Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 242, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 February 1934 — Page 4

PAGE 4

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPTS HOWARD XEWSr&FEK) hot w. Howard .......... PmMm TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER ....... Buinni Manager PboM—Rlly KSI

- -LJ I Ail Cite Light and the People Will Find Thtir Own Way

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—— SATURDAY FEB. 17. 1934 GOVERNMENT BANKING A FTER pouring more than one billion dollars of the taxpayers' money Into 6,000 banks of the country with the Idea that that was the quickest way to provide credit for business recovery, the federal government is now considering a more direct financing of industry through new intermediate banks. The plan is under discussion by President Roosevelt and Governor Black of the federal reserve board. Implications of the plan are very broad. It is a far cry, indeed, from the keep-gov-ernment-out-of-business days. Government financing of business could mean in the long run only on* of two things. Either the government would pay out the money with little or no strings attached—and thus stand to lose vast sums on unwise investments earlier rejected by private bankers, or the government would exact terms of the borrower similar to those under which private banks in the last decade became the real rulers of American industry. Doubtless there will be official denials that the latter is the intention of the government; nevertheless, the implications are clear. It is true, of course, that the administration is not considering this proposition of its own free will. Rather it is being forced by circumstance to consider a financing function which it has hoped and begged the private banks to undertake. Repeatedly, during the last few months, administration officials have appealed to banks to loosen up their credit policies, to cease hoarding. Just ten days ago Jesse H Jones of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation repeated this plea to a meeting of the New York State Bankers’ Association. It deserves attention. He said: -Will our banking be continued in private hands, or of necessity be supplanted by the government? The answer is with you—the banker . . . “I would lx* less than frank, however. If I did not say that the President would be greatly disappointed if the banks do not assume their full share in the recovery program by performing all the functions that banks are intended to perform, and that, of course, includes providing credit where credit is needed and can be ext?nded with reasonable safety.” ' The customary reply of the bankers is that they would like to loan more money to industry. but that industry for the most part does not w r ant to borrow and the exceptions are apt to be unsound risks. There has been some truth in this, especially as it applied to large corporations carrying on a capital strike against the new’ deal. But certainly there is less excuse for such a capital strike since dollar devaluation and clarification of the Roosevelt monetary policy. Anyway. It is not the big corporations but the small companies that have difficulty getting credit. Against the private bankers’ alibi that these small companies seeking credit are unsound, is the authoritative statement of Chairman Jones that: ‘'There is never a day that the RFC does not have applications for individual and industrial loans that are perfectly sound. They are not loans that normally would be liquidated within a few months, but many of them could be made by the local banker and could be liquidated if the borrower is given reasonable time and notice.” If any truth in these days is self-evident, it is that credit transfusion into the veins of small industry is essential to recovery. If banks after getting this credit from the government refuse to pass it on to industry, the government has no choice other than to do the banking job itself under proper safeguards. It can not let the industrial patient die while the private bankers hoard the nation's credit.

STAGE COACH ELECTIONS r T'HE American people at present are so well satisfied with the man they elected President, it may seem scarcely an opportune time to fix their attention on weaknesses of the election system. Yet the job of modernizing election laws must be done, if it is ever done, while a liberal Is President of the United States. That is why a group in congress which has worked for years to bring about this change is working harder than ever at this session. They do not propose direct, popular election of Presidents. They do propose, however, that the electoral college that ancient incubus which grafted itself on the country without legal sanction and more or less by accident —be abolished. They would retain electoral votes, apportioning them among the states as they are now apportioned to preserve the relative strengths of large and small cities, city and rural districts. However—and this is the important thing—they would divide the electoral votes of each state according to the popular vote for President cast in eatA state. Now the man who carries New York, for instance, gets to count the whole electoral vote of the state. Under the new system he would get only the electoral votes reflecting the percentage of popular votes he received. The minority candidate likewise would get his smaller share of the electoral vote. In the end each candidate would receive a number of electoral votes accurately reflecting the popular vote cast for him. Twice in the history of the United States men have been defeated for the presidency by the electoral college system in spite of having received a majority of the popular vote cast. The two were Tilden in 1876 and Cleveland in l*tt The possibility of such an event is a serious danger to the country. If a man should be declared President under the electoral college system in a time of serious crisis, when a ma-

Jority of citizens had voted against him, anything might happen. Men and women most sincerely devoted to preservation of American democracy will do all in their power to bring about adoption and ratification of the proposed Norris-Lea constitutional amendment for abolition of the electoral college.

