Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 299, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 April 1930 — Page 8

PAGE 8

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11 *r pp . *hnwam t>

A Day of Miracles That Senator Arthur Robinson is shocked may not he news. But when the people of Indiana learn that Arthur is shocked because some “wicked wet talked of prohibition to a supreme court judge, that is news and real news. It would be bigger and more interesting news to discover just when the conscience of the senator became so keen as to detect impropriety in attempting to get into the back doors of supreme courts and to swerve their opinions and judgments by the whisper of power. The people have not forgotten the testimony in a most famous case in this state when the head of the Anti-Saloon League was in danger, grave danger, of being sent to jail for contempt. It remembers the letters and the evidence of Senator .Tames Watson to the effect that Robinson had approached him at Washington. told him of the danger, and asked him what could be done to soften the judgment of the court and save Dr. Shumaker from jail. The case had been argued. The issues were closed. There remained nothing but the verdict, and at that time Robinson went to the guileless Watson with the proposal that, as senators, they try to do something to change a verdict which Robinson feared. The people remember also that Watson testified that he fell for the temptation and sent many letters to the state which he hoped would have the effect that Robinson desired. Later, Watson said that the letters did not go to the judges, but to the personal friends of Arthur Gilliom, then attorney general in the hope that these friends would induce the legal officer of the state from departing from what he had hitherto supposed to be his plain duty. Then there was the latter episode that is embalmed in the records of the supreme court when Robinson, from his own home, called Watson on the telephone and paved the way for the same plea of use of political influence upon judges in this case. Well, a man can’t be wrong all his fife. Perhaps Robinson has made progress. He is certainly right now when he deplores political interference with courts. And who shall say that when Arthur is shocked by even the suspicion of such an effort, the days of miracles are over? A Tree-Planting Program In 1932 the nation will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Natural - ],. the celebration will take a lot of forms: one of the best that we have heard of thus far is the proposal of the American Tree Association, which hopes to see 10,000.000 memorial trees planted in the United States between now and Feb. 22, 1932. The American Tree Association has fought valiantly. for many years, to get the American public to understand the importance of reforestation measures. Tire bicentennial program it just has announced should give this cause a great impetus. Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the association, has this to say of it: "George Washington was a woodsman and a tree planter. His diary contains repeated references to the value of trees and their care. Great programs are being put under way bv the bicentennial committee. The tree planting is a thing the individual can do. Thus he can have a real part in the celebration. Tragedy for Whom? Three hundred twenty-one prisoners at the Columbus state penitentiary are dead at the last count. One hundred fifty others are likely to die from their burns and injuries to their internal organs from fire and smoke. This is proclaimed the worst prison calamity in history. The nation is appalled. We naturally regret the holocaust. It was a terrible scene of horror and anguish. But we congratu- } *e the dmarted and their friends and relathes. We are sorry for the 4.500 survivors. They would have been better off if they also had perished. We are not recommending cremation as the desirable technique for solving the American, prison prob* lem. Yet we can not find it in our hearts to regret that some 300 convicts are at the end of their earthly misery. They endured a few minutes of intense terror and suffering. Now they are at rest forever. If they nad survived. 90 per cent or more would, with brief intervals of freedom, have rotted in prison until death overtook them. The death of 500 prisoners, even by the terrible route of fire and suffocation, is no tragedy compared to the state of the nearly 200.000 men. women and children who are enduring a living death in our prisons, reformatories, reform schools, houses of correction and jails. These unfortunate and misguided human beings are confined like animals in steel cages. All their natural forms oi life expression are blocked or curtailed. Normal sex life is wholly shut off. They live in stench and filth. They inhabit vermin-infested cells. Two and three persons are often crowded into fells too small for decent habitation by one. At Columbus 4,500 men were herded in quarters built to house 1.900. They eat insufficient, poorly cooked, inferior and often rotter or wormy food. They are brutally treated by prison guards and exploited by the convict favorites of the prison authorities. This treatment makes most of the convicts worse. They become more competent and embittered criminals as a result of their confinement. They are turned out under conditions which make their return to prison almost inevitable. It is no wonder that Dr. Glueck found that 85 per Cent of those discharged from the Concord reforma-

