Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 280, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 April 1930 — Page 4

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The Future of Air Mail The most Important piece of aeronautical legislation ever to be considered by congress, the Watres air mall bill, Is due to come up in the house in a few days. Fate of the air transport industry more or less hangs on this bill, for it virtually provides a subsidy for the nation’s air passenger lines. But the bill has dangerous potentialities. The Watres measure would do four things <a> change the system of payment for the carrying of air mail from a poundage to a space-mileage basis; ' b* put air mail on passenger lines, thus carrying them over the financial hump until passenger traffic pays; <c> protect the present air mail contractors, by allowing them to keep their contracts for a total of ten years under adjusted rates; id) give the postmastergeneral power to let contracts by negotiation, and without calling for competitive bids. The latter clause is the one which would protect the present contractors against new bidders, yet it could be used also in awarding new contracts. There is danger in thus clause. It puts practically unlimited powers in the hands of the postmastergeneral. It is the direct road to an air mail monopoly if executed by an unscrupulous official. Doubtless the Watres bill can be amended to eliminate this clause, while still giving proper protection to contractors who have pioneered the air mail. Investment Trusts The rapid expansion of investment trusts and holding companies has been one of the outstanding developments in United States economic history during ihe last decade. Congress has launched an inquiry to determine to what extent this new financial machinery influences corporate control, particularly in the case of railways, where in some cases the holding company apparently has operated to remove the actual owners of the lines from jurisdiction of the interstate commerce commission. Under guidance of Dr. W. M. W. Splawn, dean of the graduate school ot American university and a specialist in corporate organization and finance, there is promised the most exhaustive inquiry into private finance in United States history. Chairman Parker of the house interstate commerce committee, which will conduct the inquiry, already has some eighty investment trusts listed. The committee is empowered to summon books, records and corre>pondencc. A fund of $25,000 is available for expenses. Pending completion of the investigation, congress will urge delay of all railroad consolidation projects. Cross buying of railroad securities through holding companies and investment trusts has so obscured ultimate control of the several systems that all data on which to base consolidation policy is unreliable. The theoretical basis of consolidation is competition; but when competing systems fall under unified control through holding companies, the basis for prudent consolidation vanishes. 6uch inquiry has been an urgent national need foi /many years. It is entirely reasonable for congress to inquire whether financial Institutions—which are neither banks nor railroads, but exercise the functions of both—are vested with a power requiring a measure of legislative control.

The A. F. of L. Warning If the surprise element makes the value of news, the biggest news of the day is the warning of William Green against the possibility of revolution. Green is president of the American Federation of Labor. But he is more t han that. He is one of the world s most conservative labor leaders, one of the bitterest opponents of all so-called red movements. When such a conservative talks of the possibility of revolution as a result of unemployment and hunger, it is time for the country to take notice. In urging passage of the Wagner series of unemployment bills, Green said to the senate committee: “Men should earn money, not have it doled out to them without labor in return. But unless employers change their tactics toward the unions, we shall face either federal unemployment insurance to take care of the jobless of have a revolution on our hands.” What Iras driven such a man as Green to talk in this language. He gave his answer in the form of union statistics, showing: One in every four men unemployed this winter. Almost half the men in the building trades unemployed. An estimated national total of 3,700,000 men out of work. Loss of purchasing power through unemployment in the last three months, $1,000,000,000. In the last twenty-seven months, including the period of so-called prosperity, the number of unemployed among union workers never fell below 9 per cent. That non-union labor has fared even worse seems to be indicated by the federal reserve board production statistics, just announced. Taking three outstanding unorganized industries, the automobile production index fell from 148 in February, 1929, to 103 in February, 1930; iron and steel from 126 to 118. •extiles from 113 to 98. while industrial production is a whole dropped from 117 to 105. The number of commercial failures in March was he largest since 1922, according to Dun's Review, ue number increasing 4 per cent over February to a \larch total of 2,347: “This is a larger ratio of inrease than usually is disclosed at this period, yet uch a showing is in keeping with the trend of busiless mortality since last autumn's speculative colapse.'* Unless the administration wants a repetition next winter of this depression, which is so disastrous to joth capital and labor, the least it can do is to throw its full and quick support behind the Wagner bills. They are not cure-alls. But they represent an absoute minimum In advance planning by the government. Books for Presidents A library of 500 volumes is being presented by the nation's booksel'ers to the White House. The idea is that there are enough heavy tomes in the executive offices, not to mention the library of congress, to satisfy even an engineer; but that the President needs a little light reading at home. It is grand idea. We would not presume to add to the titles chosen by Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Douglas S. Watson, though in view of the presidential interest in hair shirt* the failure to Include lives of the medieval saints amounts almost to a sin of omission. How fitting thas Don guixotc, Tom SawxQT, Unflc