LENIN—MAN AND MYTH LENIN long since has become a myth. Either he has wings or horns. Any one who actually wants to get at the man behind the myths has a hard time of it. Now for the first time there is available an intelligent biography in English. It is Ralph Fox's "Lenin,” published by Harcourt Brace. Fox is a partisan; indeed, he has been a member of the Russian Communist 'party. But he writes as a rather cool and objective Englishman. About the only place that he trips up is in handling the Trotsky controversy; but since the worst part of that feud occurred with Stalin after Lenin's death it gets little attention in this book. The Lenin that lives in these pages is a very human sort of person, a lover of simple things, of trees and flowers and children, with a passion for bringing fuller life to the oppressed. He is gay and generous until the eve of the revolution. Then, as a leader in the fight, the grim, hard side of the man emerges. He curses not only his enemies but even more the half-hearted blunderers of his own revolutionary staff. Often he is discouraged, usually he is in the minority even within his own group—sometimes even a minority of one—but almost always he is able to assert his leadership. He makes mistakes. The actual overthrow of the czar comes in a somewhat different way than he anticipated; and the world revolution he expected in 1919 does not come. But for the most part his diagnosis of the situation has an uncanny way of being proved by later events. Fox shows him as a leader who scorned oratory or sugar-coating tricks. His speeches were hours long, massed with facts and figures, deadly serious, and filled with things the people did not want to hear. He made revolution hard. But he won and held the people by the power of certainty and sincerity.

WIPING THE SLATE TT is to be hoped that there was some sort of -*■ omen in the fact that Verne Sankey, kidnaper, hanged himself to “beat the rap’’ just at the time when the hunt for the kidnapers of Edward G. Bremer was getting under way. Sankey’s death closes the books on the kidnaping of Charles Boettcher of Denver. All the gangsters who engineered that job are either dead or in prison. One would like to believe that the same thing presently will be true of the gang that kidnaped Bremer. During the last year organized society has gone into action against kidnapers pretty effectively. A few more blows like those struck in the Boettcher case and the kidnaping racket would collapse for good. THE OUTSTRETCHED HAND A FTER betraying and plundering them for a century, the United States government at last proposes to do the decent thing by its 250.000 Indian wards and the remnant of their once great estate. Tire administration’s Howard bill can not redress all the wrongs the Indians have borne. It does, however, hit at the roots of two old injustices, the allotment system and the steady liquidation of Indian culture under cover of “Americanization." The new bill repeals the 1887 allotment act, under which Commissioner Collier estimates some 87,000,000 acres of Indian lands have been bought or swindled from Indians by whites. It provides for repurchases of land at the rate of $2,000,000 a year, resettlement of landless Indians and the conservation of Indian timber, grazing and other tracts. It also lays the foundation for anew relationship between the tribes and Washington, a co-operative and advisory one in place of autocracy. Indian municipal corporations may, under the bill, take over such community functions as local budget-making, health, police and educational services. In place of the edicts of bureaucrats, rulings on Indian crimes and property disputes are to come from a proposed United States court of Indian affairs. consisting of seven judges named by the President. Thus, without changing their status of wards the Indians would be given the opportunity to live their lives under more economic freedom and to develop their own unique tribal culture, religion and arts with a minimum of dictation from Washington.

