Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 217, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 January 1934 — Page 17

Second Section

It Seems to Me By Hey wood Broun IWAB bom year* before my time, and I am think,ng at the moment of the churches. Just the other day I saw in the papers that an Episcopal rector had made an attack upon President Roosevelts monetary policy. Now, I'm not saying that a rector's opinion on the gold standard and inflation seems to me inevitably the most thrilling address in the world. But compared to what I heard when I was an adolescent it would be sure to be good.

The sermons on which I was reared had no connection with politics, sex or the younger generation. The man just picked a text and went ahead for forty minutes. Generally it was something from the Prophets or the Acts of the Apostles. "My text is from the first verse of the third chapter of the Book of Isaiah. Thy stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole staff of water.’ ” And at that the preacher would peer out from the pulpit and repeat:—"The stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole staff of water,” and I would know that I w’as in for an interlude both strange

T ~ w *

Hey wood Broun

and tough. Unless, of course. I rould get my father's eve and a wink from him that I did not need to remain for the discourse. a a a Rendering into Caesar IT seemed to me that my father had authority in such matters, because he passed the plate each Sunday. The other collector was a young red-headed man who later turned out to be a banker. However, there was no scandal in St. Agnes’. As 1 far as I could ascertain my father and tne other man always came through with the coins and the bills intact. We sat in the gallery, and my brother and I used to watch that collection with fascination. Naturally, we both wanted father to get more in his plate than that carried by the red-headed man. Our side started out a little ahead because the banker used to drop in a quarter before he assailed the other parishioners, and Heywood Broun, the first, gave a dollar. I didn't want to go home before the contest was over. After a year or so my brother and I coula make a pretty fair estimate the minute the plates started of how much the collection would be. We knew the ten-cent and the half-dollar worshippers. Ours was not a rich parish, but there was one old gentleman, a retired bookmaker, who gave $5 every Sunday. That was a handicap. He sat over on the red-headed mans aisle. We had to root our section into an equal amount of silver every Sunday in order to preserve the family honor. a a a On Rainy Sundays THE retired bookmaker had gout, and on rainy Sunday he didn't come. On a day like that it was five, two and even on the Brouns. My brother and I each put in a quarter which w r e borrowed from my father at the beginning of the service. It may be that my memory is slipping. Perhaps the collection came after the sermon. That would have been a poor system in our church with the sermons we had. but it may be the way they did it for all that. We h Bishcp Manning for a couple of years. Os course he wasn't a bishop then, but only a rector, and he had not attained the fire and eloquence which now ring up and down the long corridors of the cathedral. The only sermons I liked were delivered by a young curate. I liked his talks because very often he came around to our house for dinner and drank Manhattan cocktails. I don't mean a lot of cocktails. Just two before dinner and a couple afterward. His sermons never made any particular sense, but they were very short. None of the sermons touched on improper books or who ought to be the alderman from our district. They were all strict and formal and not about anything in particular as far as I can remember. "The stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole staff of water.” That was the rector. The curate used to take things like “Love is the fulfilling of the law"—Romans xiii: 10. I can’t remember now what he did with it, but it was short and snappy and not to the point. His idea was. as far as I could gather, that if we all loved each other there would be no murder, or coveting your neighbors wife, or committing adultery. Thi* was during the cold winter of 1899. and I hadn't the slightest knowledge what adultery was, nor did I take any interest in it. a a a Seeking Parental Permission AND so I liked to sneak out before the sermon. and naturally it was necessary to get parental permission You never could tell about that. If my father had been out pretty late at some party or other he would give me a stem look when I glanced over to get a nod. But if there was nothing much on his conscience he would smile very pleasantly and Indicate that I might run along. Sometimes it was a little embarrassing to meet th° curate at the house. He would ask: "Well, ni.v little man, and how did you like my sermon today?” Naturally, you couldn't lie to a clergyman, and I'd tell him that I left early. He seemed to take that calmly enough and about the third time it happened he grinned broadly and said: "You didn't miss much." I liked that curate. I wonder whatever became of him. He might have gone far. He had the spirit of a columnist. (Copyright. 1934. by The Times)

