Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 257, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 March 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

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•' • Give l.i'jht ana the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY MARCH 7, 1934. INVESTIGATE MUNITIONS 'T'HE senate should not permit mere technicalities to stop investigation of the munitions trust. The question of jurisdiction flready has delayed the Nye resolution authorizing this inquiry. It has been transferred from the foreign relations committee to the military affairs committee. It is not unlikely that the latter committee, also, is without full jurisdiction. It probably would be better to have a special committee created and armed with money to hire investigators. The means of carrying on the inquiry are not important. The investigation itself is. Senator Borah castigated the international munitions makers in a speech on the floor this week. He got to the heart of the matter when he said: “I have reached the conclusion that it would be about as absurd to turn the war department or the navy department over to private interests as it is to leave the manufacture and sale of the instrumentalities of warfare in the hands of private interests. The influence of these interests is so very great that they can directly shape and dominate the policy of a nation toward war and away from peace.” To determine just what influence the munitions makers of America have here; to get the facts upon which the government can move toward control of munitions manufacture—these are the aims of the Nye resolution. It should be passed soon. MYTHS FOR FARMERS CREDULOUS souls who have been sincerely worried by propaganda alleging that children can no longer do chores at home and on the farm if the child labor amendment passes have Henry Wallace’s word for it that such an allegation is nonsense. The secretary of agriculture, who knows his farms if any one in the country does, knows also “the attempts of opponents of *he amendment to arouse farmers against it.” ‘ The amendment is directed at protecting children from industrialised and commercialized employment which endangers their health and interferes with their schooling," he says. ‘ Farm chores done outside of school hours and suited to the age and physical capacity of the youngsters certainly do not come under - the heading of industrialized and commercialized employment. The amendment ought to be adopted and I am sure that the overwhelming majority of farm folks are in complete sympathy with it.” Yet in spite of this reassurance, and similar ones given by Labor Secretary’ Frances Perkins, legislatures are lagging in ratifying. The Virginia senate last week rejected the amendment and Kentucky's senate rules committee voted to table ratification for the remainder of the session. Where does opposition powerful enough to secure delays come from? Obviously it does not come from the people of the country, for child labor has been abolished temporarily under NRA. in exactly the way it will be abolished permanently if the amendment carries, and the people of the country are enthusiastic about this accomplishment. RAILROAD INCOME AND WAGES VTO better argument against the demand of the railroads for another wage sacrifice by their workers has been presented than the railroads’ own figures on income. Returns to date for Class 1 railroads indicate that their net operating income increased 120 per cent in January over last year, and 161 per cent over the year before. But. not content with the presen* agreement which reduced railroad workers’ wages by 10 per cent, the managements have asked for an additional 5 per cent deduction. It becomes ever more clearer that President Roosevelt had justice on his side when he requested the managements to postpone any action on railroad wages for at least six months. If the President’s program works out as all hope it will, the railroads might just as well forget all about more wage deductions, and begin to think seriously of restoring the 10 per cent. LIFE OF OUR LORD NOT only will the nation be refreshed in Christian spirit by the unfolding of Charles Dickens’ lovely child's story ol the “Life of Our Lord.” told simply in crystal pure English, but the principle of syndication is conspicuously vindicated on the fiftieth anniversary of its founding by S. S McClure. Over the sordid world, at a time when inspiration is sorely needed, comes this blinding flash of light from an unsuspecting source, a fountain of glorious thought which, we haa believed. was stilled nearly sixty-five years ago. The good man Dickens lives again for the reading world, returning to preach m anew form his world-famous gospel of charity, truth, hope and love, essence of the immense store of literature which flowed from his gifted hand until the day of his death, aged 58. The new treasure comes to us in newspaper form, illustrated by the vibrant etching of Gustave Dore. through brilliant newspaper enterprise. The descendants of Charles Dickens have received for the manuscript the unprecedented sum ot sls a word a figure which no single newspaper could sensibly negotiate. Just a half century ago S. S. McClure devised the newspaper syndicate to make possible for

