Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 245, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 February 1934 — Page 14

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The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPTS HOWARD NEW BPA ITU) ROT W. QuWAKP Pr**l(l*nt TAI.COTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Business Manager Phon* — Rile; S.VSI

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Gi> e Liyht an! tb People Will find Thrir Orrn ICoy

WIWMPAT FEB 21 1934 FAIR ENOUGH, GENERAL! JOHNSON invites the country to the first roundup in Washinatcn next week for hard riding of the NRA and all its work. He wants criticism. He will get it. And. on that basis, ne promises to make any rersonable revisions in the codes covering 500 industries at the ‘orhnir.al hearings which are to follow the public free-for-all. It is a novel idea. No other governmental agency has ever qu.te equaled thus gesture. And-it strikes us as very effective Just because it is more than a gesture. It is sincere No man would be fool enough to invite such critics m in such a forum if he were insincerely trying to trick the public. For obviously an official open forum of this kind can not be kent in a straitjacket. We are among those who have been critical at times of the general and the NRA But we have not been disturbed deeply largely because the NRA was operating frankly as an experiment in which th° general and others openly admitted their mistakes and tried to learn by experience. That is the only method by which NRA or any other form of national planning possibly can succeed. So the general says again: “There are things in some codes that ought not to be there and things are out of some cod?r that ought to be there. Some of the codes do not gee with other codes and there are many discrepancies. mistakes and outright blunders to be corrected.” He wants now, with the advice of the public, to correct those blunders, with this as the NRA goal: “It is to see that industry does not homswaegle labor; that labor does not bullyrag industry: that neither, separately, nor both in conrert. shall exploit the consuming public.” As long as that is the goal, and as long as the administration moves toward the goal by the intelligent trial-and-error method the NRA will hold the overwhelming public support which it has earned to date. PRESIDENT AND NEWSPAPERS TT is the custom of newspapers to be critieal of Presidents. Now. in transmitting the newspaper code, a President becomes critical of newspapers. Whereupon certain newspapers grow “highly insulted." The New' York Herald-Tribune, for example, calls for apologies from the President. To us the affair seems to classify as one of those rare news events, immortalized by Dana, in w’hich the man hites the dog. The Constitution guarantees freedom of both,speech and the press. The newspapers enjoy free press. The President enjoys free speech. So. as the saying goes—that is that.

THE ANTI-LYNCHING BILL T ET the states do it. is the cry of opponents of the anti-lynching bill now under congressional hearings. The answer is that the states either can not or will not protec? citizens from lynch mobs. This is not a matter of argument or opinion. It is a fact—a brutal fact established by unhindered lynchings in every year of our national history. The fundamental reason for the existence of an American government and Constitution is the protection of the rights of citizens The right to life is basic Any government which deliberately fails to protect that right has sacrificed its excuse for being. This issue is neither sectional nor tacial. In one of the worst recent cases the state was California and the victims were white. Ol the 5.053 known lynchings since 1882. whites have been the victims 1.450 times. Ninety-four women have been lynched. Rape is not the ''ustomary cause of lynching The record shows tha? only 17 per cent of the victims were accused of that crime by the lynchers themselves—and many of that 17 per cent were innocent. Regarding the recent Tuscaloosa case, the investigator of the Southern Commission for the Study of Lynching reported: “One of the four mob victims undoubtedly was innocent, two others probably so, and the fourth possibly so.” In that case, as so often happens, local officials did not try to protect the victims and did not try to punish the culprits. Os course, in the San Jose case. Governor Rolph publicly encouraged lynching, on the other hand, when Governor Ritchie sent Maryland state troops to arrest alleged lynchers the mob drove out the troops These are the type of hard facts behind the statement of President Roosevel? that lynching is one of the crimes which “have threatened our security.’’ And the President added: “These violations of ethics and these violations of law call on the strong arm of government for their immediate suppression: they also call on the country for an aroused public opinion.” FIGHTING WOMEN A ND always we said that we didn't like military heels! We thought that we ccrtild cover more ground . . . not travel faster, you understand ... if we had slim stilts. We argued against khaki, too. We’ve said that it was a nondescript color for women that made them look as much alike as a string of dolls cut from dark brown wrapping paper. Now a man, we have agreed, can put on a khaki suit and become magnificent, handsome, heartbreaking! Yt we are headed straight for the front line trenches. Our mothers reared us to B|

