Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 173, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 November 1929 — Page 8

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The Utility Merger Unquestionably the decision of the public utility commission on the application of the Insull interests to tie into one great corporation an assortment of a hundred or more small and large power and street car plants will have an important bearing on the judgment of the people concerning regulation by the state as a means of obtaining fair rates and good service. There can be no thought that when the people established the commission, they had in mind no such a condition of ownership. The people guilelessly believed that a state, commission, empowered to fix rates and control service, would protect the public against extortion and the companies against political blackmail. A commission with a public viewpoint and free from political or other interests could do these things under the law. The fact is that the people no longer have any great amount of confidence in the commission or its judgment. The law provides for the merging of utility companies. But only one kind of merger was contemplated by the law'. That is the combination of two or more companies giving similar service in the same community and with the same possible customers. Such a merger under the theory of state regulation is desirable. It eliminates waste and duplication. It permits better service at lower costs. With a watchful and pub-lic-minded commission, monopoly is ideal. A different situation presents itself when it is proposed to marry a street car company in Richmond to an electric company in Terre Haute.

When there is an additional proposal to take utilities of a hundred small towns and cities, different in the kind of service given, differing in conditions of operation, it is not a merger, but a gigantic combine which defeats the very purpose of state regulation and state control. To lump utilities of different communities and of different kinds into one big company and then demand rates that will permit a fair return of interest on the whole takes away from the people of each community affected any power to obtain redress from possible injustices. Street car patrons of Richmond would probably be called upon to pay the light bills of citizens of Martinsville or some other town. If there is to be such state wide ownership of all utilities as that suggested in this present proposal, there should be a state ownership and not an Insull or other ownership. The attorney-general has pointed out the law. The decision of the public service commission will probably determine more than the question involved. Approval may mean an abandonment of all effort at state regulation and a return to chaos or home rule, identical terms apparently. Pollyanna Anthropology We have heard much of late from generals, admirals, secretaries of patrioteering societies, and other such careful and learned students of human nature and history to the effect that man is inherently and perpetually warlike in his nature. Therefore, it is refreshing to learn that a distil,guished anthropologist like G. Elliott Smith has tried to pave the way for the success of the London disarmament conference through an appeal to anthropology. The professor holds that peace is the original and natural state of man and therefore pacifism can enlist science and history in its service. No doubt Professor Smith is right in holding that dogmas rather than observed facts have determined our judgment of man's nature. Hobbes, the foremost exponent of the theory that man is by nature warlike, was candid enough to admit that his doctrine was pure assumption and well might possess no historio justification whatever. Bousseau, who upheld the opposite view of the idyllic pacifism of early man. was not so skeptical about his dogmas. We may welcome Professor Smith as a much needed addition to the opponents of the professional defenders of the war cult. Yet may he not be going to the other extreme? To hold that man Is either predominantly peace-loving or warlike by nature is to ignore the plain teachings of social science and human history. Man’s disposition toward peace or war depends upon his surroundings and stimulation. He appears to be easily conditioned toward either war or peace by the influences brought to bear upon him. If we want to make man a peaceful animal, we can succeed only by bringing to bear upon him overwhelmingly pacific stimulation and suggestions. We can not trust to his inherent nature, which is not fixed but highly plastic. Moreover, faith in dogmas about man’s nature Is paralyzing to constructive efforts in behalf of peace. If we believe that man is irrepressibly warlike, there is no use of working for peace! if we believe he is completely pacific, there is no pressing need for pacifist activity. What we need to do to construct a convincing appeal for peace is to turn calmly to history. W’e then can show how war gradually developed as an institution; how*lt once made great contributions to social progress by building up firm political order on a large scale; and why today changed cultural conditions have

The Indianapolis Times (A fcCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and pnblisbed daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marlon County, 2 cents a copy, elsewhere. S ceDts—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. BOYD GTRLEI\ ROY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor President Business Manager PHONE—KIIey Wil FRIDAY. NOV. 29 1929. Member of I'nitcd Press, Scripps-Howurd Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way”

