Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 255, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 March 1932 — Page 4

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Less and Different Taxes While various groups of citizens are organizing to save their property from confiscation through the tax route, the tax dodger can be depended upon to endeavor through political power to keep the burden entirely upon real estate. The farmers of the state have a very just complaint against the present system. So has the citizen who still cherishes the ancient hope of being able to save enough to own a home in his old age. Both know that unfair taxation is robbing him of his hope. Attention may be diverted by various demands for lower taxes. If that means an elimination of waste, such as occurs when $65,000 is spent for washing the face of the statehouse or the erection of a forest of electric light poles on a public square, all citizens will agree. It it means the elimination of fee systems that permit public officials to take huge sums from the public, there will be a greater agreement. If it means the placing of public service inwall minor positions on a civil service basis with regular hours such as arc demanded by private business, the public will not object. If it means the trimming of high salaries for officials to meet the deflated levels of today, there will be public support. But if it means that all the drive for lower taxes is to be used against teachers and policemen, there will be widespread objection. If it means that the people are to keep on raising revenues by a property tax almost exclusively, the farmer and home owner will kick and kick hard. Just why property should carry the burden and incomes escape is not explainable to the man who gets his living from a farm or from rentals and now finds himself without income because of the great deflation of farm prices and rental opportunities. But incomes of those who live upon interest and dividends from investments that are not to be found on the tax duplicates, or, if found at all, in much less amounts than the real value, have not been deflated. The rate of interest has not been reduced. Perhaps some candidate for Governor will soon announce a platform of raising all necessary revenues by a levy on incomes. That might make it possible for people to use real estate to create an income on which to pay. At the present time property is being rapidly confiscated by government in favor of the owner of intangibles.

The Kidnaping There probably is not a mother or father in the country who has not suffered with Charles and Anne Lindbergh for the last two days. As though one baby had become the symbol of all babies, terror and pain have struck into the hearts of parents. What child is safe? is the universal question. May we, too, not receive the wound against which there is no anesthetic? Senator Norris and Representative Sumners promise quick consideration in house and senate judiciary committees of measures to make interstate kidnaping a federal offense; to punish with heavy penalties senders of threatening letters; to make interstate kidnaping a hanging offense. Federal anti-kidnaping laws obviously are needed. As pointed out recently by Colonel Isham Randolph of Chicago’s “Secret Six,” this species of crime has become largely an interstate matter. Whatever laws can be passed and enforced to abate the savage and cowardly traffic should be put upon the books with no delay. But law dealing so intimately with the very core of human affections must yield even righteous wrath in favor of wisdom. The kidnaping code contains no chivalrous clauses. Facing capture, would not a kidnaDer kill and dispose of his victim if hanging were the penalty for his crime? Would not capital punishment in many instances make conviction difficult in cases that did come to trial? Alabama. Kentucky,. Nebraska, Virginia, Illinois and Missouri have laws making kidnaping a capital crime. It is significant that both Illinois and Missouri have been the scenes of recent kidnaping outbreaks. Kidnaping for ransom is a crime as old as piracy. The recent cases in Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere appear to belong to anew category, however. They resemble gang rather than individual crimes, as though spawned into the vast breed that had its beginning in the prohibition racket. The depression, putting a keener edge to desperation, also may play a part in this present horror. Action must be taken and penalty prescribed. Eut let wisdom be the guide of the lawmakers. Let them remember that in every kidnaping case there is a baby in the hands of a brute. Court Reforms President Hoover’s special message to congress suggesting legislation for improvement in the administration of justice is uneven. Apart from his evasion of the prohibition problem, discussed in this column Wednesday, the notable thing about the President’s program is its limited scope. But it contains several good contributions. One is that federal authorities shall have power to turn over to state authorities juvenile violators of federal laws. The federal government lacks facilities for handling such cases. Another good suggestion is that federal courts be relieved of part of their Jurisdiction in civil cases, based on differences in the state citizenship of litigants. This suggestion very well might be carried further in the direction of the 1930 Norris bill. In the matter of court congestion, the President is to be congratulated on reversing his earlier idea that congestion is general and on scrapping his earlier panaceas of Juryless trials, trials before United States commissioners and other radical changes. Having discovered that congestion is a problem only in a minority of districts, the President wisely turns back to the method followed by the judicial conference and the attorney-general, which is the appointment of additional judges. Four Hoover proposals for eliminating obstacles in criminal cases merely repeat procedure recommendations contained in the attorney-general’s report several months ago. Three of these proposals, concerning jurors, are relatively unimportant. The fourth, which would permit the supreme court to make rules for criminal proceedings subsequent to verdict deserves more careful study than seems to have been given to it. Probably the most important part of the message is that dealing with changes in the bankruptcy act. Mr. Hoover makes the valuable suggestion that officers responsible to the court should examine bankrupts, and not leave this work to private initiative; also that agencies should be set up to 410-ordinate

