Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 268, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 March 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times (A OCR IIT A-HO WAR I) NEWSPAPER) ROT W. HOWARD President TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D BAKER Business Manager I’booe— Riley f.V.I

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#'•'*#/ #n*r+A* Give Light ana the People Will Find Their Oxen Way

TUEBfIAY. MARCH 20. 1834.

CREDIT OR DEATH A FTER months of effort trying to get the -* *■ banks to give the small business man a break, the administration finally has recommended to congress the creation of twelve regional credit banks for that purpose. Many theoretic arguments could be made against this proposal. The conservative may deplore the fact that the government is getting deeper into business. The radical may complain that such half-way measures merely leave the government holding the bag with shaky loans. But, as has been the case with so much of the Roosevelt legislation, what might have been or what might be in some future case does not pull us out of the emergency today. A quick relief job is called for. The small business man is unable in many cases to get credit to hold up his end of the recovery program. The President estimates that $700,000,000 of working capital is needed to keep a third of a million men in present jobs and to give new' employment to another third of a million men and women. Credit for this purpose is just as essential as that already provided by the government to the banks and through the banks to railroads and big business. The government has very little choice. It can not stand by while small business dies for lack of credit. WORSE THAN JAIL 'VJ'OT even his tens of thousands of victims will rejoice in the picture of aged Samuel Insull setting out from Greece in his “yacht,’’ the greasy little freighter Maiotis, to evade American extradition. The Cook county jail that awaits him in his own country would seem a happier refuge than escape in such an unheroic odyssey. He has lost those things which most men hold dear—honor, dignity and the right of citizenship in a country he can call nis own. The Greeks sentenced him to endure what their ancients reserved for traitors—banishment. . * He may choose any one of thirty lands in which he will be safe from extradition. None will offer him happiness. Back in 1908, H. G. Wells in Tono-Bungay wrote a story greatly resembling Insull’s. It was that of George Ponde\ero and his uncle who got rich quick by promoting a quack patent medicine and who finally escaped the law by flying the English channel in an airship. Like these charlatans, Insull “built a great property out of human hope.’’ Like them, he may not enjoy his wealth. The Insull story is not particularly significant as that of one who ruined men and women to pay the price in disgrace as a hunted being. There are plenty of smaller Insulls still uncaught, plenty of would-be Insulls eagerly waiting for a return of the good old days in which he prospered. More significant are plans now being carried out in Washington to make it harder for the Insulls. Kreugers and the rest to play their mighty shell games under the name of American business. SPEEDIER JUSTICE TT'OR many years Americans have cried out, -*■ with Hamlet, pgainst the law’s delay. The speed in which the law is moving against kidnapers is encouraging. So is the latest assault by Attorney-General Cummings upon two big obstacles to quick justice, the crooked lawyer and complicated criminal court procedure. Mr. Cummings has named an advisory board of three prominent attorneys to help him clean up the legal profession and simplify court rules. Here and there bar associations are cleaning out the crooks, men who actually are in league with the criminal elements of nether and upper worlds. Many of these unworthies have been disbarred, some have been prosecuted and sent to jail as aceomplicic in crime. Attorney-General Cummings proposes to aid other communities in a spring housecleaning. Important also ’s Mr. Cummings’ plan to aUc-w the United States supreme court to lay down rules of procedure in federal criminal trials, just as it now does in equity cases. In England, where justice commands more respect, all trial procedure is governed by a rules committee of judges and lawyers, instead of by statute as in America. Mr. Cummings' request is supported by Roosevelt, and should be carefully weighed by congress. The attorney-general's suggestions avoid the usual pitfalls of !aw-and-order reformers. These zealots generally would defeat the ends of justice by demanding more savage punishments. In seeking to make justice swift and certain, rather than harsh and, therefoie. uncertain. Mr. Cummings will have Ihe support of leaders in social and legal science. LABOR MUST CLEAN HOUSE SOME sort of showdown in the field of labor relations seems lust ahead. The national recovery administration pfepares to tackle the company union issue, congress debates the Wagner labor board bill, and industrialists flock to Washington to protest both measures. And the whole ousiness puts upon organized labor the heaviest responsibility it has had in years. Organized labor, unless all signs fail, is about to be given more power than it ever has had before. Its magna charta is in the making these days. What is it going to do with it? It is not exactly a secret that there are labor organizations whese officials are more interested In lining their own pockets tnan in advancing the cause of the men they are supposed to represent; that there are rases in whioto labor unions nave been turned into unscrupulous rackets by designing men; that

