Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 3, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 May 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

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• (>*< owa* Girt Light and the (•topis Will find Their Own Wap

TUESDAY. MAY IS, 1934. STANDARDS OF GOOD LIVING r T'HE government's long-awaited rehousing program now has been laid before congress as the Fletcher bill. Quickly enacted, and sympathetically supported by the private Industry it seeks to benefit, this program can hasten prosperity. This is not a half-baked emergency relief measure. It was painstakingly evolved. It strikes at the old financing evils that helped to bring on the depression and now are holding back recovery. With a sound system for financing, America can take her most vital economic next step, the rehousing of millions of families in decent and up-to-date dwellings. This measure does not pour federal money into rebuilding projects. It seeks to release billions of private credit for this purpose by putting mortgages on a safer basis. It creates a $200,000,000 home credit insurance corporation for insuring private home improvement mortgages against losses, provided such credit advances meet standards that protect both home owners and loan companies. For aiding new construction it provides mutual mortgage insurance under government direction, and standardizes such insured mortgages at interest rates of not more than 5 per cent with amortization over twenty years. It provides for incorporation of federallysupervised mortgage associations in localities where building funds are lacking, and for insuring share holders in building and loan associations to put these hard-pressed institutions in a place comparable to banks whose deposits are insured. The need for stimulating a vast rehousing movement in the United States is past the stage for argument. Economists agree that recovery waits on the laggard heavy industries. Most economists see in rehousing the same opportunity for recovery today that the autobuilding lift gave in the 1920 depression. Upwards of 9,000,000 families live in unfit homes. Move them into modern dwellings and you stimulate new wants and demands that may carry our living standards higher than they ever have been. Building has been at a standstill for several years. Last March residential contracts stood almost 90 per cent below normal. The government's past efforts have failed to prime the pump of the building industry. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation can not make new loans for residential rehabilitation. Slum-clearance plans have been held back by land speculators. "I believe,” says President Roosevelt, “that the initiation of this broad and sound program will do much to alleviate distress and to raise perceptibly the standards of good living for many of our families throughout the land.” The new project, given adequate co-opera-ation, may blast the jam of private credit and allow the nation's pent-up wealth to pour into its most productive channels. THE “GOOD” OLD DAYS ■RiCARION COUNTY'S Democrats and Republicans Saturday elected officers in scenes of varying enthusiasm. The Democratic county organization had a small revolution on its hands. The well-oiled Coffin machine functioned perfectly at the Republican session. There wasn't an uprising at any time. Only one Republican officer made a speech. The gentleman was Gavin L. Payne, new Twelfth district chairman. “I believe good economics is the best politics,” he said. “I believe that the Republican party thinks that way. The brand of economics which now is so violently purging the country can not last long. A patient either dies under such treatment, or quits and goes back to the old family doctor. I want to go back to the old doctor.” Back to old “Doc” Hoover, Mr. Payne? Back to the “good” old days of 1929 and 1930? Back to the days before the NRA. before the CWA, before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, before the PWA, before stock markets control? Sure, let's go back to those grand old days of 1929, back to the days of red inked columns on our ledgers, back to the days of an apple salesman on every corner, back to the days of a busted bank on every other corner. Those were the good old days, weren’t they, Mr. Payne? The days of joy and happiness, a chicken in even- pot, two cars in every garage. Good old 1929. The old family doctors certainly knew how to run things. What were a few bank failures, a few mortgage foreclosures, a few vacant department stores, a few columns of red ink on the ledgers, eh. Mr. Payne? Judging from the looks of things. Mr. Payne, the patient isn't dying, nor is he showing any indications of wanting to go back to that good old family doctor. Don't you think. Mr. Payne, that this young doctor with his shiny new instruments and his new ideas might be the kind of a doctor we re going to have for a good long time? But. then, perhaps you liked those grand old happy days of 1929 better; We didn't. UNCLE SAM’S MOVE IT is important that the federal government make some move to carry out its end of the forest conservation understanding with priTate timber men. Last winter President Roosevelt and Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace urged timber men to write a conservation plank into the lumber code. The result was Article 10. a pledge of inter-company co-operation for fire protection, selective logging, reforestation and sustained yield. This article marked a historic change from the old cut-and-run policy that left a trail of barren, blackened rum across the face of once verdant America. On iu part tfca government agreed to a