groups of newspapers such lavish reader service. Our congratulations to United Featuie Syndicate. Lovers of literature and faithful followers of the Christian principle have in store a rare treat. With delight we have read the advance proofs of this new version of the Bible narrative and feel that it will :c time take its place in classic religious literature, a new jewel in the crown of England’s immortal novelist. STRAYING CHILD NEEDS THE SBOO,OOO fire which destroyed the Illinois state arsenal at Springfield, the state capital, a few weeks ago. was all the work of a 10-year-old boy who liked to see the flames. It was the Governor of Illinois himself who verified this amazing fact. The youngster readily confessed everything. He told how he had set the blaze, had scampered home to read a school text book entitled —of all things—“ Good Citizenship," and then had returned to watch the disastrous conflagration he had caused. As soon as he had made this bizarre confession the lad was lodged in a detention home to await the arrival of learned psychiatrists, who were to question him in an effort to find out what on earth possessed him. In a case like this, we bump against one of the most tragic and puzzling riddles that life can offer. An old-time theologian probably would explain it on the basis of original sin or demoniac possession, and a modern psychiatrist probably will have something equally pat to say about complexes, inhibitions, and whatnot. But, in either ease, we face one ol those queer, incomprehensible quirks that crop out every now and then to bewilder and dismay us. Such things remind us that we do not know nearly as much about the mainsprings of human behavior as we think we do. Why should an intelligent, pleasant-faced child give way to an insane impulse like this, anyway? How’ could the adults w’ho have cliarge of his training have foreseen such a thing? What can be done, now that the catastrophe has taken olace, to keep the lad’s life from being wrecked, and make it possmle for him to develop into a happy and useful member of society? We know the answers to none of those questions. But out of the general bewilderment we can. perhaps, draw anew understanding of the obligation that lies upon all adults in respect to children; the obligation to try to understand, to sympathize, to be as wise and helpful as our limitations permit. The world of childhood is a strange place, and it can be peopled by queer grisly shadows. We can not know all that goes on in it, nor can we understand all that we do know. But we at least can be forever alert to help, to advise, to comfort, and to w’arn. PAST THE CORNER A TABULATION recently made by the National City bank of New York shows in black and white just how the revival of the last twelve months has improved the status of American industries. This tabulation studied some 810 corporations divided among thirty-seven industrial groups. In 1932 the operations of these 810 corporations showed a net deficit of $46,000,000. In 1933 they had net profits of $440,000,000. Similarly, in 1932 only 40 per cent of these firms operated at a profit. Last year the percentage rose to 62. Figures like these indicate that the improvement of the last year is very real and substantial. It becomes more and more evident that the long-aw’aited “corner” actually was turned some time ago. We can look forward to the future with a great 'deal of confidence.

AN ECHO OF WAR VTOU could draw two or three rather obvious morals, probably, from that sad little accident in Poland where ten school children lost their lives, when an old World war shell which they found in a field suddenly exploded. To most people, probably, the most obvious point will be that what happened to these school children was not, after all, very unlike what happened to Europe as a whole in 1914. The children found a nice, attractive shell, they started monkeying with it, and it suddenly blew up and destroyed them. Europe, half a generation ago, in an almost equally carefree and ignorant manner, likewise was playing with a shell—with a whole arsenal full of shells, to be exact. Suddenly, without warning, the arsenal exploded. Maybe Europe wasn’t exactly destroyed, but the result wasn’t far short of it. And the moral—almost too obvious to be worth repeating—is that if you play around with high explosives you're apt to get hurt. It applies to nations as well as to children. COUNTY AUTO DEATHS "ITI7TTH seventeen persons killed in Marion * county as a result of traffic accidents since the first of the year, it is apparent that residents have failed to heed pleas for safety. With the approach of spring, the odds against the pedestrian and careful driver are reduced by a panic that seems to grip most autoists as they seek to get the benefits of good driving days. It is impossible to correct the evils that have occurred this year, but it is not too late to drive safely for die next nine months. A student couldn't find any swear words among the early Indians. Their thoughts, probably, were too vehement for utterance. Europe may have its Black Shirts, Blue Shirts and Brown Shirts, but give America its Red Sox and White Sox any time, instead! Hsinking is the capital of Manchoukuo—rising town, nevertheless. The Stock Exchange spent a million dollars for publicity in five years. Now it gets plenty of publicity free, and doesn't want it. In Lancaster, 0., a certain deputy sheriff gets a call every time a bull runs loose and endangers the populace. After three successive victories, the deputy probably is hoping the next animal that goes on a rampage will be a rabbit. ,

