Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 33, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 June 1934 — Page 11

liSmns to Me HEW® BHIN I WONDER why the word "planning” sends all Republican senators and many Democrats into writhings and contortions. Certainly there must have been a time in ages past when no ill association was connected with the proposition, “let’s plan this.” According to tradition Joseph was one of the earliest planners when he suggested to Pharoah that the dream of fat and lean cattle might have an economic significance. I suppose the present unrest in legislative halls rests upon the fact that Soviet Russia has seized upon a word in common usage and made it all its own. When anybody says “plan” today the immediate reaction is “Stalin” or “five year.” But the Russians hardly are the first people to attempt to square production with need in advance. Programs of this sort have been the commonplaces of all primitive groups. Like

Joseph in Egypt, Robinson Crusoe upon his desert isle was of necessity a planner. He calculated what his requirements might be and then set about to fulfill them. It was not to his interest to store up any surpluses for the export market. a * n Common Sense Needed COMMON sense in any clime would seem to suggest some possible connection between the labor of making goods and the capacity of the current market to absorb

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Heywood Broun

them. The proudest boast of big business has been that it might end through its efficiency the helter skelter turmoil of making things for which there was no market. I am quite aware of the fact that business, in its present stature, has fallen far short of matching production and consumption with any degree of accuracy. And yet, despite the evident failure to balance the economic scale, the key industrialists still are shouting that this is a consummation devoutly to be wished. My puzzlement then is occasioned by the fierce and searching questions which are asked when anybody in the federal service is rumored to be guilty of “planning.” When Tugwell was summoned before the inquisition he was asked whether he was a “planner” much as he might have been interrogated in a- criminal court as to whether he believed in arson, murder or the coveting of a neighbor’s goods. I realize, of course, that the more radical economists have insisted that planned production never will be possible in a capitalist state. They argue that such discipline is only possible after collectivism has been achieved. It is not my purpose here and now to express my opinion upon this moot point. One of the reasons why I do not express an opinion is that I don’t pretend to know. But surely the captains and the kings of American industry are not yet ready to haul down the flag without a struggle. non Co-Operation Would Help IT stands to reason, I think, that no delicately adjusted economic machine can work successfully without a close and far reaching co-operation. I trust by now that the makers of automobiles are concerned not only with the problem of “how many can we conceivably make?” but also the question of “when we’ve made them where are we going to sell them?” It does not seem to me that an interest in either query necessarily identifies a man as a dangerous red agitator. Time alone will prove whether Rexford Guy Tugwell is as conservative as he pretends to be, but I do not think that he labeled himself as a revolutionary merely because he confessed an acute and abiding interest in planned production. It was not Dr. Tugwell. but the senators who attempted to make out a case for the more radical philosophies. The arguments of Senators Smith and Byrd seemed to be that only under socialism could men get together and make any wise adjustment between shoes and barefoot boys. To them planning meant inevitably “regimentation” and at the moment that remains a fighting word in the halls of congress. To be sure we have had regimentation of our own not only in time of war, but during piping periods of peace. Herbert Hoover, once President of the United States, was a most active planner both in office and out. As cabinet member he constantly was summoning leaders to his office in tfle commerce building maze in order to hit upon ways in which business facts and experience might be pooled for the good of all concerned. And then again as President, when the chickens began to pop right out of every pot, he was addicted to the practice of calling business men to Washington in numbers so that they might hit upon some concerted scheme of rehabilitation. “Planning” was not a word of heresy when used by Republican executives. But by now it carries shock along every front manned by the conservatives. The notion seems to be that if Americans plan, all fundamental liberties will go by the board. We are asked to go back to Washington and Jefferson and continue in the traditional way of trial and error. (Copyright. 1934, by The Times)

