Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 131, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 October 1930 — Page 8
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Anti-Trust Laws Efforts of the Armour and Swift packing companies to obtain a modification of their 1920 ‘ consent decree,” renewed this week in District of Columbia supreme court, again will focus attention on the anti-trust laws and their enforcement. The government’s case, with the exception of that against Standard Oil, was probably the most important of its kind ever instituted under the acts. The decree followed an anti-trust suit started in 1919 as the result of a federal trade commission investigation of the “five packets.” The government charged monopolistic control of foodstuffs and pricefixing. The packers agreed to get out of the wholesale grocery business, the retail meat business, to sell holdings In 3tock yards, and made other concessions, to avoid prosecution. But during the last ten years, the packers contend, conditions of production and marketing have undergone material and radical changes, and they arc at a disadvantage They cite the tendency toward mergers in all lines, including foodstuffs and the growth of chain store' Seventy-five thousand chain grocery stores owned by corporations do an annual business of three and a half billions, they assert, which is 40 per cent of all grocery business, and there are in addition 421 voluntary or co-operative chains with 60,000 stores. One big food corporation, an amalgamation of numerous companies, does an annual business of *>I2B,OOO,COG; another of $64,000,000. And these concerns sell meat and meat products. It they were permitted to engage in retail trade and handle unrelated products, competition would be increased, the packers insist with apparent logic, and mass production and distribution would lower consumer prices. Farmers and live stock men favor modification of the decree, the federal trade commission has aocertaincd, and the old hostility of congress to the packers has died down. The government, nevertheless, is resisting modification. This is in line with the policy announced by At-torney-General Mitchell soon after he took office. He said that while the government had no disposition to Interfere with business, his department proposed “to deal vigorously with every violation of the anti-trust laws which comes to its attention until congress abandoned the political philosophy underlj - ing existing laws. The alternative, as he saw it, would be bureaucratic control, which he thought was not an attractive prospect. Since then, several important antitrust suits have been filed. So the department struggles along with a crude ana cumbersome statute, riddled by conflicting court interpretations. The law has not stopped mergeis, and it has few friends. Organized labor, coal operators. the oil men and numerous other groups have advocated its repeal. The public has little interest in it. Even congress is unwilling to support it. The appropriation for Its enforcement is $200,000, the same as twenty-five years ago, although those charged with enforcement are supposed to scrutinize innumerable mergers involving billions and affecting almost every commodity. , 4k Apparently there is nothing for Attorney-General Mitchell to do but go ahead as he is, so long as the law stays on the books. But if the law is to be repealed, or made ineffective through court decisions, or is to be ignored, what, we wonder, is to take its place? Arc we to have unbridled monopoly? Or the Bureaucratic control that Mitchell foresaw? How is the public to be protected? The University of the Air The radio is in its early infancy as an instrument of formal education. Yet it well may produce the greatest educational revolution since man mastered the art of writing—if not since he attained the power of speech. An excellent survey of the status of the radio in education today has been provided by the American Association for Adult Education. This organization has published a timely study made by Professor Lovering Tyson under the title of “Education Tunes In.” Some sixty-two out of more than six hundied licensed broadcasting stations are owned and operated by educational Institutions. More than 15 per cent of aU broadcasting stations are directly engaged in educational work. Some 1.169 educational programs have gone out over the air since Sept. 3, 1929. Schools of the air have been organized on the Pacific coast and in Ohio. And we are only at the beginning. The radio should be a potent instrument in promoting adult education. Such material is supposedly ior adults and does not have to be tempered to children’s minds. There should be a great field here for the tearless dissemination of stimulating and challenging materials. Bit who is going to finance such efforts? Will the manufacturer of toothpaste or electrical appliances be likely to support a course of honest lectures on the special program of Soviet Russia, the tariff, the status and procedure of public utilities or the Mooney-Bill-ings case? - Will educational institutions send out over their broadcasting stations materials more frank and straightforward than that which they permit to be taught in their classrooms? Will state legislatures make appropriations to support lectures on political science which severely attack legislative methods? Can the Reds get a licensed station, and if they did would they permit the free statement of truth when it happened to have a conservative flavor? Merely to ask questions like these is to indicate the inherent difficulties in using the radio as an agency for unhampered adult education. Some of the most pressing of all public questions scarcely