Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 308, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 May 1933 — Page 17

Second Section

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Rafael Sabatini The latest historical romantic Hovel of Sabatini is called “The Stalking Horse." It concerns the days of William of Orange and especially the sad love experiences of Lady Lochmore. It is published by Houghton Mifflin Company and sells lor $2. BY WALTER D. HICKMAN IT is a conservative statement to make at this time when individuals gather for conversation one topic that is always discussed is the depression and its cure. Right now with the front pages of the dailies covered with the news of legislative action concerning currency reforms, the desire now of the careful reader is for books which have thoughtful discussions of the problem as well as a program. I firmly bclive that Thomas Ewing Dabney, financial editor of "The New Orleans States," has such discussion and a program for relief in “Revolution or Jobs.” It has just been published by The Dial Press, lnc„ and sells for $1.50. The other morning I had this red covered book with me when I came to town on a bus. An elderly woman sitting oy my side saw the flaming title of “Revolution Or Jobs” and said to me—“ Four years ago if J had seen you with a book of such a title I would have classed you as a dangerous citizen. Now I want to borrow the book.” More and more people are asking for books which deal with the problems that our national government is attempting to solve and correct. Dabney writes that he began writing his book in December, J. 032, and finished it in February of this year. Since then we have had a bank-collapse. He writes—-“ President Roosevelt has made an impressive start at revising the worst banking system in the world. But finances are not an end. only a means, of measuring production and facilitating distribution. The satisfactions of life arc the end.”

Here are a few of Dabney's conclusions as well as warnings: "The country's need today is more dire than when I began to write. Those who had no jobs when all the banks closed, have no jobs now that some of them have opened. “Many more have lost their jobs since then; many have suffered salary and wage cuts. The business lost during the interdict is production lost—jobs. “The money lost in banks that could not reopen is purchasing power lost—jobs. The huge construction program announced by the President is conterbalanced by the huge economy program adopted by congress, and so purchasing power is held at the old dead level." Sigmund Odenheimer is a successful New Orleans business man. He terms the people standing in bread lines “the parade of pain.” The claim is that his plan will give jobs for every one, all the time, and the result will be a general increase. Here is another deduction of the author: "The crash was caused by collapse of purchasing power. The economic structure became over-bal-anced. Too much money went into profits and new capital investment to add to a machine that was already larger than the consuming power, and too little went to wages.” And then this truth: "Every time a man loses a job, he becomes the competitor of the man who has a job. and. his competition takes the form, ‘l'll do it for less.’” The cure is—jobs. And—“We can have those jobs if we remove fear.” The Odenheimer plan calls for congressional action "to open these jobs"; amend the Constitution so congress has the power to legislate on hours of labor; then the appointment of hours of labor commission and the working hours fixed in any industry or locality and violations to '*> punished by fine and imprisonment.” The plan estimates a work-week of twenty-four hours is needed "to give jobs to every one.” And as conditions get better, the plan works in a high rate of pay. Here is a big and interesting plan. You will find it worth while to read “Revolution or Jobs." Agree or not, you have a right to read it. • a a Been asked to suggest a book which gives "a good account of the training, growth and background of the life of President Roosevelt.” Such a book I think is "My Boy Franklin,” as told by Mrs. James Roosevelt, mother of the President, to Isabel Leighton and Gabrielle Forbush. It is published by Ray Long and Richard R. Smith. It sells for $1.50. m m • Has Vicki Baum written anew book since she spoke here? At ieast she has one published by Douole-day-Doran It is called "Helene.'', In this story a woman succeeds j against heavy odds. j

