Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 297, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 April 1930 — Page 4

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The Prosecutor The office of prosecutor for this count} is important one. to the hands of a tool of a political machine it might easily become the means of selling immunity to criminals. In the hands of an inefficient and secretly controlled man, it can become the instrument of injustice and of failure of justice. The present Drosecutor asserts quite boldly that the reason the attorneys of the city are against him is the fact that he has refused to hx cases for lawyers. That is a serious charge. It needs, however, some amplification and there should be demand for parIf lawyers have tried to fix cases, they should be disbarred. If lawyers have secretly pleaded for favors lor criminals, they should be exposed. It is difficult to see how the bar association can remain idle under such a public statement from a public official, inasmuch as it reflects on the Integrity of the entire profession. If there are lawyers who are trying to fix casts, and Prosecutor Stark says that he is opposed because lie refused to listen to their pleas, then these lawyers must be driven from the profession. The presen. prosecutor can do no greater public service and uinish no greater proof of his fitness, than to name these men by name, to tell what cases they tried to fix, to take all citizens into his confidence as to when and where he protected justice by his refusal to comply with such requests. This city and county needs no lawyers who try to defeat justice by protecting criminals whom they know to be guilty. Specially is there no need of any lawyer who tries to bribe, coerce or cajole a public prosecutor from the olain path of duty. The Times Is not convinced that the best interests of the people lies in a dynasty founded on either a real or pretended hate of Coffinism. The limes has fought Coffinism and will continue to fight it, 'n whatever form and in whatever party it appears. But it does not believe that mere opposition to Coffin, the boss, without opposition to what Coffinism stands for, is the perfect pica for confidence. In the coming campaign. The Times would very much like to sec two candidates for office who have no secret alliances and who possess qualifications for the job. It would like to see a man in that office who has courage enough not only to disregard the whispers of secret influences but to those who try to beguile him from his duty. The test is easy Prosecutor SUirk has made the open charge that lawyers oppose him because he has refused to listen to illicit pleas. What lawyers? What cases? When? If Prosecutor Stark gives the names, the dates, the cases, he will be entitled to consideration. Unless he docs, it is difficult to see how the bar association can refrain from demanding specifications. Perhaps the primary campaign can be useful in driving iiom the profession the unfit or in exposing bhifTeis. Quite incidentally, it may be remembered that when all the politically fearful were trembling and cowering betore the Watson presidential fake, Lawrence Henderson, the Republican opponent of Stark, bad the courage to head the Hoover campaign. That took more than courage. It took conscience which is always a guarantee.

Taking the Kellogg Pact laterally Preaching in the First Congregational church of Washington, the distinguished Baltimore cleigyman. Dr. Peter Ainslie. asserted that “there is no more justification for being a chaplain in the army or navy than there is for being a chaplain in a speakeasy.’’ What the reverend doctor had in mind, quite obviously, was that a real Christian should act in a manner consistent with his public pretensions. In short, he should practice what he preaches. Ihe same duty devolves upon a Christian nation. His reasoning was the following: War is outlawed in spirit by the Kellogg pact. Armies are not needed except to '•arry on war. Protection of citizens in time of peace ran be secured through federal marshals and state police. Liquor is outlawed by the eighteenth amendment.. Speakeasies exist only to vend this p:o----hibited liquor. Therefore, an army violates the spirit of the Kellogg pact quite as much as a speakeasy violates the spirit of the eighteenth amendment. Legally speaking, the Baltimore pastor's analogy is not watertight. The Kellogg pact does not explicitly outlaw war. It only renounces it as an instrument of national policy. The eighteenth amendment does outlaw specifically the commercial sale of alcoholic beverages. Neither armies nor speakeasies are outlawed directly by pact or amendment. In a moral sense, however. Dr. Ainslie is on firm ground. Standing armies and navies are as flagrant a challenge to the spirit of the Kellogg pact as the most flossy and pretentious night club is to the cause of prohibition. His only error lies in taking a human —especially a political—pronouncement too literally. It is quite useful at times, however, to have such a man appear on the scene. It serves to bring out clearly the vast gulf between the form and the substance of public pretense. Dr. Ainslie s frankness is a subtle commentary upon President Hoover s hailing the outcome of the London disarmament conference as being in accord with the spirit of the Kellogg pact. The estimable New York Herald-Tribune misses the point ar.d tries to represent Dr. Ainslie as opposed to having r he boys in blue and khaki preached to. It brands his statement as “blatantly outrageous.” a slanderous remark.” “a preposterous and insulting belief.” Dr. Ainslie undoubtedly wants the army and navy to have the ministrations of the Christian religion. He also would doubtless like to see a chaplain in every speakeasy. He merely was recommending consistency as a Christian virtue. Pittsburgh Awards a Prize In Pittsburgh there are many mansions. Civic spirit stimulates competition for refinements of luxury, comfort and beauty in home design. Such competition is wholesome in a community, for the home, as we are reminded so often, is the keystone of the social structure, the index of industry, thrift, patriotism and stability. Seeking to encourage this powerful constructive force, the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce recently set up a professional committee, headed by the president of the American Society of Architects, to select the best example of residential architecture in the vicinity. A rich bronze marker was designed for the fcgrize home. viewing hundreds of sketches and photographs, the committee decided on a charming oneory suburban structure .with a ti&teiied rqpf and

