Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 251, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 February 1933 — Page 4

PAGE 4

The Indianapolis Times (A SCR IPPS-HO WARD NEWSPAPER) ROT W. HOWARD President TALCOTT POWELL , , Editor EARL D. RAKER ........ Business Manager Phone—Riley S.VSI

Member of United Pres*. SerlppsHoward Newspaper Alliance. N'ewspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214 220 West Maryland street. Indianapolis, lnd. Price in Marion county. 2 cents a copy; elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. Mail subscription rates In Indiana. $3 a year; outside of Indiana. 05 cents a month.

$t A IP* a - HOW +JLB Clive Light end She People Will Find Their Otcn Way

TUESDAY. FEB 28. 1933.

JUST A MINUTE, GOVERNOR It is quite understandable that administration leaders so new to power and so filled with power would suggest a moratorium in city elections. Their proposal that the present city administration be continued for one year is based upon the Idea of saving money for elections. In times of hysteria, leadership should not become hysterical. The saving of money is important. Preservation of confidence in the orderly processes of government is more important. Unfortunately, for whatever benefits might come from the plan, all our large cities and most of the smaller ones now are in the hands of those elected upon the same ticket under whose label the present state administration came into power. Asa matter of fact, the revolt in the cities against the old order of special privilege, hypocrisy, and hate made possible the revolt of the state. To propose now that the people be denied the right to elect their own local officials with whom they come in closest contact, on the score that it is necessary to save money, only will furnish anew citadel from which the same old forces of special privilege, hypocrisy, and hate may wage successful warfare. Democratic government depends upon bringing the government closer to the people. It must begin with the township, village, the city, and end only In the presidency. The greatest foe to democratic ideals is blind partisanship and party machinery which rests upon patronage and office holding rather than upon ser\ - ice and closeness to the people. For that reason, after long years of struggle, city elections were separated from state elections. Sadly enough, this state never took that next necessary step which separated state from national elections. Had that step been taken, there never would have been a Jackson or a Leslie. There never would have been the necessity for exposing the degradation to which Indiana had sunk with the sale of privilege to special interests and with blind obedience to minorities or the nightgown. Grant that a postponement of elections may save a half million dollars in money. Grant that in most of our cities the people are well satisfied with their government, and especially is that true in Indiananolis. Then balance that fact against the greater one that the people have little left except their right to rule, and that any encroachment upon this power means lack of confidence in all government. Necessity is forcing many readjustments in the public mind, and in the thought of individuals. The people expect to elect their next mayor. They expect to go through the formalities of democratic government. To suddenly tak( away this right invites not criticism, but hatred. It would destroy all the fine things that have been accomplished under the name of the new deal. It is too violent a jar to the governmental machine to be accepted with equanimity. The hour is not here for a voluntary petition in bankruptcy for our democratic processes. Just a minute, Governor, please. TIIE WAGNER BILL The enemy, depression, in four short years, has carved out of economic America one-fifth of its population. These 25,000.000 jobless and their dependents form our own America Irredenta, the unredeemed homeland. They are economic expatriates. They trade and barter among themselves. They add nothing to the national wealth. Few even pay taxes. Many suffer hunger. Not only do they drag down the national living standard, but they cost, in annual tribute, a billion dollars a year for the barest relief to keep soul and body together. They are. for the time, lost to the republic in every economic sense. The banks could lend of their ample credit, but they fear runs and sit on their money bags while bu siness investors lack confidence. The governments, state and national, must take the lead, or there will be no lead. To restore buying power to the masses, there seems to be no quick way except through extensive public works. The Wagner bill, now through the senate and before the house, is not a perfect instrument. But it will thaw out at least $2,000,000,000 of R. F. C. credit for immediate public works loans to states. It Will replenish the hunger relief fund by $300.000,000. It will set aside $15,000,000 for state grants to care for the million wandering men and boys now being made into tramps and worse. This latter provision is more economical, sounder, and more constructive than the absurd “substitutes" passed by the senate as the Couzens amendment, which would turn only a fraction of these transients into army camps at a cost of $22,000,000 a year. There is plenty of public work to do. City slums can be wiped out, and 9,000,000 “homes" now unfit for human habitation can be razed and rebuilt. Idle land and sub-marginal farms can be put to work growing trees. Schools can be modernized and fireproofed. Grade crossings can be eliminated, highways widened, bridges built, electric projects installed, scores of projects In the beautification and modernization of America undertaken now’ instead of later. “We may as well determine right here and now that we are going to wage relentless war until we abolish involuntary idleness as surely as we abolished involuntary servitude," said Senator Wagner. The house should not adjourn without passing the Wagner bill and President Hoover should sign it as one of his last acts in public office. That would clear the way for the larger Roosevelt projects, in the Tennessee valley and elsewhere, in national planning. OUR DESTINY IS AHEAD A British writer finished a tour of the United States not long ago and remarked that the chief trouble with America today is that it can’t quite figure out just what its destiny is. Until recently, he said, America knew that its destiny was to develop and settle a vast continent.

