Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 233, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 February 1933 — Page 6

PAGE 6

1 lie Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPTS-HO WARD NEWSPAPER) POT w. HOWARD BOYD GURLEY Editor EAUL D. BAKER Business Manager Phone—Rller MM

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TUESDAY. PEB 7. 1933. MAKING BANKS SAFE Members of the legislature will do well to examine carefully the measure introduced by Representative John Jones, offering a plan to make banks safe for depositors. The plan is simply to force banks to unite by regions under a system now used by clearing houses. In short, it would force banks to take an interest in each other and be on guard against bad practices. It may be a matter of some significance that in days when there have been failures and a consequent decrease of credit resources and buying power, no member of the clearing house has suffered. If there be safety in the clearing house plan, and there seems to be, it should be extended to all banks so that industry and business be protected against any shock that comes with bank suspensions. Other banking proposals will have the effect of reducing the number of banks and eliminating those who may be tempted to embark in this business with neither the training, the resources, or the temperament to be successful. Other states have tried to guarantee deposits through state action. That experience has always been sad, the people have paid and banks have been tempted to depart from cautious practices. But the Jones plan is based on a different theory. It would put it up to the bankers to keep all banks safe. Financial penalties would insure an active interest. If it be feasible, the bankers should be most active in its adoption. UTILITY RATES STILL UP In November, 1931, domestic consumers of electricity were paying an average monthly bill of $2.81. In November, 1932, they were paying $2.80. The average household price of manufactured gas fell not at all during the last year, in which food, farm products, textiles, clothing and furniture all tumbled so rapidly. And an electricity tax which was intended for the companies was transferred shiftily to the consumer, making his bills actually higher in the year of deflation, instead of lower, as they should have been. In the city of Washington, D. C., householders paid $1.95 for 50 kilowatt hours of electricity, and the privately owned company which supplied it, under careful regulation, made a good profit at this low rate. In other parts of the country where, presumably, regulation was less efficient, householders paid as much as $3.69 for the same amount of current. The average for 190 large cities of the United States was $3.25. Meanwhile, utility companies, still enjoying the benefit of a monoply industry, based, in many instances on natural resources, and protected by past rulings from federal courts as to what does and what does not constitute a confiscatory rate of return, continued to prosper. It is true that the Kankakee Water Company went to the courts in Illinois and complained that it was earning only 5.17 per cent and therefore was suffering confiscation of property, but few such complaints were heard. In the Kankakee case the courts held that a utility should not expect such large profits in hard times as in better days, and did not permit an increase in rates. Which suggests that utility commissions everywhere well might take anvantage of this mood on the part of the courts and see to it that before another year passes the cost of gas and electricity for home use drops to the 1933 general price level.

STATE TAX PLANS (From tho New York World-Telegram) ‘'This budget," declares Governor Herbert Lehman of New York, “is in keeping with the times. . . Extraordinary conditions compel unusual adjustments." Not so strikingly “unusual.” Nothing is more usual, alas, than meeting desperate need of public funds by adjustments broadening the basis of taxation so that small incomes will carry more of the load. The “little fellow" always is most numerous. Also, he can be made to pay his taxes with least protest and bother. He is a godsend to hard-up governments. Tire biggest item in Governor Lehman's proposed new taxes is the $37,000,000 to be raised by an added 1 per cent tax on gross incomes for 1933. Every single person with an income of SI,OOO or more, every married person with an income of $2,500 or more, would pay. Capital gains and losses excluded, exemptions cut down—all this in addition to the regular state income tax, which was doubled last year. Also, in addition to whatever congress may have in store in the shape of “broadened" federal income taxes. Under the Lehman plan the married person with two children and an income of $5,000 would pay next year a total state income tax of SB4. Figured in a family budget of strict necessities and on top of other taxes, does that SB4 represent the same proportional hardship borne by a person with SIOO,OOO income, whose state tax next year would be $5,602? Who will contend that it does? “Broadening the tax base" is the easiest way in state or federal held. But it still is far from equitable. Nor is there justice in continuing to provide for higher bracket incomes in tax-exempt government securities. The Lehman retail sales tax proposal, moreover, raises another grave question of the economic wisdom of further discouraging consumption when increased consumption is the admitted major need. We do not underestimate the Governor's difficulties. We believe he honestly and carefully has studied the question. But we are loath to see the easiest ways of increasing taxes accepted simply because they are the easiest. We think the time has come to protect the buying power of small incomes rather than to treat them as the surest, least resisting source of revenue.

