Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 272, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 March 1930 — Page 4

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A Parole for a Girl It may matter little to society in general as to whether Daisy Sullivan, the young Bloomfield girl, is held or released i%om the woman's prison. Headers of The Times remember her story. Nearly a year ago she forged a check so clumsily as to fool no one. She was hungry. She obtained $2.80. She spent 20 cents for oranges and had eaten but two when the law put out its strong hand and grabbed her. She is under sentence of from two to fourteen years in a penitentiary at a time when girls of her age are dreaming their dreams, are joyously looking at life in its most colorful hues. She had been without a mother’s care and guidance. She came from a home of privation. Hers had been a life of hard work and of few advantages. She received exactly the same sentence given to bankers who robbed those who trusted them with their dollars and who had stolen, in the same way the.' Dai- obtained two oranges, the money of their friends. .... - „ The picture of a young girl in a penitentiary for obtaining two oranges is not a pleasant one. It might even suggest the summit of stupidity on the part of organized society that knows of no better way ti protect itself. ' Now the father of the girl asks for mercy for her. The state crime commission should be interested in (his case. It might find it profitable to investigate, not whether Daisy should be liberated, but the conditions that led this great state to send a young girl to a penitentiary. It sounds so medieval, to put it charitably. In a work of fiction it might be called cruel. Perhaps it was Just plain stupid. Or callous. Three Hundred Per Cent There are indications that the spring thaws will loose anew flood of power company propaganda upon the land. , , . . . The president of the National Electric Light Association Matthew S. Sloan, warned his organization in a speech the other night that the public does not duite understand the reason for so many mergers and holding company combinations in the utility business, and in some cases is looking at them with disapproval. So. Sloan says, we must “strive to convince everyoody that we are bound to operate the utilities for the benefit of the public.” Asa first step in this campaign to convince everybody, Sloan goes on to assert that mergers and combinations have been undertaken “'in order to produce and permit economy in raising capital, to bring about economies and betterments in operation, to stimulate the marketing of products through unified control and management, or for all these reasons. “Lowered prices,” he says, “are not possible without, lowered costs and increasing sales. Mergers and holding companies are one result of the great need for lowered costs.” We will bear up as well as we can under the coming attempt to convince everybody. Utility companies have an unassailable right to state their case as often and as well as they can. Nobody, of course, will make a business of convincing everybody of the significance of facts the federal trade commission has disclosed. The public is left to seek out for itself this other side of the question before becoming convinced of anything, and few will take the trouble to do so. But when the propaganda breakers rise and beat upon the citadels of public opinion, one fact, at least, from the trade commission's inquiry should be kept in mind- It Is this: Records of the first holding company ever to be examined by a public agency disclosed that, the company makes 300 per cent profit on its charge to subsidiaries for services undertaken “to bring about economies in operation.” The Supreme Court Candidate John J. Parker, judge of the United States court of appeals for the Fourth circuit, has been named by the President to succeed the late Justice Sanford on the supreme court. He appears to be a young man of ability and good character, with the reported backing of Chairman Huston of the Republican national committee and southern Republican leaders. He is not, however, the type of eminent jurist and exponent of fundamental constitutional rights which the country expected Hoover to appoint. If Judge Parker is a brilliant lawyer, if he has unusual capacity as a jurist, he did not show it in Ills 133 rather routine decisions on the circuit bench. Taking his record as a whole, it is neither very good nor very bad. That is nothing against Parker as a man, or as a private lawyer, or even perhaps as a circuit judge. But It is, or should be. against him as a nominee for the supreme court. For only the very best are fit lor that high tribunal. As the country is well aware, since the senate debate over the Hughes nomination, the supreme court long since has become a super-congress. It is much more than a court passing on legal technicalities. It is a policy-forming and law-making body, not representative ox nor responsible to the public. From it there is no appeal on earth. The supreme court has been dominated by a majority which places property rights above human rights. That reactionary majority has done violence to the Constitution and to the laws of congress by injecting its social and economic prejudices into the Constitution and the statutes. And there has been none to protest this desecraion of American principles except that brilliant but powerless minority—Holmes. Brandeis and someimes Stone. So today the supreme court sits above the land, .lighty and untouchable, immune from the constructive criticism which is the life of all democratic institutions. In such a national extremity, the appointment of anew justice becomes a most solemn and serious undertaking. The responsibility resting on the President in his choice is grave, and the responsibility resting on the senate in Its confirmation is no less. The President, in our judgment, has not found the right man in John J. Parker. The senate, under the duty laid upon It by the Constitution, can not do other than subject Parker's record to the most extensive and careful committee examination. The senate duty Is not derived from any suspicion regarding his personal character, which all assume is unimpeachable. But the senate’s job is to establish beyond doubt that there Is nothing in his record, or in his present conception of the office, to indicate that he would f