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CHILDREN GET FAMINE PAY IN SWEATSHOPS Deplorable Condition Bared by Industrial Survey in Pennsylvania. By Rrrippa-Hntcnrd Xrwapaper Ulinncc PITTSBURGH May s.—Cutthroat competition and depression prices were blamed today for a sordid story of “penny labor by babes in the mills,” as disclosed here by the Pittsburgh Press in a state-wide survey of child labor. Employment of underpaid child labor is reported growing at an unprecedented rate as more and more adult workers go on relief rolls. Pennsylvania laws do not restrict employment of children, but the Methodist Preachers’ Association here has called on Governor Gifford Pinchot, an enemy of child labor, to create a commission to investigate sweatshops, and to hold the legislature in session to set up such a commission. This action was urged following disclosures of numerous sweatshops, many of them fly-by-night concerns which have moved from place to place to avoid competition and the labor laws of other states. Long Hours Allowed One of them moved his shirt shop from New' York City to Troy, N. Y., only to encounter a state law which caused him to move to a small city in this state, where he can work women ten hours a day and fifty-four hours a week. But the other day this immigrant manufacturer lost a big order to a competing Pennsylvania sweatshop operator who employes children at much lower wages. Fifty-two per cent of the workers in this man’s shop were found by state officials to be under 18 years of age, and 24 per cent under 16. Wages here ranged from $1.65 to SB, for not one. but two, weeks. Inquiry by the state department of labor and industry shows that children in the clothing and textile industries average $3.10 a week. 20 per cent of them get less than $2 a week. Mrs. Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, wife of Governor Pinchot, in her private investigation of young girls working in textile mills, discovered unimaginably low' wages. Paid Starvation Wages Trimmers in many of the sw’eat shops manufacturing shirts are paid at the rate of 3 cents a dozen shirts. But inquiry by the state department uncovered a widespread practice of "short-change.” Tally of the sw'eat shop operators rarely amounts to as much as that of the workers. Many dozens of shirts are trimmed without pay. An 18-year-old high school graduate, working in a Pottsdow'n factory, gluing edges on shoes, earns 51.90 a week, with 90 cents for carfare. In Wilkes-Barre, a pants factory kept its 16-year-old girl employes at work eleven hours daily. Another Wilkes-Barre sweatshop forbade time for lunch. “They need all the money they can make,” the manager told a state investigator. Sewing companies now are paying children 2 cents for putting pockets on a dozen shirts (twentyfour pockets i, a job formerly paying 13 cents a shirt.

Situation Is Deplored fill Svriiiim-Howani Xcwspaper Allia<ice WASHINGTON. May s.—The sweatshop and child labor situation in some industrial states is a matter ! of deep concern to the children’s bureau of the department of labor, the official guardian of the nation’s | children. This was made plain here today by Miss Grace Abbott, nationally known social worker and veteran chief of the children’s bureau. Miss Abbott is one of the few departmen- | tal executives who served under Presidents Coolidge and Hoover and is continuing in a similar capacity under President Roosevelt. Miss Abbott is hopeful that the legislature will heed the plea of Pennsylvania social workers and enact remedial legislation. She is hopeful, also- that the situation in Pennsylvania will be reached by enactment of the pending thirty-hour week bill with a provision for minimum wages. A survey under Miss Abbott’s direction disclosed that the depression vitally is affecting the children of the nation through their health, ; their home environment, their jobs, and their schooling. This condition. Miss Abbott fears, likely will continue, because past surveys have disclosed that when employment conditions improve, the number of child workers decreases more slowly than adult workers increase. HIGH SCHOOL”BAND IS PLAYING WITH CIRCUS Sullivan Organization Provides Music for San R. Dill Shows. By l Hiti and Prcs SULLIVAN. Ind.. May s.—Members of the Sullivan high school band w ? ere performing under the "big top” this week and obtaining first hand knowledge of circus life. ; They are traveling with the Sam B. Hill shows, playing for the parades and giving concerts before each performance. They are being accompanied by Tolman Charts, | supervisor of music in the Sullivan schools. The tour was arranged by Fred F. Bays. Sullivan, who directs several acts in the circuit. COPS ARE AMBITIOUS 1,207 on Boston Force Apply for Promotion Examination. By United Prc** BOSTON, May s.—Boston police- j men are nothing if not ambitious. I Recently a call went out for patrol- i men who wished to take an examination for promotion to sergeant. Not less than 1,207 patrolmen responded.

