Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 19, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 June 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

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SA-i*URDAY. JUNE 2, 1934. THEY HIRED THE MONEY—BUT IT has been necessary for President Roosevelt to add to the words on war debt, which if laid end to end would carry .he dispute to the farthest reaches of the stratosphere and dump it there, where it belongs. Everything Mr. Roosevelt says repeats what all our post-war Presidents have said, and what innumerable congressional orators and editorials have said. It is all very logical and legally unanswerable. In the immortal words of Mr. Coolidge: “They hired the money, didn’t they?” So what? So did the American banks that failed, and the horde of domestic debtors that will never pay. The claims are good—but they are not worth anything. The President speaks of “the sacredness of the obligation.” That is the way a great many Americans feel about the American government’s broken pledge to pay gold. The crisis, the economic necessity, is simply greater than the arguments. So the gold clause went overboard, as did many domestic debts. And so have the war debts gone overboard —we need not kid ourselves about that fact. A year ago even though the war debts were worthless as cash, they had some value as bargaining tokens in the international game of tariffs, disarmament and the like. The Roosevelt administration—partly because it was too busy with problems closer home — failed to take advantage of that opportunity. Now it probably is too late. The President in his message to congress yesterday hinted that we might use the debts to trade for disarmament on the very fair principle that any nation which can afford to increase arms expenditures can afford to pay its debts. But we fear that will not work now that all of the nations, our own included, are embarked on a vast armament race. Indeed in the present tense atmosphere of suspicion there is danger that such bargaining would be resented by the peoples abroad as a blow below the belt. The war debts have value now only as troublemakers. Since congress will not admit the fact that they will never be paid and therefore attempt a low settlement, probably the less said about them the better for a while.

POLITICAL YOODOOISM TP SOTERIC inner circles of G. O. P. propaganda are acclaiming the deity as their instrument of vengeance upon the new deal’s farm policies of crop control. The divine government, they intimate, has stricken twentyseven states wr„h the scourge of drought to teach the AAA economists the errors of their way. Such political voodooism might appeal to a tribe of savages. For two very good reasons it will not appeal to Americans. First, Americans know that crop control as a means of curtailing unmarketable surpluses is neither anew nor a Democratic doctrine. It is so logical an answer that Messrs. Coolidge and Hoover themselves proclaimed it loudly and long. The only difference is that the present administration did something about it. Next, the people know that the Roosevelt administration’s farm policy is not one of more crop restriction, but of economic planning. Su*h a policy can mean crop restriction one season and crop expansion the next, depending upon the practical need. We believe that Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, one of the ablest men ever to sit in a cabinet, will meet this new problem in agricultural planning with the same honesty and vigor that he and his assistants met the old one. CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS CONGRESS promised the Filipino people independence within ten years, providing the Filipinos, among other things, reduce their annual shipments of cocoanut oil to the United States to 448,000,000 pounds. Then, while the Filipinos were in the act of accepting the independence contract, congress levied a destructive tax upon that industry which supports one-fourth of the Filipino population. Congress spoke with the voice of Jacob, then acted with the hand of Esau. President Roosevelt now asks congress to redeem our national honor by reconsidering the cocoanut oil tax. As spokesman for the American people, who believe their government should be honorable, the President could not do less. The Filipinos buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American farm and factory products. It is not wise to destroy their capacity to buy from us, either now while they are still American citizens or later when they achieve independence. In the Philippines is one overseas market not already lost to us, and our own welfare demands that we cling to it. Nor can we afford any blunder that will lose friends in the Far East, where delicate international complications call for careful American diplomacy. Nothing should be permitted to happen that will cast doubt upon the good faith of the United States. In the Pacific arena, we need customers and friends. ARKANSAS AND SUPREME COURT 'T'HE supreme court’s unanimous decision against validity of the Arkansas law which exempted insurance payments from garnishment, and other legal attachments for debt, contains no menace for national recovery legislation. The case was decided under the contract clause of the Constitution, which forbids states to impair contracts. This limitation does rot apply to the federal government. Most of the recovery legislation avoids interference