soldiers. That’s why they made us eat spinach. In fact, something has to be done about our sartorial appearance as soldiers. For what employer who had a secret, almost-expressed, yearning for his curly-headed secretary is going to get romantic about her when he sees her in dim tan khaki? No. if women are going to fight, they should look to their uniforms. Any woman knows that she can do a better job of slaying her enemies w'hen she looks attractive. Women fought shoulder to shoulder ... or an inch or two lower, for we still average shorter statures . . . with men in Vienna. They shouldered arms and learned what w'ar is all about. Those who profess to know are taking this step as indicative of the fate that awaits the women of the rest of the world the next time that somebody steals seventeen miles of somebody else's land or kills a nice grand duke. We are being told that we asked for equality and if we expect to share the plums we can sit at the table on prune days, too. Well—maybe! If a woman w'ants to put on a uniform, and get all cross and worn out aiming at people whom she hasn't much chance of hitting, that’s all right. More bullets to her gun! But if a woman doesn’t, try to make her! But in case chivalry and high heels pass out together, and equality and the military gesture join hands, let’s do it attractively. Let’s insist on powder puffs and lipstick for our kit bags. There are all sort of cleansing creams and softening lotions that we must take along, too. Trenches are vile places. A woman must look to the surface view. Oh, yes, don't forget a hair brush! The one hundred strokes a night are most important in preserving that firelight luster that men dreamed about when only men fought battles. The eyebrow tweezer is important. If you nave a favorite soap by all means take it with you. As for the bearing of arms . . . don't let that worry you. There will be some tall, strong man who will just love to carry two guns and show you how many of the enemy he can shoot if you just tell him how strong he is. He’ll double, nay triple, the number of scalps that dangle at his figurative belt. In fact, on second thought it might be a good thing for women to go to war if they would go as women. They could be an inspiration. Still, some arrangement would have to be made for the children, and food supplies, and hearth fires. It w-ould be difficult to teach Johnny and Mary their ABC’s while the guns were booming. Considering everything, maybe it would be better just to not have any more wars.

WHERE ROYALTY REMAINS TJUMAN habits are hard to change, espe- *■ cially the little, unimportant ones. This fact occasionally causes difficulties for ardent revolutionaries who hope to reform the race. Consider, for instance, the efforts of the Russian Communists to abolish royalty from the decks of playing cards. Some time ago the party leaders reflected that such antiproletarian figures as kings and queens should have no place on cards used by members of a proletarian state. So they designed new decks, using priests, rabbis and nuns in place of the familiar king, queen and jack—the idea, of course, being to cast further ridicule on religious institutions. But. a current dispatch from Moscow reports that this noble effort is failing. The Russians are used to the old king of playing card, and they will have no other. Communism ended real-life royalty, but it seems unable to do much with the kind that exists on pasteboard. NEED STERILIZING jpROBABLY it was only natural that the sterilization of mental defectives should be forced on public attention these days by Germany, a nation which has turned its back formally on democracy. That is to#say. that there is more or less of a parallel between the theory that the ordinary man has not the intelligence to govern himself properly and the theory that society must, in self-protection, deny to these at the very bottom of the heap the right to reproduce their kind. Both rest on a basic distrust of the mass of mankind, in that both assume that society as a whole will be much better off if it puts all its affairs uncomplainingly into the hands of a chosen few at the top. An intelligent comment on this attitude was made not long ago by Dr. W. D. Tait. professor of psychology at McGill university, Montreal. Dr. Tait remarked that society’s worst ills come from the things that are done —not by the mental defectives, but by those who are smarter than their fellows. And he slyly suggests that, if we are to sterilize any one, it well might be the smart boys rather than the congenital dumbbells. “Child labor, sweatshops, religious, prolitical and racial persecution, stock manipulation, bank delinquencies, graft at the expense of the country, intrigues of high-grade murder. war and its horrors, are not caused by the morons, but by the intelligent,” he asserts. “In my opinion, the greatest menace to civilization really is the man who is just a little bit smarter than the rest.” Now here is a thought worth pondering. Whatever one may say £bout the weaknesses which democracy has displayed in these troublous post-war years, the outstanding fact is simply that it is leadership itself which has failed. The ills from which the world suffers today didn't arise because the great mass of people had been blind and stupid. They grew because the leaders muffed their opportunities, failed in vision, and listened too attentively to the claims of self-interest. Protecting oursleves against the mentally subnormal is relatively a simple proposition. The big job is to find some way of keeping tab on what the smart boys are doing. Americans, it is predicted, will drink 44b.000,000 gallons of beer this year. That's encouraging for the pretzel business. A man in Maine has eyes that are supposed to magnify objects 100 times. Isn’t’ it his tongue that magnifies what the eyes see? The average woman is a better bridge player than the average man, says P Hal Sims. Men could be better if they talked about clothes and maids, too. *

