Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 252, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 March 1934 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIMPS HOWARD JirHSPAPr.Rj ROT W. HOWAKO PreaUlent l TALCOTT pyWELL Editor KARL D. BAKER , B<ilne<; Manager I Phone—Riley SMI

Member of Cnitetl Pre*, Scrimp* • Howard Newspaper Alliabca. N*wsx>aper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information St-rrlce -nd Audit Bureau of Circulation*. Owned and published dally (except Sundayi by The Indianapolis Times Publishing street Indtanapolia. Ind. Price in Marion county. 2 cents a copy: ejaewhere. 2 <ents a week. Mali aubsrrlpfinn rates In Indiana. $3 a year; outside of Indiana, SS cents a month. •

*r* .p, , Maw aJtO Oive Light ann the People Will Finn Their Own Wag

THURSDAY MARCH 1 IW4 TWO SENATORS THE Times is opposed to Immediate payment of the soldier bonus. Leaving out all other considerations the money is not in the treasury to pay it. On Tuesday the question of the bonus payment was put to a vote in the senate. Senator Arthur Robinson, Republican, went on record as favoring it after a pyrotechnical display of vest-busting oratory. So did Senator Frederick Van Nuys. Democrat. There is nothing extraordinary about this since both men repeatedly have emphasized their belief in this measure. But what is interesting is the relative conduct of Indiana's two senators on a resolution subsequently introduced by Senator William Borah. He asked that the senate vote to contine the present $8,500 salaries of its members thus effecting savings which could be applied toward payment of increased veteran compensation. Senator Robinson voted against this. Senator Van Nuys sturdily voted for it. In other words the junior senator was willing to deprive himselt of a $1,500 a year raise to help pay for the bonus and other compensation increases for which he had voted. While we can not at all agree with the purpose for which Senator Van Nuys was offering this personal sacrifice we are forced to admire and applaud his rugged honesty and real sincerity. Senator Robinson, on the other hand, was unwilling to dig into his own pocket to back the principles of which he has been such a vocal advocate. Talk is mighty cheap, Senator Robinson, and we believe your colleague's generous gesture of self-sacrifice has made your particular brand of official conversation a whole lot cheaper than a counterfeit penny. THE FIRST ROUND-UP A T the first round-up of NRA critics, which -*■ began in Washington Tuesday. General Johnson was not unseated. Riding harder and shouting louder, he kept well out in front of his opponents. By stating most of the objections before the critics got a chance, and by admitting in advance the justice of many of the attacks, he became master of the situation. And then, by announcing a series of reforms with which he proposes to meet the criticisms, tne General remained on top. It was a brilliant performance. If this were merely a debating society the colorful and swift-striking administrator would win hands down. But it is not so simple as that. Verbal victories are not enough. And the General's list or proposed reforms turns out on closer examination to be mostly generalizations, which may mean much or little, depending on how they are applied. Here is the list: A more uniform and equitable rule of price stabilization where necessary to maintain •wages against cut-throat competition and further insurance against prices rising faster than purchasing power. A more effective mle on costs to prevent sales below’ production costs. Uniformity of wages and hours in competitive industries. Uniformity of north-south code difierentials. Shorter hours and higher wages. Protection of small business against monopoly. An improved method for better ffxie compliance. Financing code administration without racketeering. Elimination of conflicting provisions among codes. Labor and consumer representation on code authorities. Wider use of mecnanism for settling labor disputes. Granted that this general list fairly well covers the field of criticism, and that many details <n not be filled in unui >fter the code revision conferences which begin March 5, the General was needlessly vague con k cerning administration policy. Only on one controversial issue was he specific, and in that he sided against labor and the consumer by stating that their representation on the powerful code authorities should be only advisory. We believe that the consumer has had a raw deal from the beginning at NRA. and we fear that the General, with all of his sackcloth and ashes, is not yet correcting this abuse. Tlie second major defect is NRA's continuing failure to protect labor in its right to organize. There is something more important than revision of the codes. It is the enforcement of existing codes. Much of the talk about reform will remain only talk until General Johnson improves the personnel that administers NIRA and the codes. There are still too many in key positions who are not in sympathy with the purpose of the law. Thus we add our criticism to the general chorus in which even the General joins. But in doing so we do not wart to be classed with those who favor turning back. We believe so thoroughly in the purpose of NRA we want it to go forward. TWO STORIES JUST 100 years ago this month six Englishmen were arrested in Dorsetshire for organizing an agricultural worker's union. They were put in irons and sent by convict ship to endure unspeakable hardships in the penal colony of Tasmania. The judge, in passing sentence, said he was punishing them not for what they had done but as “an ex-.

