Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 214, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 January 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times (A BCKIPPS-HOWAKD NEWSPAPER) HOT W. HOWARD President TALCOTT POWELL Editor EAHL D. BAKER P.uslnes* Manager Phone—Rile; 5561

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•• * • 1 Hcm nAC One Light anti the People Will Find Their Orcn Way

TUESDAY. JAN. 16. 1934. THAT $1.30 LAW TNDIANA'S 51.50 tax law Ik becoming an lncreasing embarrassment to local governing bodies. Whale its intent—economy—is excellent and desirable, it is based on fallacy. The legislators apparently believed that a dollar and a half represented a fixed value in purchasing power. Now that Mr. Roosevelt has presented his plan for devaluing the dollar, the dollar and a half of 1932 (when the law was enacted) becomes less than 75 cents in purchasing power. Obviously, the local governments of the state will be cramped in carrying out their necessary commitments. Wayne Coy. Governor McNutt’s secretary, asked the Reconstruction Finance Corporation yesterday to find some means of lending the counties money for poor relief. The counties find themselves unable to co-operate with the federal government because the 51.50 tax law makes it difficult to sell poor relief bonds. It is to be hoped that the RFC will be able to furnish this necessary relief. As the various policies of the national administration unfold it becomes increasingly obvious that Indiana must call a special session of the legislature if it is to keep in step with the recovery program. A NEW FREEDOM A GENTLEMAN we know set out to teach his small daughter something about the stars the other night. He pointed out this one and that one, and then tried to show' her where the Big Dipper was. She had trouble in seeing it—and presently the gentleman discovered, to his amazement, that the youngster never in her life had seen a dipper and didn’t even know what one was. To a member of the older generation, this looks like a very odd lack of knowledge. The old familiar dipper, that always hung in the kitchen where you could dip it in the water bucket for a drink, or in the stove's hot water reservoir for csh water, was as familiar a part of household equipment as the living room lamp or the bedroom washstand. A child of our generation could as easily have been ignorant of the appearance of a knife and fork as of a dipper. But things are different now. and the gentleman who made this little discovery felt that the change was somehow symbolic. In the old day the citizen got his water supply by the simple process of digging a well—or. passibly. going to the town pump—hauling up a bucket and putting it on the kitchen table. A well, a bucket, a piece of rope and a dipper—that was all there was to it. It’s simpler, in that all he does is turn on a faucet and let the water run out of its own accord. It’s more complex in that the faucet won’t work unless behind it there is an intricate framework of reservoirs, pumping stations, aqueducts, filtering plants, bond issues, tax bills and the like. The citizen, in other words, has gained simplicity at the cost of great complexity. He needs to expend only an infinitesimal amount of energy to get what he needs; but he needs, at the same time, to be a member of a society which is very closely integrated, a society disciplined and cohesive, in which co-operative effort for the common good Is a necessity which never is forgotten. By becoming a member of such society, he forfeits a measure of his individual freedom. Yet it is futile for him to want to go back. The dipper-and-cistern days are as irretrievable as the stage coach era. And even if the citizen could exchange what he now has for those old days of "freedom.” it would be a bad bargain. We have to find our freedom today through co-operation and not through individual achievement. It is there, all right, if we go after it rifcht: and it eventually will prove more solid and lasting than the freedom of the old era of simplicity. STYLE UNDER COMMUNISM ONE of the most revealing little stories to come out of Soviet Russia recently was that telling how Russian women are demanding anew deal in the matter of clothing. Under Communism, the state clothing trust has striven to give the citizens clothing that will be durable and comfortable, but it has paid no attention whatever to style. Pride in one's appearance seems to be a hallmark of the bourgeois attitude; the citizen of a Communist state, one gathers, has no business worrying about his or her looks. But now the people of Russia, and especially the women, are getting tired of clothes that are like an endless series of drab uniforms. They are demanding style, snap, decent colors, trimness; and the clothing trust is beginning to hearken. A Moscow store the other day displayed—for just about the first time since the revolution—a formal dinner gown. Human nature, evidently, is about the same under Communism as under capitalism. Seventy of 100 students in a western college say they would marry a 60-year-old woman with $1,000,000. But what would the law say to the woman? United States senators voted an extra tax or. liquor imports from debt-defaulting nations. even if they had to cut off their noses to spite their faces. It looks now as if somebody is going to be burned in the same flames reported to have destroyed valuable records of the postoffice department.