Your Health BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

w w rOMEN have a better chance of living through W to a npe old ace than have men Os course the death rates among both men and women, in the last half century, have decreased, so that their expectancy of life at birth has risen until now it is approximately 56.8 years for men and 60.4 for women. The reason for this encouraging progress is the significant change that has come about, during the last fifty years, in the diseases that afflict mankind and the causes of death. Since 1850 the number of persons more than 50 years of age. in proportion to the total population of the United States, has just about doubled. What has effected such great changes in the populating has been practical disappearance of typhoid 'er malaria, and smallpox, as conditions affecting considerable number of people. a a a THERE has not been much change in the mortality from scarlet fever and measles, but we have good reason to believe that the application of the newer knowledge that has developed, particularly in relation to scarlet fever, will result in real improvement, during the next twenty years. All over the world, it has been noticed that the number of deaths from tuberculosis has declined. At the same time, the tendency to deaths from heart disease has been upward and this particularly in people in the older age groups. Deaths from cancer also have seemed to rise correspondingly. Massachusetts has death rate records dating as far back as 1768 These show that the expectation of life at birth rose slowly in that state from 1789 to 1890, but since then the rise has been rapid. But the present expectancy of life at birth is about the most that can be expected, unless new conditions arise which are not now apparent. Indeed, the new conditions which may develop might result in offsetting some of the gam that has been made, an example here being the increase in deaths from heart disease among persons of advanced yean. £

roll I.iiM*<l Wlr* Serrlrg of the rnlteo f*re Association

Thl In the ninth of a aerie* of articles telling about the member* of The Indianapolis Time*' editorial staff, the m en and women who make your newspaper. Today’s artlrle ronrern* Arrh Steinel. famous Times’ feature writer. a a a a a a BY NORMAN E. ISAACS Times News Editor MEET Clothe-a-Child Steinel! He's the fellow who works night and day during December directing every’ step in The Indianapolis Times’ Clothe-a-Child drive. Night and day during each Christmas month he sits at his desk, checking lists and reports, answering the incesssantly ringing telephone, and scanning with a skilled eye every child who steps before his desk. His first name is Arthur. His w’hole name is Arthur Greene Steinel, but he calls himself Arch. Sure, you remember the name. His feature stories have made history in Indiana. He’s in the early thirties, a young, slender man with a slight stoop to his shoulders and a boyish gleam in his blue-gray eyes. Gray is starting to show at the temples, but you rarely notice it because it’s an event when he takes off his hat in the office. Arch Steinel was trained by old-time newspaper men and his habit of constantly wearing his hat while in the office must have come from them.

Arch Steinel is temperamental and he's fussy and he likes to be a hermit. He sits at his desk in a corner of the office, silent and unnoticed most of the time. He can pick the iace horses with uncanny skill and he's the office authority on the bangtails. And, overshadowing everything else, is the man himself. For Arch Steinel has a heart as long as the Mile of Dimes! a a a ARCH is a funny fellow. Office hermit though he is, he will undergo any hardship to help a friend, no matter what the circumstance. He will never ask any one to do his work, but he is always willing to do a job for somebody else. He has the heart of a true feature writer. He will wrestle for hours with any story he handles, carefully rewriting it time and again to get the right choice of words. He writes slowly and painstakingly, but talks fast. His favorite phrase is "See what I mean?” He gets his biggest kick out of the Clothe-a-Child campaign and his smile grows bigger and bigger as the list goes up into the hundreds. a a a ARCH was born in St. Joseph, Mo., w’here he w’ent to public school. He moved to Kansas City, Mo., in the eary 'teens and went to high school there. In summer vacation he carried papers, worked as a banic messenger and a printers’ devil. The United States entered the World war ‘w’hile Arch still was in school, but he quit in his senior year to join the navy. He served twenty-two months, part of the time overseas and part on transport duty. Given his discharge from the navy. Arch began his newspaper career as a cub on the Kansas City Post and then moved over to the Kansas City Journal. He worked all beats—police, city hall, federal building, courthouse, and wrote features. He left the Journal to become editor of the Miami (Okla.) News, a small daily. A merger sent him hunting another job and he landed on the Daily Oklahoma at Oklahoma City, as city hall reporter. He was transferred to the state desk, and then went on features. After another siege of moving

