Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 22, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 June 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

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if a • re i ■ tinwAjii) Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own TVay

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 1934. THE REPUBLICANS NOMINATE “"D USSIA has her Stalin; Italy, her Mussclini; Germany, her Hitler; Poland, her Pilsudski; America, her Roosevelt, and God save the mark, Indiana, her McNutt.” Thus boomed Major Norman A. Imrie, Republican pundit, in the keynote speech yesterday at the Republican state convention. If he had only waited for a few minutes he could have added: ‘‘And, God save the mark twice, Indiana Republicanism, her Arthur Robinson!” For the Republican party renominated Mr. Robinson by acclaim. There was not a man in the state who even would hazard the necessary campaign contribution to qualify as a candidate for the United States senate. The Pilsudskis, Mussolinis and Hitlers all have the same technique—appeal to the prejudices and passions of organized minorities. That is Mr. Robinson’s long suit. The only difference between these famous dictators and Indiana’s senior senator is that they are effectiye and he is not. During his tenure in Washington Mr. Robinson’s ovvn colleagues in the senate have not permitted his name to appear on any important piece of legislation—veteran or otherwise —which they passed. This is a unique record shared only by the contemptible Huey Long, who has been in the senate a much shorter time than the Indiana senator. Senator Robinson’s name has been linked persistently with the Ku-Klux Klan. It has been reported that the former grand dragon of that organization, an infamous scoundrel named D. C. Stephenson, assisted in getting Mr. Robinson his original appointment to the senate. Stephenson now is residing in the state prison as the result of a peculiarly revolting murder of a young woman. On Aug. 9, 1933, The Times publicly asked Senator Robinson a number of questions. We repeat them today: “Senator, were you ever a member of the Ku-Klux Klan? “Did you ever speak before a meeting of this misguided and bigoted group? “Did you ever renounce klan support at a time when it would have been politically inexpedient to do so? “What was your connection, if any, with the klan?” In the nine months that have intervened the senator has not replied. If he was not connected with the most un-American organization the country has ever seen—an organization which flouted the fundamental principle of freedom of worship—what harm could there have been in denying it? If the senator' was convinced, however mistakenly, of the righteousness of the klan cause why has he not been courageous enough to admit that he participated in its activities? Thus the Republican party of Indiana, by the nomination of this man, has demonstrated its complete unfitness to lead the people of the state. That, we think, is a tragedy. Well, it’s all grist to the Democrats’ 'mill. MILK FOR THE RICH OUT of the nation-wide milk survey, conducted by various women’s organizations co-operating with the consumers’ counsel of , the AAA and spurred on by Mrs. Roosevelt, may come the factual basis for solution of this perplexing problem. Milk, the greatest cash crop of American agriculture and the most important single food in the world, presents a problem which the AAA’s analytical Consumers’ Guide sums up as follows: For the farmer—too much milk, .too low prices, too small income; for the consumer—not enough milk, too high prices, too small income. Studies already made by the office of the consumers’ counsel reveal that the nation suffers from underconsumption rather than overproduction of milk, that fifteen million more cows are needed if there is to be enough milk to give every man, woman and child an adequate ration. This would seem to make any plan for “plowing cows under” look absurd. Os course a similar underconsumption argument might be made in the case of cotton, wheat and meat, for which commodities the production-control remedy is being tried on the theory that destruction of the purchasing power of farmers is largely responsible for destruction of consumer purchasing power. But cotton, wheat, cattle, corn and hog growers have welcomed production control, whereas dairy farmers :\ave spurned it. Why then would it not be sensible to abide by the judgment of the dairy farmers, forget about production control and attack the milk problem from the consumers’ angle. To a limited extent that is being done through governmental relief purchases. If such an experiment is to have a fair trial, there must be a drastic slash in consumer milk prices. Not only to persons on relief, but to all milk consumers. Obviously such a price slash will not be forthcoming frcn. water-logged, overcapitalized distributing companies unless they are forced to it. Grace Abbott, chief of the United States children’s Dureau, found by a survey of the families of a group of railroad workers whose incomes had been reduced on an average of 30 per cent that 91 per cent of the families had cut milk purchases more than 50 per cent and 27 per cent of them had reduced milk purchases 100 per cent. She suggests that milk be declared a public utility “so that public welfare can dictate its price to children and insure that a reasonable share of profits go to the farmers’ children.” Consumers’ Counsel Howe of AAA has advanced several proposals, including cooperative buying by consumers, and dispensing with costly, duplicating delivery service. Other suggestions worthy of attention include milk distribution by municipalities and extension of producers’ co-operatives imo the