ample to others.” That act of judicial tyranny so stirred the workers of England, led by Robert Owen, that the “mpn of Dorset” were pardoned. Such tyranny could not, of course, occur in enlightened America today, where unionism is recognized by law and code and men are free. No? Read a report just issued by a commission sent by the National Labor Board into Imperial Valley, California, to investigate conditions among striking peapickers. “Indiscriminate arrests, arbitrary fixing of high bail, prostitution of the state vagrancy law, deportations, abuse of police power, wholesale intimidations and threats of action by vigilantes were found to exist,” the commission reported. "It is deplorable that many workers are not able to earn sufficient to maintain even a primitive or savage standard of living. It is horrible that children are reared in an environment as pitiable as that which we saw in more than one locality. But worse than those is the harsh suppression of that which we found in the United States claim as our birthright—the freedom to express our lawful opinions and legally to organize to better our lot.” A NEW RELIEF PLAN A YEAR ago emergency action for unemployment relief was urgently needed. Today the problem has become a long-time one requiring careful study and planning in connection with America’s immediate economic future. And now the Roosevelt, administration promises to meet the cecond challenge as It met the first. It recognizes that the civil works aaministration, heroic as was its working during this winter, is not a permanent solution of the bitter problem of families facing a blank economic future. It recognizes that a longcontinued handout or dole is impossible. It recognizes that unemployment insv.ianee, having been delayed too long, can not contribute materially to the problem for many years. So the President proposes three different methods of relief, oil of them fitting into his long-range plans for making this a better country. In rural areas, he proposes, first of all, to provide the kind of relief that will make it possible for needy families to raise enough food for themselves and also to earn a little cash with which to supply other needs. He would move families in singie-industry communities, where there is no future hope of work, to subsistence homestead projects where they, too, may raise enough food for their needs and where they may do parttime work in small factories to earn some cash? Finally, for city workers, the President recognizes the need of works projects which would not be undertaken normally by public bodies and which are at the same time outside the field of private enterprise. Planned relief of this sort is far more intelligent and just than veterans’ bonus or special benefits to any one group, for instance. Worked out along the lines the President suggests it should not only eliminate payments of public money to those who are not actually in need but should contribute materially to a future well-balanced economy. But it is a big job and if it is done properly it will cost a great deal of money. Mr. Roosevelt at present indicates he hopes to confine his program within the three billion dollar budgetary estimate already made for relief needs In this and the coming fiscal year. In this he Is probably over-optimistic. A WEDGE? AFTER two years of fighting perhaps the greatest lobby in Washington, Senator Hiram Johnson is evidently to succeed in putting through congress his bill divesting federal courts of authority to intervene in utility rate cases on appeal from state commission orders. That bill hasn't created as much noise as many others, but it may be pregnant with a movement of highest importance. It indicates restoration to the people of a state thei” own government of their owrj affairs. It may be the entering wedge for the breaking down of the common use of federal judiciary for delay in the administration of justice, by any party with purse fat enough to stand unlimited procrastination. To be sure, even while the Johnson measure enacted, the utilities still can apply to the state appellate courts and from them to the United States supreme court. But. coincidentally with the Johnston measure rises the question, “Why not. in similar Instances, divest the state courts of authority to intervene?” The utilities are bound to take their cases to the appellate and thence to the supreme court with delay as their main object, and during the delay the utilities continue to take abnormal profits and the people to do the suffering. The longer the delay the better for the utilities and the worse for the people. There isn't a puolic or a private isst/e that is not at the mercy of legal delay. There may be much In Senator Johnson's plucking of some feathers from the federal judiciary. DAYS OF CONTENTMENT PROBABLY it would take a psychologist to explain just why this nation suddenly has grown so fond of looking at photographs taken a generation ago. Part of it, no doubt, is the same hall-mel-ancholy sort of kick one gets out of a peek into the old family album. The clothes and customs of a former day always look pleasantly grotesque, if you got far enough away from them: there is a unique sort of pleasure in looking at some gawky, fantastically garbed youth and realizing, suddenly, that that is yourself as you used to look. But there's a little more to the present popularity of old-time pictures than that. These collections of photos that date back to the 1890 sand beyond give us a sp\ -glass through which we can peer through a door that time has closed and seen an era which has gone from this earth forever. The oddest thing about it all is that most of us. as we look on that era, have a sneaking, half-conscious wish tnat we might get back there. For that bygone era—that time when gay blades rode perilous high-wheeled bicycles, and women’s bathing suits were more voluminous than their street frocks now aie, and

