americans had, was almost outweighed by the natural and manmade fortifications which protected the city. U. S. Grant, who was to rise to the supreme command of Union troops during the Civil war and later become President of the United States, was busy during the Vera Cruz bombardment in the humble post of supply train tender.

By Frederick LANDIS

*ATSS WILHELMINA ROBINSON of Boston, announced on her 100th birthday that she hated all men and ascribed her long and happy life to the fact that she never married, all of which means that Wilhelmina is still peeved because ‘a certain gentleman never played his banjo beneath her window. President Hoover was wise to select a citizen of Honolulu for Governor of the Hawaiian islands, the old practice of giving the prize to some resident of the U. S. A. proper being bitterly resented by the outlying inhabitants. a a a A Russian botanist claims that all races are related ’ because the grain they raise is almost identical, but a stronger proof of this relationship is the fact that we fight each other all the time.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

mental effort. The great naturalist Agassiz, knowing of the statement by Buchner and being informed by the eminent chemist Dumans, the teacher of Pasteur, that fish contained much phosphorus, put two and two together and argued that the eating of fish would be especially good for the brain. Actually there is no one food that has more value for the brain than any other. It is important that the brain be properly nourished with a good blood supply, and since nervous tissue is especially quick to react

Questions and Answers

You can 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 given, nor can extended research be made. AH either Questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned reauests cannot be answered All letters are confidential. You are cordially Invited to make use of this service. Where does jade come from. There are two kinds, jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite is found in China, Burma, and many parts of southern Asia. Nephrite is found in Khotan (Turkestan) and the Kuen-hun mountains, Irkutsk (Siberia) and New Zealand. Where was the picture “Ben Hur” filmed? The galley scenes were taken at Leghorn, Italy. The rest of the picture, including the chariot race in the '"ircus Maximus, was filmed in California. How often is a population census of the United States taken? The Constitution requires that a population census of the United States be taken decenially. The first census was taken in 1790 and the most recent, the fourteenth, in 1920. The next census will be taken in 1930. What is the legend concerning the wall flower? The wall flower had its legendary origin in a castle on the Tweed, whose lord had a fair daughter who fell In love with the son of a neighbor who was much hated by her father. Discovering the secret, her father confined the maid to her room in the castle. Not to be outdone. the lover gained admission to the grounds of the castfte and played .lis lute beneath her window and sang to her in tales which he knew she would translate readily. In this tale he told her to slip from her window at a certain time of night and he would contrive to throw her a rone which she was

NEITHER DID CHINA THROWING MUD AT TOM MERCHANTS IN CAGES

JOHN BARLEYCORN is exultant, for Rhode Island has filed a suit to set aside the eighteenth amendment and there is something about such a mighty commonwealth, arrayed for battle, which strikes terror to its opponent’s heart. a u The Philippines are to make another appeal for independence, which means only that a number of Filipino politicians are about tb avail themselves of another free trip to the United States. If. the Philippines were given their independence, they would keep it about five minutes after Japan cast an appraising eye in their direction. When the American merchant is inclined to complain because business is dull, he should think of the Chinese merchant who is not permitted to sell the Japanese goods he has in stock, and if he does so, he is paraded up and down the streets in a wooden cage. tt a tt Former King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, now hunting butterflies in Africa, deplores the loss of his throne, but he is better off than the kaiser, who led him to destruction, for the latter’s only, pastime is to fight with his folks.

to unfavorable influences, the brain responds more quickly to intoxication by way of the blood, to anemia or to any other force related to the blood than any other tissue of the body. It is currently believed that a large amount of food is unfavorable to mental work, since the demand placed upon the digestive organs requires more blood in the abdomen and less in the brain. Almost everyone feels tired and sleepy after a large meal. The brain worker does better with small meals of easily digestible food.

to fasten to a battlement let herself down into his arms. The call was sounded, the maid caught the rope thrown to her by her lover but fastened it insecurely so that she fell to the stones beneath the window and was killed. Her body was then and there changed to a wall flower, so anew form of beauty appeared where one more prized had been.