SLUM FIRES IN the heart of New York's, slums on Saturday night five children and three adults were trapped in a tenement fire and burned to death. Here was quick and terrifying tragedy such as strikes down so many victims each year in America’s slum fires. The slow deaths from disease that take tens of thousands each year in the wretched warrens to which we condemn the poor is another story. Prevention is possible. According to New York tenement house commissioner. Langdon Post, there has not been a fatal fire in any of Manhattan's new-law tenements. What is needed to bring home to American cities their failure in meeting the housing needs of working men’s families? Cities and states alone can undertake the task of razing slums and rehousing the 6,000,000 or more families in need of decent homes. But the federal government stands ready to help with loans and grants. So far only five states have passed proper laws authorizing co-operation in housing projects with the public works administration at Washington. Only Milwaukee and Los Angeles among the large cities have charters permitting them to go ahead without special state legislation. The states are holding up the government's rehousing program. Since the war England has rehoused oneeighth of her population in 2,000,000 houses, many of the cottage type with garden space. Germany, France and Belgium have rehoused one-sixth of their people. The United States, richest nation in the world and most in need of a great rehousing movement, has hardly begun. That 14-year-old boy hero who threw a lighted bomb out of a Chicago store, but who says he's afraid of girls, knows where heroism stops and discretion begins. Vienna rebels conducted their guerilla warfare from sewers, thus proving that man can be ’way down, but not out. An Illinois university student was dismissed for giving false entrance information. He might at least have waited until examination time to do his cheating. The secretary of state of Kansas made a speech in the wrong church, which may not be so bad as delivering the wrong speech in the right church.

Liberal Viewpoint DR. ELMER BARNES

This is the last of to articles by Dr. Henry Elmer Baines on the NRA crisis. b b tt 'V7'ESTERDAY I called attention to the grave A crisis in the application of the national industrial recovery act growing out of the apparent failure of the national labor board. This body is failing to function effectively in the face of the sabotage of Section 7A of the recovery act, designed to give labor free and full right of collective ’bargaining. Only through such collective bargaining can mass purchasing power in urban centers be raised and maintained sufficiently to restore and perpetuate prosperity. It is worthwhile to observe that conspicuously the best codes submitted by industry at Washington were to be found where labor was intrenched strongly and organized effectively. In an excellent article in.the New Republic on “Labor and the NRA,” William B. Mangold presents us with certain representative cases in which the manufacturers openly have defied the government to enforce Section 7A. First we have the Harriman hosiery mills of Harriman, Tenn. Its employes became members of the United Textile Workers last July. On the day the union was organized the union leaders were discharged and the counsel for the company has bluntly informed the national labor board that the Harriman hosiery mills “will not agree at any time to recognize the union, arbitrate on propositions we are unable to agree upon, or enter into contracts individually or collectively.” B B B THE United States Steel Corporation, through its subsidiary, the H. G. Frick Coal and Coke Company, has refused to have any dealings with the United Mine Workers. The attorney for the steel corporation asserts publicly that: “General Johnson and the President will tell you that we told them from the start that we would not make a union contract and wouldn't arbitrate that question.” He added that the question of union labor was the point about which the steel corporation was making “its whole fight.” Fifteen other steel companies also have taken the same stand in refusing to deal with the United Mine Workers. One of their legal spokesmen openly contended before the labor board that it was under no legal obligation to sign a contract with United Mine Workers and had the audacity to tell the‘national labor board to its very teeth that it had no jurisdiction over this matter. The Corcoran shoe Company of Stoughton, Mass., has refused to recognize the Brotherhood of Shoe and Allied Craftsmen, admittedly the choice of the workers in the factory. The president of this company informed the national labor board that: “We never will agree to recognize this so-called union.” The counsel for the company questioned the jurisdiction of the labor board. From a widely removed part of the country and in a much different industry comes the same story. The Whatcom County Dairymen’s Association in the state of Washington refuses to recognize the Brotherhood of Teamsters, and its attorney defiantly tells the national labor board that his association “will not stand for any arbitration.”

