Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 282, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 April 1934 — Page 14

PAGE 14

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Oien TToy

THURaDAY. April 5 1534 THE MUNITIONS BOOM tl riTHOUT noise, two senate committees * * have been placing dynamite that may blow the lid off the munitions racket. First the military affairs committee and now the committee on audit and control have reported cut the Nye-Vandenberg resolution for such an investigation. Ever since the League of Nations commission reported that the international armament ring was fomenting war, and the three chief American naval shipbuilding companies were caught wrecking the Geneva disarmament conference with their secret paid agent, Shearer, there has been need for a thorough inquiry in this country. Recent reports of profiteering and alleged corruption-in several industries seeking army, navy and aircraft contracts under the vast new governmental expenditures have increased the incentive for an investigation. Henry Ford declares that: “The people in general don't want war, but it has been forced on them by scheming munition makers looking for enormous profits through the sale of arms.” That doubtless is an oversimplification of the cause of war, but the fact that the munitions racket is one of several major war forces Is universally recognized by the experts. Last week Sir Robert Hadfield, in congratulating English stockholders on the bountiful prospects for the armament business, said: "Happily, a favorable turn of events has followed, with much more hopeful results. We are indeed devoutly thankful for present mercies, but may I add that for what I hope we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful.” With less irreverence, Americans may be thankful for the revelations concerning the munitions boom which, we hope, we are about to receive. WANTED, anew bugaboo P'OR years special interests have trotted out the old bugaboo of unfair competition to defeat state laws for the protection of workers. Doubtless habit overcame reason in the National Association of Manufacturers when it opposed the Wagner-Lewis unemployment insurance bill on the same old plea. John C. Gall, the N. A. M. associate counsel knew, of course, that the Wagner-Lewis bill would do away with unfair competition among the states by imposing a federal pay roll tax in such a manner as to encourage all the states to come into a security system. But, in his testimony before the house committee, he opposed it on the ground that it would put the United States at a disadvantage with competing nations. “The tendency of this bill,” said Mr. Gall, “is to compel competitive equality among the states and competitive inequality with other countries.” So? Does not Mr. Gall know that practically every other industrial nation but our own has adopted the insurance method of providing economic security for the workers? That Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, and even little Luxemburg, have compulsory unemployment insurance? That Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Denmark. Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Spain have voluntary systems? That in countries we call our competitors 37,500,000 workers are protected by unemployment insurance? If the N. A. M. insists on having a bugaboo, it must get anew one. THE OTHER HALF T IFE in the kitchen to some women is no more stimulating than a long-handled mop. The march of events in an office to other members of the sex holds about as much appeal as a piece of carbon paper that did its repetitious duty. Strange, isn't it, that when wc-men have had to fight so arduously for economic parity, education, suffrage . . . things which were always considered the divine right of their older and younger brothers . . . that we hoist two flags and erect two camps? It is true, though. Women whose natural ability and instinct draw them into homemaking exclusively often fail to understand why some other women find supreme joy with a medical kit, a brief case, a typewriter or a schoolroom as their medium of service. Those same misunderstood women fail to take off their aprons and join the business parade. After all, why can't we have two groups without having two flags, two calls to arms, two sets of principles? Not all men want to do the same type of work. Why should women? Germany, at the beginning of the movement which tended to make every man's wife his housekeeper, and not an economic equal, discovered that women were opposed to women. Those women who retreated into their kitchens, either from choice or inability to combat the economic situation, spurned those bolder sisters who insisted on continuing their university studies and their careers. The latter class, in turn, had some things that weren't nice to say about the group who put on aprons. Chiefly, it insisted they were retarding the march of feminine progress. The world is a large place. There are green hills and barren hills, mill towns, factory towns, country towns, metropolises. There are kitchens and theaters and schoolrooms and offices and hospitals. There are places for every one. We can no more all like to do the same thing than we can all adore lemon pie or creamed finnan haddie, or love the same men. Since there is room for each to perform the service which she wants to render, why not let each other alone? Let's live and let live, love and let love, work and let work. Maybe a perfect copy of & letter isn’t as

