Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 268, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 March 1929 — Page 8

PAGE 8

sen inn s- mowaMO

The Williams Charges The charges filed against John Williams, director of highways, seem sufficiently broad to enable the commission, if it either pleases or dares to probe the entire conduct of that department. The people will pay nearly twenty millions of dollars this year for roads. That furnishes, unless there be scrupulous care Lnd honesty, many opportunities for driblets, and very sizable ones. The charges against Williams include one that he has failed to enforce contracts made by the commission. That should open the door for not only Williams but the commission to take off the lid of the entire conduct of the department and a full hearing on the manner, method and customs of all contracts. It is through failure to enforce ' contracts that in other places and in other matters huge grafts have been perpetrated. If it has been possible for favored contractors to get past inspectors with poor work and bigger profits, the people should know. Any evidence about contracts should permit Williams to bring out facts he may have concerning the purchases of materials for roads. It has been charged by friends of Williams that the desire to get rid of Williams is inspired by cement makers and manufacturers of other materials who have not been able to get all that they wanted in the way of pillage because of the alertness of Williams. It is time to have this proved. The relationships of a lot of venders of materials should be . shown. The charge against Williams will give the chance to bring in any evidence that I is hated by powerful interests which desire NHjpS| 'raft and have been blocked. I flic hearing must not be permitted to be It rce. The people have been sold on the idea *|§Jfpfn Williams has stood between them and I graft. They have been studiously taught that I he is the only man in the state who can build 9 roads. For that reason, if for no other, it, will be w necessary for the commission to show that its | - charges constitute real reasons for a change [ and not merely an excuse in order to give his job to someone else. The lid should and must be lifted from all phases of the road department. The New Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson takes office as secretary of state f at a time, when the foreign power of the United States for good or evil is greater than that of any other nation. He will not determine American foreign policy alone. The President, in co-operation with the senate, will do that. But the secretary will be responsible for the method of conducting foreign affairs, which in many ways is as important as policy. Ambassador Morrow in Mexico Cry, for instance, has demonstrated that a change in the method of diplomacy without basic change in policy can transform foreign suspicion into trust and potential enemies into friends. Stimson is recommended by such judges of character and ability as Hughes, Root, Taft and Hoover. His recoru shows him to be a brilliant lawyer and good administrator. He was a successful secretary of war unde-* Taft. He forced a Nicaraguan settlement as Coo’idge’s spe§ial envoy. During the last year he was an able governor-general of the Philippines. Like other men, Colonel Stimson has defects. His intellect is brilliant, but cold. He is self-controlled, but sometimes self-righteous. He gets things done, but he is apt to use the big stick. In the past he has been essentially a disciplinarian rather than a diplomat. If Stimson attempts to apply to our general LatinAmerican. far eastern and European problems the method of ultimatum and dictatorship which he employed in Nicaragua, he will jeopardize the peace of the world. It is perhaps an injustice even to suggest the possibility that Stimson may let auy of his old methods rule his new job. Doubtless he has learned by this time that his methols in Nicaragua were resented throughout Latin-America and created a major problem in diplomacy ana trade which the Hoover goodwill trip has not eliminated entirely. Doubtless he will not be tempted to deal with other governments and peoples in such manner. Americans with much less intellect than Stimson have sense enough to know that there is a great deal of distrust and hatred of the United States abroad in the world, and that peace can be made permanent only by a diplomacy of patience, co-opera-tion and friendliness. Our foreign problems are most difficult; friction with a dozen nations over our tariff and prohibition laws, Chinese extraterritoriality Russian recognition, South American trade, Caribbean protectorates. Philippine independence, foreign debts, world court, rivalry over raw materials, markets and credits, and, overshadowing all, the freedom of the seas dispute and naval armament race with Great Britain. To handle these problems Stimson must be more than a good lawyer and competent executive; he nust develop statesmanship of a high order. Unemployment in Prosperity Last year was one of the good years lor American uusiness and industry, so far as production and profits were concerned. In many lines we produced more than ever before in one year. Yet the number of people at work was 14 per cent below that of 1923, when the country produced far less. "Those who are employed shall earn more than evr before; but fewer shall be called to work, and more shall be unemployed "—that is the promise of 1028 to American wage-earners, according to the