distribution field. Too many producers’ cooperatives have been subservient to the big distributors. With pauperized farmers on one end and undernourished children on the other end, we have no tears to waste on the middlemen chiefly responsible for the spread between what the farmer gets for his milk and what the consumer pays for it. ENGLAND’S MAN HUNT ENGLAND had a great manhunt of her own not long ago. A desperate gunman was in flight, just as desperate gunmen have * been in flight in the United States every so often; and all the powers of England’s police set out after him. * They trapped him, finally, and, seeing capture certain, he killed himself. Now the interesting thing is to see what it was this fearsome thug had done. He had shot and wounded a policeman! To be sure, the wound was not serious. Nevertheless, the shooting had taken place, and the sensation that gripped ali England was quite as great as the one Clyde Barrow raised in the United States. The comparison between what it takes to make a sensation in England and in America is bound to be rather painful to law-abid-ing citizens of the United States. FIASCO’S FINALE YEARLY this summer, officials of the AmerA- / ican graves registration service will go to Archangel, that chilly Russian White Sea port, to exhume the bodies of some forty American soldiers. The bodies will be sent back to the United States for burial, as has been done with so many soldier casualties from the battlefields of France. Their transportation will close one of the most melancholy chapters in American military history. We sent an expeditionary force to Archangel, late in the World war. We were not at war with Russia, but American troops fought Russian troops, in the dead of Arctic winter. Michigan lads who had enlisted to fight the Kaiser in France found themselves far up in Russia, making war long after the armistice had been signed. It was hard to see why they were there, at the time, and it is even harder now. They died heroically, as soldiers do—but it is very difficult to keep from feeling that their deaths were in vain. NATURE TAKES TOLL VTEWS of the drought and heat wave hammering the corn belt is a sharp reminder that the farmer’s primary enemies are neither overproduction nor high freight rates, but ancient inanimate forces that can neither be defeated nor wholly understood. The first cave man who scratched the soil with a stick and dropped a few wild seeds into the scratch was at the mercy of the. elements; and the ultra-modern farmer, who uses expensive machinery and gets advice from his state agricultural college, is, in the last analysis, in the same boat. Whether he will get a, good crop depends on things over which he has not the slightest control—rain, wind, and sun. If they are kind, his ground will yield bountifully; if they aren’t, it won’t, and there is nothing he can do about it. The old risks of agriculture—the oldest business risks in all the world—are the same now as they were before the pyramids had been built. The corn belt’s sufferings this spring remind one of those eerie predictions some geologists have made—that the greater part of the interior of America is destined, some day, t£ become semi-arid and barren, a nearly waterless region, where things will not grow and men will not be able to live except as scattered nomads. To be sure, not all geologists make this prediction, and those who make it put the time of this change far in the future —which, to a geologist, means anywhere from 50,000 % years up; so that no one need worry for fear that the hot, dry weather which is blighting crops today is the forerunner of the desert’s arrival in lowa. Nevertheless, these stories of parching drought and devastating heat make one think about it. And they lead one to wonder how long it will be before men get sense enough to settle their differences with one another and present a united front toward their real enemies—the implacable and unresting forces of nature. For these troubles of the present day—overproduction, marketing difficulties, tariff restrictions, falling prices, and the like —are, after all, secondary. Settle them all, and there still remains the task of forcing the earth to yield enough to feed her teeming millions. That is the oldest of all society’s problems, and it will probably be the last to be solved. BEYOND PUBLIC SERVICE /~\NCE again—and in New York, as usual we have one of those cases in which a public servant is found to have enjoyed an income far greater than the one he has drawn from the public treasury. This time it is a city court justice. During forty-four months this ornament to the bench drew a salary of $40,035; in the same period he managed to put $166,660 in the bank. Asa result, the New York Bar Association has brought proceedings to have him removed from office. It is conceivable, of course, that a man in such a position might be entirely innocent. He might have inherited money from a rich uncle; he might have made some very lucky investments; he might, heaven know*, have held a winning ticket in the Irish sweepstakes. But as a general thing, a public servant whose deposits so greatly exceed his visible income belongs back in private life, just as quickly as he can be put there. Paraguay threatens to scrap all rules of civilized warfare with Bolivia. Munitions makers must have given Paraguay some modern ideas. A scientist urges a “scientific approach to politics.” But in the meantime the politicians would get elected. Chicago’s male population has fallen off 100,000 since 1930. The gangsters seem to be quite effective, taking their enemies-lfor rides.