Important as a loaf of nut bread. Maybe it’s more Important. After all, who cares? Or why? The letter and the bread supply definite demands. Back in 1833 the first permanent woman's club was organized at Jacksonville, 111. It was called the Ladies’ Association for Educating Females. It granted women the right to go in pursuit of happiness and service down the channels for which they were fitted. So did the clubs that followed after. But now there is a spirit abroad in the land ... a spirit that we believed for a long time was dead . . .which seems to find one group of ladies talking about the others. It isn’t nice. It isn’t sporting! Lets stop throwing typewriter ribbons and aluminum kettles at each other. Just because half of us (jo most of our talking over the back fence and the other half exchange our secrets in the restrooms of our offices at noon doesn't mean that we aren’t alike. In fact, we might like one another’s world pretty well if we changed jobs for an interlude. KEY TO RECOVERY TF all the excess verbiage which has been A spouted forth concerning the “forgotten man” could be laid end to end, it would reach from here to complete futility. Nevertheless, it is worth while to point out that a slow shift in emphasis now taking place in Washington is taking at least one forgotten man out of his former obscurity and making him the cock of the walk. This gentleman is none other than the consumer himself—old John Citizen, who steps up to the counter, pays his money, and goes home with his groceries. In the new concern which Washington is displaying over his welfare, it is possible to read a high amount of significance. For it is only by keying its efforts on the welfare of the ultimate consumer that the new deal, or any other kind of deal, really can reap the fruitfulness which this mass production era makes possible. All of which is just another way of saying that it doesn't do much good to make things unless the chap you plan to sell them to is able to buy them. You can increase the farmer's income, for instance, as fast as you please; if the prices of the things he has to buy go up at the same rate, he’s right where he started —which, in this particular case, happens to be somewhere to the south-southeast of the eight ball. The same thing is true of the laborer and his wage, of the professional man and his salary. of the investor and his dividends. Now the consumer has many guises. He can, in his other incarnations, be a steel puddler or a lawyer, a school teacher or a bricklayer, a loom tender or an elevator operator. It is his guise as the purchaser of goods that is important. Unless some way is found by which he can in the future buy more extensively and more steadily than he has in the past, our recovery effort will look remarkably like the old game of trying to lift one’s self by one's bootstraps. His importance will increase, not diminish, as time passes. For this, as has been said so often, is an age of plenty, not an age of scarcity. We can produce at a rate unparalleled in human history. Our one great job is to get the things we produce into the hands of the people who want them.

POWER FOR LABOR IT always has been the philosophy of capitalists that self-interest was a force necessary to prevent social stagnation and promote human progress. Lately capitalism has embraced the doctrine that high wages and short hours are necessary to produce the purchasing power esential to prosperity. Workers have the greatest and most immediate selfish interest in high wages and short hours. Therefore, if capitalists follow their own logic, labor unions should be encouraged, for labor unions represent the active self-in-terest of workers. Voluntary interest of enlightened employers in raising wages and reducing hours by joint action is fine, but it is not enough. The driving self-interest of labor is needed, as well as the regulation and arbitration of government. Organized industries, organized labor, and government are a trinity each of whom is indispensable. It generally is admitted that we need a better distribution of wealth. We must distribute power as well as wealth. If we do not intend to share power, we do not intend to share wealth, for wealth is power. If it is objected that the leadership of organized labor has often proved unsatisfactory, the answer is that the statement is true, but neither has our leadership in business, finance and politics been much to brag about. We need to develop more intelligent leadership in all lines. One way to do that is to face all the facts, and one of these facts is that more and stronger labor unions are necessary to our economic health. PETTINESS OF POLITICS IT begins to look as if American politics contains no chapter uglier than the one written by Tammany Hall in New York during the years prior to Mr. La Guardia’s election as mayor. The most recent revelations, dealing with the way political employes swindled the aged, the blind, the feeble, and the povertystricken wards of the city at the Welfare Island Home for the Destitute, are about as shocking as anything one could read. Even the microscopic savings of these most unfortunate folk were not too small for the Tammany henchmen. They swindled these people they were supposed to protect, took the small sums that they had saved to prevent burial in the Potter’s Field, and in general displayed a meanness and a petty spirit of thievery that are almost beyond belief. Here we have the evils of selfish political control of a city government carried to their logical conclusion, it ought to be a potent object lesson for all of us. A Zulu chief died recently and left sixtyfour widows. What a picnic for insurance agents and stock salesmen! A British scientist predicts that the female eventually will exterminate the male. And it would be Just like a woman! German scientists have succeeded in cultivating a nicotine-free tobacco. Now they should find a way to keep the smoke out of your eyes.