The Indianapolis Times <A BCHIITSHOHAKD NEWSPAPER) OwD*d and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishln K Cos 214-220 West Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marion County. 2 cents a copy; elsewhere, 3 cent*—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. Mail subscription rates in Indiana. $3 a year: outside of Indiana. 63 cents a month. BOYD GOULET. HOT W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER Editor President Business Manager PHONE—Riley liMl THURSDAY. MARCH 3. 1933. Member of United Press, Scrfppa-Howard Newtpaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Aasoelation, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

bankruptcy administration and to check continuously on the operation of the law. The abuses under our existing bankruptcy law are notorious. They should be corrected. Doubtless the trend of reform suggested by Solicitor-General Thacher, an outstanding bankrupt authority, and supported by the President, is in the right direction. But the entire matter is so complicated it should be investigated thoroughly by the congressional committee to prevent half-baked legislation. This is particularly true as applied to the conditional discharge of bankrupts. Many, if not most, of the existing bankruptcy abuses could be eliminated if the present judicial machinery were operated aggressively and intelligently. Any system will depend on the men operating it. We need judges who will recognize their responsibility and who intelligently will supervise the selection and work of their subordinates, the referees, and the receivers and trustees and their counsel. In this, as in other administrative and judicial matters, reforms can not be achieved merely by passing another law. Pollyanna History Following the publication of Harry Daugherty’s book on the late Mr. Harding; Congressman Grant E. Mouser Jr. of Ohio introduced a bill into congress prohibiting the transportation in interstate commerce of any matter defamatory of the memory of any deceased individual tending to scandalize surviving spouse or surviving relatives of such deceased individual.” Inasmuch as Mr. Daugherty’s book was intended as a defense of our late Fresident, it is hard to see how it stimulated such a proposal. But the principles involved certainly warrant examination. No doubt there are plenty of literary ghouls who will stoop to any level of the gutter to increase their notoriety or private fortunes. Libel and slander are bad enough for the living, who at least have some chance to defend themselves. They are far worse for the dead, who have only their friends or relatives left 1 to defend them. Yet even here the situation is not so bad af\ it seems at first sight. There is little interest in vilify- j ing anybody except important public characters. This I fact provides an automatic check on the ravages of irresponsible debunkers. Public figures are bound to attract many students of their careers. Careful scholars inevitably will check up on all scandal-mongering. If they find that the charges made against any dead public figure are unwarranted, such demonstration will at one and the same time rehabilitate the reputation of the person attacked and properly discredit those who have vilified him. If injustice has been done, it is bound to be righted and the odium will fail upon those who, through carelessness or malice, have made unfounded assertions. Any such bill as that of Mouser’s would be bad for history and for public interest. We often badly need information of a very recent character. It frequently is contrary to public well-being to postpone historical scrutiny of a career. We would many times find it undesirable to delay investigation or historical research until the wife of a public figure has passed away, what if we had to wait until his great-grand-children have been safely and complacently buried? If the feelings of relatives are injured by the revelation of demonstrable truths, then it is just too bad. If they are humiliated by untruths, then they can have resort to existing laws. It is probable that in Harding’s case the country could have survived without immediate knowledge of ‘‘The President’s Daughter.” But it would have been unfortunate if we had been compelled to postpone the investigation of Teapot Dome, the Ohio Gang, and Secretary Fall’s SIOO,OOO until the last of the Harding relatives had passed to their final resting-ground. Like other censorship notions, this proposal by Congressman Mouser runs counter to common sense, human freedom and the best interests of society. No writer of enough repute to carry any weight can survive gross misrepresentation on his part. In the end he will suffer more than the dead figure he has maligned. We can afford to let this remain as the all-sufficient check upon biographical falsification. Two ring-tailed monkeys have been added to a radio station’s staff. Won’t the crooners be jealous! Diplomats trying to prevent fighting in China should take a few tips from the managers of champion prize fighters.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

