Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 283, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1929 — Page 4

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S C l> l P P J - H OW A Mb

Good Nerve or Thick Skins .M' mixers of t he highway commission arc now meeting to hand out contracts running into millions of dollars. Among tlmse contracts are the agreements ‘or the >ah' of cement to the state. If history repeats itself, the prices will he exactly the same from all bidders, inasmuch as the makers of cenn iit ha\e a very tight little organization which lixes prices with due regard to competition from abroad, not from home. When the commission was getting rid of former Director Williams, several things were brought, to light which makes it apparent that the members of he commission, some of them at least, have either very good nerve or very thick skins. One of tiie de> was that the commission Jinaliy diwotcred that it was possible for road contractor- to buy cement cheaper than could the commission, so on some roads alternate forms of bids were finally authorized, under which contractors might buy their own cement That is suggestive, when considered with the numerous stories of the pool of 10 • Tits a barrel set aside by the cement dealers for propaganda and other purposes. The "other” purpose' become a matter of curiosity. Before lotting contracts for millions of dollars worth of cement, the state might expect, some inquiry as to the cost of other materials as contrasted with cement, the durability of • ement. roads as compared with other forms, the possibility of state plants for cement, using prison labor. If the commission were entirely free from cement influences, it would find the experience of Michigan interesting. The savings that could he made by a plant at the state farm where materials arc already owned by the state, are estimated by competent engineers at. f>ne of the two millions of dollars which will he spent this year l'or that material. Other exposures at the time of the Williams exodus concerned the actions of two members of the board who should resign before spending these millions of dollars. One of the commissioners admitted that he had received valuable gifts from a concern that sells materials to the commission. Certainly no commissioner should have the mind of a waiter who looks for tips from those he serves. He should be free to act for the benefit of the state, not with a mind already prejudiced by donations. One other commissioner was charged, and he did imt deny, with being indirectly interested in a contract. His actions suggest that the charge is true. His activities more than confirm it. In all decency these two commissioners should relieve Governor Leslie of their presence on the board, they should not embarrass him or cause him sleepless nights by their Gather official life. They should get out before public indignation presses the Governor to throw them out.

Under the Skin Not only the Colonel s lady and Julia O'Grady, but the Colonel and Jim seem to be about the same "under the skin." Nor does there seem to be any difference in the final kick of imported champagne, smuggled through customs houses, and home made hooch Two -'pry rich men. emerging from a most luxurious hotel, alter a very aflable evening spent in an apartment w here it costs about a dollar a minute to draw breath, got Into a squabble over the problem as to which one should escort an heiress to many millions, incidentally the wiic ot some man not present. There was a fight, a death, and the police. It is an old story to the police reporter, and can be duplicated, except lor its tragical finish, in nearly any city of any size, any Saturday night, The only difference is in the setting. The actors In this drama happen to have vast riches. But apparently they got just as drunk, just as quarrelsome, just as primitive, as those without any money at ah. Evidently the fear of the prohibition law does not deter those who have everything to lose by mad moments any more than it. frightens those Vhosc daily lues outside have little more to offer than were they behind bars. Decency of mird and of acts must have a different basis for both rich and poor. Human nature is the same on all letete of society. The human animal reacts t the same influences in about the same way. ‘ Play Ball! Familiar figures pass, and new ones make their nervous debut in the arena; Cobb and Speaker are gor.e. and from obscure sandlots comes anothej crop of keen-eved. swift-armed youngsters. Old Walter Johnson in the dugout now. staking his fortunes on a fresher arm than that- valiant right of his own. But the mighty bludgeon of the Babe is poised, and Grover Alexander still defies the beckonings of time. McGraw and Connie Mack, like ageless patriarchs, still marshal their baseball progeny for the assault. New laces or old in the lineups, the thrill of opening day brooks no denial. In the eight nerve centers of the game and in a host of lesser ones, at bulletin boards and in newspaper offices and beside a million radios, the nation takes a recess from its worries today to applaud the perennial cry. "Play Ball!” Hollywood Tiber Alles When other nations protest against American restrictions on foreign goods we turn a deaf ear, but when they raise barriers against our products our self-righteous cries of indignation can be heard around the world. In the midst of plans lor tariff increases, over the i /£

