Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 189, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 December 1931 — Page 4

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S CK I PP J - M OW AMD

Water Rates When the water company officials, Journeying here from far places to look over their province, declared that they wanted more revenue and not less from this city, they should be compelled to answer a few pointed questions. Just how much money did Mr. Clarence Geist and his family and associates pay for all the common otock of the company? Have they ever added one more dollar to their investment except for bonds or secured claims on which they receive regular interest? < Is it not true that when the law says that utilities are entitled to a "fair return” it intended that the return should be. based upon the amount of money invested? Is it not true that the people of this city have created every dollar of value .claimed by Geist as the true valuation for the plant and all the made millions, except those represented by secured bonds, comes from the growth of the city and the war prices for labor and commodities? Just what has this company done in the way oi service for which it has not already been most generously paid that would entitle it to take a million and a quarter of dollars a year away from the people? Their arrogance Is quite understandable. Those who have shown so little conscience in their grabs and greeds in the past would be arrogant. But to believe that Indianapolis will consent to continued extortions exhibits a stupidity that hardly goes with the idea of financial shrewdness.

Stop Snooping Os course, the policemen who went snooping into the home of a citizen did not expect that he would drop dead in their arms when the fear of possible disgrace stopped his heart. They were merely pursuing anew, strange and unAmerican custom that has arisen since the prohibition laws made necessary the adjournment of the other parts of the Constitution. The police had heard whispers that this particular citizen, who has no presidential relatives, was making and selling' small quantities of liquor. His record had been that of hard work for a life time until depression made it impossible for him to care for his family. The police followed the whispers. They did not follow the theory of law which makes homes inviolate. They did not obtain a warrant. They snooped. And a man dropped dead. That fact rather argues that he must have been a decent citizen after all, even if he were profiting to a. small extent in desperation from the sale of forbidden beverages. A man who fears disgrace can not be wholly bad. When he feels it strongly enough to cause death the presumption is that he has more than ordinary regard for the opinions of his fellow-citizens. And that regard is the one social restraint on which civilization depends for its stability. So he becomes a victim of the habit of snooping that is growing all too rapidy. A little less snooping into homes and more attention to making streets safe for pedestrians, stores safes from burglars, would not be a bad policy.

Charity Vs. Insurance The federal government, which has done so much to cultivate a hatred for “the dole,” has been aiding this system quietly for a number of years by exempting charitable contributions from taxation. Isadore J. Lubin of the Brookings institution of Washington proposes that the federal government, instead of granting tax exemptions for charity contributions, grant similar exemptions for money contributed to unemployment insurance funds. This is a development of an earlier plan offered by Senator Wagner of New York. In recent years, the federal government actually has been contributing 20 per cent of the amounts given to charity by men earning more than SIOO,OOO a year. If the new tax bill passes, the government in this way may contribute as much as 40 per cent of private charity gifts. That is a dole from the government. Similar exemptions for unemployment insurance payments would be as different as life insurance is from nickels dropped into a beggar’s hat. Lubin is right when he argues that the federal government should take some part in stabilizing workers’ incomes, since industry is now a national affair, with profits from an industrial plant in one state going to stockholders in dozens of others. He also is right when he argues that unemployment insurance never will be of benefit in keeping workers at work until it offers the employer a dollar and cents motive for keeping men on the pay roll instead of laying them off. For these reasons, his proposal, of company and state insurance, voluntary or involuntary, encouraged by the federal government to the same extent that charity has been encouraged, seems to be one of the most effective and practical methods of permanent worker-aid yet suggested.

The Peaceful Way In days like th*oe the program of the American Civil Liberties Union assumes an importance greater than usual. This group is organized to maintain the legal rights of American citizens, chiefly freedom of speech, assemblage and press. It has no other program, no panacea. If the channels of thought and speech are kept open, political and social changes will come decently, democratically and peacefully. If those channels become clogged with fear, hate and suppression we may look for the worst. Citizens, therefore, should support through their congressmen and senators the program of the C. L. U. announced for the present congress. It includes: A bill to limit the power of federal courts to issue injunctions in labor disputes; • Repeal of the postoflice censorship section of the wartime espionage act, a repeal that was voted unanimously by the last senate: A bill to overcome the supreme court decision denying citizenship to alien pacifists; A bill to authorize the President to restore citizenship to the 1,500 former political prisoners, convicted under wartime laws; A bill to establish the right of political asylum outside the immigration quotas for bona fide refugees from foreign tyrannies; A bill to render evidence obtained by wire tapping Inadmissible; Repeal of the postofflce censorship act, barring matter objectionable to the department’s solicitor. A bill to permit deported aliens to go voluntarily to a country of their own choosing, rather than back to the lends of political persecutions to meet their death. : V "V t V*