This knowledge inspired almost every act in our national history and gave significance to every turn of events. As long as the job was unfinished, people could overlook the imperfections of the present by keeping their eyes on the future. But now the continent has been settled and developed about as completely as it needs to be. The great job that unified and inspired the nation is finished—and because we don't know what the next job is going to be we are at a loose end and our troubles look very big to us. The visiting Englishman had another word to add to all of this. Sooner or later, he said, the American people will find anew destiny and follow it through; and in the end, he predicted, they will become “the greatest race the world has even seer " Now that, to be sure, is very kind and very con sorting. And while we have never been famous fdr our national modesty, it is a good thing for us to be told something like that just now. For the first part of the Englishman's comment is indisputably true, and it is precisely the thing which makes the depression so hard to bear. Because of it we have moments in which we wonder if the end of the world is not just about at hand. Everything, we tell ourselves, is finished. The old days are clone for and no new day is going to dawn. The country is going to perdition in a highwheeled hack and there is nothing we can do it except crouch on the mourners’ bench and bay at the moon. If we cßuld once make ourselves realize that the biggest jobs are yet to come and the greatest days are yet to dawn we might slough off some of our pessimism. The great depression isn’t the end of things; it is only an incident. Our real destiny is ahead of us, not behind us. BETRAYAL OR DEFEAT? Senator Borah’s assertion to a New England manufacturer that congress could not confer extraordinary powers on the President “without the cowardly betrayal of its constitutional obligations" is probably perfectly true. About the only trouble is that that cowardly betrayal seems to have taken place already. That it should be congress’ job to make a sweeping change in governmental organization and drastic cuts in governmental expenditures goes without saying. But congress has hhd ample time in which to do it, and it has demonstrated pretty clearly that the job is just naturally beyond it. The one certain thing is that the job has got to be done, and it has got to be done right. If congress can’t do it—and do it speedily—it can do nothing less than give the President a free hand at it. OUR SONG BIRDS “PROSPER” There has grown up in the last generation a belief that American song birds have decreased in numbers since the settlement of the country. It is a relief, therefore, to learn from D. T. Gilbert Pearson, president of the National Association of Audubon societies, that this is not the case. On. the contrary, they are flourishing nowadays as never before. “Contrary to popular opinion,” says Dr. Pearson, “dense and unbroken forests do not afford an ideal habitat for a great variety of song birds. Consequently, with the gradual clearing away of forest areas, the planting of orchards and the growth of a diversified agriculture, there has been brought about a change in conditions which have been conducive to the welfare of birds." To one who delights in the presence of song birds, this must coiiie as a bit of welcome news. Many grave questions contront Roosevelt’s cabinet, but we venture the first to come up will be: “Do you mind, Miss Perkins, if we smoke?" Glimpses of the ladies’ new spring chapeaux in pill-box, tip-tilt, and fez varieties are apt to give us anew appreciation of that oid phrase, “mad as a hatter.” With the human race it’s different, but where the ponies gallop—the hand that clocks the stable fools the world. The man who can’t look himself in the face rnay get along for a while, but sooner or later he’ll run into trouble shaving in the dark.