URGENT SCHOOL NEEDS MEMBERS of the house education committee have been told by school authorities from various parts of the nation that at least $100,000,000 in federal money must be appropriated if public schools are to function properly in the 1934-35 session. There certainly have been enough calls on Uncle Sam's purse in the last year to justify one in subjecting any new call to the most strict scrutiny. But it does not take very long to demonstrate that this plea for money for the schools is one which thoroughly is justified. The full effects of the depression have been slow in hitting the schools. Whereas the worst of the depression now is past, its full force Just is beginning to hit the school system. School revenues this year are lower than they were last year; next year they will be lower still. We can not permit our school system to collapse. If federal funds are needed to carry the system, federal funds must be voted —generously. There’s a "silver shirt” organization in the United -States whose leader claims he died, w’ent to heaven and returned to earth And he wasn't in heaven long before the angels discovered him. A Moscow official is trying to force working men to shave their beards. He must be in league with the collar and tie industry. Five thousand workers have gone on strike at Pittsburgh’s large aluminum plant—and you can’t take that lightly, either. Now every one who has a government job in Italy has to salute or be saluted, and pretty soon babies there will be born with their hands up. What’s the sense in publishing the high salaries and bonuses of big executives? To the little stockholder, who has lost plenty already, that’s rubbing it in some more.

Liberal Viewpoint =By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES ===

THE current attitude toward public education reveals a dangerous lack of elementary social logic. The only way in which we can possibly get out of our economic mess in permanent fashion is to bring our social institutions and thinking thoroughly up to date. , This result can only be achieved by providing the mass of Americans with more and better information on public questions. Such information must come mainly through our schools and libraries. If the depression could teach us anything, it should have emphasized the fact that our schools and libraries ought to be strengthened and more abundantly financed. What has happened actually? Both our school system and our public libraries have been ruthlessly and recklessly undermined. It would almost appear as though there were a definite conspiracy still further to plunge us into the abyss of ignorance and floundering incompetence. The income of schools and libraries alike has been devastatingly slashed since 1929. In many parts of the country our rural school system is in danger of collapse. Approximately 5,000 rural schools closed during 1933. Retrenchment in others has co-operated to bring about a condition which excludes at least one million country children from the privilege of education. The school year has been shortened from an average of 173 days in 1929 to between 150 and 120 days at the present time, defending upon the particular part of the United States. Building programs in the public school'field have been sharply curtailed or entirely abandoned at a time when the school population is rapidly increasing, thus producing demoralizing overcrowding in the schools. And this has happened when public works projects should have been pushed to the limit to forward national rehabilitation. n n tt 'P' DUCATIONAL supplies have been purchased -L' in ever smaller amounts. Most regrettable here is the continued use of out-of-date textbooks at a time when we particularly need books which are up to the minute in attitude and content. Instruction which could not keep us out of the depression will, quite obviously, not be able to lead us out of the abyss. Teachers’ salaries have been cut and the teaching staff reduced at the very moment when classes are getting larger and a need has arisen for more and better teachers. Most important of all, perhaps, is a deplorable development, usually overlooked in recounting the impact of the depression on American education. That is the tendency to scrap first the more recent developments in educational theory and practice. Such things are regarded as mere “frills” by the hardboiled and reactionary school boards and have been thrown out with alarming frequency. This means that most phases of contemporary education which have any direct relation to preparing us for living in the twentieth century have been the first sacrifice to our shortsighted educational economy. In many cities this result of the depression has eliminated the total educational progress of a whole generation. And it will be a hard fight to put these socially useful subjects back into the curriculum again. u tt a OUR public libraries have suffered comparably with the schools. This has been pointed out by Mr. R. L. Duffus in a recent admirable book on "Our Starving Libraries.” Our libraries have been used at least 50 per cent more since 1929 than in the years immediately preceding. But library incomes have been cut from 30 to 50 per cent. At a time w’hen we are pouring out federal money lavishly to pay needy men for carrying stones from one pile to another and to bolster up the banking system which is, at the same time, trying to sabotage the Roosevelt administration, we should be able to find some money for our school system. As Dr. John R. Deitrich has well expressed the issue: “Any one would be a fool who minimized the economic distress under which the whole country groans, but the national wealth is not exhausted. •‘We can not escape the bitter paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty. We can still pay a retired banker a pension of a hundred thousand dollars a year, we have money for roads and battleships, we still operate automobiles at an estimated expense in excess of sixteen billion dollars a year. "While these manifestations of wealth connue there is no excuse for withholding or diminishing support for the public school and libraries for the sake of a couple of mills of tax . . . If the government can come to the aid of faltering banks and railroads by loans of millions of dollars, and spend billions in public works, why can it not come also to the rescue of what is more important?” A 100-year-old turtle in San Francisco was killed at the request of its owner who died Poor thing, and just in its prime* The sea serpent washed up on the coast of France, says a scientist, has the head of a manatee, the neck of a sea lion, and the body of a long dugong—also, he forgot, the tail of an Ananias.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