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tory continued their criminal careers. The percentage is higher in the state penitentiaries. The great majority of those in prison are destined to spend most of their lives in these great torture chambers of stone, brick, concrete and steel. Therefore, any special prison tragedy, such as the burning or drowning of a few hundred convicts in any particular penitentiary, is but a passing triviality compared to the great and permanent tragedy of the American prison system. The chief educational value of such a staggering spectacle as the Ohio cremation is the opportunity it affords to point out that we overlook a much worse horror quietly going on its somber way under our very eyes year after year. We do not demand the coddling of prisoners. We only ask an understanding attitude, sensible treatment and habitable quarters. Until then the worst thing that can befall the average convict is the opportunity to go on living. The Wrong System One of the results oi the present turmoil at meetings of the board of prison trustees should be the re-establishment of a parole and pardon board not composed of trustees. A separate board composed of men whose chief interest is the reformation of prisoners and the restoration to society of those who demonstrate fitness to return to it should be established by the next legislature. From the time the pardon and parole power was given to prison trustees conditions in the prisons have deteriorated. That is easily understandable. The prison trustees are presumably chosen for their business acumen and ability to conduct the institutions in an economical manner. They are intent, presumably. on the output of prison factories which bring revenue. They are intent on discipline. They naturally incline to hardiness. The change was made to take care of the one noted prisoner of the state during the Jackson regime. The old pardon board was abolished because there was ; a suspicion that at least one of its members might be favorably inclined to him. The result has been far from pleasant. The con- ; ditions at the Michigan City prison are far from per- ! feet. The Governor divulges that a serious outbreak j was narrowly avoided months ago and that the over- j crowded condition at present makes for unrest. A pardon and parole board should be just that, ! It is designed primarily to correct injustices in sen- I tences when technicalities prevent appeal. It is de- j signed also to protect society by applying the indeter- ; minate sentence law in a manner which releases prisoners who show reformation and who can be trusted to return to their homes and productive industry. That the verdicts of the present trustees are faulty at times is the opinion of more than judges and prosecutors who are now the target of criticism by the board. In one case considered this week, a committee of lawyers from Anderson, after reading the evidence, declared that the conviction for murder had been brought about by the influence of the Klan in the days of its power. One board member declared that if the evidence proved anything, it was manslaughter. Yet the man is serving a life sentence. Anew pardon board should be one of the first acts of the next legislature. The time to prevent j such disasters as have occurred in other prisons is j before they happen. The railroad official who predicted American tourists would leave a sum of $303,000,000 in Canada this slimmer may have occasion to revise his statistics now that a, man in Lowell, Mass., has been found drunk for the 127th time. A senatorial candidate in Texas warns to give every poor man a cow. And if he should attain some influence they'd call him Big Bossy. A California man grew tired of his name and changed it simply to Stuart X. But what will his madame say? An obstinate child, say psychologists, may be a genius. Most parents will be happy to hear this.

REASON

IF you famish for publicity, say something so rash it would,— give gooseesh to the Wild Man from Borneo, and publicity will be yours. And so, the Rev, Peter Ainslie of Baltimore declares there is no more reason for being a chaplain in the army or navy than for being a chaplain in a speakeasy. x tt tt If there be any virtue in spiritual consolation those who perform civilization's perilous duties need it more and deserve it more than those who sit down to eat ' civilization’s fruits in safety. a u tt Ainslie s words may apply to armies, formed to plunder and oppress, but it so happens that all the. armies which have escorted Old Glory to the field of battle, with the possible exception of the army which fought the Mexican war, have fought for liberty and the preservation of the country. u a tt SURELY this anointed one does not mean to say that the RaggaC Continentals who froze to death at Valley Forge were engaged in a business as low as that of the bartender in a blind tiger, and if he does he should have the decency to get out of the land for which these martyrs died. tt B tt We trust tills gentle soul does not mean to class with racketeers those mountaineers from Kentucky and Tennessee who stood with Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, fighting to finish what the Revolutionary war had left undone, for those men with their squirrel rifles did more for human progress than Ainslie could do, should he spout ten billion years. tt tt tt CERTAINLY this pious spirit does not class as rum gangsters those who fought to lift the clutch of Spain from starving Cuba, for we not only made Cuba free and fed her; we gave her a bath, chased out the yellow fever and pledged her protection forever. That’s more Golden Rule business than Ainslie ever will do. if he lives longer than Methuselah. tt a a And we sincerely hope that Ainslie in his pure white robes may find it possible not to class with common bootleggers the thousands who died in the great World war. In his perfection, we devoutly trust that he may be able to find some suggestion of a service, worthy of his commendation in that wilderness of white crosses to which American Gold Star mothers now make their solemn pilgrimage.

