Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 250, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 February 1934 — Page 9

Second Section

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun THE freedom of the press is a great and glorious ideal, and if it means precisely what it says then I gather that the provision includes the privilege of saving what you like about President, pope, or chief justice of the supreme court. But I had been led to believe that certain barriers and measures of curtailment had been placed in the way of those who wished to speak both ill and passionately of our chief executive. In an effort to substantiate this rumor I did a little research work through the columns of the two

New York newspapers which have been most violent in their attacks on President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I reler, of course, to the New York Herald Tribune and the Daily Worker, and I ask leave to introduce exhibits A and B from these two anti-adminis-tration papers. tt tt tt From Rif/lit and Left “'T'HE mounting, deep-going A discontent with the actual way the NRA is working out, and in view of the rising tempo of strike struggles, the Roosevelt regime is beginning to fear the disillusionment of the masses with ihc NRA.”

Heywood Broun

“Roosevelt has reverted to the governmental Ideals ar.d methods of Genghis Khan. ... He and his political horde have swept the continent from ocean to ocean, have seized gold, overthrown traditions of prudence and thrift, have flouted the national ideals, and have made the Constitution of these United States a ‘mere scrap of paper.’” I am sorry to have the Daily Worker appear as such an anemic organ in comparison with the Herald-Tribune. It can do a good deal better than the few mild sentences which I have quoted, even although those happened to be the fiercest offered by the Communist spokesman in the course of fortyeight hours. The lines about Genghis Khan, of course, are from the Tribune. The Worker can do pretty well when it sets its mind to it. but even in its most slashing moods there remains some inhibiting strain of respect for the office of President of the United States. It can not cut loose m the fine unrestrained manner of the Tribune. It is less skillful in catching and holding to the idiom of the proletarian. I suppose some of the difference lies in the varying personalities of the editorial writers involved. For instance, Geoffrey Parsons, chief editorial writer of the Herald Tribune, is known to his friends and associates as Butch Parsons. He could take Clarence Hathaway and Mike Gold of the Worker, and pound their heads together without the slightest inconvenience. He has, of course, come up from the ranks, and was a prominent lumberman in the years when Hathaway was teaching school and Mike Gold was making timid proffers of his plays to Otto Kahn. tt tt tt No Punch at All WHATEVER one may think of the courage of the Communist party in other lands, there can be no question of its integrity, sincerity and dedication here in the city of New York. But the lads who call for a movement to the barricades with few exceptions are not quite built for the task. Possibly the most punishing story ever told against the comrades is of their own issue. I refer tc the charge that their leader. Clarence Hathaway, was assaulted brutally and almost done to death by Abraham Cahan and Algernon Lee. Mr. Cahan is a distinguished journalist and novelist who touched 73 on his last birthday, and Algernon Lee is so painfully nearsighted that he is of no use whatsoever save for infighting. Even the consecration of a daffodil can not quite transform it into a tiger lily for the purpose of a rough-and-tumble along the rampart. I do not wish to be understood as supporting Butch Parsons and his gang of Tribune tobaccoteers. They are supporting a cause which seems to me both lost and ignoble. I think that they will be remembered in the days to come only as the pixies who undertook to slash at the shoe laces of Franklin D. Roosevelt. tt tt tt Hut Not the Smallest YET even when they have been assigned, justly or wrongly, to this lowly stature they have a right to wave away the editorial commentators of the Daily Worker who seek to make a working alliance with them for the sake of confounding the President. Butch Parsons and his boys have a right to say: “Oh, run along and don t bother us. Come back when you can find bean shooters or putty blowers. We at least are working with air rifles. Go home and learn a few tough words and phrases. We are Republicans and rugged individualists. We can't combine with you Communists until you can manage to learn at least a smattering of bad manners.” (Copyright. 1934. by The Times)