AUSTRIA’S GRAVE FUTURE r T'HE custom of blaming every difficulty in the modern world on the last war has been carried too far. in many cases; but there is little doubt that the bloody upheaval which has been racking Austria is traceable directly to the post-war treaties. Those treaties left Austria in the position of a head without a body. The old AustroHungarian empire, whatever its other defects—and they were many and grave, heaven knows—at least hung together economically. When it was split asunder, Austria was left in an impossible position. What Austria's solution eventually will be is something no man can tell now. But it at least has been demonstrated since 1918 that Austria can not go on indefinitely in its present shape. Seme sort of change is inevitable. The tragedy is that the change evidently will be accomplished by violence. Mussolini is planning to order reduction of interest rates on mortgages. In this country, no order was needed to cut out mortgage interest altogether and cut down on the payments, too. United States government has formed an $11,000,000 bank to finance trade with Soviet Russia. There's a bank that may be a great success, and still be unable to keep clear of the reds. Most of Europe nowadays is like a road under construction —you travel over it at your own risk. That lowa worrian who once renounced the world to follow Ghandi has left India under protest and, oh, wont the Statue of Liberty look good to her!

FREE FROM SCANDAL

THE mess which centers about the air mail contracts throws a bright light on one of the most vital problems of modern times—the way in which all manner of skill, devotion and efficiency can be short-circuited if a few men at the top of the heap get to thinking too much about the clink of dollars. In the cancellation of air mail contracts there has not been a shadow of a reflection upon the men who actually have been doing the work. The pilots themselves have made one of the finest records In the history of aviation. They have been good, superlatively good, at a Job calling for skill, coolness and devotion. From the standpoint of physical service they have made the American air mail network one of the finest things of its kind in all the world—if not the very finest. Similarly, the technicians, the designers, the men who built the planes and fabricated the engines, the operating officials who arrange schedules and hand out assignments, the repair men and service men and radio and weather men—all these have fillea their difficult jobs with distinction. The troubles that led to ■wholesale cancellation of contracts were in no way due to the men who actually were doing the work of flying the mails. From a purely physical viewpoint the air mail setup is and has been a thing of which the whole country could be proud. Where, then, was the trouble? It arose solely from the fact that this magnificent edifice of service rested on the wrong kind of financial base. In some cases—not in all, by any means —the men at the very top were less concerned with doing an important job in an efficient manner than with making two dollars grow where one had grown before. To put it more simply, the fact that a few men were greedy was enough to nullify all. the skill, the courage and the devotion to duty which the great mass of employes put into their jobs. There has been a lot of talk, this last year, about the necessity of curbing the profit motive. The air mail situation is a striking example of it. Because a few’ men let the lust of profit run away with them, an entire industry has had to suffer. United States immigration service has been instructed to show courtesy toward aliens at our gates and unfortunately that will probably Include such people as George Bernard Shaw, "The world,” says Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford, "has been too kind to mothers for their ow’n good.” On the other hand, mothers have been too good to the world, for their ow’n kind.

