Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 130, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 October 1931 — Page 8

PAGE 8

ittt IP PJ - MOW AMD

Your Water Dollars Out of every dollar paid in Indianapolis for water, approximately 44 cents is shipped down to Philadelphia to Clarence Geist and his relatives. In addition, the people pay interest on the twelve millions of dollars worth of bonds issued from time to time for the purchase and construction of the water system. That all extensions of the plant are paid for by bonds sold to the “widows and orphans” of the nation is indicated by the fact that the bond flotations increase about as rapidly as extensions are required. In four years, the total water bond issue on which the people of this city pay the interest has increased about two millions of dollars?. Minus charges for selling these bonds, this is about what has been spent for new mains. The city underwrites the interest charges on these bonds. The peculiar contract with the city for service to its fire plugs calls for a flat fee and 3 per cent interest on the cost of mains. The mains are paid for by borrowed money. The citizens are taxed for their cost. The profits go to Geist. There is an issue of five millions of dollars in common stock, held, according to common report, by Geist and his immediate relatives. Just what the consideration was for those five millions is one of the mysteries of high finance. Geist would probably be fired from the utility lodge if he put in real money. Utility barons do not countenance any such foolish practices as putting up their own dollars to dig mains, erect electric wires, put up telephone poles or doing anything that would represent any investment of their own cash. The “public” is permitted to furnish the money for the actual construction and the communities guarantee the interest. Last year Geist took out of this city $1,225,000 as dividends on this common stock. He did this because utilities had persuaded the courts that they were entitled to collect on what it would cost to reproduce their plants, not on what had been spent in their construction. 1 On that basis these utilities and especially the water company, capitalized the great war. They have collected and are still collecting on the inflated values that came with the vast destruction of men and materials. Now prices are deflated. It would cost about GO per cent of the money that would have been needed prior to the stock market crash of 1020 to rebuild these plants. Had the drift gone the other way, the company would have been in for an increase of rates. But despite the fact that a public service commission is presumed to guard public rights, there has been no cut of rates since thousands of men were thrown out of work and the price of iVon, steel and copper went to the cellar. So it happens that Indianapolis pays Geist more than a million dollars a year for permission to live. Every homeowner, every business house, every factory helps to carry this burden. It is partly responsible for the inability of many to pay rents. It is partly responsible for the loss of jobs. The time is overdue for a real, united effort to reduce the rates on electricity and water, twin necessities of modern city life.

Threc-Ccnt Stamps Postmaster-General Walter Brown has begun his annual fall drive for increased postal rates. As usual, Brown proposes that this increase shall take place in first-class rates, though first-class mail is the only branch of the postal service that pays its own way, and more. But first-class mail is also the one class of mail which meets no competition from private services. On letter mail the government hasji monopoly. The express companies fight for a share of all the other business handled. It is not proposed to raise the rates on second, third and fourth class mail, already carried at a loss. But letter mail, which produces 60 per cent of the postoffice department's annual revenues, is asked to carry the burden, because for most of those who pay letter postage there is no escape. Congress probably will turn a cold and forbidding shoulder to Brown's plan this winter, as it did last year, and as it should continue to do. Also, congress probably will fail to cut the postal deficit where it might, by restricting franked mail and aviation and ship subsidies. These deficits are bound up too closely with politics. But first-class mail rates are closely bound up with the vital life and well being of the nation. The burdens of developing commercial aviation in this country, of building a merchant marine, of re-elect-ing office holders, of transporting merchandise for business should not be transferred from taxpayers to those who buy the 2-cent stamp. A Hoover Success So many jibes are being shot at the Hoover administration these days that it is a pleasure to report the achievements in Haiti. Hoover inherited a bad mess down there. Yankee imperialism and militarism had subjected the natives to a foreign dictatorship which did not have even an alibi of efficiency. From every consideration of intelligent policy—whether political, economic, or humanitarian—American withdrawal was demanded. Especially costly were the dire effects of our Haitian spree on our Latin-Amerlcan relations. Hoover' had the brains to see that withdrawal was desirable, and he had the will to make the reform effective. But the situation had become so muddled