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPJtX-HOW AHD NEWSPAPER) Owned and pablUbed dally (except Sunday) by The Indlanapoile Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marlon County 2 cent#—lo cents s week: elsewhere, 3 cents—l 2 cents s week. BOYD GURLEY ROY W. HOWARD. FRANK O. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE— RILEY 6551. TUESDAY. APRIL 16. 1929. Member 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.”

protest of a dozen countries, and a flock of diplomatic disputes over our sundry embargoes and restrictions on foreign imports, the state department is busy trying to protect our movie industry from discriminations abroad. France is the worst offender, but she is only one among many. Great Britain, German, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary and others are determined by hook or crook to limit Yankee flints. Their method includes governmental import restrictions and quota limitations on the one side, and on the other national trusts and European cartels. The Ptench quota, which American motion picture producers just have refused to accept, would cut imports from America 40 per cent by forcing the purchase of one French film for every three American films. That amounts to an effort to force American producers to subsidize their French competitors. More than trade and money are involved in this world movie dispute. Tne foreign governments are acting against American films because of the alleged propaganda iunction of the Hollywood product in Americanizing the world,” that is, in making the world safe for American ideals. American styles, American crime and everything else American. But foreign movie fans, prefer American films. Just as they insist on American automobiles and other products. In the end, that probably will do more than all the Hollywood threats and state department notes of protest to keep Yankee reels unwinding in foreign countries. The rea' bugaboo to American film export seems to be, rather, the talkie development. American movie prosperity has been based on large scale capital investment and production made possible by a product of universal appeal. The same silent film which spoke eloquently to both the American highbrow and lowbrow, spoke in all the languages of man to the Hottentot, the Hollander, the Hungarian, to the Pekinese, the Portugese, the Parisienne and the Pole. But the talkie film speaks only one language, and that only to one' class with one taste in one country. Perhaps Hollywood will compromise by permitting foreign producers to make loreign talkie recoi'ds for American world films. During the trial of Texas Guinan, it was revealed that the night club where she served as hostess was operated by Johnnidis and Prounis. Does anybody remember a saloonkeeper named Paddy Healy? Army officers at Fort Sam Houston are taking a new course in cooking prescribed by the war department. Is it possible somebody has been opening cans the wrong way? A couple of New Jersey legislators poured a pitcher of ice water over a colleague when he arose to make a speech. It has finally happened—a legislative ; joke that wasn t on the taxpayers. A New York man, arrested as a pickpocket, told I the court he was a bootlegger. A sneak thief? The ! idea? A city is no longer a town when it has two golf ! courses, one of which is known as the “Metropolitan j Links.” Biographies are having a large sale in the larger cities. The small towns get theirs by going down to watch the trains come in. Gene Howe, Amarillo, Tex., editor, says the Chicago Opera Company singers, giving Thais in Amarillo, saved their voices as much as possible. Indeed worthy of ye editor's praise. Add this to your list of similes: “As unnecessary as a murder mystery serial in a Chicago newspaper.”

- David Dietz on Science ■ Forecasting Weather ■ - No. 330 — 1 IT IS easy for the average layman to make his own weather forecasts from the daily weather map. if he keeps in mind that there is a general drift of high and low pressure areas eastward across the United States. By noting the positions of the highs and lows on the map he can make a pretty good guess as to the

