Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 162, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 November 1933 — Page 16
PAGE 16
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THURSDAY. NOV. IS. 1933
A SHOCKING PERFORMANCE WHEN a crooked political boss tries to rig a deal on the taxpayers the public is on its guard. The public learned by sad experience not to expect a machine politician to have much ethical sense. But an educational institution which stoops to the methods of a ward heeler catches the public in a peculiarly defenseless position. No one Is on watch to prevent it from tapping the city treasury for its own ends. That is why the deal, revealed in yesterdays Times, by which Butler acquired its campus is so shocking. To be sure there was nothing illegal about the proceeding. Doubtless the local directors of the university congratulated themselves on putting over a “good piece of business." The facts in the case are simple. In 1923 Butler acquired its 239-acre campus for S2OO 000. A flew months later the city paid the university $233,925.49 for a 100-foot strip around the campus. In effect, the institution netted a $34,000 profit at the expense of the taxpayers. The park board was the public agency which approved the deal. Emsley W. Johnson was a member of the board and at the same time was a trustee of Butler. He is still a trustee and is one of the local directors who recently dismissed Walter Scott Athearn, president of the institution. What is morally wrong never can be economically right whether or not any statute has been violated. We believe that the method by which the taxpayers were forced to pay for the Butler campus and add a handsome profit for the college was morally wrong. To be sure a case might be made for the financing of a university by a city. An educational institution is presumably a municipal asset and worth the spending of public funds. But the taxpayers have a right to be heard and this "deal” has lain buried for ten years in the old records at city hall. There is no evidence that the park board made any public announcement in advance of its action. The whole thing was engineered quietly and approved without dissent. This is only one more piece of evidence that Indianapolis was for years at the mercy of self-seeking special interests. That is why the city is in such serious financial condition today. It is also additional proof of the peculiar ethical insensitiveness of Butler's local directors. Under the regime of Hilton U. Brown and Emsley w. Johnson the institution has been constantly before the public In an unfavorable light. These men should promptly resign as directors and trustees. Their record of management justifies it. The future welfare of Butler demands it.
TIME FOR WISE SPENDING 'C'IGHT million dollars in federal funds are now ready to give the Indiana unemployed work. This is good news. It means that at least 5.000 men and their families may look forward to a winter during which they will have food, clothing and shelter. While there is ample reason for rejoicing the present is an excellent time to pause and reflect that future generations will have to pny all this money back. Public officials should bear this in mind as they spend it. A man who bought orchids on the installment plan would be a fool. The flowers, beautiful though they might be. would be withered and useless long before he had paid for them. On the other hand, the individual who purchases a home and makes the payments over a period of years is a sound business man. The house will last him a lifetime and will have real value for a long time after he has ceased paying for it. Public funds for re-employment should-be spent in the same way. Only works which will be useful to our children and grandchildren should be purchased. Elimination of stream pollution in the state, track elevation in the city and permanent improvement of educational facilities are examples of this. Another type of sound investment for these funds would be in projects which would pay for themselves and yield a future profit. Purchase of the local gas company and the construction of state owned and operated hydroelectric plants fall in this category. The expenditure of federal relief money is a grave responsibility. Let us hope that our public officials will not buy any orchids. WAR AND MISS EARHART A MELIA EARHART has the right to speak on this matter—she is a woman, and she has gone to war—against the trans-Atlantic elements. She said in a Yale News interview that one way to stop war is to conscript the women: ‘‘Women should be treated no differently from men. They should be drafted, made to do the dirty work and real fighting instead of dressing up and parading down the street." But her idea is still more original than that. Women in the armies, she says, would make two nations lining up on the battle field even more ludicrous than they are now. Bigots and bigotry have been laughed out of existence. Gods 3nd religions have been subjected to withering ridicule. But the god of war remains sacrosanct to fun-poking and banter. Yet what could be more absurd to the eye of a god looking down from some cloud than civilized human beings burrowing in holes in the ground, figuring up complex firing data, pulling cannon lanyards, so that one mass of men can explode the innards out of another
mass of men who individually have nothing in the world against one another, do not aee one another eye to eye, may, in fact, be miles away from one another? Gigantic pain and suffering tends to ennoble what otherwise might appear clearly grotesque—pain and misery plus a traditional worship of war as the most awesome undertaking known to man. Miss Earhart, In effect, says laugh the god of war out of countenance. Make him look not simply frightful but ludicrous. They laughed the Ku-Klux Klan and VoLsteadism down the pike. Can mankind, as Miss Earhart suggests, drive war into eclipse by making it look ridiculous to the oncoming generation of youth? If women, scouring pots and pans in the trenches and bearing bayoneted muskets with the men would contribute to this ludicrousness, what do they ;*y to Miss Earhart's proposal of conscription?