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES PERHAPS the most colorful and dramatic victory likely to be won by the Roosevelt administration against the common enemies of mankind will be the passage of the FletcherRayburn bill, designed to provide some reasonable regulation of gambling on the New York Stock Exchange. Having failed in their terrific campaign of propaganda against the Stock Exchange bill the predatory financiers are now concentrating their attention upon efforts to relax the federal securities act of last year. It is reported that the administration is inclined favorably toward some considerable easing up of this important legislation. We hope that this report is baseless. It is highly important that every inch of ground gained in the struggle against the speculative moguls should be held fast. The securities act of 1933 is the indispensable twin tower in the ramparts which Mr. Roosevelt is trying to raise against the money changers. The most satisfactory analysis of the federal securities act which I have read is an article on this subject by Mr. George J. Feldman, published in the Boston University Law Review. Mr. Feldman points out that the federal trade commission, in its annual report for 1933, characterizes the securities act as “perhaps the most outstanding of the permanent reform legislation passed at the last session of congress.” I am inclined to think that the commission did not err in ranking this act by implication above the national industrial recovery act. a a tt ACCORDING to the trade commission, the securities act is quite satisfactory in performing its basic function of procuring adequate and true information for investors. At the same time, the commission maintains that “neither the act nor its administration will offer any serious obstacle to the legitimate financing of legitimate business.” Nevertheless, the speculative bankers and investment agencies who looted the public for decades before 1929 have violently attacked the act. They have asserted that it obstructs the recovery machinery; checks the free flow of capital to industry; fatally hampers the flotation of new securities; and restricts the legitimate operations of the intelligent investor. Mr. Feldman examines these allegations with care. The central feature of the securities act is the registration statement. This requires a complete statement of the financial condition of the issuer of securities as well as all relevant facts concerning the particular issue. Such a statement is no obstacle whatever to investment operations. But it does put a real crimp in the use of corporate securities as a form of gambling pasteboards. If the registration requirement does not eliminate all gambling possibilities, it at least unloads the dice and gives the customer half a chance. tt St tt THE past history of the flotation of securities proves well enough the necessity of such protection for investors. It has been stated by opponents of the act that the reputation of the banking house is sufficient protection f#r the investor. The financial history of the last ten years offers the crushing refutation of this contention. Some of the lemons have been handed out by some of the most reputable investment banks. Others maintain that the whole matter should be left to the self regulation on the pi*t of investment bankers. The best answer to this is that the Pujo committee in 1913 uncovered much the same abuses as did the committee on stock exchange practices in 1933. Twenty years of opportunity for self-regulation bore no fruit. Indeed, there is little evidence of any sincere inclination toward self-regulation today. Clarence Dillon told Mr. Pecora that he would repeat his practices if ever given the opportunity to do so. Only the late Otto Kahn gave any real indication of penitence and of a firm resolution to reform. MR. FELDMAN doubts whether the securities act has restricted the flotation of new securities. He makes it clear that there is certainly no evidence which can conclusively demonstrate this charge. Even if it could be shown that the act has reduced the gross volume of new securities, the burden of proof is upon its enemies to show that such securities as have been restricted would have conferred any benefit upon the American public through their sale. Mr. Feldman sensibly concludes that “after so much of private enterprise, it is well to give federal regulation a fair trial.”