made it perhaps the greatest menace which challenges mankind. The case against war must be built up in relation to considerations drawn from our present civilization. It can not be founded intelligently on a situation w'hich may or may not have prevailed in primitive society. The real question is what is right and proper for today. We need have little doubt about the possibility of adapting the nature of man to the requirements of this picture. The Twilight of Bunk Speaking before the Christian Unity League, Dr. W. H. P. Faunce, former president of Brown university, lent authority to a Tharacteristic note in the alarmist comment of the day. Dr. Faunce is shocked by the debunking process going on in contemporary scholarship, history and literature. He said: "Never before, within the memory of any man here present, has popular literature been marked by such a ‘universal debunking’ of all heroes past and present, or so cheap an estimation of mankind.” This at once raises the interesting question as to how far civilization depends upon the perpetuation of bunk. Can we never hope to face the truth with candor and confidence? It is the old hue and cry against destructive criticism. It is always demanded that we put something in the place of what we have destroyed by critical analysis, unmindful that such replacement is not invariably either necessary or desirable. We do not ask our doctor to replace a headache by some other more benign pain, nor do we request our surgeon to put something in the place of the tumor he has removed. Nobody is likely to regret that we almost have obliterated the belief in witches. Yet one of the most advanced and learned philosophers of the sixteenth century and the most spectacular theologian of the eighteenth both held that to dispose of the belief in witchcraft meant the collapse of society and the perpetual peril of our wives, daughters and bank accounts.

Os course, there is debunking and debunking. Real debunking of the past means nothing but a competent and resolute search for the facts and a willingness to face their nature and implications with courage and complacency. Search for such facts permissibly may proceed on the sane assumption that the figures of the past wei'e presumably human beings, governed by the same impulses and motives which operate in the lives of the rest of us. The charlatan who merely seeks a commercially profitable sensation in the alleged discovery that a past statesman loved like a gentleman, invested shrewdly, or differed from Andy Volstead In his prejudices on the beverage problem, should not be dignified by the term “debunker.” Fortunately, we do not have to choose between \tf, superficial smart alec and the gullible and immaculate dullard. We tend to become too much alarmed over the revelations of candid historical research. We often think we have lost some permanent historical pearl of great price which a long-treasured myth dissolves under the searchlight of the relentless investigator. Not infrequently the result is a gain in real values. An Austrian woman played the violin continuously for twenty-four hours recently. What a wonderful rest for the chin! A British poet always tries out his verses on his dog before sending them to the publisher. Have they no S. P. C. A. over there? In Longview, Wash., a man’s car collided with another driven by his wife. Os course, you know whose fault that was.

REASON By TaS K

WITH all her crime and threatened bankruptcy Chicago needs the city manager form of government far more than she needs a world’s fair, and if she doubts it, let her ask anybody from Cincinnati, a city which has emerged from the clutch of a vile political machine and found peace, honor and prosperity under the city manager plan, 0 a a Three of the sons of Mrs. Elizabeth Nester of Boonville, Ind., have served time as mayors, but she should not be blamed; she probably did the best she could. 000 It is a pleasure to note that Mrs. Jane McLaughlin of Chicago, aged 92 years, is highly pleased with her new permanent wavs. We like to see old age cling to the bloom of youth, but we are not thrilled when it becomes kittenish. 000 UNTIL the newspapers can secure legislation ending those contempt of court abuses which destroy the liberty of the press, they can get along without the help of Senator Capper's bill, which would exempt a newspaper reporter from telling the truth when that's necessary to uncover the commission of a crime. The newspapers of the country are not unanimously for the Capper bill, not by a long shot. 000 Basketball fans do not favor this Indiana senator's proposition to take the control of the sport away from the association now handling it because the head of the association held an important player ineligible. Ninety-nine per cent of the fans want a square deal and nothing more. 000 Senator Jim Watson must have been terribly disappointed when the judge dismissed that SIOO,OOO libel suit brought against him by the gentleman from Gary, for that was the finest compliment Watson ever had received. 000 IT is no surprise to learn that Secretary of the Navy Adams is highly combustible and talks like a golf player, for his great-grandfather, old John Quincy Adams, used to supply a fine frenzy every little while to the house of representatives. 0 0 0 If there has ever been any doubt about Gene Tunney's getting his name into the New York social register, the same has been removed by his having been sued for $500,000 for alienation of the affections of Mrs. Fogarty. 0 0# Once more Henry Ford appears as a good fellow by increasing the wages of his men and reducing the price of his gasoline-drinking quadrupeds. 0 0 0 Jean Frances Schilling. Baltimore nurse, offers to marry anybody who will hand her $5,000. but up to date the offer has no takers. She premises to do her best to learn to love anybody who will close her out at the aforesaid price, but the trouble is that love is not the result of striving; it is just a spontaneous combustion.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy S A YS: <-