Just Plain Sense V. BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON ,

'T7RITING in the American Legion Monthly, * Commander Louis Johnson argues for a mustering of all legion forces to prevent drastic economy programs for army and navy. He reminds us that as our baby boys of today will be tomorrow’s soldiers, war and national defense therefore are a woman's problem. Sweet words! How many times have the same gracious things been uttered and how little have men ever heeded our replies! To be sure, war is a woman's problem. Does she not see her men forced into the monster's hideous maw, there to be beaten, maimed, crushed, utterly dost roved? ' War is a wife's problem. When the government takes her husband, is she not left defenseless with her children to support and rear and with her future blighted? Is she not called upon to commit endless sacrifices, so that all those things most precious and sacred to her may become rubbish upon the everburning altar of Mars? tt tt a is a girl's problem. Does she not forfeit * the possibility of a settled, secure, and happy existence when the drums begin to sound? Are not millions of boys destroyed before the day of their mating and maturity, and do there not die with them the dreams of millions of maidens, to whom life never can return that which has been taken away from them? War is a mother's problem. Does she not furnish out of her body the living tissues that men destroy 60 ruthlessly, so needlessly? War is every woman's problem because the manner in which we settle this question will decide the future welfare of our children, our country, our race, of western civilization itself. And women. I say to you, do not want war. They do not desire that such a large percentage of national wealth shall be directed into martial channels. Their homes have endured drastic economy programs. Shall the war departments not suffer likewise? They see no sense, no sanity, in keeping up tins vast delense machinery while the things Americans have to defend dwindle day by day and poverty increases in the land. American women have set their faces toward peace. They must be listened to. They will be heard.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

‘We, Who Are About to Die —Salute You! 9

iiMimMWW /■ ■ ctj. • ' . ■-■■•■■. ?>

It Seems to Me .... by Heywood Broun

IF I were a school teacher and my salary had been cut to meet the ideas of civic economy propounded by the big bankers of New York city, I would be a little sore as I read the testimony given before the senate investigating committee. I’m sore, anyhow. It seems to me that the only thing some of our great financial institutions overlooked during the years of the boom was the installation of a roulette wheel for the convenience of depositors. And. of course, it would have been a wheel with four zeros. Os course, I have no intention of disturbing anybody's faith in the solvency of certain great trustees of the public funds. *Far from it! In the light of certain revelations of banking methods hereabouts which recently have been spread on the records, I sde no reason why any New York banker should ever go broke.

Every Day Religion

TTS7HAT is genius? Nobody ™ * knows. It is a mystery; God breathes it, and that is all we can say about it. Swift, vivid, creative, it does with effortless ease what talent can not do at all. Therein lies its peril—it may mistake facility for felicity. A gift of gab does not make an orator; like Lincoln, he must learn to prune his words. It has been said that genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains. In other words, it is five parts inspiration and five parts perspiration; it is ability plus industry. “I once was told," says Anthony Trollope, “that the surest aid to the writing of a book was a piece of cobbler’s wax on my chair. I certainly believe in the wax more than in the inspiration.” . All know how he stuck to his chair, with his watch before him, and compelled himself to write for so long and at the rate of so many words an hour. Whether that is the best way to write a book or not need not be debated. But it certainly is the best of all rules for the general work of life. The- habit of industry is vital, and no amount of cleverness or even of “inspiration,” will ever take the place of it. 000 AS another novelist, who worked even harder than Trollope, says, “There is a blessed certainty in the achievement of a fixed daily task.” Those who fail are the shirkers and_the men who work by fits and starts; the men described in the Chesterton lines: "Thus I my life conduct: each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it chucked.” That way leads nowheie. The sands of time are strewn with the

— —DAILY HEALTH SERVICE ~~ Golf Dangerous in Angina Pectoris ■— ■ BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN -

This is the second of two articles by Dr. Fishbein on angina pectoris. deserves special consideration among the specific dangers for patients and angina pectoris, Drs. Fitzhugh and Hamilton believe, since it appeared as a clear factor in eight of 100 cases of death from that disease. To them it seems absurd to allow a man faced with complete disability or death to continue playing golf after he once has had an attack of angina pectoris. Thus they say, "We sympathize with the golfer. We admire and share the spirit which says, 'lf I * can not live like a man, I do not wish to live.’ "But we deplore the fact that so many of our friends—and perhaps if it came to us we would be no wiser—are so devoid of ingenuity or resources that they can not occupy their days with intellectual pursuits or artisanship or other hobbies that are safe suf-