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIFFS-HOW ARD NEWSPAPER) Uwacif and published daily (except Sunday) hv The Indianapolis Time* Publishing Cos., 214-220 Went Maryland Street. Indianapolis. iDd. Price | n Marlon County, 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cent*—delivered by carrier, 12 cent* a week. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. FRANK C. MORRISON. Editor President Business Manager I HONE RI ley SMI THURSDAY. APRIL 3, 1930. Member of United Press. Scrippa-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. iQi ve Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

Remus and Sherlock Holmes have been picked to lead the 500 charged with conquering the presidential cares at nightfall to bring sweet sleep. Who can find joy in the Spanish knight better than he who has returned weary from tilting at congressional windmills—not to say windbags? To whom will Tom's tactics of getting others to whitewash the fence appeal. if not to the President, who has appointed twenty-one commissions—or is it forty-one—to help do his jobs? With Uncle Remus at hand, there will be no need for another cabinet officer who specializes in bedtime stories. And who, if not Sherlock and the faithful Watson, can divert the presidential mind from the national mystery: Where is the noble experiment?

“Eminent Impudence” They have a way out west of cutting corners and jumping fences. A recent order by District Judge E. P. Carville of Elko, Nev., is a case in point. This order came from his bench to the effect that newspapers of the community were not “to publish any evidence or comments on the evidence” in a case in his court. The case pending was that of a prominent Elko cattleman charged with sheep stealing. The order was made on the ground that publication or comment would interfere with another case to be tried later, involving other defendants, but requiring many of the same witnesses. The mandate, the judge argued, would prevent extra costs in securing juries. The order has raised a storm, as it should In any American community. “The case raises the question of the propriety of judicial officers assuming powers that may not be conferred upon them by the Constitution and the laws of the state, by which they are supposed to be bound exactly the same as other citizens,” says the Reno Gazette. Editor and Publisher calls Judge Carville “a highhanded judge,” and declares he acted only “by right of eminent impudence.” It is fitting that American newspapers should resent such a ruling. It recalls all too vividly the vigilante days, when laws were anything that you could get by with. There are worse things than sheep-stealing. Stealing the rights of the people, for instance. One of these rights, as laid down by Alexander Hamilton, is “the right to publish with impunity, truth with good motives, for justifiable ends, though reflecting on government magistry or individuals." A California sword swallower broke four teeth trying to bite a piece of iron the other day. There is nothing more to the story, but our guess is that his front door key refused to function. It is to be hoped that the fellow who proposed and was accepted by telephone got a good number. And there is no doubt that the girl told him, “give me a ring soon, dear.” An Italian athlete set some sort of a record by walking to and from his bedroom for forty hours. It isn't reported whether he found the collar button. The argument in the Massachusetts legislature over suppressing indecent books seems to be developing into a real battle of the censory. In New Orleans they are giving race horses sun baths and ultra violet rays treatment. But it would seem that jockies, not horses, need to get light. Planet X. like the ex-President, is still more or less of a mystery. And it's as distant as a rich relative. A water tank, says a news item, burst and splashed the singers on the stage of the opera house at Paris. But then, they must all have been divas. Yodeling is becoming popular in Germany. It seems the Swiss movement is spreading.