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKimUIiWASJ SEWSPAPEK) Owucd uO<l published dally (except Sunday) by 'ibe Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis, Ind Price in Marion Ceunty 2 cents —10 cents a week: elsewhere, a cents—l 2 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE—RILEY 5551. FRIDAY. MARCH 29. lwol Member of United Press, Scrlpps Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

Survey Graphic, from the April number of which these statements are taken. It is the story of the last five years, the magazine says, and is likely to be the story for some years to come. What has happened in several typical plants of typical industries thus is outlined: A machine shop now employs thirty men with ten new machines, doing the work it required 225 men to do with twenty old type machines. The rest got a week’s notice. A rubber company now makes 57,000 tires a day with 16,500 men, against a production of 32,000 eight years ago with 24,000 men. Most of the change is due to machinery. A tool company produces 40 per cent more tools with 280 men than it used to do with 480 men. The surplus 200 likewise got a week’s notice. And so it goes. A senate committee has studied the problem. The unemployment conference called by President Harding in 1922 and headed by Herbert Hoover still is active, and is expected, indeed, to make a report soon on recent conditions. Many other agencies are spending time and brains to see that men may get work to earn their bread. There are problems more in the public eye than unemployment, but none, we venture, which will furnish a more drastic test of the strength and skill of the man in the White House. We Need Swamps. Too Part of Lloyd George’s program for relieving unemployment is the draining of swamps. Let England learn from the experience of the United States and r.ot do too much of this. We reclaimed so much swamp land that the effect was to force the water into river channels that would not hold it, causing floods. We found we added new land to the farming area while old land, equally good, was withdrawn from cultivation, for there is a limit to the amount of land which profitably can be cultivated. Then we found that there was a real demand for swamps to provide for the migratory birds, and to hunt in. Now there is a demand for reflooding many swamps, so carefully and so expensively drained. Congress just has provided for a system of migi-atory bird refuges, most of which will consist of the once despised swamp land. Nature did not make a mistake, as many of us vainly suppose, when she provided swamp lands as part of her grand scheme. The State Park Movement Announcement by Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur that the ninth annual meeting of the national conference on state parks will be held early in May at Clifty Falls state park, Indiana, serves to emphasize anew the great service states can do their citizens by setting up park areas. The state park is a comparatively recent development. In every state are many areas which, while not quite of national park caliber, are nevertheless worth preserving as recreational and scenic spots for the use of all the people. The great increase in the number of state parks in the last decade is a highly encouraging sign. No state can establish too many. Each additional one that is set up means wholesome enjoyment for many thousands of people. Chorus girls fled in scanty attire from a fire in a New York theatrical boarding house. A group of trained fleas kept their heads and let their trainer pack them safely into a valise. A flea in scanty attire wouldn’t be noticed in the street anyway. President Hoover has sent the White House horses back to the quartermaster and closed the White House stables. Further evidence of an economically stable government?

David Dietz on Science-

Air Complex Mixture

THE earth's atmosphere is a mixture of a number of gases. It might really be said that the earth had a number of atmospheres, for each gas in the mixture behaves just as it would if others were not present. From this point of view, the earth has four important atmospheres and a number of less importance.