selfishness, greed and stupidity have in some instances given both employers and employes reason to distrust the labor organizer Such things do more to fetard the cause of labor than all the hard-boiled employers in the country- Unless they can be eliminated, the current drive to give labor anew freedom can not, in the long .Tin, do labor any good. They are evils that can be corrected by nobody but the leaders and the rank and file of organized labor. It often is said that public office is a public trust. The same thing applies to the job of representing organized working men. The man who has such a position not only speaks for the legitimate aspirations of his fellow workers; he also occupies an exceedingly Important position In the Industrial setup of the country as a whole, and this position evidently is going to be more important in the future than in the past. The intelligent and honorable labor leader —and there are many such—can do a great work in the years just ahead of us. But the labor movement no longer can afford to carry the lacketeer, the self-seeker, the chiseler, the man who plays both ends against the middle lor the sake of his own bank account. It’s up to labor to clean house. If the unions are to get new rights, they must recognize the responsibilities that go with them. PUT DOWN THE GUNS is always spoiling our illusions. Now Roger Shaw has done it in his “Handbook of Revolutions.” Women have formed the habit of using their physical weakness as an appeal to masculine chivalry. They have held a man’s strength before him as a blazoned shield and he has pushed revolving doors, laid fires, changed automobile tires and pulled galosh zippers to show that his strength was as the strength of ten because he was a man. Now Mr. Shaw informs as that women are capable of removing their own Arctic boots and assisting with roadside punctures. It really isn’t Mr. Shaw’s fault. He is just recording what he has learned about women from studying history books. Ever so long ago . . . let’s be glad that it was ... he asserts that the Amazons who dwelt in Pontus, near the Eurine seashore, waged battles. It was a women-only land, but once a year the women visited a neighboring kingdom for breeding purposes, and returned home hoping that all daughters would be bom. Sons were killed. That isn’t all, either. The Bohemian women of the eighth century had a happy sisterhood that killed any man who fell into their muscular hands. Early Spanish explorers discovered fighting women in South America; and in African Dahoney. even in modern times, warrior maidens paddled their own canoes and shot their own bows and arrows. And we thought we were descended from a race of ladies. It shows how mistaken we can be, doesn’t it? Maybe this past history is responsible for a woman’s desire to throw things on certain occasions. It is usually when some man has displeased her that the urge comes to turn toward the plate rack and break the pattern in a set of dishes that can’t be replaced. Men do not like women who throw rolling pins. That is, unless they are partners in a vaudeville act. It seems inconceivable that any woman, for any reason, should become physically combative unless, of course, she had something that needs protecting. A well-pre-served virtue, a pccketbook, or a child. Now maybe the tendency of some of our sex is explained. Their great-grandmothers may have been captains or majors in the militaristic league. Suffragettes hurled bricks, we are reminded. We might add that Carrie Nation threw a hatchet. When women fight for a definite purpose they do not stop with soap-box orations. Fortunately, in the last few years, we have learned that we won’t ever be able to run as far as men, to throw balls as high, to make touchdowns or baskets with the same rapidity and agility on a sports field. When it comes to physical endurance, which is based on muscular achievement, men win. Let us be glad. We need heroes! And why shouldn’t they win? Women who don't want to be involved with men can live in a woman's hotel, join women's classes, and end up their days quite peaceably in an old ladies’ home. It isn’t a normal way of living. Men and women need one another. Each had attributes that are peculiarly his or her own. Those who spend their days in men’s colonies or women's colonies grow warped. If Adam hadn’t needed Eve a perfectly good rib wouldn’t have been used for her construction. Those who maintain that there is a combat between the sexes are not quite modern. Women, as life has grown fairer, Mr. Shaw tells us, have turned their ability to humanitarian purposes. Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton did not go to the battlefield with rifles. They went as nurses. Maybe the Amazonian women wondered why they were so tired when night came. Women who fight with men’s weapons can’t win. Anyway, who wants to fight? There is a lot that men and women can do for one another if they will put down their guns. THE HANDFUL /CONTROL of the New York Stock Exchange by a handful of men whose activities are veiled in secrecy is revealed by investigations of the senate banking committee, announces a Washington news dispatch. The announcement may be news per se but the control isn't. Ever since Roosevelt set out to uncover the secrets of big business procedure, it has been as plain as daylight that a handful of men has been in control of pretty much everything. A handful of men has run at least two recent federal administrations and degraded the great party of Lincoln to a condition in which it does not know where to lay its head. A handful has about ruined the mighty railroad industry. A handful has so manipulated crooked and even honest investment and banking that our financial world emits stench thick and strong enough to put out the fires of Vesuvius. A handful has so imposed the powers of moncply that the millions of independents in almost every sort of business are threatened with the status of peons, or paupers. All this isn't news; it is old stuff known and felt by every intelligent man in business or on a pay roll. Verily, a handful of men has been in control of the New York Stock /