In the Bad Old Days T^/TOREOVER, I read in the pa- -*’*■*■ pers that all these abuses are things of the past. The New York Times, which is conservative, says, “It is unnecessary to say that no banking authority would advocate a return to such activities of the banks as became too common in the flush years before the great crash of 1929.” And in the same editorial it adds, “The abuses of recent years, some of which the Glass banking bill would remove or correct, certainly will have fewer defenders after the wholesome publicity which has set them in so vivid and startling a light ” I am ready to admit that certain practices which seem to the Times and to this humble columnist to be “abuses” no longer are practiced. But I fail to see that this reform has been actuated to

wrecks of genius which might have been saved by a piece of cobbler’s wax. A brilliant man flashes out, while a man of less ability wins out. In the old fable, the tortoise beat the rabbit in the race because he did not idle away his time, but kept going. It is amazing how far we can go by just going on, unhasting and unresting. It is true in the life of the spirit. As St. Paul said: “This one thing I do; forgetting the things behind, I press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling.” And later he could say, “I have W’on.” (Copyright, 1933. by United Features Syndicate, Inc.)

So They Say

Many people have gained in soul by what they have lost in purse.—Dr. Horace J. Bridges of the Chicago Ethical Culture Society. I don’t think. this is a time when anybody gives a continental damn what position anybody took before. Representative Edward W. Pou (Dem., N. C.). However. I must be fair. I concede to the prohibitionists—Technocracy.—Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, president of the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform. If any sizable group of unemployed marches on Washington, I believe I can lead several hundred thousand veterans there to offset any damage such a group might do. —Walter W. Waters, former commander of the bonus army in Washington.

Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hvgela. the Health Magazine.

ficiently to make them happy in spite of no golf. "Every golfer knows the frequent temptations to violent exertion. To enumerate a few: Inclement wind and weather, very frequent short but stiff climb';, getting out of the rough, climbing out of a trip, frequent hurrying because of the delay of unsatisfactory# shots and following players. "Persisting in golf after angina is perhaps comparable to persisting in eating candy after diabetes appears.” u tt a IN 33 out of the 100 fatal cases, long journeys had been taken immediately before the final disaster. Associated with a long journey there always is the unusual activity in preparation lor the journey, with loss of sleep, overeatinfcodurmg the travel, fre-

any extent by a change in heart upon the part of many of our great financial leaders. If banks are less speculatively inclined, the reason may be found in the simple fact that they simply can’t find the customers to play with. Even a turnip will turn. For instance. I find little in the testimony of Charles E. Mitchell, resigned chairman of the board of the National City bank, to indicate that he deplores any of the activities of hi§ institution back in the days when money grew on every tree and a director stcod at the foot of every sapling armed with a sap bucket. 000 Did Not Ask for It IT was not the gentlemen of Wall Street who urged a senatorial investigation into the ways of big finance. It is not, with a few exceptions, the bankers who today are urging needed legislation to prevent the repetition of incidents w’hich seem “startling” to so many of us. I have yet to hear a single captain of industry or finance who has come forward to say, ‘“Perhaps that million dollar bonus which I received was a shade too high, and I’d like to pay some of it back.” To be sure, the employes who bought bank stocks at the top on margin still are having payments taken out of their salary, but not all the directors have been anything like as severely pressed. Some of the great men may point to the fact that on paper they have taken great losses from the top of the 1929 boom, but they fail to emphasize the fact Uiat some of the money which flowed to them during that year and the two which preceded it hardly represented rewards for what you might call desperate effort. 000 So Much for So Mach WHENEVER I hear of the huge perquisites which come upon occasion to the heads of banks or other corporations, I sometimes wonder why the stockholders or depositors do not call the gentlemen in question and inquire humbly, “Please, sir, wouldn’t you maybe work only two-thirds a; hard as you have been doing and take just half as much?” Until a few years ago a fiction went the rounds. High finance, we were told, was an elaborate undertaking carried on by men wholly dedicated to the public weal. That myth has gone. I think that with it should go many of the myth makers. I see-no reason why the leadership in troublous times still should rest with, gentlemen who have been at the very least a shade too avid. In addition to reform, we should have resignations. (CoDvrieht. 1933. bv The Times)