program. It would speed its federal forest land purchases in compliance with a plan to buy 134.000,000 acres for additions to the national forests. It would co-operate with the states in protecting forests against fire, insects and disease; help bring about better taxing systems; set up a federal forest credit agency for long-term forest management plans; expand federal research services; adopt a policy of withholding timber from the market in depression time. The lumber codes conservation program goes into effect June 1. Timber men have set up regional committees to carry out the new rules for woods practices. The government has made no outward sign of having started its program. Furtner delay is unwise for two reasons. First, the fire situation this season threatens to be one of the worst in recent years. Next, the gains in conservation of privite timber lands, won by years of effort, may be lost. FRANK GRIGWARE nnWENTY-FOUR years ago Frank Grig- •*- v.are was serving life in Leavenworth for a mail train robbery. He escaped and disappeared from sight. The other day the Canadian mounted police identified him as James Fahey, a hardworking carpenter living in a little wooded town in Alberta. He had married, settled down, and gone straight for years. But the mounties got their man and were ready to extradite him to the United States. The United States has decided that it will not tear, this man from home, family, and a useful life, to bring him back to his cell. Appeals from friends, neighbors and the Alberta legislature sent to President Roosevelt and Attorney-General Cummings, found them sympathetic. This Jean Valjean will not be turned into an enemy of society and his family beggared by the harsh dictates of the law’s letter. “We don’t think it would serve any useful purpose to put Grigware back into Leavenworth,” says the department of justice. When mercy seasons justice with wisdom, justice becomes a stronger, not a weaker, instrument. DUST CLOUDS T)EOPLE living in the middle west and along the eastern seaboard are still talking of the astonishing dust storm of last week which blew' away loose millions of tons of the dry soil of the Missouri and Mississippi basins, carried it across the continent and out over the Atlantic. To the people of the southwest, such a thing is not new. Several times each year, a “norther” sweeps southward across the plains of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, carrying with it the gritty dust and sand of the Dakotas and Nebraska. Such storms, so it is said, explain the leathery, sand-blasted countenances of the men in the wide open spaces. The dust storm of last w'eek may, to the nation, come as a blessing in disguise. It should draw' attention to w'hat is happening to our land in the west. We are told that the Sahara desert w'as once a fertile land. Today it is a waste of shifting sand hills. To save our fertile farm lands for posterity', sub-marginal lands should be planted in crops that fasten down the soil. Wind erosion is doing vast damage, not only to the fields where wheat is being blown out of the ground, but also to the other fields blanketed with the drifted soil. • * * This may have been the first dust storm of nature to obscure the sun that shines upon the Capitol dome. But Washington is not a stranger to dust clouds of another kind—the dust clouds of politics. There w'as that dust cloud kicked up by prohibitionists which dimmed the vision of statesmen for more than a decade. Indeed, most of the work of the new deal has consisted of removing the dust of the old order. NRA, AAA, PWA. CWA, TV A, CCC and FERA were new deal breezes to clean the air. And in the wake of the new deal breezes have come other dust clouds kicked up by protesting individualists. Dr. Wirt, for example, scuffed up a blinding dust, but a spring shower of reason settled it. NOT SO SIMPLE r T' v HERE‘S been clamor galore about how NRA was hurting business. But, turn an eye to this United Press report from Washington; ‘The national recovery administration was deluged today with telegrams of protest from tailors, dyers and cleaners against rumored abandonment of the cleaners and dyers code. More than 3.000 messages were received from small, independent firms alarmed over published reports that NRA was preparing to discontinue codes for service trades and small firms doing intra-state business.” Do they’ like it, these small business men who recently have had so much sympathy and attention from critics? The answer seems to be at least that many of them do. THAT WICKED TRINITY COME of the folk seem to be running a temperature over < speech to women Democrats in Washington made by the usually serious Guy Rexford Tugwell on the subject of wine. What pains is not so much Dr. Tugwell’s biblidal admonition to take a little wine for the stomach's sake, nor his exhortation to follow the First Lady's example and serve wine in the home, nor his patriotic counsel to choose American vintages, but this: “One of the oldest and quietest roads to contentment lies through the conventional trinity of wine, woman and song.” Aha, this pagan triad again Another proof of decadence in high places! One protest came to congress from an Oregon church, several more from Kansas. Before the church folks go much farther they should know the inspiration of Dr. Tugwell's remark. It was a famous German couplet and, translated, it reads: “Who loves not wine, women and song Remains a fool his whole life long.” Its author was Martin Luther. Professor Moley says the United States Chamber of Commerce originated the idea of the NRA, and now the C. of C. will have to find something else to kick about.