The Indianapolis Times (A SCBIPI’fc-HOWAKD NEWfePAPEK) Owned aod published daily (except Sunday! by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cp., 114-220 West Maryland -treet, Indianapolis. Ind. Price In Marion County, 2 rents a cpy : elsewhere. 3 rents delivered by carrier. 12 cents a wept. BOVI) GURLEY. BOY W. HOWARD. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor President Business Manager PHONE—KI ley S.VU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1930. Ve,liber of I nited 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”

many gables. It was a picture reminiscent of an eighteenth century English countryside, with leaded windows overlooking a garden of restful hues and soothing fragrance. A trim white roadway swept gracefully to the door. Stone chimneys sent fragile omens of fireside tranquillity curling into the cool trees. A personal inspection of the picturesque spot con- • inced the committee beyond question that this building exemplified the highest arts of the home builder. It was voted the prize. True it was. as the committee itself noted, the place was not in fact a residence. It was a stable* But a stable, we learned from Webster, may be either “a house, shed or building.” And how could a committee strangle over definitions before an exhibit manifestly without a rival for the prize? Soon the SIOO bronze will be imbedded in the walls of Rolling Rock stables, the barn on the celebrated country place of the Mellon family at Ligonier. It snould be disarming to critics of our wealth and power thus to be reminded that despite the pass’ng of the horse there has been no corresponding decline in residential architecture.

Our Victims When the last charred body from the Ohio state penitentiary fire is counted—the number is above 300 and still mounting—will the public forget? When all the stories are told of heroic convicts who gave their lives to rescue others, and readers are thrilled no more with the horror of that wild night when 5.000 men fought behind molten bars, then will the public forget? When the official investigations and alibis are finished. will the public forget? For the people of Ohio, like the people of other states, share a heavy responsibility for the conditions causing these tragedies. In the long series of prison revolts during the last few years—such as the recent ones in Colorado, Kansas, New York and Rhode Island —one factor has been common to all. That is overcrowding and -the evils connected with it. Wc cage our offenders like beasts, but we deny them the care we give animals in a zoo. And in those close crowded cells the wrecks of men become beasts indeed. Maddened and driven by hopelessness, they welcome death by an uneven fight with guards or by firing the prison. Ohio state penitentiary was like that. Here is the recent indictment of the place made by the National Society of Penal Information, after a careful investiation: "The ancient plant at the state penitentiary in Columbus, one of the largest prisons in the country, suffers from a condition of overcrowding worse than than in any other large prison . . . not only can Columbus not care for an increased population, but it already is too large a prison to be operated on any other lines than those of blanket treatment. "Even with the completion of the present building program, it will be able to care for its present population only under conditions that fall far below accepted modern standards for housing prisoners.’’ Why this overcrowding in Ohio and in practically all other prisons, state and federal? Among many reasons, one stands out Prohibition and crimes connected with it have been filling the prisons to overflowing. This charge is not made simply by wet extremists. It is a fact attested by virtually all official and semi-official penal studies made during the last decade. Attorney-General Mitchell just has testified to a congressional committee that an increase in prohibition sentences has created such prison conditions that not even rapid and large scale paroles can relieve the overcrowding. He said prohibition prosecutions could not be further increased until prison space was extended. For such conditions there is no excuse. As long as this country continues the folly of prohibition, a minimum of decency requires that adequate prisons be provided for the army of criminals created by it. Why is this not done, when the need has been demonstrated so often? Is it hypocrisy which refuses to admit this price of prohibition; is it stinginess of the wealthiest nation in the world; or is it callousness to the fate of the men we condemn to these dungeons? Better that men should be executed outright than forced to exist in the hell that is many prisons today. Who can blame them for choosing probable death in these repeated revolts, massacres and fires?