VIGILANCE THE THING npHERE was. in most instances, a remarkably large vote last Nov. 7, and it also is remarkable that in many instances throughout the land, the voters turned down the propositions to issue bonds, even those in which was involved municipal ownership of public utilities. Evidently the taxpayers voted in unusually large proportion; and, it is a good thing. Regardless of the merits of propositions, a democracy that is indifferent in the matter of being taxed is not, in the final analysis, much of a democracy and It deserves the heavy burdens it gets from the hands of the few who manage taxation. What is true of taxpayers and their political opportunities applies equally to minority stockholders of corporations. It is a matter of publicity that many of the bigger corporations’ directors get together as a "close corporation,” and vote themselves fancy salaries and gorgeous bonuses, even when cutting down the wage standards, reducing or defaulting on dividends altogether. If minority stockholders, victims of such directorate chicane, courageously moved for restitution of the directorate swag, or publicity upon directorate proceedings, they might find the courts more concerned about the interests of minority stockholders. Much better this than that the federal government should feel it necessary to step in and regulate the pay of the higher-ups of the corporations, which proceeding does not smack of genuine democracy. Vigilance is something more than the price of liberty; it is also the price of Justice to the small fellow.
THOSE HUGE PROFITS TI7HEN senate Investigators uncovered the * facts about the fat salaries which such men as Wiggin and Mitchell enjoyed in recent years, the man in the street was not slow in expressing complete disapproval. Incomes that are figured in quarter-million lots don’t look so good against a background of 12.000,000 men out of work. The uproar that greeted the news was quite justified. Less fuss is being made about some of the later revelations of “easy money” in Wall Street. Yet these revelations are in fact more important than those which had to do with the swollen salaries of the big shot money changers. It can be claimed, after all, that a salary is a matter between a man and his stockholders; but a system which creates millions in profits for men who have rendered society no return whatsoever admits of no such a defense. Consider the little matter of the stock transactions about which Arthur W. Cutten told the senators the other day. Back In 1929, a group of men headed by Cutten, Harry F. Sinclair and Wiggin organized a get-rich-quick oil stock syndicate. This syndicate promptly bought some 1,130,000 shares of Sinclair oil stock. Before the members paid for it, however, they sold it—at a very neat little profit of $12,000,000. The participants in this gay little party used none of their own money. They didn’t have to. When you can sell, at a profit, an article which you have not yet paid for, you don't really need much of a bank roll to finance your deal. Now the more you think about this, the odder it all seems. You can cook up some sort of Justification for a stock gambling system by which a man who risks his money can get a return on it if he is lucky; but what are you going to say about a system which permits a high pressure crew to clean up $12,000,000 without putting up a nickel? It was this sort of thing, and not the prevalence of unjustifiably high salaries, that constituted the real weakness of the boom era.
A TIMELY SUGGESTION TT is pretty generally admitted that there can be no thorough and permanent resumption of prosperity unless we have a sustained pick-up in the capital goods industries. Recovery here is essential to revival in many other lines of industrial effort. It seems apparent already that the federal public works project will not suffice to give adequate stimulation to the steel and other building materials industries. It must be supplemented by extensive and well-planned private construction. If we are to have recovery under capitalism nothing is more indispensable than systematic resumption of building activities. But this development will have to reckon with a number of important obstacles. Among these are the fact that, if we have today an undersupply of good homes, we have an oversupply of office buildings and productive plants: that capital is extremely timid about furthering investment in disastrous real ■estate fields; that the mortgage burden is overwhelming and unscientifically administered: that obstructive and exploitive rackets infest the building trades; and that preposterous building codes merely obstruct construction instead of insuring proper quality and protection. But these difficulties must be regarded as a challenge to achievement rather than as an insurmountable barrier if prosperity is to return. The building industries rank next to agriculture and the textile industries in American economic life. In 1929 there were no less than 830,000 persons employed in the erection of buildings. As many more certainly were employed in accessory industries, such as mines, quarries, steel plants, and the me. Yet in the revival of building activities