with contracts, and is based on commerce powers of the federal government. Furthermore, the Arkansas law made the error, as pointed out by the court, of basing its ban upon the emergency, whereas the law was a permanent one and no end-of-emergency expiration date was fixecb Most of the other “emergency laws,” state and federal, have such a period fixed. Chief Justice Hughes’ opinion carefully limited the court’s ruling to attempts, such as was here made, to curtail payment of obligations incurred before the act was passed. The concurring opinion of the four conservative justices, seeking to compare the Arkansas law with the Minnesota mortgage moratorium law which the court previously upheld by a 5-4 vote, is not convincing. As Chief Justice Hughes pointed but, the moratorium law had a definite date of expiration and made an effort to be fair both to creditors and debtors. TRIBUTE TO THE LIVING THOSE people in Shelby, Mich., who clubbed together to express their appreciation of the services that a country doctor had rendered them over many years had an idea that would stand a good deal of copying. Probably you saw the story. The doctor was William L. Griffin, who is 75 now and who, in his forty-six years of practice in and around Shelby, has brought something like 3,500 babies into the world. Furthermore, he didn’t stop at that; after bringing these youngsters into the world, he did all that he could to make the world a pleasanter place for them. Thus, during the years Dr. Griffin and his wife provided a home and schooling for fifty-two boys and girls. For decades their house has always been open to young men and women. Through it all the physician made his regular rounds, following the steady grind of the hard-worked country 'doctor, despite the fact that he had been left permanently crippled by an accident in 1902. So, all in all, the doctor deserved the big celebration that several hundred of his grown-up “babies” put on for him. Now there are men like this in every town, big and little; men of whom it truly can be said that they are the salt of the earth. They seem to have been born into the world for no other purpose than to do a lot of hard, ill-paid, and rather thankless work for other people. - Nearly all of us, at one time or another, have been indebted to some such person. But usually we just take it for granted, saying and doing nothing to show our thanks until it is too late. By and by the man dies; and then we loyally send flowers to his funeral, and fall in behind his coffin as it goes off to the cemetery, and tell everybody we meet what a fine man he was and how much we owe him. The interesting thing about this demontration at Shelby is that the people didn’t wait for the funeral. A man like Dr. Griffin never gets much in the way of a material return for his services. He does what he does because of some inner compulsion, some light in his own heart that makes the way of service and selfsacrifice the only possible way for him. rhe least we can do, when we know such a man, is to copy these Michigan people—and rally round with the flowers and the fine words while he can still enjoy them. A KISS FOR THE WIFE 'T'HOSE Oklahoma City husbands who formed a “Husbands’ Gratitude Club” seem to have struck upon a pretty sound idea for promoting happy marriages. Each member took this pledge: “I solemnly pledge myself daily to embrace my wife, kiss her, and tell her I love her. “I promise to compliment her at least once each day on some particular part of the menu she prepares. “I promise to perform at least one kind and unexpected deed for her daily.” Reducing it all to a formal pledge may sound a bit odd, of course. But it does set forth a course of action which points, most decidedly, in the direction of a successful marriage.

ENCOURAGING SIGN TT isn’t often that you get a second edition of a world’s fair—especially in this modern era, when a great explosion seems to start under greater handicaps than was the case a ;,?eneration ago. But the Century of Progress exposition, in Chicago, has now officially begun its second season, and the record is a rather remarkable one. It indicates, in the first place, that Chicago is putting on a pretty good sort of show for its visitors. If a large number of visitors were not expected, the fair wouldn’t reopen; and there wouldn’t be a chance of getting them if those who went last summer hadn’t made favorable reports. Furthermore, it shows that the country is in better health financially than it was a couple of years ago. A lot of money is going to be spent at that fair this summer. The mere fact that people have it to spend is a pretty good sign of returning prosperity. AMERICA AS IS ONE of the finest pictures of America and American life as it really is, stripped of the glamorous adjectives of Fourth of July speakers, is contained in the reports on housing conditions now being released by the department of commerce. Statistics on Columbia, S. C„ are the first released on a southern city. And Columbia is not singled out as a horrible example. Her housing conditions are, we suspect, as good as other cities of her size. And how do the people of Columbia live? Out of 11,500 homes in the city, 3,500 range from “crowded” to “greatly overcrowded.” More than half of them have heating apparatus of less efficiency than a heating stove. A total of 4,102 have neither gas nor electric lights. More than 7,100 housewives are without gas or electric heating appliances. More than 4,400 do not have indoor water closets. Only 6,500 have tubs or shower baths. Only 1,895 have mechanical refrigeration. \ We may talk of surpluses and lack of work for the unemployed. But if in the housing field alone, America were to build herself to a point of decency, there would be work for all for years.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

