Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 284, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 April 1934 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times (A ICRIFFS-HOWARD KEWIPAPEK) ROT W. HOWARD President TALOOTT POWELL Editor SAKL D. BAKER Badness Msnsgtr Phono—Riley 6531

Member* of CnPM Free*. Sertpps • Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Ownad and published daily (except Sunday! by The Indianapolis Time# Publishing Company, 214-220 West MaryIsnd street, Indianapolis, Ind. Fries in Marlon county. 2 centa a copy; elsewhere, 3 rents —delivered by carrier. 1J cents a week. Mall subscription rate* in Indiana. $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 85 cents a month.

~ ’ ~r •*/ • Givi Light and tht Piopit Will rind Their o*cn TToy

SATURDAY, APRIL 7. 1534 GALLOPING AMNESIA OUR memories are short. The winter of suffering and discontent is soon forgotten in the joy of spring. And sometimes the religion we get under adversity brings backsliding on the morrow. So perhaps it is not altogether surprising that many of our business leaders now should be praying and working for the destruction of NRA, emasculation of the truth-in-securities law, junking of the stock exchange bill and postponement of basic banking and tax reforms and a general retreat from the new deal. The ortlv surprise is that the winter is forgotten before spring is fully here. With many millions still unemployed in the cities and most farmers on the poverty line, with many industries and communities yet untouched by the beginning of recovery, the loss of memory is at least somewhat premature/ If we go back to the old ways in business and finance it will be only a question of time —probably a short time—before we pitch into another depression. This is not a matter of guessing; it is cause and effect. The depression was not an act of God. Our system produced it and will produce another unless the system is made more honest and more efficient. Our experience shows that each depression comes more quickly than the last and each is more severe than the last. Not many months ago a lot of frightened business leaders were sure that the capitalist system in America was done for. Their hysteria then was as extreme as their loss of memory today. But their hysteria, exaggerated as it was, nevertheless grew out of the hard fact recognized by them that the system can not survive many more such blows as the last. The issue today is the same as the day President Roosevelt took office. Shall we improve the system w'hich failed, or shall we let it go on and destroy itself? The end is not in doubt-only the method. The old system with its inevitable depressions and misery is going to be changed. The question is whether the change shall be orderly or violent. The purpose of the President is to make the change slowly and orderly. Business leaders who think they can save their skins by turning back have forgotten the lessons of history, remote and recent.

HONOR—AT TWENTY PACES! HPHE ancient and honorable custom of dueling is still observed in France; and one reason that a civilized people like the French put up with it might be that the people who take part in duels are such atrocious marksmen. Roger de Tour, Royalist leader, fought a duel the other day with Deputy Jan Mistier, former cabinet member. They met on a rifle range near Carcassone. fired two shots apiece at a distance of twenty paces —and missed each other completely. Honor, one gathers, was satisfied, and the men left the field unscathed. How even the rottenest shot could miss a target the size of a human body—and miss it twice—at twenty paces is almost beyond comprehension. That two such miserable marksmen could be found at one time and place is even more incomprehensible. But its probably all for the best. Given such marksmen, the custom of dueling has everything to recommend it, and not a single observable drawback. DR. MYtREGOR KERENSKY WIRT COME years ago, R. R. McGregor, then head of the National Electric Light Association's Illinois branch, wrote a letter outlining methods to use in defeating candidates for public office who favored government ownership of utilities. “My idea would be not to try logic or reason.'* said Mr. McGregor, ‘ but to try to pin the Bolshevik idea on my opponent.’’ Recently another group became alarmed about pending Roosevelt legislation. In Gary, Ind., just across the line from the state where Mr. McGregor held forth, one of their number reached into the bag and pulled out the same old trick. “The brain trust is Communistic, is fomenting revolution.’’ wrote Dr. Wirt to one of the principal opponents of the stock market bill, who promptly incorporated the letter in his testimony against the measure. Pinning the Bolshevik label has been a good, faithful old gag. But. like cheesecloth drapery used for the ghost in Halloween revels, it is wearing thin and dirty. PROMISING OVERTURES THE notes recently exchanged between the governments of Japan and the United States have an encouraging ring to them. The Japanese government asserts that “no question exists between our two countries that is fundamentally incapable of amicable solution.” and the American government indorses this statement wholeheartedly. All in all, the diplomats involved seem to have displayed a genuine desire to end the troubled situation that has existed. Between honeyed words at the council table and actual performance there is often, of course, a wide gulf. But the spirit of these new exchanges is a good one, and, if persisted in, tt la bound to have a good effect. If we continue in the tenor of these notes, we can avert a disastrous conflict. - " 1 1 11 - Most of our profanity, says a professor, was in use 800 yean ago. Golf isn’t that old, is it?

