Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 230, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 February 1934 — Page 4

PAGE 4

The Indianapolis Times (A BCRIITS HUM ARI SEWS PAPER) , ROT W HOWARD President TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL b RAKER Buxine** Manager Phono— Rlirj S.V>l

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A ■ -~ c Otva Lfiht <ii<t Iht People r ill find Their Otcn Wap

_______ SAT! RIMY FXB 3 IM4 THE BLUE EAGLE LABEL can enforce its cod|s when it determines to do so. That is clear in two recent cases in which clothing manufacturers defied the code and the rode authority, thus not only exploiting their workers and undermining the general recovery program, but also threatening their business competitors. In both cases the culprits were forred to surrender because NRA withheld from them its blue eagle insignia making their .products unpopular. Wulf Brothers, Inc. of New York City and Troy after holding out for some time, ended by agreeing to make restitution of back wages for the period of code violation and reimbursing the code authority for the expense connected with the enforcement proceedings. Before any rugged individualist rises to protest that NRA could not crack down on willful code violators, he should read the following letter trom a southern dress manufacturer who was compelled by a local NRA compliance board to give up his blue eagle and who has since got It back: We have found that since our operators are getting 30 cents an hour and only working forty hours a week, they are working with more pep and some are producing from 25 to 35 per cent more work. W r e feel that if there are any industries in the United States that do not work under the NRA, and who had our experience, they would find not only a difference but a benefit in working under a code. They would get better production and better work.” Therein is the great hope of NRA. It is something more than idealistic. It is practical—and the old system of long hours and low wages is not practical, for the worker, the employer, or anybody. WARNING TO EXCAVATORS B Y some of the statistics the regretted death of Dr. Albert M. Lythgoe of cerebral arteriosclerosis in Boston was the eighteenth fatality in eleven years among those closely associated with opening the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen in Egypt. Bv other counts it was the twenty-third fatality. Industrious search among the collateral associates should greatly multiply the number. Thus, say the true believers, the King Tut curse is verified and credibility is given the fabled hieroglyphic inscription, ‘Death shall come with swift wings to him who toucheth the tomb of a Pharaoh.” The curse, we believe, can be placed on a scientific basis by a literal study of the evidence. and several tentative conclusions appear thus far to be valid. They are— Any tomb violator who jumps from a seventh-story window will be in great danger. The funeral hearse of any tomb violator will have a positively lethal effect upon any 8-year-old child who gets under its wheels. Any tomb violator who exasperates his wife beyond a reasonable point should beware of bullets. Any tomb violator above the age of 65 may expect his risk as a life insurance prospect to be affected unfavorably during the next decade. In the spirit of science and logic, furthermore. we submit one further bit of occult data. Years before King Tut's sleep was disturbed. some German archeologists took home with them the terracotta bust of Queen Nefertiti. and it became the most adored art treasure of Berlin. The Egyptian government a few years ago negotiated for her return, but the Germans wouldn't give her up. The queen was King Tut's mother-in-law. And now the Germains have got Hitler! FRANCE SUSPICIOUS AN American who observes recent events in France is likely to come to the conclusion that the French are a most excitable and effervescent race. A political swindle which cost the French some 250.000.000 francs is uncovered —and what happens? The government falls, protni- \ nent statesmen devoutly refuse to accept the premiership, royalists smash case windows and throw chairs at policemen, and Paris indulges in a long week-end of th most hectic kind of rioting. In this country, where financial thimblerigging conducted at the public's expense is a more common phenomenon, it is a little bit hard to see just why the French are so excited. What have they got to kick about, anyway? asks the average American. They lost 250.000.000 francs in a swindle? Well, that comes to about $12,500,000 at par. Suppose they had had an Insull to builtfr up utilities investment companies for them; or suppose that some foreign nation had bor- * rowed a matter of $4,000,000,000 from them and refused to pay. What wotfld they do then—tear down Paris and throw the Arc de Triomphe into the Seine? All of which is apt to lead the average American to suspect that the French don t know when they are well off. The answer, of course, is that the Stavlsky swindle is more than just a bit of financial piracy. It seems to the French to be a symptom of some deeply-rooted and fundamental fault in their organization of society. It isn't, as the old saying goes, so much the money as the principle of the thing that Is bothering them That is to say that the ordinary Frenchman suspects that there*is something radically wrong with his form of government. He doesn't know Just what it is. and he doesn't know just what ought to be done about it, but he has an uneasy hunch that things aren't just right—and an affair like this swindle aimplv confirm* that hunch. 6o he boots out his government, and starts