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ PROFESSOR HARLOW SHAPLEY. world-famous astronomer and director of the Harvard observatory. the man who has done as much as any other one to show us the immensity of the universe, turns from his contemplation of the great to the small and concludes that man can never uncover the smallest thing in the universe. In his researches of astronomy. Professor Shapley has found that' the units of organization are island galaxies, great clouds of stars, each one containing a couple of billion stars. He finds these galaxies organized into super-galaxies and in measuring them he has found it convenient to use a yardstick of 10.000.000 light-years, that is, 10.000.000 times 6.000.000.000.000 miles. Turning now to the realm of physics, he expresses the belief that matter is composed of smaller units than scientists have yet revealed. The things around us are composed of molecules. If a drop of water were magnified to the size of the earth, the molescules would be about as large as oranges. The diameter of molescules vary, ranging from one ten-millionth of an inch down to one-hundred-and twenty-five millionth of an inch. Molecules are composed of atoms which are still smaller. The hydrogen atom has a diameter of about one-half the smallest molecule. Atoms in their turn are composed of electrons. The electron has a diameter of about one-hundred-thousandth that of the hydrogen atom. a a a THE diameter of the electron is about one twenty-five trillionth of an inch. That seems pretty small. But Professor Shaplev is not content to stop there. In addition to the electron, we also have a positive particle in the nuclei of atoms, namely, the proton. Atoms appear to be organized somewhat like the solar system with a nucleus of both protons and electrons around which additional electrons revolve. a a a ATOMS are no longer listed as ultimates. Professor Shapley points out. He adds: “They are now among the best known of material systems; and even their unit components can not maintain the former atomic role of being the indivisible stones cf . which the material universe is built. Experience certainly recommends caution in asserting any lower limit in the organization of the microcosmos. “On the other hand." he continues, “since we can know of electrons and protons and the units of radiation only by using electrons and protons and units of radiation in our technique of measuring and comprehending, it may be that we have already got near the bottom of measurable units and systems of tits. “But in a hypothetical sub-electronic world, where there may be systems within systems indefinitely, our •oarse-gratned tools no longer bring information to •ur coarse-grained minds.

Full Wire Service of the United Press Association

This is the fifth article of David Dietz great series on the terrors of the next World War. BY DAVID DIETZ. Srioos-Howard Science Editor 'T'HE grim specter of slow star- -*• vation. perhaps more terrible than any of the swift, dramatic horrors of modern warfare, will stalk across the land before the next world war is ended. For, despite all the talk and plans of surprise attacks by airplanes and speedy invasions by tanks and motorized artillery, it seems more than likely that any new world war w r ill once again become a stalemate. That will mean a reversion to the conditions of the last World war with long lines of trenches, stretching from mountains to the sea, with attacks and counter-at-tacks across no man's land. On the sea, there will be blockades and submarine attacks, with every nation eventually feeling the pinch of hunger and at least one side of the war facing starvation. And let no one discount the horror of starvation. “Although in the future air raids will be directed against the civilian population more than was the case in the World war, it must not be forgotten that a starvation blockade, which affects women and children, the aged and the sick, is incomparably more barbarous.” says LieutenantGeneral Von Metzsch. member of the German general staff in the last war. “There is no defense against such a blockade once it has been made effective, whereas there are both active and passive anti-air-craft defenses, some of which are most successful.” tt tt a THE military strategists of every nation are dreaming of making the next war short. The ideal in every war department is to strike a quick, sharp, decisive blow. It is a fact that the bombing squads of airplanes possesses a radius equal to the entire territory of many European states. It is a fact that a motorized invading army, traveling in tanks and armoured autos, could overrun a territory equal to that of all of France or Germany in a few days. But these things are true only if we do not consider the defensive means of nations. The war department’s dream of surprise air attacks. But it remains to be seen whether there will be such surprise attacks or not. And certainly no invading army of tanks is very likely to find itself unopposed for any* great length of time. What will happen w*hen the war breaks out can not be predicted with any degree of certainty. The technical side of warfare has always been a race between arms and armor. In these days it is a race between shells and armorplate, between gas and gas masks, between aircraft and antiaircraft guns. The power of rifle and machine gun fire brought about the stalemate of the last World war. It was broken by the use of tanks whose steel armorplate could defy the bullets of rifles and machine guns. The lesson of the tank has not been lost on any of the nations of the world. Not only are they thinking in terms of tanks but in terms of defending themselves from the tanks of the enemy.

