Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 172, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 November 1929 — Page 6

PAGE 6

S€tt I 3 - HOW A.M&

A Day for Appraisal Even the most cynical, the most sceptical, will find cause for a glow of congratulation, if not for gratitude, if he compares the conditions under which he lives with those which first caused a day to be set aside for thanks to a Providence for blessings. The Pilgrims had no doubts. They gave thanks to God for saving them from famine and hunger. They were grateful for the prospect of a winter of plenty. They did not credit themselves with the discovery of corn and its planting. So they frankly met, with prayer and reverence, to give thanks to the Authoi of their welfare. It is well that the custom lingers. It would be better if, perhaps, there lingered also some of the reverence which gave it meaning. Still better would it be if. there remained T.iorc of the character and the characteristics of those who founded this day and helped to found this nation. These were men and women of sincerity. They believed, and believing, yjere ready to suffer, to meet hardships, to die if necessary, to defend their beliefs and their convictions. ' There were men and women of firm purpose. They had crossed the seas, not in ocean liners, but in ships that would today be barred by authorities as dangerous and unsafe. They came because they rebelled tgainst any coercion of conscience. They came in protest to escape from conditions they found intolerable and were willing tQ take all risks to gain their goal. They met dangers, many of them. Famine threatened. Sickness was ever present. Conditions of life were primitive and hard. • Fortunately, these dangers no longer djcist. Science has made famine an impossibility. Invention has made food plentiful. The physician has learned not only how to cure, hut how to prevent, illness. For the one great fact that the mere task of living has been simplified, every person may give thanks. It is no longer necessary to devote all of human energy and the entire clock to the effort of remaining alive. Avenues and vistas undreamed of in the Pilgrim days are open to all. These are the days of soft living. On this day of gratitude, there is room for appraisal and inventory. Has the softening of living softened the tenacity of purpose and lessened the courage which marked the founders of this day? Have you one belief, one firm purpose, one basis of conscience from which you would be ready to suffer and sacrifice and die? If you have, be doubly grateful. The Case for the Woman’s College The recent meeting of the representatives of the leading colleges for women in the United States forcibly advertised the special case which these institutions present with respect to the need of adequate financial support. It can not be denied that our best colleges for women are the real •'live wires’’ in our American nieher education. No similar group of men's colleges can compare with them in this respect. We need only mention the reputation justly developed by President Neilson of Smith college for courageous support of world peace, social justice and intellectual freedom; the attitude of President Wooley of Mount Holyoke in regard to the Sacco-Vanzetti case and international relations; Dean Gildersleeve's timely and cane utterances with regard to peace and ihe defects of the prohibition system; President MacCracken's fortitude in branding the Coolidge legend a myth during the 1924 campaign, and the support of a summer labor college by Bryn Mawr, to indicate the intellectual flavor of these institutions. Indeed, they provoked Mr. Coolidge to authorship. One of his first forays into the field was an article in the Delineator condemning liberalism in our women's colleges. The women's colleges certainly are deserving of generous pecuniary’ aid. All could make timely and discriminating Use of benefactions of ten millions apiece. They need gifts far more than the comparable men's colleges of today, and they have a more valid claim to assistance, if one conceives of college as a real educational institution. Moreover, they face special handicaps in making uccessful financial appeals. They can offer only educational opportunities to those who enter their doors. There is no football or other dramatic athletic exhibitins and achievements designed to attract visitors by the tens of thousands and to make their names and stadiums bywords with the nation. They can not point to victories on the gridiron or diamond which will throw the alumni body into ecstasies of pride and emotional loyalty, thus lubricating their financial generosity. Few of the alumnae of the women's colleges acquire great wealth through their own efforts. Those who achieve affluence through matrimonial adroitness usually find that their husbands’ purse-strings can be loosened most easily by the alma mater of the male partner. Even alumnae who inherit wealth are likely to put the college of their husbands or sons before their own in making their gifts. Demonstrated capacity for educational endeavor <i a high order, proved need for more funds, and a nse of good sportsmanship alike combine in the ase of the women's colleges to present a moving apy~al to those so situated as to be able to award conuderable donations to educational enterprise.