there must be assurance that there will be no repetition of the confusion, waste, duplication and shoestring investments so characteristic of building enterprise on the eye of the depression. To safeguard against all of this, Mr. Benjamin F. Betts proposes, in an article in the American Architect, that a building construction division should be organized as a part of the NRA. Its purpose and {unctions he describee as follows: “Firstr— lmmediately to stimulate private construction, both new and modernization work, that has been stopped or retarded by the depression. “Second—To arouse national consciousness of the importance of building construction as a basic economic factor in recovery. • “Third—To remove existing obstacles to building activity by bringing to bear the best minds of the nation on the manifold problems involved.” Under such competent and official direction a tremendous stimulus could be given to American industry. In 1932 a survey conducted by the American Architect showed that there were more than two billion dollars worth of building construction already planned but awaiting capital investment to proceed. This survey did not reveal all of the planned building. To this estimate must be added the accumulated building shortage resulting from obsolescence and destruction by fire and other agencies. One good authority estimates that we need at least 1,500,000 new homes in the United States. Building and recovery would go hand in hand. When men are put to work in building operations and associated industries their wages will enable them to pay for new homes, while federal supervision will give them decent assurance of fair treatment in the matter of payment therefor. They would not have to remain in terror of evictions and mortgage sharks. Mr. Betts estimates that it would require a yearly expenditure of more than $2,000,000,000 for the next seven years to overcome the building shortage which actually exists today. This is a condition unparalleled since 1922. If we go ahead to meet our needs in this field we must see to It that none of the evils of the old mushroom and irresponsible building boom of 1922-29 are allowed to reappear. A building construction division of the NRA would prevent all this. “For the first time in the history of the United States an agency exists wherewith economic disturbances can be removed. If the power of this agency is applied, it will permit the building industry to contribute as can no other, to the welfare and early economic recovery of the United States.”
‘FORGING AHEAD’ THE government’s public works program, excellent in conception, has not proved as speedy in execution as had been expected; and since it was to bear a major part of the recovery effort, its slowness has had a bad effect on the entire recovery program. Nevertheless, there are at last indications that the public works job is beginning to swing into high. Figures compiled by the F. W. Dodge Corporation show that the construction, industry is “forging ahead under steam fired by the quickening effects of the federal public works program.” Construction contracts awarded during October reached a higher volume than in any month since November, 1931, with cue exception; and they were 35 per cent above the figure lor October, 1£32. Here is truly excellent news. Once the public works program really gets into its stride, our progtess toward full recovery will be accelerated immeasurably. The Chase bank stockholders who are suing Wiggin and 135 other directors for SIOO,000,000 must have run out of zeros a little too soon.
M.E.TracySays:
TAMMANY HALL never suffered a more crushing defeat. It would be a mistake, however, to regard that as the one and only result of last Tuesday’s election in New York City. If John P. Curry was dethroned as local boss, Postmaster-General James Farley’s hope of becoming national boss was given a severe setback. Os equal significance, the Socialists polled a surprisingly small vote. It will be argued, of course, that many Socialists voted for Mr. La Guardia. Even so, he failed to get a majority by approximately 400,000, and Boss Macy has a long way to go before he can establish himself or any other Republican in Boss Curry's shoes. The outcome was due chiefly to a rebellion of disgusted voters which owes its origin to the Seabury investigation. Judge Samuel Seabury not only played a large part in winning the fight, but showed New Yorkers why such a fight was necessary. He gets nothing out of it but the credit, and nobody should begrudge him that. nun MEANWHILE, let’s not overlook the Ironic element which runs through the plot. It was President Roosevelt ■who, as Governor of New York, named Judge Seabury chief counsel for the legislative committee. Result —a Republican mayor for New York City and the Democratic organization temporarily wTecked. It reminds you of 1928, when Alfred E. Smith, running as candidate for President, virtually forced his. New' York followers to nominate Roosevelt for Governor in order to strengthen the ticket. Result—Roosevelt became so popular that he took the presidential nomination away from Smith four years later. To the same extent that Judge Seabury was responsible for fusion's triumph in New York City, former Governor Smith can be credited with the triumph of repeal, but he, too, gets nothing out of it but the credit. We Americans