Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 286, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 April 1934 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times <A CRirrs-HOWABD NEWsrArrit) ROT W. HOWARD President TALCOTT TOW ELL , Editor EARL D. BAKER Business Manager Phone —Riley 5531

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E* S'' vT Ill'S*; - Give Light ani the People Will Tint Their Own Way

TUTODA Y, APRIL in. 1934. WANTED: DEMOCRATIC LEADERS T EADERSHIP is the mark of President Roosevelt. That distinguishes him from his immediate predecessors in the White House. He has made mistakes. But he has not made the mistake of folding his hands when things were to be done. For a year congress followed his leadership. Thi* was due in part to the President's personal qualities, his awareness that new paths were necessary, his daring, and his ability to think fast. It also was due in part of the emergency. Because speed and co-ordinated effort are essential in an emergency, the nation always turns to an able executive for action and congress always responds under that -public pressure during a crisis. But now, for the first time in this administration, the legislative program is getting into a jam all along the line. To the degree that this is due to an inevitable transitional shift by congress back to normal deliberative procedure, there is nothing to worry about. This is far better than the gag rules which were in force a short time ago. The result of gag rules is to store up destructive resentment in congress and also to destroy publio confidence in representative government. Therefore it would be shortsighted to - criticize congress for returning to its deliberative function. tt a tt The danger—and there is a danger—ln the present legislative situation is to be found elsewhere. It is not in the congressional machinery or in the rank and file membership, but in the Democratic leaders. They are supposed to be the President's commanders in the field. But they are not fighting. That is why the prospects for Rooseveltian legislative achievement, which were so bright a month ago, are far from rosy today. Failure of the Democratic leaders in congress reflects a basic weakness in that party. The party lacks unity, conviction, direction. The old Democratic leaders are the same type as the old Republican politicians—in both cases they constitute a conservative old guard. Today the Democratic party machine is tripping up Franklin Roosevelt just as a generation ago the Republican party machine got in the way of Theodore Roosevelt's reforms. Os course the President has been trying for almost a year and a half to reorganize his party on progressive lines. But the success has been negligible. Partly because a party organization is about the hardest thing in the world to change, and partly because the President entrusted this task to Jim Farley, a smart but unscrupulous novice. At any rate, the conservative old regulars are still in the saddle on Capitol hill—and they are not much different from the Jim Watsons of the Coolidge-Hoovcr regime. St tt tt All of which explains in large part the unnecessary connivance with the veterans’ lobby against the President, the sabotage of the Fletcher-Rayburn stock exchange bill, the attempt to lower taxes when more revenue is needed to pay debts, the desertion of the Wagner labor disputes bill, the flirting with the sixteen-to-one silver extremists, the timidity in face of the McLeod depositors bill, the long delay in air mail legislation. Day by day during the President’s vacation the administration has lost ground in congress. If that trend is allowed to continue it will not be easy to turn in the opposite direction. The President can not regain that ground by letting his hostile or half-hearted generals in congress go natural. Too many of them do not believe in the Roosevelt policies. Thanks to the President’s leadership, the country is following him. But his own party management is not. Unless the President on his return to Washington can put fight into the Democratic leaders, enemies of the new deal are apt to capture congress and wreck the Roosevelt program of recovery and reform. THE HOME SHOW INDIANAPOLIS has the opportunity this week of viewing one of the greatest home showi in history. The Indianapolis Home Show has become an institution and should be supoprted to the fullest extent by the residents of Indianapolis and Indiana. Each year this exposition offers every visitor an opportunity to view and obtain information on the latest methods of home construction and to inspect the most modern advancements in home outfitting. The show, which is being staged in the Manufacturers' building at the Indiana state fairground, has been jammed this week with persons interested in America's greatest need of today—permanent homes. The exposition, without doubt, is one of the outstanding public services presented to Indianapolis citizens by its business leaders. NEW EDUCATION NOTHING is much more interesting than a bold experiment in education; and one of the boldest seems to be the one which will be tried next year at Olivet college, in Michigan, where they are going to try to get along without classes. Students at Olivet will be entirely “on their own" as far as getting an education is concerned. The mornings will be devoted to private study, afternoons to athletics, and evenings to discussions, debates, and meetings of students and. professors for informal chats. At the end of the year, comprehensive examinations, both oral • and written, will be given to see just how the students have developed under this plan. A college without classrooms is something new under the sun, and a more drastic departure from ordinary educational routine would be hard to imagine. But the experiment sounds extremely in-