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPI’H-UOtVAKD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Suudjryi by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 West Maryland Street, ludianapolla, Ind Price In Marion County. 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carrier 12 cents a week. Mail subscription rates in Indiana. $3 a year: outside of Indiana, 6.1 centa a month. ‘ POYn GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. Editor President Business Manager PHONE— Riley 5551. FRIDAY. OCT, 9. 1931. Member of United Press. Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

over long years of American occupation, that withdrawal was not easy or simple. There had to be, in justice to the Haitians themselves, a brief transitorial period in which local government was built up and allowed to take control gradually. By sending down the Forbes commission, the President was able to get an able factual report on conditions and methods cf returning the governmental powers to the Haitians. That quieted native unrest and violence. On Oct. 1, the United States restored to the Port-au-Prince cabinet the control of three additional departments of governments, including agriculture, public health and education. This transfer was made ahead of schedule, and was celebrated by the Haitians as a national holiday of rejoicing. But the reform will not be complete until the United States loosens its hold also on finances, customs and the constabulary. Schools or Breadlines Asa remedy for unemployment, the American Federation of Labor proposes a shorter working week and a shorter working day. The Gifford committee proposes to take children out of factories and put them into schools—releasing jobs for adults. Both are sensible plans. They deserve public cooperation. A survey of the state school laws shows there is plenty of room for improvement. Only four states— Idaho, Nevada. Ohio and Oklahoma—fix the compulsory school age at 18 years. There are thirty-two states with a 16-year limit, and seven states stop at 14 years. An additional 3,326,000 children would be taken out of jobs and put into schools if all the states adopted and enforced the 18-year rule. Many millions more could be absorbed by junior colleges. Only 21 per cent of those eligible now are able to attend colleges up to the age of 21; Os course, there's more to the reform than merely passing a law. It does no good to compel a youth to attend school if he or his parents can not support him there. A just economic system would provide steady jobs for adults with incomes adequate to educate their children. Lacking that, the alternative is to make education as nearly free as possible and to cover the student’s personal expenses by scholarships and loans. For thirty years the General Federation of Women's Clubs has been providing such scholarships and loans. Now the federation’s president, Mrs. John F. Sippel, announces that 99 per cent of the SBOO,OOO loaned to some 7,000 students has been paid back by the students. There hardly could be a finer demonstration of the desire of penniless students for education, and their willingness to pay the price. In face of such will to learn, surely America should offer youths education in place of jobs or breadlines. Congress and Business It wasn’t to be expected so early, but the cry that the coming session of congress will hurt business already is being heard. A business magazine says in its current issue: “Uncertainty about congress has become a greater deterrent to business recovery than anxiety over the European situation, business men are reporting to Washington.” Remember how we heard last November that the then impending session of congress would hurt business? And, again last March, business was reported to have been relieved greatly when congress quit and President Hoover refused to call a special session. Did that congress hurt business? It did not. Did business improve when congress recessed? The answer is too obvious. Will the next session of congress “deter” business? Os course not. Then there's the hopeful rum runner who believes the government's plan to cut down navy expenses will reduce the coast guard fleet. Gerard Swope's plan, you might say, is a capital idea. Those three fliers who were saved after drifting in the ocean a week demonstrate the moral that a man may be downed, but not out. The mode might be worse than the Empress Eugenie. Suppose, for example, there were a Queen Mary Vogue? Andy Mellon, they say, didn’t know his aluminum company was to cut wages. Delicatessen dealers have a word for it. Al Capone's gone into the pretzel business, making racketeering even more crooked.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