have become too impatient to be very grateful or very discriminating. We want miracle men and trust the spotlight to pick them. That is one reason why we get sold so often. nan JUST now we are impatient the Roosevelt administration because it has failed to bring about complete recovery in eight months. Hext summer, we will be just as impatient with the Mr. La Guardia's administration if it hasn't solved all of New York's problems. Our one outstanding weakness is a seeming inability to size up the difficulties of a situation, especially if it happens to be unexpectedly grave or disagreeable. No matter what happens, we persist in the idea that it can be corrected immediately, provided we find the right wonder-worker. In spite of all we have seen or been taught, we believe that Providence has an exhaustless supply of wonder-workers on hand and that we face no more difficult task than to choose them. That attitude makes it very difficult for such men as President Roosevelt and Mayor - Elect La Guardia,
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
We’re Not Afraid of the Big, Bad Bear, Either
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The Message Center
- I wholly disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say It.—Voltaire -
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) By & Sportsman, E. L. Your unfailing interest shown during the fight against pollution should not be overlooked at a time like this. Recently the conservation department of this state started a campaign for deer. This is preposterous, as the original cost that it takes to get deer into this state is nothing compared ot the cost after they are once here. The Indianaoplis Star on Nov. 9 carried an article written by a president of a club in Huntington, Ind., who seems to think that Indiana can be compared with Michigan. Colorado, Pennsylvania and other states that have deer and have a place properly kept for dser. Please tell me where, in Indiana, deer can be placed. The only halfway place suited for deer is in the southern part of the state, and even there the space isn’t wide'enough but that a highpowerful rifle could reach across the whole place and into some community or house nearby and endanger the lives of those in that section. The gentleman from Huntington states that he and his son visited these other states and had deer to eat out of their hands, ?md he tries to disrupt the idea that deer eat shrubs, trees and other plants by stating that they offered the deer crackers, leaves and grass, and that they ate all but the grass. Naturally. He doesn’t suppose for one minute deer would take the thing that it can get at any time in preference to ice cream and cake, does he? The deer question should be left for states that have places for them, and deer in this state would be profitable to no one. It would cost sportsmen from $25,000 to $50,000 of their money for the original cost, and plenty more after they are here. I feel sorry for the farmers in the section where deer would be put. It would employ more game wardens to watch that section, and they couldn’t see every deer that was shot, anyway. So what would you gain? Nothing but grief. The article written by the Hunt-
Paralysis Laid to Improper Treatment
MANY persons having infantile paralysis are suffering from paralysis and deformity because they failed to get the proper treatment by a competent specialist. It isn’t too late, however, to correct such trouble even in the acute stages of this disease. Infantile paralysis attacks In an insidious manner in many cases and physicians frequently see paralyzed children who have had this disease without recognizing its true character, in the presence of an epidemic, the discovery is likely to be made early. When epidemics are not present, however, the condition may be overlooked. Infantile paralysis is due to an infection which attacks the cells in the front columns of the spinal cord. These cells control the movement of the limbs and muscles. When the cells are inflamed greatly it is impossible to move the limbs, but after the inflammation disappears and if the cells have not been destroyed, the movement may return.
NOW that prohibition is added to our list of lost 'causes I hope drinking will be taken out of the drawing room and put back into the gutter. It has been a real experience to have lived through the dry era. Since the day when the eighteenth amendment was written into the Constitution with so much hope and joy. we have seen gin-guzzling upon a scale that was never before believed possible. Drunkenness put on the garments of respectability. Convention, decorum and dignity fled out the window when cocktails came in at the door. Society from coast to coast, from the metropolis to the cross-roads, became pie-eyed. Drinking was no longer a vice. It became one of the fine arte, M
Comment By Clyde Wright. After any ex-soldier, or any other person of this United States read your article, “A Candid Note on War Debts,” do you wonder at the great number of yelps let out by the ex-dough boy who, no doubt, still is wondering what the great war was all about? But after reading your editorial, it should make it clear to a few of them who really thought they were fighting to make the world safe for democracy.
