Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 206, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 January 1934 — Page 6

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___ SATURDAY. JAN 6. 1934 THE YARDSTICK WORKS 'T'HE President s power yardstick is working. Within six months since its creation, the Tennessee Valley Authority has scaled down electricity bills in that area by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Written into the contract announced yesterday between the TV A and three comtr.cnweaith and southern operating companies in the Tennessee valley was a provision that the operating company in Tennessee should reduce its, rates to the same level that the Alabama and Georgia companies recently had reduced theirs. It was revealed that the Alabama and Georgia reductions, ordered by the state utilities commissions, were due to the TV A. The reductions amounted to from 15 to 23 per cent of old rates. Amusingly, the Tennessee commission, in v hose area the latest reduction was negotiated directly with the TVA, reported to the state legislature last year that a 25 per cent cut would destroy the company's financial stability. The new TVA contract with the power companies is important not only because it lower:, rates and assures a quick market for Muscle Shoals electricity, but also because it shows that the new power deal does not mean ruthless destruction of present property values. TVA has the authority to go right ahead duplicating lines and services; it has the money, as well. But it chose wisely to put into action its now famous power policy, to carry nut. the orders of congress to provide consumers with cheap electricity, and yet, as Director David E. Lilienthal said: Avoid the destruction of prudent investment in privately owned public utilities.” TO ( HECK BLACKMAILING OENATOR MILLARD TYDINGS of Maryland plans to seek a modification of the famous Mann act in the present session of congress. Tliis law was passed to strike a blow at the whAe slave traffic. Unfortunately, it also has been a boon to blackmailers. It is possible to prosecute under it a man who never has dreamed of having the shadow of a connection with the organized vice traffic; and unscrupulous folk have used this fact as a lever to extort money from men guilty of nothing more than indiscretions. It goes without saying, of course, that in revising the law care must be taken to leave it an effective club against, commercialized vice rings. Senator Tydings believes it is possible to amend the law so as to destroy its usefulness for blackmailers without weakening its usefulness In the field for which it was designed. It is to be hoped that he succeeds in his plan. SACRIFICE OF POLITICS TjROBABLY the most significant single thing about Mayor La Guardia's inaugural in New York was his blunt prediction; “I never shall be re-elected.” That brief remark, taken in conjunction with the new mayor's policies, contains a whole volume of commentary on municipal policies as it is practiced in America. The reasons for the new mayor's pessimistic prediction are simple. He aims to give New York a clean and efficient administration. He is going to reduce the number of city employes by approximately IO.COO. He is going to cut salaries, abolish useless boards and commissions, consolidate city departments. end the reign of graft in the letting of contracts and the buying of supplies, remove politics from the police department. He is going, in short, to do those simple things which obviously and indisputably are proper for a mayor to do. But we have built up the kind of system in our municipal politics which makes it very unlikely that any administration can do those very proper and necessary things and win reelection. To succeed in American municipal politics, as a general thing, a mayor must consent to a certain amount of inefficiency, a certain amount of favoritism, and a certain amount of outright corrupton in his government. The extent to which he puts up with those things varies from city to city, naturally; but the man who. like La Guardia. boldly proposes to abolish them entirely is a great rarity, and he takes it for granted at the start that he can not be re-elected. We have had a great deal of talk in the last year about a "new deal." about anew spirit that is entering our conduct of national affairs. Nowhere do we need such change any more than in our system of local government. We need not only politicians who are courageous enough to put principle above success of their own careers; we need a public opinion that will support such men when they do appear, and give them the backing they must have. The piping times in which money was so plentiful that we could afford to support wasteful and grafting city governments have gone now. and there is not much chance that they will return soon. It is up to us to cut our cloth to suit our purse; to hunt for and support politicians willing to take office with the prediction, “I never shall be re-elected. DEATH FOR RECKLESS DRIVING COME sort of record for severity in dealing with reckless driving seems to have been set by the Russian court in Moscow, which recently imposed the death penalty on a mo-