teresting; indeed, one of the encouraging things about education today is Its growing willingness to make drastic ard far-reading experiments. It is hardly going too far to say that our colleges and universities have fallen a little short of our expectations in the last decade or so. We have been living in a time of unprecedented change. New developments in science, in industry, in the whole complicated art of making and distributing the necessities and luxuries of life, have changed the basis on which we live and work together. Yet our institutions of higher learning have not been giving us a thoughtful, questioning, and intellecually alert leadership to help us meet this change. Instead—well, to a big percentage of the population, college is a place where they play football. To an almost equally large percentage, it is a sort of glorified country club where a young man can put in four pleasant years getting his rough edges planed down and fitting himself for movement in polite society. It is a great training school for bond salesmen and brisk young business men. That is why these collegiate experiments are so welcome. Not all of them may work. That doesn’t matter. The point is that some sort of change is needed if our colleges are to fill the place they should fill in our national life. Persistent experimentation will help them find it. WIRE REGULATION £JR. W. M. W. SPLAWN'S report to congress on communications companies gives ample reason for strict regulation of telephone, telegraph, cable and radio companies. More, when he finds that one of these great companies, the largest in the field, is more skilled than any state government with which it has to deal, then is the time for the federal government to step in and Investigate the whole field to determine the scope of the necessary regulation. The American people, the Splawn report says, are entitled to know whether they are being overcharged for communications service, whatever satisfaction they may have with the quality of that sendee. None other than the federal government, operating through a senate committee or through the new proposed communications commission, can give the public the information that is its due. THEN AND NOW ONCE upon a time a woman who did not marry might as well have carried a square white sign with black letters which announced to all the world that she was a stainless being, an unsuccessful creature called an old maid. She had failed at woman’s chief duty. She had not won a man. The fact that there may have been a row of rejected suitors in her drawing room or that' she merely didn’t want to marry didn’t matter. Husbands had been given out and she had not been on the receiving list. Sometimes she loved a man and wouldn’t marry because he had vices and she waited for him to reform. That was the case with Lily Miller, the old maid in “Ah, Wilderness,” portrayed by Eda Heinmann. She didn't stop loving her man. She wouldn’t marry the mah but for eighteen years she kept on waiting. It wasn't because she was a colorless inindividual or a weakling who was afraid to take a chance, either. She had sympathy, understanding, a sense of humor and a graciousness that made life amusing. But she couldn't forget that once upon a time, when the man on whom she centered her bottledup affections had been young, he had stepped aside for a minute and committed a sin. He had been penitent, sorry. Fortunately today, in the new economic set-up, there are so many new men constantly walking along any woman’s street that she can't sit and place unseen carnations on the grave of any lost romance. Still more fortunately, she doesn’t want to! For love, fortunately, does not last forever unless it has some nourishment. Maybe an unhealthy memory does. If the owner of it examined it, she would find that it couldn’t stand the sunlight—just dark corners for foolish hearts. Oh, yes, we agree that the thing that Romeo felt for Juliet was beautiful and the night that Leander swam a river to keep his dpte with Hero he died doing a noble thing. But if Romeo had died and Juliet hadn’t, the chances are ten to one that she would have married some other young noble and referred to the hero of the balcony act as an old beau. Hero, today, would not have chosen a man who lived on her side of the river. For that is life. Nothing is real in it but change. It is fortunate, for no one could live with an old pain or a blighted hope. Not very romantic, you say. But true! Lily Miller would have made an understanding wife. She would have been happier than she was and so would Sid Davis, who couldn’t hold a job or stop drinking. We won't venture to say that Sid would have rereformed. People may perform that act for reasons of religion or economy, but never for love. But anyway Lily would have been happier. So would Sid. However, if it had been today she could have used that surplus devotion in other channels. No life has to be stifled now. The world is large. Still, even at that we are 'willing to bet Sid did have a rival. Maybe—just maybe—sometimes love is a perennial plant that grows without watering. GETTING DOWN TO FACTS 'T'HE congressional request that the Federal Power Commission make an elaborate survey of electricity rates throughout the country—to ascertain, among other things, exactly how rates charged by publicly owned plants compare with those charged by private concerns—sounds like an exceedingly sensible move. For many years we have been hearing a good deal about the difference between these rates. On the one hand we have been told that the publicly owned plant offers consumers a vast saving; on the other, that such plants are wasteful, extravagant, and inefficient. and that their rates are really no lower than those of private companies when all factors are properly considered. This survey ought to enable us to settle definitely just which arguments are correct. We can tackle the entire power question a lot more sensibly after this survey has been completed.