ington man was headed, “Hoosier Sportsmen for Deer in Indiana.” Was he assuming the attitude that he is the only sportsman in Indiana? It is up to every individual to voice his opinion in the matter, so write to the state department or your paper and say what you think. By a. Tech Mother. It is with a feeling of deep regret I read of the death of Robert Crawford, a Tech pupil, who was struck near Michigan street last Thursday. Since the widening of Michigan street the approach to this street from all directions is hazardous. We have signed petitions to have a stop sign at State and Michigan streets but to no avail. Everything is done to speed up traffic and make it pleasant and fast sailing for the motorist. He must not be detained in any way, but little in comparison is done to safeguard the pedestrian. At Arsenal avenue and Michigan street, a safety zone was erected on the opposite side of the street where people were used to getting off the cars for at least twenty years. Now the automobile has full sway and when you get off the cai; you have to stand near the street car so the machines can whiz by. Several accidents have occurred here. One woman had her coat caught in the street car door and would have been jerked with the car starting if it hadn’t been for the presence of mind of another woman who jerked her coat out. It wouldn’t hurt these motorists to slow down as they approach a school attended by almost 6,000 pupils. We have good laws but not thorough enforcement. People are not afraid. If they were, they would drive the “Golden Rule” way. Let the police detain motorists for fast
Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygreia. the Health Magazine. *
It should be obvious that the functioning or working of any inflamed tissue is bad for it. That is why a specialist is necessary. He most likely will fix the limbs and tissues in the most suitable position and in that way prevent movement until the acute inflammatory stage is over. From six to eight weeks may be necessary for the damaged nerve cells to make as much of a recovery as possible. While the muscles and tissues are at rest during this period, it is important that they be kept in a position in which there is no strain on them. One specialist says that even the weight of the bedclothes may cause excess pressure on the limb 6 and that the placing of pillow's under the knees may start deformities. Simply propping the patient up in bed may cause a disturbance in
A Woman’s Viewpoint
BY. MRS. WALTER FERGUSON
The irony of prohibition, however, lies in the fact that it made steady drinkers of so many women. Conceived and created, as one might say. in the feminine brain; sponsored, battled for. and regarded by so many of us, as a holy cause, it remained tor the dry law to set the American woman off upon a tremendous spree, the first she ever had known. a a a THE movement rode in upon the tidal wave of equal rights, and naturally the right to drink bootleg whisky with the men became one of the prime privileges we thought should be ours. Thousands of women and girls have become topers during the last decade. Mothers have appeared bleary
driving and they’ll be glad to slow down a little near all school houses and make it safe for each child. By P. D. B. It seems as though Franklin D. Roosevelt has some strange bedfellows these days when such a stalwart Republican as Charles W. Jewett in a speech to the Irvington G. O. P. Club said Republicans must strive for a more equitable distribution of wealth, government control of credit, and higher wages and shorter hours. Mr. Roosevelt advocated these things long before he became President, as we recall one of his “forgotten man” speeches, and he has been striving ever since March 4 to accomplish these things. It has been twenty years since people have heard a Republican mention such policies, and then it was the late Teddy Roosevelt who uttered anything similar to the ideas of the present Mr. Roosevelt. I heartily indorse the words of Mr. Jewett and ask any one to help Franklin D. Roosevelt in the troublesome days. Nobody can deny that he is trying hard and doing everything a human being or a government can do to help the country, and against some stupendous odds and opposition. By W. Williams. It is estimated that leasing 15,000,000 acres of cotton land by the agricultural adjustment administration from the owners will banish at least 250,000 tenant farmers from the land and set adrift more than a million persons in the south. Slaughtering some 5,000,000 pigs to raise the. price of pork and curtailing the future supply will throw thousands of farm hands out of a job in the north. If it takes twenty bushels of com to raise a hog and fatten it for market, the 100,000,000 bushels these pigs would have eaten, will have to be disposed of. If this corn is used to heat public school buildings as was done last winter in Nebraska, this will throw many coal miners out of work. Without work, these millions of farmers, miners, and their families will consume less corn, pork and cotton. Why wouldn’t it be a more sensible and humane plan to load 50,000,000 of our poor white and unemployed people on ships and dump them fifty miles from shore?
the back. If there is pain and soreness in the muscles, the use of heat and rest usually will bring relief. From six to eight weeks after the acute condition has passed, the tenderness will have disappeared and some power will Tetum to the muscles. This is the time when muscle training and massage should be begun. Then patients are encouraged to move the joints, but never should be permitted to work to the point of fatigue. Far too often parents who do not understand urge the child to move or permit it to be manipulated by incompetent masseurs or healers, with the result that irreparable damage ensues. At this period, exercises under water are especially valuable, because the buoyancy of the w'ater permits movement without strain or stress. The meet important treatment in the early stages of infantile paralysis is rest and the avoidance of undesirable manipulation.
eyed before their children; daughters have been carried home, limp and unconscious, by their escorts. It has not been a pretty sight. Indeed nothing could conceivably be worse than the conditions we endured in the 20 s. The way now lies open and with our moral lesson w'ell learned, we should be able to devise better methods of dealing with what will probably remain a major problem until the end of time. The younger generations perhaps never will be teetotalers, but they will, I can imagine, handle'their liquor better. And although I always have battled for feminine rights, and believe theoretically we should be to do as we please, I still do like my women sober.