torist who let car get out of control, caromed into a marching column of troops, and caused the death of four men. This sentence is all the more astounding when one considers the fact that, except in cases of counter-revolutionary activity, Russian courts are reluctant to impose the death penalty at all, even for cold-blooded murder. It isn't likely that very many Americans would favor the adoption of such stringent measures in this country. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for the adoption of extreme severity toward the man who handles his car so poorly that he destroys the lives of his fellow-men. We have a lot of public menaces of that variety in America, and so far w’e do not seem to have found any very effective way of dealing with them. NOT AN ACT OF GOD IN southern California a thirty-six hour rainfall filled the arroyos with sudden floods, swept through towns and cities drowning thirty-nine people and doing more damage than the earthquake last March. E. C. Eaton, Los Angeles county flood control engineer, attributed the disaster to a cloudburst over an area recently stripped of protective covering by a forest fire. This and other floods are due more to man's folly than to nature’s whims. Rivers all over America which used to run blue and clear now hurl their silt-laden torrents against their banks every winter, endangering life and property in river settlements, washing away for all time millions cf dollars’ worth of soil wealth every year. Damage from erosion alone has destroyed permanently lands equal to the size of England, costing America in annual soil wealth more than $400,000,000. Why? Because our rugged individualists of the past have cut away the forests that used to hold back the waters in natural storage reservoirs and left the hills naked to the elements. For years American conservationists have urged that we save America from the fate of China by conserving our forests and planting new growth on the denuded areas. Government erosion control projects and the civilian conservation corps work now mark a longdelayed beginning. DANGERS TO DEMOCRACY YF one question overshadows all others today it is the future of democracy. Yet, in discussing it, few persons penetrate to the root of the matter as surely as did Dr. L. R. Alderman, director of emergency educational programs for the federal relief administration in a recent address. “If democracy is to be safe, the average intelligence must be increased,” said Dr. Alderman. "It is well that many of our people really are getting frightened when they consider the prospects for failure of democracy. . . . We can, if we will but put our talents to it, so strengthen the average citizen that democracy will succeed. If we fail, we again may begin the slow cycle that we read about of mankind working his way out from the dark ages. Let us not ask ourselves what comes after democracy but ask ourselves what we may do to save democracy.” Dr. Alderman's answer to his own question is more —much more education, of both adults and children. He points out that L.ore than a quarter of a million residents of this country can not read or write in any language; that probably twice that number are unable to read a newspaper or write a letter, and that there are probably millions of adults w'ho do not possess the knowledge taught in elementary schools. And this condition is not a result of the depression. Dr. Alderman reminds us that one-fifth of the counties of the United States made no progress in fighting illiteracy between the years 1920 and 1930; that one-sixth of the counties actually had more illiterates at the end of that period: and that our compulsory school attendance laws give us no right to believe complacently that we have done all we can or should do in the matter. Under his direction relief and civil works funds are being used to employ forty thousand teachers who will instruct young people and unemployed adults. Dr. Alderman probably is right in believing that this expenditure of public money is far more important to the public welfare than any of the other programs taken for putting idle persons to work. It should pay the biggest dividends of any new’ deal investment yet made. This democracy is racing with time in attempting to prepare thousands of its citizens to defend and preserve it. and it is scarcely possible to imagine too much money being spent for this purpose. BACK TO SIMPLICITY EORGE WASHINGTON borrowed $3,000 from a friend in Alexandria and set out by coach to New York to greet the first congress. Jefferson walked across a muddy, stump-dotted field in Washington to deliver his message. It was in this early American tradition, not in the latter-day one of high hats *and gold braids th£t Roosevelt met congress Wednesday. The congressional silk-toppers were ready to ride down to the White House and escort him solemnly back to Capitol Hill. He waved the ceremony aside, and laughingly told Senator Robinson by phone that he would be up in a minute. The first Presidents, fresh from their battles with royalty, disdained the least show of pomp in the young republic. With strutting little dictators afluntmg their power in drawn swords and fixed bayonets all over Europe, President Roosevelt remembers that real power is rooted not in fear, but in the faith of the plain people. Calves went up a little on the live stock market, but you still must look down at them on the street. Buckwheat cakes, says a scientist, were made thousands of years ago. We believe it, from the ones we tried to eat this morning. | The government is going to find work for unemployed circus performers, although we've already elected a great many clowns to congress. The war in the Gran Chaco, between Bolivia and ParaguMgegEuld end soon if they started