The Indianapolis Times (A HCRIPI’g-HOW AKI> .NEWSPAPER) PVldiabed dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co..' 214-22 Q West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price In Marlon County, 2 cents a copy; elsewhere, S cents—delivered by carrier 12 cents s week. Mall subscrlptioD/atea in Indiana. $3 a rear; outside of Indiana. 65 cents a month. BOTD .,i? nRLBT - ROY W HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. E(ilt or President Bualness Manager PHONB— Riley 5551 THURSDAY, DEC. 17. 1931. Memoer of United Press, Hcrippa-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

No Retroactive Tax We long have been a consistent advocate of income taxes graded by capacity to pay. We opposed the last reduction of the tax rate on higher bracket incomes, a reduction which since has contributed to the largest federal operating deficit in the history of America In peace time. We most heartily approve the administration's belated proposal to increase income taxes. But we can not approve the administration’s proposal to make that tax increase retroactive. Such a tax would be both unfair and inefficient. Any retroactive tax is unfair. This one would be especially unfair because it comes in a time of such severe and general financial suffering. It will be hard enough for individuals and corporations to pay in 1932 the normal tax on 1931 incomes, without the surprise burden of an additional tax on incomes already largely spent. A man has a right to know in advance the tax he is to pay, so that he may set aside adequate savings for that purpose. The inefficiency of the proposed retroactive tax is even clearer in the case of corporations. They operate on a budget. Most American corporations have been running very close to the rim during 1931. Many have been barely able to make allowance for the normal tax. Any surplus has been paid out in low dividends and in an effort to keep wages and employment at a higher level than might have been justified by immediate business prospects. If, in the critical year 1982, corporations must try to find additional money to pay on 1931 taxes besides finding funds for the higher 1932 tax, two things will happen. Some companies will be driven to the wall. Many companies will be shorn of the small surplus upon which depends a business revival. Os course the administration knows all of this. But it has been driven apparently into a panicky determination to get more revenue at any cost. The answer is that income can not balance a large budget in times of depression when all Incomes are relatively small. Income taxes are really effective only when incomes are large. Income taxes car) maintain a balanced federal budget only when they are kept sufficiently high in prosperous times to provide a surplus fund for depression emergencies. Therefore, even a retroactive tax now which would cripple business would bring only a pitifully small revenue total into the federal treasury. The real tax issue before the country is whether there shall be an adequate permanent tax rate on the higher income brackets when the national income is high. To propose destructive retroactive taxes on the relatively insignificant incomes of 1931 merely obscures the issue, and delays the return of prosperity upon which alone an effective income tax can be based.

A Good By-Product Apathy is the greatest contributing cause to weaknesses in the democratic system. Democracy means government by the people. When the people really govern, when they are interested in their government keenly, democracy functions well—for the people see to it that good men get in office, and the people then watch those good men and see that they stay good. Years of prosperity bring a rapid increase in apathy. The people get careless and contented. “A few million more or less of government expense—what of it?” Taxation—government—these things seem far, far away. Then comes the storm. And now we, the people, are paying the price of apathy. A look at the new tax bill, brought forth in Washington, will show how much m.'re we are going to pay. The result will be a fine thing for the country—for those who survive. It will mean a tremendous decrease in the country’s supply of apathy, or to put it another way, a tremendous increase in the country’s supply of good citizenship. A people does not long -remain apathetic when a government starts drilling on the pocketbook nerve. Professor Einstein will study at the California institute of technology this winter. We don’t know what he will study, but he really ought to devote some research to the new golf ball. i George Bernard Shaw forecasts that prohibition will be a successful experiment. That’s the same chap who picked Carpentier to whip Dempsey. We will not be really sure there is a war between China and Japan until one of those countries sends somebody over to borrow something from us. A headline says, "Congress Begins Chaotic Session.” Chaotic is a good word, but you ought to see some of a congressman’s mail! A scientific writer says our jungle ancestors sprang from lions, tigers and other beasts. And perhaps it’s just as well they did.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

