Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 1, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 May 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

The Indianapolis Times U IClim-ROWJiBD KKWSPAPEK) ROY W. HOWARD TALCOTT POWILL Editor KARL D. BAKER BuaineM Uaaaftr Phono—Riley 5551

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a<## Cvoa Uoht end the People Wili fi*4 Their Own Wap

SATURDAY. MAY IJ. 1934

BATTLING A BLIGHT that old girl of the laissez-faire school, is all set to dry up our wheat and corn and show us what real crop reduction is like! As George E. Farrell, chief of the wheat section in the AAA, says, that might be all right “if farmers weren't people." As it is, a farm family sees a blight of scorching heat come to destroy all the labor of their hands, leaving them without hope or assets. It is a bitter experience, leaving its results for years to come. Fortunately, this year there is one ray of hope for the drought-stricken regions. Those who have signed the wheat or corn reduction contracts will get their money—the benefit payments—on the basis of the past years’ average production. South Dakota had a drought last year, so that the actual w’heat grown brought in only a little over three million dollars, while the adjustment payments to South Dakota farmers will total five millions. The AAA program includes crop insurance. Such benefits are very comforting when calamities strike farmers, whether they grow cotton, hawgs and cawn, tobacco or wheat. The amendments now proposed to the Agricultural Adjustment Act would make it possible to extend such insurance to producers of th enonbasic commodities. DEMOCRATS VS. PROGRESSIVES MACHINE politicians are reported to have blocked in Wisconsin and New Mexico the movement to draw’ Republican Progressives into the Democratic party. James Farley the Democratic national chairman (and United States postmastergeneral) has failed to make the most of an opportunity to establish the Democratic party as the majority party of the nation through fusion with the Progressives. In California, apparently, a fusion is being accomplished through the nomination of Senator Hiram Johnson by both the Democratic and the Progressive parties. It is such an obviously good political move that the Republican party in California may forget its pique against the bolting Hiram and also give him the Republican nomination in order to offset the effect of the Progressive-Democratic coup. Credit for the California fusion goes, it seems, to the long-headed Senator McAdoo, who saw’ the advantage to be gained by making California a Democraticq state in other than landslide years. In Wisconsin, fearful of losing party control through co-operation with the La Follette Progressives, Farley is encouraging the Democratic leaders to pursue a course that in the long run can only return the party to its miserable minority status. The same thing is happening in New Mexico. Men like Senators Cutting and La Follette were the advance guard of the new deal. They helped President Roosevelt to bring it into being. If the Democratic party of the future is to be a Roosevelt Democratic party, the Progressive leaders will be needed in the front line trenches. Defeat of Senator La Follette and Senator Cutting bv reactionary Democrats would do more harm to the Roosevelt program than the lass of any half-dozen of the conservative Democratic senators up for re-election this year. MORE TIME FOR FLOWERS TENNESSEE valley housewives will have more time to tend their flowers this summer. Household drudgery w’ith its backaches is disappearing. First, the Tennessee Valley Authority brings the price of electricity tumbling down. Then the Electric Home and Farm Authority follows through with its campaign to electrify the American home by selling electric appliances cheaply on easy-payment plans. Displays will be opened this month in Tupelo. Chattanooga. Knoxville and Wilson Dam. Ultimately electricity will; Wash the dishes. Heat the w’ater. Cook the meals. Make the ice. Toast the bread. Sweep the floors. Launder the clothes. Cool the air in summer, Heat it in winter. Play the radio. And at Tennessee Valley Authority rates, all this may be brought within the reach of millions who otherwise would go through life thinking of the mysterious electric current simply as a luxury to serve the rich. ARMAMENTS—THEIR CAUSE A SURVEY of national armaments these days gives scant reason for any one to hope that the approaching Geneva conference will be successful. Far from preparing for armament reduction, the major powers seem to be almost unanimous in their determination to increase their strength. A glance around the arena, for instance, shows such phenomena as the following: Prance has built a great chain of frontier forts and has increased her army by 65.000 men. Germany has boosted her army and navy budget from t 268.000.000 to 5358.000.000. Russia has increased her army by more than 100.000 men. Japan has added somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 men to her armed forces in three years. Italy has added 43,000 men to her navy i