REASON Bv F LAND?S CK

AUTHORITIES at Washington persist in the folly of permitting the publication of the secrets of our national defense, their most recent contribution to this inexplicable habit being their authorization of the publication of the results of a recent test of a bombing plane whose new features are expected to revolutionize sky attacks. b b n Unlike other bombing planes, t> one is an acrobat; it can loop the loop, skin the cat, dance the Charleston and indulge in other frivolous pastimes heretofore denied the corpulent carrier of bombs, but more important still, it can swoop with incredible speed from a great altitude, then straighten out and stop with amazing alacrity above the ship it wishes to destroy. tt tt tt IF all the claims made for it be true, it is a wonder, j yet it is no asset to our national defense, since the ■ publication of the story of it will start every foreign j nation on the trail of the secret which ma tes such a j sky terror possible n a a We are in favor of news, but some things should be kept still and President Hoover should proceed to gag the officers in charge of all such experiments and nobody on earth should be permitted to tell it to the world. Foreign nations keep all such things dark and if one of their officials should permit such secrets to be*come public property he would be court-martialed, but while all other countries have some sense in such things, we advertise the new features of our national defense with all the enthusiasm of an Easter milliner. n b n ROBERT I. RANDOLPH, president of the Chicago Association of Commerce, announces that ninetynine Chicago citizens of 100 are constructive and that the world is now admiring the ninety-nine and not thinking of the cne who is a gunman. These ninety-nine men are not very constructive if they can not disarm the one. B B B In spite of this cheerful note, the picture of Chicago. drawn by Frank J. Loesch, recent head of her law enforcement forces, is a very dark one. it is a picture of utter anarchy in law enforcement against criminals who belong to the organization BUM Mr. Loesch tells a story of juries that are packed, of officers whose treachery makes the administration of Justice a mockery, of crookedness from top to bottom, from Judges to bailiffs. After listening to Mr. Loesch, yen conclude that Chicago should be placed under martin

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

The Movie Will Play an Important Part in Making Not Only the Morals but the Politics of the Future. IF every story has a moral, so does every movie, the only difference being that the movie carries a stiffer punch. You simply can not get away from the element of propaganda in a form of entertainment which depicts life. That is why Soviet Russia is preparing 158 films this year. Soviet leaders show their perspicuity in recognizing the movie as the most powerful instrument available for putting over ideas. a b a The story is an individual product; the movie an organized product. You can sit down and write a story all by yourself if you have the talent. Then all you need is a magazine to buy it, or a publisher to print it. To put out a movie, you need a studio, with a mob of actors, not to mention camera men and experts of every description. After that, you need a raft of theaters to be sure of effective distribution. BBS Movie in Great Role THE movie is going to play an important part in making not only the morals, but the politics, of the future. Those in control of it have a stupendous power at their command. Also, they face a stupendous responsibility. Instead of sneering, we should commend them for trying to formulate a code. Neither can the problem be dismissed by trite epigrams on purity, art, and self-government. If we are dealing with art in the movies, we also are dealing with a commercial enterprise, and if we are dealing with individual genius, we are dealing with group control. A seventeenth century sage once said, “Give me to write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its laws.” If he were alive today, he probably would say, “Give me control of the movies, and I don’t care who writes much of anything.” tt b a Screen to Rule THE power of the printed word is gradually succumbing to the screen, especially since it has been supplemented with sound devices. Within the space of twenty-five years, it not only has swept the spoken drama off the stage, but has popularized the theater to such extent as never was before known. In most of our great cities, more people are to be found at the movies on Sunday afternoon than at church on Sunday morning. One only has to talk with the average boy or girl to realize how definitely they are forming ideas of honor, loyalty, and justice from what they see and hear in the movies. They can talk much more glibly about the prominent stars than they can about the prominent politicians or preachers. Platitudes Do Not Help UNDER such circumstances, we hardly can appraise the movie, or the necessity for safeguarding it. on the same basis that we would appraise a book which we keep on the back shelf. Neither can we approach the problem from the standpoint of mature and critical minds, or dismiss it by such platitudes as that, “to the pure, all things are pure,” that, “the ballot box and jury box afford sufficient protection,” and that “the American people are fit to govern themselves.” The American people are fit to govern themselves, but only through due process of law, as evidenced by the Constitution and thousands upon thousands of statutes, by a sheriff in every county, by a police force bigger than the standing army, and by more than 100,000 prisoners, not to mention traffic lights, public service commissions, and such a multitude of regulatory measures as would fill an encyclopedia. Considering what we have found it necessary to do in so many other lines, a code for the movies would not seem out of order. The question of whether the first code proposed is perfect would appear less important than the fact that those in charge are trying to do something of a constructive nature.