IN the meantime, and as an inevitable result of this supineness on the part of the national labor board, we have had a most notable and deplorable revival of the bogus company unions —a farce and an abuse which the national industrial recovery act was primarily designed to run out of existence. The national industrial conference board sent out a questionnaire to 3.314 manufacuring concerns, picked at random and employing 27 per cent of all workers in manufacturing and mining industries. The answers revealed the disconcerting news that, of all the workers organized into unions since the NR A was set up, 678,000 have been organized in company unions as against 137.000 in independent and reputable trade unions. This shows just how well the NRA is “succeeding" in ending company unions and promoting the growth of bona fide union labor and collective bargaining. Mr. Mangold summarizes the situation very fairly: “These cases speak for themselves. If allowed to stand, they will quickly reduce the national labor board to an impotent body, of little use to labor. Indeed, its present ineffectiveness is a hindrance rather than an aid to unionization of workers. It would perhaps be unjust to say that the board deliberately is nullifying the intent of the labor provisions of the recovery act. Yet its reluctance to enforce its own rulings through court action is having precisely that effect.” It is hardly fair, however, to pass all the blame on to the labor board. The administration frequently has given evidence of its recognition of the importance of purchasing power and collective bargaining. If these crucial policies are not realized, the responsibility must, in the last analysis, fall upon the shoulders of the President. <

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express their vicics in these columns. Male pour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 2,1 0 words or less.) B B B MR. THIXTON’S LETTER BRINGS ANOTHER REPLY By a Veteran. My message of Feb. 8 appealing for veterans to join the American Legion was attacked severely by H. E. Thixton. He called most of us “horse riders” or “feather-bed soldiers” who received injury after the war and were vexed because our pensions were cut. My message plainly stated the kind of veteran I had in mind, those who came back crippled, gassed or with their former good position gone and were left with absolutely nothing to look to but a pension which new has been cut or entirely eliminated (libel deleted) in Washington. in Washington they are spending millions and millions for worthless projects but still claim that, in order to economize, the veterans must suffer financially. They even are pushing the veterans out of the hospitals in order to accommodate so-called CWA workers. All of this kind of thing has been brought about by such cold-blooded unthankful beings as H. E. Thixton, and even it, as he says, there is a certain amount of politics in the American Legion, I know of no other way we veterans can organize for the oncoming revolution, and I am hoping that hundreds of veterans will read the Thixton article in The Times Feb. 13, so that the membership of the American Legion will increase greatly. Perhaps Mr- Thixton will be “nice - ’ enough to read my message of Feb. 8 again, then read this and hang his head in shame. After it rises again i hope he reads carefully the article printed adjacent his, explaining the present moneywastage in Washington. He says he doesn't believe that the membership of the legion increased 65.000 in 1933. The Times verified this fact in a recent edition, probably a week ago mot in the Message Center). A few more articles like his will bring it up to maximum instead of decreasing it as was intended by him. National headquarters of the American Legion list the total membership of the organization as 516,247. BBS ELIMINATE FRICTION BETWEEN VETERANS’ GROUPS. IS PLEA By Legionnaire. I wish to deliver a little message to H. E. Thixton and others who may have the same ideas about the American Legion. I believe it is up to me to answer Mr. Thixton, since only a short time ago I was guilty of pulling the wool over the eyes of a Times employe and getting him to join the legion and take the risk of being contaminated by it. I suppose that Mr. Thixton is a member of the V. F. W. He has the advantage of me because I absolutely have nothing “on” the Veterans of. Foreign Wars, even though I have been a member and attended their meetings, as I probably will again some day when prosperity gets back to the south side. There is a lot of unnecessary friction between the ones who went across and the so-called “home guards,” and it is not doing either organization any good. Some of the stay-at-homes are envious and again there are thousands of them in the legion who are doing everything in reason to help the unfortunates crippled in the war On the other I have seen some of the fire-eating foreign service men