A Sound Money Policy

CURRENCY uncertainty which has been retarding business recovery should be removed by the President’s message to congress. There has been sincere fear of 16-to-l silver or of printing-press currency. The unknown future of the dollar plus the nervousness caused by the Indefinite managed currency experiment, left private capital unwilling to risk new Investment for recovery. There resulted a kind of capital strike, a refusal to put to work the vast unused credit resources available. This was an inevitable human reaction. The President now has faced and met this situation by his declaration for sound money and for eventual stabilization on a gold bullion basis between 50 and 60 per cent of the value of the old gold dollar. This newspaper believes that the Roosevelt monetary policy as stated to congress yesterday is wise and just. •We believe that it has a better chance of working than any alternative policy which he could have chosen at this time. Os course it will please neither the extreme inflationists nor the extreme deflationists. It is frankly a compromise—an attempt cn the one hand to preserve the advantages without the disadvantages of the old gold system which collapsed; and an attempt on the other hand to experiment with managed currency to stabilize dollar purchasing power, but within stated limits and on an adequate gold base instead of on printingpress capacity. If the public understands this policy, and if the business community will give it deserved support, private capital will come out of hiding and industry will begin to pick up rapidly. The Roosevelt program Is: Congress is to amend the law, which now permits the President to place the value of the dollar anywhere between 100 to 50 cents, so that hereafter the range must be between 60 and 50 cents. Moreover, congress is asked to impound in the United States treasury all monetary gold, thus taking from the federal reserve banks the gold which earlier was taken from individuals and corporations and thus changing our system from a gold coin to a gold bullion basis. The profit from devaluation—between $3,400,000,000 and 54,200.000.000, depending on the choice of rate within the 60-to-50 cents limits—therefore no longer will accrue to the reserve banks, but to the people through their government. Os this sum about $2,000,000,000 will be used as a foreign exchange stabilization fund similar to the successful British fund, and the remainder will swell the general government reserves. Extreme inflationists would prefer to cut loose from the gold standard altogether. They argue that there is insufficient currency, and that the gold dollar is unjust and unworkable because it makes the debtor pay two or more dollars for every dollar borrowed in times of high prices. The Roosevelt program rejects the argument for more currency, as such. Since there is more currency and credit available now than at the peak of prosperity, the problem is not to get more currency, but to put into circulation what we have. Hence the necessity of large government expenditures for wages and goods until private capital resumes its normal expenditures and creates rapid monetry circulation. Under the Roosevelt program the infla-

BAD BUDGETEERING TN view of the need for an honest, accurate and up-to-date cost of living survey for the whole country, it is unfortunate that the United States labor department's request for ample funds should have been cut by the budget, director to less than half the estimate. The last government cost-of-living survey was made in 1918 by the war labor board. It covered wage-earners’ families in ninety-two cities. Those standards are as obsolete today as red flannel underwear. To use these sixteen-year-old figures today is. in the words of former Labor Department Statistician Stewart, “a crime, a fraud and an outrage.” Things like automobiles, radios, telephones, electric refrigerators and vacuum cleaners -that were luxuries in 1918 now are necessities. Today. also, the low-bracket income groups include a largt body of white collar workers as well as wage earners. Our social vision has lifted. According to Labor Secretary Perkins, a 1934 American living standard “should include not only food, clothing and shelter, but security for old age. provision and the opportunity for healthy recreational life and suitable, varied and extended education.” To use old style minimum cost-of-living figures as a basis for wage-fixing is, of course, uneconomic under the new conception of the workers' place in society. The American Federation of Labor has abandoned this method of wage-fixing as predicated on an industrial feudalism belonging to the eighteenth century. In a society that has adopted the goals of national planning, consumer welfare and high wages as essential to adequate purchasing power, anew yardstick is essential. Congress should appropriate a sufficient fund for a modernized cost-of-living survey by the labor department. MEETING A TEMPORARY NEED ODIFICATION by NR A authorities of the auto code, to permit temperary use of a forty-hour week instead of the original thir-ty-five-hour limit, looks like a sensible way of meeting a somewhat peculiar problem. Having employed many workers already under the thirty-five-hour limit, the industry temporarily needs more men. because of increased schedules. Raising r.he limit to forty hours makes it unnecessary to hire more men just now. And that, in a land striving to create jobs, looks a bit funny. But it is a sensible move, just the same. Calling for more men right now would draw a vast Influx of job-seekers to the auto centers. These jobs would be only temporary; presently many men would lose their new jobs, and the dislocation of the labor supply would be worse than it is now. If these jobs were to be permanent, of course, it would be different. But they aren't. Some Japanese would make Henry Pu-Yi king, rather than emperor, of Manchukuo. Well, a lemon under any other name would taste just as sour.