A LETTER has arrived from that eminent citizen “Homo Sapiens.” “Do,” he begs, “try to get your view of your sex around to a man’s angle.” • But, my dear Mr. Sapiens, I don’t dare do that, because it always makes me so mad. I find man’s angle so unreasonable unless we can all agree that women are not human beings. That it is impossible for me to do. The general masculine idea of the feminine halt of the population strikes me as very dense. It presumes in the first place that women should have no individuality, no ambition, and almost no sense. Second, it always sets up the theory that the man's angle always is the correct one. There is no doubt that a good many things women are doing these days are preposterous. They are futile and even slightly idiotic. But haven’t men behaved in the same way since the Tower of Babel? They have been wise and progressive only in spots and at intervals. Most of their activities have been inane and thir journeyings aimless. am* I GRANT that if we could get a man’s angle on ourselves, we might mend our ways. But I dare also assert that it would help men tremendously to get our angle on them. Yet there is the one big idea that, amid all the discussion, never seems to strike them. They lay down the law about what we shall do, issue Ultimatums about our behavior and moralize about our sins. And all of this without the faintest effort to look at a woman’s problems with a woman’s eyes. They state sweepingly that we’re all wrong about everything and that ends it. They assert that we have ruined the country and in the next breath calf upon us to save it. Most human misery arises from a lack of individual imagination. We can't put ourselves in the other fellow’s shoes. This is how men have failed with their own problems and why they are failing with ours. Ever since I can remember, women have been urged through every known publicity device to view men’s frailties leniently. But the American man, generous as he is with his money, makes very little effort to understand women. He 'opens his pocketbook, but closes his mind, which does not mark him as particularly intelligent or kind. "m

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy Says:

Kidnaping Is Just Another Form of Extortion Which Has Plagued the Country Ever Since Prohibition Gave Millions to Organized Vice. NEW YORK, March 3.—Kidnap 1 means literally to nab, or snatch a child. It comes from the slang of thieves who made childstealing a regular business. This crime became so common at one time as to fill all England with terror and was to play a regrettably 1 large part in providing labor for American colonies, i Many more of our so-called native stock are descended from kidnaped ancestors than from the pilgrim fathers. You don’t hear so much about it, but that’s due to bad history on the one hand, and false pride on the other. No one ever will know the number of children who were waylaid i and sneaked on board .ships bound for this side of the Atlantic during | the last quarter of the seventeenth i century and the first half of the eighteenth, but it must have run ! well into the thousands. The practice developed as a byproduct of the bond-servant scheme. tt n u Colonial Slavery IN those good old days when religious liberty, free land, or the love of adventure called men to America, there were many who felt the urge to come, but who lacked the money for their passage. There were others in jail who were willing to accept banishment : if they could get out. Both classes were compelled to ; sign bonds that they would work I for a term of years without pay in j exchange for their transportation. These bonds were accepted by ship captains as payment for passage. On arrival at the designated colony, the captains sold the bonds for what they would bring, and those who had signed them became virtual slaves of the purchaser for | five, seven, or ten years. With the growing need for labor in America, the bond-servant brought a continuously higher price, j while the supply of criminals and j volunteers grew less and less ade- ! quate.

Black Record IT was at this point that kidnapers stepped into the picture, snatching children, forging bonds and turning both over to unscrupulous captains for a mere pittance. Many a lad was shanghaied for $5 or $lO, while many a mother went to her grave without knowing what had become of her boy. It is a black record, and there are reasons for being grateful that there it is not more complete, but we know enough to realize that there was a time when kidnaping held more terrors, especially for the common run of folk, than it does today, in spite of the many shocking occurrences. an a Prohibition Again Such news as swept the country Wednesday is not necessary to remind us that kidnaping has been revived in an organized, malicious way, or that it has a definite connection with the racketeering, gangrule and blackmail which have developed around the illegal liquor trade. Kidnaping is just another form of extortion which has plagued the country ever since the eighteenth amendment and Volstead act placed such enormous revenues at the disposal of organized vice and taught people how they could beat the law with money. The tribute that has been levied on the American people during the last decade is incalculable. There was never anything like it in our history, and it is taking on an uglier form with each passing day. a a a Millions for Corruption NEITHER can we hope to get very far in suppressing it, until the main source of its revenue has been removed —the millions upon millions of dollars which are derived from the liquor trade and which enable the vicious element of every community to corrupt officials, retain lawyers, exercise power in politics and protect themselves in other ways. The gangs must be smashed before the extortion can be stopped, and that is impossible, unless their supply of money is cut off.

