Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 278, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 April 1930 — Page 4

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Too Much Farm Land Recommendations of Secretary Wilbur’s special committee on future federal policies toward reclamation of lands are important. The country has a surplus of foodstuffs, and the federal farm board has declared that a reduction in acreage is essential to the success of its program. The Wilbur committee believes that states in which reclamation projects are developed should share in the financial and other responsibilities with the federal government. Heretofore the states have had no part in the program, which has put water on some two million acres, and from which $133,000,000 worth of crops were harvested In 1927. The states gain through increased production, increased taxable value and through creation of nonagricultural enterprises. The committee’s idea is that the state ultimately should assume full responsibility. The recommendation seems reasonable. The committee, in fact, might have gone further and discussed the wisdom of any further reclamation projects until consumption of soil products has caught hp with production. It seems foolish to have one agency of government urging less production and Another making more lands available for cultivation. The Police and Politics The practice of police-baiting is a favorite sport W American critics of civic corruption. Outwardly there would certainly seem to be plenty of ground for bo doing. With one arrest to every ten to twenty crimes, the average record in typical American cities, It would appear that the police are either seriously Inefficient or flagrantly corrupt. With gang wars unabated in Chicago and the Rothstein case unsolved in New York, the critic is furnished with plenty of ammunition for his campaign. But the wise student of civic affairs will go deeper and raise the fundamental question of why this scandalous state of affairs can exist. * C.-e dominant reason is certainly the fact that the police are a part of the system of partisan politics. If party politics is run to protect the law-breaker and to discourage honesty and efficiency in detecting crime and apprehending criminals, the police can not fairly be saddled with all the blame. If they must paddle in political waters they can not help being deflected by the currents and eddies therein. These facts are set forth with unusual clarity and authority by James P. Kirby of The Cleveland Press in an address on '‘Politics, Crime and the Police,” before the Princeton Conference on Politics. Some of the more trenchant observations of Kirby follow: “If policemen are corrupt, their corruption hardly is greater than that of the atmosphere in which they work. “It is not to be wondered that a policeman, on a salary far below that which would be commensurate with the responsibilities which he has to assume, succumbs to the temptations so alluringly held out by the criminal element, the racketeers, and the politicians. “It is the politician on the bench, in the pro? * cu tor’s office, and in the council chambers in our gi ; c : ties—to their shame—who has set the pace wf ,n the policeman follows. “When politics dominates and demoralizes the police department, when politics is aligned with the worst elements In the community, with the bootlegger, the racketeers and the criminal rings, it is not to be wondered at that policemen are found to be derelict in their duty. .. . “The most insidious influence existing today is tne political influence which ties the hands of the honest policeman. It is this which, in my judgment, presents one of the most serious obstacles in the way of an efficient administration of criminal justice in America.” Kirby does not content himself with mere verbal blanket charges. He proves every verse and line of his assertions by cogent illustrations drawn from American civic politics today. Doubtless there are many other factors which obstruct the creation of a truly efficient police system, particularly the failure to recognize that crime detection and repression should be a highly professionalized science. Yet, unti the police are taken out of politics and the system is grounded solidly in a real civil service and merit arrangement, no degree of professionalization will be of much avail. And until the police apprehend the majority of the crooks, no scientific scheme of ascertaining guilt or treating the guilty can be put to work effectively.