MAN OR ANIMAL? A PET rabbit in Chicago fell into the hands of the Dolice the other day because it bit three children. The coppers prepared to put it to death; but Just in the nlck*of time they received an indignant telegram from some anti-cruelty society in lowa, so the execution was deferred until the bunny could be tested for rabies. A thoughtful man is apt to wonder slightly at the zeal which people can put into minor cau=;es at a time when stupendous events are taking place. Cruelty to animals provided that the killing of a rabbit comes under that heading is a sad thing to contemplate, to be sure; but cruelty to human beings has not exactly disappeared 'from this weary and sinstained earth, and one would suppose that it might make a better goal for the efforts of the humanitarians. CRIMINAL POLITICS A NATION-WIDE drive to rid the country of racketeers and gangsters will be launched by the national administration, according to dispatches from Washington, just as soon as congress finishes action on certain pending anti-crime bills. These laws will give the federal government new power to step into local situations and deal with crooks who have not, so far, been within reach of federal laws. Significantly enough, it is stated at the capital that federal agents will be enabled to strike directly at gangsters ‘ now shielded by crooked politicians or city officials.” It will be a fine thing if the federal authorities actually do this; and it will be even finer if by doing so they force us to realize what the real trouble with our police system has been. Nothing could be much odder than the way in which we berate the inefficiency of our police in dealing with organized crime, while we simultaneously put up with the* kind of municipal politics which makes such inefficiency inevitable. How is the ordinary city police force administered, anyhow? Well, the voters in their wisdom elect as mayor John Doe, who Is known to be hand in glove with the most unsavory political gang in town. Mayor Doe appoints Lieutenant Hooziz chief of police; Chief Hooziz immediately promotes all the officers who favored John Doe's election and demotes those who did not. Hooziz knows he will stay chief of police only as long as he keeps on the good side of Mayor Doe, and one of Mayor Doe’s chief allies Is the high-powered lawyer whose clients include the biggest racketeers in town. Furthermore, Mayor Doe Is busy selling special favors to some of the town's best citizens, so the general atmosphere is hardly conducive to strict honesty. Asa result, Hooziz keeps his trap shut, does as he's told, and makes hay while the sun shines. A couple of years later some other politician beats Mayor Doe, anew chief is appointed, and the same routine is followed, with anew set of names. Now this is the sort of thing that is put up with in the great majority of our cities. The wonder is that the racketeers and gangsters haven't walked off bodily with most of our city halls. If this federal campaign makes us realize that the war on crime ultimately stands or falls by local political conditions, it will be worth all its costs.

THE ENVIABLE LIFE are moments in which it would be quite possible to feel envious of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. For the next seven months this man is going to be just about the most isolated individual on earth. He'll be all by himself in a little hut on Little America, and while it'll be pretty lonely and desolate down there he at least won't have anything to bother him. He won't, for instance, have to read articles on the merits and demerits of the various ramifications of the new deal. That tea cup tempest about Communism in the “brain tilist won t touch him. He won't be bothered by long speculations about who is going to fight whom, and where, for the heavyweight championship. He'll miss uncounted stories about flagpole sitters, bathing beauty contests and political campaigns. Door-to-door peddlers will never be able to ring his bell; insurance agents won't be able to open fire on him. All in all. this man Byrd hasn’t picked out such a bad spot.