The Indianapolis Times (A bCRU’PS-HOWARI NEW SlMl’fcß) •Jwned and published daily (except Smid-iy) bj The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 We*t Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marion County. 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by i.arrie’’, 12 cents a week. BOYD GVfCCzy. ROY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor President Business Manager PHONE— Rljey 5551 THURSDAY. NOV. 28. 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’’

How Much May a Doctor Charge? The McCormick suit in California, which Involves among other things the fee paid to the world-famous psychoanalyst, Dr. E. J. Krmpf, raises an interesting problem as to the ethics of physicians' fees. Dr. Kempf has been engaged to give his exclusive personal attention to Stanley McCormick, for which services he receives the mutually agreed upon sum of $120,000 a year. Many critics have alleged that such a charge is indefensible, no matter how agreeable the McCormicks may be to its payment in this particular case or how great the curative talents of Dr. Kempf. Internationally known physicians and surgeons frequently are asked to give their services for nothing to needy poor, and they not uncommonly comply with gracious willingness. Having thus waived the limit at the lower end of the scale, can they be expected legitimately to recognize a fixed limit at the other end beyond which they may not stray, however, indispensable their services or whatever the material wealth of the patient? Certainly the most excessive recorded fees of the greatest medical practitioners of our day are rather moderate compared with the fees charged by equally famous corporation lawyers to wealthy clients. Yet it requires much longer, more exacting and more expensive preparation to be a doctor today than it does to enter the legal profession. Further, saving a life is a more crucial matter than winning a suit. The public has nTS means of acquiring precise information as to how much Mr. McCormick has improved under Dr. Kempf’s treatment. But as long as both the patient and his relatives appear satisfied, we safely may assume that the doctor is doing all that can be done or that he pretended to be able to do. If this is true, then $120,000 a year may be regarded as a very reasonable charge under the circumstances. Not a few practicing psychoanalysts in New York City derive as much or more from their fees in the course of a year. Let-Them Give Thanks The power industry must feel very grateful toward the federal power commission about this time each year, when the governmental body issues its annual report. The report has a strong power company flavor. This year’s report is more than typical. It is particularly disappointing to the public, because it represents the attitude of a, new power commission, one that has come into being under the Hoover administration. For months there has been talk of strict federal regulation of the industry, with the commission's authority expanded to take in this That proposal has met with strong opposition from power companies. The commission “plainly indicates” that it believes "public utility regulation is a field primarily for state rather than federal activity.” Going further, the commission states; "During the nine years that have passed since enactment of the law, its administration has suggested no need for altering the present scope of its regulatory provisions,” Opposition to water power development by private industries has become far more marked on the part of the public during the last year. The commission terms this a ‘‘lack of constructive public co-operation” which “hinders greater development.” “Obstacles” include litigation, “unfair taxation” and “control of certain abuses that has led to unnecessary handicaps for legitimate enterprises,” the report informs us. The hope is expressed, how’ever, that “these obstacles no doubt will be overcome, so that further progress may continue.”

REASON

THROUGH a newspaper syndicate the politicians of the country are now announcing their favorite Bible texts to the people, all of which is a very serious handicap to the Lord. But it has one benefit: it has caused many politicians to turn to the Bible who never turned to it before. a a a If this Representative fienison of Illinois who voted for the Jones dry law is guilty of importing liquor, as charged, he should serve the five-year term he so generously voted to hand to other people and on top of that he should be given at least five years more for hypocrisy. a an The people of Minneapolis should not worry because some Sioux Indians have brought suit, claiming they own the land the city stands upon, for every young lawyer has at least one client who owns a city or two. We once had a client who owned all of New York and half of Hoboken, but somehow we were not able to put the claim across. „ ana pOLA NEGRI, the motion picture star, wept as A she arrived in Paris to get her 1929 divorce, which is astonishing, as an actress seldom registers grief when she responds to an encore. v * * r Tt is not so surprising that an earthquake should shake that trans-Atlantic liner, but it is almost beyond belief that an earthquake should be so impudent as to do such a thing when J.*P. Morgan was on board. a a a President Hoover has appointed a strong delegation to attend the London conference to discuss naval reduction, but the importance of the conference has been exaggerated, since it is only an international coroner’s inquest which will find what everybody already knows, that the old-fashioned navy is no more and that it came to its end at the hands of aviation. a m THAT was a horrible festival of barbarism down in Texas when that mob lynched a man already ticketed for the electric chair. The victim lost nothing, but those who witnessed the lynching lost a lot; it shoved their civilization backward several generations. a a a The most grewsome thing about the death of a public official is the fact that everybody begins to speculate about his successor before the official can be buried. You may have noticed this in the case of the late Secretary Good. ' a a a Whenever we read of the proposed construction of another great public building in Washington, such as this new $7.000 000 home for the supreme court, we wish the national capital were a thousand miles nearer :o the center of the United States. a a a Gutzon Borglum. the sculptor, informs the world tliat he finds a trace of a devil in the pictures of George Washington. The British felt exactly the same wav about it a long time ago.