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL SENATOR HUEY LONG has received a stinging rebuke from Minister Enrique Finot of Bolivia as a result of derogatory remarks he made about that envoy’s country on the senate floor. > Recently the Kingfish charged Bolivia’s share of the Chaco war was being financed by the Standard Oil Company and that the government of Bolivia was “under the heel” of the New Jersey corporation. Minister Finot sent a three-page, closely typewritten letter to Long, denying each assertion in detail and offering to back up the facts with official documents. “While my diplomatic condition,” he wrote, “makes it impossible for me to answer your offensive remarks, I can not let pass your complete distortion of the truth.” Privately the minister intimated that he would be happy to punch Huey in the nose should occasion present itself. But he feels that diplomatic dignity requires more polite handling of the matter in public. The entire Bolivian legation was greatly incensed at the Long tirade. “Senator Long,” said Minister Finot, “could easily have checked the facts before making such an outrageously untrue and unfair speech. I am afraid the language in my letter is a bit too moderate for the way I feel. But it is necessary from a diplomatic viewpoint to remember that Mr. Long is, after all, a United States senator.” He concluded the letter to Huey with the statement: “I am inclined to think that your good faith has been abused by false and interested misrepresentation.” NOTE: What Senator Long does not know is that one member of the Bolivian legation staff is noted as an amateur boxer and spends several hours each morning practicing body blows and uppercuts. tt tt tt Ambassador marquez sterling of Cuba went up to the Capitol to see the new treaty between his country and the United States ratified by the senate. He marched into the diplomatic gallery and found senators discussing the pact animatedly. One man stood up and said something about “Cuba” —Marquez couldn’t quite make out what. Then another man said something else opposing the first senator. “Dios!” muttered Envoy Sterling. “I understand nothing of all this.” So he took his hat (he had forgotten his atomizer, which he uses constantly for his hay fever) and weftt to the press gallery. “I am”—he began. “You can’t come in here,” said a doorman. “You can’t come in here.” “But I am the Cuban ambassador,” explained Marquez, drawing a long breath. They let him in then and some of the newspaper boys explained what was going on in the senate. Marquez nodded several times and went home and sent a euphemistic wire to Havana. But he is still very much puzzled about senate procedure. 1 A student sued his college for wasting his time, but he lost. Good thing, or he would have been encouraged to sue his parents next. Oklahoma City has added the word "Please” to its “No Parking” signs, but drivers park | there just , the same.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all car, have a chance. Limit them to ZoO words or less.) DILLINGER GRADUATE OF CRIME COLLEGE By Clifford Roe. I have read many letters in the Message Center about John Dillinger. Personally, I feel that he is only an amateur criminal compared to the politicians who form the wheels of so-called “justice.” If it were all written in words so the average person could understand, it would read: Dillinger is a graduate of the college of crime. Hatred and crime has been branded in his very heart and soul by “justice” rendered him when enrolled in that prison. In that institution he learned enough to know what was easy and what was hard. Apparently, he learned enough to outsmart those who call themselves department of justice agents. They would like to have people think they are wise and brave. A bad break they called it when Dillinger got away at Little Bohemia. Why don’t they all admit the truth? They fear him. So, why shouldn’t criminals go on? Even if criminals are caught they can walk away from the state prison or jails without much trouble. At least they seem to be getting dissatisfied at Michigan City and some of our jails. Indiana is a criminal’s pfl-adise. BANK CLOSING LOSER WANTS ACTION By Another Victim. At short intervals there appear in your paper articles from persons who lost money in the banks that were permitted to close their doors and account to no one. It seems strange that nothing can be done about these outrages; they are an insult to civilized people. Aspirants to offices of public service might keep in mind these things and think of something that can be done to help these unfortunate persons who were legally robbed and the robbers upheld by officials who could do something if they would. The writer was one of the 8,000 persons who lost in the closing of the State Savings and Trust Company. The stockholders have not had to pay, even though it is the law. Why? a tt tt INDIANAPOLIS WINS NATIONAL HONOR By C. F. Maetschke. In view of the exceptionally fine co-operation of The Indianapolis Times in connection with publicity for the, recent financial independence week observance in Indianapolis, I thought you would be interested in the announcement that Indianapolis was awarded third prize in a nation-wide competition in 181 cities for comprehensiveness of the local program. I quote from the letter of Henry E. North, New York, general chairman of the nation-wide observance: “Associations in 181 cities competed for the distinction which you have won for Indianaoplis. The achievements in many of these other cities were genuinely distinguished. To win from them, a most exceptional record was required. Your program was exceeded in its completeness only by those of Richmond, Va., and Philadelphia, Pa. In the planning and conduct of your program you have set a that honors equally yourselves, your community, and the