AIR MAIL SUBSIDIES The long painful discussion over government economy took an intelligent turn in the senate last week, when air mail subsidies were selected for amputation. At times congress displays all the agility of a tight-rope walker in avoiding obvious important duties. This is one of the other times when an unpleasant task was faced courageously and done thoroughly. • The senate's action Is not intended to end air mail service in the United States, although the entire $19,000,000 appropriation for this purpose was stricken from the postoflice appropriation bill, on motion of the Democratic leader, Senator Joseph T. Robinson. Robinson said, when he suggested what appeared to be very drastic action, that his purpose was to provide a means of reorganizing the air mail so that it can pay for itself within a reasonable time. If this plan is carried out, the new administration will examine existing air mail contracts, eliminate subsidies entirely or gradually, and prepare new contracts under which the government will pay a fair price for transportation of the mails by air. The government operated the air mail itself at one time and brought it almost to the point of being self-supporting before it turned it over to private industry. Since this is true, the postoffice department should be able in a short time to reduce its payments for transportation of air mails to a moderate poundage basis similar to that paid for transportation of mails by rail, at the same time leaving the private operators in a position to earn reasonable profits. OUR GRANDFATHERS “People are complaining about the loss of things which their grandfathers never had,” is a saying which is going thp rounds. It is a good answer to querulousness and cowardice, but it is not an answer to the economic question. We should be responsible for a tragic failure to conserve humanity’s achievements if we were content to go back to our grandfather's standard of living. It is our duty as well as our right to make widespread luxury practicable. We will not be better off if we go back to grandfather’s horse and his bowl and water pitcher. We will be better off if we have grandfather’s courage to pioneer. Our pioneering must be in distribution, as grandfather's pioneering was in production. Our courage must be great enough to face the fact that there can not be a better distribution of goods without a better distribution of wealth. Lloyds has insured a bridegroom against the risk that some day he may have to support his mother-in-law. But it hasn't yet offered prctection against her visits. It’s not surprising to see congressmen fighting like cats and dogs. But running around in circles trying to make both ends meet is carrying the impersonation too far. Sometimes we’re glad we don’t know much about this theory of relativity. We’d hate to be told that the first robin just was late getting away. It’s fitting that Paris designers should trim the new spring gowns with telephone wire, considering the long distance tolls American women pay for them. A London laborer gave Britain a shock by managing to break into the Bank of England, regarded as impregnable as the Rock of Gibraltar. The Intruder might be just the right man for Roosevelt’s cabinet. If Admiral Byrd's next trip to the south polar regions accomplishes nothing else, it will give him a splendid opportunity to dispose safely of a fouryear accumulation of used razor blades. Now they’re proposing pocket radio sets for patrolmen on the beats. Might be all right if the coppers don’t get their' programs mixed and find after an hour that they’ve been trying to run down “the arch counterfeiter of 1912.”

