Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 240, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 February 1933 — Page 4

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The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) POT W. HOWARD Present BOTH GURLEY Editor EARL D. BAKER ........ Buslnesi Manager

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One l.t'jht anil the People Will Fin 4 Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15, 1933.

A $22,000,000 EVASION After riding through almost an entire session of congress in the worst depression of our history without even discussing direct relief for the hungry, the senate has capped its evasion by giving the care of transient youth to the army. To the army appropriation bill $22,000,000 was added for citizens’ military training camps to accommodate 88,000 of the estimated 200,000 boys roaming the country without jobs. Asa method of increasing the army appropriation at a time of needed economy, this method is very effective. But for solving a serious social problem, it would be difficult to find a worse method. Social workers and government experts are agreed, and so stated during the recent, hearings on the Cutting bill, that these transient youths should not be isolated in large concentration camps far from home. General Pelham D. Glassford, who has been traveling among these homeless boys to study conditions, recommended to the committee that civilian camps should not include more than 750 boys and preferably 500. Grace Abbott, chief of the United States children's bureau, pointed out that large federal camps would "attract many who otherwise would stay at home,” thus increasing rather than decreasing the problem. Social workers emphasized that these proposed large military camps would create the same serious difficulties which surrounded the army cantonments during the war. Just because our army is efficient as an army, It is not equipped to be a school and a home and a place of employment for young boys made tramps by the depression. Instead of pauperizing the boys by inviting them to remain in an army camp for one year, as the senate proposes, they should be handled in small units by trained workers, intent on getting them back to their homes and to work as soon as possible. This half-baked legislation is a sample of what happens when congress ignores an explosive situation for many months, and then suddenly pulls a curc-all out of its hat as a gesture between appropriation bills. It is high time that this evasion of the vast relief program be stopped. First and immediate job of congress is to provide quick relief through local agencies for the millions who are hungry and cold. The La Follette-Costigan and Wagner bills covering the many-sided relief needs are ready for action. But nothing is done. Senator La Follette just has warned the senate that it must begin night sessions and that, rather than permit adjournment of congress without action, he will force the issue. Senator La Follette is too patient. He should force the issue today—every day more people go hungry, every night more people go cold. A vote should be forced now in which every member of congress is made to declare himself for feeding or for starving the unemployed.

COMMON SENSE IN TAXATION This is the season of income taxes. Those of us fortunate enough to have the opportunity to pay them are likely to be filled with sentiments of annoyance ratner than of gratitude. It will not pay, however, to lee our personal indignation overwhelm our social vision. Otherwise we may have to pay more in some later year or be deprived entirely of the highly exclusive privilege of paying taxes. One pertinently may remind the plutocrat who frantically is demanding the reduction of taxes that no one has to pay them in Russia. It is for such consideration that we may call attention to an unusually statesmanlike article on “Can Taxes Be Lowered?" in the Virginia Quarterly Review, by Henry Pratt Fairchild and William L. Nunn. As the corner stone of their doctrine, they lay down the following sensible propositions: “The test of expenditure by a government is not its volume, but its results. . . . The justifiability of government expenditures, and the wisdom of government economy, are to be judged not at all by the magnitude of the funds involved, but by the sources from which they come ant the ends to which they go." From this standpoint, the authors examine the present tax system and the contentions of the tax reductionists. What are the sources of our economic malady? They are not difficult to discern. They are: cl) Too little purchasing power in the hands of the masses, due to im?quahties in distribution of the social income—i. e„ too low wages and too much unemployment and too great liquidation of American agriculture; (2) a cast excess of productive plant and the tendency to divert even more of the social income into creating additional unnecessary equipment: (3) the rape of sound industry by speculative finance, and t 4) the lack of balance between the production of goods and of sendees for human consumption—too many goods and too few sendees. How does the program of the tax reductionists line up with respect to these weaknesses in American society? It simply adds fuel to the already consuming flame. It proposes to make the poor—already inadequate consumers—pay more than their share of the social burden through indirect taxes, sales taxes, and the like. It proposes to protect the rich, so far as possible, from further burdens, so that they can have more money to put into unnecessary productive plant, thus freezing up more funds. Finally, the tax reductionists attack first of all those services which are the best proof of civilized existence. Their practical offensive involves the “abolition of school gardens and teacher training schools; elimination of medical inspection in schoolrooms; eliminating adult education classes, vocational guidance work, summer schools and Are prevention departments; cutting into appropriations of museums, libraries, hospitals, homes for the aged and handicapped. ..." Moreover, the money saved is left in the hands of those who already have ruined us. Professors Fairchild and Nunn close with a broad itatement of the principles of sound taxation; “If the government will use its taxing;, power to reduce the incomes of these who.have a large sur-