The Message Center

‘OVER THE HILL’

Busses , Street Cars , Taxis Branded Menaces

By R. T. The most dangerous thing that Indianapolis residents have to contend with today while shopping or motoring, in my opinion, is the careless way in which taxicabs, busses and street cars are operated. In the last ten years during my time as a resident of Indianapolis, this situation has not been given any deep consideration by city officials. It seems to me that these companies operate throughout the city with right-of-way equaling that of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. This situation should be given consideration to the fullest extent in protection of the lives of our people. Street cars have been known time and again to deliberately run into automobiles at street intersections to make turns. One case I know of happened at Eastern avenue and East Washington street. An automobile pulled across the tracks to make a left-hand turn ‘ when the street car was more than a block away, and because of heavy traffic the car was stalled on the tracks. Instead of the

national institution of life insurance. We offer our sincere congratulations.” The report of the committee of awards commends especially the newspaper publicity program in Indianapolis, made possible through the co-operation of Indianapolis newspapers. The comment in the report follows: “The week’s activities in Indianapolis were distinguished by particularly effective publicity in the newspapers. Every committee meeting, every detail of nlans, every talk and every activity of underwriters w r as made use of to get the facts of financial independence before the public. If prizes had been awarded on the basis of outstanding special activity, Indianapolis certainly would have won the award in the big-city group for its exceptional management in publicity matters.” u a REFORMERS STILL ARE WITH US By Orie J. Simmons. Reformers as a genus are supposed to have become extinct; the gentle arts of Carrie Nation and Bishop Cannon are no more. As A1 Smith would misspell It, baloney. We are merely in the hands of a lesser breed of reformers. In fact, prohibition repeal was itself a counter reform; a noble experiment in reverse. Noble experiments seem well attended with bootleggers, whether running forward or backward. In backing up, we had hoped to lose the boots. We still have the boots, full of snakes as of yore. Today reformers are so numerous we can not see the city for their houses. The Constitution • has been new deal reform administered, the chief evidence of which is the now reformed alphabet. As of old, reform is by ukase, by ballyhoo, and by ill-considered legislation. We like out present smiling chief executive because as a reformer he is so exactly like the rest of us. He smokes cigarets; he got his job by promising more than he can deliver; he thinks it good ethics to break contracts on the theory that two wrongs can make a right. Asa slogan he might adopt, “Forgotten men can do no wrong.” Chief among self-righteous reformers of today are persons who ■V' / re-

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

street car motorman slowing down, it seemed as though he gained speed and the car crashed into the rear of the automobile. I have known of several cases of this kind, and not once have I heard of any one collecting a single cent of damage for this sorr, of carelessness on the part of street car motormen. Taxi drivers are as bad in cutting through traffic at a high rate of speed. Bus operators also drive at a high rate of speed and zig-zag through traffic. In pulling up to street intersections to make either a right or left turn they give no warning, but just go plowing on through traffic, regardless of whether it is extremely heavy or light. Operators of trackless trolleys never stop when making turns, even at Washington street and Capitol avenue, where traffic is always fairly heavy, unless they receive the red light or are required to discharge or take on passengers. With exceptions of the two instances they blow horns once or twice and plow right through, regardless of whether they make a left or right turn or go straight ahead.