Eddie Cantor Suffers the Life of an Underfed Grocery Clerk and Is a Hero to the Emperor in His New Movie, *Roman Scandals'

AS long as I live. I always will remember Eddie Cantor as the grocer s clerk who is knocked unconscious and dreams he is in ancient Rome. „ Eddie goes back among the Romans in "Roman Scandals.” a Samuel Goldwyn production which is a boom to the industry and a blessing to the millions who buy movie tickets. This musical extravaganza is blessed with high as w’ell as

1

Eddie Cantor

where about any time. The slave girls, both as dancing units and as decorations, are the'most beautiful I ever have seen on the screen. Those are not idle words because I am weighing them carefully. The picture as a whole is a feast for the eyes. As grand as ••Whoopee" was, "Roman Scandals" is even grander. “The Kid From Spain" is a light sister compared to "Roman Scandals." On the stage I found "Whoopee" to be the best show in which Cantor has appeared. As far as the screen goes "Roman Scandals" earns the right to that position as a photoplay. Ruth Etting develops a slave song which gives the picture one of the most startling and, at the same time, one of the most beautiful arrangements of beauty the screen ever has revealed. Frank Tuttle, the director, is the Ziegfeld of the screen when it comes to glorifying the beautiful girls. a a a THE story opens with Cantor as a clerk and a delivery boy for a kind-hearted grocer in the modem town of west Rome. Eddie just about gives the store away to help people evicted from their homes because a crooked mayor and a politician wanted to build a lasting memorial, a modem jail, on the home sites. In championing the cause of those evicted from their homes, Eddie finds a check given to Uie

The Indianapolis Times

‘WE MAKE YOUR NEWSPAPER’

Clothe-a-Child Steinel —a Heart as Big as Mile of Dimes

between the Oklahoman, the Ponca City News, and the Kansas City Journal, Arch came to The Indianapolis Times. That was in 1928 and he started on the copy desk. Soon after he was shifted to general assignments and his work now consists in the main of feature stories. a a a ARCH during his newspaper career has been in one tight spot after another. While in Oklahoma, he dug up some information on a murder there and published the facts in an attempt to force the county attorney to indict the person Arch believed was guilty. Irate, the county attorney ordered Arch’s arrest for contempt. But Arch was covering an interstate commerce commission hearing in the federal court building and while in the courtroom was immune to arrest. Arch wrote his stories on the third floor of his newspaper’s fivestory office building and had an office boy rush the copy into the editorial rooms. Then, each day, he would sneak to the federal building, enter through the judge’s chambers and take his place in the courtroom. Sheriff s deputies stood outside in the corridor, peeping through the door, and eyeing him, every once in a while holding war council. They couldn't arrest him in the court room, for that was federal government territory, and the canny Mr, Steinel didn’t intend to enter or leave by any other means but the judge’s private stairway. With the county attorney biting his fingernails, the paper finally turned Arch over to the county attorney. The latter got Arch into his office, locked the door and then gave every evidence of starting the third degree. Arch reached over and grabbed an inkpot ... a heavy one. "Start something,” he said. With Arch’s attorney pounding at the door, the attorney finally unlocked the door. He forced Arch in front of ihe district judge. The district judge heard the evidence. Finally he ruled. There could be no contempt, he said, because no court proceedings were involved.

mayor as his part of the graft. During a fight, Eddie is escorted out of the city by the crooked mayor. He is struck on the head and imagines that he is an ancient Roman. Eddie discovers that the guards of the emperor were as tough as some modern traffic cops. Then for nearly an hour Eddie has one adventure after another in old Rome. He always is getting into trouble and getting out of it. One of the funniest scenes in “Roman Scandals" is where Eddie teaches the emperor how to shoot craps. This scene is a comedy gem and done in the best pop-eyed manner of Mr. Cantor. Os course. Eddie's hot bone shootin* fingers almost make the emperor not only broke but a fit subject for a nudist colony. The story becomes melodramatic as well as burlesque when Eddie is the royal food and wine tester for the emperor, who fears that his life is being endangered by a plot. The old boy didn't know that his royal wife was the one who wanted him poisoned.