•An Editon

tionary effect of large government expenditures would be controlled by keeping finances on a budgetary borrowing and gold bullion base. Under the extreme inflation program the government would resort to printing-press money, which would tend to become valueless and lead to bankruptcy of the government and people. But the Roosevelt policy admits that the Inflationists are right in asserting that the old gold dollar is dishonest ang unworkable, because it makes the debtor pay two for one and because it permits -wide fluctuations in prices. Therefore the President proposes to devaluate from 40 to 50 per cent to cancel the approximate difference in the purchasing power of the old and the new dollar. This is objectionable to the deflationists. There is an extreme deflationist group which demands a return to the old dollar, even though that is worth, in fact, not 100 cents, but 200 cents in purchasing power. This group, however, has dwindled into insignificance during the last six months. Even most conservative bankers now recognize that an attempted return to the old dollar under present conditions would amount almost to national and international suicide.

Conservative opinion for the most part has come around to the point where it is willing to take fixed devaluation. Though conservative opinion would prefer a devaluation to 70 or 80. it doubtless will become reconciled to a lower figure because it has won its major demand that the dollar be a gold dollar. The chief conservative criticism will be that the President has failed to stabilize at a fixed figure and has left a 10 per cent range within which to manage the gold content of the currency in terms of commodity prices. Without entering at this point into an argument over the merits and demerits of the much restricted managed currency limited experiment which has not yet proved or disproved its worth—we believe the conservatives should see that it would be unwise to fix the value of the dollar rigidly at this time, even from their own point of view. The domestic price level today is too artificial and too unstable to permit any one to say definitely what a fair and workable dollar level would be. If it were fixed “permanently” today at 60, it probably would have to be changed a few points within a month or a year. Actual conditions do not permit any more than an approximate stabilization at the moment.

This is true not only because of domestic but also of foreign conditions. There can be no permanent stabilization until the dollar is stabilized in terms of foreign exchanges. That, in turn, can not occur until the President is able to persuade other governments to enter into some reasonable agreement. Meanwhile the President proposes, through use of a $2,000,000,000 fund for dealing in gold and foreign exchanges, to keep the dollar at a world level which will protect our money and our trade during the interim and which will prevent stabilization at an unfair level when permanent international agreement is reached. Therefore, in our judgment, there is no longer excuse for the monetary fears which have checked business. On the basis of the Roosevelt program the radicals can stop worrying about the old dishonest gold dollar, and the conservatives can stop worrying about greenbacks. And the country can turn to the real job of economic reform and recovery.

Liberal Viewpoint By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES =.