One is helium, the gas used in airships today. The second is neon, the gas used in the new electric lights in advertising signs. The other two are named krypton and xenon. Our atmosphere also contains slight traces of ozone, hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid and ammonia. The lower part of the atmosphere also contains dust and bacteria. The dust in the atmosphere performs a very useful function. The scattering of light which results in the general illumination of the atmosphere is due to the reflection of scattering of the sun's rays by the particles of dust. Were it not for the dust particles in the air, the air would appear black. The direct rays of the sun would illumine the objects on which it fell. But the space between objects would be black just as at night the space between the twinkling stars is black. Careful chemical analysis reveals that an average sample of air has the composition shown in the table below. The figures refer quantities per 10.000 parts That is. the figure 2065 94 after oxygen, means that if a sample oi air were divided into 10,000 parts 2065.94 of them would be oxygen Oases which are present in amount less than 0.005 parts have been omitted. The tables: Oxygen 2065.94 Nitrogen 7711.60 Argon 79.00 Carbon Dioxide 3.36 Ozone 0.015 Water vapor 140.00 Nitric Acid 0.08 Ammonia o!o05

No. 316

The chief ones are composed of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor and carbon dioxide. These four make up almost 100 per cent of the earth's atmosphere. The next most important constituent is argon. Argon is an inert gas. There are lour other inert gases in the atmosphere. two of which are better ..nown to the public today.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy

SAYS:

“Why Should an Untrained Peace Officer Be Allowed to Exercise the Privilege of Life and Death Over Inno~ cent People?” /CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., March 29.—An inexcusable atrocity, this Illinois liquor raid, in which a mother was shot and a gfellon of wine discovered. Wets seize upon it as an argument, just as drys once seized upon the drunken murderer, or wife-beat-ing. Pass a law, or repeal one, has become the cry which succeeds every revolting incident. That is the principal reason why we have so many revolting incidents and so many foolish laws. We have reached a point where, if a flapper slips on a banana peel, someone is ready to yell for a law against eating bananas, and someone else is ready to kill his grandmother for doing so. In so far as this Illinois episode involved the killing of an innocent person over nothing, it is just one among hundreds. We have had too many such episodes since prohibition went into effect, but that does not mean we were free of them before. Though it was several years ago, I still can see the dead face of a high school lad who was shot to death by officers when he tried to run away from a kid’s craps game which they had raided. We can pass, or repeal all the laws we like, but so long as we put guns in the hands of nit-wits, such tragedies will occur. We are so solicitious of the meanest murderer’s rights as to give him a lawyer, pay a judge to see that he has a fair trial, let a jury decide his guilt, or innocence and grant him an appeal to the highest court. That being so, why should an untrained constable, deputy sheriff, or peace officer be allowed to exercise the privilege of life and death over innocent people. The city of London says they should not, and disarms its police force. n n tt AI Caught at Last THE federal government at last has gotten something on “Scarface” A1 Capone. Mrs. Willebrandt caught him presenting false affidavits to escape appearing before the grand jury. Considering all that has been written about Al's horrendous career, it sounds like catching Julius Caesar stealing apples. But it will go down in our legal record as a mighthy triumph, something to match the Earl Carroll bath-tub scrape. This man is supposed to have been a great gang leader, “overlord of Chicago’s underworld,” as some will have it. Many details of his picturesque career are supposed to be known, even to the extent of murder plots and wholesale corruption. When it comes right down to brass tacks, however, the best our great federal department of justice can do is tag him with getting doctors to say he was sick when he wasn’t. Either an idol has failed or the law has made a bad fumble. tt tt tt Hoover and the Tie’ ~~ THERE is little doubt that President Hoover was announcing a general rule when he said that southern postmasters would be selected for their fitness and warned the Republican patronage peddlers to lay off. It has been suspected for a long while that he would tolerate no such practices, whether in Dixie, or Ohio. Indeed, such a suspicion operated heavily against his candidacy in those hectic pre-convention days. More than one prominent Republican sought to' undermine Hoover by whispering that he would be nothing less than a czar, especially in the matter of presidential appointments, and that the boys need look for no pie in case of his election. Even though they looked for it, the boys can not help being a little disappointed to have their suspicion so quickly and candidly confirmed. Be that as it may, the general public is rather well pleased. A President who dares to be honest with regard to postoffices can be depended on to be honest with regard to other things. nttn Betting on the Future S'lß GEORGE PAISH. the British financial wizard, says the world is sick with borrowing money. Borrowing money is just another torm of betting on the future, or speculation as we call it. The infatuation has taken a deep hold not only on individuals, but on communities and states. The idea of betting on a steady, uninterrupted rise in values, or of letting the next generation pay the bills, has grown enormously fashionable. Nothing has done more for it in this country than the demand for good roads and the installment plan of selling luxuries. The extent to which America has mortgaged herself, however, for these and similar purposes is small when compared to the debt incurred by the old world for war. Wha*- is still more encouraging, we have the roads, or some of them at least, and a part of the luxuries to show for our obligation, while the old world has little but a military triumph which the next generation will find it very hard to translate into bread and meat.