IT is something amazing that the Darrow report alleging a monopolistic tendency in the NRA should have caused so much surprise or indignation. The great majority of economists are in agreement that the best test of the existence of monopolistic conditions and powers is the ability of the united concerns to control prices of the commodities produced. The fact that some time ago the major steel rail producers of the country submitted identical bids in response to the government’s proposal to purchase such supplies for the railroads should have been sufficient to indicate monopolistic control and practices in the steel industry. Further evidence on this subject is furnished in article in The Nation which describes the steel code as “the Magna Charta of monopoly.” The Nation article thus describes the general philosophy which lies back of the steel code: “During the feverish days when leaders of the steel industry were discussing the proposed code of fair competition prior to its submission to the NRA, one of the lesser rulers asked one of the greater ones to explain a certain obscure provision. * n “ r T"'HE latter replied without a moment’s hesiX tation: ‘There is no mystery about this code! It just means that the industry is going to be run as it always has been run, only more so.’ Thq last three words furnish the key to an understanding of the steel code, and, indeed, to an understanding of the basic philosophy of the industry for the last three decades. “This philosophy always has placed primary emphasis upon preservation of the status quo in prices, in production, in markets, and in the corporate and geographic structure of the industry.” The technique through which the steel code brings about the monopolistic achievement of price fixing is well-nigh perfect and fool-proof. The voting of the participants in enforcing the steel :ode is based upon the volume of sales of steel products. This means that the code administration is controlled by not more than, three of the largest steel concerns in the country. The government representatives on the code authority have no authority to veto or modify the action of the steel industrialists. Every steel producer must file a quotation of prices on every product of his concern with the board of directors of the American Iron and Steel institute which is the code authority of the steel industry. n n n IN order to facilitate the fixing of uniform prices, these price quotations must be filed in relation to certain common “basing points” designated in the code. They can not be prices quoted at individual steel mills. A ten-day waiting period is described, during which all competitors are informed promptly of the prices quoted by any producer. If the board of directors of the Iron and Steel Institute regards the price quoted by an individual producer as “unfair,” it has the power to alter this price and to fix one which it deems desirable. This shuts off any chance of price cutting. Price control is further insured by strict regulation of any additional charges, of re-sale prices on steel products sold through jobbers, and of the details arranged for the payments of bills submitted by the steel producers. As the writer in The Nation sums it up: “THRICE-CUTTING loopholes of almost every X conceivable variety have been foreseen and corked up. In every phase of the admiihistration of the code enormous powers are given to the board of directors of the Steel Institute. It combines within itself the functions of the policeman, prosecuting attorney, judge and jury, as well as certain legislative powers, all of which in the aggregate give it absolute control not only over the economic destinies of the firms in the industry but over consumers of steel, transportation agencies, and, indeed, the economic welfare of entire communities.” All this may be true, but the situation may be turned to the public welfare if the government would act in decisive and statesmanlike fashion. Let the government now step in and make steel a public utility, and give the federal trade commission the power to fix steel prices which would be just both to the steel industry and to the American consumers. In this way we could exploit the advantages of large scale production to the permanent benefit of the American public.