- minstrel shows were a popular diversion, and motorists were line-coated pioneers who rode in frail juggernauts which were useful principally for frightening horses—that era. whatever its faults may nave been, seemed at least to be a time of certainty. We knew where we were going, then—or we thought we did, and that was about as good—and we had no doubt at all that presently we should get there. Human society seemed to have reached a static phase, and, while its organization had certain faults that everybody recognized, it still seemed to be a pretty well arranged and stable affair. Radio crooners and agricultural allotment schemes were alike unheard of. There were no traffic jams, and neither were there any Hitlers or Mussolinis or Stalins. NRA. RFC, CWA and all the rest were just letters in the alphabet, and the staggering emergencies that were to call them into being still slumbered peacefully in the lap of time. It was. in short, a simpler age than this one, and it contained far less to worry about. We can’t get back to it, and if we really could w r e probably should think twice about it. But at this distance it has a sort of halcyon look. It is misty with enchantment, because it v;as a time when the problems which beset us now still were below the horizon. LOWER INTEREST RATES A PROPOSAL embodied in the McAdooFord bill to equalize maturity provisions and interest rates charged to cities for public works funds by the government seems reasonable beyond all argument. Cities that borrowed from the reconstruction finance corporation under the Hoover regime are required to pay 5 per cent and 6 per cent interest on straight loans running for ten years. Those more fortunate cities borrowing under the Roosevelt-created public works administration get their money for 4 per cent over an indefinite period. In addition these latter are allowed 30 per cent of the sum advanced in the form of outright grants. Thus, an RFC borrower pays back 100 per cent of the money in ten years and at rates of 5 per cent and 6 per cent. A PWA borrower pays back only 70 per cent of the money at a flat Interest rate of four per cent and over a longer period. The McAdoo-Ford bill would perpiit adjustment of RFC interest rates to 4 per cent and fix maturity at twenty years. Even then PWA borrowers would have the advantage of the 30 per cent grant. The principle of lowering interest rates on all capital has been urged by President Roosevelt. In the interests of equity to its borrowers and to set a good example the federal government should take the lead.