and her air force; Poland has In*.-eased her forces by 61,000 men; Poland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia are spending huge sums on forts; England, Japan and the United States are working fast to build up their navies. This certainly is not a picture of a world getting ready for a long era of peace and co-operation. But no greater mistake could be made than to suppose that these armies and navies are being strengthened out of sheer wrong-headedness, or to gratify the whims of despotic statesmen. The rations of the world are arming because they see trouble ahead; and they see trouble because there are in the world today innumerable situations which cry aloud for settlement Polish corridor and trade wars, disputed territory in Manchuria and in Silesia ?:nd along the Adriatic and heaven knows where else, oppressed national minorities. onerous treaties, and so on. It ought to be clear by this time that inviting the nations to disarm without first setting straight these causes of trouble is futile. The armament race is a dangerous and distressing thing, but it has certain definite and obvious causes. Before it can be stopped, there must be intelligent and far-sighted action to set the fundamentals straight. CHECKING A NUISANCE T TERBERT HOOVER’S rebuke of the young -*■ University of Pennsylvania freshman, who sought to impress the editors of his college paper by getting an interview with President Roosevelt and wound up by writing to Mr. Hoover for help, is a little document that ought to get a wide reading. Mr. Hoover bluntly informed the young collegian that high government officials are busy men who don’t have time for the amateur interviewers, autograph collectors and other varieties of bright young men who buzz about their heads. Every President has such ambitious but misguided youngsters to contend with. Mr. Hoover himself doubtless suffered from them in his own day. Now he seeks to squelch one who is trying to get at his successor, and in seeking to squelch him he has struck a blow in a good cause. The time of a President is too valuable to be wasted on young collegians who are out to show their own cleverness and initiative. NO HURRY TNTERIOR SECRETARY HAROLD ICKES has important aims in view when he propases to strengthen the production control sections of the oil code and have them enacted into permanent law. Eventually, we believe, such a law must be passed; and cover other phases of the oil industry as well as production. But we question whether this is the time to change a voluntary agreement into fixed law. As administrator of the oil code, Mr. Ickes sees its weaknesses better than any one else. But, while the code is being praised and damned, it appears too early to see all its flaws, all its strength. Like a naval vessel, by the time the next congress convenes, bill drafters can write a more intelligent and comprehensive oil law than today. Meanwhile, the administrator should receive the fullest co-operation from the industry he is helping to help itself. Otherwise, it will flounder and a great exhaustible natural resource will be dangerously wasted. WAR’S LESSON TT would be interesting to know how many war-time chaplains share the Rev. Dr, Harry Emerson Fosdick's conviction that ‘‘the support I gave to war is a deep condemnation upon my soul.” Dr. Fosdick told a large New York audience that he "lied to the unknown soldier about a possible good consequence of the war,” and that he will never.again tell soldiers who are about to kill and be killed that they act for God and mankind. In fact, this pastor of the Rockefeller church remarked bluntly, "I'll see you in prison first.” It has become painfully evident in the last fifteen years that we somehow managed to deceive ourselves very badly about some of the issues at stake in the war. It will probably be a long, long time before the ministers of the land will support a war as strongly as they supported the last one. DIFFICULT DEED DONE \ IR MAIL is being carried by civilian concerns once more over some of the country's main air routes, and the eventful chapter of army air corps service on the mail lanes is just about over. A glance backward shows that the army, all things considered, took a difficult job and acquitted itself pretty well. Nearly all the deaths of army fliers took place right at the beginning, when the men were new to the job, when proper equipment was in many cases utterly lacking and when some of the most atrocious flying weather imaginable was prevalent. Most of these deaths, too, occurred not while the men involved were actually flying the mail, but while they were en route to their stations. The army air corps has unquestionably had an experience of great value to it. even though it was costly. And that the cost was high was not the fault of the pilots who did the flying. The G. O. P. is looking for help to pay its debts and reorganize. The trouble is that most of the angels have gone Democratic, but not democratic enough to help the Republicans. The Philippines are reported as being out of the red, financially. Now congress may be sorry iit ever offered the islands their independence. European nations are reducing their pensions to World war veterans so they’ll have enough money for pensions to the next war's veterans. In a hundred years or so. says a Massachusetts professor, all girls will be beautiful—and then what will they have to live for? Instead of obligating themselves to paying war pensions for many years, why don’t the countries of the world plan a war that would kill til their men outright and make things easier for the following war? ■’ J ■