Liberal Viewpoint By DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES •== 1

OUR reactionary and shortsighted financiers and industrialists are drawing up their campaign plans to wreck the new deal because it is asserted that it embodies too much economic planning. At the same time, Lawrence Dennis contributes a brilliant article in the American Mercury arguing that the new deal likely is to fail because it is well-nigh planless. Anything which Mr. Dennis writes deserves the respectful attention of any serious-minded American. Few writers on American public affairs are better informed or more clear headed. We need not agree with his contentions invariably, but we need to sit up and take notice of what he says. After listening to all the recent “Bourbon bellyaching” about the alleged regimentation of American economic life under the NRA, let us see what there is to be said from the side of those who contend that the new deal is characterized by a general absence of any well-thought-out plan, procedure or economic philosophy. ACCORDING to Mr. Dennis, the American people trust Roosevelt because the older policies have been discredited and not because he or the American people really know where they are going: "As most of the criticism of Mr. Roosevelt’s policies comes from people who long have been in power and recently had their policies crushingly discredited by events, it is not strange that the attitude of the man in the street toward the new deal should be to give it a chance without inquiring closely into its implications. “For anew political system, this type of popular approval or acquiescence is most peculiar and somewhat unusual among historical precedents. This acquiesence is not the kind of agreement reached by the people who, having read the federalist papers, created the American Constitution, or who, having read Das Kapital,’ created the Soviet Union of Russian Republics. “There is, of course, a certain piquancy to the idea of a revolution by people who don’t know what they are doing. But the result likely is to be a mess rather than anew social system.” With capable amiability toward Mr. Roosevelt, but with deadly logic, Mr. Dennis cites numerous examples of fundamental inconsistency and contradiction in the new deal. a tt tt FOR example, General Johnson fervently exhorts business to keep its prices down, while Professor Warren contends that prosperity can be achieved only by raising prices. The railroads are ordered to reduce operating costs without reducing wages, but wages constitute 70 per cent of operating cost. Jesse Cones of the RFC denounces the banks for not lending more freely to private industry while the government pursues a fiscal policy which makes it much more desirable for the banks to lend to the government than to lend to private industry. On the one hand, there is a vigorous effort to limit farm production, and on the other the spending of millions of dollars to reclaim more land on which to grow more crops. The firm interlocking of finance and industry is ignored in an effort to get each to reform separately and singly. Mr. Dennis argues forcefully that economic agreement and planning must keep pace with the program that the state hopes to execute, and he calls attention to the dangers of pure empirician and experimentation, however nobly conceived.