rioting, and chuckles gleefully while the royalists assault the gendarmes. And it makes an interesting and instructive contrast with the situation in America. Financial losses suffered by American investors make the Stavisky 106s look unimportant; yet they have caused no riots, no cabinet resignations, no throwing of restaurant chairs at innocent cops. Why? Because we have a confidence in our form of government, our organization of society, which the French lack. Financially, we have lo6t far more than the French; actually, we have lost far less. We still have an unshaken faith in ourselves. FOR PEACE IN THE PACIFIC i From the San Francisco Newi! NO sensible person can read the newspapers these days without wishing that all the jingo politicians, generals, admirals and newspaper publishers of this country and Japan could be armed with rifles and bombs and set to fighting each other to extinction in some remote Pacific isle. Even the most belligerent of Americans insist that we in this country are not looking for trouble and will avoid war if we honorably can. But, they add, the Japanese are out to make trouble and so we must get ready for war in the Pacific if we want it or not. In Japan the jingos are saying exactly the same thing. Yet there is as much evidence that the Japanese people as a whole do not want war as that the American people don't want it. If anything, the balance of conciliatory sttaements is in Japan’s favor just now. In the Japanese diet on Monday, Count Futaara, a peer of the empire, rose and critlg cised the government for permitting publication of inflammatory statements and predictions of war. "The so-called national spirit fostered by such incitations is not the true spirit of Nippon. in which an international outlook is inherent." he said. "The true Sammurai spirit seeks to prevail without fighting.”' "I quite agree,” said Premier Salto. And Home Minister Yamamoto announced that the government is acting to control inflammatory publications. Until similarly conciliatory and pacific statements come from equally high quarters in America, we can not claim that our devotion to peace is any greater than theirs. Certainly no government spokesman In this country has seen fit to rebuke, much less control. inflammatory publications in America. And while we would be the first to protest any effort at government control of the press, a rebuke from highg gquarters would be very much in order. Jingoism in the one country promptly incites jingoism in the other, until voices of moderation are drownVd out and the certainty of war becomes a fixed idea. Japan in recent years has been the worse offender, and it is the irony of this process 'of incitement and counterincitement that resentment in this country is reaching a crescendo just as the reaction has come in Japan and the liberal, sensible majority there is reasserting itself. DANGEROUS COMMENTS A LONDON newspaper asserts that careful negotiations are under way among the United States, England and France, looking toward the cession to this country by the other two powers of certain South Seas islands which might be used as aerial and naval bases in the event of war in the PacificAccording to this story, Washington tentatively has offered partial cancellation of war debts in return for such action. And the idea back of it. of course, is supposed to be preparation for that much talked-of war with Japan. This story may be utterly without foundation; and. somehow-, one may be forgiven for hoping that is the case. The dangerous tension in relations betw-een Japan and the United States has slackened in recent months; but action of this kind would be sure to revive Japan’s worst suspicions. Prompt denial at Washington that any move of this nature is contemplated would be a step toward preservation of peace. A PRAISEWORTHY EFFORT REPRESENTATIVE JOHN F. DOCKWEILER of California is planning to introduce in congress a bill which would eliminate political post masterships and put all first, second and third-class postmasters under civil service. It is more or less doubtful whether any such bill could get through congress; nevertheless. Mr. Rockweiler deserves credit for making the attempt. His proposal is one of those reforms which would benefit the entire public and would hurt no one but the politicians. Taken by and large, the postoffice renders a remarkably efficient sendee. If the entire organization could be removed, it would become just that much more efficient. Removing all postoffice jobs from reach of the spoilsmen would be a long step in the right direction. It will be enlightening to see just how congress receives Mr. Dockweiler's proposal. PROGRESS ON CANCER THAT distinguished authority. Dr. Francis Carter Wood, director of the Institute for Cancer Research at Columbia university, in his annual report was careful to guard against the physicians’ traditional bogy of arousing false hopes. "The total number of patients cured." he said, "is small, and nothing else is of value." But another passage in Dr. Wood's report is so encouraging in the distant view as to deserve setting in a special frame. He has been reviewing various studies, not all made at Columbia, as to serums and the ways of avoiding and inducing cancer. Then he says: “It seems to me that . . . the last year has seen the publication of four important investigations, more important for the future study of that most difficult problem in medicine—cancer—than anything which has been discovered concerning the disease since man began to observe it.” This does not mean cures for the immediate sufferer, but into the Jong procession of humanity it injects a substantial hope that was never there before. We all may feel indebted for that. Platinum blonds are not so hot now. says Earl Carroll, famous theatrical producer, who thinks the dollar Isn't the only thing in need of devaluation.