Daily Thought

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.—Job 3:25. B B B PROSPERITY is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.—Hazlitt,

HERE’S ONE > YOU CAN . - _ ~ j

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. r I ''HE belief that drinking two quarts of whisky will cure snake bite is probably symbolical magic based on the idea that the whisky will produce the vision of snakes and that the vision will remove the effects of the bite. The treatment of snake bite in this manner would have the advantage of putting the person into a sufficiently unconscious state to permit dissection of the point at which the snake’s fangs penetrated and the application of a tourniquet to prevent diffusion of the poison throughout the body. Modern medicine does "not call for the use of whisky in the treatment of snake bite. In the modern technics, various antiseptic substances are applied directly to the snake bite, including, for ex-

IT SEEMS TO ME

T?OR a long time I said that I wouldn’t have anything to do with it. After spending four hours in Florida listening to a conversation about why did Mack Truck (6) act precisely the way it did, I decided that stock and bond talk is the dullest that there is. The two big operators finally decided that Mack Truck (8) was sluggish, and I felt the same. Sluggishness was the chief complaint I had against Wall Street in the old speculative days before I quit the game and resolved to live simply without either stocks or bonds. Or even rights. I am an old Pennsylvania R. R. (3’i) boy myself. And in my day owning Pennsylvania was about as exciting as watching turtles race. Four sets of newspapers during the afternoon would reveal the fact that Pennsylvania in a wild spurt and leaped from 55 Vs to 55%, and then weakened down to 5514. Ten times Vs I computed amounted to $1 and a difficult fraction. My dealings with the news stands ate up all the profits. One day in a wild flurry the stock went up, and I sold out and bought two pots of geraniums, which grow a little faster. S It Different Now BUT NOW conditions are quite different. Wall Street has become front page stuff and Pennsylvania fights for a place in the sun • not an advertisement) along with the box score of the training camp game between the Yankees and the Dodgers. Headlines such as “Securities in Wild Crash” can not fail to fascinate. When it was called to my attention that there had been a loss of more than $1,000,000,000 in the value of leading securities, I could not refuse to feel an interest. Now was the time for all good men to come to the aid of the market. I could not idly sit by while the economic structure of my country tottered. Money should not lie idle in the bank where moth and rust doth corrupt. Wall Street needed me. Besides, the paper said that good securities were being thrown overboard and mashed in the maw of stop-loss for bargains. B '.v in the end I bought a bondinternational T. & T. 4’i con 39 do. However, my International T. bond is not like others. It combines the best features of investment and speculation. Pv investment is for widows and orphans. I’m far too young to want either security or 5 per cent. The catch in my bond is that it is convertible. I'm a little vague as to what it can be changed into and Just where. So far I must confess a shade of disappointment. During my first few days with International T. & T. our common stock rose prodigiously. E ,—. afternoons when every commodity was dropping, Interna-

Doesn’t Want to Run On It

HEALTH SUPERSTITIONS—No. 7.