Liberal Viewpoint ~—By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES THOSE who believe that blue laws and sumptuary legislation are a thing of the past and were a product of ancient New England Puritanism will do well to consult William Seagle's amusing and illuminating little volume (“There Ought to Bea Law: A Collection of Lunatiq Legislation." By William Seagle. Macaulay. $1.25). It is a selected anthology of representative efforts to make us good by means of laws rigorously regulating personal conduct. Those who are inclined to run to the state legislature to correct every minor abuse will do well to spend an evening at home with this volume. At the opposite extreme in social philosophy from the legislation revealed in Mr. Seagle’s book is the emphasis upon the reform by means of education which is the central thesis of Dr. Lindeman’s book (Social Education. By Eduard C. Lindeman. New Republic, Inc., sl.). The author is one of our foremost authorities upon social and adult education, and he here interprets the results of his comprehensive investigations into the methods and principles of education in social projects. The analysis is somewhat abstract, but the volume should be useful to teachers of the social studies and to leaders of public opinion who are interested in constructive social reform. The Rockefeller report on the control of liquor after repeal is also a splendid illustration ! Df the recognition of the superiority of education- | al to legal methods of guiding personal conduct I ("Toward Liquor Control.” By Raymond B. Fosdick and Albert L. Scott. Harper. $2.). If ! the entire American public had learned as much as Mr. Rockefeller on this subject since 1919, the j outlook would be far brighter. n a tt THE gist of the report is an able defense of civilized drinking and of appropriate devices to promote this end. The book has added value because of the inclusion of the best selected bibliography on prohibition in print. One of the greatest defects of our contemporary civilization has been the lack of planning in the development of our cities. In the western world civilization is today overwhelmingly urban, but most of our cities have grown up without either rhyme or reason. Asa result we are faced everywhere with ugliness and congestion. Professor Abercrombie has written the most useful introduction to the history and principles of city planning in the English language (“Town and Country Planning.” By Patrick Abercrombie. Holt. $1.25). It concludes with a splendid supplementary summary of the principles of planning as applied to the rural countryside. As soon as we have solved the problem of how to eat and cover our backs we profitably may turn to the problem of how to live in surroundings which are at once comfortable and beautiful. One of the fields in which the absence of social control and planning has been disastrous is that of our national forests. Dr. Marshall presents an appalling picture of the way in which our forests have been devastated under private ownership and argues very intelligently and convincingly for outright v.ublic ownership (“The People's Forest.” By Rooert Marshall. Smith <fc Haas. New York. Publishers: $2). He presents this idea as one phase of a general program of national planning and control of rural life. 8 8 8 IF prohibition has been mainly responsible for the congestion of our federal courts, damage cases arising out of automobile accidents constitute from one-third to two-thirds of the cases in our state and local civ'll courts. At the present time, this important body of cases is handled unscientifically and the results depend largely upon the ability of the contestants to hire able counsel. Dr. French proposes the substitution of administrative machinery ! which would take over a good deal of this work I from the courts and provides uniform and scientific treatment of the cases which arise. (“The j Automobile Compensation Plan.” By Patterson H. French. Columbia University Press; 53.50). The recent lvnchings in Maryland, California and elsewhere give Professor Chadbourn’s book special timeliness (“Lynching and the Law." By James Harmon Chadbourn. University of North Carolina Press; $2). It is a detailed manual describing the legal protection against the possibility of lynching and the provision made for the punishment of those who take part in lynching parties. Unfortunately, the same general psychology which makes possible the original lynching usually serves to prevent the proper enforcement of the law against members of lynching mobs.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

HUEY ISN’T THE ONLY CLOWN IN WASHINGTON)

- I— —— - _ - ~ - - j A , / "I-*. 5 ' Jj^l

I The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance.: Limit them to 250 words or less.) 8 8 8* GENERAL JOHNSON URGED .TO DEFEAT DEPRESSION By Jack Dolan. Shelbyvllle. My Dear General Johnson—You invited the public to express their opinion on the new deal. You know the public can mess things up. and I trust the voice of a few multimillionaires will not be accepted as the opinion of the general public. Dr. H. H. Goddard, professor of abnox-mal psychology at the Ohio State university, after years of statistical research, has pronounced one-half the people morons, and said it is the duty of the other half to care for them. After the experience you have had in the last few months you probably agree with Dr. Goddard, and from the reports you get from big business it is a safe bet that you know the morons are not all in the bread line. Now, General, be yourself. You are an able man; you appreciate the value of opportunities; you know they are rare and mystifying. You have the opportunity now. Are you going to let it get away? You may feel that you lost the first skirmish. If so, don’t let that discourage you. Washington lost several skirmishes before he won the final victory. You have expressed yourself and we know you are familiar with conditions. Because your responsibility is great that is the more reason you should execute your convictions. You know the whole economic structure has broken down. You are at the controls—it is up to you to make a safe landing. A glance at government statistics will show more than 500 men paid income tax on more than a million dollars. We have heard you say the prosperity of the country depends on the purchasing power of the people. You know that 15 per cent is not enough, or half enough. You know the requirements of the country will not permit the industries to intelligently absorb all the workers a thir-ty-hour week. We are traveling fast, your job is big and you have but a short time to do it. Step on it; let’s go. 8 8 8 HIS OPINION OF THE MESSAGE CENTER IS LOW By Frank Martin. I wish to register a complaint regarding the sign in almost all the street cars and busses of the Indianapolis Railways, which, in part, reads that the operator will assist you in every way possible. I have requested several operators of the said street cars and busses to assist me with the loan of $5 and, though they all were very polite, they did not loan me the five bucks. Please take this up with the officials of the Indianapolis Railways and try to have them furnish the $5 to operators for assisting passengers, as per notice. P. S, —This communication to you has about as much reason in it as there is about 98 per cent of the communications in your Message Center. 8 8 8 WAGES PA\D TO WINDOW’ CLEANERS ARE ATTACKED By His Buddy. I wish to call your attention to a letter published for a Mr. Wheeler some time ago in regard to the conditions of the window cleaning business in this city. I think the time has come when the public should be let in on these conditions. This man. Wheeler, is now in the Deaconess hospital as a result of them. The window cleaning employers have been in a price war for some time; and. instead of taking