Exchange and, through it, in control of all other stock exchanges. The handful of secret, invisible government in control! Sic ’em, Roosevelt! ‘BENEFITS’ OF LIQUOR THE world sometimes seems to have turned pretty completely topsy-turvy, these days. Some of the little by-products of repeal are illustrations. Remember the old days of the anti-saloon campaigns, when the liquor trade was held up as the great foe of the public school? Well, it has been disclosed that the Michigan liquor control commission just has turned $500,000 over to the state to help pay the salaries of school teachers. This money comes from the commission’s profits on sales of the state’s liquor stores. Under the law, all but a small fraction of the profits must go to the school emergency fund; and the liquor commission points out that it still has around $1,000,000 to distribute. If we have reached a point where John Barleycorn is supporting the schools, the world indeed is upside down. THE LONGER LIFE DR. G. W. CRILE, noted Cleveland surgeon, tells a Los Angeles audience that, with proper attention to health, there is no reason why a man should not extend his active career to the of 80 or beyond. Frequent physical examinations, he says, would reveal failing capacities of vital organs and would make it possible for remedial steps to be taken. All of which, of course, is highly encouraging; but it is just one more instance in which our scientific knowledge seems to have outrun our social sense. What is the use of enabling a man to keep working to the age of 80, if industry and business decide that the man more than 50 is too old for a job? Unless we revise the idiotic notion that a man’s usefulness ends with middle age, there is small use in extending his active life span.