Capital Capers I—— -BY GEORGE ABELL ■ THE Spanish embassy dance given by Ambassador and Mme. Cardenas for the officers and midshipmen of the Spanish training ship, Juan Sebastian Elcano, was—like all the Spanish parties—a great success. Courteous Commander Salvador Moreno, skipper of the training ship, enjoyed every minute of it. Evan a black cocker spaniel that somehow wandered through the drawing rooms (until carried out by strong-armed Ramon Padilla of the embassy staff) enjoyed it. Popular Ambassador Cardenas was besieged with friends who hate to see him leave. Smiling but tired, he stood patiently regarding the dancers until a late hour—a very late hour. One Spanish “middy,” unable to express his satisfaction with the party in his somewhat limited English, phrased it this way: “La partee eez—muy magnifico—how you say —bellissima —oop-oop-hurra h! ” And he rolled his eyes and eloquently raised both hands to heaven. He scarcely exaggerated the merits of the party. att tt POSSIBLY in honor of the uniformed Spanish officers, who all wore brass buttons, Cuban Ambassador Don Marquez Sterling appeared at the fiesta with similar adornments on his waistcoat. It was a beautiful cream-colored waistcoat, with cunningly embroidered design. If one were accidentally to upset a plate of soup on that waistcoat, the stains would not be visible. tt tt a THE little crocodile which bit the finger of handsome Monsieur Micheli, Swiss counselor, about a year ago, at the Spanish embassy, is dead. Monsieur Micheli was reminded of this fact at the Spanish party, as he gazed pensively into the patio fountain where once his little leatherbacked friend used to lie in the sun. Micheli glanced at his finger which once his little playmate—in merry mood—had nipped. The scar is healed, now, and Micheli is big, strong and healthy—a real Swiss, fit for the Pope's Swiss guard. “Do you miss Augustus?” inquired a passing guest. (Augustus was the crocodile.) “Ah, the past is wiped out,” replied meditative Micheli. “I am a philosopher.” And he swallowed a glass of champagne. No debutante could ever miss The crocodile who bit the Swiss. When he's at lunch, what lady dare Consume an alligator pear? tt tt tt SENATOR WARREN S. BARBOUR has become a linguistic expert. He speaks Gaelic. At the Spanish embassy party. Barbour met Michael Mac White, minister of the Irish Free State. “Slante Gael Mavourneen!” he began (At least, it sounded like that.) Then he muttered some more phrases, all of which- resembled the noise made by a man with a walrus mustache eating soup. "That's Gaelic—pure Gaelic!” smiled tactful Minister Mac White. Wilbur Glenn Voliva, overseer of Zion, 111., finally permits cigaret smoking among his people. Next will come drinking and then he'll have to admit that the earth is round. A Medina (O.) apian' has sent to Russia for a special type of bees. Can’t the D. A. R. do something about that? A German doctor has introduced cod liver oil for healing wounds. Children always knew that taking it internally wasn’t the right use for it. A 101-year-old man in Baltimore had a gland operation, and the famous gland specialist Voronoff is married to a young woman. Soon we ll expect oriy our children to remember back when. Dr. Cornish of the University of California, who has been trying to bring a dog back to life, asks more time to finish his experiments —or finish the dog.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

~ "" mu * —t ENOUGH OF bH \ THIS (N /

The Message Center

(Times readers are inrited In express their views in these columns. Make pour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them, to 250 words vr less.) tt tt tt SEES STRIKERS FAVORED IN THE TIMES By a Respectable Lawyer. The Times has become one of the most ridicuous papers of this city since it has been upholding such violence as results from the Real Silk strikers. Let one of those strikers get hurt, and a big writeup appears in The Times about it, but let one of those who are remaining at work get hurt, and there is little mention of it, if at all. tt n tt THE CONSTITUTION COVERS THIS By a Befuddled Voter. The motto of your paper is “Give the people light and they will find their own way,” so why don’t you do just that? I am referring to the primary election just held. I notice three Negroes were nominated for office, two on the Democratic ticket and one on the Republican. Why don’t your paper designate which candidates are Negroes? Surely no clear thinking white person would want one of them in office and no doubt they received votes from persons who did not know who they were voting for. To give the people a clear view and in fairness to those on the ballot, Negroes should be designated; too the religion of all candidates should be shown. a tt tt BOOTLEGGERS WORSE THAN DILLINGER By a Reader. I never was so tired of anything in my life as I am of Dillinger. They should stop hounding Dillinger for awhile and put some of the force after the bootlegger. I am not in favor of crime, but I don’t believe that Dillinger has done as much harm as the bootlegger has, for it is not known positively that he has killed any one, and we do know that the bootlegger has caused more deaths with the liquor they sell, than any one else. They have caused more crime than Dillinger could in fifty years. Put your federal men after the bootlegger and save your young girls and boys from ruin. tt a a EXPLAINS STATUS OF UNION KNITTER By S. F. H. I am a former Real Silk employe, but have not been connected with the mills for the past three years. In November, 1929, there was a strike at Real Silk and about fifty or more knitters walked out. Some couldn't run a knitting machine and some could, but none could qualify as a union knitter. Some of these men went to work in the union mills in the east and after a year or so they came back to Real Silk and begged for their jobs, but were unsuccessful. I talked to several of these men at the time and they all told me that they didn't realize how good they had it until they worked in a union mill and that the biggest mistake they ever made was when they joined the union. Os all the knitters out on strike today 99 per cent of them could not qualify as a union knitter as the training that they received at Real Silk is very small and entirely different from the training received in a union mill. There are hundreds of union knitters out of jobs today and if Real Silk goes mi ion these knitters will