plus over and above their practical desires for consumption, and who consequently are under the constant incentive to Invest large sums In unneeded additional productive plant, and will expend the income from such taxation for services honestly rendered by those who otherwise would have no jobs, and for goods honestly produced for which there otherwise would be no demand, then government expense will be a positive factor toward business stability, and an increase in expense will be a positive means of promoting recovery.” Here we have a clear alternative: We can follow those who have brought us to rutn or those who earnestly and Intelligently seek to build a social order which will justify a continuance of human life on our planet. „ IMPROVING COUNTRY LIFE Theodore Roosevelt thought the Improvement of country life a vital national need and appointed a commission to study the problem. Franklin D. Roosevelt also Is interested in the improvement of country life. With a speed and definiteness that would do credit to the reputation of the first President Roosevelt as a man of action, today’s Roosevelt has done more than appoint a commission. Even before taking office, he announced a concrete plan which has as one of its principal objects the Improvement of country life—the great scheme for utilization of Muscle Shoals and other natural resources of the Tennessee valley. Mr. Roosevelt thinks cheap government electricity, distributed widely over rural areas, will bring cheer, comfort, and prosperity to countiy life, now too often hopeless and drab. It should decentralize industry, enabling industrial workers to live on farms and furnishing a prosperous farm community to sell food to industrial workers and absorb the products of industry. T. R.’s commission, which reported in 1909, pointed the need of soil conservation and reforestation. F. D.’s plan provides for It. T. R.’s commission was concerned with the shortage of labor on the farm. F. D.’s plan would relieve unemployment. "The strengthening of country life Is the strengthening of a whole nation,” said Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt is acting intelligently on that principle.

HEALTH CLUBS The suggestion of the Twentieth Century Fund that medical guilds be formed to take care of the nation’s health problems will command attention. Illness is apt to cost so much. No individual can be sure that he will get through a year without heavy bills which worry him and which, if unpaid, disturb the doctor, who must live the same as the rest of us. If the head of a family knows that he is contributing S2OO to S3OO a year to the support of a clinic where he and his wife and his children will receive all the medical attention they need, whenever they need it, it. is conceivable that he will feel a relief from one dread fear which haunts his waking days. So Evans Clark, director of the fund, has titled the book, published by Harper & Brothers, “How to Budget Health." What is to hinder any number of such medical or health guilds springing up? If 15,000 persons in one town and 10.000 in another want to form units with their own staff of specialists and diagnosticians to look after them, it is worth the experiment. The doctors would get better and more regular incomes. Persons who still prefer to go individually to a privately practicing! physician could do so. There wtiuld be no compulsion about the guild plan—not nearly so much, in fact, as the state medicine recommendation of the committee on the costs of medical care. Captain Hobson sank the Merrimac in Santiago harbor and waited thirty-five years for the congressional medal of honor. Nowadays, some folks sink a roll in a campaign fund and have to wait six months for postmasterships. Fatalities In the recent blizzard were light, considering how many shivering souls were asked: “Is it cold enough for you?" Before laying barber shop blasts to racketeers, someone should examine the razors.