THE ALIENS’ NEW DEAL FROM precept and practice the United States department of labor indicates that the new deal is to include the 6.000,000 aliens in this country as well as the rest of us. Its policy will be to hold tight the gates against any flood of cheap foreign labor, to crack down on invading criminal aliens, yet to temper the general laws with moderate and humane administration. Few will find fault with a policy that prevents the admission of new jobless yet abates some of the glaring injustices that have grown up in the past. Secretary Perkins has abolished the corps of free-lance "Section 24 Men” whose deportation practices were a scandal under the Hoover regime, stopped finger-printing of aliens, modified the order relating to alien students who work their way through college here, made deportation porcedure conform to principles of law. Families need not be torn apart nor worthy self-supporting political refugees refused sanctuary. With many more aliens leaving than arriving, there is room for reuniting families and opening the gates to those fleeing religious and political persecution, providing they will not become charges on relief agencies. The oriental exclusion measure, passed in a wave of hysteria in 1924, should not be allowed to stand and mar our relations with Pacific neighbors. A regular quota under the law applied to orientals would result in no increase in the admission of alien workers, probably would result in fewer being smuggled in. We can maintain the present restrictive and selective principle and still do away with useless cruelties and irritations. This calls for just a little kindness and common sense.

Liberal Viewpoint Rt DR. HARRY ELMER BARNESs

THE inflation controversy is raging in congress. "Sound” money men like Senator David A. Reed are denouncing the administration policy as a fatal first step toward the abyss in which Germany was pitched in 1923, while forthright inflationists complain that the administration has been intimidated- by the money changers. Perhaps the main danger is that in the heat of the debate we shall forget that more weighty matters must claim our attention if we hops to pull definitely out of the slump and to salvage the capitalistic system. The sensible way in which to regard the whole inflation controversy is to recognize that decisive reflation is an incidental but indispensable item in a broad gauge assault upon rugged individualism and the dominion of the money changers. If we wish to reform and preserve capitalism for any considerable period, we must concentrate our efforts upon assuring mass purchasing power and upon conserving the interests of the consumer. Finance capitalism must be ended. It is the common enemy of all mankind—even of the money changers themselves in the last analysis. Industrial capitalism may be aided and strengthened, but the new era of capitalism must be one of consumer capitalism. If we succeed, Fred Howe, for example, should become as powerful and prominent a national figure as General Johnson. If the consumer is not armed with effective and adequate purchasing power, capitalism must of necessity fold up—and that rather rapidly. The profit system can not function unless goods can be sold, and under capitalism one can not buy goods unless he has money. To Insure adequate mass purchasing power, steps should be taken to prevent the accumulation and transmission of great fortunes, the possessors of which can not, and should not, consume goods in proportion to their resources. Public works and relief projects will have to be expanded and pushed rapidly, in order that we may not collapse while the physician is working over us. Farm relief and reorganization must be successfully prosecuted, so that some 44 per cent of our population can once again possess the means of purchasing their share of the goods essential to life and happiness.