Just Plain Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON ——

THE struggle between pacifism and militarism now is unequal. Advocates of the latter have at. their disposal vast government appropriations. Peace lovers have only words. But in the end words always have proved more powerful than dollars and the day surely will come when men and women will make their last great fight against their everlasting and implacable enemy—war. I love to remember what Eugene V. Debs said when lie stood before the Ohio judge not so many years ago while the war fever, like some evil plague, swept over the land. “Gentlemen,” said Mr. Debs, in a truly Homeric statement. “I will tak| back no word to save myself from the penitentiary. I am accused of obstructing the war. I admit it. I abhor war and I would obstruct it if I stood forever alone." All the valiant deeds of all the warriors of earth do not exceed in courage these simple words. They hold for humanity something of the same warning that Jesus gave as He trod the road to Calvary: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children." n n n AND we of the twentieth century shall weep, and we deserve to weep, if, knowing as we do all the horror, crime and futility of war, we do not make more of a conscious effort to outlaw it than we are making now. When Bruce Barton proposed that congress should appropriate 5 per cent of its present war budget, or some forty-eight million dollars, to educate the people against war, he presented us with a sensible working plan. It is terrible that a professedly peace-loving people should spend so much of its wealth to keep war alive and so little to promote good fellowship among nations. For no one really can start war except public opinion. No man or group of men, however, mighty, can incite a nation to take up arms and court its own destruction unless they first use the forces of propaganda, money and hatred to turn men’s minds toward conflict. Today too much of the money for which we sweat and slave goes to keep alive this horror. Other civilizations, other races have been supreme in war and passed into oblivion. There is only one new way, one way in which America can become a world force, a leader of nations, a torchbearer for humanity—and that is to make her 'Statue of Liberty an emblem of peace for men.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Disconcerting, to Say the Least!

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It Seems to Me • ... by Heywood Broun

HERR HITLER is quoted as having declared to his countrymen, “Crucify me if I fail.” Adolf's delusions of grandeur seem to be growing. There was a time when he merely thought that he was Mussolini. But crucifixion would be a most inappropriate punishment for the German junker. The dispensation which he seeks to bring to a troubled land is anew application of hatred. Into the open wounds of the world he would thrust the salt of suspicion, distrust and racial antipathy. ** And when anybody in any nation begins to urge recovery through a greater sense of nationalism and a more highly isolated patriotism, it will be well to remember that Herr Hitler is the full and perfect flower of this school of thought. tt tt tt The Love of Country PATRIOTISM" generally is put forward as meaning “love of country.” If that were precise,' no objection could be made to the rising tide of nationalism which is sweeping the world. But unfortunately love of country often is all too coupled with aggressive hatred for the rest of the people of the world. Although America has not yet elevated into its highest offices anybody quite as ridiculous as Herr Hitler, or as dangerous for that matter, we have public men who who are treading the same path, only too ready to touch the match to old prejudices. They seek to warm a shivering world by asking us to gather ’round the caldrons where the witch fires twinkle. It would be foolish to deny that hatred never is a driving or a constructive force. Righteous indignation has moved some.great leaders. But even in t.heir case it was little more than the primary impulse. You can not remake any society effectively on the basis of hatred alone. It is, after al], a thin and sharp-pointed spike, and the man who thinks that he can balance our present world on any such spearhead is either a fool or a magician. I don’t think Hitler is a magician. tt tt tt A Scheme Which Failed THE trouble with applying a passionate distrust, and suspicion to present problems is that we’ve just tried that. Indeed, we are trying it now, and there is not the slightest evidence that it is going to work. Only a few years ago Hitler promised that heads would roll upon the ground when he came into power. He has been a little less articulate in his preachments of savagery within the last few days, but he remains a man who believes that debate can be settled by decapitation. Now, surely no sane person 'an contend that the present unfortunate state of the earth has come about because of too great a tenderness upon the part of any man or nation. We killed our millions and solved nothing. We must get out of the red. Since agony and violent death failed so signally, what is the

■ DAILY HEALTH SERVICE ■ ■ Neglect Swells Thrombosis Toll BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

This i* th* last of three articles by Dr. Fishbein on coronary thrombosis, the disease which caused the death of former President Calvin Coolidfe. THE moment an attack of coronary thrombosis occurs, the person affected should be put immediately at complete rest in bed. Then a competent physician will be able to prescribe drugs according to the symptoms, relieving the pain, making sure that the patient stays quiet until the condition of the heart warrants slight exertion, then controlling bodily exertions so that activity gradually is resumed. Dr. Henry A. Christian has said that some patients die immediately, regardless of what the physician can do, because the heart is mortally wounded with the first blocking that occurs.

point in appealing to the steel helmets to solve the present difficulties of Germany? Hitler has his own private Nazi army, and some spectators have marveled at its seeming efficiency. All right, but nobody can assert that it possesses anything like the power which lay in the forces of the war lord in the year 1914. That probably w r as the finest army the w r orld ever has known. It could, of course, have tramped down Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon in a single afternoon. And its strength availed it precisely notliing. n n n Militarist Fools HITLER speaks again and again of bringing back the old Germany. He would make the nation what it was before the Great War. Indeed, he lias prom-