NEUTRALITY IN WARTIME TF you insist that your country keep out of war, you must be prepared to assume unaccustomed burdens and to yield rights you have been used to assert. So warns Dr. Charles Warren, assistant at-torney-general in the Wilson administration, in a recent discussion of the problem of neutrality. He illustrates his warning by asserting that in the case of a foreign war we could insure our neutrality only by passing stringent laws and enforcing them rigidlyy Such laws, he says, should permit the President to prohibit all sales of munitions to belligerents, should forbid the shipment of munitions on United States ships, and should forbid the flotation in this country of loans for belligerents. Such laws, as he says, would be rather irksome. But he is probably quite right in asserting that they would be the price of true neutrality in any large-scale future war. ONE THING AT A TIME ' I ''HE Hoosier schoolmaster’s charge that there is a dark Communist lurking in the administration woodpile evidently is going to get only the briefest investigation at the hands of congress. About all the country Is interested in is the truth or falsity of the assertion that some specific member of the administration is plotting to edge the country out from under Mr. Roosevelt into the arms of the Communists. It should not take very long to find out whether that statement is correct. As for investigating the general trend of administration policies as a whole, and calling in every leading citizen to give his opinionwell, life is just naturally too short. And opinions are so diverse that when we got through we would know no more than we know now. Smithsonian scientists have discovered that bees use twenty-two muscles when they sting people. They ought to get lessons from some Wall Street brokers.

Liberal Viewpoint By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES = This is the last of a series of articles on unemployment insurance. 'T'HE Bourbons are bringing up all of the con- . ventional arguments against unemployment insurance—that it is the British dole system in disguise, that it is a Muscovite invention and the like. There is, in fact, no argument worthy of the name which can be raised against unemployment insurance. It is sometimes asserted that American workers should save enough during prosperous periods so that they can tide themselves over the months of years of adversity. But a few elementary facts about American wages will suffice to dispel this illusion. Even in the Coolidge “prosperity” which preceded the depression, the average wage of employed American workers was $1,205 a year. Unskilled laborers received slightly under SI,OOO annually. Agricultural workers received a little less than $550. Authoritative government agencies, which have computed family budget requirements on a minimum basis that will provide only the lecessities of life, have estimated that a family of five requires an income of from SI,BOO to $2,000 a year, depending upon the section of the United Sttaes in which they reside. This is a sufficient commentary upon the alleged possibility of meeting unemployment burdens through the personal thrift of workers. Moreover, Professor Douglas and other students of American unemployment during the last forty years estimate that there has been a steady average of about 10 per cent of American laborers who have been unemployed. a a a THE criticism advanced that unemployment insurance is “Un-American” is utterly preposterous. Nothing sensible and essential w’ell can be called un-American in any reasonable interpretation of that term. In the sense in which it is used by critics of unemployment insurance. it would be un-American to live in big cities, to work in great factories, or to ride in subways. All of these things were foreign to the era of “rugged individualism.” The “un-American” argument is the final proof of intellectual bankruptcy upon the part of those who fall back upon this last refuge. Os a like feather is the denunciation of unemployment insurance as a “demoralizing dole.” The British unemployment benefits have been attacked by American bourbons as a dole. We have been warned to stick to charity and avoid the dole system. As an actual matter of fact, England does not have a dole system. According to the philosophy of the critics who allege that she does have, it would appear that unemployment insurance is “insurance” when there is little unemployment but becomes a dole when unemployment is rife and extensive unemployment benefits have to be provided. a a a THE fact is that the American system of voluntary contributions through private charity represents the true dole system. This is not only demoralizing; it is inadequate and its benefits are never enough to provide anvthing approaching normal purchasing power on the part of the recipients. There are many who approve of unemployment insurance in the abstract, but contend that it should be purely voluntary. The slightest examination of the facts proves the complete fallacy of any such position. This type of unemployment insurance began back in 1831 with a labor union in New York City. Just a century later the United States department of labor showed that less than onehalf of 1 per cent of trade union members were involved in trade union unemployment provisions. The co-operation of employers and workers in unemployment insurance has not proved any more popular or adequate. There are only about 65,000 workers today who are taken care of in this way. Further, company plans, such as that adopted by the General Electric Company in 1930, have made pathetically slight headway. Though the advantages of the compulsory unemployment insurance are thus vast and farreaching, it is necessary’, in the interest of accuracy and candor, to make it clear that it can not in any way be looked upon as a means of getting as out of the present depression. It is too late for that. To have achieved such a result, unemployment insurance should have been adopted back in the days of Theodore Roosevelt, or of Woodrow Wilson, at the latest. But, if it is launched now, it will help to postpone another like collapse and to mitigate its intensity. r It will take at least two more years for scientists to use the world's largest telescope, glass for which has just been poured. So if Dillinger will wait that long, he may be found. A shipment of 500 fleas is being made to Copenhagen. Those sea dogs will stand for anything. The value of a seat on the New York Stock Exchange dropped $29,000 over night. That’s nothing to the drop in the value of the stock exchange.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