Liberal Viewpoint *=By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES=

PRISON riots, prison investigations, the kidnaping epidemic and the never failing daily crime news persistently remind us that the crime problem continues unabated. It also should impress upon us the fact that we have made very slight improvement in our modes of dealing with criminals. And this is no trivial matter, since our crime bill amounts to a sum fully equal to one-fourth of our national income today. Dr. Ranulf now brings to a conclusion his monumental study of the psychological basis of punishment in Greek thought and practice (“The Jealousy of the Gods and Criminal Law at Athens.” By Svend Ranulf. Vol. 11. Williams & Norgate, Ltd., Levin & Munksgaard. $5.) He comes to the conclusion that our moral indignation and savagery in punishing others are fundamentally based upon disguised envy. In this he agrees with Nistzsche, Bertrand Russell, Joad and Mencken. There is much to support this point of view and a recognition of its truth should help greatly in promoting a rational overhauling of our criminal codes. Mr. Taft has written a very sensible book criticising the conventional shortcomings in handling witnesses which grow out of the effort to win a case rather than to arrive at the truth (“Witnesses in Court.” By Henry W. Taft. Macmillan. $1.60.) He does not, however, get at the real root of the problem, namely, the outworn jury system and the whole complex of horseplay involved in our criminal courtroom procedure. tt u CONSEQUENTLY, his book is something like a discussion of the best kind of talcum powder to obscure a carbuncle. But, until the time comes when we can eliminate the jury, supplant it by a paid body of permanent experts and make use of the elements of modern psychology, such superficial reforms as Mr. Taft recommends will certainly be in order. “Take the Witness!” is a vivid biography of Earl Rogers, one of the most original, daring and successful criminal lawyers in the history of the Pacific coast. (Take the Witness! The Amazing Career of Earl Rogers, Criminal Lawyer. By Alfred Cohn and Joe Chisholm. Stokes, $2.50). Indeed, in the foreword to the book his daughter contends that he was the greatest criminal lawyer who ever has lived. Certainly, he was one of the most successful of our criminal lawyers. matching Darrow, Fallon or Steuer. But it would be a rash person who would contend that Mr. Rogers advanced the cause of truth and justice in the courtroom. Yet, so long as we have to deal with undiscriminating savagery on the part of prosecutors, men like Rogers will be necessary as a foil. We must not only catch and convict criminals; we must treat them intelligently after they are convicted. No other American has done so much to drive home this elementary truism as Thomas Mott Osborne. a a a HE understood the rudimentary logic that if a man is not a good citizen when he comes to prison, he can not be a good one upon his discharge, unless the prison has fundamentally reconstructed his code of behavior. Mr. Osborne’s famous scheme of inmate self-govern-ment was designed to produce just such an effect. Frank Tannenbaum, long a friend of Mr. Osljorne, has written a very complete and intelligent summary of the latter’s experience at Sing Sing. (Osborne of Sing Sing. By Frank Tannenbaum. University of North Carolina Press. $3). It is to be hoped that an equally well informed writer will soon tell the story of Mr. Osborne’s administration of the Portsmouth naval prison. Not only must prisons be civilized; there must also be intelligent after-care for discharged convicts. New York state now has the framework of a respectable parole system, and the third annual report of the parole board makes it possible for us to review the progress being made in an intelligent handling of the problem of the released prisoner. (Third Annual Report of the Division of Parole of the Executive Denartment. Legislative Document. J. B. Lyon Company, $1). In his message to congress last January, President Roosevelt had the courage to say that many of our more serious forms of anti-social action are still within the letter of the law. Mr. Wickwire is to be praised for his nerve in recounting fearlessly these border line activities in Wall Street. (Weeds of Wall Street. By Arthur M Wickwire. Newcastle Press. $3). it would be an interesting and illuminating exercise to compare this book with one of our better summaries of the methods and ravages of the conventional racketeers and organized criminals. Honduras has issued strict regulations against immigrants. Perhaps only those are permitted entry who can pronounce the name of its capital—Tegucigalpa. There’s only one fruit tree on the White House grounds at Washington, and that's an apple tree. Postmaster Farley has the plums. A man is here from France to make America snail conscious. He should see America at a busy crossing during the rush hours. Lindbergh has told the blue eagle he still prefers to remain the lone eagle.

.THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES.

rpt TV /T j I wholly disapprove of what you say and will I JL 116 IVIeSS2Lge _ defend to the death your right to say it—Voltaire. \