ALL women have to do,” writes a gentleman in the evening paper, “is to be feminine ana you can have the world by its tail. We men will slave for you. love you and die for you, whether you are pretty or ugly, witty or dumb, so long as we can have you for our own.” Uh-huh. There's been a lot of talk about this before, but a good deal of it was exaggerated highly. Just what does the gentleman mean by “being feminine,” do you suppose? I can guess. He means that ours should be the humble role; that we should be submissive to masculine w-ills; that we should abide all day in retirement and emerge to full consciousness only when we hear his latch key at the door. In simpler terms, we should have the qualities of a good automobile: Never go unless he steps on the starter and remain parked wherever left. That’s a grand little schedule for the men. They worked it on us for a long, long time. We were sweet and feminine and sat nicely upon our pedestals. And they loved and slaved and died for us, to hear them tell it. nan WHAT actually happened was that they had a pretty fine time bossing things at home and were unmolested in any outside activities. They had full charge of the property and the purse-strings, and decided policies regarding the children. They could divorce us. but we couldn’t divorce them. They could misbehave in sundry w r ays, but we had to be good or suffer social obliteration. They strained their vocal cords talking about pure womanhood and we strained our backs waiting on them. The gentleman has his facts a Ititle mixed. In the good old days when the sweetly feminine was all the rage, the women did most of the loving and slaving and a large part of the dying by having more children than their strength could stand. Indeed, we never got them started at any of these things until we began to go a little haywire. It’s my opinion that, we would better stay that way.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS: _

Curious as It May Be, the Income Tax Law Is a Shining Example of the Government’s Ability to Enforce Something. NEW YORK, Oct. 9. Ray Tucker reports a high govern-1 ment official as “pointing out” that the banking situation is not so bad as impressionable people might infer from the Hoover program. You can't read some of the evidence recently brought out before the legislative committee investigating New York city affairs without suspecting that this official is more than half right. However seriously the depression may have affected others, it does not seem to have interfered with the income or borrowing capacity of certain Tammany leaders. 8 tt tt Some High Finance Tl/TICHAEL J. CRUISE, city clerk of New York, has banked more than $200,000 during the last six years; Thomas M. Farley, sheriff of New York, has banked more than $350,000, and James A. McQuade, register of Kings county, has banked more than $500,000. Cruise’s salary never has exceeded $12,000 a year during that time; Farley’s never has exceeded $15,000, or McQuade’s $12,000. In explaining where they got the money, all three talked much of loans, but showed faulty memories as to names and dates. a a * a The Star Performer M’QUADE easily was the star performer. He kept no books, but, according to best recollection, the half million dollars which he deposited from 1925 to 1931 could be accounted for only by the fact that he was forever borrowing from one friend to pay off another. He had thirty-three relatives to look after, he told the committee, which kept his nose continually to the grnidstone, but he stood by them, as a McQuade should. So many friends had come to his rescue that he couldn’t recall exactly who they w'ere, but he must have paid most of them off. because he only owes SIOO,OOO now. tt tt tt A Shining Example "OEING somewhat pressed for revenue, Uncle Sam naturally is interested in this testimony, and if Cruise, Farley and McQuade haven't been very careful in making out their income tax returns, they are headed for some protracted sessions with the treasury department. Curious as it may be, the income tax law stands forth as a shining example of the government’s ability to enforce something. If you don’t believe it, ask “Scarface” Al Capone. 8 But Just Look BY common report, Mr. Capone has reigned as overlord of Chicago’s underworld for a decade, dragging down the immense profits and acquiring the immense prestige which go with such a position. He officially has been designated as “public enemy No. l, and unofficially has been accused of every conceivable crime. Dry agents haven’t been able to lay a finger on him, while the local police force long since threw up its hands in despair. But look what happened when the treasury department got to work. 8 8 tt He’ll Be Tangled Up MR. CAPONE actually is in court, and hot as a spectator, either. He may win the income tax case which now is being tried, but some of the evidence being brought out in connection with it seems more than likely to tangle him up with other cases. You just can't tell what you are going to be asked when Uncle Sam gets inquisitive about the sources of your income, or what you will have to tell to satisfy him.! Neither can you be sure of who is listening in. or what use they will make of it later on. 8 tt a Man's Income His Soul MOST every one is willing to admit that money has become the ruling passion, if not the ruling power, in these United States, but it took the income tax to prove it. When ybu get to a man’s income, you get to his soul. The dollar has been converted into a tattle-tale. The record shows that it is comparatively easy to get away with crime, no matter how heinous, if the cash profit is reported properly. If the cash profit is not reported properly, look out. a 8 a He’s Probably Right THE income tax law originally was intended to equalize the burden of running the federal government as between rich and poor, but it has been made to serve a lot of other purposes, and it is going to ■ be made to serve more. That is a peculiarity of any tax. Lots of things can be done with it besides obtaining revenue. Senator Carter Glass of Virginia believes that a tax on stock held less than sixty days would go a long way toward stopping short selling, and h probably is right. Is there a singing mouse? The singing mouse has been immortalized by Emerson Hough who wrote about these peculiar little animals that make- a sound that resembles singing. Much has been written about them, and the fact that they do sing is supported by the evidence of trustworthy witnesses. Mice are unquestionably fond of music, but it is not fully determined whether their ability to make it is normal or is an individual so far as to assert that it is due peculiarity. Some writers have gone so far as to assert that it is due only to a diseased throat. What does the name Lazucca mean? If probably is a variant form of the Hungarian and Slavic name “Laezko,” meaning “ruling with fame.” What is the nationality and meaning of the name Coward? It is a British family name derived from the occupation of cow- ! herd.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Growing Pains Are Danger Signals