M TODAY § S'}* IS THE- vs y WORLD WAR \ ANNIVERSARY

RUSSO-GERMAN PEACE SIGNED March 3 ON March 3. 1918, heavy German assaults on the French lines in the Champagne sector of the western front were beaten off after several hours of sharp .combat. It was one of the heaviest engagements of the year. Allied observers believed that German divisions recently brought from the Russian front were used in the attack. An Austrian attack on the Italian front in the Frenzela valley was stopped by an Italian barrage. German planes dropped several bombs on Petrograd, killing three persons and injuring five. The treaty of peace between Soviet Russia and Germany was signed formally at Brest-Litovsk. Trotski. Russian foreign minister, turned in his resignation because of the harshness of the terms.

Questions and Answers

What was the population of Indianapolis in 1920 and what is it now? The 1920 population was 314.194. The last census was taken during 1930 and the figures were 364,073. The population has changed little in the last two years. How can I obtain a compensation for my war veteran husband? We would suggest that you inquire of either the American Legion , or Veterans of Foreign Wars.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Heart Disease Due to Various Causes

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Ilygeia. the Health Magazine. ONLY recently has scientific medicine begun to realize the great frequency of heart disease and its importance as a cause of death. So little did this realization exist in the past that no deaths from heart disease recorded in New York for the period 1804-1808, although obviously many people must have died from such cause. There are, of course, various types of heart disease. The organ may be damaged by poisons that have circulated through the body, and have injured the muscle. Its nerve control may be involved. The blood vessels that supply the heart with blood may be hardened or otherwise obstructed. Sometimes infections attack the valves of the heart or its lining.

IT SEEMS TO ME by H S D

NONE of my teachers ever told me that I could be President when I grew up. They didn’t even suggest the possibility of my selection if I failed to mature. The matter never came up. It was overlooked on account of a lot of wholly unnecessary commotion about my handwriting and my spelling. If one only could look ahead in his youth. The teachers and I would have been spared an endless amount of drudgery and even some bickering if I had possessed so much as a prophetic inkling. In that event I could have said: “Let’s not bother about penmanship, grammar and spelling any more. I’m going to be a newspaper columnist.” But in getting back to the tiny tots and their chance of becoming President, I wish to revise the rules. It is a traditional boast of our republic that the job is open to any native-born citizen. I think the teacher ought to add that it doesn’t hurt any to be a Republican and a Protestant. But at least the schools do insist that the ambition is honorable and that anybody at all can yearn for the high office. a a a Not in Mixed Company NOW, that’s all wrong. Every day some gentleman who was a little boy once upon a time, finds that he was misinformed by his teacher. The advice ought to contain the admonition, “You can all have the desire to be President of the United States, but never let anybody catch you at it. Lock the secret in your heart. Don’t speak of it.” As things stand now. we encourage little boys in an ambition which very well may disgrace them in

Growing of Roses Do you know the happy adventure of growing roses in your home garden? Success with roses is not hard for the amateur if a lew rules are followed. Os recent years nearly everybody who pretends to have any sort of a garden, has from one to a score or more of rose bushes. Whether you already grow roses, or whether you never have, and want to start, our Washington Bureau has ready for you a comprehensive, but simply worded bulletin, written by a practical rose grower with years of experience, that will give all the information you need for success. If you want your table and your living rooms filled with beautiful roses this year, fill out the coupon below and send for this bulletin—and start the happy adventure. CLIP COUPON HERE Dept. 172, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin ROSE GARDENS, and enclose herewith 5 cents in coin, or loose, uncancelled, United States postage stamps, to cover return postage and hadling costs: NAME ST. and NO CITY STATE I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times.

Gangway!