Liberal Viewpoint =By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES =

IN most parts of the civilized world women now have won the right to vote. But this does not get them very far if it does not also insure them the capacity to eat. The undeniable facts about the inadequate financial reward of women workers makes it perfectly clear that ;here is a bigger job ahead for our feminists than the crusade for the right to vote. One of the major contributions of the industrial revolution was that it took tons of millions of women out of the home and put them into industrial occupations. The census of 1930 revealed the fact that out of 48.820.000 persons gainfully employed in the United States, no less than 10.752.000 were women. We can not ignore the question of the purchasing power of so large a block of wage earners. If>their income is seriously restricted, American prosperity is bound to be impaired. Those interested in the industrial status and well-being of women workers in America may be earnestly urged to read the thorough recent work of Miss Grace Hutchins (“Women Who Work... International Publishers. $2). Miss Hutchins gives us thorough and. up-to-date information relative to every phase of woman's part in contemporary economic life. Her figures on women's wages (Chapter VII) are challenging and disconcerting. a a a SHE shows that even under the new deal the average wage of women workers in the United States is not in excess of sl2 a week. Indeed, in the first three months of 1933, the average was $10.62 a week. Women's wages in the United States today average from 20 per cent to 70 per cent below the wages paid to men for comparable types of work. Here is a phase of "women's rights” -which should engage the attention and enlist the activity of our women's clubs and all others interested in bettering the condition of the female population of our country. In some cases the discrepancy between men's wages and women's wages is truly scandalous. In the New Kensington (Pa.) plants of the Aluminum Company of America women were paid $1.45 a day in 1933 for work for which men formerly received $5 a day. These figures are not only significant with respect to justice for women. They also indicate how the purchasing power of the American public as a whole is being depleted. Every time a man is supplanted by a woman who receives wages, purchasing power is reduced to just this degree. tt U tt IN some industries since the depression, particularly in restaurants and in sweatshops in the clothing and dress industries, wage payments to women and girls have been criminally lew. Even under the new deal there is no assurance that women will be paid adequately. The minimum wages run in the codes from $10.50 to sl4 a week. In many cases, men who earned more have been turned out and'replaced by women paid according to the code minimum. Just how far we are from social justice for women workers in American economic society today may be seen from two budgets. The first is the weekly budget of a woman worker, receiving $17.20 a week—better paid by far than the average woman: Weekly Allowance Breakfast .$ 2.10 Lunch 3.50 Dinner 3.50 Room 4.00 Laundry 50 Amusements, reading matter, etc.. 1.00 Clothing ; 1.50 Doctor, dentist and savings 1.50 Carfare 1.00 $17.20 The second budget is a monthly expense account approved by a New York judge in 1933 for a not excessively rich 7-year-old girl: Rent for apartment at 995 Fifth A Month Avenue $ 800 Chauffeur, maid service and incidentals 325 Governess 125 Food for infant, mother, servants. 600 School (tuition and incidentals)... 50 Clothing 300 Storage of automobile and garage charges 150 Laundry and cleaning for infant, mother and household 50 Electricity and telephone 75 Gifts and gratuities to servants and apartment house' employes.. 25 Furnishing, repairs and incidental expenses of maintaining ap'tment 700 Traveling expenses 100 Insurance, storage and cartage.... 75 Miscellaneous expenses, including French, music and dancing lessons, drugs, books, flowers, stationary and medical expenses... 400 $3,775