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. THERE is no illness more serious for a child than rheumatic heart disease. Ifi the children that it does not kill it produces often complete crippling of the heart with long periods of invalidism. The condition is difficult to diagnose early, and its control, once established, taxes the scientific knowledge and ability of the best of physicians. Recently a group of Minneapolis physicians surveyed the records of 809 children between 5 and 10 years of age who were studied at one clinic in that city because they had signs and symptoms indicating heart disease and rheumatic manifestations. Children were studied by all of the scientific means we now have aivilable, including the taking of the complete record of the child’s condition from birth, a record of

Times Readers Voice Their Views

Editor Times—President Hoover says “don’t reduce wages.” Fred Gardner and Mr. Book reduce wages. One way we can help the citizens of Indianapolis is to employ Indianapolis people. Let the factories and offices from the courthouse down employ only Marion county people. The interurbans are filled every day with people from small towns coming to Indianapolis who take their money and pay it in taxes in other communities. The police and firemen of Indianapolis are buying homes. They pay for their own uniforms. The firemen pay for their telephone, gas and board at each engine house each month. These men police and firemen—contribute to everything that comes out. Last winter they voluntarily contributed 1 per cent of their salaries for ihe relief of the unemployed and with the small amount they had they did more good and helped i more people than did the Community Fund, with ite thousands of dollars. ' Indianapolis has a police and fire department that it well can be proud of. Are the citizens going to let men of the caliber of Fred Gardner and Mr. Book of the Chamber of Commerce ruin it? Fred Gardner comes out in public and says he pays his stenographer $lO a week —big, generous-hearted Fred Gardner. Has he any daughters? If he has, .they pay more than $lO a week for shoes, I suppose, and maybe for cigarets—yet he expects a girl to clothe, feed and support herself on $lO a week and maybe support younger brothers and sisters and a mother and father besides. Ask Mr. Book what his salary is and whao it takes to run the Chamber of Commerce. He isn’t taking a ' measly salary. Let him take a cut and ali those under him. We don’t need the Chamber of Com- | merce or Fred Gardner to tell us

iA‘tTJS'TWC-

CAPTURE OF POELCAFELLE October 9 ON Oct. 9, 1917, Field Marshal Haig captured Poelcapelle in Flanders and advanced two miles northwest. Field Marshal Haig’s operations extended over a front of ten miles. ; The French on the north pierced I the German position to a depth of a mile and a quarter, capturing the villages of St. Jean de Mangelaere and a northern hamlet of Veldhoek, with numerous intervening concrete redoubts. This operation put the British and French within long-range gunshot of Roulers and gave them the principal heights of the ridge commanding the plain of Flanders. With the advance on this date it became geographically, if not strategically, obvious that another drive of similar magnitude would unlock the German* front from Bixschoote to the sea Such a drive, however, did not at once occur.