quent indulgence in alcohol, and emotional stress. When John Hunter, the famous British physician, had his attack of angina pectoris, he said his life was in the hands of any rascal who chose to worry him. In three instances, sudden blocking of the blood vessels of the heart or fatal angina pectoris followed a violent loss of temper during a business argument. Two patients had their attacks while overexcited at football games. Three patients had their attacks directly after bad news about a son. Two patients said that unaccustomed public .speaking produced their attacks. Overeating and excess or indulgence in alcohol frequently are mentujned by patients as being the first factor responsible for an attack of angina. The old aphorism, “Moderation in all things,” probably is the most important advice that can be given to any patient who has attacks of angina pectoris.

M.E. Tracy Says:

FOLLY RULES LIQUOR PROBLEM

OUTSIDE of promising some measure of relief, the repeal of prohibition is a negative act. putting us right back where we were thirteen years ago, or maybe a little farther. We were not satisfied with conditions then and the chances are that we will not be satisfied with their reestablishment. To overcome that difficulty various suggestions have been made. Many people believe that elimination of the saloon would solve the problem, but when it comes to offering a substitute

they are hazy. Lacking constructive ideas, the probability is that most of the states will revert to their old methods, with high license, restriction and political interests opening the way for just such an era of ring rule, graft and corruption as existed previous to adoption of the eighteenth amendment. While engaged in the business of rewriting our liquor laws, why not make a thorough job of it? Why not face the question squarely and admit that regulation, save in a general way, has proved complete failure, and that if the liquor trade is to be legalized it ought to enjoy the privileges which go with other legalized trades? The last century proves nothing so vividly as the folly of trying to make men sober by law. Practically all our progress in temperance was due to voluntary work of churches and other associations. 000 Not Necessary to Restrict Liquor Outlets ' | 'HE saloon and license system only aided the liquor traffic in organizing and developing a most pernicious influence, while prohibition merely diverted this influence to bootlegging and gang rule. Asa luxury, liquor should be taxed, but as an article of legitimate trade it should not be made a football for politics and special interest. It is unnecessary to restrict the number of outlets or subject them to a high license fee to get the tax. We are collecting a tremendous tax on gasoline, cirrarets, tobacco, theater tickets, bank checks, and other things without much of a system. If liquor weyc sold like sugar, soda pop, or ice cream, there would be no incentive to form a political ring, start bootlegging, open a speakeasy, or make an alliance with politicians. Whether such a set-up would increase drinking is, of course, debatable, but we have not decreased drinking sufficiently by the various restrictive measures thus far adopted to be sure that a more liberal policy is impractical. u a a Prohibition Theory Inconsistent With Ideals OUR handling of the liquor question ever since the fathers of prohibition started their first crusade has been rfredicted on the theory that average people were too weak to control their appetite, or too dumb to realize the consequence of letting it go uncontrolled, and that the one hope of saving them from their folly consisted in government supervision. Such a theory is inconsistent with the principles and ideals on which this republic was founded and which are essential to the maintenance and operation of any republic. It is absurd to assume that people can run a government in the moie important phases, but that the government must run them in some less important phase. Prohibition was a logical outcome of the regulatory measures by W’hich we attempted to restrict and control drinking, if we start out with these measures again, we shall have prohibition again and that, too, before many years.