A Half-Way Haitian Policy When one people has oppressed another, the least It can do is to repair the damage. We believe Americans are ashamed of our fifteen years of military subjugation of a defenseless though sovereign nation, and want to withdraw from the role of bully and invader. If that be true, then Americans will be disappointed at the compromise report and recommendations just issued by the President’s special commission and approved by him. The commission recommendations, in their equivocation, are in regrettable contrast to the courageous action of the commission while Haiti arranging for a nonpartisan temporary government to succeed the marine puppet, Borno, pending popular elections. Perhaps it was too much to expect adequate reform recommendations from an administration commission, for after all this is a case of an administration investigating itself. Such being the situation, there is the usual attempt at face-saving. But the commission does not whitewash conditions much as the high Ameircar In Hai l and Washington responsible for those conditions. Stating that the United States obtained control of the governmental agencies “with a view to assisting in re-estabiishment of stable government,” the report admits that the American occupation has failed to prepare Haiti for restoration of self-govern-ment—the only excuse used by Washington to justify continuance of the occupation all these years. The report says: "The people of Haiti, since dissolution of the national assembly by President Dartignave (1918) have had no popularly elected representative in control of their government. The American occupation has accepted— if not encouraged—this state of affairs. "The acts and attitude of the American treaty official* gave your commission the impression that they had been based upon the assumption that the occupation would definitely. The commission was disappointedthat preparation for

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKITFS-HOWAKD >'£WSPAF£R) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Time* Publishing Cos., 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price ir Marlon County, 2 cents a copy: elsewhere, 8 cents—delivered by 12 cents a week. BOYD G(7RLE\\ BOY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor President Business Manager PHONE—Riley 15551 TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1930, Member ol 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."

political and administrative training of Haitians for responsibilities of government had been - inadequate.” Moreover the commission criticises the American failure to Haitianize the national guard, failure to reduce taxation and American race prejudice. “Failure of the occupation to understand the social problems of Haiti, its brusque attempt to plant democracy there by drill and harrow, its determination to set up a middle class, however wise and necessary it may seem to Americans, all these explain why, in part, the high hopes of our good works in this land have not been realized.” But the report does not even mention military terrorism, ending in the massacre of natives last December, which precipitated the present threat of revolution unless the marines are withdrawn. ITie commission’s recommendations, “providing for an increasingly rapid humanization of the services, with the object of having Haitians experienced in every department of the government ready to take over full responsibility at the expiration of the existing treaty (1936),” are good so far as they go. But the failure to fix a definite and early date for withdrawal of marines and the high commissioner, and for the end of Intervention, is inexcusable. No wonder representative Haitians already are protesting. Americans, who cherish the American principles of self-government and self-determination, also should protest.

It Shouldn’t Take Long Citizens doubtless will be surprised to read today that the senate is beginning to debate Muscle Shoals. Muscle Shoals? Wasn’t that the big power issue that tied up congressional sessions for years, and finally carried in favor of government operation? Quite so. It is rather astounding that this fight has to be made all over again, but citizens will recall on second thought that Calvin Coolidge, who was somewhat friendly to the power trust, nullified congress’ action oy tne simple expedient of putting the bill in his pocket and leaving it there. So the Norris bill is up again. There shouldn’t be much trouble about passage this time. It is no longer a case of George Norris fighting alone. The issue now has been debated through and through, and the congressional majority has been convinced that turning the Muscle Shoals government plants over to private corporations would amount to robbing the people. Indeed, no new debate whatever would be necessary. The bill could be repassed automatically and sent up to Hoover for signature at once—except for one new development. And that now development should swell the Norris bill vote until It is virtually unanimous, just as it should make impossible another presidential veto. For, thanks to the Caraway investigating committee, congress and the country now can trace the tracks of the power trust lobby in its long effort to grab from congress the people’s property at Muscle Shoals. And none other than Chairman Huston of the Republican national committee, who played the stock marlcet on margin with Muscle Shoals lobby funds, has been revealed as the head of that American Cyanamid-Union Carbide lobby. “The lobby investigating committee already has passed the Norris bill,” is the way the Senate wits put it. We should hope so. Primo Carnero, gigantic Italian pugilist, denied recently he would marry the London girl to whom he was reported engaged. The ring had something to do with it, no doubt. A survey in Chicago reveals that gangsters are better pistol shots than policemen. In the end, however, the gangsters are the bigger shots. When prohibition, the naval parley and Rudy Vallee cease to be news, we predict an unemployment wave will strike the columnists. If you should hear a strange dissonance in that talkie made of the Stock Exchange you will know, of course, it was merely a market crash. A grass in Canada is said to absorb noise. The first thing one thinks of is its application in Congress.