can get on the air at all. Take birth-control. Several hundred stations were approached recently as to their willingness to have the theory—not the practice—of birth-control discussed under their auspices. Two responded in the affirmative. A great New York station even refused to broadcast the address given on the subject by Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick. Debates on religion versus science are taboo. Fundamentalists have free range over the radio, but atheists, like Joseph Lewis, would have hard work to get on the air. Admirals ride rough-shod over pacifists in getting assignments. The president of the National Security League has been repeatedly on the air. but how often has W. Z. Foster or Ben Gitlow broadcast to trembling millions? The Constitution has been defended to the point of tears, but who has been permitted to attack it? In short, there has been very little education of an adult variety which has succeeded in "getting by.” The radio puts anew and greater strain upon freedom in education. It has been a rule in colleges and universities that a man could say almost anything within reason if he uttered his words in the secrecy
The Indianapolis Times (A SCBIPfS.HOWAKn MH BPAPEK p uwaed and • üblisbed daily (eicept Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., _>l4-21'0 'Vest Maryland Street, Indianapolis. Jnd Price In Mariou Comity. C cents a copy: elsewhere, 3 cents- delivered carrier, ,2 cents a weepi. BOTH GCRLEX, BOX W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor President Hinlu'M Manager pHONK-KHev 6551 FRIDAY, OCT. 10, 1830. Member of I uited Press. Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service BDd Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own \\£ay.”
of the classroom. Trouble came when he made the newspapers and publicity resulted. But the radio lecture is in itse.f the supreme publicity. Therefore, radio lectures will have to be more directly courageous than college lectures ever have been. Otherwise, the radio will become a tremendous engine of intellectual conservatism and a powerful device for assuring cultural stagnation. The radio lecturer can not hide behind the classroom door or the confidences of his students. Capone and the Court That Chicago judge overlooked a bet when he turned down ambassadors from A1 Capone. It appears the king of the underworld showed a disposition to meet the court on even terms, and sent his representatives to confer with the judge as to conditions under which he would come into court and talk things over. But Judge Lyle sent back word that if A1 wanted to surrender he could appear at the detective bureau. And thus a great opportunity was lost. All King Capone asked was that the judge should send a bailiff to his hangout and escort him back to the courtroom. Considering conditions in Chicago and the free-and-easy manner in which machine guns pop off now and then, can Capone or any other upstanding citizen be blamed for wanting an escort through the loop? Certainly the judge shouldn’t object to making Chicago courts safe for their customers; and when the great Capone himself is willing to condescend to enter a courtroom, if properly escorted, the authorities ought to jump at the chance and provide not only a bailiff, but a brass band, a national guard regiment and drum major with a big hat. II Chicago can’t get Scarface A1 into jail, it certainly ought to be glad, at least, to get him into court. ;tnd no Chicago court ought to get so uppety as to high hat the big town’s best-known citizen. Eight Hours for Women The struggle for decent working hours for women was one of the main currents in the history of nineteenth century humanitarianism. The famous “tenhour bill” of 1844 in England ranks in the new history as a date comparable to Waterloo, Sadowa or Sedan. The European movement for shorter hours for women and children was paralleled by the efforts of humanitarians on this side of the water. Women worked as high as fifteen hours a day in some of the textile factories of New England a century back. The eight-hour day for women long has been on the program of the social economists and leaders of labor legislation. We have come to assume that the goal already has been realized. It is well, therefore, to have our attention called to the realities. This was done by Miss Mary Anderson of the department of labor in her annual message. She points out effectively that we have made only a decent start in the direction of a compulsory eight-hour day for women workers. No state in the Union has legally established the eight-hour day for all men, women and children employed in Industry. Only some twelve states, plus the District of Columbia, can point to a compulsory eight-hour day for women. And even in these states not all occupations are thus protected. Only special classes of women wage-earners are limited to eight hours. Eighteen states allow a working day of ten hours for women. Five permit an even longer day, and five have no legal limitation whatsoever. The old argument for a short working day for women was chiefly humanitarian—to secure health and decency among the workers. Today there has been added a more strictly economic motive. Shorter hours represent the most effective way of combating technological unemployment—that due to the invention of labor-saving devices. Likewise, it is an admirable method of preventing overproduction. Moreover, It promotes sales and prosperity, for the more leisure, the more time for consumption of goods and marketable services, Chess experts would modernize the game with pieces like the airplane, tank and cruiser, but no one yet has suggested substituting a president and first lady for the king and queen.