SCIENCE... Genius to Be Honored ■'

ON March 29 a group of distinguished scientists, educators and leaders of the electrical industry will gather at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., to celebrate the 80th birthday of Dr. Elihu Thompson. Dr. Thomson is the only living member of the quartet of great electrical pioneers whose inventive genius lauftched the modern electrical industry and the General Electric Company, the world's largest electrical company. The other three were James J. Wood of Ft. Wayne, Ind., who died in 1928; Charles F. Brush of Cleveland, who died in 1929, and Thomas A. Edison, who died in 1931. Dr. Thomson, now the dean of General Electric scientists, still is engaged actively in research, heading an important laboratory at West Lynn, Mass. Although the electrical industry frequently is thought of as starting with Edison’s inventions of the incandescent lamp,' it really had its beginnings with the invention of the arc lamp and the work necessary to develop suitable dynamos and wiring systems for keeping the arc lamps going. Dr. Thomson remembers the first announcement of the incandescent lamp from Edison’s laboratory, and tells how he and the

Daily Thought

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? —Romans 9:21. YOU can not win without sacrifice.—Charles Buxton. Questions and Answers Q—Give the exact time when tha Titanic sank, and what was the cause? A—The vessel struck an iceberg about 500 miles south of Newfoundland. on Sunday, April 14, 1912, at 10:45 p. m., New York time, and sank two hours and forty minutes later. Q—Can one obtain a copyright on an invention? A —lnventions are protected by patents, not copyrights. Q —Give the address of the general headquarters of the Salvation Army. A—l2o West Fourteenth street, New York City. Q—How many drug stores are there in the United States? A—Approximately 60,000, Q —Where was the Garden of Eden located? A—According to the Biblical tradition, it was located in the Tigris and Euphrates river region, now known as Mesopotamia, or Iraq. Q—When was Leningrad called St. Petersburg and Petrograd? A—Shortly after the outbreak of the world war in 1914, the name St. Petersburg was changed to Petrograd, and in March, 1924. it became Leningrad, in honor of Nikolai Lenin. Q —How .long does it take the moon and the earth to go around the sun? A—The moon, being a satelite of the earth, and revolving around and accompanying it in its orbit around the sun, requires the same time to go around the sun as the earth requires—one year.

FEB. 28, 1933

'•‘-‘Vf** I 1 I r

TRACY

other pioneers in the field did not think it would supplant the arc lamp. tt tt tt First Arc Lamps BRUSH patented his arc lamp in 1878. In 1880 he organized the Brush Electric Cos., cne of the four which later was merged into the General Electric Cos. First use of arc lamps for street lighting was on the public square in Cleveland. Wood organized the Ft. Wayne Electric Corporation. Dr. Thomson organized his company to introduce the use of arc lamps in New Britain, Conn. When in 1880 Edison announced the invention of the incandescent lamp. Dr. Thomson made a trip to Menlo park to talk to Edison and to see his new light. At first Dr. Thomson was not impressed with the new Edison lamp. It seemed very inefficient beside the arc light and Dr. Thomson confesses that it took him three or four years to realize the true importance of Edison’s invention. Dr. Thomson’s company was known as the Thomson-Huston-Cos. In 1892, the General Electric Cos. was formed by a merger of Edison’s Brush’s, and Wood’s companies with the ThomsonHuston Cos. tt a u Alternating Current WHEN the General Electric Company was formed, both Edison and Dr. Thomson were offered positions upon the board of directors. Thomson declined at once, preferring to remain at the head of a research laboratory. At that time he was interested particularly in development of the alternating current and the transmission of the alternating current over long distances, the same subject which later held the attention of Charles P. Steinmetz. Edison's lamp and Thomson’s idea to make use of alternating current account for the great growth of the electrical industry in this country. Edison accepted a position upon the original board of the G. E. company and served until 1901. But his interests always were in his laboratory rather than in his business affairs. Brush, until his death, lived in Cleveland. His interest gradually changed from applied science to theoretical science and at the time of his death he was working on experiments which he hoped would disprove the Einstein theory. Times Readers Voice Views ... Editor Times—Referring to prewar prices, I gladly refer you to the prices at the Shortridge high school cafeteria. It is necessary that students eat in this cafeteria, as permission is not granted to go elsewhere for lunches. It seems to me that prices in public school cases should be based on cost, and not on a 100 per cent profit basis, as is being done at the present time. At the present time my children are attending this school, and at the prices that are being charged now, I find that it is costing me about $1 a day for their lunches. This seems out of lines with the depressed prices of today. These same lunches can be purchased at good cafeterias for less than these charges. I hope you will publish this letter, so it will be known what conditions students and parents face from day to day. A CITY TAXPAYER.