What the Voters Want

By O. S. Now that a few of the so-called Democratic leaders have picked out the Democratic nominee for mayor, what need is there for a primary? Why incur all the expense, turmoil and disturbance incident to a primary election, when hand-picked nominees, by expert pickers, can be procured so easily? Economy in government is the great desideratum just now. This manner of selecting the party candidates or nominees recommends itself to all considerate minds not only for its Jeffersonian simplicity, but moreover because it costs the taxpayer nothing. And then, in addition, to all of this, it has this advantage. It relieves the party voters of the annoyance of going to the primary and registering their choice. 11l - conditioned and carping minds, it is true, may offer the trite objection that it is quite outside the line of duty of a small group of ward committeemen and machine henchmen get together secretly at night, lock the

the losses themselves, they make the employe do so. They take the work at prices they can’t possibly make out on and pay wages. They do not intend to pay wages when they take the work. The employe hardly is in a position to argue his own case. He just obeys orders so he won’t lose his job. There were men working in this city for as low as $1 a day. The top wage right now is S2O a week. Few make near that. Speed work, without proper safety, and low wages are directly responsible for the injuries to Mr. Wheeler. tt tt a M’NUTT IDEAL GOVERNOR, IN READER’S ESTIMATE By A. J. Blake. Believe it or not. there have been boosts and knocks. I can say I have no fear about Governor Paul McNutt. He has skill, scholarship and thoroughness. He has health, which gives him clear thinking and ability to provide the state with less

A Woman’s Viewpoint By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

DID you imagine in 1928 or 1931 the day would ever come when Charles Lindbergh would be criticised from coast to coast? Probably not. Yesterday Lindbergh was our hero. There was nothing too laudatory lor us to say about him, no lengths to which he would not go to prove our adoration. Today Franklin Roosevelt fills the hero's shoes and thousands of us are yapping like hounds at Lindbergh’s heels. It is a dangerous, cruel, tragic thing to be a hero in any country. Public love and public hate are akin; only a hair’s breadth separates them. Like serviles we adore, like fanatics we vilify; and our affection and adoration which we swear to be eternal is as vacillating as an ocean tide. For the future success of the recovery plans as well as for the sanity and welfare of the people, our present worship of the master and mistress of the White House is deplorable. 8 8 8 AND perilous for them. It is not, as most of us fondly believe, altogether sincere. A great deal of it partakes of that spirit

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

outside door, take up the password, and then select party candidates. Habitual and perverse fault-finders may suggest that this important function is reserved to the party as a whole, and is not the privilege of any small group within the party. And the rank and file may resent such presumption and unwarranted usurpation. It may be that the rank and file may refuse to accept either Alphonse or Gaston as their nominee for mayor. Revolution against bossism and machine tactics is in the air as the mayor’s local brain trust may discover. The example of mutual deference. heoric self-effacement and sublime fraternal spirit displayed by the two judges, whom the party’s privy council have designated as the most fit for the high office of mayor, is edifying. But it may not produce the effect that either the showmen staging it, or the principal actors them selves anticipate. Who knows? Perhaps the voters don’t- want, and won’t have thus thrust upon them either Damon or Pythias.