REASON By F LANDIS GK

WE read the other day in the biography of Thad Stevens that the great abolitionist wanted to guard against disfranchisement of colored people in the south by a constitutional amendment which would have provided that qualified voters only should be counted for the purpose of fixing congressional representation, instead of counting everybody. tt tt Such an amendment would not have benefited the colored brother, but it would be a blessing now to all states whose inhabitants are citizens. If we had such an amendment now the American sections of America, which have no aliens, would not lose members of congress to the European sections, which have hundreds of thousands of aliens. tt tt tt SPEAKING of Stevens and the attacks recently made on him by authors, dealing with the reconstruction period, it is interesting to note that southern states which were proceeding to reorganize under easy terms got off on the wrong foot by passing laws which threatened to deprive the Negro of his liberty. And this was before Negro suffrage was proposed. tt a tt No one sanctions the horrible orgy of tyranny and corruption visited ir 'n the helpless south by northern carpetbaggers, but :l'_e south might have escaped it had she not given her enemies the ammunition with which they made tha north believe that all the fruits of victory were to be surrendered. , a a tt THAD STEVENS was an incurable commoner, due perhaps to the fact that he was born and reared in desperate poverty, his father abandoning his mother with a lot of children. His zeal for the under dog enabled him to make the greatest speech ever heard in a Pennsylvania legislature, the speech which saved the public schools of the Keystone state, when both houses were overwhelmingly against the proposition. tt a a Possibly Stevens regarded it as legitimate, according to the laws of war, to confiscate the property of southern leaders remembering that when it invaded Pennsylvania Lee’s army, on its way to Gettysburg, destroyed the iron works which Stevens owned at Chambersburg, reducing him to financial ruin. To the very end he played the game as one who abhorred distinctions of race, refusing to be buried in % cemetery which drew the color line, the reason for his selection of an obscure resting place being arved on his tomb at Lancaster. 1

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

The Census Will Show Great Growth in United States, but It Also Will Show That We Still Are Made of the Same Old Clay . APRIL 1 finds anew civil war under way in China, child marriage outlawed in India and 100,000 men and women starting out to count noses in this country. Our fifteenth decennial cersus will cost more than it took to run the government during Washington’s administration, which is due not only to the increase of population, but to the fact that Uncle Sam has grown inquisitive. In the old days, people only answered “present” when the census taker came around, but now they must tell where papa and mama were born, how many chickens they raised, and whether there is a radio set in the house. Which reminds us of a story. nun Old Nancy lived in an Arkansas creek bottom, which limited her horizon for more than one reason. In due course of time, the census taker made his appearance. She knew her name, but that was about all. When asked whether she was native born, she replied, “I dunno.” She made the same reply when asked if she were married, how many children she had, whether she was a widow, whether she owned her place, and so on. Finally the census taker wanted to know if she ever had heard of the United States, but cnly to get, “I dunno,” as the answer. “Well, did you hear of God" he queried. “Seems like I have,” said old Nancy, “were his other name damn?” nan Same Old Clay OUTSIDE. a few know very well what the census is going to show—more people, more money in the bank, more automobiles, more movies, more of many other things which .30 to make up material progress. Apart from that, it will show that we poor mortals are made of the same old clay. An enumeration taken by the Romans in 76 A. D. and one taken in Massachusetts in 1925 showed practically the same percentage of men and women over 90. nan The University of Pennsylvania museum expedition has made two interesting finds —one, the mummy cf a woman, with all her jewelry and ornaments, buried more than 4,000 years ago; the ether a magician, who ate haunches of beef and drank jugs of beer at the age of 110. We think of Egypt as a mass of queer, dead glories, but it had been a going concern for 3,000 years when Alexander arrived. nan We’re Not So Old WE think of the United States as not only great, but old. It has been in existence only 150 years, which isn’t much in the life of nations. The Japanese government can count twenty-six centuries to its credit; France has been France for 1,000 years, and Mussolini is ruling a city that has been in existence 2,500. Still, we shall read the results of the census as proving that we have come to stay, that this nation is bound to be enduring, because it has grown so big and that civilization at last has become immortal. It has been men’s weakness to regard the future as revealed by what is, rather than by what has been. nan Growth Is Marvelous THE last 400 years has seen North America evolve from a wilderness into a highly populated and highly developed land. In Washington’s time, this country consisted of a string of colonies along the Atlantic coast, containing 3,000,000 people, and devoted largely to agriculture. Now it stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and contains not only more than 120,000,000 inhabitants, but three of the ten largest cities on earth. Making due allowance for the part played by natural resources—ingenuity and the normal birth rate —it is only fair to say that immigration has contributed a great deal to its growth.