ana LABOR must be allowed to assist in providing mass purchasing power through complete freedom to organize and bargain collectively. The government need not become a partisan of labor, but it must remove the disabilities and handicaps imposed upon it by finance capitalism and a subservient judicial system. The government must enter the labor field at least to the extent of prescribing adequate minimum wages. No conceivable arrangements within a capitalistic system can provide complete stability of the economic order. There will be considerable fluctuations in our collective well-being-alternations of prosperity and depression. To reduce these to a minimum, we shall have to assure a continuance of mass purchasing power even in periods of relative slackening of our economic tempo. This can be done in efficient and civilized fashion only through the establishment of federal social insurance—unemployment, health and old age insurance. All of this will require ample public funds. Those who absorbed an unearned and unjustifiable portion of our social income in the past have reduced mass purchasing power and have brought us to our present lamentable condition. Their responsibility is clear. They must turn back part of their bounties to aid in the desperate battle to save something for capitalism. Higher income taxes in the upper brackets, and a great increase in inheritance and estate taxes are essential at once. If necessary, a capital levy may be resorted to. This is in the interest even of those from whom the capital may be taken. Half a hog is better than none. If prosperity is not restored, and that gery promptly, there will be no capital left to anybody. When inflation, or reflation, takes its legitimate position in this battle formation against piracy, oppression and injustice, we shall not be likely to exaggerate its role. Neither will we hesitate to employ it to the degree which the emergencies of the time dictate. STILL SHIPPING LIQUOR THE little island of Miquelon, home port for a fleet of rum runners throughout the prohibition era. is not yet finished with the task of supplying liquor for thirsty American citizens. Examination of the liquor import figures for December, recently released by the department of commerce, shows that this tiny island in that month sent to the United States distilled liquors worth $186,000 and wines valued at $131,000. Since the island itself ferments no wine and distills no liquor, these stocks obviously originated farther afield; and one probably is doing the islanders no injustice by suspecting that to a certain extent they represent stocks laid in in the smuggling days. And one wonders: Will Miquelon cease shipping liquor to the United States, once these stocks are gone, or will it continue to maintain its place as a source of supply for the American market, making - its shipments legally Instead of surreptitiously?

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to t.>o words or less.) a a a HE HAS NO USE FOR PLUM-SEEKERS By Russell V. Allison. In reference to the article of Jan. 22 by a McNutt voter, who claimed he pulled the wrong lever when voting, and is sore because he didn't get his promised job. We will all admit that McNutt is not what he should be, but why condemn the whole administration just because you didn't get that plum you were looking for? A voter such as you is a disgrace to the party, as your only thought when voting was of a soft job which you say you were promised. I am a little curious as to who you are, but wasn't a bit surprised at your not signing your name, as articles such as yours seldom bear a signature. But, I’ll bet your name wouldn't cause much unrest at the stsftehouse. ana THE FUNNY PART IS—WE THINK WE RE RIGHT POETRY AND TRUTH By C. M. Hess I have read your paper from early j youth And have always depended on morals and truth. But of late I admit from your front page view I don’t think as much of your paper ! and you. I don’t want to go back to candles and lamp, And I don't belong to the nudist ! camp. Your paper of late devotes its best j pace That is detesting to the human race The woman you picture without any clothes You can’t fool the people for any one knows They are out for one night or perhaps a week Just for the pleasure and ambitions they seek. • For the love of your paper and its

daily news And the sake* of humanity, please change your views. (Editor's Note: Above refers to picture of Johnny Weismuller and Lupe Velez not nude, but in bathing suits. We see nothing nasty in the human body thus attired.) a a a HER EMPLOYER IS A REAL GENTLEMAN. By Mary Lovelace. Asa reader of your paper for fifteen years, I want you to publish this letter in your Message Center. Recently I read an article about slaves in the laundries and the girls being told to make the NRA quota, 25 cents an hour, or get out. If some of the girls would stay out of the ladies’ restroom, setting •their permanents, penciling their eyebrows, etc., they could easily make the quota with very little trouble. And. as to slaves being made out of the employes, I do not know what laundry her friend was employed in, but, as an employe of the Sterling Laundry for eight years, I will say we have no slaves, and our employer Is a gentleman respected by us all. a a a PASSING ON SALES TAX IS NOT ILLEGAL. By a Times Reader. A certain downtown hotel of medium size, where I expect to be a permanent guest, rented me a room for a specified monthly rental. After I had moved in and was paying my first month’s rent, the hotel bookkeeper informed me that I would pay a sales tax of 1 cent on each $1 rent. I refused because I understand •