•Y- .'. “-’.CI •’•W'.;*’ &'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.) a a tt 15 CENTS IN POCKET, HE’S GOING TO BEG By a Cripple. I never have seen an article in favor of the fellow who has to crush himself and do a job of begging in order to exist. I have that thing staring me in the face in the next two or three days. I have been selling an aiticle since before Christmas, but I can’t get any more of the article to sell. Here are a few answers, as I feel. Why not the soup house? I know begging is looked down on, but it is ten times as hard on your mind and body. I am a cripple who couldn’t get work during good times, so I don’t waste steps now. Here are some accounts of past begging. I went to about 150 houses, telling residents I was up against it. One day I received 9 cents, bought 4 cents worth of cheese and a cup of coffee. I remember one day I got two quarters. I never got more than $1.50 in any day’s tramping. If I got 50 cents or 75 cents, I did well. I have 15 cents in my pocket. I don’t believe in sponging off friends. So, tomorrow, I will have to start out. tt a a PEGLER STILL TRUE TO OLD ALLEGIANCE, IS CHARGE - By R. E. B. Westbrook Pegler, the drug store cynic, again hauls off on the NRA. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Colonel Robert McCormick in defense of a "free and untrammeled press.” “The trouble is . . . that under former Presidents . . . Washington journalists were put under such restraints that . . . celebrated statesmen were getting away with major jobs of larceny” comes from the pen of a man who during all .the brave attempts of Senators Walsh, the elder La Follette and Norris to uncover the oil scandals of the Harding administration, was attached devoutly to a sheet which not only suppressed or distorted the evidence brought forward by the senators in the preliminay stages of the investigations, but hurled libelous columns against the “troublemaking demagogues who were trying to undermine the confidence of the people in a great Republican administration solely for personal self-glorification . . .” The "restraints” that Pegler refers to were imposed upon Washington correspondents by the noble publishers and newspaper owners now fighting so valiantly for “freedom of the press.” During the last twelve years in Washington correspondents who endeavored to give their readers honest news of events that led to "major jobs of larceny” were out in the cold without jobs. Os those correspondents who collaborated in writing "Washington Merry Go Round,” only Paul Y. Anderson kept his job. All the others were fired by the staunch defenders of a "free press.” Pegler’s statement that Mr. Hoover was the victim of a campaign of “keyhole and rumor journalism” is not based on facts. Hoovei started his administration with the newspaper publishers of the whole nation singing loud hosannahs for the great engineer and the greatest secretary of the treasury since Hamilton. They knew what was expected of them in order to share in the treasury gifts that were doled out as income tax reductions and rebates. Pegler may be a satirist in a class with Swift to a sophomoric literateur. but to those of us who have followed his career on the “‘World’s Greatest Newspaper,” he is nothing but a news (reporter who was the