*i3d±

ALL FOOL’S DAY —April 1— ON April 1, 1654, April Fool’s day or All -Fool’s day, a day now almost universally observed for the playing of practical jokes on friends and sending them on fools’ errands, was believed to have originated in France. France, which had celebrated the new year on March 25, used to end its merrymaking on April 1, when it was the custom to pay visits and exchange gifts. But when the reformed calendar was adopted in 1564, and the New Year’s day was carried back to Jan. 1, only pretended gifts and mock ceremonial visits were made on April 1, with a view of making fools of those who had forgotten the change of date. It was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that England adopted April Fools’ day. Addison makes the earliest reference to it in his “Spectator” when he tells of a neighbor who “makes his boasts that for these ten years consecutively he has not made less than 100 fools.” In Scotland the custom was known as “hunting the gowk,” that is. the cuckoo, and April fools were “April-gowks,” the cuckoo being there a term of contempt. In France the person befooled is known as “April-fish.” _ .

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DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Even Low-Voltage Current Can Kill

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. SINCE the electric chair has become the established method of capital punishment, new knowledge is available regarding the manner in which electric shock produces death. Most people believe that low tensions of from 110 to 120 volts are not fatal, while high tension currents cause certain death. Dr. H. Edenhofer has, however, recorded a number of deaths from as low as 46 or 60 volts and also has records In which a current of 25,000 volts did not kill. Much depends, of course, on factors in addition to the amounts of voltage that are received. The resistance of the skin to the electric current plays a large part. If the skin is quite dry, the resistance may be as high as 50,000 or even a million ohms. If, however, the hands and feet are perspiring, the resi .tance is reduced to a few thousand ohms.

IT SEEMS TO ME By

IT doesn’t seem to me that plays or novels about painters, actors, opera singers, sculptors and musicians are much good. And neither are plays about reporters. But here an exception should be noted in favor of “Gentlemen cf the Press” and “The Front Page.” The chief difficulty lies in the fact that the public insists on believing that the artist calls ft art. If you have a painter as a hero, you must show him in the act of doing a picture. And that’s not particularly dramatic. For even in the case of the making of an early Broun. During the scenes in which he is not actually engaged on the creation of a masterpiece, he wlil be expected to sit around and talk about his dreams and visions. Now as a matter of fact it is very difficult to get a painter to talking. First he must be plied with illegal beverages, and when he does talk the chances are ten to one that it won’t amount to much. Great stuff gets on canvas by some divine sort of accident. Naturally there must be a current of thought somewhere or other, but it is a lost river buried down deep below the subsoil of the brain. Children and insane people often paint well. It is not an activity which has anything much to do with intelligence. tt tt tt Sense of Humor ACTORS scale up a little higher, but their reputations are in some measure built on the lines assigned them in plays. Even the sophisticated newspaper dramatic critic can not quite escape the impression that part of the fun o' an amusing speech comes out of the head of the player. It isn’t true. A sense of humor does not seem to.be entirely essential to the comedian. One of the best farce actresses I have ever known can’t even see a good joke. Or any of my jokes. She is distinctly’ insensitive to wit and humor. We don’t like to think of the performer who has moved us to mirth as stepping out of his role into dull humdrummery. An actor who has a reputation for comedy can set a whole company into gales of laughter by saying. “This is damnable weather.” or, “When do the cocktails come?” He was so funny in the show that we feel there must be some secret barb even in his most commonplace remarks. Accordingly, it is almost impossible to write a successful and a truthful play about stage people. Audiences simply will not accept the

T Don’t Look So Good!’