■NOV. 16, 1933
It Seems to Me st BY HEYWOOD BROUN.;
NEW YORK. Nov. 16.—They tell me that radio is still in its infancy, and sometimes I wish it would stay there. I like it for football games and for Stooifnagle and Budd and Jack Benny and Rudy Vallee and Burns and Allen and the speeches of John P. O'Brien. But I want radio only when I want it. I have no desire to have it sneak up on me. This morning at nine minutes past 8 I hailed a taxi in a heavy traffic jam. My nerves are never much good before noon, and so I leaped one and a half feet from the cushioned seat when a voice directly in my ear screamed out, "There's blood upon your hands. Mike Cunningham!” “It’s the radio.” explained the driver. "Maybe you'd rather have a little music or a health talk." m m m WXYZ and Sudden Death TIE fumbled with the dials, and -i- the southbound truck missed us by about five inches. “Just let it ride.” I expostulated. “I’d rather take my chances with the murder mystery.” ‘"I can make it louder,” he suggested as the motorman jammed on his brakes and failed to hit us. "Volume, subject matter and treatment are all perfectly swell,” I assured him. "I’d like to reach 120 Broadway before 9 o'clock.” “You will now hear the second episode in the story of Count Mephisto,” said the announcer. “Jack has told Alice that Mary will not die because of the poison, but Nancy in a fit of jealousy has just bought a stiletto which she has hidden in her blouse. Harold, of course, knows nothing of this, and Mrs. Preston still is in Chicago.” “Lucky Harold, lucky Mrs. Preston,” I thought to myself. “The plans of the diamond mine are hidden in the floor of Ralphs Park avenue apartment,” continued the announcer, “but Ah Fong saw his master place them there and is awaiting his chance to steal them. But first, of course, he must give Terry the slip.” I rapped on the window and warned the driver not to come quite so close to the elevated railroad pillars, and it must be that even in the brief altercation which followed I missed something of the plot, for when I leaned back into the seat again, I distinctly heard, “And every one of our overcoats is guaranteed not to shrink or change color in six months. And, remember, these genuine Scotch cheviot? can be obtained on easy payments.” ana Action at High Speed “ A ND with the beginning of the lY third episode,” another voice broke, “we find that Millicent has fallen into a swoon upon hearing of the discovery of Ralph’s body in the rest room of the Canal* street subway station.” I didn't see how anybody could blame Millicent. It came as a distinct shock to me. Only a few minutes ago Ralph had been burying the diamond mine plans in his floor, like any self-respecting New York householder, and here he was already stabbed to the heart with an ivory paper knife tipped with a curious South American drug, but, after all, this is the age of rapid transportation. “Why,” i asked the driver, “do we have to go down West street in order to get to 120 Broadway?” "If any body makes a move I’ll have my men shoot to kill!” rang out a commanding voice, and I slumped back in my seat. “That’s Inspector Corrigan,” said the driver reassuringly. “He always gets his man. I had him on yesterday at this same time. The mystery of the killer with three thumbs. That’s how I bent my right fender. He broke into Slattery’s cellar den, and I passed a red light.” ana Baek to Music's Charms THE lights were against us now, and I asked, respectfully, "Would you mind terribly much if I wanted a little music instead of this mystery play?” “Sure,” answered the driver. “The passenger is always right. That’s the motto of these radio cabs.” He twisted the knob, and a baritone bellowed. “Git along, little daogie; git along!” I love music, and I think “The Last Roundup” is one of the finest American songs ever written. But I don’t want to be told at 8:30 in the morning that General Custer and Buffalo Bill and I will be riding. Even if it is the last roundup I refuse to do any riding. “Bring back the mystery story” I said feebly. “Inspector, this paper cutter which was imbedded behind Millicent’s right ear is the identical weapon with which Ralph Dowling was murdered in the subway!” We drew up in front of 120, but the thing had begun to get me. “Never mind that SIO,OOO deal,” I said to the taxi man. “Drive me twice around the park. I want to hear how it turns out.” 'Copyright, 1933, bv The Time*)
On Life
BY HAROLD FRENCH I have passed through myriad woodlands And I am so weak, so weak. I found long ago that oaks have lashes And willows speak. For the oaks have beat me for weary miles And the willows have mocked me aloud, And at last I have stooped where once I walked Erect and proud. I have bowed down to the world at last; What use to fight? Under such constant battering Nothing remains upright. Beliefs? Ideals? What matters If the world’s wrong? No use fighting. It is too strong. DAILY THOUGHT Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of hia fire shall not shine.—Job, 1:5. NO wickedness has any ground of reason.—Livy.