high—is either northwest or northeast of the location ot the observerer. It will continue warm as long as the predominating high is south of his latitude. The movement of a low pressure area usually can be predicted by noting the isotherms, that is the lines of equal temperature, leading eastward from the center of the area. The low usually moves along these isotherms. Isotherms should not be confused with isobars, which are lines of equal pressure. The weather map is marked with both isobars and isotherms. If a low is moving toward the observer from the southwest, it will usually bring precipitation—rain unless the temperature is low’ enough for snow. Low pressure areas which pass along the northern border of the United States are deficient in precipitation. The slow settling of a high pressure area over the south Atlantic states can be taken as a sign that hot weather can be expected in all parts of the country east of the Rocky mountains. Such a heat wave is not broken, although temporary relief may come from showers, as long as the high pressure area stands still. When a V-shaped low appears on the map. the amateur forecaster as a rule will hit it right if he looks for violent local storms in the region of the low. Heavy rains and occasional tornadoes are caused when lows take such a shape. In general, the amateur forecaster should remember two rules; Lows, as they drift toward the observer, usually bring a rise in temperature and frequently rain. In winter, they frequently bring snow. The high, which follows in the track of a low. usually brings cooler and fair weather. In summer, however, during a period rs extreme heat, a low may cause a drop in temperature by bringing showers which cool the parched earth.

M. E. Tracy SAYS: “Most People Would Prefer to See Business Controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, Than by a Crowd of Speculators.” OUTSIDERS are responsible for a good deal of the trouble in New York, and doctors are apt to overlook a fractured skull if they think a man has been drinking. That is what one gets out of the Bell-Smith-Brown episode which is exciting New York. Mr. Bell was from Baltimore, Mr. Smith was from Cleveland and Mrs. Brown was from Lexington, Ky. Both gentlemen wished to see the lady home. There was a scuffle when it came to entering the taxicab. Whether he was hit, pushed, or stubbed his toe, Mr. Smith fell down., fracturing his skull. Staggering about the street, as a man is apt to do with a broken head, he was picked up as intoxicated. Doctors, wiser in the ways of the world than in their own profession, pronounced it a case of too much hootch. Mr. Smith was dragged into court, where a judge, who seems to know more about human ills than these medicos, thought he looked sick and sent him away. Even after Mr. Smith died the medicos put it down as a case of diabetic poisoning. tt tt tt Gives Rise to Doubts SUCH incidents will cause the public to doubt statistics regarding death by acute alcoholism. If Mr. Smith could die from a fractured skull and get a certificate that his demise was due to diabetic poisoning, who knows but what someone else could? And that is not the worst of it, for if the fractured skull had been discovered, who knows buL what Mr. Smith might have been 1 -saved? It goes without saying that a person who causes the death of another by pushing, hitting, or tripping him up is guilty of intemperate conduct, but what about the doctor who thought that he was just another drunk, when he had a broken head?

Tragedy by Radio THE mother of an escaped Texas convict broadcasts an appeal ever the radio for him to surrender. Probably he will not need her advice, because if he were in the habit of doing so he would not be an escaped convict. Her advice is sound, nevertheless. It comes from the heart, which often is as goodj if not better than the head, in solving moral problems. The tragedy of it is that this young man could not see it that way when he was a boy and probably can not see it. that way now. It Better Be the Board WILLIAM C. DURANT and the New York World make surveys to discover the opinion ot business men regarding the federal reserve board's policy toward speculation. Mr. Durant discovers that 97 per cent disapprove, while the New York World discovers that 90 per cent favor it. Whether the result squared with ithe wish in the case of the World, it certainly did in the case of Mr. Durant. Mr. Durant says that the board, “by tactless handling and spectacular methods, succeeded in creating a panic costing the people of this country hundreds of millions of dollars,- ’ and is ready to lead a national movement to curb its power Admitting that there is something to be said on both sides oi the question. most? people would prefer to see business controlled by the federal reserve board than by a crowd of speculators. a tt Great Progress Made Admitting that stock speculations is necessary to a certain extent, we should seek to put a premium on the least, rather than one the most. Legistimate business has grown to a point where it needs all the credit the country can afford. We are still in a state of expansion, still developing our resources and markets, still building, perfecting and improving. Nothing illustrates the great problems ahead more distinctly than the increase of our export trade. Last year it reached the enormous sum of $5,129,000,000. with manufactured and semi-manufactured products accounting for more than twothirds. This represents not only a definite change in the character of our export trade, but one which promises to continue. Fifty yeax-s ago our exports consisted largely of raw materials, which other nations polished off and returned. Now we are polishing them off ourselves. That is one reason why we are making more money out of the game. a tt a Credit Is Essential WE can not build the necessary mills and factories, di'aw on the necessary supplies, and maintain the necessary distributing system without credit. Selling stock is one way of establishing credit, even if it does lead to speculation and gambling. Speculation and gambling can be carried to a point, however, where too much of the credit is absorbed by the game itself, and where merchants and manufacturer actually are deprived of money they need because an unnecessary volume has gone to support this twentieth century brand of poker.