YEAR ’ROUND EXERCISE

Favors Compulsory Auto Insurance

By W. O. Finke. I read with interest your editorial on “No Holiday for Death.” The article was well prepared, and you certainly gave sufficient logical reasoning and information whj automobile drivers should use every precaution possible. It is my candid opinion that, until the lawmakers of our city, state and nation realize the importance of creating laws whereby every person who licenses an automobile is to be held responsible by compulsory insurance for the damage done by the car, accidents will continue to increase. A survey would likely show that most automobile accidents occur with irresponsible persons at the wheel. Automobiles these days are almost as dangerous as machine guns; therefore, irresponsible persons should be made responsible in some form, or prohibited from driving. I have a car that cost me sl,-

come to Real Silk and obtain the jobs of the fellows who now are out on strike as they have received their training in a union mill and are qualified as union knitters whereas the men now on strike would be classed as apprentice and would have to W'ork as such for four years. In closing, I advise the strikers to get a union knitter book and read what it takes to qualify as a union knitter. a tt tt URGES CO-OPERATION IN LAW ENFORCEMENT By Charles C. Bender. It is high time that forces dealing with crime, and especially the crime of kidnaping, should organize in a more co-operative way, quickly to arrest and punish the offenders. National, state, city, town and county forces seem to be working too ioosely. Each seems to be working for its own glory. Good citizens are not concerned as to where the glory falls, but they are concerned that these criminals be apprehended and punished quickly. If law's are needed to make closer organization of law enforcement bodies, they should be passed without delay. In the meantime,. the divisions should voluntarily align themselves with each other to produce results. Persons with warped minds, not good citizens, are shedding crocodile tears over Dillinger. They say that he did not get a square deal and that bankers are worse. If these simple-minded folks, who are w’asting their sympathy on Dillinger, stood in his way, he probably would shoot them down. If need be, an army should be organized. Expense should not be a deterrent. But if we had proper co-operation of our present peace forces, we would get results. tt a a PLEA FOR HOME LIFE WINS SUPPORT By Hiram Lacker. Will you kindly print our thanks to the mother who wrote in The Times of May 4 in defense of the sanctity of home life and purity of young girls. Mother, through Christian influence, we men feel that in your fervent defense of our fine idealism you have been true to the trust w’hich our race has placed in women. From our Mother’s knee w’e have been taught to think of you women as being the keepers of all of the things of this life that are the finest. the highest and the best. When you in any sense lower

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

000. A few weeks ago an irresponsible person driving a Model T Ford disregarded a boulevard stop and wrecked my car. A few days ago it was standing at the curb and an irresponsible person driving a Model T Ford truck damaged it considerably. Dillinger and his associates are not nearly as dangerous to the average citizen as irresponsible drivers. Some action should be taken at once to remedy the present situation. I once lived in a state where there was compulsory insurance, one-fourth had to be paid at the time the licenses were issued, one-fourth in three months, one-fourth in six months and one-fourth in nine months. If the motorist failed to make either of the payments the license became void. It was a good law and should be worthy of the earnest consideration of the lawmakers of Indiana.

