Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 241, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 February 1930 — Page 4

PAGE 4

SCRIPPS-HOAWRD

Cleaning Up Politics The Republican primaries this year will settle the question of whether the majority of the voters of that party believe in Boss Coffin and really want his leadership, or have been denied a voice in party affairs through various forms of intrigue and trickery. This year the elections will not be directed by the criminal lawyer, who, during the Coffin rule, has been on guard at election times, naming the clerks and judges, often those who stand In fear of jails and prisons. The new Republican chairman, Martin Hugg, has named as the Republican election commissioner a man who headed the fight against Coffin two years ago. That would suggest that the primaries will be in the hands of the enemies of Coffinism. Those who want to get rid of Coffinism now have a magnificent opportunity to demonstrate their power. They have declared that Coffin did not really represent the will of the party and that he maintained his place by tricks and prostitution of office. All that any citizen can ask is & fair and square vote and a fair count. That now seems assured. The battle should be conclusive. Good government is never given to the people. They have to work for it and protect it. The best that tan be offered is a chance for those who belong to different parties to see that tickets represent the wish of the majority. No one can ask for more. It is just possible that when the votes are counted it will be discovered that Coffin did really represent the moral and political views of a majority of his own party. At any rate, those who have contended that he misrepresented his own party, that he stood for practices and principles which were repugnant to its conscience. will now have the chance to test their own claims. It would be tragic if it were discovered that they have been mistaken. Three Busy Men The secretary of war is a busy man. The army and all the rivers and bays and bridges in the country are under his care. He lias no time to give to the federal power commission, though he is a member of it. The secretary of interior is a busy man. He-, too, is a member of the federal power commission, though he must be responsible for all the public lands in the United States, all the parks, the Indians, the pensioners, and many other things. Tiie secretary of agriculture is the third member of the commission, but first he must deal with the numerous Ills which beset the farmer. He has little time left over from that chore. That is why the President and congress and the power commission itself are all agreed that anew sort of federal power commission must be organized. The senate interstate commerce committee will start work this week on a plan for creating a permanent full-time commission. It is apparent that men should be in charge w’ho can devote all their attention to the fast-multiplying problems concerned with power. Under the present system the secretary' and other employes of the commission must carry most of the responsibilities. There are fundamental issues waiting determination by the power commission. What sort of items should the accounting department permit in company construction statements? Should suits be brought against companies refusing to open their books? What should be done about the Flathead power sites? Should the commission undertake regulatory functions? All these matters in the end bear directly upon the pocketbook of the taxpayer and the electric rate payer. Careful and expert decisions should be made.

Government Gunmen Again the federal government has won in its fight to prevent state courts from trying liquor killing cases, which it transfers into federal courts, where it can defend successfully the culprits. From the day that Emmet J. White, United States customs patrolman, charged with the murder of Henry Virkkula near Little Fork, Minn., last June, was snatched into the haven of a federal court, it was assumed that he would be acquitted. On Saturday he was acquitted. If White could not be convicted, it is difficult to see how any prohibition agent can be brought to justice for the killing of innocent citizens. Buperncialiy. then, this r. great victory for the government in its defense of enforcement terrorists; but only superficially. For clearly this lawlessness by law officials, and their defense by the federal government, is largely responsible lor the growing public reaction against prohibition. It would be difficult to imagine a case which better establishes the guilt of a federal agent than the Virkkula killing. The victim was driving home on a country road. With him were his wife and children. He vas violating no law. There was no liquor in his car. Not even the government questions these facts. Suddenly out of the darkness came a volley of -hots It was the agent White, shooting with a riot gun. Virkkula. according to his wife beside him, was m the act of stopping the car, when he was struck by a bullet and the car rolled over into the ditch. The agent was indicted in a state court on a harge of second degree murder. But when the govrnment forced the case into its own federal court, he judge would not permit that charge. The jury as instructed that its only choices were acquittal, .ird degree murder or second degree manslaughter. The government s detense of the agent was that White shot at the car with a riot gun, without meanng to hurt any one. Indeed, the government called the killing an "accident.” So the gunplay of these prohibition agents continues to jeopardize the lives of innocent citizens. Two federal prohibition agents just have wounded a 25-year-o!d woman, nurse at the Veterans' hospital at Knoxville, la. The agents' automobile bumped into a car in which the girl was riding, whereupon the agents began shooting. The question of liquor was not involved. Saturday United States coast guardsmen on Long Island used a machine gun to fire at East Hampton beach, which was crowded with innocent citizens. The same evening in the same region coast guardsmen fired upon two innocent automobile parties ■eithout warning. K Doubtless the usual investigations will be ordered Wf Washington, and administration officials again Vm hriw out these **miuo ail hi regulations against