MEN are supposed to be the broad-minded sex. There has been a great deal of general talk about their tolerance, and it is true that they have supplied the philosophies for the race. Yet sometimes the m<ist intelligent one is eighteenth century in his attitude toward woman’s problems. He seems incapable of understanding that she has any, in fact. The idea that a change in woman’s behavior is justified, even though he lives in a world w r here all else has changed, appears to startle and frighten him. It should be apparent to every one, however, that the modern girl and woman face a situation that, in many of its aspects, is tragic. # a v WE have, for instance, the girl who is forced to decide between marriage or business. Her position is hazardous when it comes to any assurance of happiness for herself. Yet this condition is not of her own making. Girls entering life today are not responsible for the fact that things are economically awry and that babies no longer are the unmitigated joys they once were, but a burden whose cost must be counted carefully in dollars and cents. Then there is the home woman, middle aged and usually dissatisfied. Her discontent is hard for men to understand. If they had taught themselves to think of her as a human being, it would be easier to comprehend her plight. For it is a plight, and a sad one. Not only does she confront a physical and emotional crisis, but she faces the stern fact that her work in life is done. She has had children, and they have gone from her. She has had a home. It is suddenly empty. Her husband, who at that age is more engrossed in. his work than ever, wonders why on earth she can’t be happy with nothing to do. After all, tolerance should be extended to include the woman at home, as well as the man abroad, within its scope.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

Whatever Else May Be Said of Russia, She Has Set a Fine Example by Attending Strictly to Her Own Affairs During the Last Few Years. 0 V'EW YORK, Dec. 17.—Eighty thousand Chinese students celebrate Chiang Kai-Shek’s resignation, the prospect of a reunited country and possible war with Japan by wrecking the foreign office at Nanking and creating a general disturbance. Students in other Chinese cities demand free transportation of railroad officials in order that they may join the rumpus. Two native girls visit a British magistrate in India with the excuse of presenting a petition. While the magistrate is reading it they draw guns which had been concealed in their scarfs and shoot him down. Obviously, the Orient is making progress in western education.

Reassuring the World WHEN trouble first broke out in Manchuria, it commonly was supposed and frequently predicted that Russia soon would be in the midst of it. Russia hasn’t talked much about preserving peace, but she has minded her own business, which probably is the best thing she could do to reassure an anxious, doubting world. tt tt Food for Thought SENATOR BORAH will continue to fight for Russia’s recognition by this country on the ground that it is essential to economic recovery and political justice. The question has little to do with what we think of the Russian regime. If our forefathers had recognized only those governments that conformed to their ideas, what government would they have recognized when this republic was established. Refusal to recognize Russia is not sanctioned by the principles and traditions of this country. tt tt tt A Great Example WHATEVER else may be said of Russia, she has set a fine example by attending strictly to her own affairs during the last few years. That is one reason why Bolshevism has not collapsed. Some other'countries would be a lot better off had they displayed similar interest in home problems. Our own is’one. , As everybody knows, the best contribution a man can make to society is by looking out for himself and those dependent on him. The same thing goes for a government.

It’s a Good Shield WHETHER we Americans are worrying too much about the rest of the world, we certainly are not worrying enough about some of our own difficulties. To a certain extent, such a condition has been brought about deliberately by political leaders who are afraid to commit themselves with regard to some of our difficulties. Keeping up the ballyhoo over this, or that foreign problem is one way of preventing talk about prohibition. Another way is to start a ballyhoo for “overcoming the depression,” just as though the $1,000,000,000 going to bootleggers each year, or the thousands of speakeasies which have become nests of organized crime had nothing to do with this season of hard times. a it it Lies, Lies, Lies DOES any one.imagine that the depression has been relieved by all the racketeering and thuggery, that the American people are better off because rum-runners are getting so much cash instead of the government, that crowded courts and crowded prisons have no bearing on the cost of government? It is worse than childish to pussyfoot on such an obvious factor of demoralization and unrest, such a patent diversion of wealth into vicious channels, such an orgy of lying and deceit as we are tolerating in order to evade an issue. Where did the idea originate that we could achieve peace and prosperity without common honesty, that we could maintain a government of law without respect for law?