Liberal Viewpoint =By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES =

THERE seems to be a renewed interest in the freedom of speech, press and assembly. The controversy over drug advertising, the press code, suppression of Nazi and Communist gatherings and the cry that the Fascists are coming all have promoted this newly manifested concern. To many, just now, it appears more important to be free to eat than it does to be free to talk, write or gather with our fellows about a soap box. But these ancient traditions of liberty must not be wholly obscured by current economic distress. Therefore, we may welcome a realistic discussion of this question by the American writer who is, far and away, best qualified to deal with the subject, Professor Carl Becker of Cornell university. His article on “Freedom of Speech” in the Nation is the best brief commentary on the topic which I have ever read. Professor Becker does tvell to make it clear that freedom of speech is no gift from the gods which will survive in spite of any and all types of human folly. It was slowly worked out as a result of prolonged human struggle. More than 99 per cent of the period of human life on this earth has passed before there was the slightest amount of freedom of speech, written word or public proclamation. “Whatever may be the virtue of freedom of speech in the abstract world of ideas, as a rule of political action it is like any other law— it works well only if the conditions are favorable. a a tt “TT works not too badly in a society in which J- the material conditions of life, being relatively easy, create no radical conflicts of interest, and in which there exists a common tradition or moral and social ideas, one of which is that just government rests upon the consent, freely expressed and freely given, of the governed. “A long-time view of human civilization Discloses the fact that such favorable conditions have existed only in a few places and for short times. Experience gives us slight ground for supposing that nineteenth century liberal democracy is a permanent conquest of intelligence. “It may very well be but a passing phase, a cumbersome and extravagant form of government, practicable only in relatively simple agricultural societies suddenly dowered with unaccustomed wealth by the discovery of new instruments of power and the inventions of new machines.” “The present conception of freedom of speech arose in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the intellectuals conceived of society and government as a sort of rational debating club: “Its validity, for those who formulated it, rested upon presuppositions which may be put in the form of a syllogism: “Major premise: The sole method of arriving at truth is the application of human reason to the problems presented by the universe and the life of men in it. “Minor premise: Men are rational creatures who can easily grasp and will gladly accept the truth once it is disclosed to them. tt tt tt “CONCLUSION: By allowing men freedom of speech and the press, relevant knowledge will be made accessible, untrammeled discussioh will reconcile divergent interest and opinions and laws acceptable to all will be enacted. “We have had about two centuries of experience since those days and have gained greatly in our knowledge of man and society. The minor premise underlying freedom of speech has been proved completely false and the conclusion has not been vindicated by experience. “It now is perfectly apparent that eighteenth century ideals and remedies will not suffice in the second third of the twentieth century. Economic individualism and liberty have brought to us. in the end, widespread misery and economic collapse. “The principle of free speech must justify itself or go under. The real danger, from the liberal point of view, is not that Nazis and Communists will destroy liberal democracy by free speaking, but that liberal democracy, through its own failure to cure social ills, will destroy itself by breeding Nazis and Communists. If liberal democracy sufficiently can alleviate social ills, freedom of speech will hav* sufficiently justified itself; if not, freedom of speech will in any case be lost in the shuffle,”

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your Limit them to 950 words or less.) letters short, so all can have a chance. tt tt tt HE’D LET CHISELERS BATTLE EACH OTHER By Edward Kirch. Asa reader of the best newspaper in our city, The Indianapolis Times, I would like to answer O. F. Gray’s article in the Message Center of Jan. 29. Mr. Gray seems to have been unusually lucky to be able to buy ten cases of Morgan’s products to give his hungry Republicans, which is more than tha majority of us who have not learned (libel deleted). As for the Republicans not receiving CWA jobs, that is all just baby talk. But does Mr. Gray ever consider the fact that if the donothing Republicans were still in power w’e would not have a CWA, and we still would be looking for prosperity to come around the corner, provided we would have received enough charity to keep alive this long. Does Mr. Gray ever consider the fact that such employers (libel deleted) and many others are the cause of our present condition? I think any child can see that when an employer pays starvation wages, parks his freight trains in our city streets (which the railroad company is not permitted to do and rightly so), crowds other traffic off our streets and highways, and has the opening school postponed to further enrich themselves by employing school children, and still is able to sell his products in our city, it is high time we get behind the NR A. We should give these chiselers a taste of the same medicine we have had, who have not worked sixty or seventy hours a week and left our wives to take care of the home and children instead of taking some single girl’s job. (This does not apply to married women.) To my mind, if the blue eagle does not succeed we may as well all jump in the river, except the chiselers, and let them chisel one another and perhaps they will wake up to fact that it is better to let the other fellow live, too, and he satisfied with one business and not be a doctor, lawyer, builder, and what not. The writer happens to be one of those little fellows who is being used as a tool to discredit the blue eagle, by these so-called justiceloving individuals who have plenty as the result of being in business before we had these chiselers. If we had had the NRA in place of the noble experiment we would not be accused of accepting a dole as we now are by being employed on CWA work, which is unjust. Any individual who thinks these men are all laying down on the job is welcome to come around and investigate, and, better still, work with these men for a day on our job, and I think he will change his opinion. And, tx sides, I do not know or care how many Democrats or how many Republicans I have on ihe job. a tt a THE PRESIDENT CAN ACT, HE BELIEVES By Ed Fox. Emmanuel Buckler issued a sort of challenge in Thursday night’s paper, to any one who could prove his assertions were wrong, regarding the constitutionality of the recovery laws. He also infers that if a person is to be credited with average intelligence and foresight, he could do nothing but agree with him. As I interpret the Constitution, Section 3, Article 2, provides that the President shall from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration, such measures as he judges necessary and expedient. Such recovery laws as already have been passed were to meet a crisis,