sort of weather to be expected. A good guess as to what the temperature will be like can be made by noting the latitudes of the highs and lows. Asa rule, the weather will be cool and the humidity fairly low if the largest high pressure area on the map—known technically as the p r e and o m i rating

Daily Thought

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.—l Cor 9:27. BBS THE world looks at ministers out of the pulpit to know what they njean when in it.—Cecil.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Jourrtal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, and Health Magazine. ALREADY the owners and proprietors of summer'camps are beginning the spring cleaning and t'ne modifications necessary to make the camps suitable for safe occupancy during the coming hot season. There are only a few of the states in this country that provide tor regular inspection of camps by officers of the state board of health, Since 1926, Maryland has had regular supervision and inspection of camps. In 1928, camps totaling 104 'were inspected in that state and only seventy-six were licensed to operate. Only the camps that meet the state requirements for sanitation and for general care can obtain a license to operate. It is a strange aspect of human logic that a parent who wil have his child in a private schoc i with regular examination and the best

MR. WERNER'S new book, . “Bryan,” is not a biography at all. It is merely an obituary. No man dead so short a time should lie quite still upon the printed page. In fact, the whole purpose of biography should be to quicken the subject under consideration. This pi'esent book is far too dead to deserve being called "A Life.” One major fault lies in an excessive use of the objective method. A good biography should deal not with one person but two. The author and subject both belong in the book. This is not said in celebration ot several glittering performances in recent years, which have been ticketed, or possibly branded, as “Modern Biography.” I am thinking of an old and enduring model. After all, Boswell revealed as much of himself as he did of Dr. Johnson. There is little of Werner in this new book and for that matter, not much of Bryan. Even as an objective study the biography is incompetent. Mr. Werner has concerned himself only with printed material about Bryan. He has been though the newspaper files with fair fidelity and read some forty or fifty books, but seemingly he has been wholly oblivious of the necessity of talking with some of the many thousands who were closely acquainted with the Commoner. Asa I‘esult, the book contains not so much as a scrap of new material. tt tt a Background Lacing ANY good book about Bryan, which purports to be complete, should give a great deal of attention to the background from which lie sprang. It is impossible to know the man without having some insight into his boyhood. While the Freudian approach may have been overdone in recent years,

Herbert hoover assumes the presidency at a time when the country is looking forward to aggressive constructive development and Herbert Hoover, if I analyze his determination correctly, will lead in the greatest era of progressive - ness history ever has recorded.”— Senator Walter E. Edge, New’ Jersey. ana "No right-thinking man or woman wants the return of the legalized saloon and what it stood for. But worse than the saloon would be to enthrone permanently hypocrisy as the dominant force in our country.” —Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, New’ York, former member of the Republican national committee. B S B "Few of our great landscape painters today could say which end of a, cow’ rises first.”—Lord Dewar. British speaker. * ft U U “Our daily conduct from the cradle to the grave, including what

Another Campaign Gets Under Way

' hrA V!— . ,!.,G'//, ( „ A I%' -

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE State Should Supervise Camp Health