WHEN Ben Turpin was here the other day with “The Moulin Rouge Caravan,” he found time to have quite a chat with me at the Columbia Club. In his own words, he has “practically retired” and that is no fault of Mr. Turpin's and I am inclined to favor his viewpoint. Ben Turpin has brought laughter and cheer to millions of the-ater-goers. In these talking days when the producers are after glamor on part of the stars, seeking foreign markets for names, Mr. Turpin and many other veterans are just “practically retired.” This type of retirement is due to those who control the movie industry. “If they want me to work," he said, "I will. I have made a lot of people laugh in the past. My voice registers all right and I talk like a New Yorker. I think I use proper grammar. I love to work.” These remarks by Mr. Turpin are not just sour grapes, but a keen discussion of a situation which is facing many others who were stars in other days. a a a MR. TURPIN called attention to the all-star movie casts and gave as a striking example "Alice in Wonderland.” “Here.” he said, "are to be found some of the best known names in the business today. What have they done? They have robbed the actor of his personality by putting him behind a mask. I think they made a rabbit out of Skeets Gallagher.” Personally, I can’t agree with that view of Mr. Turpin's, because the use of the masks were necessary in creating the characters along the original lines. “I have some real estate out west,” he said simply. “I fix my own plumbing, the lights, and all that. Even the doorbell.” Then he smiled and said, “Do you know my hobby. It’s cooking. And I love to wash dishes.” Then very slowly he said, “The be~t thing about the home is the kitchen.” I hope the day is very near when Ben Turpin is “practically put of retirement.” \

HORRORS OF THE NEXT WAR Nations Will Face Terrors of Starvation in Next Conflict

The Theatrical World Ben Turpin Admits He Is ‘Practically Retired J BY WALTER D. HICKMAN

The Indianapolis Times

in them is the so-called “Maginot - Lin^ named Or he might be surprised on a .■* a, .'■{ •' 4 world aai-'will divide itseliinit hilltop, screened by* trees and * 'al two phases.

A FEW months ago the cables carried accounts of what France was doing to meet the menace of the new kind of mechanized warface. Since 1925, so the cables revealed. France has been at work on subterranean forts such as the world has never seen. Included in them is the so-called “Maginot Line,” named after the late war minister, Andred Maginot, who was active in planning and building it. It is a 200-mile line of forts to protect the vital industrial region of Briey, north of the Vosges and opposite the Saar basin. A tourist wandering in this neighborhood might be surprised to suddenly come upon the barred entrance to some sort of heavy concrete tunnel disappearing down into the earth. Or he might be surprised on a hilltop, screened by* trees and underbrush, to find a great gray dome, a strange gigantic mushroom of steel. No more than this is visible to the eye. But buried deep down under the ground are great subterranean halls containing living quarters, electric power plants, kitchens, and ammunition magazines. The barred tunnels are the entrance ways to these halls. The steel mushrooms are the “fighting tops” of these underground forts. They are revolving turrets equipped with a variety of machine guns, artillery pieces and anti-aircraft guns. a o a EACH steel mushroom is really the top of a buried tower of steel. Elevators, running in these towers, bring up the ammunition to feed the guns. In some cases the subterranean passages have been arranged so they can be sealed tight and the air pressure kept a little higher than that above ground. This Is to keep out poison gas. Not only are military men being trained to man these forts, so the cables from France report, but villagers near them are being trained to take their places in them in the event of an outbreak of hostilities. And France is not the only country building forts to protect its frontiers.

CHARLES M. REAGAN, district manager of the Paramount Pictures Distribution Corporation, announces the appointment of John Howard of Portland, j Me., as manager of Paramount's i Indianapolis branch office. Mr. Howard succeeds J. H. Stevens. ! who is being transefrred to the j Boston offfice.