write letters like this to the newspapers. No, reformers as a genus are not extinct. THIS WOMAN LIKES SMALL COURTESIES By H. K. Young. I am heartily in accord with the sentiments expressed by “Sir Walter” in the Message Center, and I am no disgruntled male, either. I am one of those women who wends her way through heavy doors almost daily, and who is more than grateful to the occasional male who still remembers to remove his hat in an elevator and permits a girl to precede him into a car. Equality notwithstanding, there are still some small courtesies permitted. But like “Sir Walter,” I have become not a little annoyed at the casual acceptance by the average girl. It isn’t at all necessary for a strange man who is in a hurry to wait for a woman to enter a door first, or to hold the door open for her in passing. But it is a charming gesture and one that should be appreciated by every one of we women who encounters it in a world gone suddenly helter skelter. If you even open a door for me, “Sir Walter,” I will practically embarrass you by my profuse remarks. And that isn’t sarcasm, I mean it! tt u CHARGES POLICE WITH “MOOCHING” By I Wonder. As I am of voting and taxable age and get around town a little bit and have read the petition which would undoubtedly be backed by a ruling majority of Indiana’s citizenry to pardon this state’s so-called No. 1 public enemy. For the last five years I have been in a position to observe closely the capacity of the long arm of the Indianapolis law. How many policeman on their way to roll call, driving their loaded patrol cars on the district or going home .with bulging pockets and stuffed caps have you ever seen pass a beer joint or poolroom without stopping in for his dole? Pitifully few, I have observed. Recently the wholesale price of the four leading brands of cigarets (never do the police take a 10-cent pack) was raised to $1.15 for a car-

■JUNE 6, 1934

ton of 10 and 15c straight sell for $1.50 —a profit of 35 cents if they are sold, but after a careful survey, * I find that the police carry out, from an average of the poolrooms in * districts I have in mind, 20 per cent more cigarets than are actually ‘ sold. In this district there are 3 patrol ► cars, a total of 6 police, 2 squad cars carrying a total of 6 more and 3, detective cars bringing in 6 more officers, a grand total of at least 18 * packages of cigarets a day or nearly 14 cartons a week, plus an occa-, sional package of gum or a candy bar. , In other words, at 35 cents profit a carton the proprietor must sell, nearly 8 cartons to break even on the $2.70 worth the*police carry out.' How many places sell that many of the 4 leading brands? They don’t.* The 6 poolrooms in this district, average a loss of $16.10 a week on cigarets alone. But don’t think this merchandise is wasted, dear taxpayers. Do the police take these smokes home for bridge prizes or give them to their friends, to hurt their donor’s business? They do not. In their eagerness to play square wiih the already hard pressed and downtrodden pro--* prietors they give them a chance to | break even and buy cigarets from " them—the police—at about 10 per cent less than the 'wholesale house can sell them. Who wouldn’t? I think that is violating the wholesale code, isn’t it Mr. Johnson? Chief Mike Morrissey was a policeman not so long ago and knows such conditions exist, but is there any one big enough to overcome them?

So They Say

A person killed in traffic is just as dead as if he had been murderecU w r ith a gun.-r-Traffic Commissioner Edward P. Donahue of Cleveland. Wives influence their husbands much more than husbands their wives.—Lady Astor. The defect of the cinema so far has been its concern not with man as a thinking creature, but with man as a merely active creature.— St. John Ervine, famous British critic. The trouble with most students is that they take in everything told them not excluding lectures.—Professor N. c. Hart, University of* Western Ontario. Dignity is like a perfume; those who use it are scarcely conscious of it.—Queen Christina of Sweden.* Americans can’t talk like the. English, and they shouldn’t try.— Professor William Cabell Greet, ed- 4 itor of the American Journal of* Speech.

The Borrower

BY POLLY LOIS NORTON I begged an hour from a perfect day, A glimpse of blue from the sky, A lilting note from a cardinal’s* throat, And a breeze from the wind passing by, , A spicy scent by a clove pink lent, f And the taste of the salt sea spray. How shall I pay for these lovely things From which I weave tomorrows, Since neighbors do not always lend To one who onjg feorcettisj