IT SEEMS TO ME By H ™

Quotations of Notables

of medical care during the winter season will send that child to a camp during the summer, hundreds and sometimes thousands gs miles from home, and never * give a thought to the possible dangers that the child may have to overcome from a sanitary and health point of view. Many camps have not the slightest arrangements for screening of sleeping quarters. Some, although located in rural districts, feed children largely on canned' instead of fresh vegetables. Some camps constitute bad fire risks because oil lamps are used, being hung directly on frame shacks of flimsy construction. Medical assistance varies from the constant presence of a nurse to the use of hospital internes, recent graduates, doctors thirty ov forty miles away or doctors actually in residence in charge of the camp. Beyond these questions comes the consideration of such fundamental

i a biography seems barren when it makes slight reference to the conditions which govern unconscious motivation. Indeed, a Bryan book must cover a great deal of territory. It should include a vivid account of the times in which the leader lived. This is surely true in the case of William Jennings Bryan. He was the very essence and distillation of the community from which he sprang. In a single paragraph about the Dayton trial. H. L. Mencken shows us more of Bryan than Werner does in his entire book. “By the end of the week,” Mencken wrote, “he was simply a walking fever. Hour by hour he grew more bitter. What the Christian Scientists call malicious animal magnetism seemed to radiate from him like heat from a stove. "From my place in the courtroom, standing upon a table, I looked directly down upon him, sweating horribly and pumping his palm-leaf fan. His eyes fascinated me; I watched them all day long. “They were blazing points of hatred. They glittered like occuit and sinister gems. Now and then they wandered to me, and I got my share for my reports of the trial had come back to Dayton, and he had read them. It was like coming under fire.” n n n Dramatic Ironies TWO dramatic ironies in the makeup of William Jennings Bryan have been all but missed by Werner. Ihere is certainly marvelous material in the fact that the man who went about the country lecturing on "The Prince of Peace” was one of the most profound and accomplished haters this country has. ever known. The second ironical iactor is probably kin to the first. Nowhere do I remember W'erner making any mention of Bryan A humor and his fond-

we eat and drink; what we buy and sell; what we may see at the theaters; how our wives shall divorce us; whether and what we shall hunt and fish; see prize fights and go into physical training; how our mothers shall be advised in case w’e are not wanted in the world, or how our arrival shall be expedited if we are desired, are all matters which now’ receive statutory treatment by con-gress.”—Major-General James G. Harbord. president of the Radio Corporation of America. BBS “We want to build up the farmers' themselves to control their products not to build up bureaucracy.”—Secretary of Agriculture Arthur M Hyde. an* “My leeling is that it is possible to over-organize scientific research, and that usually the best i .- suits are obtained by individual enterprise.” —Sir Oliver Lodge, British physicist.

sanitary problems as proper water supply, milk supply and sewage disposal. Maryland asks all conductors of camps, whether for adults or chil-di-en, tourists or residents, to make due application for inspection; it provides rules and regulations governing camp ground sanitation and wells from pollution. Plans for small living quarters in camps and advice in regard to suitable building materials and ventilation are also available. Other states will do well to follow the example of Maryland and give to people who use summer camps pi'oper protection against sanitary deficiencies. In other words considerations that have been mentioned leadership must come from owners, managers and parents. Only such co-operation will secure for the children in summer camps the type of safety and medical care that parents provide for them at home.