Russia Has Become a Victim of Propaganda Instead of a Source of It, Which Is Bad for Russia and the Rest of the World. DID you remember to be thankful that the slump in Wall Street, the show’s on Broadway and the jazz coming over the radio are no worse: that you are not in Tom Mooney’s place, or a worker in the southern textile mills: that you do not have to decide what naval parity means, or frame a tariff bill; chat "Mother Goose” still is on sale, though some people would bar it; that a few woman know how to make pumpkin pie; that you are not living in China, especially near the Manchurian border? a a a Like any other international row, the trouble in Manchuria can lead to war. Bv the same token, it can lead to nothing. If the good book prophesies war, “even unto the end.” it also prophesies rumors of war, and history teaches us that, there are at least one million rumors to every war. a a a „ Suspicious of Russia JAPANESE officials seem to think that the Russian invasion has been exaggerated. That does not mean that they have failed to count the lives lost, or the towns captured, but that they know’ the local situation much better than we do. It may be that Russia Is moving deliberately to seize land, w’ith the Chinese eastern railway as an excuse. On the other hand, it may be that she is only doing what seems necessary to protect the railroad in w’hich she claims half interest. Knowing the chaotic conditions that exist in Manchuria, one can understand how Russia might act as she has with nothing more than that in mind. What confuses the problem is world-wide suspicion of Russia. So much has been said concerning her sinister motives, her determination to foment revolution anywhere, or everywhere, that she can make no move without creating a general alarm.

Instead of a source, Russia has become a victim of propoganda. Other people have- talked themselves into a frame of mind where they can not appraise her action or designs in an unprejudiced way. That is not only bad for Russia, but for the rest of us. 000 The Snobs Decide PROFESSOR ROBERT E. ROGERS, self-constituted champion of snobbery, classifies George Washington as a shining example of the gospel he preaches. As though that were not enough for one day, compilers of the New York Social Register for 1930 leave out Commander Byrd, the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Mayor Walker and scores of more or less prominent people as not snobbish enough. On the whole, those suffering from this slight are to be congratulated. They seem to have fared better than did the Father of His Country at the hands of the. intelligentsia. College professors have divers ways of proving their qualifications to lead. While one tells us that it is essential to “marry the boss’s daughter,” another says we ought to study the interior of the earth. Average people will regard the latter advice as more sensible.

While “marrying the boss’ daughter” might do an invididual some good, studying the earth’s interior promises more for the race. As Professor Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard conservatory, puts it, we might be able to tap a good supply of heat if we dig deep enough. Benito Mussolini has adopted the idea to the extent of using volcanoes to supply steam for factories and power plants. mum Gold Comes First WHEN it comes to exploring the earth’s interior, we have been looking for fuel, rather than heat, and have been more interested in previous minerals than in either. Gold, Silver and jewels are what first led men to sink shafts and drive tunnels. Even in these days, men will go farther and take more chances for them than for anything else. In the wintry waters of Alaska, they are trying to salvage five million dollars in gold from a ship 380 feet beneath the surface, and they deliberately are choosing the cold season because the water is clearer. The ship was wrecked twentyeight years ago, and ever since someone has dreamed of reclaiming her cargo. A supply of steam that would generate 5,000-horse power permanently would be worth many times as much, but we haven't arrived at a point yet where we can think of it that way.

Questions and Answers

Under what classification do scallops come? Scallops are bivalves. What Is Tom Mix doing now? He is touring with the Sells-Floto circus. What is the salary of the VicePresident of the United States? He receives $15,000 a year. What is meant by “electrical resistance” and what term is used for the unit of resistance? Electrical resistance is the opposition which is offered by electrical conductors to the flow of current. The “ohm'’ is the practical unit of resistance. Has there been a bill passed relating to pensions for blind persons? NO. On what date did Easter Sunday fall in 1864? March 27.

All Dressed Up and No Place to Go!

WHAT- SwifcCOT'S HO seen kidmhc? Y m W * iunlral? YOUASAIN- 7. ||y^ir=====*a I THOUGHT I NEVER HAD ' ' A,— Jj tz YOU WERE MORE PEP TW) i wm/ Cl \ ■ KILLED IN lIK MY rJi} tfo THAT CRASH j

—DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Skin Tests Detect Tuberculosis

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, Health Magazine. MANY years ago it was proved that almost every human being has tuberculosis before he dies. Indeed, the vast majority of people become infected with the disease in childhood and recover. However, a considerable number do not recover and these represent the constant mortality from this disease. The death rate from tuberculosis has been cut in more than one-half through the advancement of modern medical science and modern hygience. To detect cases as early as possible and to apply as soon as possible suitable methods leading to-