Whisky for Snake Bite

t ample, solutions of potassium permanganate which has the power of oxidizing and rendering innocuous any of the snake venom that it may reach. It includes also the injection into the body of antivenins or substances prepared by immunization of animals against snake poison. These substances have the power of opposing the snake poison in the body. The change represents transition from empirical and symbolical medicine of the past to the highest type of modern specific scientific medicine. The belief that it is dangerous to eat fish and celery at the same meal is one of the popular food combination ideas, others being that it is dangerous to eat lobster and cream, strawberries and cream, proteins and carbohydrates, pickles and peaches, and indeed all sorts of other combinations, according to individual notions.

tional T. & T. swam upstream like a salmon. But this didn’t seem to have an effect upon the bonds. They seemed to be lacking in school spirit. Perhaps it’s all just a good joke. a a It’s a Bond Anyway STILL, a bond is a bond. Perhaps mine is a prior lien and then again it may be that it isn’t. The days are still too short for anything like a complete investigation. A prior lien would be a little more satisfactory. As I understand finance, that would give me inalienable rights in the physical properties of our company. Any year the 4Vs was not paid cheerfully and promptly, I would be entitled to go out with an ax and get my money back in telegraph poles and copper wire. If two bond-holders want the same telegraph pole, I suppose a court action is necessary. But, then, I am under the impression that bond-holders don’t vote. They merely come along and loot the dead after the battle has ended. If the market continues to need my support, as seems likely at the moment, I propose to buy railroad bonds. Specifically the bonds of roads which are not doing very well. It would be a thrilling thing to stop a train upon a defaulting road and order the passengers all to alight with the curt explanation. “Get out of that smoking car. The right wheel belongs to me.” A well-rounded business man’s in-

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. Ail other questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential. You are cordially invited to make use of this ■service. What is the form of oath taken by the President of the United States? “I do solemnly wear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will faithfully execute the office of President of the F-Ued States and will, to the best cl my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” How many soldiers and widows ol soldiers who served in the Civil war are drawing pension from the government? According to the recent report oi the Commissioner of Pensions there were 106,790 soldiers and 226.650 widows of soldiers on the rolls. What is the address of the Ameriican Road Eluilders Association? 37 West Thirty-ninth street, New York.

The actual facts of the matter are that in the human stomach and in the intesinal tracts food substances are submitted very promptly to the action of digestive ferments and combinations are not much harder to digest than individual substances. In order for the substance to be digested, it must be thoroughly macerated so that the fibers will be broken up and so that the gastric and intestinal juices will be able to gain access to ail portions of the food substances. For this reason, hard cheese and celery should be thoroughly chewed since cheese contains fat and it is difficult for the digestive juices to break through the fat layer and since celery contains a good deal of fiber which may form an indigestible residue. Much of what is said by food fanatics relative to combinations of portein and corbohydrates is fallacy without any basis in scientific study.

lIEYWOOD By BROUN

vestment should have some common stock. This is not a bid to be placed upon any sucker list. Many new companies already honor me with circulars giving me the right to get in on the ground floor of new issues. But it is my intention to play the market not by vote, but wholly by ear. It isn’t any fun to know all about the issue. tt tt a Joy of the Surprise T AM NOT one to ask the waiter, “What is this omelet ala Peggy Hopkins?” I don’t want to be told. I want to be surprised. And so, when it gets a little slower, I propose to buy Haygart appearing on the curb. All I know about Haygart is that it has “rts wi.” But don’t even hint what they are. I want to work this out by myself. Haygart is probably anew fuel or a food product. It certainly sounds all right to say, “White horses eat more Haygart.” I am also interested in the coppers. The red metal, as I call it, seems not yet to have struck a stabilized price. Some shrewd operators tell me that care must be exercised in regard to the coppers. It seems that some of the miners are wearing out. Even if they pay (8) part of that must be figured in your own personal account for depletion. But this seems to me a niggardly way to look at the matter. I myself am depleting just as fast as any mine. Who wants an investment good for perpetuity? Why should my heirs buy champagne for chorus girls as yet unborn? My motto is a short mine and a merry one. We take nothing with us when we go and so why not leave it now with Texas Guinan? (Copyright. 1929. for The Times l

Convenience 4a rm Men find this a pleasant place jpEgjpy to shop for several reasons—the convenience of a first floor locaJ|/j\B tention to every customer —and rt ± n 7 last but not least, the fine seleeOOCiety D) and tion of Soeietv Brand Clothes. Clothes SUo to $75 Wilson Bros. Haberdashery DOTY’S 16 N. Meridian Street

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers, and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

MARCH 29,1929.