hokum comedy. It has action and suspense as well as a fortune in comedy relief. It gives Eddie Cantor a chance to appear in blackface and sing a number in-such a makeup which fits nicely into the ancient Roman setting. This one has at least three song num-l bers which will be heard every-

YOUNG TAXI DRIVER ADMITS 15 BURGLARY JOBS, POLICE CLAIM

Confession to fifteen burglaries by Clifford Watson, 18. taxi driver arrested in a drug store early yesterday, today was claimed by police. Police said Watson refused to sign a confession, and list of the burglaries which it is claimed he confessed was not made public. PRESIDENT CHOSEN BY BEAUTICIANS’ LOCAL J. R. Roberts Named to Head City Organization. J. R. Roberts was named president of the Indianapolis Beautician's local, affiliated with the State Society of Cosmetologists and Hairdressers of Indiana, at an organization meeting in the Severin last night. Other officers elected were Wilma Lindsey, vice-president; Beverly Dean, secretary, and Irene Rugh. treasurer. Mrs. Evelyn Tobias, South Bend, state president, was the principal speaker. The meeting was attended by 150 beauty shop proprietors and ODerators.

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1934

' Jfjg ' Hk. v jm *JpP|pp!(|pr / Bii i 4 ' : ''llll •• ' v ‘Y

How do we clothe those hundreds of needy children each December? Here’s how—by letting Arch Steinel direct it for us.

We can almost picture Arch strolling out of the court room attempting to put the thumb-and-nose act on his friend, the county attorney. 000 ANOTHER time Arch and a policeman entered a house where a killing had taken place. Meandering through the rooms, Arch reached a closet door. Just as he had his hand on the knob he pulled back. As he gazed at the door suspiciously, it rang out— BANG! Arch jumped and ran. The killer had hidden in the closet and as Arch approached fired a bullet into his owm body. One shell was left in the gun. If Arch had opened the door he might have stopped that last bullet. Since coming to The Times, Arch has been identified with some of the biggest stories of the state’s history. Some of them are:

The Theatrical World-

BY WALTER D. HICKMAN

THE empress shows Eddie that the poison has been placed in a certain delicate dish which tji” emperor loves. Four such P\ es w f ere placed on the service, Thn one having the poison was covered w’ith paprika. An innocent assistant to the royal chef notices when the royal tray passes before him that only one was covered with paprika. So he covers the other three. You can imagine what happens to Eddie’s eyes when he notices that all are the same. Here is hokum comedy with Cantor tossing some of the food to the royal crocodile. The crocodile does a beautiful

SIDE GLANCES

mo. u. %. e*r. or*. 19 # it 94 t w sonnet, me. > .

“HQRACEJ YOU COME BACK HERE/’

Daisy Sullivan story. Christmas relief of miners’ children at Bicknell. Ind. Carrie Simmons poisoning case and trial. i Slaying of Marie Stults, Mishawaka beauty. Trial of Smith, private detective. for Elkhart pyre killing. Rain baby case. Harold Schroeder case. Brown farm murder mystery. And on top of those he is the annual Brown Derby editor, the annual Memorial day observance editor, he covers the state fair each year, he wrote the popular Indiana stream pollution series, the startling state penal farm brutality series, the story of Governor Paul V. McNutt’s life, and the story of the forest army entrenchment in Indiana. 000 ARCH STEINEL is a great believer in the “other fellow.”

tail spin and Eddie and the emperor are saved. As the story in the ancient settings of Rome was unfolded, I couldn't see how Eddie w’as going blackface but the story is logical because he becomes lost in the Negro slave department of the palace. You are going to remember the way Cantor puts over "Keep Young and Beautiful.” The scene really is a burlesque on a modern beauty parlor, placed in an old Roman setting. The w’ay the girls are handled in this fast number is one of the wonders of this movie. Cantor has a chance to stage the famous