Tj UMBLINGS continue relative to President Roosevelt’s proposal to spend enough to beat the depression. Republican war horses are doing their best to capitalize potential opposition to adequate financing of the war on misery, poverty and suffering. It has been reported that the ten billion dollar budget “staggers” certain prominent figures in Wall street. As some writers already have suggested, it is very fruitful to go back and discover just what these same groups were doing in 1917 when we proposed to enter a war to settle European differences. Neither Republicans nor Wall Street were “staggered” at this time. Tire Republicans were so eager for war that they were willing to see it waged by a Democratic administration which was bound to increase in temporary prestige. Most of the “wilful" men who opposed Mr. Wilson were members of his own party. Wall Street was exuberant, even lyrical. over the prospect of war. It had been working for war for more than a year prior to our entry. Some of the most powerful banking houses had been openly on the side of the allies since August. 1914. They had made vast loans to the allied powers and the latter had about exhausted their credit with private bankers. Great Britain had overdrawn her account by $450,009,000 in January, 1917. The bankers were faced with the sheer necessity of passing the buck to Uncle Sam. They were not worried about big federal budgets in those days. a a a 'ATOT only did our dominant financial figures warmly urge war. They were successful in inducing the government to pay for the war mainly through the same type of federal borrowing which now worries many of these bankers. The total cost of the war to the United States between April. 1917, and October, 1919, was ‘532,832,000,000. No less than twenty-one billion dollars of this total was raised through loans, namely, the sale of liberty bonds. Therefore, to pay for the war we borrowed two dollars for every dollar raised through taxes. In addition to this direct immediate cost of the war there quickly sprang up large expenditures for veterans’ relief of one kind or another. We already have paid some six billion dollars on this account and. at a comparable rate of payment in the future, these expenditures will have exceeded the immediate cost of the war by 1960. We are not likely to receive any appreciable return from our loans to our war-time allies. So Calvin Coolidge probably was characteristically parsimonious when he estimated that the total cost of the World war to the United States would run in excess of one hundred billion dollars. These war-time expenditures were, of course, responsible for the vast rise in our public debt. It was approximately $1,q00,000.000 at the outset of 1917 and had jumped to $26,594,000,000 in 1919. Those who are wont to blame President Roosevelt because he is about to push our public debt beyond any previous record should bear this fact in mind. Had it not been for the lavish war-time expenditures Mr. Roosevelt's budget still would leave us with an enviable small public debt. e a a Ayr ANY will protest at this point that we were faced with a necessary war and were in grave danger in 1917. whereas we live in profound peace today. The fact is that we face an overwhelmingly greater menace today than we did in the spring of 1917*

.THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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Tbo A/Foccci cfa Pnntor I” 1 whoUy disapprove of what you S " ,J and wi "l jl lit/ iVICuu XI L -L |_ defend to the death your right to say it — Voltaire. J

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Hake your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) OBJECTS TO PRESENT CWA SYSTEM By J. M. Miller Having taken The Times for years, I would like for you to print this letter for me. My husband is a CWA worker and a fine machinist, yet ho is working as a laborer. On the job where he works there is a large sign telling the men to go to Tomlinson hall and get an order for meat, butter, eggs, beans and flour. Go there and try to even get in, much less get an order for these things. You stand in line all day and get nothing. What are they trying to do—make fools of these poor men, or do you have to be a favorite son of Brother Paul V. McNutt to get a handout? And to show there is something wrong, the newspapers come out in big, black headlines “Thousands Endanger Their Lives in Tomlinson Hall Daily.” If the building is not safe, why ask the working man to go there? Why not give him a painless death? No one wants a building to cave in on him, and think of the widows and orphans who would be left. Why can t the boss on the job give these men orders for that stuff and save shoe leather, and, best of all, Tomlinson hall? Someone may want to rent it and make a pretty speech about salt pork, or perhaps Nutty McNutt. Who knows? 8 8 8 ANOTHER PROTEST IS RAISED AGAINST CWA By a Times Reader I would like to express my thoughts regarding the CWA. I filled out an application for work in November, and I still am walking the streets. I have a ten-months-old baby and have a notice to move. I am a basket man. I know of a case where there are three men in one family working for the CWA. They all live in the same house. That is just one of several cases I know of. I am a Democrat and both my wife and I voted for Mr. Roosevelt. I think they should investigate a few of these cases and give work to the men who really need it. 8 8 8 MR. JOHNSON NEVER HEARD OF THIS By Frank Alexander I see in the jan. 11 edition a cartoon picturing Mr. Morgan’s plant and over the cartoon it reads thumbs down. It seems to me that you are advocating a boycott of his products and the cartoon is a very damaging instrument. If you had finished the picture it would have read quite different. I suggest that you rewrite the cartoon, extend Uncle’s left hand, with thumbs up over a picture of Mr. Ford's plant, and. if Mr. Johnson had anything to do with this cartoon being placed in your paper, that you send him a copy. 8 8 8 TIMES CRITICISED FOR WAGES PAID DRIVERS By a Reader On Thursday, Jan. 11. your editorial entitled "Shameless” took the executives of the Indianapolis Power and Light Company to task for their heartless salary cuts of the low salaried employes. I wish to commend you highly for championing the cause of the “underdog.” But, permit me to suggest that you sweep the dirt from your own door before criticising others. What L mean, is that The Times is as guilty as the light company in respect to wages of the low salaried employes. Why doesn't The Times pay at least a semblance of a living wage to its