yourself w'e are hurt, because we can .not help but feel that you have in some way betrayed our race. May we join you in thanking those Christian men, such as Drs. Millner and Gouthey for their inspiration and thought which are clearly revealed in these fetters, and for their noble efforts to restore harmony between our scientific and religious thinking. May we suggest that you further use your fine influence in persuading Howard Cadle to use his far-reaching radio voice to inspire a sinful world with a love for the beauty of chastity, the sanctity of marriage and that sublime faith and courage which enabled the young among the generations of American pioneers to marry and rear large families in the face of obstacles seemingly insurmountable. The letter which you answered was written to awaken tne stupid people who unwittingly practice birth control without first thoroughly studying the subject—“ They know not what they do.” b a a CALLS FOR OUSTING OF POLITICIANS Bt James C. Lssington. You can tell by the stir of the politician that it is only a few months until election days. The political bosses tell the tax-burdened citizen he doesn’t know how to select candidates. What say you? Let's show them. Why not pick some honest citizens to serve us this time? The way to find out who the crooks are is to find cut who the bosses are for, and then do a lot of thinking for yourself.. It was not our government that failed, but it was the modern method of swindle as practiced by incompetent and untrustworthy public officials. Mr. Voter, you may not know enough to select candidates, but you do know enough to accumulate property on which to pay taxes. Politicians can't do that; at least very few of them pay much tax. Let us clean out the selfish bosses and rejuvenate our country with some new blood to direct the affairs of state. Let us adhere to the Constitution and oppose any emergency formula that deviates from it. Down with extravagance, let’s reduce taxes, especially the sales tax. Let’s have more efficiency and economy. We need more home rule which ulll permit each local community to work out the particular form of governmental reforms It needs.

.MAY 15, 1934

ADVOCATES RADICAL STEPS FOR RELIEF

By Time* Reader. Your editorial on Mr. Hopkins' statement that the federal government may have to spend billions* more than it has spent for unemployment relief and public works projects, and the implication that one of the most important jobs of the new deal is a long way from being finished, is interesting in view of the fact that 200,000 more persons are on relief now than in May. 1933. Relief to the unemployed must be paid for by those who are permitted to work. So the employed are relieved of part of their earnings. We relieve one set by dividing the misery. If an army was fed on the rationing basis of supplies on hand, instead of providing new additional supply, the fate of the army would be known in advance. Since our rugged individualists do not know how to employ these millions who have been thrown on relief. and have thrown them on the necks of those who are left at work, those who still are working ought to compel their agent, the government, to force the rugged individualists to vacate their control of production equipment and assume charge of it under eminent domain for the preservation of the supply line to create an adequate quantity of goods for all. This so-called relief that is compelling creators of wealth to exist on the disgraceful pittance of allowances of $5.16 a month in South Carolina; $6.44 in Tennessee; $5.18 in Florida; $8.43 in Alabama; $7.45 ir Oklahoma; $8.30 in New Mexico; $8.17 in Texas, and $9.26 in North Carolina, is pitiful. I wonder if any other country has such living standards? What propaganda could breed more revolt to our social order? We are hoping for miracles if we expect these bankrupt families to become buyers of the products of those still at work. an a WHEREIN MR. ADAMS RECEIVES A REPLY By Mr*. O. B. Graham. To bad Mr. H. Adams doesn’t approve of your Message Center. Why doesn't he skip it? I also would suggest, Mr. Adams, you move to the hills of Kentucky; Brownsourg people don't like pests like you. Thet-e are some good broad-minded people out there. I think Pillinger did just what the people didn't have the nerve to do. If there were a few more John Dillingers and less H. Adamses we would get along o. K. Dillinger hasn’t harmed any one but banks and they have caused more deaths than they claim Dillinger has.

A TRIBUTE

BY LAWRENCE E. SCOTT O empty words, That try so hard to tell Os one whom all my life I've loved so well. Taunt not my efforts Though they be in vain. Remember that my thoughts Run in a deeper, sweeter strain. But this my tribute is, Poor as it may be, sincere. To one who’s fostered, loved, And understood me each long year; No man made thing. His jewels, gold, or any other, Could e'er replace God's greatest gift to me, My own, my precious darling mother.