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County, 2 cents a copy ; elsewhere, 3 cents—delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY ROY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor President Business Manager PHONE—RIley 5551 MONDAY, FEB. 17, 1930 Member of United Press. Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Burton of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way’’

reckless use of firearms by agents. But all this farce has been gone through so often in Washington that the public is beginning to wonder when the administration is going to use on its own guilty agents some of the strong-arqj methods of enforcement. When does the administration propose to put a stop to this lawlessness of law T officers? Cannon Fodder One of the most popular and at the same time one of the most dangerous illusions of the nineteenth century was the notion that the importance and prosperity of a nation was to be measured by its rate of population increase. Bismarck prided himself on supplying an ever increasing crop of potential “cannon fodder.” That wily Russian diplomat, Alexander Izvolski, looked with joy upon the hordes of Russian peasants who one day might be sacrificed to secure the straits w’hen the time was ripe. Even Roosevelt came dangerously near to expressing such views. Between 1870 and 1914, the German empire nearly doubled in population, while that of France remained almost stationary. The Germans were overjoyed, while the French were disconcerted. The majority of commentators of that time congratulated Germany and shook their heads gravely about the outlook for France. It was suggested that she might even be a decadent country. As an actual matter of fact, it was France which was to be praised and emulated. Had it not been for the remarkable development of economic prosperity in Germany after 1870, the rapid increase of population would have produced untold hardship or would have been self-checked. Since the war, the French have caught the old German spirit. They have attempted to stimulate the birth rate. The free-thinking government has instituted measures to blot out birth control propaganda with a ruthlessness unknown even to America. We might have supposed that the German republicans would abandon the old imperial philosophy of bigger and better cannon fodder. But it would seem that they have not. Tire press reports announce great excitement and apprehensiveness because the German birth rate appears to be falling. Committees have been appointed to deal with this grave issue: "These committees will report within three months to the main conference, which then will decide whether effective measures can be taken by the administration or whether the issues must be brought before parliament.” The movement to increase populations can receive little enthusiastic support from informed and intelligent students today. There are but two important arguments for it. The first is to increase cannon fodder. The other is to create more souls for salvation in the world to come. In this day of talk of world peace and disarmament the cannon fodder line hardly is appropriate. In our growing secular age, the soul factory theory scarcely is more tenable. There is only one sane dogma about the population level. That ts that the population should hover somewhere between that minimum which is necessary to carry on economic activities in any area with relative efficiency and that maximum where population and economic sufficiency are nicely balanced. No modern country has a population below this minimum, but most have populations tvhich already stand far above the desirable maximum. What we need now is alarm over increasing birth rates. If Germany knows when she is well off, she will search for the cause of the declining birth rate. But she will do so so the operative causes may be ..ensified. A fiend is a man who sends you a postcard picture of himself lolling in the sands on the beach while it's 40 below where you are. Stanley Baldwin says his best speeches are made when there are no reporters present. That holds for a couple of other fellows, too, Stanley.