Questions and Answers

What is a pilot snake? 3J is a popular name for a harmless colubrine snake of eastern United States. It is lustrous black with white edged scales, and is sometimes six feet long. It feeds chiefly on birds, eggs, mice and rabbits. The name comes from the erroneous idea that these snakes warn rattlesnakes of danger. The copperhead also is sometimes called a pilot snake. Can light be seen? Light rays affect the optic nerve, and the eye, acting through the optic nerve, conveys impressions to the brain that are spoken of as seeing. /In that sense one can see light. Do East Indians have Negro blood? No. Which was the first underground railway of London, England? The Metropolitan District railway, constructed in 1868 as a shallow underground railway serving only the central areas of London. Who presides over the sessions of the United States supreme court? The chief justice of the United States, Charles Evans Hughes. How can tarnish be removed from metal cloth? Alcohol, applied with a sponge, Is sometimes effective. What does the name Flannery mean? It is an Irish family name meaning “red eyesbrow.” Was President Fillmore a Mason? He was a Mason at one time, but recanted.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE— Sanitation Checks Glanders Disease

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. WHEN automobiles were more infrequent and contact with horses was a common occurrence, the disease called glanders occasionally infected human beings. Now it is so rare as to be almost a medical curiosity. Glanders is spread from horses to men. Human carriers of the disease have not been found, but close contact with cases of the disease or with articles freshly soiled by discharges from a human case or a case in a horse will produce the condition. The discharge from the infected mucous membranes or the skin and the mucous that comes from the nose and throat of the person with

IT SEEMS TO ME ™>°

SOME years ago a young man at Harvard was rushed into the game to try a drop-kick from the Princeton 20-yard line. He dropped the pass, and White, the Tiger captain, picked up the fumble and ran more than half the length of the field for a touchdown. In such circumstances the offender generally is disgraced for life and goes about through his declining years with drooping head. But my friend was of a more humorous turn of mind and rescued himself by using a defensive mechanism. He would say on any occasion, “I was fifty per cent of Princeton’s offensive power.” And it seems to me that the Democratic representatives in Washington are preparing to constitute themselves the best .friends the Republican party ever had. Some of the men who came into power during recent phases of what appears to be a political landslide do not understand at all the nature of their mandate. It is their notion that the voters were moved to switch solely because of dissatisfaction with the present administration. nun £jo Time for Wisecracks ACCORDINGLY, the early sessions of the house have been taken over largely with the process of razzing Herbert Hoover and all his works and cabinet members. It

Is it possible to remove liquid from a bottle and refill it without disturbing the cork? It can be done by piercing the bottom and plugging up the holes after the bottle is refilled. How many broods do. mocking birds rear in one season? Two and sometimes three. The season begins early in the spring and lasts until the end of the summer. What is the name of the selection by Ruth Chatterton in “Sarah and Son?” “Weigenlied,” a lullaby. What is the value of a Lafayette memorial half dollar dated 1900? It is cataloged at sl.lO to $1.25 according to its condition. . Can the king of England veto an act ox the British parliament? He has the power to veto any law passed by the British parliament, but no British sovereign has exercised the power since 1707. What were the last words spoken by Robert Ingersoll, the agnostic? His dying words were “Oh, better,” when asked by his wife how he felt. WTiat city is the capital of the Netherlands? Amsterdam is the popular capital, although The Hague is the usual residence of the court and diplomatic bodies, and the seat of the government, the states-general, the high council of the Netherlands, the council of state and the chamber of accounts.