PRISONER JOHN IAV ll* Ii I slips ovfr or hawocoffs, |S| j§ |: jj| : J! ABSENCE UNWdnceD' UNTIL ' ?:• I I ' I if-

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make pour letters short, so ell can have a chance. Limit them to ZSO words or less.) URGES PREACHING* OF TRUE GOSPEL By a Times Reader. I read “The Life of Our Lord,” and enjoyed it very much, but I am wondering how many really got the lesson out of it that is in it. If there ever is a time to demonstrate, love and forgiveness it is now. Take the case of John Dilliger; it makes me sorrowful when I read of the revenge that is shown, even in people who profess to be Christians. We must stop and consider this man has a soul that is as valuable to our God as ours. When Jesus hung on the cross He hung for John Dillinger, too. I know of prayers that have gone up for Dillinger and I see the hand of God as well as the enemy. God's ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. We are too busy flirting with the world, we are too busy listening to the radio or some continued story or funny joke. It means something to be a real Christian. The word of God says “hate is to murder.” How many evils and wrongs are covered up in churches today? How many pastors preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ? When people really are saved they won’t be found in dance halls, shows, at card parties, and clubs. Even churches give dances now. Are the preachers preaching for the salvation of souls or “filthy lucre?” Would we go cold and hungry and poor and ragged to bring the gospel to the dying world? tt tt a A MOTORIST SEEKS AN HONEST POLITICIAN i By C. W. Gregg. I would like to know what becomes of state gasoline taxes, and why various taxes on automobiles overlap? Will there ever be a letup to the laws and ordinances being passed to gouge and torment auto owners? It has come to a point now when you feel you are committing a crime to drive downtown. Do you know if there is a politician who is working for these tax reductions who won’t sell out the motoring public? If there is, I would like to have his name and forwarding address. tt tt tt HIS AGE BARS HIM FROM MAKING A LIVING By Dad. I have been reading your paper for a long time. I sold the Morning Journal until the Hotel Palmer was at Illinois and Washington streets. I remember many panics. There was no money, but there was work. In 1893 there was panic work at the fairground. In 1907 there was little work and no money. I have a home, but today I can not get my taxes. I have passed the age I can get a job and pay my taxes. I remember of a Dr. Wagner, who offered a bill in New York to kill old people at the age of 65. When law takes homes from old people, they grieve to death, is that not the same as killing them? It would not be so bad if those officials would give old people a chance. No matter where I ask for work, I am told I am too old. I wish someone would tell me how I can get my taxes this spring. ANOTHER READER COMPARES DILLINGER AND BANKERS By a Reader of The Times. It makes me laugh to read some of the stuff that Captain Matt Leach thinks. The only sleep that Matt has lost is for joy thinking he