The Indianapolis Times f A BCKIFFS-HOWABD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 West Maryland Street, IndlaDapoli*, Ind. Price in Marion County. 2 centa a copy: elaewbere, 3 cent*—delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week. BOYP GURLEY, ROY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor President Business Manager in ONE- HI lev .Vj.ll TUESDAY. MARCH 25. IS3O. 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.”

substitute his own social and economic views for the Constitution and statutes or otherwise pervert the original function of the court. Neither Parker nor any other jurist has a right to confirmation as a justice of the supreme court until he passes that primary test. The Tariff Bill The senate, after seven months of debate, has completed its work on the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill. The house began the task of revision with hearings before the ways and means committee some fourteen months ago. As it emerges from the senate on its way to conference between the two chambers, the bill would impose the highest tariff duties in the history of the country. Little, if any, improvement has been made in the measure that was railroaded through the house. It is true that higher duties are imposed on many farm products, but these are for the most part ineffective. At the same time industrial schedules have been elevated generally. It is estimated the bill as it stands would take from the pockets of consumers a billion dollars a year. Duties on sugar, lumber, wool, cement, brick and numerous other basic commodities have been Increased largely. The senate put shoes and hides back on* the free list, but a duty had been voted by the house and may be restored in conference. The senate bill is not the sort of measure promised by President Hoover during his campaign. He proposed limited revision to help agriculture and industries in genuine distress. The product thus far is anything but that. It gives farmers increases of dubious value, and at the same time would collect huge toll from them and the rest of the consumers through higher industrial schedules. Enactment of the bill in the senate was accompanied by open log-rolling and trading, which destroyed much of the good the coalitionists had been able to accomplish earlier. Senator Joseph R. Grundy, the country’s leading lobbyist and campaign fund collector, was able to influence the bill powerfully after he obtained his senate seat. The bill faces a rocky path in conference. Not only is there objection to rates, but the administrative features will provoke debate. Liberals object to the censorship authority granted to customs officers; conservatives will fight to throw out the debenture plan Inserted by the senate. There is wide disagreement on the flexible provisions, and on Senator Norris’ amendment to deny tariff protection to any industry not maintaining “full conditions of unrestrained competition.” It is difficult to predict what may happen in conference, save that it is beyond the power of the conferees to alter the bill in any radical degree. They can not make of the present measure anything that will meet the conditions named by the President. They can not convert it—or so it seems to us—into legislation to which the President would be willing to affix his signature. There is, of course, some possibility of a stalemate between the two houses, resulting in no new tariff legislation whatever. Which might be the best way out for all concerned. Judging from the plight of Spanish matadors of late, it would seem that bulls are using their heads more now. People, mostly American, says a news item, pay $10,000,000 a year to see Mont Blanc. Is this regarded as the peak business? The new ruler of Afghanistan intends to introduce prohibition in his country. If it works there, maybe this country will give it a try. A cousin of Paderewski plays the accordion. This proves that a talent for music does not always run in the family.