REASON By FREDERICK LANDIS

YOU will observe that those European nations which were so emphatic in their demands that w r e cancel their debts are now equally emphatic in refusing to disarm. If they were as eager to escape war as they were to escape pay day, navies w-ould vanish from the world. a a a After our fellows come home from this London conference they might try to get the American tree butchers to disarm. Already these demons are abroad with axes and saws; trees are being “topped," great limbs being amputated, their stark bleeding stumps jabbing the landscape. a a a The prohibition debate between Senator Brookhart and Representative La Guardia did not draw a great audience at Cleveland, possibly due to the fact that there were some 10.000 other debates raging in the city at the same time. a a a SINCE Chicago found herself in a financial hole during Mayor Thompson's second administration, as well as during the present one, it would seem to be about time to change his designation from Big Bill the Builder to Big Bill the Digger. a a a That aviation has pushed the ironclad out of the war picture is further shown by the fact that while the nations talk about limiting their navies, the United States and Great Britain announce that their aviation branches must be made more speedy and more powerful. a a a Chief Justice Taft resigns and Mr. Hughes is appointed to succeed him and then Mr. Hughes’ son resigns as solicitor-general, after wTiich Mr. Taft’s son is proposed to succeed Mr. Hughes’ son,. whereupon Mr. Hughes’ son is proaosed as a candidate for Governor of New York so he may take the place that Mr. Hughes used to have. The program can not be earned out without the assistance of a good, level-headed traffic cop. a a a CONGRESS may adopt “The Star-Spangled Banner” as our national anthem, but the cities will continue to sing “We Won’t Go Home Till Morning.” a a m President Hoover didn’t appoint Justice Harlan F. Stone to be chief justice, but he did invite him to go along on this fishing trip and he probably reflects that this is the highest compliment one gentleman can pay another a a a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is sick, due to overwork during a spiritualistic campaign in Sweden. He probably strained himself moving tables.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

Justice Has Run to Ritualism; We Spend Far More Time Polishing and Greasing the System Than in Contemplating Its Results. OF the six men tried for murder in connection with the prison riot at Auburn. N. Y„ three are convicted and three acquitted. Os the three convicted, one mutters curses, one wilts, and one takes it with a show of bravado, which may be sham or the real thing. i As the grim tragedy comes to an end. a lawyer for the defense conI gratulates the prosecuting attorney, i “Please don’t,’’ says the latter, as he glances toward tlie weeping father of one of the convicted men. $ Nothing unique in any of these incidents, or a dozen more that might be mentioned: yet w'ho doesn’t like to read them? At one time, the jury stood eleven to one for conviction of all six of the prisoners, and the most fascinating part of that is what went on in the jury room to change such a lineup into a verdict of acquittal for three. If that one man had not stood Arm, the electric chair would be claiming three more victims. A narrow sqeak for those whose lives wore at stake, but one which frequently occurs. a a a Too Much Pageant WE like to think that the great and costly parapher- : nalia we have provided insures some precision, especially in capital cases—like to believe that the long-drawn-out quizzing of witnesses, learned arguments of counsel, and carefully prepared charges of judges would guarantee a certain degree of assurance. But all too frequently we find that there is some lone juror who says the last word, some common, ordinary man, v’ho, for one reason or another, not only disagrees with his eleven colleagues, but possesses the power to bend them to his will. If that juior happens to be intelligently honest, all right, but if he happens to be only stubborn, or dominated by some peculiar twist of mind, all wrong. Eleven to one the jury stood for convicting all six, and then decided to acquit three. u ft a If that can happen at the end, one wonders if all the quizzing, arguing and instructing is necessary in between. Sometimes it seems we might do just as well to let the, story be told in a plain, simple way and cut out all this highfalutin’ business which, much as it may impress the majority of jurors, appears to have little influence with the few who really count. In other words, if we’re going to have a jury system, and allow “twelve good men and true” to have the final say so, why compel them to flounder through such a smoke screen of verbiage and technique? 8 8 8 Runs to Ritualism JUSTICE has run to ritualism. We have an elaborate system, so elaborate indeed, that we spend far more time keeping it greased and polished than in contemplating the results. in important cases, we not only try those accused, but the whole system, to see if there is any flaw' in it, or speck of dust on it. More often than not. when a case is reversed, it is because of something wrong with the law, rather than the facts. We persist in the* illusion that criminals are different from the rest of us, that they always think crooked, while we always think straight, but John Bunyan said, when passing a gibbet on which a man was waiting to be hanged, “but for the grace of God, there stands John Bunyan.” ' He was an optimist at that, since the kind of grace in which he believed had sent more than one poor devil to the gallows. 8 8 8 Law Makes Criminals AS a matter of record, more men have been put to death for doing something their neighbors didn’t like than for doing something that was naturally wrong, or injurious. We have made lots of criminals bv law, criminals who would have been regarded as decent, respectable and upright but for some regulation designed to establish 3n idea, belief or prejudice. Right here in America more people are being arrested for violating a law' w'hich did not exist fifty years ago than for anything else, and for doing something which no one regarded as a crime until the prohibition movement gained strength enough to impose its will on the country.