Capital Capers =— BY GEORGE ABELL==-

THE ambassador of Argentina and Mme. Felipe Espil entertained at a party for the retiring minister of Norway and Mme. Bachke. Lovely Mme. Espil stood at the top of the stairway dressed in printed chiffon and flanked by the wife of the Argentine counselor, receiving her guests. It was a good party. The cocktails were beyond reproach. The sandwiches tasted like—sandwiches, instead of sand. The ices looked good. The conversation, enlivened by such witty conversationalists as Colonel John Philip Hill, progressed satisfactorily. Colonel Hill was in full dress uniform—bright blue, with gold epaulets, a gold stripe down the breeches, and brightly polished boots with spurs. Earlier in the afternoon he had introduced pretty girl models at the fashion show at Walter Reed hospital. "Gorgeous girls!” enthused John Philip Hill. He removed his white gloves. "I am a White House aid,” he announced triumphantly. "Let's have a liqueur.” A footman proffered a dry Martini. ■‘Garcon. a vodka!” he ordered. They, handed hi ma Martini cocktail. Colonel Hill is running for the governorship of Maryland on the Republican ticket. He gave a Republican flourish to his gold epaulets. "Have a glass of wine with me?” he begged. "The girls were gorgeous. Garcon, two glasses of wine!” They handed him two Martini cocktails. a a a PLUMP, rosy-cheeked Minister Bostrom of Sweden wandered through the crowd. “I have just been to the cinema,” he announced, in his gravy-like Swedish accent. “I saw Mr. Arliss in ‘The House of Rothschild.' It is not historically accurate.” "Bostrom looks like Charles XII of Sweden—historically accurate,” whispered a history expert. tt n u GRAY is the prevailing shade apparently for masculine fashions. Sirßonald Lindsay, his Britannic majesty's ambassador, wore a gray herringbone with handkerchief to match. Senor Rubio Vivot. Argentine crack pistol shot, wore a taupe-colored tie and gray silk socks. Lieutenant-Colonel Pat Day. military attache of the British embassy, favored gray tweeds! Winant Johnson, young man-about-town. was a symphony of silver-grey. A red riband flashed in his coat lapel. "Legion of Honor?” inquired a friend. "Yes . . . The Junior Legion of Honor!” replied Winant. Greek Charalambos Simopoulos had donned a checked gray suit ala prince of Wales and looked Hellenicly distinguished with the tip of a sapphire-bordered handkerchief peeping from his coat pocket.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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rpl IV /T - 4- 1 wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 me IVIeSSaigC V><6TlL6r m def end to the death your right to say it — Voltaire. J

(Times readers are invited to express their niews in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can hare a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a a ASSAILS ADVERTISING OF BUSINESS BUILDERS By an Ex-Standpatter. The all-time low in Indianapolis advertising seems to have been attained for the Associated Business Builders’ compaign against the "agitator,” which means directed against union labor and a fair wage for labor, and with no apparent cognizance that prosperity, more than anything else, depends upon a fair, decent wage for the workers. Indianapolis is no mean city, as Benjamir* Harrison said of it long ago. But it would have ranked higher among American municipalities if workers had been given their just share of the profits and had not organized attempts of certain employers been directed to suppressing. so far cs possible, the ambitions of the workers. Are we sometimes hypocritical and illogical when we prate of American labor as superior? Indianapolis has imported Anglo-Saxon labor from Tennessee and Kentucky and these workers are getting, if employed, low wages. Union labor is not perfect in organization or perhaps in ideology. Neither are union labor leaders. But union labor has cried out for decent working conditions in mines and shops and has looked after the industrial welfare of the women and children in industry. Haven’t men and women toilers, protecting their interests and the interests of their children, the right to their “agitator,’ • the business builders’ word for their leader or business manager, even as the employers’ organization has the right to a paid executive secretary? The advertisement quotes from the city directory as follows: “Indianapolis is generally about 95 per cent open-shop and nonunion, industrially and commercially.” That is the kernel. The advertisement before me refers to the teamsters’ strike of twenty years ago, "fomented by an earlier breed of these agitators.” Look up the names of the prominent ministers and social workers, the local humanitarians who were with the striking teamsters and compare them with the business men who "armed and patrolled the streets to control the lawlessness inspired by these strikers.” If my memory is exact, the teamsters were striking for a raise of $2 weekly, from sl2 to sl4, which latter wage would not have supported a family of three in decent circumstances. I remember one of these business men—he was the leader of a squad mobilized at the Chamber of Commerce building. He then was "in the money,” but his daughter is a striker now, which proves that a generation may bring changes that is well worth while for us complacent ones to contemplate. I'm no union man. I suppose I’m on the side of the employer, for I have shares in big industrial institutions. and they pay dividends, which are nice to receive. Howmuch of these dividends should go to larger wages for the workmen, I don't know. But certainly some. Wages are nobler than profits. a a u DEFINES ISSUE IN HOSIERY STRIKE Bt a Reader. In the controversy which has arisen between the employes and the management of the Real Silk hosiery mills, it is well that the public should know that the one objective first and foremost in the minds of the striking employes is recognition of the American Federation of Labor Hosiery Workers’ Union. It is to say the least very unfortunate and -very un-American that