IT SEEMS TO ME '"SS°

SOME days before the HarvardYale football game, the prediction was made in this column that Harvard surely would win. This estimate was not based on personal observation of either team, but in accordance with the fact that we live in an age in which the underdog invariably triumphs. Books, plays and motion pictures all celebrate the success of the longshot. A good little man can beat an evil giant any night n the week except Sunday, when the theaters are closed. Vice never prevails. The victory bf virtue is certain. This seems to me an : unfortunate state of mind, even though it did help Harvard. Nor am I arguing against the cult of the underdog, because it is untrue. Unfortunately, longshots and little men have seen the plays and read the books. They expect to win, which is seven - eighths of any battle. 0 0 0 Lacks Glory BUT big nations have a right to a place in the sun as well as small ones. I am pleading the cause of large men who must move through a world entirely surrounded by little fellows, all confident and hostile. It is hard to be more than six feet three inches tall. Any one of the Singer tribe Is sure that he can knock you down. And even if I manage to prevail, there is no glory in winning over pigmies. Unless a proper sense of proportion is restored, how can any parent maintain discipline in his home? How can a father enforce his authority except by roaring and towering over his children? Today he stands in danger of having some tiny tot strut up to him and say, “Gwan, you big stiff!” That tiny tot probably has read of Albie Booth and bow he brashes aside the hands of giant guards and tackles, who would detain him. It’s lucky he didn’t get away for that touchdown run after the kickoff. If so, this would not have been a decent world for anybody of reasonable stature. 000 ' Waterloo SOME of the blame belongs to Napoleon. I never knew a runt who did not feel that he had become in some way heir of the glory that was Austerlitz. The land is filled with five-foot executives who take on imperial airs and expect all in their employ to emulate the Old Guard and die rather than surrender. # More publicity should be given to

How did the practice of putting glass containers full of colored water in drug store windows originate? The practice originated in England in the days before there was street lighting. The druggists who wished to attract attention to their shops put these vases or globes of colored water in the window with lights shining through them at night and they were visible for quite a distance, frequently being the only splotches of light on the street.

ward recovery, several systems have been established. The first, as pointed out by Dr. F. M. McPhedran of the University of Pennsylvania, is to examine ail school children physically and by means of the X-ray and to give ail of them the tuberculin test. The tuberculin test Is a simple skin test, less painful than a pin scratch, and much less dangerous. One of the advantages of such a procedure is the fact that during the physical examination for tuberculosis, it also is possible to detect any other disease which may happen to be attacking the child. Another method is to select from among school children those who seem particularly likely to have tuberculosis and to limit the examination to them. When a child is found to be posi-

the fact that, after all, the Corsican flyweight did end up in St. Helena.. Wellington was no giant, but at least he did not have to get his clothes at any Lilliputian bazar. The time for propaganda in favor of dragons, giants, villains and all the more sizeable folk has arrived. I am longing for some play in which a big burly ruffian succeeds in the last act as well as in the first. Don Marquis once wrote a novel in this mood, but I don’t think it ever has been dramatized. As I remember the story, there was a scene in which the villain succeeded in trapping the hero in a small soundproof room. The little fellow was bound and gagged and absolutely helpless. The hulking miscreant raised an iron bar and swung it at the small hero’s head. It seemed as if nothing could save the hero. And nothing did. The blow killed him completely, and at this point the book ended most delightfully, it seemed to me. 0 0 0 Miss Hood WORK also must be done to revise the fairy stories. Here, too, the world must be made safe for size and villainy, which always go together in the stories. Take Little Red Riding Hood, for

“T qolAv ■ i& T]h!e = - DOMINICAN TREATY November 29 ON Nov. 29, 1869, a treaty for the annexation of Santo Domingo by the United States was negotiated by General Babcock, United States army. In 1863, Spain had recognized the independence of the Dominican republic and President Grant sent Babcock to inquire into the condition of the country and its resources. Babcock negotiated the treaty of annexation, which was ratified by the Dominican people, but was rejected by the United States senate by a tie vote. There followed a long period of disturbed politics in Santo Domingo and at last the United States agreed to adjust all foreign obligations of the Dominican republic. A special United States commissioner found in 1906 that half of the Dominican debt of $20,000,000 was unjustified. Violent revolutionary outbreaks finally forced the United States to take a hand and in 1916 the “military government of the United States in Santo Domingo” was set up. Peace was soon established and improvements in finances, education, transportation and government machinery were carried out. The last United States troops withdraw from the republic in July, 1924,

tive to the tuberculin test, a thorough study is made of its physical condition, then the X-ray examination is made. The X-ray reveals even small changes which may have taken place in the lungs. If a child is found to be susceptible to tuberculosis or in a very early stage, it can be put under a course of hygiene which will aid its prompt recovery in the vast majority of cases. - One of the modern developments in the care of tuberculosis is the establishment of the preventorium, to which children are taken who have very mild degrees of tuberculosis or who come of families in which tuberculosis is prevalent. There they have opportunity to recover under the best conditions.