REASON

A PSYCHOLOGIST examined a lot of people and found that a very few were satisfied with life and practically all would select some other way of making a living if they had it to do over, all of which is merely another way of saying that most people are discontented. BUB Since we stay only a little while and since the going is not rubber-tired at best, it is a tragedy that a happy frame of mind can not be bestowed upon travelers. If you'll look back, you probably will find that the only time you've really felt in luck was when you were emerging from some trouble which threatened to wind your clock. B B B How unspeakably rich you felt when you were recovering from that long illness and how radiantly you are going to look upon life once you get your clothes on and sauntered down the old pike once more, but in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred you were the same old kicker the day after you have resumed the harness. BUB WHAT this psychologist learned Is as old as Adam, for every one has run the gantlet of the emotional reactions to life from the rainbow zeal of youth to the dull gray futility of age, all of us coming to the conclusion along in the fifties that we have utterly failed and that the universe would be about as well off if we never had been added thereto. B s tt The man in the country town, seeing the greater dividends of his city brother, regrets that he did not locate in the metropolis, while the man in tue city seeing what he thinks is the tranquil happiness of the man in the county seat, vows to select a rural postoffice address, should he return to earth. a a o THE woman who drags around a brood of domestic cares resolves to be a prima donna in her next appearance, while the Galli-Curcis, long after the incense vanishes, resolve to be mothers of children, should they respond to an encore after death. So it goes with ttie complainers, and that’s almost all of us. The greatest kickers we ever knew were spoiled mediocres to whom chance or crookedness gave more than nature ever intended they should have, while the happiest people we have met were the afflicted and those whose backs w*re bent with burdens. a a The only being who escapes the conclusion that he is small' potatoes and few in a hill Is the egotist, and he is the greatest of calamities. The only way to beat the game is to smile.

Rv FREDERICK lV LANDIS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

Germany Makes Remarkable Comeback at Sea; Lesson for United States in the Europa and the Bremen. /CLAUDIUS H. HUSTON says he won’t resign as chairman of the Republican national committee —not now, at any rate. The Democrats naturally are delighted, while his own crowd is Just as naturally embarrassed. Some Republican leaders argue that it would be unwise for him to resign under fire. Others declare that he might just as well get out now as postpone the agony. The issue of his retirement seems to be purely a question of time. BBS President Hoove r certainly has been unfortunate in some of the aids and associates wished upon him. Not only that, but he has been equally unfortunate because of his party’s legislative program. Many people think that he should have interfered long ere this, not only with regard to the tariff bill, but with regard to some other important measures. President Hoover apparently has proceeded on the theory that the executive should not interfere with congress. In that respect, he obeys the Constitution, but whether he obeys the fashion of today is another, and more debatable matter. The two most popular Presidents in recent years Roosevelt and Wilson—seldom permitted congress to suffer from lack of advice, but if congress showed the slightest disinclination to take it, they generally put on the screws. 808 Germany Comes Back THE Europa and the Bremen remind us of several things. First, Germany has made a most remarkable comeback on the sea. Second, a big navy does not seem to be necessary to the creation of a big merchant marine. Third, neither does a subsidy. B B B When Germany complained that her interests were being jeopardized by the arbitrary reduction of her ax-my and navy, as provided in the treaty of Versailles, the Big Four replied that with fewer sailors and soldiers to support, she could make faster progress in pursuit of peace. No doubt this reply was regarded by both Germany and allied countries as a peculiarly fine bit of sarcasm. Time, however, has revealed it as a piece of good common sense. Os all countries engaged in the great war. Germany has made the most rapid recovery, and while her genius and capacity for hard work are due great credit, it generally is admitted that relief from the necessity of supporting a huge military establishment has helped. Other countries, and particularly France, might profit by Germany’s example. She is forging ahead largely because they are handicapping themselves with the old-time burden of preparedness. , tt St tt Lesson for U, S, • Neither should we Americans take the position that there is nothing for us to learn in Germany’s performance. The Europa and the Bremen were built without a subsidy. If a beaten, debt-ridden nation can do that, why can’t we? We came out of the war with the greatest merchant fleet ever constructed, while Germany came out of it with practically nothing. At the end of eleven years, Germany sends two of the biggest and finest ships ever constructed into our ports, while a large percentage of our fleet rusts away in idleness. B tt B American capitalists say that we can't develop a merchant marine, without a big navy and special favors by the government. Perhaps we can't but Germany can. Now what is the answer? We have a bigger coast line than Germany, ship more goods to foreign ports, and require more raw material in exchange. We have a greater surplus of wealth, and presumably just as able engineers. But the fact remains that we, who were helped rather than hurt by the war, have been unable to develop a merchant marine in keeping with our capacity and needs, while Germany is resuming the place she occupied in 1914.