REASON By F LAND?S CK

PRESIDENT HOOVER S speech before the Daughters of the American Revolution insisting that this country enter the w-orld court, precipitates the greatest battle he ever has known and it may involve far-reaching sequences. 808 The President's address overlooked the milk in the cocoanut of the present controversy, w-hich is that the Root formula surrendered the senate reservation which denied the world court the right to render an advisory opinion on any matter in w-hich w-e were interested. 808 ACCORDING to the opinion of almost everybody. the Root formula is an abject surrender, it providing that if we do not want the court to render an opinion on any matter, we then may get out of the court. Instead of being a reservation, this Is a club, pure and simple. s st a If this institution were just a court, there would be little opposition to it. though there now is at The Hague a court of international justice, equipped to do all the international business we are w-illing to permit any court to do. e 8 b FOR instance, Japan might want the court to render an opinion as to whether our act. excluding Japanese, is calculated to promote world harmony, and on that proposition we do not care what foreign nations think, for that's our own business. a a b When Mussolini might desire an opinion as to whether the court thought it right for us to restrict Italian immigration he having been displeased vastly by our restrictions, and if we should not want the court to pass judgment on us for such restriction, we could get out of the court. ** <r a u If that's v.bat this institution means, we should stay out, for we intend to run this country without any advisory opinions from any other country under the sun. The more the average American sees of foreign governments, the less he thinks of their devotion to pqaea. S’or instance, this ooeferenc*

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! M. E. Tracy |i— SAYS: The People of Several States | Will Go Right on Risking the Same Prison Conditions as Ohio Did, in Spite of Disaster Warning. OHIO either will build a newpenitentiary or reconstruct the old one along modern lines. It will cost Just as much as it would have before the fire occurred. That is the most regrettable feature of the tragedy in which more than three hundred trapped convicts lost their lives at Columbus. No matter what is brought out by the investigation, and no matter whom, or how many, are singled out for punishment as partially responsible, the real cause of trouble was public negligence. Whether the fire w-as set, or whether it started accidentally, it | could not have resulted in any such los. of life if the buildings had been constructed properly. Nor can their conditior be excused on tfie plea of ignorance, or lack of means. Ohio soon will prove that she knows how to build a penitentiary and can raise the money, now that she has been shocked into action. a a a Ignore the Lesson THE saddest part of this sad business consists in the fact that the people of Ohio are neither jas poor nor as ignorant as this avoidable horror suggests. Saddest of all is the fact that the people of several other states will go right on risking the same thing, in spite of this warning. What is it that causes us to take such useless chances with our own and other men’s lives? Considering the vast amounts of money we spend for comparatively unimportant things, why do we withhold what is needed to put such institutions as prisons, schools and asylums beyond the reach of fire? u Congress is about to enact a tariff bill which experts say will cost the. people of this country $1,000,000,000 a year, on the theory that certain industries need protection. One billion dollars a year soon would make every public institution fireproof, but somehow the kind of protection that involves has failed to arouse our interest. Not that we are inhuman, or unkind by nature, but that we have become infatuated with business as we call it, with the idea of how to make more money on the one hand, and how to save more on the other. B tt B Alibi Falls Flat IT is bad enough that so-many of us must live in firetraps, even though we easily can get out if occasion requires, but it is unthinkable that we should cage our fellow beings, and then expose them to that danger. We could alibi ourselves, of course, by saying that it is the business of public officials to look after such matters, if we did not talk so much about the necessity of a wide-awake public opinion in other respects. In a country like ours, public officials keep their ears close to the ground, and if they don’t hear something with regard to a certain subject, they soon get the idea that they are at liberty to let it alone.