Every Day Religion . BY DR. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON

TO Charles Dickens, as we remember on his birthday, we owe our first news of how the other half of humanity lives. He was born in the human underworld, lived in it, loved it, knew its romance, its pathos, its humor; and across his pages stride a motley multitude of boys and girls, men and women from the gaunt, gray slums of London —a begrimed, bedraggled, fantastic, pathetic procession it is. It is by his rich humanity that Dickens lived, by his humor of character and cartoon and his melting pathos which, if sometimes maudlin, was none the less real. He taught his age how to laugh, and that was no easy task in a solemn, Hamlet-like generation. It was a wholesome, hearty, happy life with which he dealt—there is more eating, drinking and kissing in Pickwick than in any other book. One always is meeting a Dickens character and is lucky not to be one himself. A young man almost breaking his neck to break into society recalls “the yong man of the name of Guppey.” A sleek, clumsy, hypocritical meekness reminds us of Uriah Heap, with his stubbyred hair. Micawber is the symbol of the happy-go-lucky ne’er-do-well, always waiting for something to turn up, as Toots is of him who has whiskers pn his brain. Happy is the man who can be sure that he has no taint of Pecksniff, the humbug, in himself. a tt tt PICKWICK and Sam Weller are the Quixote and Sancho of London; they are immortal. The woman who enjoys ill health with sweet insipidity and engaging paleness, while her husband assures her that it is due to too much soul, is Mrs. Wititterly. The donkey who always speaks his mind, regardless, is seen in Chollop. and the goody-goody girl in Agnes, who always was "pointing up.” Os course, there is more in Dickens than his cartoons, but these gave him a vast popularity.

Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia. the Health Maraiine. Others have such a small area of heart tissue involved that they incline to recover. There is a large group in whom control of the condition and treatment mean the difference between life and death. Most important, however, of all is the advice to persons past 45 years of age that what seems to be an attack of acute indigestion never should be disregarded, particularly when the pain is referred largely to the heart. a a a DR. EUGENE S. KILGORE has pointed out that a large part of the difficulty of the medical profession in controlling this serious condition is due to the ignorance of the public.

ised to bring back the old Germany. And this he can not do. He may still a multitude of listeners by lifting his hand, but he can not raise up again the dead who were the old Germany. They will not even hear the tramp of many feet if new armies march once more in the vain crusade to carry destiny upon a litter of bayonet points. These men of blood and iron are also creatures of stuff and nonsense. There are no fools like militarists. They are the incurable romantics and sentimentalists of the world, who learn nothing and live on last year’s dreams. Let’s be practical, let’s be realistic and turn to the way of salvation for all mankind. Not forever must we walk like geese and talk above the roll of drums. We do not want the old world. It has died. Ring in the new. (Copyright. 1933. by The Times)

It was Dickens who took Christmas, warmed its dying embers and made it a festival of joy. If we doubt the change wrought In Scrooge, surely no other spirit could have softened such a skinflint. Then, too, the stories of Dickens are a bible of Babyland. What a troop of children trip and dance and cry in his stories, like the train of toddlers behind the? Pied Piper of Hamelin. Little Nell, David Copperfieid, Little Dorritt, Pip, Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim with his goodly gospel—what a goldenhearted, joyous, piteous company of little smilers, sinners, sufferers! They soften the hearts of us and make us more child-like—that is, more Christ-like—of such is the kingdom of heaven. For all this, and much else, we love dear, delightful old Boz. (Copyright, 1933. United Features Syndicate)

So They Say

Temperament usually is just an excuse for a bad disposition.— Miss Elizabeth Oppenheim, concert pianist. If school authorities studied truancy cases instead of calling an officer they could prevent much delinquency.—Dr. Giovanni Giardini, psychologist, Western penitentiary, Pennsylvania. I am convinced that we would not have seen the bank failure debacle that begun in 1929 had not the basis for it been laid by unwise laws.—Frances H. Sisson, president American Bankers’ Association. I disagree with those who hold the romantic notion that the best work is done by a starving artist in a garret. The golden periods in art always have coincided with prosperity. Fdererick Dielman, oldest living member of the National Academy of Design, New York.