FREDERICK By LANDIS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

The Pacific Coast, a Lilsty Youth, Really Is Setting the Pace tor American Civilization. Settlement of the Pacific coast will go down not only in our own history, but in that, of the world, as something unique. It was made possible by the march of millions across a 1.000-mile desert. There have been equally great migrations in the past, such as the Tartar movement into Europe or the Mongol sweep into India. There has been none that moved with such smoothness and precision as tlie American trek, none that established itself so quickly, none that left such few scars along its trail. One hundred years ago the people of this country knew little more than that a great ocean lay to the west, with such barriers between as daunted the most courageous. Men still live who heard the trumpet cry of gold, who made the long trail in covered wagons, who helped to find their own passes through the mountains. Now the Pacific coast, with its congested cities, roaring trade, highly cultivated farms and ultra-mod-em ways, really is setting the pace for American civilization. u tt tt Climate Won Them THIS country had become, rich compared to the rest of the world when California and Oregon were opened. Asa general proposition, people did not go west because they had to. Most of them started with a good supply of cash and with lines of credit back home. It was not a poor man’s movement, a flight from persecution, an adventure for loot. At the outset, easy money was the great attraction, but that soon gave way to the lure of an easy climate. The original idea was to get to California, grab a few nuggets, and go back east. A few did, but the vast majority remained to bask in the sunshine, whether they struck pay dirt or not. From its very beginning, the movement was blessed wtih, a plentiful supply of capital. The covered wagon soon gave way to the wellorganized stage coach line, and that, in turn, to the railroad. Mark Twain tells how a few Americans happened to meet in Palestine in the early seventies, and how one of them was expatiating on the wonderful forty-year march of the Israelites led by Moses through the wilderness, when another and 'less reverent member spoke up to say that Ben Haliday, the stage coach magnate, could have done it in as many days. n tt tt Helped by East THE Pacific coast, as we know it, is measurably a product of surplus wealth mostly accumulated on the sunrise side of the Rockies, if not the Alleghenies. It would not be what it is today but for the vast amounts of cash the east and middle west could have afforded to spare, especially during the last half-century. This fortuitous circumstance has not only made its rapid development possible, but has tied it into the national structure. Though separated from the rest of the country by a wide anti sparsely settled region, the Pacific coast is as intimately associated' with New York, Washington, and other great centers of government and finance as is any part of the nation. It has been welded firmly into our political and economic structure, and is in fine shape to take on the job of handling that vast new field of trade which is about to open for us on the farther shores of the Pacific ocean. tt n tt Biggest Part Omitted WE have come to look at the Pacific coast as a splendid playground, as a wonderful place for old men to retire and romp through their declining years, as a region in which golf can be enjoyed in all seasons, while a five-acre orange, grapefruit, walnut or prune patch pays for the clubs and lost balls, as the natural habitat of the motion picture industry and other similar enterprises of entertainment, all of which it is, but all of which leaves out the bigger part fate has ordained for it. The Pacific coast faces lands where two-thirds of the human race live—lands of vast resources and potential opportunities, lands that produce much raw material we shall one day need and that can be made to supply • markets for our manufactured products. The Pacific coast, in short, is America's gateway to the Orient, and from a potential standpoint the Orient still is the biggest aggregation of men and materials on earth. tt tt tt A Great Day Ahead SOME day we shall do more business with Asia than Europe, because there are more mouths to feed, more bodies to clothe, more men to step on the gas, more women to use vacuum cleaners, more ears for the radio. Some day Asia will demand our machinery, though it refuses our religion, because it is waking up to the fact that it can not live without modern tools, because human nature is much the same, regardless of the color of the skin, kind of traditions or form of government. Some day we shall be visiting Canton as we now visit Paris, looking for art and curios, satisfying our morbid appetites and getting acquainted witn another and just as interesting side of human progress. When these things take place, as they surely will, San Francisco will be another New York, and Los Angeles will have moved closer to the coast and ceased to talk so much about the movies. How many patents have been granted by the United States patent office? Up to Aug. 20 1929, 1.T25.742.