‘WELL, NOW THAT THAT’S DONE’

Education , Destroyer of Prejudice

By H. L. Who is educated and who is uneducated? A burning interest in this all-important question has flamed again and again in this column. At no time has this fire been so deeply buried beneath the rubbish of petty hatreds, sarcasm and prejudice, but its light or smoke has revealed that encouraging longing for the things which are fine and worthwhile. Let this best which is within us now come to the front and lead us to the library. Call for Wiggam’s book. "The Marks of an Educated Man.” Study it diligently and return it quickly. After you have read this thrilling book, you will never be quite the same person you were before One no longer finds the same pleasure in pointing out the igthe employes should be forced to strike to obtain the liberties which were granted to them under the NRA as American citizens. In the employ of Real Silk there are 564 full fashion knitters and it is these knitters who form the backbone of the hosiery industry. It j was mainly upon the insistence of these knitters that a vote was taken to determine who should represent them. In the NRA election there were cast for the Hosiery Workers union 1,052 votes; for the company union, 2,070 votes. It is a known fact that the company immediately preceding the election hired many new employes, the bulk of them boys and girls, and since it is also a fact that the office workers, foremen, supervisors, janitors and cafeteria employes were allowed to vote, and the company used open discrimination against union employes, it is not surprising that the vote cast for the company union was so large. As an examp.e of this company's attitude toward union labor I need only cite the cases of the National and Fulton—Real Silk owned mills where the employes unanimously voted for the hasiery workers union and to whom recognition never was granted. a tt a EMPLOYER CASTS DECIDING VOTE By A Tim is Reader. Does the public understand the inside of some company unions? Here is an example of one in a major oil company in Indianapolis Four men represent the employes and four represent the employers. If these can not come to a decision, the management has the deciding vote. Just like the good old game "heads I win. tails you lose.” a a a YOU'RE MISTAKEN: HERE’S YOUR LETTER By a Looper. To V. F. H.: You speak of knitting as if it took a college education to do it. I suppose it takes education to run a knitting machine and stick your head out the window half of the time to make “wisecracks” at girls as they go to work. If you have so much education, why are you knitting? You should be President of the United States. You speak of J. A. Goodman as if he should work, for $25 a week. I suppose you would work fifteen years to build a hosiery mill up to where Real Silk is and not expect to make a profit. I have seen Kentucky folk with more brains in a minute than some of you fellows have in a week. You are like a lot more persons who have worked at Real Silk, take and take, and when you ain’t getting any more, you squawk your head off. We need protection. You only fight when you have six to one m