The Message Center

WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN?

Too Much ‘Hitlerism 9

By Observer. I have been a reader of The Indianapolis Times for some time, and like the Message Center, and am glad it has been enlarged. I alw’ays have been a Democrat, but I do not approve of some of the things this administration is trying to put across. For instance, trying to muzzle the press and keep the people in ignorance of the true state of affairs as they exist at this time; From the President on down, I believe if they will do things and make laws for the good of the people, there isn't anything to hide. Neither do I believe in giving the President dictatorial powers. Why shouldn’t congress and the senate discuss what is best for the people and have a vote on it? What do they think the people are sending congressmen to Washington for? If they are just going to be a rubber stamp for the President, they might as well stay at home, and the very idea of trying to put a law through which would give congress control of children under 18. Well, that is too much like Hitlerism to suit many people. While I haven’t any children, I never w’ould vote for any one who was in favor or who voted for such a law. And why use the economy act on the service-connected disability veteran to the extent of 25 per cent, and on no other class that

and were necessary and expedient. Regardless of their constitutionality, their object was recovery, and any law designed to eliminate suffering and want, is not only constitutional, but human. If we are recovering I fail to see why any sane person with a sense of patriotism, can question the integrity of our President because he is trying to help the country out of the depression by having congress pass common sense measures for the purpose. If the present conditions are “amusing" to this gent, his conception of amusement stands alone. He will have to admit that progress is being made, so regardless of what color the laws are, or how constitutional the reasons for the depression are, if they are working, we should be glad we have a man who

A Woman’s Viewpoint

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

only sane method of rearing children.” says a physician, “is to provide them with all the opportunities possible and leave them to themselves.” Good, sensible suggestion. The child of the average w'ell-to-do parent in this country certainly suffers from too much, rather than too little, bringing up. He never is left to himself at all. Really, when you think of it, the tragedy of being a child in a world managed wholly by grownups must be a pretty dreadful thing. We pester them so much. We're forever at them about this, that or the other, prying into their secrets, watching them as cats watch a mouse, and ready to pounce down upon them at the slightest suspicious movement. They have no privacy. We even supervise their play. And could anything be more pathetic than a bevy of tots being instructed in the correct way to play? The idea would strike us as extremely ludicrous if we were capable of laughing at ourselves to any good purpose. tt tt a YET it would be unfair to accuse these assiduous adults

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

much? Honesty and fairness should go hand in hand to be a success. If the economy league was such a good thing, why did Admiral Byrd, Mr. Roosevelt and some others ease out of it? Drawing big money off the government and at the same time fighting veterans’ compensations and pensions for others. Many veterans who were more entitled to it than they were—that just showed their principle. People know how much service Admiral Byrd saw’. There is no use in trying to fool the public any more, as in the last year or two people—especially the poor—are beginning to awaken to the fact that it is up to them to try to straighten out this country’; and they can read and hear what is going on at Washington. And why roast Senator Arthur Robinson so much? He seems to be working for the interests of the common people, and he also uses his own head. When in Washington people should forget politics for a time and get down to the business of trying to get this country back to normal. (Editor’s Note—Archibald Roosevelt, though severely wounded in action, never has drawn a pension. He was once an employe, not an officer or stockholder, in a steamship company which received mail subsidies.)