Times Readers Voice Views

Editor Times—A recent salary boost order that was lost, strayed or stolen, brought to the attention of Marion county taxpayers the painful fact that our county judges have been doing their level best to take several thousand dollars from the taxpayers’ pockets and distribute it among several minor court officials ho are appointees, it seems, of these same county judges. I would like to have these judges make a plausible explanation of the why and wherefore of this peculiar effort. These minor court officials already were receiving $2,400 a year. How many farmers of the county, or the toiling home owners of the city, are making any such income? If those court reporters could not live on the $2,400 salary, they had the blessed privileges of resigning and there are scores of competent men and women who will be only too glad to take their places. Most of these judges have been in office for sixteen years and act as if a “life tenure” was ahead of them. It is time to call a halt. There should be placed In nomination, in opposition to these too liberal dispensors of other peoples’ money, men of sterling character, pledged to forestall this “salary grab.” If so. be assured the voters will do the rest. A change seems not only imminent, but desirable. E. P. M'CASLXN.

1 /w v Mm X /- A// W ( 010 j) /J 1 • I foousw-v/eve / rfl/J go oft!me {./,/ A m HE A M!GHT //Ii C AVJ ‘ comeback* u W soke*

Care at Childbirth Cuts Blindness

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN, Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. ONE of the most serious problems in social welfare is the care of those who have lost their sight. The health section of the League of Nations recently made a survey of the incidence of blindness in various* parts of the world. Blindness usually means a complete lack of sight in both eyes, although the ordinary man may regard as blind those who can tell the difference between light and dark, but who are unable to see their way about. The sight of a child may be insufficient to permit it to read ordinary school books without difficulty or danger to its vision, but the child still be able to find its way about. Such a child would be blind for purpose of education.

IT SEEMS TO ME

FOR more than three hours I had to remain neutral on the subject of prohibition, and the effort nearly ruined me. The occasion was a debate between Clarence Darrow and Senator Brookhart on the advisability of repealing the eighteenth amendment. I have very definite views on that subject, but as chairman of the debate it was incumbent upon me to preserve a wholly impassive front. In this I assert that I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I applauded neither speaker and laughed at no one’s jokes. Still, Senator Brookhart didn't make any jokes When unruly spirits in the gallery heckled the gentleman from lowa, I sprang to my feet. One of the morning papers said that I “lumbered up.” That's a lie. I sprang to my feet and demanded fair play for the distinguished visitor to our distinguished and fair city. tt b a 'Clean Sport’ IT was not the most mannerly assemblage I have ever seen, but there was no real malice in its attitude toward the dry debater, and Senator Brookhart did not help out much by his technique in handling a crowd. I was amazed at the ineptitude of the man. Surely Smith Wildman Brookhart has engaged in enough rough-and-tumble politics not to be disturbed by a sudden question or even a few scattering boos. From this particular statesman I expected no great store of logic, but it did not seem to me much to anticipate fluency and some conception of mob psychology. For instance, it did not seem to me either the height of tact or truthfulness for him to intimate that the people In the gallery must be drunk simply because they interrupted him now and then. It is by no means impossible to disagree with Smith Wildman Brookhart on no greater stimulus than beverages containing not more than one-half of 1 per cent of alcohol by volume. The wholly sober chairman disagreed with him violently, even though silently. The presence of the senator cramped my style a little. In previous experiences as a chairman it always has been my custom to slip out for a minute or so, once the rebuttal is under way, and sneak a drink. tt sx a Helps Chairman THAT doesn’t hurt the speakers, and, upon occasion, it has helped the chairman profoundly. But Senator Brookhart acts as his own enforcement agent, and I was afraid he might peek around behind the backdrop and discover me in an illegal act. Accordingly, I held my place and subsisted for three hours on oratory alone. In point of fact, the interruptions from the audience were a relief, even though I did my best to

Don’t Be Too Hasty!