The Message Center

ONE SHORT FOR SUPPER

Bv a Friend of Peace. I want to congratulate The Times on its article by William Philip Simms in which Foreign Minister Koki Hiroti was quoted as saying that a war between the United States and Japan would be a ruinous step. The eminent foreign minister goes on to say that the “World war ruined every great nation of Europe. On the other hand, the United States and Japan, to a certain extent, temporarily benefited, as was altogether logical. Asa result, Europe became a little jealous, particularly of the United States. War between the United States and Japan would tend to even things up.” He went on to say that “the rest

has got through the day without coming in contact with Dillinger, that would be my guess about Leach. Leach’s stories about Dillinger should be laughed at by the readers. The story that Dillinger was going to outfit his pals as national guardsmen is another one of Matt's day dreams, caused from losing sleep. Dillinger is not a public enemy, he is the bankers’ enemy and the bankers are the public enemies. The bankers, not Dillinger, are the ones who got the public's money. If Dillinger is arrested and convicted, the public should free him. The public should be 100 per cent for Dillinger, because he is for the public and against the bankers. We should get Dillinger for a leader and start after the bankers. No one knows that Dillinger ever killed any one, but we do know that the bankers have caused the public to starve and die of grief over loss of money. Now is the time for the public to take a hand in this mess and not let the bankers run the. world and get what money is left. u tt a DEBTS OF PEOPLE CAUSE DEPRESSION By Arthur Main. “Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors,” is a part of the Lord’s prayer. Our Lord must have known that debt is depression, and He did not wish to see those He was sent to save depressed by deot, hence He made that subject a part of His petition to the Father in heaven. He still does not wish to see us depressed as we are now. There were a number of contributing factors to our present situation, but we are facing concrete facts, not past causes. With something like $150,000,000.000 total indebtedness of every kind from governmental on down to the smallest individual, approximately $40,000,000,000 of which is mortgage indebtedness, it is inconceivable that even a fourth of this stupendous amount ever can be paid, so why not begin doing something about the situation now’, it has been said by supposedly our smartest men that the economic condition is largely a matter of mental attitude, and if this is correct, all we need do to create better conditions is to think differently than we are thinking now. If the great majority of our population were asked what causes them to think in terms of depression, the answer would be: “Debts are worrying me until I can not sleep or get my mind on anything else.” No President is going to lift us out of this depression so long as about 90 per cent of the people are so heavily in debt that they can not see any way out. Any honest man is sure to suffer great mental depression, often leading to illness

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

Pleads for Peace

of the world would derive some benefit perhaps while our two countries destroyed each other. Japan and America, therefore, should see to it that this war talk gets nowhere.” There is much food for thought there. Today there is more war talk, especially between America and Japan, than ever before. As a “man thinlceth, so he is,” is a mighty good axiom. Why not have a little good will talk for a change? You know, that a person telling a story often, begins to believe it himself. One thing that puzzles me is the fact that Europe is not making a great fuss over the Manchurian situation. Why should we? Let’s leave Asia to the Asiatics and mind our own business.