Capital Capers BY GEORUE ABELL

THE celebrated Paco, valet for twenty years to Ambassador Cardenas of Spain and known as the dean of major domos in Washington, was the guest of honor at a large reception and dance sponsored by the servants of the Spanish embassy. Nearly all the Spanish colony in the capital attended the event. It was a gala affair, given in the cloak rooms of the embassy, with music, merriment, Japanese lanterns and Spanish claret and sherry from the best cellars in Andalusia. Paco was magnificent, dressed in a smartly tailored black coat and white trousers. He stood at the head of the receiving line, greeting guests under a large, illuminated sign which read 'in Spanish): “A GRAND FIESTA IN HONOR OF PACO, PRINCE OF MAJOR DOMOS.” All the young Spanish diplomats caml in during the course of the evening to shake Paco’s hand. He is a favorite with all who know him. The highlight of the evening was Paco’s rendition of an old-fashioned Spanish quadrille in the grand manner. He did it better than any ambassador—and, it was freely admitted, the admirable Paco looked more ambassadorial than most foreign envoys. tt tt tt THE Cuban embassy the other day celebrated a victory which is not yet listed in the history books. A solemn ceremony took place at the state department, as the United States formally renounced the notorious Platt amendment and its right of armed intervention in Cuban affairs by signing a treaty with the island government. Cuban Ambassador Marquez Sterling arrived in a morning coat and delivered a dramatic speech, repeating the words of General Leonard Wood: “It is better that the stars and stripes should be indelibly impressed upon our hearts than that they should float above our heads!” The only one surviving witnesses of the signing of the treaty of 1903, which brought the Platt amendment to Cuba, were present at the ceremony. They are elderly, bald-headed Sidney (Uncle Sidney) Smith, veteran state department official, and John Barrett, first direc-tor-general of the Pan-American Union. Uncle Sidney gravely affixed the great red seal of the United States to the new treaty, made no comment. Rarely does Uncle Sidney comment. During his seventy-six years he had seen many treaties and many men. He calmly affixes seals to the treaties and treats men and events philosophically. Perhaps what piques Barbara Hutton is that her Prince Alexis might have gone to another flve-and-ten. A German scientist says we have fifteen senses, instead of only five. Still, how many people do you know without any sense at all? School children at Wheaton, Pa., went on strike when their principal and four teachers were fired. In the old days we didn't look for an excuse to play hookey. The international debts shouldn’t be canceled; neither should they be paid. How else are we to be reminded there was once a War? —A / '

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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The Message Center

(Time* readers are invited to express their views in these Columns. Hake your letters short, so alt car. have a chance. I.imit them to 150 words or less.) tt tt tt ANOTHER HOLIDAY IS COMING By a Reader. The Roosevelt revolution is being taken in tow by the invisible government which always has been the power behind the throne. The NRA’s licensing clause is not to oe extended after July 1, thus taking the teeth out of the blue eagle. A hot air pipe is to replace the screech horn after that date. And the master of flag waving is to be no less a personage than the son of the late Harriman of railroad renown. W. A. Harriman with his great railroad fortune, is just the right person to put the ice bags on the recovery program, and of keeping Section 7A relating to organized labor smothered. Anyway a good time was had by all, while we watched the hocus pocus. Wall Street with its highly organized lobby of “stockbrokers” has taken all the color out of the Fletcher-Rayburn exchange regulation bill, so the kitty can take in the sucker again. The CWA pump has been dismantled and FERA labor dole has supplanted it, with that high purchasing power of $5.40 a week. The revolutionary banking reform measure is shelved so we can wait for banking reform until the next holiday. Well the counter revolution of Wall Street is winning the day now, but wait! Another holiday is coming'! We will need it to keep the kettle boiling for twelve million. tt tt tt LAUDS STATE POLICE RADIO SYSTEM PLAN By A. M. Sweeney. It is welcome news to hear that about $60,000 has been subscribed toward a state-wide police radio, which finally will link all parts of our state to help enmesh those dodging human gadflies that are so persistently and venomously stinging and preying upon the body physical and corporate. There is a crying need for such relief and prayers, therefore, are daily going heavenward “from myriads anxious mothers’ hearts. This radio system will be the law’s rapid transit to contact. These heinous crimes are extremely baffling to our best police powers, due to their übiquity and to the law’s unavoidable lack of personal omnipresence. Kidnaping is becoming the most menacing and terrible crime problem confronting us today. It is appalling to contemplate it in all its turpitude, enormity and growing extent. It is now called the “snatch racket.” It is a challenge to all order, law and life. Prompted solely by cupidity, its minions use the most harrowing and horrifying methods, rending home ties, tearing heart strings, threatening murder all done to gain sudden wealth. What is the remedy? “Order is heaven’s first law.” Justice must prevail though the heavens fall. Justice is an attribute of the Almighty. tt tt tt HE’D DRIVE MONEY CHANGERS OUT By H. H. Having read Secretary Wallace’s articles on “Statesmanship and Religion,” I agree with Mr. Wallace that we need some Moses or Jeremiah to lead us out of the wilderness of depression, both spiritual and financial. Is not the spiritual depression worse than the financial? What profit it a man if he gained