In general, the various causes of heart disease may be listed as the congenital, which means that the heart is abnormal at birth; the rheumatic type, which probably is due to some special infection; the syhilitic type; the type that is due to hardening of the arteries; the type due to chronic high blood pressure; the type due to disturbances of the thyroid gland; the type due to fatigue, and a considerable number which apparently have some unknown cause. At present, rheumatic disease accounts for one-fifth of all deaths from heart disease, and anywhere from one-fourth to one-half of all patients treated for heart disease. Os patients studied at post-mor-tem, about half are found to have damaged hearts as result of disturbance of vessels which supply the heart with blood.

later years. At the moment, lam thinking of the case of Samuel Seabury, who made a speech in Cincinnati. Many of us consider him an honorable gentleman and a highly efficient investigator. Although his foes have raged against him, not one has found anything on him. But now they are jubilant and prepared to tear him limb from limb. On the basis of his radio address, Mr. Seabury’s detractors are circulating the ugly rumor that he wants to be President. Even his friends turned pale or blushed, according to the nature of their vasomotor system. It is almost as if the whisper ran, “Seabury’s got a tin box.” People avert their glances and nudge one another before crossing to the opposite side of the street. “There goes,” they say, “a man who wants to be President.” And as they walk away quickly there is the sound of shuddering. a .a a Shock to Sentimental IT is strange that a man experienced in politics thus should shock public sentiment. The rule is well established that every preconvention campaign should be carried on by men with their faces averted from Washington. You will find plenty of them running at a rapid pace and in the right direction, but they are running backward. And if any candidate ever shows up in the convention city, he always takes pains to explain that he has come to spend the week-end with his girl, who is playing in a burlesque show, or that he got off the train under a misapprehension while intoxicated. He must give some honorable reason and never confess

About one-fifth of all patients treated for heart disease by physicians probably are cases in which the blood vessels of the heart are damaged. It obviously is of greatest importance for every one to realize the basic causes of heart disease, if the condition is to be controlled properly. The diagnosis of heart disease properly should depend always on cause of the trouble. If the incorrect action of the valves is due to rheumatic infection, that is the important point. If the pain is due to changes in the blood vessels of the heart, the change in the blood vessels is far more important than the pain, so far as concerns the treatment of the disease. Pain may be controlled by various types of treatment, but the disease will progress unless the cause is attacked.

Ideal* and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America's roost interesting writers and are orcsented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

' that he was seeking the office. The voters won’t stand for it. Unless the presidency falls off an apple tree and hits you on the head or trips you up on a lonely road upon a moonlight night, you are supposed to return it to the rightful owner. You must not reach, and you must not point. You can’t even be cheerful in the event of a nomination. The successful candidate is supposed to weep and explain that this unfortunate accident has spoiled a fishing trip. a a a Under Masks and Aliases TT seems to me that the rules should be liberalized. Men should be allowed to go directly after the presidency if they wear black masks and crawl on their stomachs. Asa matter of fact, the latter expedient recently has won favor in several high quarters. An even better scheme to avert self-consciousness and shame would be to leave the whole matter up to blind chance. My idea would be particularly useful to the Democrats, since the finger of suspicion has been leveled at so many of its leaders in the matter of their aspirations. The name of every one of them who has been mentioned as a possible candidate should be written down on a slip of paper and placed in a hat. Any hat will do. It need not be a brown derby. From that hat a backward child of 2 shall be allowed to draw one name. If no such child is available, we can compromise and use a voter who believes that the Democratic party actually maintains the traditions of Thomas Jefferson. If the name drawn happens to be that of Franklin Roosevelt, the slip is torn into small pieces and the lottery continues until it makes some sense. I trust no one will suspect that I have any personal ax to grind. When you say that to me, smile. I have no ambition to be President. I couldn’t be President, because-1 believe in entangling alliances, the dole, and the old-fashioned saloon. (Coovrieht. 1932. bv The Times)

Daily Thought

For the fashion of this world passeth away.—Corinthians 7:31. Vanity is the foundation of the most ridiculous and contemptible vices.—Adam Smith. What is the purpose of the American Institute of Banking? It is the educational section of the American Bankers’ Association that provides instruction to bank employes. Courses of study in banking law and practice, and in elementary economics are offered by corespondence, and by local chapters. Certificates of the American Institute of Banking have become the recognized standard of American banking education. %