AN UNWISE TAX r | 'HERE should be no compromise with the A proposed cocoanut oil tax in the pending revenue bill. It is a tax that would mulct consumers of many millions, and yield the government little. The difference would flow into the pockets of the cottonseed crushers, packers and processors of dairy products. It is a tax that would prostrate a basic industry in the Philippine islands and thus destroy a profitable foreign market for American farm products and manufacturers. It is a tax that would violate the United States’ three- weeks-old independence pledge to the Filipino people and endanger success of our peace policy in the far east. Men will not be permitted to wear bathing suits without shirts or jerseys at Atlantic City, this summer. When it comes to that, let the women be first. Chemists soon will have a drug that will make supermen out of us. predicts a Columbia university professor. Stale stuff, any dope peddler will tell him. A Michigan preacher fulfilled his promise of ten years ago by not preaching until he became 100 years old. Now he should promise not to preach until he is 200. It’s been discovered that half of your body’s energy is radiated in waves. That's what you get for listening to crooners over the air. A marine and a navy pilot crashed 14.000 feet over San Diego, and when they landed safely they probably argued over who had the right of way. Mme. Zehra Couyoumdjoglou has been helping Insull in his fight against extradition, grateful probably because he pronounced her name correctly. s

TARIFF SENSE ON Thursday the house of congress conferred upon Mr. Roosevelt tremendous power of tariff-making and it was about the first sensible attitude toward tariff on the part of congress since tariff was first invented. The power given Mr. Roosevelt, if O. K.'d by the senate, will enable him to take the tariff out of politics and hand it over to impartial and judicious business management, where it belongs. To feather their own political nests, congressmen have been trading back and forth their souls to secure personal advantage. Moreover, the congressional habit of ‘‘tinkering with the tariff,” up or down, has meant thorns in the head and heart of every business, concern interested in or at all dependent upon foreign trade and raw materials. Tariff in politics has made tariff policy and management a disreputable, dishonorable and inhumane patchwork of regional greed regardless of the welfare of the country as a whole, our great tariff walls, erected to prevent the foreigner selling to us and thus enable him to pay what he owes, have become a structure upon which perch the hawks of monopoly and the owls of economic theory. And it is quite probable that a President sweating and worrying to arrive at what is best for the country as a whole will endeavor to go far in making the tariff strictly a matter of business management, if given the power. WHITE HOUSE IZAAKS '];HE dynasty of angling Presidents that began with Calvin Coolidge and continued through Herbert Hoover goes on with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Strikingly different in many respects, all three knew and know the lure of a tug on the line. Picture the three men at their sport; Coolidge, calmly casting in a secluded brook, silently smiling at the tricks of little fish to get away, allowing the secret service men to take his prey from the hook and rebait the same. Hoover, a more elaborate sportsman, building a summer camp for his headquarters, going in for somewhat bigger fish, but never departing from the hallowed traditions of the inland angler. Roosevelt, choosing the whole ocean for his operations, traveling to the deep blue waters with a large company and a considerable part of the navy, anxious to tackle the biggest of the finny tribe. In politics, as in angling, by their fish ye shall know them.

Liberal Viewpoint —By DR. lIARRY ELMER BARNES =

Editor’s Note—This is the first of two articles by Harry Elmer Barnes, rh.D., based on H. G. Wells’ famous novel, “Tono-Bungay.” It becomes of interest in the light of the current debate over the pure food and drugs bill. Proponents of that measure make it clear that the bill is not aimed at legits- - mate proprietary remedies, but is intended to re-, strain quackery.

IT has surprised me greatly that no publisher has been enterprising enough to promote H. G. Wells’ greatest novel, “Tono-Bungay.” The new pure food and drug act and the Insull flight have made it a perfect “natural” for anew lease of life and increased popularity. The novel is built around the amassing of a great fortune through the successful marketing of a worthless patent medicine. All the frauds and fakes which Mr. Tugwell and others are aiming to curb today are admirably illustrated in this work of a quarter of a century ago. And in the end, Edward Ponderevo, who made a great fortune in swindling the poor and the hopeful, had to flee from England to die abroad in disgrace. Tine novel is so cogeVit in our present situation that it will be worth while to present some of the more striking passages which expose the unscrupulous character of those who aim to fat upon the credulity of the simple-minded, the invalids and the hypochondriacs. First we see Edward Ponderevo trying to induce his conscientious nephew George to come with him and handle the publicity for “TonoBungay,” the fake remedy, which Ponderevo is ready to market.