Just Plain Sense = BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

TF the American woman ever believed that the American man was capable of dealing with national emergencies efficiently, sensibly and intelligently, surely by now she has learned her mistake. For the most striking thing about the state of national and world affairs is the complete breakdown of what w r e used to term ‘’hard-headed business sense.” Men, you know', always have smiled benignly at feminine idealism. They have called us sentimentalists and assured us that the larger issues never could be met with idealistic methods. Perhaps they are right. But the present, I think, proves conclusively that their “practical” theories will not work any better. Indeed, nothing ever has flopped with such resounding and devastating reverberations as that famed masculine competitive system. We may not save the world through idealism alone, but we never shall be able to preserve ourselves without it. a an AZE, if you please, upon the modern scene. What scurryings of fear, what a panic of bewilderment! What a death of intelligence, what an utter lack of humanitarianism is displayed by the men who have proclaimed themselves our leaders! While the nation staggers toward ruin, what do they do? Mostly they talk—about tariffs, about nationalism, about wars. They speak the same jargons that were used by kings in the dark ages, jargons that now are useless and without meaning. Are they concerned very much about human beings? Do they know that schools are closing all over the United States, that multitudes of boys are becoming tramps and that there is no work for the people? No. With their heads made hard by their doctrines of practicality, they do not comprehend that none of the old things will work. It is anew idealism that we must have. A complete new economic structure must be built. And to do that we shall have to develop a fresh vision. And if our world is to be saved, unselfishness—the kind of unselfishness that mothers know—will have to be used. The methods of businesi men and politicians will serve no longer. Selfishness, greediness, hatreds —all have failed. Idealism, sincerity, generosity, loving kindness—all have failed. Idealism, sincerity, generosity, loving kindness, the Christian virtues, are untried. Why not see what they can do?

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way!

I "*• " sueevou \ \ .

It Seems to Me - . - . by Heywood Broun

TT is announced that an appeal will be made to the public to contribute $300,000 to save the Metropolitan Opera Company. Soon, I suppose, we will hear the plaintive appeal, “Brother can you spare a diva?" And my answer to that would be, “I think I might manage to scrape along." Certainly it would be a pity to have opera disappear from the life of New York, and, more than that, from the life of the nation. But I see no particular reason why the public should be called upon to support an institution which is archaic in many of its fundamental phases. The present organization has done and continues to do much excellent work, but consideration for the public has never been one of its major concerns. The opera as it stands is of the vintage of the gay ’9os in both its residence and its social aspects. The golden horseshoe is a dim reminder of the days when there was a Ward McAllister and a four hundred. u tt u Dear Crinoline Days 'T'HE house should have been abandoned about the time that the hansom cab went out of existence. Surely the public is not likely to fall over itself to perpetuate a system in which the real music lovers sit high in ancient balconies and try to catch the voices of the singers through the hum of conversation carried on by the elect. Just about the best thing which could happen to opera An America would be to allow the Metropolitan to die and then start all over again. Opera is not an art form which should be the personal plaything of a few rich, or even formerly rich, realtors, who have happen ?d to become tied up in an old landmark. Even now there are a dozen places where opera could be conducted with better artistic effects and with far more comfort for everybody concerned except the boxholders. I think the slogan ought to be, “Take the horseshoe out of the Met.” It has not brought much luck for the last four seasons. Great credit should go to GattiCasazza and the organization he has built. I refer particularly to the mechanical departments. The stage is obsolete, and I am informed on excellent authority that it is practically impossible to house more than one set of scenery at a time. If Mimi is to die at a matinee and Butterfly at an evening performance, the scenery for the Japanese interiors must rest on the sidewalk until the sad tale of attic life in Paris has been completed.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE t= Premature Child Can Be Saved = 1 1 ; . "■■■■=—= BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN -

A MATURE baby is one that is born at the end of a period from 270 to 290 days, and which weighs more than five pounds. A premature baby is one born in a smaller period of time and not fully developed. A child which is born too soon is usually small and puny, ■weighing anywhere from'two to five pounds. Such children usually are weak, feeble and difficult to keep alive. However, competent medical attention now is able to take a child born prematurely and, by keeping it under proper conditions, cause it to grow and develop in such manner that it is thereafter quite up to a child born under normal conditions. One of the chief difficulties in bringing a premature child to successful growth is the regulation of its temperature. The premature child has an irregular temperature because of the failure of regulation of heat by its own body.