REASON by ™s ck
THE 1930 baseball world series proves again that the much-heralded “strategy” of club managers is bunk. You would think after reading the sport writers that it took as much generalship to lead a baseball club as it took for the late Mr. Bonaparte to lead his armies. B B B But. as Mark Twain said of *'\e report of his death, “it is slightly exaggerated.” If a baseball club has the pitchers and the hitters it will win, if it is managed by an ordinary fan. In fact many things the managers do lead one to the conclusion that the ordinary fan would be a vast improvement. a a B Os course, a manager must have enough sense to remove a pitcher when he has spontaneous combustion and to tell his players to do certain things under certain circumstances, but all this knowledge could be imparted in a volume somewhat smaller than an unabridged dictionary. a a a THE hitting is important, of course, but fully 80 per cent of the baseball team is in the pitcher’s box. When the Athletics had Grove orEarnshaw in the dox, the team seemed to be the world’s greatest, but when Wild Bill Hallahan fed them goose eggs they looked like invalids at a health cure. a a a All the "strategy” in the world will not make sluggers out a cluster of athletes who were bom to be air sweepers, and all the foxiness that ever nestled beneath a derby will not make a great pitcher out of one who was created to throw hash. a a a Take the Philadelphia Nationals, for instance—you can give them Connie Mack’s two star pitchers and no manager but a bat boy arid they will saunter to the championship with little care engraved upon their classic brows. Without such pitchers, they humbly' make their bed in the cellar of the National League. a a a AND the Phillies as they are would be just where they are if they were managed by a combination of General Pershing, Owen D. Young. Aimee McPherson, Otto Kahn. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Pussyfoot Johnson and General Dawes. Victory lies not in the manager, but in the athletes. man But there is one place where a crafty headpiece is a mighty asset and that's on the shoulders of a player. Ty Cobb proved this, for he was able to set an entire opposing team on its head by his threat to pull something different when he was on the bases. man He never played the game by its rules; he had audacity and he was a team in himself. But the famed “strategy” of the invisible manager in the dugout—that’s applesauce.
. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ All the Riddle of Life Lies in a Green Leaf. ANEW way of looking at the universe, anew understanding of processes of life, of the dependence i of living things upon the sun, and of the complex interchanges of mati ter and energy which make up vital ' activity, awaits the layman In D. T. MacDougal’s “The Green Leaf.” The book, just published by D. Appleton & Cos., forms one of their I excellent New World of Science • Senes. Dr. MacDougal is one of the | world's best known scientists. He j now is a research associate of the ; Carnegie Institution. For many | years he was director of the insti- ! tution’s desert laboratory at Tuc--1 son, Ariz., and alto the general secI retary of the American Association ! for the Advancement of Science. Dr. MacDougal, however, always has been interested in popularizing science as well as .n prosecuting scientific research. He was one of the original trustees of Science Service, the organization which E. W. Scripps, endowed for the popularization of science. In “The Green Leaf” Dr. MacDougal has done an excellent job of popularizing his own specialty, that of plant physiology. n n Growth of Plants ALL the riddle of life lies in a green leaf. Mysterious processes concerning which we catch a glimpse now and then go on in that leaf. All animals, including the human race, are alive because of tho;.c processes. For animals eat one another or else plants. If plants stopped growing, the animal kingdom would starve to death And it is the process which goes on in the green leaf which accounts for the growth of the plant. The process is known as photosynthesis. By it, the plant manufactures the sugars and starches which go into its tissues from the carbon dioxide of the air and the water of the soil. In other words, the raw materials from which all our foodstuffs are manufactured are carbon dioxide and water. Animals can not make use of these raw materials directly. They must wait for the plants to take them and manufacture them into the more complex chemical products of their tissues. Dr. MacDougal tells how the cells of plants are organized and how they function and how they play their roles in the complicated process of photosynthesis. He shows further how this process has influenced and shaped the form and structure of plants. BUB Energy of Sun THE energy of sunlight plays an important role in photosynthesis. The process can not go on without sunlight. Dr. MacDougal tells about this in a passage which is a good sample of the forceful and clear manner in which the book has been written. He writes: “The sunshine which warms the air and heats the ground does not vivify rock fragments, sluggish liquids and gases. Rivers may pour an unceasing flood of water over ledges of rock for centuries, or swirl through the logs of a pile of driftwood, causing only such slow and slight changes as may result from the attrition or wearing effect of the pebbles carried by the current. “However, if the current should flow over a geared water wheel or turbine, enough power could be converted to crush thousands of cubic yards of rock to the finest powder or saw millions of logs into boards. “The daily flood of sunlight falling on green leaves turns the drivewheels of the mills that tear apart the particles of gases and salts which have been absorbed by the plant, and then these parts are reassembled to make much more complex substances such as sugar?,, which are the most important substances used in the building up and feeding of protoplasm.”
Times Readers Voice Views
Editor Times—The county election commissioners who are to meet this week to consider whether the Communist party shall be represented on the election ballot have a grave responsibility thrust upon them, and at the same time they have a golden opportunity to render their state and their nation a patriotic service by refusing to allow the representatives of a dangerous foreign political faction to gain a foothold in our state government. The government of the United States does not recognize the present Communist government of Russia and that should be sufficient authority for our county and state officers to refuse to recognize the right of Communists to have represe Natives in our county and state offices. A Communist is not a citizen of the United States, because he is an enemy to our national government and a member of a foreign political party under the control of foreign lands. My opinion is that when a citizen of the United States becomes a Communist, he automatically ceases to be a member of Uncle Sam’s family. Cf course any man is free to join any political party or to become a citizen of any foreign country that he likes better than the good old U. S. A., but by the same token he ought not come whining around and begging to be represented in a government which he is seeking to overthrow. E. F. MADDOX,
Questions and Answers
How many licensed aircraft are there in the United States and which states have the larger numbers? The total number of licensed aircre in the United States in 1929 was J. The states which had the mo. t licensed planes are: New York, 1.429; California, 961; Illinois, 542; Ohio, 451; Missouri, 431, and Pennsylvania, 401. Is there a minimum age for senators and representatives in congress? Members of the house of repreeetnatives must be 25 years old, and senators must be 30.
NY HOSPITAL TO ADOPT PEEWEEdOLF AS AID IH TREATMENTS— Htwsware AH <3EOPGEfissasff? * il s en nurseT SK oi*htause YOOfe OPERATION? ( PLEASE-THISCAUA YEP NIBLICK* y— * _ FOR A BIT OP A ss ''jn 2 lew .... pill !ill^ ■ ' l! I HOLE I APPLYING THE ANESTHETIC!