A TER explaining the enterprise and admitting the worthless character of the bilge as a medical remedy, Edward asks his nephew for his reaction to his proposition to join him and get rich quick: “’Well, George!’ he said, quite happily unconscious of my silent criticism, ’what do you think of it all?’ • “'Well,’ I said, ‘in the first place—it’s a damned swindle!’ “‘Tut! Tut!’ said my uncle, ‘lt's as straight as It’s fair trading!’ “ ‘So much the worse for trading,’ I said. “ ‘lt's the sort of thing eveiybody does. After all. there’s no harm in the stuff—and it may do good. It might do a lot of good—giving people confidence, f'r instance, against an epidemic. See? Why not? I don't see where your swindle comes in.’ “ ‘H'm.’ I said. ‘lt's a thing you either see or don’t see.’ ‘“l’d like to know what sort of trading isn’t a swindle in its way. Everybody who does a large advertised trade is selling something common on the strength of saying it’s uncommon. Look at Chickson—they made him a baronet. Look at Lord Radmore, who did it on lying about the alkali in soap; Rippin’ ads those were of his too ’ “‘You don't mean to say you think doing this stuff up in bottles and swearing it's the quintessence of strength and making poor devils buy it at that, is straight?’ “'Why not, George? How do we know it mayn’t be the quintessence to them so far as they’re concerned?’ “'Oh!’ I said, and shrugged my shoulder. tt tt tt “•' I ''HERE'S faith. You put faith in ’em... A i grant our labels are a bit emphatic. No good setting people against the medicine. Tell me a solitary trade nowadays that hasn't to be—emphatic. It’s the modern way! Everybody understand it—everybody allows for it.’ “ But the world would be no worse and rather better, if all this stuff of yours was run down a conduit into the Thames.’ “ Don't see that, George, at all. *Mong other things, all our people would be out of work. Unemployed! I grant you Tono-Bungay may be — not quite so good a find for the world as Peruvian bark, but the point is George—it makes trade. “And the world lives on trade. Commerce! A romantic exchange of commodities and property. Romance. ’Magination. See? You must look at these things in a broad light. Look at the wood—and forget the trees! And hang it, George We got to do these things. There's no way unless you do. What do you mean to do—anyhow?’ “ ‘There's ways of living,’ I said, ‘without either fraud or lying.’ “ 'You're a bit stiff. George. There's no fraud in this affair. I’ll bet my hat. But what do you propose to do? Go as a chemist to someone who is running g business, and draw a salary, without a share like I offer you. Much sense in that! It comes out of the swindle—as you call it—just the same.’ “ 'Some business are straight and quiet, anyhow'; supply a sound article that is really needed, don't shout advertisement.’ “ ‘No George. There you're behind the times. The last of that sort was sold up ’bout five years LCO.’ ” - *■ '***- ’ - -lijSjL-.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so aU can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) tt a tt SEEKS PROBE OF LIGHT CO. RATES By F. J>. I am a daily reader of your paper and like it fine. I'm writing you in regard to the electric light rates here. Has the light company any right to charge two bills for the same meter? Here in Greenwood, if more than one family lives in the same house they have to pay $1 for each family whether that amount of electricity is used or not. Our bill had been running more than $1 until this took effect lately. Is this right? We don’t quite understand and would like for you to investigate. HOW CAN s"hE%IEET RISES IN LIVING COSTS? By J. F. M. I am sure J. Van Sickle's letter in The Times should be of great interest to those of us who are barely existing. How can the government expect a family of five to meet the rise in priecs of food, clothing, etc., on a salary of $13.50 a week? That is the code wage for a shoe clerk. Errand girls in department stores are receiving the same amount—that is considered sufficient for a man, no matter how large his family, to live comfortably on.