Rv FREDERICK LANDIS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy

SAYS:

Things Have Come to a Pretty Pass When the Second City in America Must Adopt the Way of Hoodlumism to Quell Its Gangsters. O PEAKING of civil liberty, the , Chicago police department will | organize a hoodlum squad to harass and arrest twenty-eight citizens j whom it designates not only as j “gangsters,” but “public enemies." Appealing as such method may be, j because of its probable effective- j j ness, it still puts a strained inter- i pretation on that principle of law : by which people are presumed inno- | cent until they have been proved j guilty. Also, it seems to ignore the constitutional provision that no person , shall be “deprived of life, liberty or j property, without due process ofj law.” If Scarface A1 Capone, George (Bugs) Moran and the otfier twentysix are guilty of conduct which jus- ! titles their being named as public | enemies, why haven’t they been ap- ! prehended and brought to book in a | proper way? Things have come to a pretty pass. I ' when the second city in America j ; openly and officially admits that the ; : only way it can cope with a hand- ; ful of obstreperous individuals is by 1 adopting the ways of hoodlumism. tt n tt

No Drinking With Ford r I 'HE Ford Motor Car Company will discharge any employe who is caught drinking, or who reports for work with the aroma of forbidden joy attaching to his person, which is the Chicago doctrine privately administered. The idea of law enforcement through extra-legal methods, whether adopted by a community or a commercial enterprise, is not particularly new. People have resorted to it, for one reason or another, ever since the conception of social order came into being. Sometimes It. is born of a des- j perate situation, as the Chicago authorities probably would argue, and sometimes of moral conviction, as would seem to be the case with the Ford company. an n Enjoys Quiet Life JOHN HENRY SCHOENHARDT of New Orleans has taught in the same school fifty-one years, and S still finds jcy in it. “God has been good to me,” he ! says, “The even tenor of my life has been undisturbed. Os all my .six children and many grandchil- : dren, not one has died. There has j been nothing spectacular in my j career.” Such careers are rare, and people i who can regard them as pleasant, or profitable, are rarer still. this is of some importance from a philosophical standpoint—when you find a man or a woman who has done one thing well for half a century, without souring on the present, you find the secret of human stability. t> a tt Peep Into Past WHILE Holland builds a dike to reclaim a thousand square miles of land from the sea, Egypt builds a great dam at Assuan to cover a thousand square miles with water, and farming is the object in each case. The land that, Egypt will submerge has been lived on by men for untold generations, wherefore scientists want or.e last look at it before it disappears. An expedition, headed by two English and three native savants, is busily at work with pick and spade among the old cemeteries where people entombed their dead 3,000 year ago. Some will regard this as a waste of time and money, but our ability to make profitable use of the present and provide for a better future depends largely on our knowledge of the past. a a 111 Wind Blows Good SHOCKED by the prison tragedy at Columbus, the United States senate proceeds tc- consider seven bills for improving the federal j penitentiary system. Shocked by the fact that' a Silasian farmer sold his child, the German Reichstag proceeds to consider measures to stop such traffic. Verily, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and just as verily it sometimes takas an ill wind to remind even the greatest legislative bodies of their duty. Still, and in spite of their short- i comings, legislative bodies mark a step forward in civilization, as is proved by the unhappy plight *of countries where they have broken down. In China, they are selling children, not by ones and twos, but by thousands, and there is no power to stop the practice, or the starvation out of which i; grows. In China, too. there is no great demand for prison improvement, be- j cause the economic and political sit- j uation is such as to discourage the taking of prisoners.

Times Readers Voice Views

Editor Times—You always have shown you had plenty of nerve to expose any kind of fraud that came to your attention. The country is faced with the greatest question it ever had. Shall chain store systems keep up their unfair advertisements, and uni fair business methods, or will some j paper that has the nerve come to i the front and expose the facts? W. K. Henderson of Shreveport is doing wonderful work. He has proved there were short packages sold and short weight given. But even if these charges were not true, the chain stores still would be a menace. How long would you hold your job if The Times, the News, and the Star were merged. Someone would have to go, and it might be you. ' The trouble with the country to-

Won’t Someone Tell Hun About It!

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Use of Toilet Water Mav Stain Skin

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. FOR some years specialists in diseases of the skin have been interested in an unusual kind of inflammation. It first was described in 1916 as Berlock dermatitis. It results from application of toilet water to the skin immediately before being exposed to the sunlight. In a recent discussion of the subject, Drs. Paul Gross find Lewis B. Robinson point out that the pigmentation first was noticed as occurring in both men and women who had been exposed to intense