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FIRST PONY EXPRESS April 3

ON April 3. 1860, the first ponyexpress riders left Sacramento. Cal., for St. Louis, to establish a fast mail service between the Pacific coast and the middle, west. The service was inaugurated in an effort to reduce the twenty-two days’ time it took the transcontinental lines to carry mails from the east to the far west by way of the Panama canal. The animals used on the “express" were not ponies, but fleet horses. They were stationed at “stages” from ten to fifteen miles apart and each rider rode three animals successively, covering about seventyfive miles before he passed the pouch to his successor. Eventually there were eighty riders and between 400 and 500 horses. The fastest trip was made for the delivery of President Lincolns inaugural address, the distance of 1.400 miles being covered in seven days and seventeen hours. Just sixteen months after it was started the pony express was sup- j planted by a telegraph line. But despite its brief existence, the service has won a name for itself In American history, because it maintained its schedule In all kinds of weather and In face of Indian bos“I

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IT SEEMS TO ME "ST

1 DON'T know why the word “hack,” as applied to a writer, should be considered a devastating reproach. I’m a “hack” and proud of it. In my more cheerful moments I think of myself as a good “hack.” Every newspaper man knows perfectly well that he is not working for posterity. The words over which he labors on a Tuesday will serve, at best, to line a pantry shelf on Thursday. And at that I probably am giving him too good a break. A newspaper becomes old litter a few hours after it is off the press. But the world can't get along without “hacks.” Without geniuses it may suffer from a lack of the articulate expression of its highest potentialities. Without “hacks” it can not even manage to clothe and feed itself and keep appointments. Somebody lias to hew the wood and draw the water. ' Footstools HACKS serve as footstools and stepping stones for the aristocracy of high talent. Take the case of William Shakespeare. His genius is beyond quibble, but he had .to depend on a troupe of actors who

Times Readers Voice Views

Editor Times—lt seems the greatest of American tragedies is the prohibition law. We. the American people, have lived ten years under this law and we, the middle class, have not received a single benefit from the law. Many of us lost jobs through stopping of liquor manufacture, which now is shipped here from other countries or is made by the foreign class. We know that as long as men desire liquor, there will be liquor for them. That is human nature. The prohibition law made taxes high and placed new taxations on the American people. The working people have not the resources to purchase the better drinks, and lives are sacrificed because of this law. We realize it will be difficult to wipe this law from the Constitution, because of the graft it creates. Money seems to rule the country and this law provides the biggest graft of all our rackets. Instead of all these arguments, we should be given a direct voice on the question and be permitted to vote on it. The law was a war measure and was made law at a time when the voting power of the United States was in Europe or away from home. Ten years is a long enough trial for any law, so why not give us the right to say what we feel? This law becomes more dangerous in all ways to the welfare of our country daily. We must demand action. ROBERT HANSON. 839 North Capitol avenue. Editor Times —Members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Marion county feel tha% the time has come when the Christian people of Indianapolis should take action, and in some way bring to bear an influence great enough to prohibit any more marathons of any kind whatever being held in this city. The marathon being held in Cadle tabernacle is a fact to be deplored by any right-thinking citizen. The members of this organization believe that leisure time should be used for constructive recreation, and should not be wasted. A marathon of any nature is surely time wasted. MARION COUNTY W. C. T. U. Mrs. Alonzo Huls. Corresponding Secretary. Editor Times—Answering Mrs. Glasingame: Sony, but you're wrong again. lam a mother. One son is a senior m high school, one is in the eighth grade, an only girl is in the third and I have a 20-months-old baby. “He needs my help.” Yes, that tgge does], but a real man ail