Your Health “BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN —

THE approach of July 4 again impels me to warn you against the dangers of fireworks, and urge you to make this holiday safe for yourselves and your children. The effects of the campaign for a safe Fourth of July, that was waged throughout a past generation, are disappearing gradually. Thirty years ago, you would awaken to the sound of gun fire. The day was made hideous by noise; the night brilliant by fire. On July 5 the morgues of great cities contained the bodies of children; hospitals received cases in which eyes had been lost and other portions of the body shot away. Severe burns tortured the bodies of both children and adults, and some weeks later deaths from lockjaw began to multiply. That was not the way of sanity in celebration. * * a A GREAT campaign, in • which newspapers and magazines did their part, brought some help to the situation, and during the last ten years the numbers of accidents and deaths became much less. Nevertheless, a gradual relaxation of effort is promptly followed by an increase. Cities and towns have passed laws against dangerous fireworks, but they are bootlegged regularly on the outskirts and motor cars make access to the bootlegger easy. Even the simplest type of fireworks may be harmful to a child who is not familiar with its use. There are certain precautions to be used under all circumstances. nun DON’T hold fireworks, even the smallest, in your hands. Never throw fireworks at any one. Do not attempt to carry any kind of fireworks in your pockets. Guns and revolvers should be reserved for hunting and not used for celebration. Dynamite and dynamite caps also should be limited to their industrial uses. Toy pistols have a way of exploding and spreading gun powder that is most likely to result in injury. Any powder bum is dangerous, principally because of the possibility that lockjaw or other types of infection may follow. A powder burn should be treated immediately by a doctor. He will open the wound, make certain that infection is prevented, and inject the - antilockjaw serum that is useful in preventing disease. Sizzlers, pinwheels, and sparklers under proper control are not harmful. In the hands of a small child they may be a source of serious accident and even death.

Questions and Answers

Q —Do human hair and fingernails grow after death? A— No. That is a popular fallacy. Q—Which is the most precious metal? A— 'Radium.

The Indianapolis Times

Pull Leased Wire Service of the United Press Association

JUST A POOR LITTLE RICH BOY

Society Pities Jack Astor ; Who Seems to Say the Wrong Things

BY PAUL HARRISON Times-NEA Service Staff Writer NEW YORK, June 19.—Society is feeling a little sorry for young Jack Astor. True, there were a lot of bluebloods who took the side of the Lawrence Gillespies and their daughter Eileen in the sensational contretemps involving the shattered engagement, the recriminative bickerings, the return of the SIOO,OOO heirloom diamond, and the report, subsequently denied by the irate young millionaire, that he had tendered a written apology for certain objectionable remarks only to be followed by the publication of the alleged letter of apology. Obviously Mr. Astor has a talent amounting almost to genius for saying the wrong things at unfortunate times. But society also is making commiserating “t’ch-t’chs” in agreement that it isn’t all Jack’s fault, really, but just another chapter in the story of a poor little rich boy. It is pointed out that although he may have several millions of dollars, he hasn’t any one to help him fight his battles. While he was giving ill-considered interviews concerning the Gillespies and their custody of the thirty-two-carat gem, his mother refrained from flying to his defense with cautious words and social wisdom. As for his father —Colonel John Jacob Astor went down with the Titanic in 1912, four months before John Jacob Astor, the sixth, was born.

The youngster always has been self-sufficient, in his fashion. His own money—part of the $3,000,000 trust fund left by Colonel Astor to his unborn child—paid the expenses of his birth. He paid SBB6 for a fancy layette a month before he was born. During three years of his childhood he footed the bills for $5,760 worth of clothes and toys for himself. And he contributed one-third of the household expenses, taxes and such. These details came out in 1917 when his mother gave an accounting in court of how $86,034 of her young son’s money had been spent for his upkeep during thirty-seven months. Os course that sum, large as it was, amounted to only about one-sixth of the boy’s income. MADELAINE # TALMADGE FORCE had been only 18 when she married Colonel Astor, and certain members of the Episcopal clergy had sermonized on the “immorality” of a girl of tender years marrying a divorced man of twice her age. The marriage was a success, though, until Astor’s tragic death. Subsequently his widow tossed away more than $5,000,000 and a Fifth avenue mansion by marrying William K. Dick. By terms of the Astor will the money and the house were to revert to Vincent Astor, half brother of the present John Jacob, if she were to rewed. John found a close friend in his first stepfather, and was saddened by the divorce. Then came the romance between his mother and Enzo Fiermonte, former Italian middleweight champion and John Jacob’s boxing instructor for a time. Mrs. Astor Dick, who once had married a much older man, now became the 40-year-old bride of a man sixteen years her junior. Fiermonte, by the way, now is supposed to be in training for a match with Maxie Rosenblcom, light heavyweight champion. u n n HER son disapproved the match, and said so to newspaper reporters in his first public