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters shor., so all can have a chance. Limit them to SSO words or less.) tt tt tt EMPLOYES SHOULD GET PART OF COMPANY’S PROFITS By H. L. Seeger Colonel Frank Knox opposing outlawing of company unions would have been more impressive if he had proposed to let employers in such “unnons” participate in company profits on a fifty-fifty basis, and offer to let employes have a 40 per cent representation on the board of directors of the corporation, also to share with employes on an equal basis all that part of salaries of officers more than SIO,OOO. Can the bill be amended to permit these “guardian” unions to express that parental care the “farseeing” employers wish to exercise and make it compulsory where no real independence of contract relationship exists? tt tt QUESTIONS LISTED FOR BIRTH CONTROL ADVOCATES By Hiram Lackey The millions of men and women who practice some form of birth control and whose vanity has convinced them that they know all there is to learn on the subject are asked to consider a few pointed questions: Where were you before the first meeting of your father and mother? Before your conception, were you longing to live this life? How do you know? Are you an immortal being? Can an immortal being have a beginning? “Can a stick have one end without also having another end?” What is the purpose of the life of a human being? Under what conditions and how can that purpose be best achieved? In the eternal plan of things, is the life of a moron as essential as that of a genium? What is the purpose of intelligence if it be not for solving such problems? In designing and causing the human body to function, was Mother Nature in any sense vulgar? In the lives of women today, how many tragedies could be prevented by their having the common scientific knowledge of physicians? Why is it a fact that the more a man learns on this subject, the less aggressive becomes his cocksureness? Why is there so much disagreement among answers, all of which are supposed to come from the same crystal clear divine source? From where do the muddy waters come, and why? If we sincerely investigate all available knowledge on the birth control subject, and apply the results in the interest of truth, is the responsibility for our failure, if there be any, of our own making? e a a DISPOSAL OF KINDER CASE IS CRITICISED By E. H. Rader, Danville After reading .your front-page editorial, “Sheriff Holley Must Go,” and also your “Hands Off State Police,” I can not but admire your sense of justice and the plain truths as you state them. And if not asking too much, I would like to read an editorial by you on “Mqry Kinder Must Go to Jail,” and also would like to hear your opinion of the judge who turned her loose. Just after the break at the state prison the Indianapolis police arrested a man who was a supposed sweetheart of Mrs. Kinder, who confessed she had hidden the escaped men at his home and had left Indianapolis with them. Until their capture, she was called “the brains of the gang” by all the daily papers, and was arrested with them. Yet

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

By W. E. Lemon Job seekers again will have to endure the pains and suffering of suspense previous to the May primary. The idea with most of those birds sitting on a fence is to pick a winner, and our numerous candidates will represent all walks of life, from the underworld to the progressive and honest element of our city. Os course, each candidate has his or her following, and these birds will be buzzing around the polls like pigeons in University park. The average, intelligent voter should not become confused at this human circus, but should vote for a man who would be a credit to his party, a candidate who is honest and efficient. As usual we will not’ be forced to draft candidates as we do soldiers in time of war, but our quota will be filled by volunteers, who could tell you how to fight a war in a swivel chair, and these swivel chair artists are great warriors. The printing business will be good previous to the primary, each little card with the candidate’s

after all the expense of bringing her back, a judge turned her loose with the remark, “There isn’t enough evidence against her to hold her for trial.” This same Mrs. Kinder now is bragging of her exploits, acknowledging she did travel all over the country with the fang as one of their accomplices, and telling what fine boys they are. She also is bragging about the swell clothes and valuable diamonds and jewelry she owns and now is trying to get from the Tucson authorities. Although she started without a penny, does she really possess this fortune? If so, did she pay her income tax? A1 Capone now is doing time for income tax evasion. There now are thousands of young romantic girls who would balk at nothing to get the fine clothes and jewelry and notoriety that Mrs. Kinder is having if some gangster would come along and offer her the chance. May I see your editorial soon? I thank you. a o a HERE’S A PUZZLE AND AN ANSWER By Puzzled Here is a problem I wish you would help me solve. My sister’s husband’s cousin’s wife's sister's husband is a halfbrother to John Dillinger. What relation is he to me? (Editor’s Note—No relation—merely a distant connection by marriage.) a a a \ STATE ATTACKED FOR DEATH PENALTY By H. S. Osgood The writer desires to enter his protest against capital punishment or legal murder in favor of which there can be no moral support. The spectacle of any form of human execution is sordid, a vicious form of vengeance- harking back to the age of tyranny, when ignorance and tyranny controlled the governing powers of state. No court of justice has a moral right to condemn any human being to death in any form. The creator alone, who is the author of existence and the giver of laws governing man’s conduct toward his fellow-man, has I the right to call a man or a woman out of earthly existence or to impose future punishment or grant rewards for conduct deserving either award.