REASON

By Frederick Landis

Hoover Shows Coolidge HouIJ Economy Really Can Be EfA fected. Giving Up His Yacht, MR. HOOVER knocks Mr. Coolidge into a cocked hat as art apostle of economy by giving up the yacht Mayflower which Mr* Coolidge and several of his predeces-S sors used for weekly trips down the Potomac at an annual cost of S3OO - 000 and the time of 148 sailors. Mr. Hoover gave the boat up because he thinks it wrong to waste the money. Besides he would rather go fishing. a a a Which reminds us of the story I of the late Colonel Robert G. Inger-i soli, who was asked by a friend to I take a drink. Ingersoll eyed the! tempter solemnly and said: “My I friend. I promised my grandfather on his deathbed that I would never take a drink of intoxicating liquor—and besides I just have had one.” a a The effort now being made to re% store the birthplace of General Rcb<*% ert E. Lee in Virginia reminds us of the greatest thing he ever did. It was after the war when Lee had become president of Washington < and Lee university. Representatives of an insurance company came to Lee and offered him a great salary to become the head of their company and Lee told them he knewnothing about the business. Then they told Lee that his name would be worth the money and hi! replied that the fame won for hini by his soldiers, living and dead, was not for sale. ,’ a a a THE charge of this New Jersey woman that her husband buried her in sauerkraut reminds us once more that we never known what we are eating. *1 tt tt O ft I Great Britain would better become excited over her starving people afc home than work herself up over the sinking of her rum runner in the; Gulf of Mexico by our coast guard. The boat which was sent to thS, bottom has been a notorious offender for years and was suspected of smuggling booze, dope and aliens, and if guilty it should have been sent to the bottom long ago. tt a zi We wish there were some way td take*the Stillmans and their Indian guide, Beauvais, their divorce suits, their libel suits, their slander suits and all their other court room activities and bury them half way between Honolulu and Guam. tt tt tt MEXICANS say General Escobar may cross the border and g 0 into the talkies, as he has a good voice and is a good actor. He ou?ht to make good, too, as a professional dancer, for he has been very light on his feet ever 'since General Calles started after him. a tt m This country was honored in cxß| traordinary fashion by the Frenelßf to have the Stars and Stripes tie® with their tricolor on the coffin Marshal Foch, also to have two American soldiers on guard. Foch had a far friendlier feeling for Pershing than for any other al- . lied commander. ''M a tt There is a tragic inequality in the* distribution of water in the United ; States. All over the south people $ are being drowned, yet Chicago has i to wage a fight against her sister states to get enough water out of Lake Michigan to float her sewage into the Mississippi river.

*4l O O (5 TH £ ~

PURCHASE OF ALASKA March 29

SIXTY-TWO years ago today the Russian minister at Washington received a cablegram from his government approving the Unites States’ offer of $7,200,000 in gold for the purchase of Alaska, Secretary of State Seward haS made the offer a few days before; subject to the President’s approval, and provided that the cession be “free and unencumbered by any reservations, privileges, franchisee! grants, or possessions by any assetdated companies, whether corporate or incorporate, Russian or any other.” The day following receipt of tip cablegram, Seward and the Russian minister signed the treaty of purchase without further negotiations. In May, the senate ratified it, and on June 20, the President issued the customary proclamation. Alaska has proved itself to be one of the most profitable financial investments any government has ever made. Exactly twenty years after the purchase, in 1837. gold was discovered in the Klondike, and fisheries, furs, silver and copper have since yielded vast sums each year. In 1927 the estimated revenue from copper alone was exactly the amount the United States paid for the territory in 1867. , •'