Asa matter of lact, thousands of Ohio citizens have visited the penitentiary at Columbus and know from first-hand knowledge just what kind of ramshackle structure it was. Did they get excited about it? Did they wr u e letters to the Governor, or their representatives? In a few instances, perhaps, but to no such extent as they should, as they could, or as was necessary to get action. Thousands of Ohio citizens truthfully can say, “I told you so,” or “anybody with sense knew that something of the sort was bound to occur.” Thousands of citizens in other states are content to tolerate a similar situation, with similar indifference. That is the real cause of these avoidable horrors. u u a We'll Forget Again A FEW days of glaring headlines. a few sob sister stories, and we’ll all sink back into the state of coma which seems to becloud our faculties when it comes to preventing obvious trouble in obvious ways. We shall continue to work and converse with regard to safety, but largely as safety promises new 1 business for those who manufacture traffic lights, or similar devices. We're strong for the kind of improvement that goes with innovations, and especially if it provides new- jobs. But the idea of just rebuilding an old structure to make it fireproof, or sanitary, seems too commonplace for an advertising drive, a political campaign, or even an entertaining convention. It takes the death of 300 or 400 human beings under peculiarly revolting circumstances to make us realize that such idea really is worth while.

Times Readers Voice Views

Editor The Times—l have always voted the dry ticket, but the mess that the government has gotten into in the liquor business is perfectly disgusting to any law-abiding citizen, and there is no possible chance for It to get any better. Every move the government ever has made to curtail the sale of liquor has made it worse, until today we are the laughing stock of the world. Cut oft the graft and place good liquor where it can be obtained by those that need it for medicinal purposes. J. P. JACKSON. 454 East Washington street.

It Does Seem to Be Shrinking!

i 1 1 ‘ ABOUT AS FAR* j

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Infantile Paralysis Still a Puzzle

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN. Editor. Journal of the American Medical Association, and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. THE most dangerous and most crippling of disorders affecting children today is infantile paralysis. The health section of the League of Nations finds that this disease has an average death rate for all forms from 12 to 13 per cent. Apparently the viruk. ee of the germ increases during epidemics and more cases are likely to be found and properly diagnosed at that time than in the absence of epidemic conditions. Apparently the disease does not frequently attack people living in hot countries. In the north the disease reaches its highest point in August and September, an.l in the southern half of the world between December and May. The exact cause of infantile

IT SEEMS TO ME , ™ D

NOT very many men are willing to give sufficient credit to luck for the large share it has played in their lives. And this is particularly true of successful men. They resent the factor of mere chance. When luck is allowed to come in by the door, the ego flies out of the window-. Every now and then some young man or woman comes to ask me how to get on a newspaper. It is usually a young man or woman who wants to be a dramatic critic or a columnist. That makes it harder. And when I answer that they must not expect too easy a job in the beginning and that it takes a lot of training to be a columnist, they look at me in surprise. ‘‘Training to be a columnist!” they exclaim incredulously, I don’t blame them. ana • Self-Evident Truth AS A matter of fact, I ought to be a great deal more honest and blurt the truth right out. Maybe I woudn’t be talking for other columnists, but, as far as I’m concerned, it was the breaks which got me the jot and practically nothing else. If you don’t mind I would like to tell you the story of my life? You object? You say it sounds boring? Quite possibly, but if you refuse the necessary permission I shall immediately launch into a long essay on unemployment. I seem to catch a nod of assent to the autobiographical proposition. In the beginning I was a copy reader. It w-as not much of a job on the particular paper which employed me, but then I wasn’t much of a copy reader. My process was simple. When the head of the desk said ‘‘chop 400 words out of that story,” I’d just lop off the last 400. That was much the easiest way, but it did make some pretty queer endings in the stuff printed in the paper the next day. I remember one wound up, “Mrs. Grovenor said, ‘I wish to make a statement to the readers of the New York Tribune.’” ana The Evil Eye AND then, after a little while, the dramatic critic died, so they made me dramatic critic. And then the book critic got sick. He did eventually recover, but he had to go aw-ay for a couple of years and to they made me book reviewer. Right at the jump something happened that helped me out a lot as dramatic critic. I saw a play in w-hich tffiss Ethel Barrymore appeared and I didn’t think it was a good play. And I didn't think Miw