LET HIM REST

Condemns Act of Guard at Speedway

By a Disgusted Democrat May I add a few lines to your ever just column? It happened at the Speedway after the race. The grounds were practically deserted with the exception of a few onlookers and national guardsmen. We approached grand stand A. A patron was asleep in one of the boxes. A guardsman approached and shook him. The young man was under the influence of liquor, but far from drunk. We watched the guard search him, take a bottle two-thirds full of whisky away from him, go through every pocket, then place the young man’s wallet in his own pocket. He saw us watching him. Then he placed the boy in his car and drove him to the gate to check him out, as he called it. The fellow laughed and joked, didn’t resist or stagger, but certainly was embarrassed. We followed, intending to interview the young man just to see

the whole world and lose his own soul? Can our government be any better than the people who govern? When organizations are formed you will find crooks get into them. If an organization is controlled by crooks or selfish interests it is no good tc the country. When we find crookedness, forgery, juggling, twisting and lies, how can you expect the people to be any better? What they sow that will they reap. The President in his acceptance speech said the money changers should be driven out. The Lord drove the money changers out of the temple. If we want to follow this example, should they not be driven out of the church? tt tt tt DEMANDS ACTION IN CLOSED BANK CASES By a Depositor. Will injustice ever cease? People placed their hard-earned savings in financial institutions which circulated reports showing solvency and then closed their doors without giving the depositors any warning. A court granted the officials permission to continue in charge for two years, spending the assets and also drawing large salaries for that period. Finally, the depositors organized and had the court appoint a receiver; then came a trial of the liquidating agents and official investigations of their banking and liquidating affairs, which revealed alleged unlawful handling of the trust. Many of the depositors have been forced to call on the county for help and all of them have been unable to do things that would have given employment to many who are out of work. Why not get busy and bring matters to a climax? Recent legislation provides protection for depositbrs in banks; it surely behooves those in charge of defunct banks to recover all available property belonging to the defaulters and convert it into cash and pay on their debts, and then imprison the guilty. We feel that if this is not done soon they, too, have failed in their duty. tt tt tt LOOKS FORWARD TO REAL SILK VOTE By a Boarder. I just read about the striker who seems just a little fickle. Somehow I believe it is a girl who wrote. She

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

if his wallet really was returned to him. The guard, a man of short, Stocky build, about 45 and very coarse, had deposited the boy in a cab at the gate and met us on the way back, going north to the stands. He hailed the four of us, passed us, parked and walked back to where we were walking. We had truly given him a good razzing for searching the boy when he had no right to, and the man was a stranger in our midst. He approached and (here is his story:) “You seen me search that guy didn’t you?” showing us a $lO bill. “Boy, was he heeled. He forced me to take this $lO tip. Can you imagine that?” Then my husband asked him what authority he had to pocket the wallet and take the whisky. Then this from the guardsman: “Why, he even had S2O bills in his shoes. He shoved this (the ten) at me. Why, he forced me to accept it.”