Parade for Idle Rich A ND then there is a mad scurrying to carry out one investiture and rush in the next. In spite of these handicaps most of the shows have been handsomely mounted. Sometimes the hand of Urban seems to rest a little too heavily upon the sets, but by and large they are at least more modern than the musty corridors and lounges. Moreover, most of the performances are much smoother than might be expected in such cramped quarters. But with all the motion picture houses going into chateaux, it seems a pity that $300,000, or $3 for that matter, should be contributed to maintain the shabby genteel atmosphere of the Met. In the last two seasons the opera has become more than a parade ground for the idle rich. The opportunity to hear the voices broadcast has been eagerly received by millions of listeners. They have a distinct stake in saving grand opera in America. But they cannot be expected to bleed and die for the Met. It may be argued that these invisible listeners should have no voice in the fate of the institution, since they have merely had the performances dropped in their laps and have paid nothing. I think they have spiritual rights, and I will agree that they should also be allowed a chance to develop material ones as well.

Every Day Religion ===== BY DR. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON ■■

JOHN WESLEY wrote; “I shall pass through this world but once; any good thing that I can do, or any kindness that I can show', let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Wesley lived a long life, a great life, a self-spending life, leaving in his will a few books, some silver spoons, and a little money to pay four poor men for carrying his frail body to the grave. Yet he w'rought wonders, and his ceaseless, tireless ministry saved England from suffering a French Revolution. No matter where one goes in England, one learns that Wesley preached there, at one time or another, in his benign labors for the good of men. He knew tha twhat men need is not more money, but more faith, more virtue, more love, and he spent his days in telling men to love God and serve their fellow men. Wesley knew that time Is short —if we do not use the swift and awful gift of life, we lose it. For him the certainty of death was the consecration of life, the strength of life, the spur to action, as it must be to us. What we do must be done quick-

Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeta, the Health Magazine. The competent expert in the care of premature babies arranges, through use of incubators of one type or another, to supply it with sufficient warmth of a regular character and with sufficient humidity to keep it safely until its own regulating system develops. ana /■'VBVIOUSLY, a child below par because of insufficient development is easily subject to infection and must be guarded carefully against contact with those who are likely to transmit infection to it. It must be understood that a child bom prematurely demands the most careful attention, preferably iat an institution, until it has reacosd the stage of physical

Mr. Taylor Suggests Deems Taylor made what seems to me an excellent suggestion. He said in a recent talk that the opera readily could be maintained if every radio fan who tuned in agreed to pay an admission fee of a penny for each performance. Mr. Taylor made the conservative estimate that there might well be between four and five million listeners and that if as many as one million paid their pennies a sum of SIO,OOO would be realized, which would just about cover the cost of each performance. I don't want to seem greedy, but I think the fee might well be stepped up to a nickel. I have heard operas worth at least that. If it is true that America has a genius for organization, there should be no great trouble in working out a plan by which opera might be nationally controlled and financed through some such radio fee. Indeed, instead of talking about abandoning opera this w'ould be an excellent time to found tw'o houses. We should have, in addition to the major house, an opera comique, W'hich would serve as a sort of proving ground for young composers and singers. There is ample precedent in other countries already to prove that Wagner and Verdi really can go on even without any friendly pat on the head from Mrs. Fishback and Mr. Montmorency. (Copyright, 1933. by The Times)

ly—we are here today and tomorrow gone. We have all the time there is—just one moment, and it is gone before we know it. If we are to do any good we must do it now or never. tt u EACH day is a little life; each night a little death. There never will be another day like today. Other days there may be, but they will be different, and each will have its duty and joy. It is this once-ness of life that is the secret sorrow at the heart of every joy, which yet heightens the joy. Every joy gets its glow' from the fact that it comes but once. Unless we see it, seize it, and use it, we miss it utterly. Why is each day so important? Because it does not come back. A fire breaks out of eternity and burns up time. It is this background of death that gives life its depth, its urgency, its preciousness. Its fleetingness is both its pathos and its glory. It is too short for hate; it is only long enough to love. If you have any good deed to do, any kind word to speak, in the name of God do it now—do not wait! (Copyright. 1933. United Feature* Syndicate!