By George Clark

When the now-famous Mile of Dimes on Washington street started growing, his phone rang constantly. “Are you leaving all those dimes on the street all night?” came the persistent question. "Yes, we are,” answered Arch quietly. “But suppose the Dillinger gang comes after it?” came the question. "Nobody will touch those dimes,” said Arch. “They belong to the kids.” And then there are the people who read The Times just a day or so before Christmas. “Look,” they say, "The Times says that more than eight hundred children have been clothed already. How do they do it?” We can tell them. Arch Steinel does it for us. NEXT—A lady of society.

Cantor walk, or strut, as he sings, this number. The thing that I am going to remember is the whirlwind finish of the Roman scenes where Eddie is forced to escape with the hero and the heroine in a chariot. From a mechanical standpoint, this chariot scene is the funniest and the most thrilling in which Cantor has appeared. Slapstick comedy is introduced, making this scene a laugh sensation. Os course Eddie comes out of his dream, arrives back in his home town, exposes the crooked mayor and becomes a hero. a a a IN a torch song manner of delivery, Ruth Etting puts over a striking song, “No* More Love.” By overdeveloping this number, the director is able to make the sensational slave mart number one of great exotic beauty, charm, and even tragedy. Her voice records splendidly, and she fits well into ancient cos- j tumes. The cast which supports Cantor includes Gloria Stuart, David Manners, who makes a most noble and grand looking Roman; Edward Arnold, Verree Teasdale and others. This is Cantor’s and the director's triumph which is a gift toward grander and bigger movie musicals. I saw this movie at a preview. “Roman Scandads" opens today at the Palace for a week’s engagement. a a a In City Theaters Other theaters today offer: “Frivolities of Today,’’ on the stage and “Cross-Country Cruise” on the screen at the Lyric; “I Am Suzanne,” at the Apollo; "All of Me,” at the Circle. “Bedside," at the Indiana, and burlesque at the Mutual and Colonial. VETERINARY SOCIETY INSTALLS OFFICERS Angola Man Is President; City Resident Secretary. Dr. H. E. Bryan. Angola, was installed as president at the closing session of the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association convention yesterday at the Severin. Other officers seated were L. C. Finley, Lapel, vice-president, and Dr. W. B. ’ raig, Indianapolis, secretaryitrMSUNt.

Second Section

Entered as Secon-1-Clsss Matter at Fostoffloe, Indianapolis

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler

IT cheers me to learn that there is at last som thought of amending court procedure to prevent a judge from acting as judge, jury and complaining witness in contempt cases because it always ha* been my idea that if a citizen called a judge a crook, a bar-fly or a big. dumb dope to his face in open court he ought to have a chance to prove his opinion. If he should then be able to prove it to the satisfaction of a jury, the remedial action should be

taken against the judge because his unfitness then would have been placed on record and his continued presence on the bench would be contrary to the dignity of the courts and the interests of the community. The old way of doing has been not only unfair to the defendant, but bad for the courts as well because it has deterred persons with good reasons for holding a low opinion of certain judges from uttering those opinions out loud. This, of course, has had the effect of covering up the faults of certain judges and of buttering over with an undeserved dignity and sanctity many cheap