Politics and Families

name and funny face will be printed on it. In the history of Indiana we never have had a shortage of candidates, for that is one crop that has never failed us. Candidates will grow on any kind of soil, but some crops in the past were of poor quality, and .it is up to the voters in regard to the quality, for we will not be lacking in quantity. The average citizen has ceased to worry for he has it figured out as long as he has the statehouse, courthouse, and city hall left for anew administration to do business in, he is lucky. Most political offices are family affairs, and taking care of poor relations is some job, believe me. I don’t blame any official for keeping his mother-in-law busy and gainfully employed, but other family members should be taboo. By careful observation you can find officials who are up for renomination who have made family affairs of their office. Help eliminate them by your vote in the primary. By doing that you also will be helping preserve some other family tree, and giving others a crack at the political plums. Innocent people have suffered death again and again as a result of manufactured evidence and perjured testimony as subsequent disclosures often have shown, yet, according to our criminal laws, a jury must find according to the evidence given in the c .se. Society and the public acquiesce because they have to and only one opportunity to protest a legal murder is granted when the jury is impaneled and a prospective juror is asked “do you believe in the death penalty?” The state of Indiana through its legislature should revise its criminal code to exclude any judicial authority for imposing the death penalty, substituting therefor, life imprisonment and making it mandatory in cases of murder in the first degree, kidnaping or bank or highway robbery with or without weapons. The third degree as practiced by detectives and police should be prohibited and punishable by a year's imprisonment. Intimidation, or brutality have no place legally or morally in the criminal practices in this or any other state and the extortion of evidence through torture or inquisitorial methods is absolutely unconstitutional. DECRIES BONUS BATTLES AND WAR TALK By "Man” If the allied armies in the World war were as aggressive as the American Legion fighting for its bonus, the war would not have lasted long. Legally, the only soldier who is justified in his claim for a bonus is the soldier who was drafted into the army. Any one voluntarily offering his services to his country relinquishes any claim for further compensation. The attitude of the American Legion to Dr. Oxnam of De Pauw is evidence cf tile un-American attitude of the legion. I winder if some of the men can remember the war they fought to save Democracy and to save the world from militarism. \ God, in his heaven, must sigh and’ look down upon them and say, “They promise to believe in me. but they teach nationalism. Surely, I must have created man without brain.” tt tt o REITERATES PROTEST ON TWO PAY ROLL CHARGES By a Times Reader Referring again to the young woman supervisor of woman’s works in the state executive offices

.MARCH 20, 1934

of the CWA. Evidently the “shoe fit” or said young woman would not have troubled to offer an explanation of the charges of holding two positions, the one on CWA paying a high salary, certainly unwarranted by present economic conditions. May I ask why this woman secured a “leave of absence” from the Indiana Women’s Voter’s League to accept a position on CWA. My understanding was that CWA was for the purpose of affording jobs to the jobless—not more lucrative employment for the already employed. Either this woman accepted the position on CWA for political reasons, or else she saw a very splendid opportunity to increase her already established political prestige with the added assurance of financial gain. There are many high-class, unemployed women secretaries amply able to fill the CWA position, who would not have had to secure a “leave of absence” from a job to do so. According to our local newspapers this young woman in question still held her position as executive secretary with the Indiana Women’s Voters League when they met in session last week. The Times asked the woman referred to in the letter to make the statement that was published last week. MORE POETRY*ON DILLINGER CASE By O. A., Morgan County My dear Mrs. sheriff Holley, Please don’t think ill of me For being so discontented And for taking liberty. I’d love to call and see you And would, too, but I'm bored ’Cause I made my wooden pistol From your only washing board. I didn't mean to rob you Os your pride or sheriff's job, And I think who e’er would do it Is a low down dirty snob. I just thought I’d better beat it Before it was too late. ‘Cause I didn't like the idea Os being roasted by the state. Some day I’ll repay you With anew washboard or two, So the other boys can whittle When there is nothing else to do. So I thank you for your flivver For that baby sure can run, And hope you won’t forget me as Public Enemy No. 1. I’ll see you all in heaven our earthly work is done, ‘Cause I’m going to scare St. Petei With my washboard pistol gun.

Hats Off

BY LOREN' PHILLIPS Hats off to the man who tries Though he never wins a prize. The man who plods on patiently And a brighter future e’er can see; Who never deems ill-luck the cause Os failure, and never deigns to pause I his efforts to reach a higher rung— .xian whose praises are never sung. Hats off to the man who tries, Though never a rung does he rise. The man whose efforts ever meet With but inglorious defeat; And, smiling, is ever onward spurred In his effort to reach a higher rung— The man whose praises are never sung. Hats off to the man. who triesf