IT SEEMS TO ME

THE justices in New York state's court of special sessions have sentenced four Communist agitators to penitentiary terms which may run as high as three years for.each man. I think this is a serious miscarriage of justice. To be sure, I would not deny that a good technical case was made against the defendants who were accused of inciting to riot. These men were the leaders who defied tne police when Commissioner Whalen refused permission for a move toward city hall in mass. I disagree entirely with such liberals —or radicals who argue that the constitutional right of petition and of assembly means that- any number of men can go at any time by whatever route they choose, to lay their troubles before a duly constituted official. In a city as congested as New York, there must be traffic rules for marchers whether they be pacifists, drys, war veterans. Elks, Methodists or reds. It is a serious offense to defy the authority of the police power when it has given reasonable and duly considered orders. It seems to me that Whalen’s attitude was not unreasonable. He offered to escort a committee to call on the mayor and this offer was refused. B n a Soap Box Fuel BUT I think that any long sentence tc prison should have be-; hind it something more than tech- 1 ical justice. It must be even-hand-ed justice and it also should have within it the savor of expediency. There is no point in handing out penalties which hurt rather than help the community. The court of special sessions inadvertently had given great aid and comfort to the Left Wing radical movement in this country. I might as well say frankly that I’m all against aiding and comforting that crowd. But what are they going to say now? The sentences will be cited from every soap box and the claim will be advanced that American courts are lenient to .certain classes of citizens and savage toward others. And in this case I am sorry to admit that there is something in what they say. Suppose, for instance, the police had been endeavoring to stop a bunch of college boys, fresh from a football victory, from carrying banners and goal posts to lay in Mayor Walker’s lap. Does anybody seriously suppose that three years in jail

day is chain systems. One man is doing what ten did before. They cry volume of buying helps them to sell for less, but when you have volume of business you also have volume of expense. It is true you get a few hundred dollars a week advertising from them, but what is that, compared with the people’s rights and freedom? I believe you have the nerve to expose this menace as it now stands. Hoping to see some articles in your paper on this question. M. F. STAFFORD. f323 West Thirty-first street. What is the home address of Ramon Navorro? It Ls 2265 West Twenty-second street, Los Angeles, Cal.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

sunlight while bathing, and that in every instance the patients had put on eau de cologne just before exposing the skin to the sunlight. In the cases which the newer investigators describe, the results occurred when any perfume had been applied by daubing the stopper of the perfume bottle, according to modern feminine custom, on the ears, the neck and under the arms. They saw brown discoloration of the skin in five cases in which women had put perfume on the skin and had gone out immediately to play golf or to sit in the sunlight. To prove that the use of the perfume had been responsible, they made tests by applying drops of the

HEYWOOD y BROUN

would be given to any leader of such a crowd, even if he did defy the police? Again Commissioner Whalen has shown decided partiality in giving a permit to war veterans to meet in Union Square on May day, as this is the time and placed reserved by tradition for radicals. Moreover, the ex-soldiers purpose to carry guns and sheathed bayonets. There is all kinds of trouble latent in such a demonstration, and the City of New York ought to have precisely the same rule for soldiers as for revolutionary radicals, a o a ‘Your Known Views’ IT will be said by the Communists that Foster, Milnor and the others were sent to jail less for what they did or said on the day of the great commotion, than for what they thought both before and after that event. Nor can the supporting evidence for this contention be lightly brushed aside. Foster and Milnor made the usual sort of speeches just before sentence was pronounced. They* attacked “capitalistic” justice, and so forth. And at this point Justice Mclnemey did a thing which was noto quite bright. The agitators were trying to tempt him into a foolish move and they succeeded. When the Communists declared that the judges had their minds made up even before the trial was held, the dignitary on the bench pounded his gavel and ex-

MARCONI’S BIRTH April 25

ON April 25, 1874, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian electrical engineer famed as the inventor of the wireless telegraph, was bom of an Italian father and an Irish mother at Bologna, Italy. His attention first was drawn to electricty at the age of 13, when he read that Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, had discovered electrical waves which were capable of passing through any substance and of following an undeviating course without need of a wire or other conductor. Foreseeing from this the possibility of sending messages without wires, young Marconi began experiments in his garden until he developed an apparatus for wireless telegraphy. He offered his discovery to the Italian government, but it was refused. He then wrote to Sir William Preece, chief of the British Postal Telegraph Service, and was invited to London. After successfully establishing his .service between England and France and equipping some of the large liners with his apparatus, Marconi came to the United States in 1899. Two years later he succeeded in establishing a wireless telegraphic communication across the Atlantic ocean. When Italy entered the World war. Marconi was placed in charge of his government’s wireless service. In 1909 he was awarded the Nobel prize for physics with Ferdinand Braun.

pi • fume and were able to produce tl, pigmentation in each case. -t is not quite certain just what causes the peculiar reaction. It would appsai to be a combination of circumstances involving the sunlight, some substance in the perfume and something in the body of the person concerned, since perfumes and sunlight are widely used, whereas only an occasional person becomes pigmented. The observation shows, as has been pointed out previously, that the skin is a delicate indicator of the special nature of the human being that it covers It reacts to unusual conditions within and without the body.