When is the middle class going to get a dectn wage? How about some of our rich men giving up their hundreds of thousands a year? After all, we have our pride. I have a fair education. I am a young, hard-working housewife and I resent seeing rich women with their furs being so busy with their various clubs, and philanthropic work for we poor women who could teach them how to live on $13.50 a week —less than they pay for one pair of shoes. tt tt tt RADIO SERMON SUGGESTED FOR HOWARD CADLE By T. F. L. If we all lined up with Mr. Cadle, as Mrs. Ridpath suggested, who would send us the sausage for breakfast? There is one thing he always is trying to impress people with in his broadcasts, and that is how great he is. how many worldly goods he had accumulated, and how big they are. If you have a sick and hungry child, you pray. If Professor Davis played for you on the great $35,000 organ, it ought to make your child's little stomach feel better, Mrs. Ridpath. or perhaps you can have the honor of walking through orie of the nineteen doors. That would be swell. But don't fool yourself. God sends some of his servants to a sick child. That's why we pray. That's why we believe in prayer. I would like to have Mr. Cadle forget his own greatness some morning, and read over the radio S. Matt, 25 Chapter, strrting with the thirty-first verse. tt a tt HONEST LABOR DOESN’T BRING WEALTH, HE SAYS By F. B. In answer to Colonel C. E. Wood’s letter in your paper as well as mine about Public Enemy No. 1, it seems as though most of the people have a one-track mind the same as yours. You put all the strain on one man. You do not have to go to other

•*- ■ ••• V 7' V •

The Message Center

A NEW DAY

Disagrees With Einstein

By Joson. Reading your editorial quoting Professor Einstein’s reflection upon our American school system as tending to preserve “the initiative and independence of pupils far more successfully than do the schools in Europe” prompts this letter to you. I do not agree with the literal interpretation of Einstein’s observation. Einstein is a rebel in spirit and action and this fact allows me to assume that his comparison of the American and European schools was a figurative one punctuating a desire in his own mind and not a wish that our methods of educating be adopted as a standard for the world. Your analysis of Einstein's remarks fails to probe his acumen in discussing the superficiality of conduct and morality abounding in the American success version so innocently (?) fashioned by advertised formulae and sponsored by the various pep sessions of Chambers of Commerce, luncheon clubs and Christian advancers. Our school life is a mob movement. Its method induces a fol-lower-the-leader psychology. The recent basketball tourney with its attendance of “hero worship infected students” demonstrates my point of view. Now youth certainly must have an abandon of spirit and it is a sign of health and vigor. But when our edu-

countries for history of robbers and killers. Dillinger is a brave man and a wise one. George Washington was a revolutionist and a traitor to English standards. Why? Dillinger takes the same attitude toward banks and insurance companies. Why did we go to the World war? Our big money men had interests over there that had to be protected. Who were the killers in that case? Soldiers had last nothing over there, and what was their reward? What about the bankers who have ruined lives of the poor and even have indirectly caused death. I do not have to leave my neigbhorhood to see these facts. What about the insurance companies which put a working age on the factory man After he is 45 he is cast aside. Yet he has to live and pay taxes. The law itself makes killers. Why? Our lawmakers and officials are in cahoots to graft and appropriate high salaries for themselves. You can not make a million dollars by honest labor. If you think you can, just try it at 40 cents an hours. I'll give you a better chance, figure it at $1 an hour and thirtyfive hours a week and subtract your expenses. How old would you be when you got $100,000? Don’t you think that we need more John Dillingers to make better times? You can turn this over in your mind and make your own conclusions. tt tt tt TRAFFIC REFORM IS SUGGESTED FOR CITY Bx Jimmy Cafooro*. We have inherited a lot of things from the past. Among these are a beautiful monument on the Circle, utilities companies educated (by us> to charge a maximum and give back some small change in silver and a traffic system that dates back to Governor Morton. In the days of Mayor Reginald Sullivan's father, and even when Charlie Jewett was mayor here, such a traffic system was practical. Where