doesn’t hold the ideas of 1787 more sacred than the lives of we who are trying to live in 1934. an a SEEKS RETURN OF STOLEN PROPERTY By a Times Reader. I am a Times reader and have been a user of The Times for years, and also a deliverer for the paper some time ago. Now, as to wnom this may concern, I am not so sure. I've been reading cf the big-hearted things that have been done and results they brought, but we are up against it at present, and were away from home part time, as no fault of ours. So, while gone, “visitors”—or thieves—came in and took a Maytag washer, bought in 1924, No. 350577, and also a Eureka vacuum

of evil intent towards the children. The horror of the situation lies in the fact that we love them so much and work all these tortures upon them in the name of our fond interest and our parental adoration. The simplest way of getting at an understanding of a child, I have discovered, is to approach him exactly as you would approach another grown-up. He is an individual and if you accord him the treatment of an equal he always will appreciate the compliment and give you not only his confidence, but sometimes his affection. Unfortunately, adults are obsessed with the idea of education. Children, being the most helpless individuals among us, get the lion's share of the attention and I have no doubt they get heartily tired of it, too. And the dreadful thing about the entire process is that the result of all these efforts on our part is to people the earth with adults who are very little better than w r e are. It is, you will find, the urchin who resists our systems who becomes the genius and t.hA leader.

FEB, 17,1934

cleaner, No. 700416. Both had been overhauled and still answered the purpose to which I needed very much. And, an electric Atwater Kent radio, in the shape of a writing desk. Now, do you suppose some of those suspects caught ransacking homes might be the ones holding my things? We’ve not been getting our pension for about three months, and very little help, so you see I am not able to put up the price. The police officers were here, but I’ve heard nothing, so with the little help you might give may be a lot to someone like me in need. The man of the house was at Soldiers’ Home, Lafayette, while I was here with relatives because I had neither fuel nor money. This happened just a little before Christmas. I’d been home for Saturday night and left again Sunday noon, so it happened just after that. Other things were ransacked, but outside' those a bosket of coal was what I missed. Now, if The Times, big-hearted as a mile of dimes, or any of the staff can assist a little and get results, I surely would appreciate it. They lost one roller out of the washer taking it, so, if anybody can give any information, I’d only be too glad. We’ve nothing to go on, so far, so please don’t think I am intruding, if a few words help, I’d only be too glad, and obliged for same. The radio is shaped like a writing desk, butterfly in the center the way the wood shows and a little of veneer of the speaker where the black trimming goes around. a tt a HERE’S ANOTHER PLEA FOR A CLEAN COURTHOUSE Bv Ernest Smith. I was more than interested to read the article by Nauseated Taxpayer, concerting the vile-smelling loafers in the courtrooms. More power to him. And, now that he has started the ball rolling, let’s keep it up and go a step farther. The corridors are another source of annoyance. The gangs of idlers and loafers who gather around the radiators surely are a nuisance. A lady has to keep her ears, as well as her nose, closed, because of the talk that goes on. Where else in any of the public buildings, do we see such a crowd congregating? Do you see any of this in the postoffice? I should say not. Os course, these fellows are cold and idle and they have a right to keep warm, but they might, for common decency's sake, use a little soap and water, and guard their tongues. You have been doing wonderful jf work in cleaning up various nuisances. so now let's clean up the courthouse.

You

BY FRANCESCA I never looked up at the sky To see a white cloud sailing by— I never heard a song bird’s cry— Until I thought of you. I never watched the setting sun To see the purple shadows come And hide the earth when day is done— Until‘l thought of you. I never knelt to say a prayer Without you, dear, for you were there— You seem to follow everywhere— That’s how I think of you. I never cared for goldenrod, Or loved the flowers —and the sod— Or thought of babies—or of God— Until I thought of you.