THE LIGHT THAT WAS HIDDEN UNDER A BUSHEL

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The Message Center

Answers the ‘Misguided ’

Bv an Ex-service Man. It is a pleasure to answer a few misguided individuals who, from time to time, use this medium for taking a healthy swing at veterans and their (veteran) defenders. W. E, Lemon, in a recent issue of The Times, should thank his God that he is not disabled because of his service for his country. Senator Robinson is perhaps looking for ex-service men's votes, but what politician isn’t? He is at least consistent in his stand, and when it was not popular to talk against Hoover, he was doing his bit to oppose what was the then popular stand against defenders of our country. I do not agree with Senator Robinson on his liquor views, but, again, in them he is consistent, and, at least, we can foretell his actions (or votes) because he takes the same attitude he took during his campaign. This W. E. Lemon is not disabled. and no one is asking a compensation or pension for him. and he pays no income tax of any kind, nor does he in any manner known to the writer contribute to the upkeep of veterans or any other legitimate expense of our country. Therefore, his wailing is out of order. Since the men who were disabled in service are entitled to

in hospitals in France doing all : kinds of menial tasks to keep from going back to their outfits where they might have to return to the front. Please note that I am not hold- i ing these few isolated cases against I the men who went across, and I j do not want you to blame the le- j gion for what some of the mem-1 bets might do. Both organizations fall short of perfection, but. both are doing a lot of good and. they should pull together. Now you want to know why the Governor and his secretary attend the conventions and the meetings of the American Legion. I suppose it is because they are both members in good standing and as such it is their privilege, and if it does

A Woman’s Viewpoint - = By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

OF all the fool reasons for getting a divorce, that of Kay Francis takes the prize. In spite of the fact that she has been' acclaimed one of the ten best dressed women in the United States, she can't please the grouchy Mr, Kenna. she explains. He goes right on assuming a nasty air of superiority towards her. Sufficient ground? for a divorce. Miss Francis considers that. And perhaps it is for Miss Francis. She might take it for granted, however, that no one minds her having her divorce. The only interested party besides herself and Mrs. Kenna is the judge who will give the decree, and it may be assumed he will not place too much importance upon a husband’s trivial eccentricities. It's nobody’s business why Miss Francis wants a divorce, if she does, and certainly these small matrimonial differences do not constitute questions about which the general public should be agitated. BBS BUT quite the silliest aspect of our entire social system is the freedom we permit ft} the choice

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

some defense, is it so terribly wrong for a man like Senator Robinson to defend them? Remember every single statesman (?) in congress uses some similar method to obtain votes for re-elec-tion. Now, about the editor. Mr. llowell. It is the belief of most people that the series you wrote in support of the economy league stand against, the expenditures for veteran relief gained you your present position. Granted it was perhaps an unjust assignment for you. and did not indicate your personal feelings, it was the means principally of getting the N. E. L. program adopted. If the ScrippsHoward papers were sincerely written when they stated they did not favor a reduction in pensions for service connection, and battle casualties, they would, after investigation, cite specific cases where the economy bill caused not only severe suffering but left a dark brown taste in the public mouth. True you published the legion program, but. if you were to publish anew series of articles as strongly written and as well supplied with facts as the one that climaxed the passage of the abominable and unfair economy bill, it might correct some of the wrong perpetrated in the name of economy.