said if she had taken a second thought. Seven weeks is a long time for just one thought. She just couldn't take it. When she didn’t win everything she just laid down on the job. I will say she is just one out of that whole organization who feels that way. I, for one, feel like we have gained considerable headway. No, we didn’t get what we wanted, but I will bet it will be a better place to work from now on. I feel like the national labor board treated us like children, just trying to pacify us until October. We are just as strong now as we were on strike, and when the October election rolls around there is going to be some flying colors, but not the E. M. B. A. There will not be any underwear makers or janitors to vote against us, just those who are eligible to have the honor of belonging to branch No. 30. If that vote last fall was on the up and up, we would not get another vote this fall, but it would have been in force for the duration of the NRA. That proves one thing to me, that we were right in our action, otherwise we would have been forgotten entirely.

REAL SILK WORKER LIKES HER JOB By a Boarder. Why worry about the heat on the fourth floor? You are not there, if we are reaching for the sky and walking up and down the aisle. We receive a pay check each week. We are not walking around the mill in the hot sun or rain wearing out shoes and reaching for something we failed to get. We were asked to wash hot forms, but not forced to clean them. Any factory where you work, either union or open shop, you have to keep your machine clean and do it on your own time. I have been at Real Silk more than six years and truthfully can say I have been treated fairly by the E. M. B. A. at all times. I have had a vacation every year and every one else could take one if they asked for it. I never was forced to work when sick. I never have heard any department head tell employes if they didn’t like it, they could quit. J. A. Goodman has been truthful and treated every one squarely. I am thankful to be a Real Silk boarder as a check every week from S2O to $27 looks good to any girl in these days. *

JUNE 2, 1934

DOUBTS BIRTH CONTROL WILL BETTER LIFE By Hiram Lackey. Your editorial in The Times of May 31 paints a pleasingly restful picture of our declining birth rate and is truly excellent in that it reveals the weakhess of the argument, from which you quote that of Dr. W. S. Thompson, director of the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population. The learned doctor would do well to sink his research shafts deeper into the social strata left by dead ages. His argument that, with a decreased population, “life will move along more evenly and with fewer disturbances,” is alluring but not at all in keeping with God’s express command for individual multiplication. If the purpose of the creation were to deliver a numerically weak and unresisting mankind into the greedy arms of a capitalistic Moloch, his argument would be conclusive and final. Birth control as a remedy for economic stress, treats the effect but fails at healing the cause. When we look upon the ruins of ancient civilizations, such as those of Petra, we see what happens when the human race fails to give economic cause its proper significance. Where once was Petra with approximately one million inhabitants, now are ruins, few and scattered families and beasts of the wild. Naturally, here the tenor of life runs more evenly and there are fewer disturbances. Old mother earth, pregnant with life and willingly provident for her children, can care for a family of almost unlimited number. Some day, when the accursed sleeping potion administered by our soup kitchens and almshouses under the guise of sweet charity shall have lost its effectiveness, men will assert the qualities of manhood and protect their common mother and common heritage from the throttling and stealing hands of profit. We like the editorial page of The Times. God knows it is the one light piercing the gloom of our city’s political darkness. We have no doubt that as the precepts of the Golden Rule are more and more forgotten and man’s inhumanity to man becomes more apparent, its flame will brighten and in the end reveal nothing but God’s eternal truth.

Daily Thought

The just man walketh in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.—Proverbs 20:7. TT'OLLOW your honest convictions and be strong.—Thackeray. The nation must stand ready, not to prepare for war, but to guard against war.—Henry Horner, Governor of Illinois.

QUARREL

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICH Love is so bitter when it turns; Its teeth so sharp, its tongue so cruel. Its mind alive with serpent words For rasping, angry fuel. Love is so bitter when it turns; So sharp with ice to spurn defeat. I wonder in this chaos How I ever found love sweet. -i?