College Girl of Today Heavier, Taller
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia. the Health Magazine. THE girl of today is an athletic person who has participated in outdoor games from early childhood. who has not known the restraint of heavy, tight clothing, and who has had for at least fifteen years an adequate diet. The college girl of twenty-five or forty years ago represented an entirely different group so far as con-
WIGHT -r WBGMI Hfjgf' [ POUNDS Fn\ jpOWPf llm si*ws THEN-*- AND NOW
eerned her ambitions, the hygiene of her life, and her general character.
j IT SEEMS TO ME BY H BROUN O
WHEN Calvin Coolidge became a columnist he received a generous welcome from newspaper men. Even his immediate rivals in the racket extended a cordial hand of fellowship to the newcomer. It may be that to many the profession of columning is not accepted as being regular newspaper W'Ork. Mr. Coolidge is not the first to come in cold. In the past there has been ample evidence that experience is quite unnecessary. A column conductor needs little more than space, a regular salary', some typewriter paper, shears, and a pot of paste. And u is only fair to admit that Mr. Coolidge. though green, got away with his assignment nicely. He has involved his employers in no libel suits. Not a single edition for which he has written has been barred from the mails. As yet he has not been under the necessity of harking back to some previous column and justifying the repetition by that mendacious line, “reprinted by request.” a a a ' Success Came Fast BUT columnar success sometimes goes to the head. Calvin Coolidge is not the first member of the craft to grow a little cocky about that praise w r hich comes in the form of, “Os course, I don’t always agree with you, but I read your column every day. I think it’s the funniest thing in town.” Under the w r arm sun of adulation he has climbed too fast and too far. I find his contribution of last Saturday beginning, “Baseball is our national game.” And he followed up this radical observation by adding, “We go to the game in the hope that with three men on bases the batter for our team will drive the ball over the fence so that we can revel in the intoxication of crowd delirium.” This is a startling statement from an ex-President. What has become of “Keep Cool With Coolidge?” Indeed, I might even ask to what cellar has the noble experiment flown when a Republican leader speaks with such intemperate enthusiasm about intoxication. n 9 u Angels Have Feared BUT the political significance of Mr. Coolidge’s platform interests me less than its newspaper implications. I fear that Calvin the columnist has taken too bold a step. He has ventured into a field in which there is a rigid rule of apprenticeship, experience and promotion. An ex-President of the United States may be qualified amply to serve as a newspaper columnist, but the job of sporting writer is something else again. This is not a task for any cne to essay lightly. What are the qualifications of Ca|vin Coolidge? In all
Fore!
DAILY HEALTH SERVICE
Recently a study was made of the physical measurements of 1,000 Smith college students for purposes of comparison with a similar group entering college twenty-five to fifty years ago. Out of 1,000 students entering college between the ages of 16 and 20 and remaining and graduating four years later. 7.3 per cent entered at 16, 31.5 at 17, 42.6 at 18, 16.4 at 19 and 2.2 at 20. It was found that a higher percentage of students of the stocky type started college at an earlier age, the slender type starting at a later age; the students of an intermediate type have a constant percentage at all ages. One of the ! reasons why sturdier built girls enter college earlier probably is the fact that they are less of a health I problem throughout childhood. The sturdily built girl is self-reliant and her parents are more likely to permit her to leave home earlier than the one who apparently is slender. For purposes of comparison with the 1,000 Smith college girls from 1926 to 1928, records were studied of girls from Boston, Oberlin, St. Louis, the University of lowa and the University of Nebraska in the period from 1893 to 1902. Asa result of these studies, it was found that the median height of