not interfere with their more important functions, it is also their duty. In closing. Mr. Thixton, allow me to say that I admire your courage in attacking an organization of about a million men, but I believe that your judgment is at fault. bbb THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME MIXUP HERE By Reuben Barnej. A second government, establishment has taken direct issues with the bureau of labor statistics with respect to increases in the cost of living. Testifying before the house appropriations committee, Admiral Peoples stated, in behalf of the navy

of a mate and the obstructions we set up against getting ri<J of one. You can marry anybody you please Not the slightest effort or thought or intelligent foresight is insisted upon by the state for getting into matrimony, but getting out again is ,another thing. It forces you to all sorts of undignified stratagems, into every kind of questionable deception. Lying and perjury, which are so frowned upon by courts in other cases, are actually encouraged, even enforced in some states, when one seeks a divorce. One’s reasons for getting married are taken for granted. One is in love. Why, then, when one is out of love, finally and definitely, must the public be expected to take a hand in the business? We often make the reasons for legal separation the subject of newspaper headlines and in so doing exceed the limits of good breeding and good sense. The state could do far more effective work if it took more of an interest in why we get married and less in why we get divorced. And this wouid not deprive the movie stars of any of tneir publicity,'

FEB. 21, 1934

department, that rations will cost from 20 to 25 per cent more in ihe coming fiscal year ‘.'ginning Juiy 1. He cited increases of 9 per cent in dairy products during the last four months. Other increases were 80 per cent in grains, 25 per cent in fruit and vegetables, 32 per cent in Nothing, 64 per cent in cotton goods. 45 per cent in knit goods, 50 per cent in woolens and worsteds, 58 per cent in sugar. Lard, cheese, condensed milk, coffee and numerous other articles were said to have advanced considerably. Recently. Brigadier - General Hines, testifying for the veterans’ administration, cited advances of 90 per cent in flour and 150 per cent in coal and fuel oil as indicating increase in cost to government pur- 3 chasing ,agencies of at least 25 per cent during the coming fiscal year. This is in direct conflict with the

findings of the bureau of labor statistics—which failed to discover any increase in prices in a survey conducted for the purpose of ascertaining the cost of living for government employes. It was this report. which prevented the President, under the mandatory features of the economy act, from restoring any part of the 15 frer cent wage reduction now being suffered by government employes and returnable only upon increases in living costs. The report of the bureau of labor statistics, as contrasted with that of the two establishments mentioned, places the government in the uncomfortable position of demanding more money when it has to buy supplies while denying a return of normal wages to its own emploves who must purchase the same articles.

DEMANDS DILLINGER CASE REWARDS BE PAID B> E A. C. With reference to the Dillinger gang which was captured by Tucson (Ariz.) police officers, I respectfully suggest that you follow through to see that the rewards are_ paid If [ they are not paid the people of Ir.j diana would like to know the names of those who failed to live up to their promises. I believe the people of Indiana are appreciative enough of these Tucson heroes to make up a collection for them if the rewards offered are not paid. Incidentally, the government : should prohibit the newspapers from glorifying crime. Neither should any theatrical,producers b permitted to exhibit notorious characters. The newspapers often speak of how clever or how attractive the convict is and how enjoyable the 1 conversation. If we are to cope at all with the crime situation, the papers will have to help by painting only the black side of the criminals' characters. (Editor's Note—The function of a newspaper is not that of a painter, but rather that of a mirror, i Disillusioned BY CHRISTIE RUDOLPH At some moments brief intrigue Throbbing as the dripping ram, Os anguished flowers crushed within it, Weeps within my soul again. Stars are sorrows jetted sapphires Mocking at the change of time. Beauty’s blest by thrilling lyres Knows no music, neither rhyme s But an interlude of chaotic measure Seeps from out the stricken sky. Beauty t is transient, a lover? pleasure. So madden romance, and shriek to die.