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column arc 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.

instance. The general impression seems to be that the child’s grandmother was a saintly old lady and the wolf a vicious beast. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let us dismiss this sentimental conception and look at the facts fairly. Before meeting the wolf, Red Riding Hood was the conventional empty-headed flapper. She knew nothing of the world. So flagrant was her innocence that it constituted a positive menace to the community. The wolf changed all that. He gave Red Riding Hood a good scare and opened her eyes. The familiar story, somehow or other, has omitted the important sequel to the story. Red Riding Hood grew up and eventually married the richest man in the village, and on a picture she inscribed: “Whatever measure of success I may have attained, I owe it to you.— Red Riding Hood.” And whose picture do you suppose it was? It was the wolf’s. (Copyright, 1929. by The Times)

Daily Thought

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.—Romans 12:14. 000 May I tell you why it seems to me a good thing for us to remember wrong that has been done us? That we may forgive it.—Dickens.

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.NOV. 29, 192*

SCIENCE By DAVID DIETZ—

Einstein's Theory Once More Is Under Fire; It Is Said That Only Twelve Mek Understand It. ONCE more the limelight is centered upon Professor Albert Einstein, that bushy-hairsd, dreamyeyed scientist who divides his time between evolving startling scientific theories, playing the violin and sailing a little boat. This time, it is an attack upon one of the fundamental tenets of his relativity theory that turns attention in his direction. His theory postulates that it is impossible to detect any absolute motion of the earth through space or through the ether of space. It is of interest to note that Dr. Miller does not say that he is attacking Professor Einstein. In fact, he is careful to state —and has on a number of occasions to this writer —that he is not attacking Professor Einstein. It is worth taking time to understand this point of view. For it is not merely Miller’s. It is Einstein’s and the point of view of all scientists as well. a a a Meeting A FEW years ago Professor Einstein visited America. He included Cleveland in his itinerary, chiefly because he wished to see Dr. Miller. He paid a visit to Dr. Miller's laboratory at Case school, inspected the interferometer, the apparatus which Dr. Miller was using in his experiments. He spent considerable time discussing the matter with Dr. Miller. A little later, Dr. Miller showed me a reprint of one of his papers, a report on his interferometer experiments. The margin of the paper w’as covered with notes and calculations in pencil. The handwriting was Einstein’s.

In the course of his conversation with Miller, Einstein had said something approximately like this: “Well, if you are right, then certain changes must be made in my theory.” And then he had gone ahead and indicated with pencil what those changes might be like, I can not help contrasting this incident with a political incident which I once witnessed in my early experience as a newspaper reporter. One candidate for mayor had challenged another to produce certain figures. The second invited the first to call at his office and get them. He did so, whereupon henchmen of the second picked him up and threw him bodily out of the door. Scientists do not feel that they are in a battle in which they must defend certain views at all costs. Rather, they feel that they are all searchers after the truth. Einstein will be the first to modify relativity if he is convinced that such modification is needed. 000 Humor IT was my good fortune to meet Einstein on his visit to America. Perhaps few people would suspect that the formulator of the theory of relativity has a sense of humor. But he has. On his visit to the United States, he brought with him two of his favorite possessions, his violin and a well-worn briar pipe. For relaxation, he said he smoked, played his violin and read light fiction. His favorite outdoor spor is sailing a boat. When I met him. he said thf he had only five minutes for ts interview. “But, professor,” I said, “yu yourself have taught us that tne is only relative.” And the interview proved it. <nce he had started discussing his tb°ry. he talked on for thirty minuts.” It has been said that only velve men understood the Einstein aeory. Actually the number is larger, though the number of thoe who understood its mathematic? Is not very large. It is an interesting Jict that among the popular book on the Einstein theory, one of he easiest to read, was written fr Einstein himself. It is titled, ‘Relativity.” It should not be confufid with his book, “The Meaning o' Relativity,” which is for the math<matician. Incidentally, the Ebstein sense of humor crops out frequently in “Relativity.” How long and high is the Brooklyn bridge in Nev York? Brooklyn bridge is 6,016 feet long, including approaches, with a span of 1,595.5 feet and a height above water of 133 feet.