A Call to Action

its fever, an examination of the chest by the usual listening and percussing or thumping methods, the use of the electrocardiograph. It is not possible in this form of heart disease to depend on the presence of a murmur as a certain diagnostic sign, because it now has been shown that murmurs may occur in hearts for all sorts of reasons. A murmur which comes and goes and which is not definitely present frequently, is confusing and not indicative of some definite disease. The X-ray shows whether or not there is any beginning enlargement of the heart or any change in its positidn. The electrocardiograph is not a certain means of diagnosis, although it frequently is helpful in showing some disturbance of the action of the heart. Os great significance, particularly so far as the parents can be helpful, is the detection of what are called growng pans. Growng pans nclude those vague and geenral discomforts that occur

how to run Indianapolis. Fred Gardner is known the length and breadth of the land for his cheap wages. Cut out all the graft—cut out the unnecessary and double jobs—and we won’t have to cut our city employes. If police and firemen’s wages are reduced, and £ach has a telephone and they would order their phones taken out and do away with other things, wouldn’t that hurt some other business? Can not the people see that if money is spent, it means better times. The trouble right now is that people who have money are afraid to spend it. If I have money and my home needs repairs, I have it done, thereby giving someone a job. If I have money and the home need repairs, and I think I will wait and have it 'done another time when things are better, that is keeping that money out of circulation. and someone out of a job. Wake up citizens, spend money, give jobs to the jobless, keep wages where they are. That is what our President is asking. He is begging employers not to reduce wages, yet Mr. Gardner and Mr. Book of the Chamber of Commerce want wages reduced. Let them take the reduction. If the city reduces wages, Mr. Gardner can go to his $lO a week stenographers and say, ‘Well, I’ll have to reduce you to ss—all other offices are reducing their help. God help his stenographers. MRS. T. L. HAYES. Editor Times “Principle in Youth.’’ Under similar headlines we often find big advertisements in daily papers which are made possible through the so-called best and leading citizens of Indianapolis. All the signers of these ads are wellsituated citizens who don’t seem to know that the crime wave going on in the U. S. A. has a different origin than in education. Parents in most cases try to do their utmost to bring up their children in a respectable way. Lectures and educational books may do a lot of good to the present-day youth and grownups, but it is conditions and circumstances that make people nowadays what they are and become. You may have a healthy mind, but a hungry stomach, which don't agree with each other, and the latter wins. To sign your name under an ad as a meaning of support to a direction to parents doesn't mean much when y,ou are able to feed and educate your children in the manner anyone else ought to be entitled to, without worrying how the money comes in to fulfill .obligations. There are thousands of honest, healthy workers who want work if you just let them have It. We can’t live on principles unless they are made practical. TIMES READER. Editor Times—Why should the working man and the “common” class of people have to tolerate the gambling stock market? As long as the Wall Street organization exists, the rest of this country has to pay for its winnings. Many companies, comporations, and individ-

chiefly in the legs and in the arms and sometimes in the joints. They affect also the muscles of the body. Growing pains are an indication of the necessity for a very careful examination of the child for the presence of rheumatic conditions. Quite frequently these pains are found in children who are not rheumatic in any way, but their presence is a warning signal which should not be neglected. Os special importance lire pains in the abdomen which can not be definitely associated with any disturbance of digestion. In such a case, an exceedingly careful study of the heart should be made in order to find out whether there is any beginning disturbance. This is of the greatest importance because today the primary hope of arresting the progress of this serious disorder is early and complete rest in bed with the constant attention of a physician who will attempt to control the symptoms as they develop.

| uals that held stocks as securities i at the time of the crash were ruined or are about at that point now. The working man now is paying | for this by having his pay reduced | pitifully and thousands are losing their jobs. To live up to expectations of our forefathers, we must stay at peace and involve ourselves only in legitimate deals. I am, as many others, a policy holder in an insurance company, that failed here recently. On inquiring the reason for the failure, one of ( the company’s offiicals re- | plied that their stock holdings now 1 were practically worthless and the company was forced into receiver- ; ship. Many people have placed their earnings into insurance policies with faith in the company and their money was used for stock market speculation. Should the average man try to scalp tickets in Indiana, he would be arrested, but stock brokers can ask more than book value ; for some stocks and go unmolested. Those who profit by depressions, say that it is a matter of nature, but we know there are reasons for everything and the sooner we root out these evils, the sooner we will have an honest and normal country A RECENT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE.