Liberal Viewpoint “By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES =

IF those employers who are opposing the Wagnpr labor disputes bill hsd even the slightest knowledge of industrial and social history, many of them certainly would be ashamed of their attitude. The automobile industry, for example, relies for a majority of its sales upon the insistence that Americans must be thoroughly up-to-date in the model of car which they drive. The automobile industry does not stand alone in this respect. American manufacturing and merchandising depends to a very considerable degree upon the psychological element involved in being thoroughly up-to-date. We must keep up with the Joneses. The moguls of the automobile industry and their associates in American business who are opposing the principle of collective bargaining show the greatest inconsistency in their thought and social policy. They are exhibiting a model of social thought which has long since been outlawed in the civilized world outside the United States. Theirattitude toward the labor problem is of a type which was common before any automobile ever was put on the market. Indeed, the most advanced countries in the western world had abandoned such an attitude while the stage coach still was popular. At the best our industrialists exhibit a horse and buggy psychology while proudly riding about in the latest streamline model of automobile conveyance. a tt tt LET us look at a few of the elementary historical facts. Cotton manufacture in England was dealing with trade unions as early as 1759. Labor unionism was legalized in England over a century ago as a result of the labors of Joseph Hume and Francis Place. The position of labor was made secure by laws of 1871 and 1876. Even imperial France under Napoleon 111 legalized strikes in 1864. Twenty years later the Third Republic conferred freedom upon labor organizations. The government of Germany under the kaiser revoked the anti-socialistic laws after 1890 and allowed labor to organize. The lesser countries of Europe followed suit, and labor very generally had won freedom to organize and bargain before the dawn of the twentieth century. Until a recent wave of Fascism swept over Europe, manufacturers there felt themselves lucky if they had to deal with nothing more radical than trade unionism. In Europe, they did not face merely a liberal and benevolent “brain trust,” but had to cope with socialism, communism or syndicalism, compared with which labor unionism seemed rather conservative.

V u u THOSE American manufacturers who are waiting for a little spot of Fascism in the United States to serve as an antidote against trade unionism will do well to take a second thought and to study the status of manufacturers under Mussolini and Hitler. Industry is regimented to a degree which makes the new deal seem rugged individualWm by comparison. If our industrialists had more astuteness, they would cultivate, cherish and encourage the American Federation of Labor as a bulwark against radicalism. The federation is conservative and capitalistic. Its two presidents, Gompers and Green, have kept the federation out of politics and have prevented the formation of a powerful labor party in the United States. John L. Lewis, head of the union, that the steel industry has been fighting of late, tried to throw his organization to the support of Calvin Coolidge. Matthew Woll, very prominent in the councils of the Federation of Labor, long has been a vicepresident of the National Civic Federation, one of our most reactionary and fanatically patrioteering organizations. Moreover, nothing which the federation asks for in the way of wage scales is any more than would be necessary to insure adequate purchasing power on the part of American workers. Neither automobiles nor anything else can be sold unless the people have money. Organized labor and collective bargaining are, in reality, a bulwark against real economic and social radicalism. If American business does not make friends with the former, they sooner or later will have to deal with the latter, which will reject all overtures and compromise.