paralysis has not been determined, although its manifestations in the body are so definite as to be fairly easily recognized. It is believed by many that the organism which causes the disease exists in nature and attacks the human being when conditions becorrte right from the point of view of temperature, barometric pressure and similar factors. It has been urged that the organism can be transferred through milk or through water, but even this evidence is not well established. In practically every instance there seems to be a relationship of the contact with the patient with someone who has had the disease or with a member of the family of someone who has had the disease. However, in many instances the disease occurs in families in which none of the other members of the family gets infantile paralysis, even though exposed.

Barrymore gave a very good performance. She said, "All the critics liked me but one, who I understand is a baseball reporter.” And she went on to say. “Os course, baseball is a great game and our national sport and all that, but there is a good deal of difference between the diamond and the drama, is there not?” That was a lucky break for me.

RPpjSSSfa* hMTHe 8 -

SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTH April 23 ON APRIL 23, 1564, William Shakespeare, English poet and dramatist, was bom at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It is probable that Shakespeare attended a free grammar school at Stratford and later was employed as an attorney’s clerk. But this is as theoretical as the story that he was a wild young fellow, stealing deer. In 1582 he married Ann Hathaway, by whom he had three daughters. Four years later he went to London, where he became joint proprietor of the Blackfriars theater. He accumulated money enough in his theatrical enterprises to be able to buy considerable property in Stratford. Shakespeare wTote and produced most of h:s plays between the ages of 26 and 40 some or all of them being performed before the royal court. The histories and comedies were written before his thirtieth birthday and the tragedies before his fortieth. The whole world now recognizes Shakespeare as a c-eative genius unique in all literature. “In imagination, fancy, knowledge of man, wisdom, humor, pathos, strength, ana versatility, in the music of his verse, and the felicity of his language, and also in that mysterious power w-hich fuses all these separate gifts into one, he stands unapproached and apparently unapproachable.”

Daily Thought

If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.—Job 10:14. Let guilty men remember their black deeds do lean on slender reeds. —John Webster. Is Singapore in China? No. It is an island in the Straits settlements and is a British crown colony. .. —aa

It is established quite certainly that a virus is responsible for the disease, that this virus is located in the upper portions of the nose and throat, and that it has a specific affinity for the nervous system, which causes it to reduce the paralysis that is the most signficant symptom in infantile paralysis. Since neither the exact cause of the disease nor the means by which it is spread is known definitely, the prevention of infantile paralysis is an extremely difficult problem. Attempts have been made to inoculate against the disease with a form of the organism that has been alleged to have causative relationship and with the blood of persons who have recovered from the disease. At present, the latter method seems to be the one most in favor as a means of preventing the disease, or as a means of control in cases when seen early.