Daily Thought

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her canning.—Psalms 137:5. tt n tt 'T'HERE is no remembrance which JL time does not obliterate, nor plin which death does not terminate.—Cervates.

Society Brand Clothes $45 to $75

DOTY'S 16 N. Meridian Street; Wilson Bros. Haberdashery

MARCH 22,1929

IT SEEMS TO ME a a By HEY WOOD BROUN

Helen terwilliger, who caught Chief Justice Taft in a mistake, finds her fame is irksome The little girl has been hounded by reporters and cameramen, and deluged with letters and telegrams. I’m sorry for her, since there is every evidence that she meant no harm. But the sad fate of this child may furnish a moral lesson to older and less innocent busybodies. If something fearful always happened to amateur copyreaders and correctionists, I would be very glad. I am against the “Whorners,” the “I sho”ld and woulders” and all the “Me and I” clan. And if any man or woman corrects your pronunciation of a word in a public place you have every right to punch him in the nose. No jury in the world will hold you guilty. Os course, the people who take it on themselves to keep the other fellow’s English pure and accurate advance highfalutin’ excuses for their Activity. The adopt an "it hurt me more’’ attitude. One might believe that but for their bustling the world would go to pot and all of us live in pent houses on Babel. It is not the love of interference which moves them, so they say, but only a devotion to the mother tongue. a a a Shirt-Sleeves BUT upon their own assertions I would indict them down to the last blue-stockinged heel. Take the classic Cyril who first piped up, “Whom are you?” George Ade, his creator, explained that the lad had been to night school. I hold that most of the gross mistakes in grammar arise less from sheer ignorance than a little knowledge coupled with much fright. It is the urge for elegance which leads us into error. For a month I have kept careful but silent count and I find that “Me” is almost never put in the wrong place. I am not counting such phrases as “It’s me,” for that I hold is entirely permissible. Almost all the errors ground around “I”—my favorite word. “It was so good of you to take Mae and I to supper after the show,” says the beautiful blond. And she may add, “Between you and I the kid got just a little potted.” a a a Odds Are Even AND this is said by one who lives not in the hills, but down upon the plains. “Me” and “I” are managed moderately because he takes so much practice in their usage. But as for “shall” and “will,” I’m still entirely in the dark. The rules they taught in school have flown. I try to pick the proper one by ear, and I am almost stone' deaf. Time was when clients who pointed out mistakes could wound me. Now a happy callousness has been established. Some of the most fascinating talkers, whom I know, are men and women with scarcely a shred of grammar. Surely it is more important to talk in a wise and interesting manner than to speak correctly. “Why not do both?” you ask. It can be done, but there are barriers. tt tt tt And Dialects ONCE every week upon the radio a lady appeals to all the kiddies within sound of her phony voice to articulate and never slur a word or put an “r” on just behind a final “w.” As one who has never been able to break himself of saying, ‘T sawrit” (i. e., “saw it”), my opinion may be thrown out as malicious and incompetent. This is no doubt a vile linguistic fault. And yet I shudder to think of poor Children being too much hobbled in their talk. If it were within my power to wipe out the individual eccentricities of every local dialect, I would not do it. The dulcet tones of the man from Georgia often annoy me, but I love to hear the lady from the same spot talk southern. There is an Indiana dialect not altogether beautiful, and yet itser'&s to lend variety to any drawing room. Some people did not vote for Smith because he used the “oi” in “bird,” as is our native New York custom. tt tt tt Oliver Street TO me the Governor never was more palpably sincere than when In grew excited and talked pure OhVer street. If perfection means standardization, then I must admit that the educated Englishman comes nearest to thee ideal. And yet I am not fond of the English voice, or accent, or "nun'-iation. After -: y long ordeal with English, pure and undefiled, I feel uncomfortable and itch all over. After the first half hour I have a desire to rush away to find a Cockney aciCopvright. 1929, for Th Timesi

“Good Clothes' ’ —and that classification holds good at all prices—high, low or medium. Spring selections are at their best and your particular requirements as to price are provided for!

Idea* lit opinion*! e! - prmsed In this column * those ot one of America’s most intereetin* writer* and are presented without regard to their ftfreewent with the editorial attitude of d{J—' paper. The Editor. * j