Daily Thought

Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly Ls ready, but the flesh is weak.—St. Mark 14:38. a a a The devil tempts us not; ’tis we tempt him, beckoning his skill with opportunity.—George Eliot. Who is chairman of the finance committee of the United States sen- • ate? Serc.tor Reed Smoot of Utah. What is the whip in the United States senate and house of repre- ! sentatives? ! The principal work of the whip 1 is to round up the members of his political party to vote on bills. I- - Ls the seating capacity of the Yankee stadium in New York? | Eighty thousand. Does a cable, across the ocean, i touch bottom at all points? Sufficient slack cable is laid out to insure that ic will follow the contour of the ocean bed. and lie on the bottom at all points. A careful survey of the route is made to avoid any poss'bii ty that the cable will be suspended across chasms as the weight j would sooner or later cause a rupture.

OH FATHER- READING ROOM DEAR FATHERWHOOPEE COME HOME WITH ME NOWWITH ME NOW- THE CLOKC IN THE STEEPLE STRIKES TEN! I JESS-H-H-HIC- FINISHED TWO BOOKSH AND A SH-SH-SHORT STRIKES TEN! I GOT TWO COPIES OF THE THREE BROWN BEARS AN' ON OF THE A OLD LADY WHO LIVES IN A VICTIM SHOE COMIN' OFF THE BOAT OF TONIGHT — BETTER BOOK ENDS

Early Treatment Necessary in Cancer

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. HARDI Y a week passes but someone promulgates the announcement of a new treatment for cancer. The most recent has to do with the injection of an extract made from a part of the suprarenal glands of sheep by physicians in California, who have tested its use on a few cases of malignant tumors. They have been exceedingly mild in their claims, pointing out that the extract was used only in patients considered too far advanced for operation and that only a short time has elapsed since the first patient was injected with the remedy. Apparently when the substance is injected into a patient with cancer, the tumor mass softens and portions of it come away. Most of the patients have died, so

IT SEEMS TO ME

-PROHIBITION COMMISSIONER DORAN, according to the pa- | pers, is elated over the indictment of a corn sugar and a yeast concern on charges of supplying raw mate- : rial to bootleggers. “He hinted,” says the news dis--1 patch, “that in the future, steps will I be taken to declare the manufactur- | ers of bottles, caps, extracts, articles used for still, malt, hops and ! sugar equally illegal.” j Doran ought to have a busy year ahead of him. As an expert chemist, he must know that practically everything that grows can be employed for processes of fermentation. Even from the lowly potato peelings, whisky can be manufactured. And the apple, the plum and the cherry can be equally guilty with the grape. When spring comes round this year, one can imagine agents lurking in each orchard and lecturing the fruit against seduction into cider. Young cherries will be warned about potential penalties for such berries as bounce after maturity. And even the innocent and blooming peach, symbol of youthful freshness, may find itself most potent brandy if it doesn’t watch out. a a tt Even the Ponds NOR need the activities of the agents be confined to those natural processes which have their inception in the time of burgeoning. Who knows but that some segment of the country’s many little lakes finally may come to swim atop lemon juice and gin? ' In such event, it would be less ; than efficient not to padlock the ponds. Nor do I think that any patriotic American girl is doing her complete ; best for the Constitution if she an- ; kies down an aisle in orange blosj soms. But enforcement, as many have pointed out, should get to the source. One culprit still defies the dictates of the senate. Surely this i gross offender should not be alI lowed to plead immunity on account of her sex. J Other female violators, far less | flagrant, have felt the lash of the ! law-. I say indict her, fine her, give | her an everlasting sentence. Never ; can prohibition be perfected until this brazen hussy has been clamped down in our deepest dungeon. Gravely has she sinned in the past, and through all her days she i will continue. Her name is Mother j Nature. ana Edison's Error Thomas edison, at 83, wrote answers to reporters’ questions. Electricity, he said, was in its childhood. Prohibition, he believed, soon would be absolute. This estimate earns to me an error. The second child is backward. At 10. enforcement wears mere infant sizes. Even in the autumn of his career, 1 It may be well that Edison will con-