Thus, numerous deaths have been reported from electric vibrators and heaters used in the bathroom when the person received house current at the time that hands and feet were thorough wet. In time of disease the human body does not have the ability to resist the shocks of any kind that it has in health. Hence that factor also must be taken into account. Finally, workers in industry may have their hands covered with metallic dust, and this is likely to play a considerable part in the part of current that is received. Edenhofer records four types of death from electricity: First, sudden death; second,* protracted; third, retarded, and fourth, delayed. In the first form, death strikes so suddenly that the individual does not even make an outcry. In the second form, he realizes the shock and may call for help, but death occurs in a few minutes. In the v;hird form, death is due to the effects; thus the person apparently recovers from the shock but

fact that they may be entirely conventional and ordinary in private life. At the very least they must be wild, reckless, romantic and improvident. Another popular fallacy is that after half a season in “Romeo and Juliet” the lady either must love the gentleman madly, or hate him with an equally violent pas'sion. Indifference seems to be by far more common and to be maintained without great effort. tt tt u Why Soft-Pedal UNEMPLOYMENT has been mentioned from time to time in this column and there have been those among my friends who drew me aside to say, “Don’t you think that maybe it would be a good idea to soft-pedal that .stuff?” When I asked why, they explained, Well, things are beginning to get better and pretty soon they’ll be much better. It’s useful to be optimistic. Look on the bright side of things. Talk on the bright side of things. That helps to make them brighter.” I can’t agree with that. It may be that the period of depression already has begun to abate and it would be my guess in any case that revival waits around the corner. If I thought that we were in the slough of despondency and scheduled for an indefinite stay, I possibly might chime in with the soft, pedal school. There is not much point in stressing difficulties which can’t be avoided. I was never a fellow to complain much about the rain. tt a tt Imagination Lacking BUT our present problem of jobs and the jobless is by no means hopeless. Something can be done and done this very second. In the back room of the speakeasy where I get most of my economic dope, I sit and listen while wise men argue whether America is suffering from overproduction or underproduction and whether these are possibly exactly the same thing. Such problems I leave to the economists. It is my feeling that the country is suffering from a state of undercommassionateness. Or maybe it is merely a lack of imagination. Nobody could look at a breadline without wanting to do something about it. The employer who fires an old and trusted employe at the first sign of business letup probably never has stopped to figure out just what this particular jobless man is going to do with himself. And it is up to all of us to stop

soon thereafter passes into unconsciousness and death. In the delayed cases, which are rather rare, the symptoms do not come on for some hours or even for days after the persons has had a shock. When the bodies are examined after death, the conditions found vary according to the health of the person before the shock was sustained and according to the nature of the shock. In some instances death occurs from suffocation due to stopping of the respiration; in others, the brain and the lungs are found full of fluid. In many instances death seems to be due to sudden contraction of the heart without ability to relax and to continue the circulation of the blood through the body. In view of the fact that almost any type of voltage may be dangerous under certain conditions, it is desirable that dangerous places be fenced off and that routine inspection be made of all wire and electric apparatus, to prevent possible contacts.

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those o( 3ne ol America’s most interesting writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

and to think. Out of thinking goodwill must surely come and there is not a single economic program in the whole range of the theorists which can posribly work without it. Let’s all pass our plates and ask for a second helping of fellowship. tCopyright, 1930. by The Times)

Daily Thought

An evil life is one of death. —Ovid. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which siand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom.—l Kings 10:8. it tt tt Without strong affection, and humanity of heart, and gratitude to that Being whose code is mercy, and whose great attribute is benevolence to all things that breathe, How does the United States rank in aviation? First in air mall only. England, France and Germany lead in commercial aviation.