WAR EXPENSES—AND PEACE TJEFORE we go into double pneumonia from the chill which one Republican senator said is being thrown over the nation by the President's ter.-billion-dollar budget, let’s take a look at another emergency in which large spending occurred. When we entered the World war our expenses jumped from less than a billion to more than fifteen billions average annually for 1918-1919—more than five billions yearly greater than the present sum. Most of that money went for war. It was blown up, burned up, loaned up, and otherwise destroyed. For the ten billions involved in the President's peace-time emergency program at ler.st we will have seme bridges and roads and public buildings, and domestic instead of foreign loans. Instead' of death and shattered bodies and pensions we will have a rehabilitated army of unemployed larger than the army that w r ent “over there.” CHILDREN FIRST TT is too soon to try to say how successful -*■ our recovery program has beer. The real test of the program will be what happens to our children, says Grace Abbott, chief of the children’s bureau of the United States labor department. There is evidence, she says, that malnutrition was increasing during the last year. Six million children were living on relief and some of them had been dependent on relief for four years—“a very long time in the life of a child.” Permitting this we have permitted outrageous waste of our greatest natural resource. It remains to be seen how much we can salvage. If millions of the next generation are to be stunted, invalided, to lack the moral and ethical qualities which only secure home life can give, if they are to be rendered unfit permanently to play a part in the life •of a great democracy, then our recovery program may have come too late. This task of salvage is the one to which we should bend our greatest, most urgent efforts. Enough has not been done until we have made sure that every child has daily food sufficient in quality and amount to nourish it to healthy manhood or womanhood, and an environment calculated to make the adult a useful member of society. We have no cause to be complacent yet, but we have, at last, made a start. One half of all the work in the world is performed in the United States, says a Columbia professor. And by the way things look, the rest of the world would be glad to let us do the other half. too. Adolphe Menjou says three suits are enough for the well-dressed man. But you needn’t feel undressed if you’re wearing your only suit of clothes. We’ve been waiting for some ti*M for Postmaster General Farley to pass us a slice of his patronage, and finally he’s come through with the order that only .United States mail should be placed in our letter box.

Liberal Viewpoint

By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

OF late, lynchings have crowded riots off the front page of the newspapers, though there is no assurance that the tables may not be turned again. In any event, the score or more of lynchings which take place in a normal year are less important than the treatment of the more than a quarter of a million delinquents who are detained in our prisons. Bernard Shaw once said that the cruelties and barbarities which go on in our prisons could not exist for a year if the people really knew the facts. The slogan that if we give the people light they will find their way to better things is true especially with respect to prison conditions. Most notable improvements in prison administration have grown out of publicity given to atrocious conditions within prison w’alls by our newspapers. Therefore, the country needs a permanent organization devoted to throwing light upon prison conditions with relentless persistency and continuity. Such an organization must be free from self-interest or fear, possess the scientific resources to make its work thorough and have the vision to make the revelation of the defects of the day the basis for securing a better state of affairs tomorrow'. a a tt THE American Prison Association has done excellent work in providing organization and esprit de corps among the leading prison officials of the country. But its members are, for the most part, themselves engaged in the administration of the penal institutions of the country. Therefore, they hardly could be expected to be too candid or revealing in their observations on the state of our prisons, reformatories and jails. The suitable organization for giving us the facts on American prison conditions now has come to us in the form of the Osborne Association, which has superseded the National Society of Penal Information. The Osborne Association is. fittingly enough, the outgrowth of the efforts of Thomas Mott Osborne, the foremost figure in our generation in the field of prison reform and a man especially distinguished for his success in directing the attention of the country to the futility of the conventional methods of treating criminals. The association just has published the first volume of its latest "Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories,” embracing the institutions of seventeen states, mainly those east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. Broadly speaking, these states have the most up-to-date and enlightened penal institutions in the country and some of them would hardly justify the strictures which Sinclair Lewis directed against our prisons in “Ann Vickers.” B B YET even here we find relatively new institutions which are great white elephants, utterly out of accord with enlightened penology and likely to hold back rational methods for a generation. Such are the great penal fortresses at Jackson. Mich; Graterford, Pa.; Statesville, 111., and Attica, N. Y. We can not comment here upon the many interesting and instructive details regarding prison administration and prison life in these nstitutions. but every public-spirited citizen of any state covered in this first volume will be repaid amply for his perusal of the reports dealing with the institutions Within his commonwealth. The facts contained therein constitute the indispensable basis for intelligent work in local prison reform. If taken seriously and speedily operated upon, these reports would do more to reduce crime and make living safe than an epidemic of lynching. All intelligent Americans, whatever their state, will do well to read the brief introduction to the volume which is an entremely clear and concise summary of the principles which guide the up-to-date students of penal affairs. It is removed as far from the interest and doctrines of the prison reformers of a century ago as Einstein is from an astrologer.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TDIES

ANOTHER ‘JACK AND THE BEANSTALK’

VA':.