or downright crooked characters whose accession to the bench was, of itself, a blow to the honor of the courts. It certainly is no discovery of mine that judges have sat upon the bench, enjoying all the tyrannical powers of the court, who ought to have been busting rock themselves and who would have been flattered by the name of porch-climber. The porch-climber at least is not fouling up an institution to which the ordinary citizen must look for his justice when he finds himself in trouble one way or another. He climbs his porch and takes his chance, but the crooked or trashy and reachable judge, whose kind has been known in every big city, and is not yet extinct not only contaminates the courts, but enjoys a power to prevent by mere intimidation, through the weapon of contempt, any allusion to his true character. a a a Need a Chance to Glare I THINK there is too much tyranny in the courts, anyway, and that even if a judge should happen to be an honest man and a pretty bright individual he still ought to be required to keep a civil tongue in his head to people appearing before him. If a judge glares at a citizen, even a defendant, 01 loses his temper because he happens to have a hangover at the time or merely because he is a man of bullying disposition, and lets out a great bellow at some one who happens to annoy him, that individual, I think, should have the right to fetch him glare for glare and holler right back at him without any impairment of his rights in the case. Yet it is very well understood around all courts that it must be “Your Honor” this and "May it please the court” that and cases are often breaking into print in which judges maliciously increase the punishment of convicted defendants because they will not cringe. The man is convicted of the charge against him and is given, let us say, three years in prison, an outcome which tries his spirit to exasperation and impels him to blurt a sarcastic "Thank you” to the man upon the bench. He then is called back before the bar and sentenced to spend another year or two of his life behind the bars not because of any crime which he has committed, but because he was indiscreet enough to ruffle the dignity of a man whose vindictive conduct in the matter proves right there that he isn’t fit for his job and ought to be fired like any other incompetent. a a a Many Changes Taking Place 1 MIGHT say that I wonder what these judges feed on that they are so important and sensitive, but I know without asking. They feed on a fat old tradition and an exaggerated awe which has been developing for a long time in the courts, and they presently come to think of themselves as being subject to no law, but their own erratic and very alert dislikes. But it may have been noticed that many changes are taking place in the country at this time and it would not startle me much to observe along with the other changes that the citizen, including even the defendant, has earned a right to speak and conduct himself in a natural manner toward the court and to resent insulting or bullying conduct from the bench without any risk of being thrown into jail for contempt of court. I have knowledge of a judge, complete with all the customary powers of oppression, who, in the days when he was in private practice, put a physician on the stand to swear that his patient had not been injured in an accident, as alleged, but was dying of tuberculosis. The physician was ordered off the stand by the presiding judge with a mention of the word perjury and the patient in a dozen years since that time has evinced no symptoms of tuberculosis. He never has recovered from his injuries. If it should befall this patient to appear before this attorney, who is now a judge himself, it should be right, I think, to allude to this incident and to express a belief in open court that his honor once connived at something which impressed another jurist as false testimony under oath. But, under the present circumstances, that would be a very foolish thing to say. The judge, without any necessity of going into the facts of the matter w’hich affect his fitness to sit on any bench, would throw the subject into some dirty jail for a long time to teach him respect for a judge W’ho may deserve no respect. (Copyright, 1934. by United Features Syndicate. Inc.)

WHEN George Bernard Shaw called Professor Albert Einstein a universe-maker, he summed up in a phrase the reason for the great popularity of the German scientist. From the days of the caveman, mankind has been trying to solve the puzzle of the universe. The early mythologies marked man's first attempt to understand his environment. To .ancient man, the universe was a disconcerting place, full of caprice. And so, to explain the phenomena that went on around him, he peopled the heavens with the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus. It was another universe-maker who wrote the story of Genesis, trying to account for the origin of the cosmos. More precisely, it was two universemakers, for as every student of biblical literature knows, there are two stories of creation in Genesis. The first one starts with the majestic opening sentence of Genesis and runs to Chapter 2. Verse 4, where the second account begins. It is the first account which tells of the creation of the world in six days, but it is the second which has Eve being created from a rib of Adam. a a a IT is interesting to trace the steps in man’s uni-verse-making. From the start, he naturally assumed that his earth was the center of the universe. It Is possible to reconstruct the biblical idea of cosmogony from a reading of Genesis. The earth was a great flat plain. The sky was an actual vault or ceiling over the earth. When it rained, it was because the windows of the sky had been opened, permitting the waters which were above the firmament to leak through. Similar simple cosmogonies were developed by other ancient peoples. The Greeks in the time of Homer, for example, not only imagined that the earth was the center of the universe, but that Greece was the center of the earth. Thejuicient Indians believed the earth was supported*on tits backs of four gigantic elephants. • * s

Today's Science ===== BY DAVID DIETZ

r A ■,r ' \ gY

Westbrook Pegler