mental worries during his term of office. He will leave a clean page when his time comes to depart. He has grace, poise, and intelligence with which to handle his problems, and these are needed to lift him above petty points of view. I am a Hoosier, and love the Indiana state, and think we try to select the capable men to fill this office. Mr. McNutt's parents are still living and are honorable and adorable. I have known who they were all my life. They are not personal friends, we just lived in the same town —Martinsville. Now. let’s join hands and give him a boost to carry his course of the journey with good luck. This is not for political favor. a a a CWA WORKERS’ FAMILIES HAVE THEIR TROUBLES By a Timrs Reader. I would be very glad if you would explain to me why CWA employes can not get any emergency relief. My husband has worked every

which parades the flock of sheep. I think there can be no denying that we are fair weather friends. One has only to recall the worship which attended President Hoover into the White House and the animosity which followed him out to realize that a couple of bad mistakes, whether avertible or not, on the part of the Roosevelts would find us turning to rend them. Probably no one knows that better than the President and his wife. It would be folly for them to regard public sentiment as any more stable than the duration of their successful handling of affairs. But for our own benefit we should learn to call things by their right names. And sometimes those names are not pretty ones. It makes you feel a bit sick to read some of the sentiments now penned about Charles Lindbergh. And they probably are written by the same people who were loudest, six years ago, in dubbing him hero and god. Temperance is a great virtue and one that sadly needs encouragement in our vacillating and emotional country. V

.MARCH 1, 1934

day except one since the Nov. 20, there being no exceptions on cold or rainy days. He works in Morgan county, and has to .get up at 3:45 in order to catch the first bus into town at 5:05. There are seven of us, three boys in school. Two of them go to school looking like tramps, and have to stay out of school when it rains or snows because of their shoes. When I had to have a doctor some weeks ago. my husband had to put $2.50 in his hand before he would leave me any medicine. I had tuberculosis four years ago, and should be under a doctor’s care now, but can’t. When we first asked the trustee for relief, we had a truck which he told us we had to dispose of before we could get relief. We did this. And, if they would have let us do like the many others I know who kept their pleasure cars, we would have something we could fall back on. I know a man who has been working for six weeks, making $lB a week, and sometimes overtime. There are four altogether in his family; and, since he went to work he has gotten two tons of coal from the trustee and gets a $3 basket each week besides an order for six dozen eggs, two pounds of butter and some beef. I know they got it this week. But, I guess he isn't the only one. It seems like an honest person has a hard time getting through this depression. When I asked the trustee if they could put my boy to work, he said I should be glad that my husband was working. 1 am. He really earns all he gets. But there are two working on CWA in one family the size of mine, and they are doing very well. It looks like the work could be divided according to the size of the family. After the guilty ones read this, I hope they will let someone else have it that needs it worse than they do. 8 8 8 INVISIBLE EMPIRE MAY COMPLETE THE TASK Bv M. 1,. Floyd. I would like to get a few lines in the Message Center if you see fit. I see by a leading paper where Senator Arthur Robinson is terribly afraid that the Constitution is going to crumble. I would like to say that forty thousand employes are trying to straighten out the scandals of the last decade. Then, the taxes that he speaks of won’t be so high. And, if they can’t do it, maybe the invisible empire can.

Oh, I Am Old

BY HAROLD FRENCH , I'm going to walk the woods tonight, i Won't you come too? ' I'm going to cross McCormack'3 brook Where it's easiest to. I am going to wander up the path—. ’ It has been long, you know, And I may stumble once or twice As I go. But I recall the sharpest turns | And then, we walked so much before; It may seem like old times again i But that I'm walking slower. Today’s the first of many days I I’ve wished to hurry through; I’m going to walk the woods tonight, Won’t you come too? DAILY THOUGHT And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.—St. Luke, 1:64. THE tongue, the ambassador ol the heart.—Lyiy.