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all tan have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) By a Reader. If the motorists of Indianapolis aren’t disgusted by now, it certainly is time they were getting that way. Whether you’ve bought your 1934 license plates or not the hysteria created by the enforcement officials of the city and state over .the purchase and use of plates comes very near being a panic. Every year since we can remember, autoists were informed that they must have the new plates by Jan. 1. And every year in the same period of time, many motorists never got them mad many arrests were going to be made and so forth. Actually this year’s farce is just a repetition. Perhaps today will find several motorists in the city prison, awaiting trial and fines for violation of the law. The possibility is, though, that the day is damp and many of the erring motorists will slide by. There are others of us who believe that if we can not observe the law by producing 1934 plates, we might as well leave our cars in the garage for a couple of weeks until we can afford to make the purchase. But there is another side to our story. Don’t forget, state officials, that there are thousands of us in the state and that means that thousands of gallons of gasoline are not being bought this week. And, state officials, you figure out what that means in gasoline taxes. Bv Times Reader. In thinking over the great NRA program that President Roosevelt has sponsored and which has been received with so much enthusiasm by a vast majority of our people, it ! seems to me that there is only one j thing lacking that would end the : present period of depression and , that is a dependable market for our ! farm produce. I have a plan that I am sure j would be a cure for the farm pro- ! duce market and am sure my plan would help every one from the small farmer up to the big industries. My plan is this: Every man and woman who now ; is employed and those who would | receive employment from the effects I of my plan, would contract to buy I from the farmer, not from the spec- ' ulator. ten bushels of wheat at $1 a bushel, ten bushels of corn at 90 cents a bushel, five bushels of Irish potatoes at 51.50 a bushel, two | bushels of sweet potatoes at $2 a bushel, and twenty-five pounds of dry beans at 10 cents a pound. The total purchase would amount to 533. Then turn half of this purchase ove to the Community Fund instead of the cash money as we have done in the past. Half of this purchase would run two people through the hard winter months. I will take myself for an example. My wife and I could get by on half of the articles and feel that we also had furnished some other couple a large part of their food for the winter. This would give the farmer $33 to buy many of the things that he would need for the winter. The farmer would buy his supplies from my employer. This would give my ; employer a market for the things that I will have to make to supply the farmer with the supplies that , he has bought with the money I gave him for the food that I laid up for my winter use. Therefore, I have gained more by spending the money with the farmer simply because my job will last that much longer and it will give work to the couple for whom I helped buy the food and he also can buy the same amount of food

Oppression During Depression

By Ward B. Hiner. At no time during the history of Indiana has the citizenship b?en so hard-pressed for money and in dire need, but it seems as though our salaried officials have no vision as to what is being done to the automobile owner. First, the automobile has a personal property tax, then there is a special tax that the government collects before it comes to the user, then there is a gasoline tax, a state license, a driver’s license and a title fee, and the people are to be classed as criminals and arrested if they appear on the highways they paid for without a 1934 license. That is not the worst of it. Some poor man who can not pay his poll tax or other taxes can not get his license until he goes and pays them. Whoever heard of such bankrupt court procedure as this? In barring possibly 200.000 automobiles from using the roads, which will be done, the state is losing one-fifth or more of the gasoline tax. Now it is a fact that laws should be observed. The state of Michigan last year extended license for himself and some other poor couple. This would bring many people in from the farm who have moved out to save house rent, utility bills and numerous expenses that could not be paid while out of work. As there would be a great increase of employment this would get away from our overproduction as many people who have moved to the farm would come back to town for their old jobs. By G. B. I’ve read your Message Center for a long time, but, although I often have been much interested. I never have, until now, been aroused sufficiently to take an active hand in the arguments. What caused the change was the letter of E. F. Maddox. printed on Jan.' 4. Mr. Maddox deliberately is not trying to mislead any one. In my opinion he simply is one who tries

A Woman’s Viewpoint ■ - " "y MRS. WALTER rrwr.rsnv

r LEANOR ROOSEVELT is won- ■*-' derful. So much so, in fact, that I often wish the reporters could snoop around and find a little fault or two. Somehow she would seem more of a sister woman if there could be discovered several small flaws in her armor of perfections. But if the First Lady continues to express such philosophy and common sense as have marked her public utterances in the last few months, she will deserve to go down in history as the Minerva of the U. S. A. The ancient goddess of wisdom really didn’t have anything on Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. All my enthusiasm has been aroused by her criticism of war toys in the current Woman's Home Companion. She has said exactly what those who have not her opportunity to be heard or heeded have long been thinking. v a a a “ r T''HE glamor of the gorgeously A dressed toy armies may create in the boy’s mind an excitement which wiU carry over into manhood and may leave him ;

[I wholly disapprove of what you say and will * defend to the death your right to say it — Voltaire.