honesty the answer must be “Practically none at all.” In other words, he has, upon occasion, thrown out the first ball for the opening of a world series. But in that there is no evidence that he knows the difference between a sacrifice and a fielder’s choice. In fact, scouts W'ho observed Mr. Coolidge closely in his annual ball tossing function all passed him up. Nobody suggested that he be acquired either by draft or purchase. The consensus seemed to be that, though he possessed a turn of speed, he was lacking in control. Says Who? IT is presumptuous for Mr. Coolidge to have dogmatic baseball opinions before he ever has made a training trip or sat at the feet of Joe Williams and Damon Runyon and Bill McGeehan. Indeed, his baseball taste is of a crude and undeveloped sort. “We go to the game,” he says, “in the hope that with three men on bases the batter for our team will drive the ball over the fence so that we can revel in the intoxication of crowd delirium.” Speak for yourself, Calvin. I go for no such purpose. Nor do any of the true connoisseurs of the sport. In the first place, I am shocked at the narrow partisanship expressed in that phrase, “the batter for our team.” In time each baseball reporter of
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THE NAVAL ACADEMY —Oct. 10— ON Oct. 10, 1845, the United States Naval Academy, where executive officers of the United navy are educated, was founded at Annapolis, Md. Since that time the government has spent more than $15,000,000 for buildings and grounds. Asa result, the school is considered the best equipped and handsomest naval institution in the world. When the school was opened, the course was fixed at five years, only to be extended four years later to seven years. By the act of 1912 the course was fixed ior four years, at the end of which, upon graduation, the midshipmen are commissioned as ensigns. The course of study and instruction at the institution approximates that of many post-graduate technical schools. From June until Sept. 1 the midsliipmen are embarked on war vessels for the summer cruise. Midshipmen are appointed to the school by congressmen of their district*.
Smith college students at each age level was greater than those of the girls examined from twenty-five to forty years ago and that median weight also was greater than the weight listed in the comparative studies. For example, Smith coilege girls graduated from 1926 to 1928 averaged five feet five inches in height, whereas girls entering the other colleges that have been mentioned twenty-five to forty years ago varied from five feet one inch to five feet three inches, or an average of about five feet two inches, in height. The median weights of Smith college girls entered at 16 and graduated at 20 were 130 and 129 pounds; the median weights of entrance and graduation of 18-year-old students were 121 and 122 pounds; of 19-year-old students. 126 and 123 pounds, and 20-year-old students, 124 and 128. In contrast with these figures, girls of an earlier period had medium weights from 100 to 118 pounds. Obviously the hygiene, the diet, the exercise, rest, and other factors of modern living are making a better type of girl physically than existed twenty-five to forty years ago.
Ideals and opinions expressed in this column a'* those ol one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented elthout rerard to their agreement or with the editorial attitude of this oaner.—The Editor.
any consequence grows out of being a mere fan and becomes a student and a lover of technique, even though it be discovered in the actions of the lowly Phillies. To the expert a home run is far from being the most exciting incident in a game. We who know can not join with Mr. Coolidge in his crass idolatry of the mere slugger. What is to become of inside baseball when a former President expresses himself as being a sucker for the lively ball? The cultivated spectator would far sooner see a game won by the process of a dragging bunt down the first base line, a sacrifice to second, the theft of third and a beautifully executed squeeze play, such as the Athletics resurrected for the second game of the world series. tCopyright. 1930. by The Times)
Daily Thought
Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.—Proverbs 8:33. The wise are instructed by reason, ordinary minds by experience; the stupid by necessity, and brutes by instinct.—Cicero. Do mules produce offspring? Mules are wholly sterile both with other mules and with either parent species. They are hybrids between the horse and ass, and hybrids do not reproduce. Only one or two exceptions to this rule have been recorded, and even these are not usually regarded as authentic. What salary does the American ambassador to Mexico receive? His salary is $17,500 per year.