The Optimist

the disease may carry the infecting organism. Futhermore, the organism may be present in the excretions from the bowels of those who are infected. Among the methods developed by scientific medicine for diagnosing this disease, there is a test of the person similar to the Wassermann test and another test similar to the Widal test for typhoid fever. There is also a general skin reaction and finally the possibility of finding the germ of the disease in the excretions. So serious is this disorder that every human being that has it should be isolated promptly either at home or in the hospital. Animals that are infected should be promptly destroyed.

has never been my feeling that the gentleman in Washington was not a fair target for criticism. But in a very short time, newly elected Democrats will be called upon to prove something more than the deficiencies of our present leadership. That, after all, is only a phase of existing problems. We have a right which we will exercise without toq much delay. I refer to the right of citizens to ask, “Yes, but what are you going to do about it?” And that is likely to be followed up with a further inquiry which might run as follows: “Granting that all your criticism is true, we now want to know precisely what is your program?” Surely there is no health-giving property in saying that the other fellow is all wrong unless you are prepared to demonstrate your own rightfulness of policy. I was shocked to read that the entire chamber rocked with laughter while some Democratic spellbinder made merry with Republican shortcomings. Congressmen who think that this is a good time for wisecracks and nifties identify themselves as nothing more than minor league Neros. It took La .Guardia to quell the horseplay with a timely, “Let’s get down to business.” Mr. La Guardia is, I think, a Republican in name only, and he also happens to be one of the wisest members of the lower house. At any rate, he has reached the conception that the country just now takes only a minor interest in party affiliations and wants instead some sort of teamwork to enable us to climb out of present difficulties. ## - Fighting Against Chaos LA GUARDIA is by way of being a radical, but I think he is right in the belief that even a man who looks to a completely different sort of economic and political state should help in averting present chaos. If it were demonstrably true that out of bitter collapse a newer and saner spirit of co-operation could be brought immediately into being, a radical might welcome disintegra-

M TODAY IS THE- Vs ' WORLD WAR \ ANNIVERSARY

SOVIET CHURCH BREAK December 17

ON Dec. 17, 1917, it was announced in Petrograd that all lands, churches, money, gold, silver and precious stones of the. Russian church had been confiscated by the Soviet government. Religious instruction was banned explicitly from all public schools and church schools were ordered closed immediately. Employes at the Petrograd city hall went out on strike, when the new Bolshevik mayor, a former day laborer, appeared. On the Italian front, an AustroGerman attack at San Marino was beaten off after severe fighting, and an attack by British troops at Monte Fontana Secqa also failed.

Furthermore, whenever a case is found in a horse, all of the other horses in the group or in the stable should be tested to find out whether or not they have this condition. All the infected animals should be removed promptly and the most thorough disinfection of the stable should be provided for. As was stated previously, this condition is not common at this time either in horses or in man. Among the steps which have been taken to prevent the condition is abolition of the common drinking trough, sanitary supervision of stables and blacksmith shops, and very careful testing of all of the horses in regions where the disease is common.

Ideals and opinion* expressed in this column are those of one of America's most interesting writers and are presented without regard to iheir agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

tion. But there is much testimony in the world that things do not always go like that. Hunger and want block the keener perceptions. Desperation is very likely to inspire a readiness to turn to Fascist dictatorship and the fallacy of the strong man. It has been so in Italy, and that is the way the tide seems to be setting in Germany. I believe that even an extremely radical program can be carried out through Democratic processes if only there is a disposition upon the part of every one to look facts in the face. Os that disposition in America at the moment I can see only the slightest trace. It took us more than two years even to admit a nodding acquaintance with unemployment, and today we are behaving as if it were no more, than a seasonal problem. Only the strictest doctrinnaire will oppose the yielding of such immediate help as can be furnished by charity. And only the dullestwitted will assume that such devices are anything more than stop-gaps. tt n a Well, What Is a Dole? is the point of saying ** again and again in the high places that there should never be a dole in America when millions are living on that and nothing more? And this is a dole without dignity and without sustaining plan. Personal generosity can never be anything more than a substitute for organized governmental planning. Whatever is good in anybody’s project should be and will be eagerly seized upon by the voting masses. They have no faith at all in party labels, for they have seen both major parties make precisely the same mistakes under different trademarks. If there was ever a time in the history of America when partisan advantage was the pettiest of victories, that time has come. And so I would like to echo La Guardia’s plea that our public servants should extricate themselves from labels and get to work. (Copyright. 1931. by United Press)