SIDE GLANCES

i ii in y * yt || 11 if i i.f- / fr . | 6. u Mr. orr. ,7 * BY UFA service IKC. A/

"We may as well look at some more. Harold doesn’t like me i to come up to.the office (taring working hours,’*

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY, 27, 1934

What will happen when the next war breaks out? It is hard to say even if you postulate that certain nations will be concerned in it, for no one knows what strategy will be decided upon. The military experts ask certain questions and then proceed to disagree about the answers. There will be air raids and the advance of the swift motorized forces. If the raids are surprises and completely successful, the war may end there. But one must not forget that there are defense measures. An attack, for example, upon the enemy’s airdromes would certainly encounter sharp resistance. The anti-aircraft guns would let loose. Pursuit planes would rise to harass the bombers. o a o WHO can picture the advance of an army of tanks through a region of subterranean forts like that of the Maginot line? Let us not forget the role played by the Belgian forts in the last World war. it is true they did not stop the German march through Belgium. But that was only because the

‘COALS TO NEWCASTLE’ By United Press BURNS. Ore., Feb. 27.— Twelve carloads of mules raised in Harney county, Oregon, were purchased here by Walter Shrimp for shipment to Georgia, usually classed as a big mule state itself. Indianapolis theaters today offer: “Words and Music” on the stage and "Advice to the Lovelorn” on the screen at the Lyric; “Search for Beauty” and "No More Women” at the Indiana; “Palooka” at the Apollo; “Bolero” at the Circle; “Moulin Rouge” at Loew’s Palace; “I Was a Spy” at the Alamo and burlesque at the Mutual.

(1) Anti-Aircraft guns in action. (2) Anew English tank. (3) Moble coast guard guns. (4) Anew American tank.

By George Clark

Germans, to the great surprise of the allies, had made big guns mobile, guns of a size which it had been previously supposed could be fired only from fixed bases. The German guns pounded the forts to pieces. It is only fair to assume that the nations have profited by this lesson. Just as there have been advances in the building of tanks, so there have been advances in the art of fortification. Who can say which would win, the tanks or the forts? There are other questions which worry the experts, for example, that of the mastery of the air. It is conceivable that each belligerent might try to use its air forces to bomb the cities of its opponent. Something like that happened on a small scale in the last war, with the Germans sailing over the channel to harass London while the allied planes attacked German towns. o tt BUT the experts are speculating about the possibility of a great aerial battle. Would a nation dare risk it? If a nation wished, could

Capital Capers On the Rolling Deep Virgin Islands Government Advisor Takes Ship’s Sartorial Title But Loses at Ping Pong. BY GEORGE ABELL Times Special Writer ABOARD S. S. GEORGIC—Yo, ho, ho, and a bottie of rum! The good ship Georgic has plenty of it aboard—Cuban, Haitian and Jamaican. Soon she’ll be carrying St. Croix rum, too, when Uncle Sam’s liquor industry gets booming in the Virgin islands. Prosperity must be back, if one can judge by the passengers. There are four hundred souls aboard, including everything from a Catholic priest to three stenogs who work in a commercial office on Broad street, New York.

Charles Taussig, whose proper title (he told me himself) is special adviser to the government of the Virgin islands, thinks the boat should be redecorated in Pouis XVI style. a a a THE new deal was badly beaten en by the old order this afternoon. Isaac Requa, president of the Westchester County bank, defeated Charles Taussig in a bitterly contested game of ping pong. It’s too bad, but Charles didn’t have a chance. His opponent is the champion ping pong player aboard ship. a a a THERE are five cats aboard the Georgic. One is' named Joppo and came from Jamaica. It has white whiskers , a sleek black coat, green eyes and pagan disposition—a great favorite among the stewards. Ship cats always embark on the same vessel, an old sailor tells me. Sometimes they 'are accidentally left behind, but they wait at the dock and never take any other boat. As soon as their ship comes in they placidly climb aboard and go sailing away on another cruise. The old S. S. Cedric had a ship's cat and when the vessel was broken up the feline refused to quit. Finally they removed her by force and put her in a cat’s home in Scotland, where the skipper goes every year to call on her ancW admire the silver collar presented by the Cedric's crew. a a a CHARLES TAUSSIG, the new adviser of the Virgin Islands, has just appeared in a sports costume which should entitle him to rank as the eleventh bestdressed man in the world. They forgot him in the original list of ten. Description, of the Jausfig