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE -

The degree of blindness that renders a man unfit to carry on ordinary work is less than the amount wich may prevent a child from becoming educated. The eyes of children are changing as they grow’, and this fact also must be kept in mind in considering blindness. The countries of the world vary in their legal definition of what constitutes ability to see, in their system of finding out how many blind persons there may be in a community at any given time, and in other ways. Nobody knows exactly how many blind persons there may be in the world, but of a total population of 763,867,565 people in the countries concerned, there were 801,443 blind people, or about 104 blind people to every 100,000 of the population. Due to the systematic campaign throughout the world in the last tw’enty years, there is less and less

quell them in my role of strict and impartial chairman. The senator was arguing that prohibition was by now so firmly established in the United States that people were not even disposed to discuss it any longer. Outside of the wet city of New York, he maintained that no one took any interest in the problem. “Why, only last night,” thundered the gentleman from Iow r a. “I debated prohibition in a town scarcely twenty miles from New York City, ’and there were only ten people in the audience.” At this point the senator made an unfortunate pause, for it gave just the opening necessary for a highpitched voice in the gallery, which piped up to say, “Didn’t you figure, senator, that maybe that was your fault?” Again it seemed to me that Brookhart was unfortunate in the material which he employed about his l'ifle team. That was a very long story. It seems that the lowa national guardsmen, under the leadership of the senator, did not shoot so very well in their first match. nun Spy System THEY landed forty-fourth in the standings. But their captain discovered that booze was not unknown to them, and he undertook to weed out by organizing his own private spy system. Bit by bit, the lowans grew dryer

I fclloTOShip of t I ** | Ddilij / Lenten Devotion \

Tuesday, March 25 RESPECT FOR OTHERS’ OPINIONS Memory Verse: “Be not wise in your own conceits” (Romans 12:16). MEDITATION Reverence for others means respect for their opinions. The wise man knows that he does not know it all. He knows that God does *iOt give all His truth to any one individual, even though it be He: for truth can not be less than what all men see. He loves truth more than he does his own opinion of truth. The open-minded man is a catholic man He believes that others see truth which he may not see. Blessed is the man that sitteth not in the seat of the scornful. PRAYER “Teach me, O Lord, how to love those around me. I would be true to my convictions, and yet kind; just, and yet generous; mindful of the truth, and yet ever merciful. Let me show Thy spirit of love in every relation of life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.**

of infantile blindness as a result of venereal disease. In practically every civilized state in the world, the physician or the midwife is required to drop into the eyes of the child at birth an antiseptic to control such infection. Asa l-esult of this, the number of cases of infantile blindness have been decreased, but there are still enough blind children under 5 years of age to make the problem of their care a serious matter. In Switzerland an organization has made a special study of the care of the blind child under 5 years of age and has emphasized particularly the necessity for teaching the child to live as nearly like a normal child as possible, dressing itself, eating alone, playing with normal children in the open air, walking, and trying to make it free of the terrible solitude that almost inevitably is the lot of thos’e who can not see.

HEYWOOD y BROUN

and more accurate. And the climax of the story was that eventually the team finished fourth. There was a little restless shuffling during this long recital, but no actual interruption. That came later, when Brookhart introduced a history of the manner in which he had forced juries in his home state to bring in verdicts against rum sellers, even though they seemed reluctant to convict. When he had completed the tally of his triumphs, he paused for oratorical effect, and a bored voice from back of the orchestra exclaimed. “Tell us some more about your rifle team.” If New York failed to pass a local enforcement act. then congress ■would take over the work and mete out the punishment which the state was unwilling to inflict. And yet, only a few seconds later, the senator was declaiming that he was a Republican of the Lincolnite sort, and believed in government by the consent of the governed. In this he found no inconsistency whatsoever. tt tt tt • Farm Relief NOR did he seem at all disturbed by his own frank admission that the Volstead act imposes class legislation. In reply to Darrow’s plea for personal liberty, he said that the iaw did not undertake to prevent his opponent from drinking. He said that if Darrow wanted to raise his own barley and brew it, there was nothing in the statutes to prevent him. “Yes,” said Darrow. “and I suppose that presently there will be a law that if I want a suit of clothes, I must b; a sheep ranch and raise my own wool, or go around naked.” If the man who grows the grain Is privileged to indulge in furtive fermentation, he posseses certain privileges which are by nature denied to the city chap. In other words, the Volstead act seems to be a statute designed to make the dry sections of the United States wet, and the wet spots dry. Is there any sense in that? (Copyright. 1930. bv The Times*

Daily Thought

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.— Hebrews 13:2. tt a a They serve God well who serve His creatures.—Mrs. Norton. What is the difference between high and low German? High and low German are two dialects of the west 'Teutonic division of the Germanic group of the Indo-Germanic languages. High German is the literary language and the language of the educated classes. Low German is the folk language.