time six months, but what is the direct cause that the state of Indiana has to punish its citizenship by buying license plates at once in the worst period this state ever knew and when a majority of the people are in dire need. If this is to be public policy, when the government is trying to put money into the state, I believe it is high time that our state officials wake up to common sense and good behavior at least, based upon past history as to what has been done, with reference to buying automobile license plates, and I believe that every citizen should remember who is at fault and who has brought this about. This is oppression during a time of depression and certainly our state officials are aware of the fact, and while it is against the law, it is no crime. It is a necessity that they can not avoid. Many of them have to go to work in their automobiles, but it bars them from making a living. This is serious; more so than possibly what the people are thinking of who are enforcing the law. is this anew deal?

to shelter his ignorance behind a torrent of words. In the first place, I am certain he does not even know what "Socialism” really means. This is evidenced amply by the fact that, throughout his article, he confuses Socialism with Communism. He prates of Marxian Socialism as the kind that produced the French revolution. Perhaps he doesn't know that this revolution took place in the 1790'5, while Karl Marx was not born until 1818. He claims there is no “scientific” Socialism. Quite the contrary. Modern social science has modified the old Marxian principles to fit present conditions, and incorporated some of them quite successfully into the modern governmental picture. Witness, here in Indiana, the old age pension, the national bank deposit insurance law, the profit-sharing plans of factories with their em-

later with a desire to join the bands, the uniforms and the parades,” she has written, and adds, ‘Armies of foresters and farmers and mills with model workers instead of militaristic playthings would be a far better influence upon children.” It would be difficult to question the wisdom of this suggestion. Even the toy manufacturers will find it hard to reply. For a country’ that has professed such faith in psychology’, we show a lamentable lack of effort to profit by its lessons. Whe{i we are ready to put even a little trust in sages such as Freud. Adler. Watson and Wolfe; when we truly believe that children are shaped by the influences of infancy, then we shall regard as a serious danger the effect of war toys and war education upon them and their world. It always has seemed to me that toy guns given to little boys expressed a depraved and barbaric taste. Yet all of our children have them. In their playing they make those hideous gestures of death which are so much more terrible because they are done innocently.

JAN. 6, 1934

ployes, and other advanced measures now operating here. "Socialism, by its continued agitation and propaganda, endeavors to disorganize the unity of the states," says Mr. Maddox. Yes, Socialism does agitate continually for better living conditions for the working classes, but scientific Socialism does seek also to gain its end by lawful means, never by violence or revolution, as does Communism. As to disorganizing the unity of the states, that’s pure rot, for Socialism seeks to promote the welfare of the state and its people, not that of a ! few at the expense of all. Yes, modern Socialism does follow the principles laid down by the Constitution, which at the time it was written was regarded as a dangerously revolutionary document, and which reads: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice” (for ! all, not just the few, says Socialism) “insure domestic tranquillity, provide a common defense” (although Socialism is for peace, it realizes that Utopia is not yet arrived, and therefore will meet conditions as necessity dictates), "promote general welfare” (Socialism puts emphasis on the word "general ") and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” So, Mr. Maddox, you see that the Constitution and Socialism are not so far apart, and I personally am convinced that the authors of the Constitution had in mind exactly what modem Socialism is trying to effect. Furthermore. Mr. Maddox says, Russia is building Socialism.” Russia is building Communism, Mr. Maddox, and it will pay you w - ell to study the difference between the two. May I state, in closing, that I am not a Socialist, but a Democrat, and always have been. Yet I hope to live to see the day when modem scientific Socialism will rule the enlightened nations of the world.

Defeated

BY AUSTIN JAMES Well. I thought I was a hunter Os the best, there was no doubt, Till one day when I went huntin’ In our woods and there about. Then it happened all o’ sudden, To my shoulder went my gun, Andi shot with great abandon At a rabbit on the run. When the shot had ceased to echo Up I went to get my game Where it should be—but it wasn’t And I knew I’d missed my aim. Where gone, this boundin’ bunny Knew I not I dropped the catch Os my safety—then I saw him Headin' for a berry patch. On I traveled to the brambles With a purpose in my heart, Mr. Rabbit couldn't lose me Even though he had a start— Sure enough I saw him sittin’ With his back to me—and then Blast’ away the other barrel. Holy smoke! I missed again. And to sharpen up mv mys'ry Mr. Rabbit stared—with craft Showing through his funny whiskers. Why, I thought he even laughed. Well, I pride myself at huntin’ But at last I’d found my match, Just a beastly boundin’ bunny In a bloomin' bramble patch.