The Indianapolis Times

THRIFT IS BASIS OF FILM FORTUNE Depression Proves Tonic Instead of Damper for Columbia

During the last two years when many moving picture firms have been going into receiverships or otherwise suffering financial pangs, a small outfit, Columbia Pictures. steadily has been growing and strengthening its position. The result is that its ratio o t current assets o liabiliies is 3 to 1. . ... How the Cohn Brothers, president and vice-president, have succeeded in defying the depression. George Britt tells in this third of six articles. By GEORGE BRITT. Times Special Writer NEW YORK, May s.—An oldfashioned flickering silent moving picture called “Traffic in Souls.” which opened in Joe Weber's theater November 24, 1913, taught a great lesson to the Brothers Cohn, and, fortunately, they never forgot it. The picture dealt with a subject then very much in the newswhite slavery. Historically it was 5t landmark in the film industry, for it showed what never had been appreciated adequately before, the tremendous box office value of sex. But to the Cohns, Harry and Jack, destined in about nineteen years to become president and vice president of their own Columbia Pictures Corporation, “Traffic in Souls” spoke another message in terms of the balance sheet. It cost $5,700, as Jack Cohn woll knew from having helped produce it, and its gross earnings were $450,000. “Therefore,” reasoned the Brothers Cohn, “it isn't necessary to shoot the works like a drunken sailor to earn money on a picture.” That idea steadied them through all the years in which they saw film giants waging a battle of bankrolls around them. One depression fortune has been built in the movies apparently, and it belongs to the Cohns of Columbia Pictures. As the larger companies have gone into receivership or suffered reorganizations and accumulated headaches. Columbia has enjoyed the best business in its history. It is earning more and has more to spend than ever before. During the bank holiday in March, most of the Hollywood studios also took a holiday; virtually most all of them cut salaries in half. IT was little old Columbia, not so old and not so little any more, that first announced it was going back to full production and full pay. It's program was twenty-six feature pictures three years ago and now it is forty-eight. Well, in the name of all the blonde and starry-eyed goddesses in Hollywood, how did they do it? The answer is thrift. The story fits so perfectly, it is a pity Benjamin Franklin himself is not present to tell it. n tt tt OLUMBIA PICTURES started back in Hollywood's famous “Poverty Row,” where single dol-

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lars are accustomed to doing the work of ten spots in the big lavish studios. Jack Cohn went into th business as a boy a quartercentury ago. He did everything in Carl Laemmle's old “Imp" company in Broadway. He used to shoot two-reel westerns away up in the open spaces at Broadway and Dyckman street. In those days he had to tell his actors and directors they were making a one-reel picture, then try to piece it out to two with laboratory shots. If he told them it was two-reel in the first place, they would use up too much time and film. tt tt m THE Cohns are showmen. Brought up on New York’s east side, they removed in early youth to Broadway, and there found home and school and place of worship. Jack, the elder and first in picture production, has shifted to business management, and rules the New York office. Harry, heavier now than when he was a hoofer, is in command of the Hollywood studios. They have a shrewd eye for profit, a knack for running on a shoe-string. Their system was very simple.

srst in picture production, has \ ——te. I' shifted to business management, \ j; . . : : • *-~ 'T ' zi'Pi ’ft ind rules the New York office 't' ' tie was a hoofer, is in command of t .£/ • k \ shrewd eye knack \ ’ * ' ffW $/ I [or running on a shoe-string. \ * Jr Jf f If V ’J imfo Their .system was very simple. g m j H' z’ * Harry Cohn (left) and his brother. Jack. And then came the sad year things to cut the cost of overhea Ml 1930. peak year for chain owner- The other producers in chori e ‘ '■ ship by film producers. Many of have started a demand for studi. ; • . ... ~ .. to get on to the Columbia systc them found that all the money of economical production thcy earr !f d front diking Pictures Q ne thing more the Cohns hat jy- ' vas swa lowed by their deficits accomplished in the depressio mmm\ from exhibiting thetm And the they have brought out their pari 'V-5 1 w° nQed dPb ° n lh3 theaters sUU ner Joe Brandt and become so ’usMfci bad , be cair i cd - masters of their company, Hari kTSBEBI gSKS Th - blg P roducers bc^an an d- Cohn succeeding to the pres ping theaters with the earnest- dpnrv 1 ness of a man holding hot. pot.a- . \ I as the story goes, when Branc

Constance Cummings and Lee Tracy in a scene from “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” one of the most successful Columbia Aims.