A Call to Home Fields

very possibly were “hacks” or even “hams.” If there had not been these lesser men to play the roles he wrote, even the bard himself might possibly have lived and gone to his immortality unknown. In the old days of newspaper work all reporters were “hacks” and admitted as much. Being “hacks,” the boys and girls dug for news and covered fires and tried to find out just) who it was who committed the murder. If the day's assignment was to type and edit the weather report, that was all right, too. There was no feeling that English literature had been damaged beyond redemption if somebody on the copy desk snipped a few words out of the introduction or dropped the last ten paragraphs on the floor. But today there is a scene whenever the blue pencil rises. Everybody around the shop remembers that Theodore Dreiser once worked on a paper. Every reporter is using his off-time to write the great American novel. The newspaper is just a way station on the road to Olympus. B B B All Geniuses MANY little magazines of high intent have blossomed for a while and faded. But, mind you,

children and very few ask for charity. Did you ever stop to consider babies need proper nourishment and education? Mothers need medical attention at childbirth; but just such men deny them that right. All he needs is a woman who hands over a pay envelope. I know Satan has many such men who need “ice water.” Besides, if all women took your attitude, where would the next generation come from? Never defend a man who lets his wife work. It only shows his lack of ambition and your lack of toir play toward men and women who sacrifice to raise children, one splendid mother I know keeps seven together on S3O a week. Besides, she is paying for a small home. She is a real woman, a real mother. MRS. CARROLL COLLINS. R. R. 10, Box 269.

| of | / 7\ / Devotion \

TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENT

(Read Lsaiah 35.) Memory verse: “Passing through the valley of weeping they make it a place of springs,” (Psalm 34:6.) MEDITATION Notice the verb. They “make it” a place of springs. They transform their unhappy environment. Their resourceful spirit finds in It some hidden good. The chapter for today is a picture of the way in which an arid land may be transformed into a fruitful place through the coming of anew and victorious spirit. Oscar Wilde tells us a story of an artist who desired to make a statue to “The Pleasure That Abideth.” But there was no bronze in the kingdom except what was in the form of a statue to “The Sorrow That Endureth.” So he melted the statue to the Sorrow that Endureth and used the metal for his statue to the Pleasure that Abideth. This is the task of the spiritual artist. PRAYER Thou great Creator of men's souls, we thank thee for the power of the human spirit to triumph over circumstances and to overcome evil We covet that power for ourselves this day that we may not be easy victims of environment, but may be greater than anything that can happen to us. Amen, . ~

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

not for want of geniuses. The offices of these publications always are cluttered with masters of English prose and poets filled with the divine afflatus. Now the enterprises languish and die for want of “hacks.” There is nobody around the place competent to answer the telephone. And, changing the subject, but retaining the theme of incompetence, I think that most of us are too complacent about men who have been reduced to bread lines. Many are fond of saying, “Oh, it’s no use trying to help people like that. They wouldn’t even want a job if it was offered them. They just won’t and can’t do anything.” Well, suppose that is true of some of them, how did “they” get that way. Somewhere in the system which we have devised for life between the cradle and the cross something went wrong. You and I can not stand up and plead not guilty to the charge of contributory negligence. a tt tt Speculator I MET a man just off the bread line the other day who seemed to me to possess great enterprise. He had devised a profession which is unique as I know. Two thousand had stood up on the line that morning and it was necessary to send the last 500 away emptyhanded. For them no meal tickets remained. I was standing in front of the Little Church Around the Corner which distributed the doles when a wastrel approached and said, “Did you get a ticket, budd;’?” I answered that I had not. Reaching into his pocket he said, “I can let you have one for 12 cents.” He was the first bread line ticket speculator in the city of New York. Mark you, the bargain offered was fair enough. Each ticket called for 20 cents’ worth of breakfast. What amazed me was the extraordinary initiative of the man. I suppose he must have repeated on that line or hastened uptown after being supplied with a meal or an order at some other station. But it must have required some three hours of his time. He was being paid at the rate of 4 cents an hour. This puzzled me and I asked a man out of the line why it wasn’t easier to beg. “You don’t get the idea,” he said. “You gotta have guts and gumption to beg. They haven’t got it.” (Copyright, 1930. bv The Timesi