Capital Capers ■ BY GEORGE ABELL———

IN the sacrosanct precincts of the little Alibi Club on 1-street —a men's club so exclusive that you can’t get the membership list without using a blackjack—tennis players gathered to pay tribute to Henry Bennings Spencer, capital millionaire whose court they used all season. Sir Ronald Lindsay, bulky, jovial British ambassador, who plays all the time but is still second rate, drawled a few words about the “extra'in’ry kindness” of Spencer. Ruddy-cheeked, massaged Minister Bostrom of Sweden also rose, lifted his champagne glass and proposed: “A toast to Mr. Spencer, genial sportsman.” Bostrom is a first-class player. Despite his bulk, he races like mad over the court, leaps in the air as he smashes his way to victory with his Swedish racquet. Unlike his big British colleague, his weight seems no handicap. There were other diplomatic tennis players at the Alibi Club .meeting—young Ramon Padilla of the Spanish embassy, who plays a good, efficient game; Louis de Olivares, whose brother is one of the best known sportsmen in Europe; Baron Paul Shell of Hungary, who once sold caviar and now plays tennis and eats caviar afterward. Court Owner Spencer modestly accepted the bouquets and champagne toasts, confined hinjself to a few' words of appreciation. a a a JOHN CARTER, alias Jay Franklin, who left the state department rather suddenly after writing a magazine article entitled, “We Need a War,” depicting war between the United States and Japan, has become a ghost w r riter for Agriculture Secretary Wallace. The Carters* now are established in Washington, where John finds a fertile field for his literary talents. In addition, to his ghost waiting and occasional excursions into the magazine realm, the ex-state department boy has been busy as co-author of “The New Dealers,” a series of articles about new deal personalities. a a a ' | 'HE Chilean minister to Cuba, Emilio Bello Edwards, has come to town from Havana and is temporarily in charge of the embassy. Already the influence 9! Edwards is felt in the big stone mansion on Massachusetts avenue. There are luncheons, dinners, diplomatic gatherings. The new envoy, a delightful host, knows nearly everybody in town. He is on excellent terms with most of the foreign ambassadors, dines occasionaly with Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles, plays the diplocatic game to perfection. One of the first to greet Minister Edwards was Dr. Leo Rowe, director general of the Pan American Union. He sent a large basket of tropical fruit, enclosed a Christmas card with the words: “Welcome, amigo P

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

A f i Jfe: V&v $

(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.) tt a a ROOSEVELT MAY RUSH SELF FROM PRESIDENCY By Charles Hooper. The present administration seems to desire to “get by” and “get away with it.” like a shirking student who crams to pass his examinations. Mr. Roosevelt is taking the easy way, the path of least resistance. He seems to think that covering dirt removes it, and that allaying pain cures the disease that causes pain. By recognizing godless Russia he strengthened Communism, witness the Austrian riots. He now proposes to drop the Philippine bone, which waiting and watching Japan will seize promptly—and what will happen then? England governs a large part o$ the world, but we can’t handle 6ne group of islands. My mother, a woman of rare judgment, says that Mr. Roosevelt is rushing his ideas so fast that he may rush himself out of the White House. She is usually right. St tt tt DILLINGER MAY HAVE TO SEEK STATE MILITIA By S. M. Recently the Indiana national guard was called out to hunt Dillinger. Now, it looks as if we will have to call on Dillinger to find the national guard, if the federal grand jury takes action. Perhaps if too many officers resign, we might ask some honest bankers to enlist. lam quite sure they will look nice in their uniforms, especially with that manufactured smile they always wear. a s> tt DEFENDS FAMILY OF ESCAPING PRISONER By One Who Knows the Family. I suppose there are a lot of people who are thinking about this same thing. Why all the write up about this boy, John Allen Lay? There are hundreds of men in this town who have done worse than he has. Why can't you think of his family? His mother works hard every day. Maybe the one who put the cartoon in your paper has children. Show me one boy of 19 years who wouldn't take a chance to get away. Handcuffs seem a hard thing to wiggle out of. But the question seems to be. was he handcuffed? Why not give the boy’s family a rest? Surely they can't help what he has done. But of course these editorials and pictures seem to make things better for some. a a tt PUBLICITY WOULD ENCOURAGE YOUNG CITY SINGER By a Reader. I have taken your paper sixteen years. That is one reason I am asking this question: Why hasn't there been something in your paper about our young man who won the Morton Downey contest? Just a few words in one of the newspapers would give encouragement to one who tried and won. Some day that young man will remember how backward our Indianapolis Times was. Young people don't forget when they get to the top. and when this young man does, and comes back to the city, can he say he got any support? Your own city would claim him and I believe he will reach the top. a a a ELQITNATE EXHAUST GAS FROM CITY BUSSES By E. C. Pavtie The Street Railway Company is spending thousands of dollars for new cars. Why not eliminate the antique busses now in use? The busses invariably are filled with exhaust gas. Several people