(deals and opinions expressed :p this column are those of >ne oi America’s most interesting writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with (be editorial atlUadc cl this paper.—The Editor.

claimed, “I won’t sit here and let anybody insult me and say that I had made up my mind before the trial. “In view of your known views and statements, you’re getting more justice here than you would anywhere else in the world.” This was an exceedingly injudicious admission. It must lend aid and comfort to the propaganda of those who will say that “capitalistic” society wanted to put these Red leadePs away because of their known activities in proselyting for the Communistic state. It seems to me that the views of Minor and Foster wer'fe well beyond the range of Justice Mclnerney’s concern. it a tt Fuel for Fanatics THERE is also the important problem to consider of the sincerity of the defendants. Sincerity is not invariably a complete defense, but a wise bench will take it into consideration. It is an excellent thing to convince even the defendant that he is guilty and this is not a fantastic suggestion. Very often it can be done. But Minor and Foster are a long way from being convinced. They were not acting from motives of petty spite or in the hope of private gain Take my word for it, the Communist crowd honestly believes that the schemes which it favors is the one possible way in which humanity may be relieved from suffering and want. They are fanatics. Fanaticism is no guarantee of gefod judgment. Quite the contrary. Ninety-nine and some imposing fraction out of etary one hundred fanatics are distinctly wrong. But you can’t dissuade them by imposing heavy punishments. (Copyright. 1930, bv The Times)

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/APRIL 25, ll

SCIENCE

BY DAVID DIETZ-

Astronomers Face Task of Exceedingly Great Difficulty in Observations oj Sun Eclipse. F'OR the layman, the eclipse of the * sun on April 28. will be a beautiful ana spectacular event. For the astronomer, it will be. In addition, a moment of extremely important and difficult work. It is not unusual for a member oi an astronomical expedition, which has traveled thousands of miles to observe an eclipse of the sun, not to see the eclipse at all. This will be because he has bee: assigned some particular duty such as reading the scale of some measuring instrument or calling off th; seconds from a chronometer. Asa result, he will focus his entire attention upon the instrument in question. Prior to an eclipse, the astron omers wii weeks setting up their instruments. Then each man is assigned a special duty. Onp man is to take the cap off a photographic telescope. Another man is to expose the photographic plate. A third man is to operate a spectroscope and so on. Before the eclipse occurs, many practice drills are held. Asa result, the members of the expedition are as well trained as the members of a gun crew on a battleship. When the eclipse actually comes, the astronomers are as ready for it as a gun crew going into battle. Each mao knows his station and nis duty. a a >t Precision GREAT precision and accuracy are needed, for many reasons. Most of the observations can be made only during the period of totality, and this is rarely more than a minute and a half long. Frequently it is less than a minute. In addition, some of the most important observations must be made in the second preceding totality and in the second immediately following it. The tripping of the trigger of an astronomical camera a second too soon or too late would spoil the photo. Asa result, the astronomers must handle the photographic plates with the ditspatch of the gun crew handling shells. A jammed photographic plate is as disastrous to the purposes of the expedition as a jammed shell in a big gun to the outcome of a battle. The eclipse of April 28 will be particularly difficult for astronomers to deal with. This is because the period of totality is extremely brief, less than two seconds. In some places it will be only 1.05. A second difficulty is caused by the fact that the eclipse track Ls extremely narrow. The path within which the eclipse will be total is less than a mile wide. This is very unusual. Frequently the track is as much as 100 miles wide. The maximum width which is possible for an eclipse track is 167 miles. Since it is extremely difficult to calculate the track within very exact limits, astronomers can not be certain of setting up their instruments within the path of totality in the case of the coming eclipse. tt a Cameras BECAUSE of the difficulty of calculating the exact path of the eclipse, the Crocker expedition of the University of California plans to set up a number of astronomical cameras. One will be set up at a point which the astronomers calculate is in the center of the eclipse path. Another will be placed about a third of a mile to the north of it and a third about a third of a mile to the south of it. In this way, *t is hoped that if there is any considerable error In the calculations, either the camera to the north or the south will be In the path of totality. In addition, it is planned to send an observer up into the air with a fourth camera. This Ls to take care of the possibility of cloudy weather. An eclipse expedition always faces the danger of having all Its elaborate preparations ruined by clouds. This has happened to which traveled thousands of mile.' to observe an eclipse. The observer in the plane wii make an attempt to get above th' clouds in the event that the weathe; is not clear. Os course, It is no possible to do as good work from t moving plane as can be done wit! instruments firmly mounted on th ground.