development when it is safe to turn it over to its parents. Wherever there are available stations for the care of premature babies it is possible to save a large majority of those who are born. Out of 1,041 infants admitted to one station for premature babies, 690 lived and were transferred to their homes. If all of those who died in the first twenty-four hours after birth are excluded, it is found that 80 per cent are saved. If a child is bom prematurely without any physical defects, if its parents are healtful and if it has been able to take an ample amount of mother’s milk, it is likely to survive. It is found that from the second or third year on, these premature infants gradually cc <,ch up with normally bom infants and that any differences have disappeared by the time the child is 11 or 12 years old.

M.E. Tracy Says: +* - ■- ¥ u. S. SAL\ ATI ON IS POOR BRAND

THIRTY-FIVE years ago today, Feb. 15. 1898, the battleship Maine was blown up in Havana harbor. The incident was startling in its effect on the drift of human events. The morning before it occurred, we Americans woke up. ready enough to sympathize with “poor Cuba,” but quite sure that some peaceful way out cov'd be*found. The morning after, we took war wi h Spain as inevitable. The destiuction of a war vessel, especially

with the loss of 264 lives, left no doubt in our minds as to what ought to be done for “poor Cuba.” Through shock, surprise, and a desire for punishment, we became humanitarians over night. We actually imagined that our solicitude for “poor Cuba” was the real thing. Spain hardly made the scrap interesting, and we came cut of it feeling rather sorry for her. Just to prove that we were good sports, we paid her $20,000,000 for the Philippines. tt tt O Then We *Help * the Philippines HAVING taken possession of the Philippines, we felt obligated to help them. Among other things, we provided them with a sugar market, taught them how to produce a bigger crop, and gave them the benefit of a tariff. The first thing we knew we had about wrecked "poor Cuba.” Now we are preparing to turn the Philippines loose to correct that mistake, maybe. "Poor Cuba” is very hopeful, but that is because she fails to realize what the beet sugar lobby really has in mind. We are gerat humanitarians as long as it does not interfere with the business of big combines. Having saved the world for democracy and driven most of it off the gold standard, we now are ready to bar out its goods, on the theory that they have become too cheap for home competition. The “Buy American" movement is just another excuse for higher tariffs. Those behind it would preserve, if not raise, the living standard of 6ur twelve million unemployed by boosting the price of bread and soup. In the same way. they are going to make it easier for debtor nations to pay, by closing the door on trade. an a Our ‘ Saving ’ Job Is Not So Hot IF we don’t look out, other people are going to wonder whether it*s so hot to be “saved” by the United States. The Virgin Islands lost their bay rum trade after we “saved” them and "poor Cuba” seems likely to lose her bootleg trade when we repeal prohibition. Since that is about all "poor Cuba” has left, she should get a vivid idea of what being “saved” means. As to France, Italy, and England, which we "saved” during the war, and the many other European nations which we "saved'’ afterward, they should be enlightened thoroughly by this time. Outside of meddling here and there, without taking too much time to learn what it’s all about, or where it will land us, have we any foreign policy. Are there any standards by which we. or other people, can tell what the government of the United States is likely to do under a given set of circumstances? Are we following a well-considered program, or just wilting for some drastic incident to determine the next step?

= Technocracy Folds Up

Technocracy is itself proof of one of its own claims; namely, the acceleration of activity in the modern world. Despite the tremendous haste with which book publishers hurried to fling volumes about Technocracy upon the market, they hardly were able to keep pace with the collapse of the original movement. No sooner had six books made their appearance upon the shelves of the booksellers from Columbia university announced that it had parted company with Howard Scott, until that time recognized as the chief of the technocrats. Scott’s departure from Columbia, however, does not seem to have ended public interest in the subject of Technocracy, for booksellers in many parts of the nation report that the books on the subject are among their best sellers. The New Yorker magazine, a smart commentator upon the affairs of the day, says that the technocratic boom lasted just thir-ty-one days. It dates its rise to importance with the publication of an article in the January issue of Harper’s magazine written by a proponent of the order which hailed Technocracy as the “doom of the price system.” It dates its collapse with an article in the February issue of Scribner’s magazine written by an opponent of Technocracy, which termed the subject “bunk.”