‘THE LIGHT THAT FAILED’

Suggestions for Mr. Minton

By a Regular Times Reader I just finished reading an item regarding the Kentucky avenue and West Washington power houses. In fact, I have been reading what Sherman Minton has to say about cutting electric power rates. Now, if rates are cut who will benefit? The way I see it, it only will benefit the large factory consumers. As far as the small private consumer, it would not save them one penny for this reason; The minimum rate of 80 cents is what hurts the small consumer, as for myself I know I never use 80 cents worth of electricity, yet I must pay the minimum 8C cents. To my mind the minimum charges are not legal. I am perfectly willing to pay for what electricity I use but I don’t want to pay for what I don't get. Now if our Sherman Minton wants to do something to benefit the general public why doesn’t he put a bill before our legislature to make all utilities cut out this minimum clause. When this minimum clause plan was adopted it simply was class legislation, not mass legislation. I venture to say the light company, the gas company and water company can pay

employes, before censoring or criticising others. The men (some who are married with families to support) who operate your motor routes outside of the city limits are paid hardly enough to defray the expense of their automobiles. In fact, I am informed reliably the man who is supposed to have the most remunerative route clears $6 a week above car expense. There also are some who have routes with more mileage who do not make a cent more than car expense. Honestly Mr. Editor, do you approve of such shameless tactics, where a man is compelled (because of economic conditions which are prevailing) to work for such a large corporation such as Scripps-Howard for nothing? Surely, your circulation manager and the other executives do not work for nothing. In your editorial of Jan. 13. entitled “Timely Warnings” you quote John P. Fry,. NRA labor advisory board member and head of the A. F. of L. metal trades department, and it is apparent you are in absolute accord with his views. Therefore, iSn’t your circulation manager doing the very opposite of what you

A Woman’s Viewpoint

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

“AS persistent as a book agent” •aY has has become a threadbare simile. For a long time this particular type of salesman was only a pest to be avoided. It became fashionable to malign him and we fell to this pastime with such zest that we almost have forgotten his contributions to progress and education. Yet. I assure you, they were many. During those years when the country west of the Atlantic seaboard was in process of development. the book agent brought the only culture to the “sticks” that ever reached there. It is true that he sold drab looking “sets” of standard, classics, and that his knowledge of literature often was confined to his own particular wares, but in a good many localities they represented the only material fit to read. He himself may have been a vulgarian, but he carried the magic wand that opens the door to beauty and truth—the winged shoes that can transport to the ends of the earth. I think the country, right now. could do with more book agents. a a a PUBLISHERS, who unhappily reside largely in the eastern

their help on the extra money they get out of the minimum plan. I know I never use the minimum on gas, light and water, and I have my bills to show I am compelled to pay for what I don’t get. This, I think, is unconstitutional, and should be remedied if utilities want to help the small home consumers. I would suggest the legislature pass a law to cut out the minimum and do business in a business way. When the meter man calls at my house, and reads the meter he could make out a duplicate copy of the meter reading and turn in the original to his company. This would be only business, and then the people could tell at all times just how much gas, water and light they had used, and could compare their bills each month and know where they stand. On the duplicate the company should have meter-reading instructions for the public. This, to my mind, will protect the small consumer and he will not have to pay for something he doesn’t get and it would be fair and just to all concerned and would cut out the minimum graft.