The

DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND

■By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

"ITTASHINGTON, June 19.—Almost simultaneously with President ▼ T Roosevelt’s arrival in Puerto Rico his administration will put into effect a land reform program more significant than any of the regimentations about which certain senators heckled the immaculate Mr TugweH. . . The government will take over tracts of land now held by monopolistic sugar companies, distribute it to now landless native? The project will be financed through the sugar processing tax. ... A an , commission win be set up to administer the program as Governor Winship is not considered sympathetic. ## * ' * * TOOTLEG rye is now being sold in ‘the nation's capital more promiscuously than ever before. The only difference is that the bigger speakeasies are out of business, and thousands of allev joints have cropped up. Standard price is 5 cents a gill-25 cents a pint James H. Hanley, ex-law part- - - pint ’

ner of Nebraska’s ex-Democratic Committeeman Arthur Mullen, is angling to keep himself on top of the heap. Arthur had Hanley appointed a member of the federal radio commission, also got one of the commission’s former examiners to join his firm. . . . Mullen's radio practice thrived. . . . Now that the rauio commission is to be absorbed by the new communications commission, Hanley circulated a petition on Capitol Hill urging his appointment to it. * # a FORTHRIGHT Henry Morgenthau will go to the Yellowstone soon to rest from the ardour of keeping the treasury department reasonably honest. He will stay there until Roosevelt returns from Hawaii, then join his train en route east. . . . Members of the house military affairs committee estimate that John McSwain, shrewo Scotsman from South Carolina, will save the United States about $4,000,000 through his investigations of army scandals. As .hairman of the committee he has been like a hound dog in following up every trace of graft. Revenge is sweet! . . . Four years ago Joseph R. Grundy, king of high tariff lobbyists, went down to defeat in a Pennsylvania Republican primary. . . . Bill Vare, whose uncompleted term he filled, worked against him. A few days ago. Vare was ousted as boss of Philadelphia and the whitecrested, sauve Mr. Grundy enthroned himself as supreme ruler of Pennsylvania Republicandom. ... Senator “Li’l Arthur” Robinson was renominated by acclamation at Indiana’s Republican convention. But all was not as harmonious as it appeared. Sub rosa there is considerable hostility among the rank-and-file against the Hoosier Laranguer. ana WHAT’S in a name? . . . In Oklahoma, if it is spelled Will Rogers, it is good for a congressional seat. ... In 1932, an unknown back-country school teacher bearing this name announced his candidacy. Al-

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utterance. He then went to live with an aunt in Newport. By this time Jack Astor had graduated from a preparatory school, decided that he didn’t want to “waste time” going to college, and had taken a few lonely trips to Europe and around the world. He had few friends and only one hobby—mechanics; he'd drive a Rolls-Royce, but liked to overhaul the engines of flivvers. He went to hunts and horse shows and society tennis matches, but didn’t seem to have much fun. From the time he donned long pants he was considered one of the most desirable catches of his generation, and many an ambitious mama nudged her daughter into his presence. He grew wiry, athletic, slender and moderately handsome. No scandal ever attached to his name; no Broadway hot-spot knew his patronage. 8 tt tt NOT even the society gossip columns were able to link John Astor’s name with many

though no relation to the famous cowboy humorist, Rogers was nominated, elected. This year a third Will Rogers undertook to repeat by running against the successful school teacher. . . . The latter, however, objected to the. infringement, took the issue to the state supreme court, had his rival namesake's name stricken from the ballot. an 'T'HE reason Ambassador Caffery’s house in Havana has been fired at is not because of any unpopularity. The trouble is he lives in a house belonging to a great supporter of Tyrant Machado. The landlord rented it for almost nothing because he figured the presence of the American ambassador would give his property immunity. Otherwise it was sure to be bombed. ... It has been shot at, anyway, and, what is worse. Caffery's neighbors complain that his low rental has driven down surrounding property values. . . . Incidentally, the state department has a real surprise for the midwest farmer in the Cuban treaty to be announced soon. Although the terms are still secret, it gives pork and corn products, wheat, potatoes and other agricultural commodities a big preference in the Cuban market. The farmer should get some real reciprocity. The recent Chicago meeting of the Republican national committee was not a total loss to ex-Sen-ator Jim Watson. . . . The gladhanding Indianian lost out in his efforts to grab off the national chairmanship, but his presence in Chicago gave him an excuse for staying away from the Indiana Republican state convention, where he was slated to place in nomination Senator Robinson. Privately, Jim doesn’t think much of his former colleague, for a time last spring considered running against him. (Oopy right, 1934. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.j