and death, when he can not meet his obligations. It is even unpopular to suggest that something will have to be done to relieve the pressure under which we are existing, but it is not a question of whether we favor cancellation or modification of debts so much as the abject necessity of doing the thing which will bring relief to the great majority in a very short time. Cancellation of all indebtedness where inability to pay is proven conclusively would bring us out of the depression within thirty days. Present brain trusts, or distrusts, are only getting the taxpayer involved, and is sure to result in disaster. Debt under any conditions is to be deplored, but when a whole nation is involved hopelessly in debts which can not fce paid, collectively ard individually, then we have depression, : for aebt is depression. a a a HE WRITES IN DEFENSE OF STREET CAR CO. By Andrew Eicks. Let's be fair in regard to street I car company wages. They were not reduced. If someone drew’ S9O every two w’eeks he drew too much and some extra man sat on a bench and protected his run. These same extra men drew $lB to S2O a week under the NRA. Mr. Ninety Dollars didn't w’ork eighty-four hours a week but, like all other hour hogs, came up against the fact that someone else had a right to work besides him. These i same men, while their hours w’ere | cut, were raised in hourly pay, and ! also were given a bonus in dollars j and cents, which is not a joke. Now’ in regard to the credit union. | If your credit is good you can bor- ! row any reasonable amount. Nothing compels you to work for the | street car company. I worked extra four years and never worked for a fairer or more honest outfit. I am not working for the company now and have no ax to grind. tt tt a CADLE, DR. GOUTHEY ARE LAUDED By a Young Observer In answering T. S. Martin’s article i in The Times, I want to speak my ; mind. I want to state right now I iam not an employe of this socalled “Lavish Spender” and I do not have the pleasure of getting , paid for saying this, i I was a slow’, unobserving listen- ! er when I first drifted into the Cadle tabernacle and heard this wonderful man, Dr. A. P. Gouthey, talk. I was so deeply impressed by his utter frankness and soulful praying that I was compelled to go back again and again. I.feel very grateful to Mr. Cadle for affording me such a great opportunity. Mr. Martin, it is a great question in my heart whether you would sacrifice to undertake such a great work as Mr. Cadle‘(with the lung and

.’APRIL’ 5. 1934

ailment he has) to do as much for a fact-seeking public. Being afflicted with the same element myself I readily can sympathize with him on how it hinders him in his public speaking. You may be assured I admire him deeply in his willingness to get someone else to speak his heart, and I must say he couldn't have added a better asset than Dr. Gouthey to the public. My only prayer is that the public shall look over such a blinding obstacle as you and see for themselves. I have tried not to make this too hard on you, for I realize that if you attended the services Friday evening, March 30, at the tabernacle, you have not yet recovered from such a humiliating blow as Dr. Gouthey felt justified in dealing you. it n a LAW ENFORCEMENT IS ONE-SIDED, HE SAYS By Gus Winters. This is my first attempt at breaking into print in this column, although I have been a reader of The Times for years. I wish to express my, views as to why many people appear to be in sympathy with Dillinger. There has been unlawful manipulating of the peoples’ money by hundreds of bankers throughout our country. How many of these thieves who are worse than Dillinger and his gang, have been electrocuted? Are they not the direct murderers of thousands of people who, over lass of their money, committed suicide, lost their minds or are starving? Many raise such a rumpus over four murderers who killed but a few men and stole only a few thousands from the rich bankers when these same bankers, who are the direct murderers of hundreds and stole millions, were not even given jail terms. Here you have my opinion of the peoples’ sympathy for Dillinger’s gang. Our enforcement of laws seems only to work certain ways. 800 OUSTING OF OFFICIALS IS REQUESTED By W. E. R., a Taxpayer. Now that Dillinger has escaped, our chief of police and his policemen can run home to mama. Our dear little “chief” wasn’t afraid to stop the walkathon, that didn’t take any nerve. But to catch Dillinger, ha! He hasn’t got the nerve. All our policemen know how to do is to ride around in good automobiles—which they don’t know how to drive—and stick poor taxi drivers. Anew law has been passed making the taxi drivers buy taxi drivers’ license, costing $2. Also included are a doctor’s examination which has to be made by a certain doctor, and a picture, which also costs money. If our chief and Paul V. McNutt would think of some way to keep down crime the nation would be better off. Let's get on our toes, fellow citizens, and get these men out of office and put someone in who will do something. Please publish this.

ILLUSION

BY FRANCESCA Somehow, I would not even dare To hope you care— For dear, you mean so much to me. Can't you see That if I did, and then would find You were only being kind— The wagon I’ve hitched to a star would fall! And I—l would not care at all. Castles look better up in the air Than built on sand—no matter where.