The Good Standard: —* Nations have maintained the gold standard for currency in order to have a stable basis for the settlement of international debts. THE COLUMBIA CONSERVE COMPANY has maintained the GOOD Standard in its factories, not only in its products, but in the conditions under which the men and women who are both workers and owners conduct the business. The GOOD STANDARD means a wage that meets needs, medical service without cost, steady pay eni velopes, no huge overhead that makes for and adds to panic. When you buy soup, tomato juice, chili con carne, pork and beans and catsup, ask for COLUMBIA BRANDS. AT ALL REGAL STORES. %

.DEC. 17, 1931

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

Sun Is Losing Four Milliort, Tons a Second, Says Astronomer in Smithsonian Institution Report* THE annual report of the Smithsonian institution just has been issued. And so, with the permission of the reader, I am going to repeat what I said just about this time last* year upon the occasion of the issuing of that year’s report. “The annual report of the Smithsonian institution” undoubtedly sounds to the ears of most readers like something which would be just a bit dull. Perhaps the title in full sounds even a bit worse—“ Annual report of the board of regents of the Smithsonian institution showing the operations, expenditures and condition of the institution for the year ended June 30, 1930." Yet I am going to recommend this report as a fascinating volume for all readers who are interested in the problems of modern science. I am not making that recommendation because I think you have any interest in the fiscal operation of the institution for the period that ended a year ago last June. I am recommending it because the Smithsonian institution does a very wise, thoughtful and fine thing each year. It uses the 100 or so pages of formal report as a kite to which it attaches a most interesting tail of some 700 pages. This tail, which is labeled the "General Appendix,” consists of a selection of articles from the scientific journals of the whole world, chosen because they deal with the most important phases of recent scientific development in language which is not beyond the intelligent layman.

Sun Dissipating 'T'HE articles in this year's report ■*- are written by world leaders in astronomy, geology, physics, biology and anthropology. Present conceptions of the interior of the sun, according to an article by Dr. Charles E. St. John of the Mt. Wilson observatory, picture it as composed of a gas of a density about twenty-eight times that of water, a state of matter so foreign to human experience that it baffles the imagination. The temperature at the heart of the sun is calculated at approximately 29,000.000 degrees above absolute zero. The star has been dissipating its matter in the form of radiation at a rate of approximately 4,200,000 tons a second for about two thousand million years. At this rate about fifteen thousand billion years will be necessary for the mass to be dissipated completely in energy. That the moon has an interior rich in radioactive material continuously generating heat is the hypothesis advanced by V. S. Forbes of Cambridge university, England, to explain features on the surface of the earth’s satellite, which appear to be of comparatively recent origin. The moon seems to be expanding, rather than shrinking, as would be the case if it were entirely cold and dead. This calls, Forbes says, for high internal temperatures, which . can come only from radioactivity.

Life at Poles First A COMPLICATED but real relationship between glaciation and solar radiation is advanced by Chester A. Reeds, who finds that the annual marks left by the last glaciation of eastern North America correspond to cycles of solar activity found by Dr. Charles G. Abbot, Smithsonian institution secretary. Anew approach to the problem of the origin of life on earth is offered by Assar Hadding, noted Swedish geologist. Life, he points out, was impossible until the planet had cooled sufficiently to allow tho condensation of water. This first happened, he believes, in the winter seasons at the twr* poles. Before that, the surface of the globe must have been covered with loose, hot volcanic ash. With the chemical action of water on this ash, he holds, the complicated composition of protoplasm became possible. Assuming that life originated iB depressions formed in the volcanic ash, the Swedish geologist sees ths possibility of a multiple beginning*. “Water,” he says, “accumulated gradually in larger and smaller depressions. It was hot or warm wateir and, in several basins at leasts rather strongly saline. “Thus the conditions for an organic cell’s formation and growth were favorable. If an organic cell could be formed in one pool, it also could be formed in the other, and we then come to the conclusion that the origin of organic life on earth may be derived from several protoplasms.”

Daily Thought

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.— I John 4:11. The law r of heaven is love.— Hosea Ballou.