THAT DARK ‘BROWN’ TASTE

Platform for Candidates

By Fred W. Hoffmark. Disregarding all lines of party politics I labor under the firm conviction that no man could be brazen enough to seek the mayorship of Indianapolis, unless he is in step with the progressive march of the President of these United States. “Actions cut deeper than words,” and for that reason a mere public statement that one favors the program of President Roosevelt is vague and lacks constructive backing. The hands of the President should be upheld by every intelligent citizen from the nation on down to the smallest hamlet, including, of course, our own municipality. In conformity therefore, it becomes the duty of the citizens of Indianapolis to adopt such constructive and progressive changes so as to carry forward the purposes and ideals rededicated by our great President. We must help him to drive the moneychanges from the temple. Huge profits now flowing into the coffers of an individual few should be jingling in the pockets of every member of society. Money now being paid as a tribute to a few utility magnates should be returning dividends to every member of the public by paying more than the expenses of city government. Taxes now being paid to enrich individual contractors should go to

hireling of Colonel Robert McCormick at a time when that gentleman was attacking Jane Addams, Harold Ickes, Norris, La Follette and other individuals. (Libel deleted.) a a a ROOSEVELT IS LEADER OF DEMOCRACY By B. A. Osborne. Whatsoever might have happened in American history to make the events outstanding and the characters involved exceptional, there is nothing in the history of the Untied States that stands parallel with the present state of affairs. No President ever has faced such a chaotic crisis as that presented Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Washington made the nation, he had but a small number of people to deal with, and the intelligence of those people had not risen as high as to make his control of them and government difficult. This also is true in the history of the country for many decades, but suddenly America became the melting pot of the world, and to it gravitated the acute, as well as ambitious and aspiring brains of the world. In two generations they have constituted themselves a formidable conglomeration of intellectual, scientific, financial and political powers. Even the Negro, who during the time of Washington and Lincoln was considered a nonentity, today is a formidable intellectual force. It is such a combination of forces that President Roosevelt has to deal with today; therefore, the task of government is much greater than that which faced any other President since the independence of the country. It becomes even more difficult because of the peculiar economic and financial conditions in which the country has found itself and to which he succeeded. The task of readjusting the American life to a state of political and economic normalcy was too great for the political wit of Herbert Hoover, who, as leader of a pampered, kept, and in many respects, unscrupulous political party, could not act independently. If he were to maintain, his position, as

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

the exclusive benefit of the citizens. Progressive changes and idealism is vital in our city government. Our President has started the ball rolling by taking air mail contracts out of the hands of self-aggrandisers —let’s give the ball another push. I therefore take the liberty of suggesting the following, which should be included in some one’s platform: Indianapolis will own and operate its public utilities. Immediate action will be taken under the law to bring this about. All public works should be done by time and material under the direct supervision of a public w’orks director appointed by the mayor, and not by contract. No employe to be hired for such works unless such employe belongs to a union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. A thirty-hour week should apply to all jobs. Points two and three, I feel, will be helping the President to carry out the spirit of the national recovery act. Workers should be organized under Section 7a of said act and the hours of work must be shortened to give more employment. This letter is not to be represented as being the voice of the people—l have no authority to speak as such. It is, however, my honest sentiment and I believe also the sentiment of thousands of others. A copy of this letter is being sent to each of the announced candidates for mayor for what it is worth.