They didn't keep a company of high-priced stars on hand under contract. When they needed Elaine Hammerstein or Hobart Bosworth or any of the other big names, they hired them by the day. They got their scripts all ready to shoot in advance, instead of changing the story after it was half taken. By 1926 they had moved into a big studio of their own, but they stuck to the old economics of “Pov-

erty Row.” They were almost the only graduate of “Poverty Row” to make the grade in movie society. And still Columbia was out of step. . tt a a FOR by this time the other companies were organizing chains of houses to exhibit their own pictures, and they stepped out into the real estate field in hot competition. But Columbia simply hadn’t the money to get into that race.

And then came the sad year 1930, peak year for chain ownership by film producers. Many of them found that all the money they earned from making pictures was swallowed by their deficits from exhibiting them. And the bonded debt on the theaters still had to be carried. The big producers began dropping theaters with the earnestness of a man holding hot potatoes Nowq as the producers left the theaters new doors were opened to Columbia, This year for the first time the Warner Bros.’ theaters contracted to take the entire Columbia output. Likewise the R. K. O. theaters and other chains. The company altogether reports it is selling filfs to 500 more theaters this year than last. n tt a FURTHERMORE, since Columbia has learned in general to make the same picture for less money, it has a peculiar advantage in the competitive market with theaters wanting above all

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Mattpr at Postoffice. Indianapolis

things to cut the cost of overhead. The other producers in chorus have started a. demand for studios to get on to the Columbia system of economical production. One thing more the Cohns have accomplished in the depression, they have brought out their partner Joe Brandt and become sole masters of their company, Harry Cohn succeeding to the presidency. That happened a year ago.’Arid, as the story goes, w'hen Brandt wouldn't take the market price of $8 a share for his stock, the confident brothers paid him his price of SSO, or $1,000,000 for 20,000 shares. Having more money to spend, now', the company has announced an increased budget for production—while many rivals are cutting dowm. They intend to make bigger pictures. They paid about $25,000 for the play “Twentieth Century” recently, an unheard-of price in the old days for a Columbia story. Next: Bernard E. Smith, Wall Street Speculator.

GANG TERROR ! SWAY SHIFTS TO FOOD FIELD Y Tribute Is Levied by Thugs on Markets: Stir War in Farm Areas. By Scripps-Hotcard Xctmpapcr Allinnct WASHINGTON. May s.—Confronted by anew race of gangsters and new gangster tactics. AttorneyGeneral Homer S. Cummings has mobilized the agencies under his command for war on the elements which have levied tribute on food products from Manhattan markets to farm strike areas in the ‘midwest. It is understood that several grand juries now’ are investigating activities of the men who have arisen as successors to the jailed A1 Capone and the dead “'Legs” Diamond. The internal revenue department is furnishing leads in .nany cases through income tax inquiries, and other branches are looking into the source of gansters' wealth. “Muscle in” on Markets Although prohibition still provides lucrative source of revenue, and the underworld has made an effort to capture breweries under federal license, the gangsters have turned to food products, like fish and poultry, in large cities, or resumed activities in those fields temporarily by federal prosecutions a year ago. At the risk of violating an injunction decree, they are alleged to be “muscling” into these markets again. At one time it was estimated I they took a cut in the sale and distribution of staple foods. It also is reported that each farm strike in lowa and other states has. in its secondary stage, been aided and abetted by gangsters’ agents, seeking new fields for profits. Last fall's strike was said to lwva been prolonged by this development, many gangs from Chicago and uther cities blocking the roadsides long after the real farmers had returned heme. Shift to Food Field With prohibition repeal expected soon, it is believed the underw'orld is setting up machinery for collecting toll through other sources—a tribute that will inflict suffering and higher prices. In many large cities the gangsters already have begun to shift from liquor trade to extortion of basic industries. In the past these latter fields have not furnished such profitable returns as bootlegging, and have been left to the smaller fry. Now' the “big shots,” unless broken up more thoroughly than ever before, simply will transfer their machinery.