norance of individuals. But we do become tremendously interested in destroying prejudice, and in giving the blessings of education to the children of men. One could scarcely conceive of a nobler, more abundant life than may be found in Wiggam's conception of the joys of the mind and soul of the truly educated man. Let us light our smoking torches from those who carry this flame. What a privilege to hold this light aloft in the dark places of the world! Then let us carry these glad tidings to our friends who read the editorial pages of the so-called conservative Indianapolis newspapers. If you will but open your minds, The Times will educate you. your favor. I am sticking to Real Silk and proud of it. I am not a pet. I go there to work, not to stick my head out of the window and expect SIOO a week for it. I am not from Kentucky. However. if I was I would be proud of it. I am not against the union, but I do not believe in acting as you fellow’s do. I doubt if The Times will print this, as it only prints the strikers’ side of the story. I am also a loyal employe. I make from $25 to S3O a week, and that looks better to me than walking for nothing and losing all I havß. a a a WORKERS GULP FOOD TO KEEP UP PACE By A Border. Someone asks Mr. Barskin to give the workers of the National Hosiery Mills "a break.” Surely they don't know him. He is the man who can do it cheaper. Mr. Goodman may be able to beat the NRA, but his little brother-in-law can teach him a lot about having it done "real cheap." If the public which listens to the sweet Real Silk program on Sunday nights, could see the boarders gulp a sandwich and go on working all through their half hour lunch period. In the pairing department, work goes on after whistle has blown for lunch, and the employes are back pairing fifteen minutes before it is time to start, all to make the minimum, or as Mr. Barskin told them: "You will lose your jobs.” Mr. Barskin doesn't believe in breaks for the workers. A smile, or a word of encouragement never is given by him and we know not to expect it. When it come to wages, Mr. Barskin certainly can keep them duwn. Does the National really belong to the NRA? I never have seen the Blue Eagle displayed at any time although their products are sold to stores which belong to the NRA. a a a POLICE ACCUSED OF BRUTAL ATTACK By a Time* Reader. I was a bystander on the afternoon of May 8 at North street and Massachusetts avenue when a boy, causing no disturbance whatever, was brutally attacked by six policemen acting like a pack of wolves on a scene. They used riot clubs freely. Naturally, protected by a uniform and a badge, these men were not hindered. Not satisfied when the boy fell they continued beating him. After staging a grandstand play they did not even take him to the hospital for medical aid, which the city and American citizens would gladly pay for when an incident like that occurred. Down to the jail they strutted lor more ot the,

MAY 12, 1934

cruel punishment and fairy tales that were sure to be told to the judge upon arriving. Reverse the circumstances, judge, and let the big, bad wolves take off their uniforms and badges and see how it works. I am wondering which one of them would have the nerve to attack his equal alone. Maybe they would, but I doubt it. u a tt MR. GOODMAN DOESN’T OWN REAL SILK By Stockholder. Asa subscriber and reader of The Times I have noticed many statements and intimations in letters appearing in the Message Center to the effect that J. A. Goodman owns the Real Silk Hosiery Mills. Entirely aside from the issue existing there at the present time, I believe the public is entitled to know the facts about this. The Real Silk Hosiery Mills is a public corporation and is owned by about two thousand scattered all over the United States. J. A. Goodman is just one of the 2,000, and is not the owner. I also would like to inform the public that not a single one of those stockholders has received any dividends on their stock or any income of any kind on their investment for the last three years. tt tt tt WORRY AND MISER? LAID TO STRIKES By a Bystander. I wonder how many men how walking the streets are eligible to become union knitters. If my understanding of the requirements of tho American Federation of Labor of Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers Union is correct, there are very few. I have been secretary to an executive of a manufacturing concern for several years and have had access to all of the books. If J. A. Goodman made an enormous profit during the past four years, I will say ha is a wonderful business man. It hardly seems reasonable to me that one company could have made such a big profit when all other firms, with few exceptions, were losing money. There are two sides to even' controversy. if any one of the strikers had as much money invested as J. A. Goodman and the other Real Silk stockholders, would he permit some outsider to come in and tell him how to run his business? He would not; neither -would I. I do not know Mr. Goodman personally but I certainly think he is deserving of a great deal of credit to have been able to provide a living for 3,000 persons during the socalled depression. When I say living, I do not mean merely keeping the w'olf from the door. He has paid the highest average wages in this city. If this is not true, how could his employes dnve good cars, have nice homes, and be well dressed? The knitters may have felt justified in walking out but how can they feel justified in damaging property and endangering lives. In my opinion, nothing ever has been accomplished by a strike but worry and misery.

Reciprocation

BV VIRGINIA KID WELL Once I was weary with this weight of love (I bore not only mine, but yotw share, too>. So tired I felt some like disposing of The entire load and going far from you. But suddenly you took from me your share And walked with me on paths that do not part, And then the load I bore grew light as air, A joy and a treasure in my heart.