The Message Center

‘AS I WAS SAYING—’

About Even, He Says

By Morris David. In your Message Center last week you published a letter from a long-time subscriber who also is a dissatisfied precinct committeeman, in which he indulges in a wild and vociferous attack upon he candidacy of Walter Pritchard for the Republican nomination for mayor. He raves and rants about a Coffin - Pritchard-Armitage-Sum-ner setup which he denounces in no uncertain terms. Granting that what he accuses this combination of is true, what sort of relief does he suggest to the long suffering citizenry for whom he weeps so copiously? Would he recommend the so-called anti-faction known as the Republican Union? What does he see in this group that differs in any respect from those who he condemns? Brother Precinct Committeeman, open your eyes and look around and strain real hard and see if you can see any difference between the group you criticize and the group to which you evidently belong. This faction is composed in the main of disappointed and disgruntled cogs in the old machine.

whom I know, and myself, often have suffered violent headaches and nausea from riding in this atmosphere. The condition is not new, but has existed several years. I am especially familiar with the busses of the East New York street line. This seems to be a case for the board of health. tt tt. tt THERE'S A REVOLUTION COMING, READER SAYS By a Reader The newspapers stated that the CWA -workers were to come under the FERA and the pay would be 30 cents an hour for three six-hour days. That would be $5.40 a week. The writer of Liberal Viewpoint states that it takes $434 to house a prisoner one year. I would like to know how a family of nine can live on $5.40 a week. More power to McNutt, Hoke, and the Chamber of Commerce and to the rest of the nickel scavengers. On with the revolution—the sooner the better. tt tt tt ANOTHER FOLLOWER OF DILLINGER SPEAKS By Mr*. T. M. J. Others are giving their opinion on the Dillinger case so I hope you will print mine. I think Dillinger is a real man and. a woman ought to feel honored to receive attention from him. Why doesn't the law give him a chance to live right? Dillinger has as much right to that money as the bankers who took it from the poor people. I extend my. sympathy to his father, and if it would interest any one to know, I have a photo of Dillinger framed on my radio. tt tt a HERE’S A QUESTION FOR YOU, MR. HAYMAKER By R. B. S. Asa reader of your paper and an admirer of your beliefs on freedom of speech in The Message Center I am asking you to answer this: Has Ira P. Haymaker, the Marion county recorder, and a candidate for renomination in coming primary election, ever reimbursed the county school fund for the $63,000 which was borrowed on the Rainbow Ridge addition? COMPANY UNIONS ARE SCORED AS “SILENCERS” By C. L Foot. The property claim check served the slave master so that he could determine the standard of living for his chattels. Is not the “company union” just as effective today in

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

Give each of them what they were refused or denied and they at once become regular. Call the roll of these reformers and whom do you find? There's Omer Hawkins, erstwhile bossism sheriff county chairman and whatnot, and Martin Hugg, who was county chairman in 1930 by virtue of his selection for the position by the “big boss” himself. Let’s not forget that the “anti's” standard bearer was election commissioner and could not have been so selected without the 0. k. of the man who he says is the head of a corrupt political machine. This machine was the identical machine which Denny served in 1930. Among the lesser lights are Earl Garrett, deposed market master under Duvall, and Todd Young, who has just been refused a nomination by the old crowd with whom he hobnobbed for years. It appears to me that it is six of one kind and half a dozen of another, and it sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. So. I must ask you, friend, long-time subscriber and precinct committeeman, “Where do we go from here?”