The Message Center

SOMETHING’S LEFT BEHIND

Another Stanch Roosevelt Man

By Wm. E. Lemon W T e sometimes hear the remark made, usually by the man in the street, or by some dyed-in-the-wool Republican who couldn’t make a down payment on a pack of cigarets, that the huge government expenditures at the present time will ruin, wreck financially and socially, our present bankers and financiers, which in time will ruin our country. We, the middle and working class, already have been taken to the cleaners by these unscrupulous money-mad gentlemen, and. as for wrecking our country, the Hoover wrecking crew did a complete job. Roosevelt’s constructive ideas, in the course of time, will put our ship of state on an even keel, and she was listing a-plenty when he took hold of the wheel. And, as

that the tax is to be p&id by the company and not passed on to the | customer. Am I right? As my next month’s rent is due, ‘ would appreciate your information once. Thanks. Editor’s note: It is not illegal to pass on the sales tax. Many business places do this. non A MESSAGE INTENDED FOR FARMERS By a Times Readc*. A million dollars lost to the farmers by selling their hogs at present prices. Hold your hogs ten days and see if you don’t get 5 cents a pound, and by adding 5 cents, that will give us 50 cents for the corn we have fed to them. Feed your surplus corn to your hogs and make them ready for market half fat, and keep the market broke. We have been looking to the government to help us out of the hole we are in, and now we have to help ourselves out. Just a few years ago we held our hogs five days and they went from 314 cents to 5 cents, and we can do it now. Please put this in your paper.

M. E. Tracy Says—

IF you had SIOO in gold, now that the gold content of the dollar is to be 60 per cent of its old value, you could take your gold to the bank and get $166.66 for it, thus making a profit, without any effort on your part, of nearly 67 per cent. If the gold content of the dollar were to be reduced to 50 per cent, and President Roosevelt has the authority to do it, you could double your money as far as the number of dollars is concerned. That is one reason why you and all the rest of us have been ‘'•rtidden to possess any gold at ail and why the government is getting ready to take over the gold now being held by the Federal Reserve bank. While the Federal Reserve bank is a government institution in one sense of the word, it is owned privately. Member banks own its stock and ultimately would benefit by any profit it might make. The federal Reserve now has $3,600,000,000 in gold on hand. With the gold content of the dollar reduced to 60 per cent of its old value, that gold automatically becomes worth $6,000,000,000, which would represent a profit of $2,000,000,000. a a a ANY such an enormous profit as that ought to be distributed as widely and as equitably as is humanly possible, especially since it has been created by the government for the benefit of the people. The only way this can be done is for the government to take over all

[1 wholly disapprove of what you say arid will 1 defend to the death your right to say it — Voltaire. J

for our bankers, they helped wreck the country and then laid down on the job. So, should some of them go to the, wall, they can either take the pick and shovel or the short route, for the present administration believes in live and let live. And the wailing of "Lil Arthur” is only for the ex-service men’s votes; and. as one of the exs. it has no appeal to me or to thousands of others, for I am ablebodied and able to earn my living. provided I am given a chance to do so. When an overproduction causes as much hungery and misery as it has in the last five years, it was the only thing any sane government could do to try and distribute our money so we could revive our purchasing power and strengthen our credit system.