.*MARCH 3, 1932

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ—V-

Rare Books Show Deprc\ ?. sions With Us Often in tfj r Past, With the Same Remedies. \ A SCIENTIFIC approach to problems of the present depress sion requires a thorough study oi! the depressions of the past, their causes and their cures. Science, according to one defini-i tion—the one, by the way, I learned in high school —is the orderly classification of knowledge. Realizing the need for knowledge of the past, the rare books department of Columbia university has prepared an exhibit titled ‘‘Depressions the World Has Lived Through.” The exhibition is to be seen at Schermerhom hall, Columbia university, New York. The books exhibited constitute a part of the Seligman library of economics, purchased in 1930 by the university from Professor E. R. A. Seligman. They cover the eight major depressions which have afflicted the western world since 1700. A study of them seems to indicate that, machine age or no machine age, there is very little new under the sun. The books reveal the same sort of problems, the same sort of public reactions, and the same sort of proffered remedies. Hoarding existed in the panic of 1884 as well as today. One of the books, published in 1884 is titled “Excessive Saving, a Cause of Commercial Distress, Being a Series of Assaults Upon Accepted Principles of Political Economy.” The author was Uriel H. Crocker. non Overproduction IF you have read during the last two years or so the talk about mass production and its effect upon economic life, you have gotten the impression that overproduction came into existence since the World war and is to be charged directly to the advances in machine technology. Therefore, you might be surprised to note one book in the Seligman collection, published in England in 1842. Its title is “Not Over-Pro-duction, but Deficient Consumption, the Source of Our Sufferings.'’ So, it would appear, way back in 1842 they were arguing the problems of production and consumption. The “new” economic era is not so new after all. Miss Darthula Wilcox, in charge of the Seligman library, who arranged the exhibit, commented: “We have about 150 volumes in our collection on depressions since the seventeenth century, and they are practically all the same. “Every one of them declares theirs is the worst depression that ever happened; they all say it should teach the world something; they all offer the same penaceas, and they all blame it on the same causes. “They always blame the tariff and the poor laws, or what we call the dole, and ever since the industrial revolution, they all blame technological unemployment.” ts a Original Idea MISS WILCOX found only one original panacea in the whole collection. An anonymous wag of 1767 proposed that all marriages in the British empire be dissolved, and that any couples desiring to remarry be obliged to pay a considerable license fee to the government. He proposed to repeat the process every year, annulling all marriages annually, requiring an annual license fee, and thus swelling the government’s coffers indefinitely. He believed that the number of couples who would not choose to remarry would be astounding; but that the innovation would increase marriages tremendously, since all the young bachelors who were wary of matrimony while it entailed an eternal tie would be glad to risk it when it meant bondage for only one year. The proposal is made in a pamphlet called “A Scheme to Pay Off, in a Few Years, the National Debt, by a Repeal of the Marriage Act.” Also on view in Schermerhorn liall is a collection of books illustrating “English Money Troubles Through Two Centuries,” a 200-year discussion of how to stem the flow of gold from the British isles; and a collection covering 250 years of dispute over poor laws, arguing the question of individual versus state charity.

People’s Voice

Editor Times—Having been a reader of your paper for about twelve years without missing a copy exceDt on vacation. I wonder if I could ask this question: Isn’t there a law against robbers? If so, why are the biggest robbers of all allowed to keep on robbing the poor folks? I mean utility companies. Does any one know of a bank robber who ever gave back what he got, unless made to do so by the law? And he will continue to get more as long as he is free. Why is there not a law to force these companies to lower the rates? We are not^ asking to return what they’ve already taken, but we surely would like to see a stop put to any further robbing. I certainly think The Times has been doing a wonderful thing in its drive. Here’s hoping for results soon. e. F. B. Editor Times—Press reports concerning Governor Leslie’s proposal to award contracts to firms within the state of Indiana should be an example for the members of the Indianapolis sanitary board to consider in awarding contracts. The fabrication and erection of thirtytwo new digesters at the city reduction plant has been awarded to the Walsh-Widener Company of Chattanooga, Tenn. Notwithstanding the fact that an unemployment condition actually exists in the city, bread lines and soup kitchens having been established by relief and charitable organizations, the sanitary board considered the almighty dollar above human rights and awarded this work to an out-of-state firm. The local shops bidding on the digesters are well equipped to build this class of work and, with the thought in mind that should a local shop be favored with the contract, a number of Indianapolis men would be given employment covering a period of nearly three months. The whole procedure on the part of the members of the sanitary board is an insult to the shop owners and workers of the city.* Incidents of this nature very seldom are forgotten. A. J. CONWAY. 1811 North Talbot street.