Book Censorship

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

that the most that can be said for the treatment is that it is interesting in regard to what it reveals concerning the nature of cancer, but that it is far from anything resembling a specific method of treating cancer leading to cure or even to alleviation. Obviously before the medical profession can control cancer, it must know a great deal more about the life of the cancer cell from its beginning to the death of the patient. Throughout the world in numerous laboratories experiments are being carried on to find out these facts. In the meantime, because more people are living longer than they used to and because cancer is essentially a disease of advanced age. more people are dying of cancer and the search for a cancer cure becomes frantic. Announcement of a cancer cure that fails brings on the physician

HEYWOOD BROUN

trive new apparatus to be pressed or turned. And. under pressure, these devices may forthwith produce creature comforts for the owners. And yet I despair of his ever finding a motor for merriment, a gadget for good fellowship. Three constants still abide and refuse to be

Questions and Answers

How many Presidents of the United States have had their pictures on United States postage stamps? Portraits of the following Presidents of the United States have been used from time to time on United States postage stamps: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Taylor, Garfield, Grant, Madison, William Henry Harrison, Monroe, McKinley, Harding, Hayes, Cleveland and Wilson. Tell me something about the glass or jointed snake? This creature is not a snake at all, but a legless lizard. It is often said that, a stroke of a stick will cause the body of this reptile to disjoint, the pieces wriggling off in every direction and coming together again if the head part is not captured or destroyed. The explanation of this curious belief lies in the ability of this lizard to drop its tail, an act that sometimes enables it to escape

\ TODAY IS THE TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY of

MOLIERE’S DEATH Feb. 17 ON Feb. 17, 1573, Moliere, the greatest dramatist, and perhaps the greatest writer of France, died at Paris. Moliere, who was born Jean Baptiste Poquelin, studied at a Jesuit colege and then worked as tradesman Cor his father. Tiring of this, he joined a troupe of players which for twelve years acted in the provinces. In these years of wandering he acquired not only a broad experience in stagecraft, but also a keen insight into human nature. When he returned to Paris in 1658 his plays attracted the attention of Louis XIV, who later adopted Moliere’s troupe as his own. In his presentation of plays satirizing cultured society of France, Moliere inaugurated anew era in comedy. He also ridiculed with good humor the bourgeois imitators of Parisian aristocrats and thus did much to expose hypocrisy. On the day cf his death. Moliere acted in one of his plays. During its performance he was seized with a convulsion which he covered with a forced laugh. He was carried home and died a few hours later.

who is concerned the opprobrium associated with unethical practice in modern medicine. Hence the men attempting to study cancer, if they would be ethical, are compelled to surround their laboratories with all the guards usually associated with diplomatic service. Obviously this does much to impede progress and to hinder research. The most that can be promised today to any one with cancer is some relief and a longer life if he will seek medical attention early and if he will avail himself of what can be accomplished by early diagnosis, adequate surgery and proper use of radium and the X-ray. Cancer pastes, internal remedies and all sorts of injections must still be considered as highly experimental and not offering thus far nearly such a high percentage of relief and cure as the methods mentioned.

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column arc 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.

broken down, even by men who can split the atom. Table, stein, and song are not to be separated. If Thomas A. Edison can invent anything so heartening to soul and belly as brandy or, a snowy night, his fame need not depend on any such slight achievement as the electric light. (Copyright, 1830, by The Times)

while the still wriggling tail attracts the attention of the pursuer. Many other lizards do the same thing, and a “spike” or short and imperfect tail grows in the place of the one lost This curious reptile is rarely seen, as it lives under decaying vegetation and leaves, or in the soil, but is sometimes turned up by the plow. What is meant by macrocosm and microcosm? The macrocosm is the great universe, outside of man. The microcosm is the little universe inside of man and commonly means man himself as contrasted with the external world. What is the pay of a United States marine on enlisting? Most he be a citizen of the United Slates? His pay upon enlisting is $2l per month. Only native born or naturalized citizens of the United States can join.