leader of the party. Hoover was surrounded by such self-seeking party leaders and followers that if he had even had sound political judgment it would have taken much courage out of him to throw down the gauntlet as a Theodore Roosevelt would have done. Failing his ability to do that, he relegated himself to the lowest class of American Presidents and left his country in chaos. By the good judgment of the American people, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democrat, was swept into power. Roosevelt has to disorganize before he can organize. He is disorganizing the grafters, the speculators, the vicious financiers. In doing that, he has surrounded himself with forceful and formidable enemies, who are working with might and main to discredit him, but the world is watching Franklin D. Roosevelt, the honest Democrat. He is today the important leader of democracy. a a a POINTS TO POSSIBLE JAPANESE INCREASE. By V. S. McClatehy. Immigration quota for Japan has been mentioned favorably in the columns of The Times partly because Japan's annual quota under the present national origins plan would be only 185; but sight has been lost of the fact that quota once granted to Japan, any American citizen could then import a wife from Japan, “none-quota,” under subdivision (a) of Section 4 of the 1924 act. The result would be a flood of picture brides, rapidly increasing our Japanese population and adding anew generation reared under the alien mothers to Japanese ideals, the males of which would in time import Japanese brides to found a fourth generation. A glance at the past will outline the probable future picture under that plan. Japan defeated the two-fold purpose of the gentlemen’s agreement by first sending over many thouands of adult male laborers and following them later with thousands of picture brides. The proportion of Japanese males to females in continental United States was., in

.MARCH 7, 1934

1900, 25 to 1; in 1910, 7 to 1: in 1920, 3 to 1. Japanese population in California alone increased from 455 in 1908 to 5,275 in 1921. Passports for picture brides were not issued after 1920, and their successors, “kankodan” brides, were barred by the 1924 act. Japanese births in California then decreased steadily and in 1933 w’ere less than 1,700. It is estimated there are in continental United States, Hawaii and Japan 160.000 American citizens, of Japanese ancestry. A large; number of the adult males remainunmarried because most of the available marriageable Japanese girls have been reared in American standards. If quota were granted to Japan all these second generation Japanese. men would be at liberty to import alien Japanese wives, and most of them, with the assistance of the. Japanese government’s emigration bureau, would probably do so. The efforts made by Japan unofficially after passage of the 1924 act to secure special arrangement for sending other wives from Japan for unmarried Japanese here, and a recent official declaration of the Japanese-American Citizen League, representing the second generation, of Japanese of California, Oregon and Washington, furnish sufficient grounds for that statement. a a a HERE ARE TWO QUERIES ABOUT JOHN DILLINGER By H. W. Why not send your inquiring editor to one or several of our public schools and canvas 100 boys (cowboy age) on the Dillinger case? Question No. I.—“ Did you ever hear of John Dillinger?” Question' No. 2.—“ What do you think of him now, since he has escaped again ?”*- The figures may be interesting to show the reaction of the minds of these boys, and also if such wide--spread, front page screamers are dangerous to such a degree as some might expect. a a a CONDEMNS PUBLIC’S ATTITUDE ON DILLINGER Bv Merrill F. Rockefeller. The hero-worshipping American public should set March 3 as ''another national holiday, the anniversary of the escape of the great John Dillinger, "cop-killer,” murderer, hero, etc. A restaurant owner, who ought to know, since the big bad, brave bank bandit was digested along with 1 every luncheon Saturday, agreed with me that the majority of our patriotic citizens- were “glad that Dillinger had escaped.” They must like to dig into their pockets and provide police protection, then spur their favorite murderer on to greater laurels. The attitude of the public concerning law’ and order is deplorable. I am but 17 and, having analyzed myself and other young people, I know how the youth of today responds to attitudes of his elders. If we are to have a safe country in the future, this menace, public opinion and attitude must be righted now’. With such public attitude, no wonder we have such crime conditions in the United States.

Words

BY LOREN PHILLIPS. Words are wondrous tools of trade If one learns to wield them truly. Swords may fail, but tongues persuade, Words are wondrous tools of trade. Fortune may be lost or made With these instruments unruly; Words are wondrous tools of trade, U cne learns to wield them truly.