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DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Diseases Gain as People Live Longer

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. IN an address before the American Public Health Association, Dr. L. I. Dublin emphasized the difference between the expectation of life and the span of life, so people might have a more clear understanding of what science has accomplished in improving the former without changing the latter. The great gains that have been made in increasing life expectancy have been made by overcoming infant mortality, the infectious diseases of youth and the great plagues. People do not live to more ex-

IT SEEMS TO ME

THERE is far too much patience with stupid people. Literature, the law, the judgment oi the community all are cushioned for the congenial idiot. “He did his best according to his lights,” we say, and make it sound as if this were high achievement. Folly might well be an inalienable privilege if it were only the practice of the foolish to live alone with their ridiculous notions behind locked doors. This is not the custom. Braying is almost without exception an activity which takes place in thronged streets and before large audiences. Take, for instance, an organization like the Ku-Klux Klan. Not its meanness nor its lawlessness arouse me so much as the idiocy of it all. To be sure. I am, at the moment, grateful to the klan because in a recent issue of its official organ Oswald Garrison Villard and I were mentioned as two of the most dangerous men in the United States. This is a promotion. I am quite ready to be convinced that many klansmen are wholly sincere and utterly persuaded that the objects for which they w'ork will save the nation. What of it? Where on earth did the notion ever arise that sincerity is a sort of police card which should admit the bearer through all restraining lines and permit him to pour kerosene upon the conflagration? Critics talk of the sincerity of a playwright or a novelist as if in itself it should be enough to enlist attention. But would you have ymir appendix out at the hands of\

--rcoAvf is THej-

THANKSGIVING DAY November 28 TODAY is the 308th anniversary of the celebration of the first plentiful harvest by New England colonists in 1621 near tjae end of November. This year the holiday falls on Nov. 28. The first Thanksgiving day was set aside by Governor Bradford as a day of thanksgiving and prayer. In 1623, a day of fasting and prayer in the midst of drought was changed into a thanksgiving by the coming of rain during the prayers. J Gradually the custom prevailed of appointing Thanksgiving annually after harvest, on the last Thursday in November. During the Revolution, a day of national thanksgiving was annually recommended by congress. In 1864, President Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving and since then the Presidents have issued a thanksgiving proclamation, designating the last Thursday of the month. The memory of Thanksgiving day’s origin as a state appointment survives in the proclamations of the Governors of the states, which follows that of the President each year.

Double Exposure

treme old age than they used to, but a great many more people live to middle age and beyond, so that the average length of life is lengthened. According to Dublin, there are about 5,000 people in the United States out of a total of 110.000.000 who claim the distinction of being .100 years old or more, but he says, as most statisticians think, there is a good deal of poetical license in this claim. Raymond Pearl found thirty people out of 3,000.000 lived to the age of 10C, and of these, twenty were women. Since 1921 the death rates for heart disease and cancer have been definitely on the increase in people

~ IIEYWOOD BROUN

sincere surgeon or ask a passionate architect to design the foundation of your cellar? tt tt a Want to Be Branded? IN an ancient number of the American Journal of Surgery I came across a suggestion which should be of interest to the growing crop of autograph hunters. Dr. Evan Kane wants, surgeons to sign their patients. He feels that they have as much right to a signature as sculptors or painters. However, he is content with something less than a full name and urges no more than the letter K, using the Morse alphabet, which consists of dash, dot, clash. Dr. Kane is a little sorrowful about this moderation which he has imposed upon himself. His own plea for the more extended signature is persuasive. “Despite this objection.” he says, speaking of the unfortunate habit which some patients have of coming out of the ether before a literary surgeon has quite rounded out the sentence, “it is of advantage to read near one’s patient’s scar the approximate date of the operation without having to refer to notes. It saves time and obviates the risk of being thought unduly forgetful.” tt tt tt Selfish DR. KANE'S surgical memory book is entirely for his own perusal, as I understand it. The use of code seems to me just a bit selfish. Just as long as he has the will to

Questions and Answers

Where is the wax in the ear secreted and for what purpose is it? Cerumen or ear wax is a yellow oily secretion from certain glands lying in the external auditory canal. Its function is to render the skin of this part pliable and to entangle dust, etc., which may enter the canal. Its bitter taste and sticky consistency are repellent to insects which might seek to enter the auditory canal. How much larger is the sun than the earth? The United States Naval Observatory says that the sun’s mass, determined from the acceleration in the earth's motion produced by the sun's attraction, is about 332,000 times the earth’s mass. If it were possible to weigh the sun at the earth's surface, its weight expressed in tons, would be two, followed by twenty-seven ciphers. i What is catnip? A European perennial plant of the mint family, which frequently occurs in this country as a weed in gardens and about dwellings. It has long had a popular use as a domestic remedy’. Both leaves and flowering tops find some demand in the crude drug trade. Catnip oil is effective as a lure for all the cat famliy.

past middle life. This is significant, because cancer essentially is a disease of middle age or beyond and the reason there is more cancer is people are living longer to have cancer. Another increase emphasized by Dublin is that in diabetes. This increase may also be associated with the fact that more people are living longer and that the span of life has increased greatly in recent years. Wear and tear on the human system has a definite part to play in determining the length of life. When the machine lias lost its power of repair and recuperation, the less effort and stress placed upon it, the more likely it is to survive for a longer period of time.