Why It Collapsed WHY the first phase of Technocracy came to so sudden a collapse is quickly seen from such a book as “What Is Technocracy?" by Allen Raymond, published by Whittlesey House at $1.50. x Raymond, a reporter on the New York Herald-Tribune, was one of the reporters turned loose upon the subject shortly after Scott's public addresses drew' na-tion-wide attention to the movement. Like reporters for other newspapers and new r s-gathering organizations. Raymond made a careful investigation of both technocracy and the career of Scott. He called upon his paper’s correspondents in Berlin and other cities to check the stories in circulation about the far-flung engineering activities of Scott. Raymond’s conclusions are that there are as any myths in circulation about Scott as there are about Paul Bumyan; that Scott v'as not the son of the builder of the Berlin-Bagdad railroad: that he v/as not an important official in the building of the Muscle Shoals dam; and that he holds no degrees from universities in Berlin or elsewhere. He concludes further that the claims of Scott as to the future of the world were not based upon the charts drawn up at Columbia, but that these notions were arrived at first and then bolstered up as well as possible with data which in large part was erroneous. a a a Taxes and Confiscation Mr. Raymond points out that when Scott first started to speak he commanded the attention of bankers and industrialists. This probably is the most significant thing about the whole technocratic

Daily Thought

Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them: or. Where is the God of judgment.—Malachi 2:17. 1 DIMLY guess, from blessings known, of greater out of sight. —Whittier.

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movement, namely, the fact that the people in authority in the present economic system are on the lookout for help. They realize that the economic machinery is not functioning as well as it should. They w'ould welcome advice. That is why it may be that only the first phase of Technocracy has collapsed. Columbia university, according to its own announcement, is continuing a study of the fundamental problem in its school of engineering. No doubt, other institutions have been stimulated to similar study. Many readers will find the final chapter of Raymond’s book the most interesting. It is titled, “The Plain Man Looks at Technocracy.” I think Raymond speaks truly when he says that the average , man in America is not going to give up the processes of democratic government for the rule of some sort of soviet of engineers. But Raymond says that “there is a general feeling throughout the country that our financial leaders have been racketeering.” He adds, “The people of this country have, through their governmental agencies, ample means to control the functioning of the industrial system. One of their most powerful weapons is the right to tax—which is the right to confiscate. The public’s weapon of last resort is a capital levy. It yet may be wielded.”

So They Say

We take up art because it gives us a chance to show off. —Lorado Taft, famous sculptor. A man should be able to leave home for his day’s work, whether it is to his office or factory, with the same zest and joy with which he starts on a camping or fishing trip.—Dr- Goodwin Watson of Columbia university. The success of a censor or a dictator automatically is precluded by the prodigious self-esteem which enables him to permit his elevation to such a po6t.—Stefan Asch, essayist. A grinder without a monkey is a lost man.—Nick D’Egidio, organ grinder, whose trio of trained monkeys perished in rooming house fire after arousing occupants. From my experience 2.75 beer doesn’t taste like much. How’ever, there ..re a lot of people who don’t know the difference between ginger pop and dynamite.—lzzy Einstein, former “ace” prohibition agent.

Questions and Answers Q —What is a Umick? A.—An open boat made by drawing skins over a wooden frame, that is propelled by paddles. Q.—Where is the island of Kihnu? A.—lt is the principal island in the Gulf of Riga, belonging to Estonia. Q —ln what states are pecans raised commercially? A.—-Illinois, Missouri, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama. Mississippi, Arkansas Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Q. —How is the word suite pronounced? A.—Sweet. Q. —Give the total socialist vote for President in New York state in 1928? A. —107.332. Q —How old is John D. Rockefeller Sr.? A.—Ninety-three.