ROBBED OF LOVE, IS CHARGE By a Times Reader. I am one of the unfortunates who ion Jan. 7, 1925. through the j juvenile court, lost my liberty and five children through the spitefulness of a few women. One has been adopted and one still held prisoner in an orphans’ home in the city. I wonder if it is more important to the taxpayers of the city and county to break up my life’s work, rob me of the love that .is duly mine, and them of the ,ove of each other, and pay high salaries to a court and children's board of guardians, in order to further wreck my life, or give me a job at which I could maintain my family and allow me to run my own family affairs. I have had nothing but injustice all the way through. ATTACKS MR. COLEMAN FOR HIS PLEAS By Orrle J. Simmons Mr. Coleman is mistaken in his action of pleading for the release of a blackmail prisoner. What Mr. Coleman does not comprehend

■ the gold and convert the profit to public use. ! The fact that President Roosevelt favors such a move hardly can be ; interpreted otherwise than as forecasting stabilization of the dollar. To the extent that such action would cheapen money and make is- ; ! suance of more paper money possible by raising the value of the gold I reserve, it must be regarded as in- , flationary. At the same time it precludes the hazards of ordinary inflation, since it rests on a fixed standard and makes the dollar re- ' deemable at a fixed price. a a a BUT, and this is the important point, it presents every advan- ; tage of ordinary inflation by per- | mitting the issuance of more paper money without over-reaching the gold reserve and that, too, on a free gold market. A gold reserve of $450,000,000,000, which is about what we can claim right now, automatically would be- ; come $7,000,000,000 if the gold content of the dollar were reduced to 60 per cent. It generally is agreed by econo- | mists and financiers that a govemj ment safely can issue paper money to two and one-half times the amount of its gold reserve. In other words, with a gold reserve of $7,000,000,000 the United States would be in a position to issue > $17,500,000,000 in paper money. It is j ; not conceivable that we shall need i more.

FEB. 3, 1934

I seems to be that blackmail is no [ <~!T'r, se to the victim, but to the state. iv e are fortunate that in this case there was a spare complaining witness and that Mr. Baker is the judge, instead of that task falling to Mr. Coleman. Mr. Coleman should stick to philanthropy. He seems to have a poor grasp of the principles of and reasons for criminal law. Benevolence (well-wishing) and kindness are sometimes incompatible with true kindness, which would protect society from such things as blackmail. Mr. Coleman’s pleas and lynch | law are two extremes of the law I not taking its course; and each ; breeds the other. a an By Hevwood Patterson Branch, Interantional Labor Defense. Your paper of Jan. 26 carried a j news dispatch of the lynching of : Rex Scott < Negro) in Hazard, Ky. j We vigorously protest, against the j flippancy and comedy used in de- ■ scribing the details of this bloody ! crime. There is an underlying tone | of sympathy for the lynchers and amusement at the groans and writhlngs of a dying man. We regard this item as a public ; announcement that you have tasted of human blood and found it pleasing and will support a lynching in 1 Indianapolis. We demand that this protest be published in your paper on the same page you published the details of the lynching, as an open apology for your attitude. (Editor’s Note: On rereading the United Press dispatch we agree that it was in bad taste. We apologize.)

So They Say

After a five-year drunk, the country will realize it has made a serious, mistake in repealing the eighteenth amendment. —W. E. “Pussyfoot” Johnson. This coding business is no longer a theory. The name-calling stage is past.—C. B. Huntress, executive secretary of the National Coal Association. When he was right, Rube Waddell was the greatest pitcher that ever lived—when he was right.—Connie Mack. We never will return to the old order of rugged individualism in this country, for it has proved an industrial and social failure.—William Green, president of the A. F. of L. Capital which overreaches for profits; labor which overreaches for wages, or a public which overreaches for bargains will all destroy each other.—Owen D. Young. You must remember that an umpire really doesn’t get much to laugh at during the course of a season.—Emmett Ormsby, American League umpire. Stranger Than Death BY VIRGINIA KIDWELL Deeper than life and all I’ve learned • in life Is this sweet understanding we possess. It's indissoluble, through peace or strife It binds us with complete inevitableness. Stranger than death and all its promises Is our attraction, mutual, ruthless, too. Never to be explained in life to us But ever to bind my heart to that of you.