Most patients who feel the first symptoms of this disease do not feel themselves sick enough to call a doctor. If they do not recover by good luck, they make their first medical contact with the coroner. He says that every means of publicity available ought to be used, even at the risk of creating some unnecessary fears, to teach middle aged and older people that diagnoses of ptomaine poisoning and acute indigestion usually are serious cases of mistaken identity, and that every case of pleuritic pain and neuritis of the chest, neck, jaw or arms demands the most prompt and painstaking diagnostic scrutiny poSvSible. The only advice that can be given for prevention is that best advice of medical science—moderation in all things. The avoidance of overeating and of overstrenuous life are the two main points to be considered.

M. E. Tracy Says: 4m —+ WE'RE FAR FROM PERFECTION

Alexander the great is reported to have wept because, as he imagined, “there were no more worlds to conquer.'' The truth is. he hadn't conquered any; just ridden roughshod over a lot of territory and frightened a lot of people. The vast empire he thought to have created lasted hardly long enough to see him well entombed.

Some Americans see the future with Alexander's tear-dimmed egotism. We have invented ourselves out of a job, they think. No hope for the country, except to put three Sundays in each week, with no work after lunch any day, and let experts tell us what to do the rest of the time. To let them tell it, we have about completed the task of building a nation and have such a surplus on hand as would build two or three more. Well, that may be a logical conclusion for those who live in apartments overlooking Central park and have tax-exempt securities with which to pay the upkeep. T° tPe l es s fortunate, it looks as though a great deal remained to be cione. a a a Our Outlook Has Grown Narrow TTTE have done some very wonderful things Our skyscrapers are ▼ ▼ the tallest on earth. Our hotels are the ejoegiest. if not the most comfortable. Our schools are magnificent, and some of our prisons represent a capital outlay per room that is far beyond what the average citizen can afford in his home. Our roads are beyond compare and our automobiles are so thick as to make walking dangerous. There is a telephone and a radio in most houses. The movie has developed Into an industry of first magnitude. So have baseball, golf, and contract bridge, with the jigsaw puzzle and technocracy promising to follow' suit. Outside of such items, however, this is a rather tackv nation its wealth, energy and producing power have coagulated into curiou; pools: its development has grown rutty and its outlook strangehnarrow. b J Great cities are ringed about with idle land which forces a long haul for most every description of food, indeed, the long haul once was the primary object of railroad building and has been Woven into our economic system. u-.nS e t h grea l city 3 by-product of the long haul craze. We wanted them few and far between. Congestion came to be looked upon as synonymous with progress. it a a Our Advancement Is Not Logical VyTTH two million square miles of land uncultivated and uncared ette nnnvlm e . Clamc T, for subways. double-deck streets, and kitchenette apaitments on the fortieth floor. would Ol iivp 0 m u CieR suppospd that when the automobile arrived people Mild me in the country and work in town. They were wrong AKo rural^or^suburban 1 development 18 * n "“° d ° murh summg end-and that’s the end that rounts-it has been largely a matter of salesmanship, fad, caprice, and mob psychology art IS , stored in museums, our culture comes over the air, and most of oui pleasure is taken sitting down. The only trouble with the machine age is that w-e are not giving iivfn t a rnnrhhViyf' not . lettil ?s it w °rk for the genuine improvement of help l6s condltlons ’ not achieving the great things we might with its