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis

it force its opponent into it. for example, by a gigantic massed attack upon an important munition center? They are also wondering if such a battle might be decisive. It is significant that Germany, although it sunk more ships in the Battle of Jutland, learned that it was foolish to attack the British navy and therefore avoided a decisive battle on the sea. The situation in the air might be somewhat similar. Many authorities think the next u r orld war will divide itself into two phases. First, they think, there will be the mechanized phase, the tanks and airplanes against each other or against modernized forts. Then when this is over, there will be the second phase, resembling the last World war. which extended its dreary and horrible days from 1914 to 1918. They look again for the long lines of trenches manned by the great old-fashioned armies of infantry. The war will then have changed in character. It will be again a war of massed man power, a stalemate. What will happen then? Will it drag on until every nation is exhausted. Or will some new and unexpected invention end it? The invention of the tank broke the stalemate of the last World war. What horrible invention, coming from some scientific or engineering laboratory behind the lines, will do the trick next time? A cartoon in a German magazine of six or seven years ago comes to mind. It shows a scientist bending over a complicated mess of retorts and glass tubing. “What a pity,” he is saying, “that when they use my poison gas in the next war there will be nobody left in the world to celebrate my fame as its inventor.” Tomorrow'—Can civilization survive the next world war?

ensemble: Blue tie, blue shirt, light gray coat, blue handkerchief, white flannels, white socks, brown and white shoes. “Boots,” as the British stewards term them. There seems some dissension about the shade of blue in Taussig's tie. He at first said it was Alice Longworth blue (probably inspired by the fact that Mrs. Taussig is' reading “Crowded Hours"). Then he changed it to gulf-stream blue. Mr. Taussig insists it is Copenhagen blue. Showing that there is nothing rotten in Denmark. RECALLS LAUNCHING OF EARLY SUBMARINE Onlookers Feared for Safety of Craft, Passenger Relates. By United Prenn OSHKOSH, Wis., Feb. 27.—The story of the launching of one of the world's first navigable submarines wao told to the county archeological society here by C. C. Kon-. rad, Oshkosh, a passenger in the craft. The submarine was launched on the Rox river here June 26. 1897, by the inventor, Richard Raddatz, 26, a graduate of Oshkosh Normal. The boat w r as constructed of metal and was sixty-five feet long and four feet in diameter. On the first trip down, after twenty-five minutes beneath the surface, watchers on shore believed disaster had overtaken the boat and were about to pull it up when the submarine came to the surface through its own power. Nearly a year later the first successful submarine was launched in the Atlantic ocean.

Second Section

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler MY right-minded friends have convinced me of my error in rejoicing at the lynching of the two young men who were strung up in San Jose. Cal., for murdering another young man by pounding him on the head with a concrete block and throwing him off a bridge. For this I am glad not only because it feels so good to be saved, but also because I now can appreciate the beauty and majesty of the law and its processes as revealed in the case of Roger Touhy and his two associates in the kidnaping of Jake Factor.

Mr. Touhy and the two other muscles were tried for kidnaping Factor and. in the second hearing of the case, were convicted last week and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. They had no defensive evidence except the statements of an accomplice named Basil Banghart. who described himself as a thief by trade and acknowledged that in his little household scheme a machine gun was a familiar and essential tool. On his solemn word of honor, as a thief and a gunman. Banghart exonerated Touhy and the other t\vo, whose names are Kator and Schaefer, but the jury disbelieved him.