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

express himself, why not make the message bright and cheery and of a nature to amuse and interest friends and neighbors? Only a little while ago my heart bled for a surgeon whose name remains unknown to me. It was one of the blackest days of the great panic. In an uptown office I sat close to a young broker and watched the debacle. Every’ two or three minutes he was called to the phone by an insistent customer, who wanted to know what was happening to Gold Dust and Fox Film A. Gold Dust was not so good that morning and Fox Film was rather worse. ‘“lf the man is so interested in those stocks,” I said to the broker. “I should think he’d come down here and watch them.” a a tt Operating* “/"VH,” said the broker, “he can’t do that. He’s a surgeon and he's operating this morning, taking out a man's spleen.” Speaking of stocks, a number of readers have written to inform me that R. J. Reynolds does not conduct a union shop. In addition to being a member of the American Federation of Labor I am in complete sympathy with the principle of collective bargaining and accordingly I shall sell my ten shares for the sake of being logical. There is also a small profit in them. If there is anything wrong with the labor record of Alleghany Corporation will somebody please tell me now, before it is too late? (Copyright, 1929. by The Times)

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_NOV. 28, 1929

SCIENCE By DAVID DIETZ—

Spleen Is Organ of Mystery in Human Body; Scientists Baffled After Long Experiment. DESPITE the marvelous advances of science in the last few decades, the scientist is in no danger of growing conceited. For in every direction that he turns, he finds bafluing mysteries still awaiting solution. One of these lies with the human bodv. It is the spleen, which Dr. William Inlow. well-known surgeon, characterizes rightly as an organ of mystery.” The spleen is a small, rather ovalshaped organ, weighing about six ounces. It is in the upper left, abdomen, hidden under the margin of the ribs between the stomach and left kidney. In youth, the spleen is cherry red in color, in middle age it is bluish red, in senility it is dark blue. A large artery supplies blood to the spleen. The artery is surprisingly large considering the small size of the spleen. The spleen does not remain quiet, but contracts rhythmically. It is known technically, therefore, as a contractile organ. The size of the spleen changes also. It is largest at the height of digestion. Surgeons, as Dr. Inlow points out, have removed the spleen witli impunity. The question before scientists therefore is: What is the function of the spleen? a it it Spurious THE opinion that the spleen • serves no useful purpose is one of thp oldest ideas of mankind. It can be found in the oldest literature. Dr. Inlow has collected much data about it. In ancient Persia, it was customary to remove the spleen of horses which carried the king's messages, under the impression that it made them more fleet. Aristotle called the spleen a spurious liver and suggested that it had been placed in the human body merely as a sort of ballast in the left side to match the liver on the right. Many not only felt that the spleen i was useless, but that it actually was | harmful. Plato rails it a “heap of impurities, purgations and off- ! scourings.' Asa result, the medical men of the ancients sought means | of eliminating' it. j Vitruvius tells of a drug known as | scolopendria. which was made from j a herb. This drug had the effect of reducing ihe size of the spleen. Coming down through the ages, we find no better appreciation of tire spleen. William Stukeley, in the eighteenth century, considered the spleen a sort of sponge which soaked up excess blood and then gave it back to the liver when needed. He also considered it a i sort of warming pad, designed to i keep the stomach warm. a tt tt Strainer IT occurred to medical men more than a century ago that one way Jto discover the function of the spleen would be to remove it from I an animal and see what changes | took place in the animal. | Tlie experiment was made then and many times since. It has yielded no important results, because the animal gets along excellently without it. As already stated, it is removed with impunity from human beings as well. Dr. W J. Mayo, famous surgeon, | thinks that perhaps the spleen acts |as a sort of sieve or strainer, re- | moving the impurities from the | bicod which flows through it Modern science supports this view. In some way. not yet at all known, thp spleen seems to play some part in giving people immunity to certain diseases. There is also some reason to believe that red blood corpuscles arise in the spleen during the pre-natal period. Enlargement of tlie spleen is not an infrequent occurrence. As a rule, however, enlargement of the spleen is a secondary effect of some other disease. It occurs only infrequently as a primary condition. The spleen, because it is an organ of mystery, figures frequently in I poetry and literature. Its function lias been described variously, from the seat of ill-temper to the seat of the soul. DAILY THOUGHT They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation, they shall perish.—Jeremiah 51:18. tt tt K When men will not be reasoned out of a vanity, they must be ridiculed out of it.—L'EstLfmge.