Important Notice Concerning Corporate Trust Shares $1.28 per Corporate Trust Share has already accumulated in the hands of the Equitable Trust Company of New York, Trustee, for the semi-annual distribution to be made June 30, 1930. Distributions were $1.96 2 /j per Corporate Trust Share in 1929. Based on present accumulations, distributions should show an increase in 1930. Ask ns to send yon complete descriptive circular Price at thj market about $lO per share Which includes $1.28 accumulation Affiliated * tu City Securities Corporation (ffiSai DICK MILLER , President Lincoln 5 is 108 East Washington Street

.APRIL 1,193 Q

SCIENCE —BY DAVID DIETZ-

Steamships Enabled *?a:p?or-| ers to Make Great Progress i in Braving Perils of Frozen North. THE application of steam to ships proved a tremendous aid to Arctic exploration. When Sir John Franklin, in 1845, headed for the Arctic on the ill-fated which cost the lives of his entirq company as well as his own, he had two sailing vessels. When Sir George Nares started for the Arctic on May 29, 1875, hij two ships were steamships. Witl* the exception of search parties sent after Franklin, this was Great Britain’s first Arctic expedition since that of Franklin. The difference which steam power made in Arctic exploration can be seen from the fact that whereas It took Franklin six weeks to reach the drift Ice, Nares was within the region of perpetual Ice in the same time. Disaster overtook Franklin’s expedition after three years of hardship in the Arctic. The men were forced to abandon their ships and start out upon a journey on foot which none ever finished. Nares, after eighteen months, was back home, having in the interval attained a point farther north than any man had previously reached. Nares set sail with two steamships, the Alert and the Discovery. A third, the Valorous, loaded with provisions, accompanied the expedition as far as Disko bay, halfway up the western coast of Greenland. ana Mosquitoes THE ships arrived at Disko bay on July 4. The weather was the sort we think of as spring. The ice was beginning to melt. Early spring flowers were making their appearance. Because of their steam power, the Alert and the Discovery were able to crash their way through ice-filled channels which would have been utterly impassable to sailing vessels. Nares, who had had experience before this in Arctic waters, rammed the two ships through the small ice floes. As the ships proceeded farther north, however, greater care was needed. By Aug. 24 the ships had reached Bessel bay and it was decided to spend the winter there. The Discovery stopped at a small bay which was cristened Discovery bay, while the Alert, taking the Eskimo dogs with it, pushed farther north. The Alert continued until It reached, on the last day of August, the edge of the grinding field of pack ice which marked the edge of the Polar sea. The Alert then was at latitude 82 degrees 14 minutes, farther north than any explorer had penetrated up to that time. nan Northward OBSERVATIONS showed that the ship had reached the point where Robeson channel enters the Polar sea. The ship was anchored at Cape Sheridan and on midnight of Sept. 4 the long Arctic night settled down upon the ship. Nares built snow houses on the mainland and scientific instruments were set up to make astronomical and meteorological observations. On Nov. 13, however, it became so cold that the mercury in the thermometer froze. Many of the dogs died, but the men managed to keep healthy, only one of the party being on the sick list. The men kept in excellent spirits, even organizing a theatrical company which they called the Royal Arctic. The Royal Arctic gave concerts every Thursday. With the arrival of spring, Nares divided his men into two parties and sent them on expeditions with the dog sleds. One was to explore the coast and Grant’! Land. The other, under Commander Markham and Lieutenant Parr, was to try for the north pole. The polar party started out on April 11. They found the traveling over the rugged and jagged masses of ice extremely difficlut and slow. On May 11, mtmbers of the party were exhausted and beginning to show signs of scurvy. Consequently the leaders decided it was recessary to turn back. The expedition had then reached latitude 83 degrees 20 minutes and 26 seconds, the farthest north to date and a distance of 389 miles from the north pole. The party celebrated its exploit by opening a jug of whisky and passing around cigars. But on the return journey the ir.eh grew weaker andweaker. One died. Finally it was necessary to haty. Lieutenant Parr went on alone, finally reaching the ship and summoning a relief party.