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

.MARCH 25, 1930

SCIENCE ■ BY DAVID DIETZ

Greater Simplicity Is Needed in Architecture of American Cities. Declares J. Monroe Hewlett. TTARIETY may be the spice of * life but there is a question as to how much spice is advisable in architecture and city planning. At least, one is led to speculate upon the matter from the statement of J. Monroe Hewlett, vice-president of the American Institute of Architects, who says that “America is suffering from architectural indigestion.” Hewlett, who is an international figure in the world of art by reason of his fine mural paintings, adds that “a thirst for variety that appears almost insatiable has produced a hodge-podge in our cities that bears no resemblance to harmony. dignity or individualty.” He thinks that this tendency grew out of a protest against the uniformity of a few decades ago. But like so many protests, so he thinks, it now has gone to the opposite extreme. Today, he says, American cities are being dotted with all the varieties of architectural styles which the world has evolved in the last 4,000 years. The result, he thinks, is that monotony is again coming to the front, each city fast becoming a great hodge-podge of various styles, differing very little • from similar hodge-potiges. a tt o Simplicity T TEWLETT is severe in his tndictment. of present-day tendencies and speaks his mind plainly. He continues: “One reason for the fantastic and absurd designs seen in present day types of buildings arises from a desire to outdo or overshadow the adjoining building, by erecting a structure that because of its startling and flamboyant nature will attract attention at the expense of the other. “Such practices defeat their own purpose, for they are a form'd architectural discourtesy. “The value of the building is enhanced, not by grotesque or startling design, but by its harmonic relations to other buildings in the vicinity.” Simplicity is the great need of American cities today, Hewlett thinks. “Greater simplicity, which after all is the surest measure of good taste, is needed in our architecture today,” he says. “The people must be educated to appreciate such things as simplicity and harmony, and that is where the architect, individually as well as through his association, can render a real public service. “The measure of progressiveness of a city is the extent that it is interested in its orderly growth along a definite, far-sighted plan. “In encouraging and aiding such growth the architect, because of his knowledge of what has been done by cities of the past and his special training and detailed knowledge of materials and the mechanics of building, is fitted ideally to act in an advisory capacity in planning for the future.” an n Philadelphia HEWLETT praises Philadelphia, and Pasadena. Cal., as the two American cities which have worked out a prevailing type of residential architecture. “Philadelphia,” he says, “has done it by staying close to the stone materials and design which started there in the city’s early growth. “Pasadena, while entertaining adequate variety, has achieved a distinctive type of building which readily shows the influence of Spanish and Mexican architecture." No doubt many visitors, without analyzing the subject as Hewlett has done, have been impressed by the distinctive character of these two cities. Hewlett also has a word to say about skyscrapers. The rule today seems to be bigger and bigger skyscrapers. Hewlett believes that cities soon will have to grapple with the problem of the height to which they will permit skyscrapers will rise. Many city planners now realize that, they have a difficult problem on their hands. Big skyscrapers call for new transportation facilities. But as soon as the facilities are furnished, they serve as an impetus to the building of more skyscrapers. Just how- the problem can be eventually solved, no one seems to know.

-'-rqoAvf iß'Thc

ANNUNCIATION DAY ON March 25. according to biblical tradition, the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary the incarnation of ChristThe earliest authentic evidence of the celebration of the feast of the Annunciation is in a canon of the Council of Toledo, Spain, held in 656. For a long period this day marked the beginning of the legal year in England, where it became known as Lady day. In 1240 the Synod of Worcester forbade all servile work on that day, and the various provincial and diocesan councils in England confirmed the edict. Always highly observed in England, Lady day has come to have a fiscal as well as religious significance for it is observed there as the first quarter of the year for rents and other payments. The pay days in England have been arbitrarily fixed on Lady day, Midsummer day, Michaelmas day and Christmas because it is believed such important days are better as reminders of duty to landlords than the 30th or 31st of the month would likely be.