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

! ness for practical jokes. Here, too j there was savagery. Bryan, for all his austerity and ! political evangelism, was at heart a wisecracker. Tlx rough some curious fallacy, the metropolis lately has been identified as the chief forum of this pastime, but any one who knows America at all, must realize that wisecracking flourishes most abundantly in the small towns. a tt tt Wrecked by Radio I MET him alter the peak of his glory, but there was still life in the old man during the San Francisco convention of 1920. Even to those who liked him not at all, William Jennings Bryan was an amazing person. The Werner book makes him seem dull and drab, which is far from the fact. If he had not gone into politics, Bryan might easily have been one of the greatest actors of all time. Booth hiinself can hardly have possessed a voice of such glorious quality. Although commonplace in thought*, Bryan's speeches still read pretty well. To hear them was to be entranced. Up to the time of his great failure at Madison Square Garden, Bryan probably stood as America's .finest orator. N At Madison Square Garden he refused at first to stand before the microphone. “They can’t hear you, Mr. Bryan,” said the chairman. That must have been the most tragic moment in his life. Indeed, the life pf William Jennings' Bryan might well carry .the subtitle, “The Rise ind Fall of a Voice.” 'Copyright. 1920, bv The Timet)

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APRIL 16, 1929

REASON —Bv Frederick Landis -

Let Your Daughter Manage a New York Club and She'll Surely Tread Straight and X arrow. TEX GUINAN—we always get her mixed up with Tex Rickard—told the court that she never tasted 1 liquor in her whole life. The moral is unescapablc; if you would be absolutely sure that your daughter will walk the straight and narrow path, put her on the stage for twenty years and then have her manage a New Yoi’k night club. tt k n The Delaware legislature dis- ! played great sense by passing a bill 1 providing for teaching in the public I schools the effects of alcohol on the 1 human system. A campaign of education put over i the eighteenth amendment and j nothing but education ever will ! make its enforcement possible. B tt tt The appointment of General Dawes as ambassador to Great Brit - ain recalls that his Massachusetts, ancestor rode with Paul Revere to rouse the New England countryside when the British approached. a s tt ' New York City is having a hard ! time to raise a little money to pre- | serve the old home of Alexander ! Hamilton, incomparably the great - | est statesman she ever had. I If the average county seat can afI ford to build a soldiers’ monument. New York, richest city the world ever saw. should not find it hard to swing this Hamilton memorial. tt n a OF course we don't want to do anything of the kind, but that force of 7.000 soldiers, infantry, cavalry, artillery and airplaines. now commanded by Major-General Lassiter to preserve order on the Mexican boundary, could go over and clean up the combined forces on the other side. tt a tt The National Council of Education of Canada asks that government to forbid the importation of comic strips fi'om the United States, which feature fireside troubles, claiming they are demoralizing. We should agree to keep our strips at home, if Canada will keep her booze at home. tt tt tt Now that Mrs. Gann’s case is set- | tied, we can concentrate our anxiety on the fruit and the danger of ! frosts. * * e | Former Prince Carol of Rumania, I who abandoned his folks for a ! titian-crowned lady, wants to see his I infant son. King Michael, from i whom he has been separated for two \ years. Carol has missed a lot by this absence, but the king has not suffered an irrcperable loss. tt it tt nnHE REV. CHARLES JUDKINS J. has just been assigned to the Christ church of Glens Falls, N. Y., j for the twenty-third year. It's very hard on a minister to I lace the same crowd, sitting in the | same seats all this time and it calls J ! lor super-heroism for an audience . to listen to the same man for a ( quarter century and then call lor | more.

Br's SItIhEF

A PIONEER DRAMA April 16 ONE hundred forty-three years ago tonight, on April 16, 1786, an audience gathered in the John Street theater in Boston to witne the premiere of the first comedy by an American. It was “The Contrast,” by Royall Tyler, a Harvard graduate who afterward became chief justice of Vermont. Oddly enough, the plot of this pioneer play was as modern as one which might be offered to a present day talkie audience The title came from the contract between the traveler veneered by European society and the rustic American. Most of the comedy was supplied by Jonathan, a Yankee servant, who delivered his Jokes with a New England twang. Asian from the fact that it was a pioneer, “The Contrast” was not remarkable as a play. As early as 1760 there were theaters in New York and Philadelphia, but the frowns of Puritan and Quakers delayed any real development of the drama. Productions were mostly of English origin, except a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey, “The Prince of Parthia.” produced in Philadelphia by amateurs in 1767.