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APRIL 3, 1930

SCIENCE -BY DAVID DIETZ

Nansen, Dean of Arctic Explorers, Showed Courage That Rarely Has Been Equaled. '~r>AtL Mid broad-shouldered, with white hair and a great white mustache. Sir Fridtjof Nansen, dean of Arctic explorers, looks like one of the famous Vikings of history brought back to life and dressed in modern clothing. America had an opportunity to renew acquaintance with this famous explorer last year, when he traveled through this co>intry on a lecture tour. For convenience, we may divide modem Arctic exploration into three periods. The first, a period in which the Arctic ice and cold usually proved the victor, may be said to have started with the disastrous voyage of Sir John Franklin and ended with that of Greely. The second period, in which Arctic explorers fared better, started with the work of Nansen. Its climax, of course, was the discovery of the north pole by Admiral Peary. This period extended up to 1925, when the first attempt was made to use airplanes in polar search. Nansen represents a link between the old and new: for alhougla G 8 years old. he is planning to make a journey into the Arctic by airship. He plans to use the Graf Zeppelin, the great German ship which circled the globe, for his expedition. B B B The Fram NANSEN was born in Norway at Froen, near Christiania, on Oct. 10. 1851. He studied at the University of Christiania and made h s first trip into the far north to study animal life and physical features of the Arctic ocean at the age of 21. That was in 1882. In 1888, with four companions, he made a trip on skis across Greenland from east to west. This was the first time such a journey had ever been made. On his return from Greenland, Nansen became curator of thq zoological museum of Christiania university. In 1890 he proposed a revolution, ary scheme for crossing the Arctic ocean. His suggestion was that e ship be allowed to freeze in the ice on the belief that it would be carried across the north pole by the east to west drift of the Arctic ice The scheme caused a storm o! discussion in scientific circles anc great opposition was expressed. Bu finally Nansen won out. The Norwegian parliament votet two-thirds of the necessary fund and the balance was made up b; contributions from King Oscar an private citizens. A ship, the Fram—the nam means “Forward”—was constructs for the expedition. It was pomte at the bow and stem and ha sloping sides so that the ice instei of crushing it would slip bencai it and lift it out of the water. The Fram sailed from Christiam on June 24, 1893. Nansen, of courj, headed the expedition. Otto Svedrup was sailing master. On Set. 22 the Fram was frozen in and tie long drift across the Arctic ce began. By March 14, 1895, the ship lad reached latitude 84 degrees. B B B Courage CONVINCED that the ship wtuld continue to drift across theice, Nansen, with one companion, Johansen, left the ship and started with dog-sleds to the north pde. Such courage and self-conficfcnce rarely has been equaled. Once Pansen and his companion were out of sight of the ship, they could never hope to find it again. The ship would continue to drift to the west. An attempt to find the ship again in the great Arctic field of ice would be like looking for a needle in a. haystack as, large as the Woolwortft building. By April 8, Nansen and his companion had reached latitude 88 de-. grees 14 minutes, the farthest non ft reached to that date. When Nansen and his companion felt they dared push no farther north because of the lateness of the season, they headed for Franz Josef land. They were forced, however, to spend the Arctic winter, the long Arctic nlfht, on Frederick Jackson island. Here they lived in a little hut which they had constructed, subsisting on the meat of animals which they had shot. At the end of the winter they pushed south once more and finally met the members of another expedition. the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. with whom they returned to Norway on Aug. 13, 1896.