silencing protest from the workers? The gag is apparently just as certain as if a defendant in a criminal case let the prosecutor plead his case for him. The smart worker in such a “union,” is both dumb and deaf, very often blind, if he wants to stay on the pay roll. The guardian boss doesn't want any more grievances aired than did the slave master. Shackles are not all made of iron! Good will, fair play, respect for the rights of labor; not paternalism, or the overlord attitude, are necessary for the equal rights the Constitution guarantees. a a a HERE'S ANOTHER READER WHO FAVORS OUSTINGS By Mr*. K. F. B. I see where W. E. R„ a taxpayer, wants fellow citizens to get on their toes and help get our police chief and Paul V. McNutt out of office. lam for you. But lam afraid poor devils like us haven't a chance. I don't think Dillinger is a bit worse than the bankers. In fact, I don't think he is as bad. He did take a chance on his life when he robbed a bank, but the banker just sits back now and takes life easy lam 100 per cent for Dillinger. I don't think Dillinger is an enemy of any one but the bankers. They should be the ones to look out. W. E. R.. as for the good automobiles and the driving, you said a mouthful. If they keep on they will have us taxed for each and every step we take. Editor of the Message Center, if you have room in your paper you can print this in favor of W. E. R„ taxpayer, tt it a SORRY PLIGHT FACES SUBSTITUTE MAIL CARRIERS By William F. Whaley. Once more the President and his postmaster-general have found a way to cut into the substitute postal employe's chance to make a living. By a local order, all subs were taken off delivery routes. Any carrier in the future who is off for any reason is not to be replaced by substitutes, but his work must be performed by men working adjoining and nearby routes. Mail is thus delayed in delivery from two to six hours, and that is only one delivery a day in residential districts. The use of suestituies on these routes would enable everybody to receive the same number of deliveries and also to receive the service that the postofffice brags about. In our local office, a business carrier was off because of illness. The foreman would not allow the

.APRIL’ 10,1931

substitute assigned to the run to work it. This mail on this route should have been ready to leave the office at about 7.45 a. m. After an hour and some minutes of confusion, caused by too many men trying to do one man's work, they had to call on this substitute to save the department from an embarrassing position. This substitute, trained for surh emergencies, managed by hard work to do the inefficient efforts of the unwilling regulars who are forced to help the government starve the substitutes. His thanks for this deed resulted in two hours’ work and the magnificent sum of $1.06 for his trouble in getting out of bed at 4:30 and coming more than six miles to the postoffice to report for work. But there also were more than twenty substitutes who braved the driving wind and slick streets to try to make a day’s pay who did not get to work at all. S Our only hope and salvation is the public, which always has a good word for the mail carrier. We must depend on you, Mr. and Mrs. Public, to demand the service that you are paying for. Any person who desires any further information about this deplorable condition is urged to write to me, or any other of our sixty-five substitutes who get up at 4:30, rain or shine, only to be rebuffed by grins and jeers from Uncle Sam. tt tt PARKING SITUATION AT MARKET HOUSE AIRED By a Times Reader. “Garlic Cart Parking Only.” An ordinance some months ago stopped the unhealthy practice of having market stands on the sidewalk around the market house and it has made the building a decent place to pass and to see. Now stand owners are complaining about cars being parked over the time limit, is it impossible for these business people to realize their business comes from the autoists? No, they make a complaint direct to the city hall and a police officers passes out stickers with two little holes in them which means “no fix.” If this keeps up a week or so the stanaholders will have plenty of room to park their garlic carts, and wonder if the depression has doubled Election time is not far away and the Democrats have cut a number of notches on their wooden gun around the market house.

Lilacs

BY JENNIE PARKER The sigh of spring is a strange strange sigh— The sheen of the moon has echoed it; The babbling notes of the singing sky Drop in their music, bit by bit. The cry of spring is an eerie cry— And only my heart can answer it.

So They Say

My personal belief is that better service can be obtained if postmasters in the larger cities are appointed direct from the service.— James A. Farley, postmaster-gen-eral.

Daily Thought

For It seemeth to me unreason- v able to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.—The Acts 25:27. HE who overlooks one crime invites the commission of another.—Syria,