r — Uncle Sam, Scientist 1 • BY DAVID DIETZ •

THE cartoons picture your Uncle Sam in a star-spangled, spike-tailed coat and striped trousers. But it would be entirely appropriate to depict him in the white jacket of the laboratory worker, for Uncle Sam is becoming more and more of a scientist. Scientific study and research has become one of the important branches of governmental activity. The average citizen who thinks of national government in terms of new postoffices, army maneuvers and the difficulties of balancing the budget, probably does not realize the volume of important scientific work which is done by the government. The farmer, profiting by the advice of the department of agriculture, or the business man, finding the answer to a technological problem in a publication of the bureau of standards, knows the importance of governmental work in the field of science. Realizing the necessity of a general understanding of the importance of this work at a critical time such as the present, the Scientific Monthly, official journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has undertaken the publication of a series of articles dealing with this subject. tt tt tt Mr. Hoovers View THE series is started within introduction from the pen of President Herbert Hoover. In it he sets forth the importance of governmental work in science. “The insatiable curiosity of the human mind to probe the mysteries of nature through scientific research into the operation of natural laws has resulted in such wealth of new inventions and new products, so satisfactory to material needs of the people, that the world irrevocably is committed to an eternal quest of further truth, with certainty of endless and even more rapid change as new knowledge is translated into new conveniences and comforts,” Mr. Hoover says. “The social relations of mankind already have been altered by those changes beyond the utmost imagination of our forefathers. Further and more revolutionary changes will be wrought. “As government is the art of social relations under recognized authorities set up by the will of the people, any change wrought by scientific advance quickly produces new problems of government. “The federal government itself long ago sensed the potentialities of science when it gave official status to the Smithsonian institution. From that pioneer body has flowed a stimulation of scientific research of the most valuable character, both directly in its own discoveries and indirectly through its leadership and inspiration of private institutions.” , a a a Government Leads Way “QCIENCE also is recognized and encouraged by the federal government in the researches of the department of agriculture in biology, entomology and other fields." Mr. Hoover continues, “and similarly in other departments which promote research. “Thus the government still does, and increasingly should, lead the way by example toward the discovery of new knowledge to free mankind from ignorance, superstition. needless fears, and poverty. “Nor should it be unremarked that a spiritual value accrues in all this labor, for science requires a degree of unselfishness and devotion which calls out the finest qualities of the human spirit, and, since its goal is truth, the noblest aspirations of mankind.”

-FEB. 7, 1933*

mi

TRACY

In this brief statement. President Hoover has set forth a number of facts which every citizen of the United States should know. No one denies the importance of governmental economy at this time and the necessity of reducing expenses. However, if any program of economy seriously cripples the scientific work of the government, the country at large will lose in the end. The work of various government bureaus in th? field of science has saved the country millions of dollars through such things as improvement in agricultural processes, the control of insect pests the standardization of manufacturing processes, etc. Next—Scientific work of she United States department of agriculture. Questions and Answers Q —Name the six United States senators who voted against the declaration of war against Germany. A —La Follette, Wisconsin; Gronna, North Dakota; Norris, Nebraska; Stone, Missouri; Lane! Oregon, and Vardaman, Missis-’ -- sippi. • Q- In which year, during the' last fifteen, has the cost of living been lowest in the United States? A—ln June. 1932. it was 4.7 per cent lower than in 1917. Q—State the increase in population of the United States from 1830 to 1930. A—ln 1830 it was 12.866,020 and in 1930 it was 122.775.046. Q—Did Great Britain acquire any territory in Europe as a re- - suit of the World war? A—No. Q—What are Zombies? A—They are the reverse of ghosts. Instead of being disembodied spirits, they are presumed ' to be animate bodies without souls, generally corpses disinterred before dissolution of the physical structure, and endowed with the power of motion and limited thought and sensibility by magical means. It is the highest form of obi. which in turn, is a superdevelopment of the African voodoo. as practiced in the West Indies. Os course no scientific evidence of the existence of zombies ever has been adducced. Q —How much loss has been caused by forest fires in the United States during the last five years? A—A very rough approximation of the loss for the flve-vear period ending 1930. is 41.000,000 acres destroyed, valued at approximately $62,000,000. Q—Can real honey comb be manufactured? A—No. For many years to convince people that it could not be manufactured, there was a standing offer of SI,OOO for a single section of comb honey not made by bees, and no one claimed it.

Daily Thought

And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.—St. Matthew, 19:24. HOW many threadbare souls are to be found under silken cloaks and gowns! Thomas Brooks.