The law is a beautiful thing as I now am beginning to see, for within twenty-four hours after the finding of the verdict the Illinois supreme court came in with a decision reversing a conviction in case on the ground that the grand jury which wrote the original indictment was not drawn according to every syllable and comma of the statute. a a a New Trial Is Granted INASMUCH as Touhy and has colleagues were indicted by a grand jury which was drawn the same way, a similar attack on the legality of their sentence will be made by their counsel, William Scott Stewart, the hoodlums' mouthpiece in Chicago Consistently, too, they will be purged of their proven guilt and given a third trial under anew indictment. By time the prosecution can get around to that, however, the heat will be off, as they say around the criminal courts, and the sentence, should they be convicted again, may be less severe. Mr. Stewart, as a practical counselor, recognizes the importance of the heat in a criminal case. For instance, there was the predicament of a noisy, ornery old hypocrite in Chicago who used to go around enforcing prohibition as a free-lance. His name was Daniel Gilday. One night he got drunk himself and when a misguided youth with the heart of a Boy Scout went to help him out of his gutter, the old man hauled off with a pistol and shot him through his digestion. The heat still was on when the old man went to trial and moreover his counsel made a mistake in attempting to preserve his reputation at the risk of his freedom. They claimed he was just upset, not drunk, and thought the young Samaritan was trying to jack-roll him. With the heat still on, he was convicted of assault with intent to kill and sentenced to prison from one to fourteen years. u tt a Wholesale Jail Delivery THE conviction then was reversed on trial errors and Mr. Stewart took over his defense. But he said to hell with the old man’s reputation and insisted on proving that he was drunk. Moreover, the heat was off by this time. If a man shoots another man while drunk that is a mere social error. Bering drunk he can have no responsible intent to do anything. So Mr. Stewart got the old man off with a fine of SIOO for simple assault. The boy then got a judgment for $12,000 against Gilday, but a contractor stepped in first with a levy on a $70,000 building which the old man owned and the old man disappeared. But, although the victim can't collect his money, you may feel reasonably sure that Mr. Stewart got his. Mr. Stewart is no amateur mouthpiece. The supreme coui*t verdict outlawing the grand juries may have the effect of a great jail delivery for criminals who have been sent away under indictments similarly drawn. Nevertheless the law is the law and though the observance of the law may frustrate law enforcement that is something which will have to be attended to by due process of law if civilization is to be maintained. Otherwise you have lawlessness, disorder and anarchy, don't you? The two young men who were lynched in California never will kidnap and murder again because they are permanently dead, but that seems a paltry boon when you come to think that they did not have their legal chance to repudiate their confessions, plead insanity, claim they were drunk and therefore without intent, parade their sorrowing relatives wearing their lodge buttons for the jury to see, and, in the course of years, to emerge from prison and kidnap and kill somebody else. I am glad to be put right. It would have been a pretty terrible thing for civilization if Roger Touhy and the boys had been lynched. Lynching degrades a communty so. But kidnaping is different. It sort of tones up a place. (Copyright. 1934. by Unite and Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health i RV DR. MORRIS FISHBF.IN- ■-■■■ THERE are about three crippled children for every thousand persons in our population. The complete care of a crippled child, if he is to have the most that medicine can do to help him, costs about SSOO a year. This includes not only adequate attention by a competent orthopedic specialist, but the necessary care in a hospital, the provision of braces and apparatus and, finally, the necessary re-education and rehabilitation. It is obvious, therefore, that the cast of taking care of the crippled is tremendous and that there would be an immense saving to the world if much of the unnecessary crippling that actually occurs could be prevented. a a a AT the head of all the causes of crippling of children is infantile paralysis. Thereafter come two other diseases which are, perhaps, much more frequent—tuberculosis and rickets. For these conditions, however, the extent of severity of the crippling is much less. Following in order come accidents of various types, particularly such as occur in the home, with special emphasis on accidental burns. The introduction into the modern home of electrical mechanical devices which are not safeguarded properly, is responsible for a great deal of unnecessary destruction of hands and arms. The use in somes of electric washing machine wringers and modern mangles operating electrically is responsible, in most of our cities, for anywhere from forty to fifty cases, each year, of arms and hands crushed beyond help. tt tt tt 'T'ODAY, most of the bone and joint tuberculosis -L that used to develop in the past is prevented by proper tuberculin tests of cattle and pasteurization of milk. However, there still are portions of this country, largely inhabited by persons who have not learned the importance of milk control, that have a high rate of bone and joint tuberculosis. Rickets can be, and is being, prevented largely by use of vitamin D in foods, and diets containing large amounts of calcium and phosphorus. Cases of infantile paralysis can be helped if seen and given competent attention by a specialist in the field of orthopedic surgery. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to neglect calling the physician until the paralysis has proceeded to such point that months Acl years are required for rehabilitation.

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Westbrook Pegler