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

You see, baseball writers all over the country resented it. They wrote pieces saying that baseball writers knew a lot more than dramatic critics. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that were true. Anyhow, it gave me that invaluable thing called publicity. a a a Reward of Indolence AND I had luck as a book re-view-er because after a week or so I got terribly tired of reading books and I came down with space to fill and no book to write about. I didn’t know then that it is possible to review- a book even if you haven’t read it. And so in my desperation, I sat down and wrote something about a dog I knew, and a child and a farm and that w-ent a lot better than any of the book reviews I ever wrote. The space I filled was called “Books and Things,” but after a very little while whole months went by and not a book would be mentioned. It was just "things.” I had become by sheer accident a columnist and once you get to be a columnist there’s no cure. It gets in your blood. You’re not good for anything else. (Copyright, 1930. for The Times)

The Price of Safety *3 a Year and Up Do you realize how dangerous it is to have your will, the deed to your home, your insurance policies, stock certificates, bonds and other valuable papers unprotected ? Kent one of our Safe Deposit Boxes and eliminate all risks. All boxes rented before May Ist will be billed as of July 1. FARMER* TRItfTCO I ISO EAST MARKET ST.

.APKiL 20, ItfdO

SCIENCE —BY DAVID DIETZ

Eclipse of Sun Next Week Will Be One of Three Visible in This Country in Next Forty Years. / T'HE eclipse of the sun on April 1 28 will be one of three to be seen in the United States during the next forty years. • The second of the three will occur in two years, on Aug. 31, 1932. Then there will be a long wait. No other eclipse of the sun will’ b< visible as a total eclipse in the United States until March 7, 1970. An eclipse of the sun is visible as a total eclipse only in a narrow path over which the shadow of the moon passes. This path is known as the eclipse track. In the April 28 eclipse, this track will be less than a mile wide and will extend from a point north oi San Francisco to Twin Bridge, a town thirty-five miles soutn o; Butte, Mont. The path oi the 1932 eclipse will be wider. It will pass across Canada, entering the United States at Dixviile Notch, N. H. It will cross New Hampshire and Maine, passing out over the Atlantic ocean, at a point south of Portland, Me. Astronomers calculate that the track of the 1970 eclipse will be chiefly over Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. It, however, will cut across Florida. tt B B Canon Owe, oi tne most remaraabie books in the world is a publication titled "Canon Der Flnsternisse’’—"Canon of Eclipses.” It contains the elements— the “dope,” as a racetrack fan would phrase it—for all the eclipses between the years 1207 B. C, and 2162 A. D. No less than 8,000 solar eclipses and 5,200 lunar eclipses are described in the book. The approximate tracks of all the solar eclipses are included on a series of maps. The author was Professor T. R. Oppolzer and the bok was published in 1887 by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. The calculation of an eclipse is not a simple matter, although astronomers will tell you that the calculation of a lunar eclipse is not complicated. The layman safely may interpret this remark merely to mean that It is very much more difficult to calculate a solar eclipse than it is a. lunar eclipse. An eclipse of the moon occurs when the earth gets between ti* sun and the moon. The moon then is immersed in the shadow of the earth. At the distance of the moon, the earth’s shadow has a much larger diameter than does the moon. An eclipse of the moon is visible from every point within one hemisphere of the earth. One astronomical calculation is sufficient to give the time of a lunar eclipse. Each observer need only make the correction which his longitude calls for from Greenwich time to have the exact time of the eclipse for his station. tt a v Orbits AN eclipse of the sun is caused by the moon getting between the earth and the sun. It is total only along the narrow track where the cone-shaped shadow of the moon sweeps over the earth. It will be seen at once, therefore, why the calculation of a solar eclipse is very much more difficult. An eclipse of the moon can occur only at the time of full moon and an eclipse of the sun can occur only at new moon. This is because it is only at, full moon that the moon is on the other side of the earth from the sun and directly opposite it. The time of new moon is the only time when the moon is on the same side of the earth as the sun and in the same direction. The question which arises at on re is why there is not an eclipse of the moon at every full moon and an eclipse of the sun at every new moon. The reason is that the plane of the earth's orbit is tilted at an angle of about 5 degrees to the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. In addition, the points where the moon’s orbit crosses the earth’s, known as the nodes, constantly are shifting toward the west. An eclipse can happen, therefore, only if the moon is at one of the nodes at the time of new or full moon. Then the sun, earth and moon are all in one straight line. Otherwise, they are not. How did the name penknife originate? From the fact that formerly such knives were carried to sharpen quill pens.