advocate? At least, the men who operate your motor routes are kept on the job for the very reason Mr. Fry states, surely not loyalty, for how can any employer expect loyalty from employes who are being exploited. This deplorable condition within your own organization is becoming public knowledge, and as you must surely realize not to your good. If you are as brave and fearless as your editorials seem to indicate, you will print this in your “Message Center.” If you do not there are other sources that will. Editor's Note Times motor route men report at 2 p. m., drive an average of fifty-five miles each, finishing between 5 and 6 p. m. For this part time work they receive a flat guarantee of Sls weekly. Each driver is paid 5 cents for every paper more than 100 copies that he carries and 25 cents for every new subscriber he obtains. These commissions are in addition to the sls. The drivers actually are part-time salesmen on commission and drawing account.

corner of the country, show a remarkable lack of business sense when one considers what vast territories are starving for their products. One of these days a smart man in the trade will begin an educational campaign west of the Hudson. He will send out a number of charming, intelligent men and women who wall go into smaller 'towns and rural communities and. like the old-fashioned Chautauqua promoter, will put on some free entertainment. He will ofTer book reviews, discussions of current literature and of various literary movements and personality stories about authors. Thus the book agent again will become an educator, as he has always been. By promoting sales and increasing demand he will be a force for good as well as a benefit to publishers. It seems strange, does it not. that while we believe a desire for “things”—automobiles, electric refrigerators and toothpaste—must be cultivated in the public mind, we hold that love of reading and the longing to possess books is a natural-born desire, peculiar only to the few?

,!JAN. 16,1934

, AL FEENEY ANSWERS I CRITIC IN LETTER Bv A1 Feeney. A letter published in your Message Center Jan. 12 by an anonymous writer, contains this incorrect statement; “A1 Feeney states that precinct committeemen don't make good policemen.” Neither the gentleman who wrote the anonymous nor any one else, for the matter, can prove that I ever made such a remark. I did make this statement, however; “A good precinct committeeman will not make a good statt policeman, no more than a good state policeman will make a good precinct committeeman. The reason is simple. A precinct committeeman is the mast important cog in a political machine. His work is so important that it would be impossible for him to do properly the many things a precinct committeman is obliged to do and at the same time fulfill his oath as a state policeman.” a a a THIS SOUNDS MORE LIKE A REAL FRIEND By L. C. McKinsey. I am not daring you, as some of the contributors do, but I would appreciate it greatly if you would insert the following in the Message Center as soon as passible: Constructive criticism is justified, but criticism of the nature that appeared Jan. 8 in the Message Center under the caption, “An Old Friend Speaks,” seems to me as quite out of order. Here is a man who claims to be an old friend of A1 Feeney’s. His friendship for Mr. Feeney surely had been skimming along on pretty thin ice for him to allow such a trifle to break a beautiful friendship. Are you sure, Old Friend, you are not just another mistreated “deserving Democrat?” Here is an official trying to enforce the law and results in bringing down a storm of abuse and unjust criticisms upon his head. A law remains a law until it is repealed, regardless of how petty a law may appear and there’s just enough old fashionedness about A1 Feeney to insist on its enforcement, even though it might spell political ruin for him. It seems to me that considering the way law has been administered in the past it should be a welcome change to have a man who has the nerve to enforce it. Old Friend, the more I think of it, the more I am convinced you, at no time, ever was a friend of A1 Feeney’s. You were deceiving yourself. Mr. Feeney is an intelligent man. He would have detected the blue notes in your musical composition long ago. Hope you print this soon.

The President

BY LAWRENCE E. SCOTT On. through the storm clouds, Smiling, you came. Magic was wrought By your more magic name. To a crestfallen nation At the end of its rope Your daring and leadership Gave courage, gave hope From darkness to brightness ■ You turned a whole nation, To suffering peoples Brought you joy and elation. You have lifted a land From the clutches of shame. E'en your partisan foes Are thrilled at your name. With a will toward the right And the courage to do, A nation thanks God, Mr. Roosevelt, for you!