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

cational system stresses the mob psychology then one can justly rise to arms and dispute any contention that the system makes for initiative and independence. Our political entourage prevents most of our educators from developing the minds of youth into larger perspectives. We have fine teachers who are thwarted in doing bigger things by the log cabin minds of those! who control matters of sociological and psychological import. Figuratively speaking, I believe Einstein’s remarks were not directed in applause of our system, but in anticipation of the capability of the average American student to honest freedom and individuality, if left, to the care of our competent teachers not embarrased by stingy budgets, production methods and conformity to opinions invented by a mixture of reformers and dumb politicians.The European schools always have stressed the cultural and we go there or to, a pattern of the European school to round out a full cultural life. I did not do this but as my complex failed to allow for playing “follow the leader,” I have been fortunate in retaining a sense of initiative and independence. Maybe Einstein agrees with your editorial comment regarding his remarks. Then I will have to disagreee with him, too.

it took a horse almost a minute to crot or walk a city block and a fairly long time to make a crossing, the people today step on the gas and make four or five semaphores. Besides that, where there were ten horses there are now a thousand motor cars. In those days a policeman's corner was his own business and he operated it in his own way; he did not care what went on a block away. Each corner was a problem in itself. Today traffic demands semaphores at every intersection in the mile square. Every semaphore should operate co-ordinately. Traffic should be so organized that an automobile entering at one end of the mile square and wanting to emerge at the other end could do so without stopping once. If the auto was turned it would wait only on one sign. Avenues could be worked into this scheme. Four years ago the writer approached the police w'ith such a plan and the gentleman in charge considered it a huge joke and sent him with it to the Negro garage operator at headquarters. Recently he suggested the same system, explaining it in detail. There was no response. It remains for the public to see what will be done. a a a SENTENCE MADE DILLINGER PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 Bv R. R. The records show that John Dillinger was sentenced to the state reformatory on Sept. 15. 1924, for ten to twenty years on charges of assault and battery with intend to rob. anfl two to fourteen years on charges of conspiracy to commit a felony. He began serving his sentence at the Indiana reformatory. He was transferred to the state prison at Michigan City, July 15, 1929. The. date of Dillinger's parole was May 23, 1933. Citizens and neighoors from Morgan county* where Dillinger lived, approved the petition signed by 184 neighbors of Dillinger's, including the victim of the robbery and the judge and prosecutor who

APRIL 7, 1934

gained his conviction. Dillinger pleaded at a hearing that he wished to go home to assist his aged father and be at the bedside of his sick stepmother, who died shortly before he returned home. Dillinger had served eight years when he was paroled and was eligible for such action. Those who pleaded with the clemency board for a parole were sincere in their belief that their acts were justified; neither they nor the clemency board had any way of knowing they were wrong. It was shown that Dillinger was oversentenced in comparison with his partnai in the crime which they comnmted. Dillinger then ,Jost all respect for law and the justice of his confinement. Dillinger’s mother died when he was quite young and he grew up without the influence of his mother. He returned home to find his stepmother gone and the world generally cold to him. This and much more is only history, I pause to ask: “Why- kick then clemency board and the Governor?” For, as the facts indicate, the pardon board, together with the Governor, have done nothing more than their apparent duty. The average citizen can not and will not be misled by unjust criticism. tt tt tt EX-TREASURER POINTS OUT LETTER ERROR By Timothy P. Sexton, In reference to a recent letter in the Message Center, don’t you think it would be a good idea before you print stuff about people that you check up on same and report it correctly? For your information the records of the Marion county courthouse will show I only served as county treasurer for one term, two years.

So They Say

I reject the contention of the Austrian government that any intervention against the Austrian' state has been undertaken or planned by the Reich.—Chancellor Hitler of Germany. I do not think the federal government should be encouraged to stay in the relief pictures forever Harry L. Hopkins, federal civil works administrator. It is absurd to say that America and Japan are now or ever will be at loggerheads.—Hiroshi Haito, Japanese ambassador to United States. My ideas haven't changed in the last fifteen years.—Emma Goldman, famous anarchist.

Chance Glance

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICH I saw you only for one night. You said no word to me. Our eyes met fire between their depths. We passed on carelessly. And now I am a faithful wife, Cleave to my-husband's side. I have dropped girlhood willingly That I miglyt be his bride. I know I must hold wickedness. You have my mind enthralled. And still I keep remembering The night that year eyes called. ’