Feeding the Family Right Here are six bulletins that will help Mrs. Housewife to keep the family well and happy. A perusal and constant use of these six bulletins will give you all the essential information on what foods to choose, what proportions to use, and how the various members of the family should be fed. Here are the titles: 1. Calorie Values of Foods. 4. Learning to Cook. 2. Good proportions in the Diet. 5. School lunches. 3. Menus for Fifty Days. 6. Care of Food in the Home. If you want this packet of six bulletins, fill out the coupon below and mail as directed; ;lip coupon heri FOODS EDITOR, Washington Bureau. The Indianapolis Times 1322 New York avenue, Washington D. C. I want the packet if six bulletins on FEEDING THE FAMILY RIGHT, and inclose herewith 20 cents in coin, or loose, uncancelled United States postage 3tamps, to cover return postage and handling costs: NAME STREET AND NO CITY STATE I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.!
OCT. 10, 1930
M. E. Tracy SAYS:
If Something Isn't Dane About It, Business Will Be Still More Scared by Next Spring. CLEVELAND authorizes & small bond issue to provide work for common labor and opens a registration bureau in city hall. Five thousand apply the first day, where only twelve or fifteen hundred were expected, some of them standing in tl e rain all night to be sure of getting advantageous places on the list. Nor is the situation in Cleveland peculiarly tough. Any one of our ten largest cities could duplicate the performance, as several already have. We are heading into winter, with three or four million people out of employment and with business pretty scared, in spite of all the whistling. If something isn’t done about it. business will be more scared next spring. B B B Just as Many to Feed THERE are just as many mouths to be fed in this country as there were last year, and probably a few more; just as many bodies to be clothed, just as many houses to be heated and lighted. The only fly in the ointment is lack of work, which means lack of cash, which means lack of consumption, and we speculate as to how long the fly will remain, just as though it couldn’t be removed until the stars are right. Asa matter of fact, we have become victims of an economic voodoo. and are calling on the witch doctors of high finance to break the spell for us. If cash or credit were lacking the situation might be different, but they are not. There is plenty of money to be had at low’ rates of interest by solvent institutions, and whatever else may be said of them, the cities, towns, counties and states of this country still are solvent. ana Cities Can Help ■pURTHERMORE, the vast majority of our cities, towns, counties and states need improvements of one kind or another, but we ll put that aside. We’ll say they couldn’t do much to relieve unemployment, with out straining themselves to the point of luxury, without authorizing work that hardly could be described as essential. Even so, why should they hesitate? Since when was the business of America sustained by essential work? Since when did the necessities of life provide us with a payroll? Suppose you were to remove the theater, sport, candy, and cosmetics, just to mention a few enterprises, how long would our boasted prosperity last? That being so, what is there so fantastic or illogical about our states and municipalities going in a little heavier on the side of cleanliness, recreation and beauty? a a a They Want Work BY and large, those out of work don’t want philanthropy. All they ask is a fair chance, and we could give it to them If we had the will, and that, too, without squadering $4 or $5 dollars a day on them more senselessly than we squander SSO or $100,000,000 a year on some of our athletic and entertainment stars. We could provide every man and woman who really wants one with a job if w’e had the will, and get something worth looking at by way of return. It would take some borrowing, of course, and maybe a little Increase of taxes, but when has that frightened us, and isn’t it more wholesome than bread lines or charity drives? a a a Clean Up the Town LISTEN, you folks, look over the old home tow’n and see if there are not quite a few things you would like to see it do. What about the parks? Are there as many as you yould like to 6ee and are they in a good condition? What about the streets, dumps, playgrounds, school grounds, storm sewers and sidewalks? What about the grimy, dirty buildings that ought to be cleaned, the pests that are destroying trees and shrubbery on public land, the fire lanes needed to protect our forest preserves? * a a We Can Stand ‘Tap’ FOUR or five hundred million dollars would right this situation in six months, especially if it were made available by cities, towns, counties and states for work where people live. That may sound awfully big, but it’s only about one-half of 1 per cent of the nation’s annual income and probably not 10 per cent of what we spend for sport and entertainment. In spite of the depression, we have found it possible to contribute $125,000,000 to miniature golf this year. Without straining ourselves, we could stand three times as much to give hungry people work, or could we?