Daily Thought

Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.—Ephesians 6:2. Honor is the moral conscience of, the great.—Sir W. Davenant.

9gMs iff III) 11 [ Ij. *B-2* Waahmgtm

.OCT. 9, 1931

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

Evolution Is Moving Upward While the Universe Is Running Down, Says Eminent Scientist. r T''HE theory of evolution is part of the world-picture today, according to General Jan C. Smuts, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In rerent articles, we have discussed his views of the physical universe. Let us now briefly survey what he has to say about the role of biology in the universe. It will be recalled that General Smuts pointed out that the tendency of modern science was to reduce the whole material world to “curvatures and unevennesses’’ in space-time, as the union of space and time is called. “Space-time finds its natural completion in organic evolution," he continues. “For in organic evolution the time aspect of the world finds its most authentic expression. “The world truly becomes process, where nothing ever remains the same or is a duplicate of anything else, but a growing, gathering, creative stream of unique events rolls forever forward.” He points out further that whereas evolution is moving upward, the universe in general seems to be running down. This same idea has been expressed by Sir James Jeans, famous British astronomer, who : compares mankind to a sailor climbing the mast of a sinking ship. The sailor is mounting higher and higher, but the ship, nevertheless, is going down. a a a Stars’'Loss, Our Gain GENERAL SMUTS points out, however, that there is the possibility of connection between the two. And it is an inspiring thought to think that the stars spend their energy that man may go up the scale of evolution. "The energy which is being dissipated by the decay of physical 1 structure is being partly taken up and organized into life structures—at any rate on this planet." he says. J “Life and mind thus appear as products of the cosmic decline, and arise like the phoenix from the eshes of a universe radiating itself away. “In them nature seems to have discovered a secret which enables j her to irradiate with imperishable j glory the decay to which she seems i physically doomed.” General Smuts points out another | interesting connection between phyi sics and biology. According to the 1 quantum theory, energy is believed to consist of distinct particles, bullets, as it were, known as quanta. A quantum always acts as a unit or | not at all. “When we ask what is the nature of life, wo are curiously reminded ; the behavior of the quantum,” ; he says. “I do not for a moment wish to say that the quantum is the physical basis of life, but I do say that in , the quantum the physical world ! offers an analogy to life which is !? • least suggestive. The quantum ; fellows the all-or-nothing law and | behaves as an indivisible whole; so | does life. “A part of a quantum is not j something less than a quantum; it !is nothing or sheer nonentity; the same holds true of life.” 8 a a Life Is Organization MODERN biology, General Smuts points out, has developed a new point of view with regard to the nature of life which goes be- ; yond the old mechanistic point of | view. “Life is not an entity, physi- ; cal or other,” he says. “It is a type of organization; it is a specific principle of central or self-organi-zation. “If that organization is interfered with, we are left, not with bits of life, but with death.. The nature of living things is determined not by the nature of their parts, but by the nature or principle of their organization. “In short, the quantum and life seem to have this in common, that they both behave as wholes. “A whole is not sum of parts, or constituted by its parts. Its nature lies in its constitution more than in its parts. The part in the whole is no longer the same as the part in isolation. “The interesting point is that while this concept of the whole applies to life, it is according to the recent physics no less applicable to the ultimate physical units. “Thus the electron within an atom is no longer a distinct electron. “The general trend of the recent advances in physics has thus been toward the recognition of the fundamental organic character of the material world. Physics and biology are beginning to look not so utterly unlike each other. “Hitherto the great gulf in nature has lain between the material and the vital, between inorganic matter ,and life. This gulf is now in process of being bridged.”