Lasting Worth the Main Consideration in Buying Furniture In displaying Furniture for our many friends it has always been our policy —guided by many years of practical experience—to study more than mere externals. Often an attractive finish may hide construction far below the high standards which we demand and yet be undetected by many buyers. Good furniture, the only kind we handle, does not necessarily mean high priced Furniture. Lasting worth always should be the main consideration. Hoosier Furniture Co. East Washington at Alabama

FEB. 17, 1930

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

Whole Milky Way Is Blown Through Space by a Mysterious Wind. A GREAT mysterious wind is sweeping through all space, l blowing before it our whole Milky Way or galaxy of stars and the other galaxies of stars represented by the distant spiral nebulae. This astounding and amazing conclusion is reached from a piece of research work done at the Mt. Wilson observatory by Dr. Gustaf Stromberg, one of the world’s best known astronomers. The work was one of the most brilliant pieces of : mathematical analysis ever at- ! tempted. j Dr. Stromberg says that the great j wind blowing through all space may be an ether wind, provided, of course, that the ether does exist. It also should be pointed out that the eventual explanation of what I Dr. Stromberg has found may be ! some other explanation, i But the point is that Dr. Strom--1 berg finds that the universe bei haves exactly as it would if such a wind existed. j What Dr. Stromberg did was to | plot the average velocity and direction of velocity for each different type of star in the sky, for the globular clusters and for the distant nebulae. a a * Galaxies IT will be recalled that our own galaxy is a watch-shaped or lens-shaped structure about 150,000 light years across. That is, it is so large that it takes light that many years to go across it. The speed of light is 186,000 miles a second. In our galaxy are stars of all sorts, ranging from very large stars which astronomers call giant stars such as Antares with a diameter of 415,000,000 miles, down to dwarf stars which are about half the size of our sun. Then on the outer boundaries of our galaxy are the so-called star clusters. These are formations of stars in globular shapes, the stars becoming more and more dense toward the center of the cluster. Frequently there are 50,000 stars in such a cluster. Finally, at immense distances beyond our galaxy, distances ranging up to 80,000,000 light years, are the so-called spiral nebulae, which are themselves great galaxies of stars like our own, but, in general, j smaller. j Now in our own galaxy the vori- ! ous types of stars are all mixed to- ; gether and each star has an indi- ■ vidual motion and direction of its ; own. But, as Dr. Stromberg points out you can compare each class of stars to a swarm of bees. Every bee, at a given moment, is moving in a different direction with a different speed, but the whole swarm at the same time is progressing with a definite average speed in a definite average direction. Dr. Stromberg set out to fee if each class of stars similarly did not possess a definite average velocity in a definite direction. He made the amazing discovery that each class did not have an average velocity, that these velocities progressed in an orderly sequence, and, most amazing of all, that the direction of motion was the same for all classes. a tt a Big Wind IF you take a certain point in the sky in the constellation Hercules, a w'ell-know'n constellation not far from the familiar “Big Dipper,” you have the point away from which the w'hole universe seems to be moving. It is as though this great ether-wind blew into the universe from tins direction. “It acts exactly like a wind, says Dr. Stromberg. ‘for the large stars are moving the slowest, while the little stars move the fastest. The speed ranges from twelve miles a second up to about twenty-four miles a second. “But the star clusters show far greater speed. Their speed is about 150 miles a second, while the far distant spirals show a speed of about 400 miles a second. “Imagine a ship on the water. It, represents our universe. People walking about on deck are the stars. The clusters and spiral nebulae are represented by gulls flying overhead. “Now’, if a strong wind blows from the prow to the stern, the people soon will be crowded back to the stern, while the gulls will be left far behind the ship. “Just that sort of thing now ts going on in our universe, so it seems.” ___