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1934

PRINCIPALS IN THE BIG RING BATTLE—John Jacob Astor (extreme left) got back his SIOO,000 heirloom ring after apologizing to Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Gillespie (lower left, above) for “his language” to their daughter, Eileen (upper left, above). Now the treasured jewel is expected to find its way to the third left-hand finger of Ellen Tuck French (right, above), successor to Eileen Gillespie as fiancee of the “Astor crown prince.”

debs, although he was reported engaged, at the age of 20, to a daughter of Prince Torlonia of Rome. The idea soon was squelched. After coming into his inheritance last August, rumors picked up a little. He was supposed to be interested alternately in Eileen Gillespie and Ellen Tuck French, a couple of 18-year-olds who had been introduced to society only a week apart, and who were good friends and both of* excellent families. By December everybody knew that Eileen was Jack’s choice. The diamond he gave her once had nestled in the crown of the guillotined Louis XVI, and had blazed from a brooch worn by the Empress Eugenie. Astor’s paternal grandmother had bought the brooch in France. 8 8 tt SOCIETY is all of a dither to learn what really happened during the brief betrothal. In newspaper interviews, John de-

STATE SAVINGS SUIT COMPROMISE HINTED Double Liability Was Asked From Stockholders. Indications that a compromise has been reached in the double liability suit filed three years ago against stockholders of the defunct State Savings and Trust Company were seen yesterday at a first hearing on the suit in superior court two. It was understood that representatives of the approximately 7,000 creditors and depositors had agreed on collection of an unannounced percentage of the double liability from the approximately 300 stockholders. * The suit asked full double liability when filed May 6, 1931. It was maintained this was necessary to raise an alleged difference of $400.000 between the assets remaining when the bank closed April 25, 1930, and its $1,200,000 liabilities.

SIDE GLANCES

“Instead of going to the country this summer we’re going to spend our vacation right out here.’*

clared that the parents Gillespie had planned to attend their daughter’s honeymoon, and that they had insisted on too large a marriage settlement for her. Also he said that he’d like to have his ring back. The dignified Mrs. Gillespie even became piqued to the extent of declaring for publication that she was glad her daughter’s eyes had been opened in time. All this made dandy grist for the tabloids, which seldom have been able to reveal, round by round, just how such bouts are conducted among the best families. Astor got his ring back, but not before he had bought another for "Tucky” French, his new fiancee. The Eugenie bauble probably will be reset in the brooch and given to Miss French fq£ .a,, wedding present. There’ll be other presents, too. Astor has bought a five-story town house, all white marble and red velvet, and with a big ballroom; and a villa at Newport which is

TODAY and TOMORROW 8 8 8 8 8 8 By Walter Lippmann

The following address, parts of which are presented here, was delivered by Mr. Lippmann at graduation exercises of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. AT this time of year in all parts of the Union large masses of people gatner togetner in order to take part in exercises like these. They march. They sing. They wea* strange costumes. They make speeches, there are sentimental reunions of the old graduates, genuinely delighted to see old Bill, and sometimes just a little hazy as to what Bill’s last name is. ’ \

Among the seniors there is packing and moving and catching trains, and a downpour of good wishes and good advice, and some polite wondering on their part as to whether the speeches are going to be very long-winded. These occasions have become a kind of national festival in which with pomp and circumstance the American people celebrate one of their deepest and oldest convictions. They believe, as no other na-

By George Clark

being remodeled for occupancy this summer. 8 8 8 BUT. meantime, more details of the high society feud came today from a source close to the Gillespies. Today’s revelations concern the amount of the marriage settlement and Jack's attitude after he had become engaged. The settlement is said to have been fixed by Jack himself at $1,500,000. But Eileen's father objected to his daughter receiving such a sum and the amount was reduced to $500,000. As to Astor’s conduct after the engagement announcement, it was learned the Gillespies felt he was too overbearing, insisted on dictating to his fiancee —and sometimes even to her parents. The Gillespies are tired of public bickering and are threatening to publish certain letters written by Jack unless the entire affair is immediately and effectively hushed. The next round is awaited eagerly.

tion ever has believed, that they must educate their sons and their daughters. Since the first settlements three centuries ago, long before there was an American nation, long before the republic was imagined, before there was wealth or security, the American people began to tax themselves to build schools and colleges and universities. They have subscribed to many noble declarations about the liberties and the rights of man, and have embodied them in their Constitution and their laws. But it has been by their willingness to support' schools that they have made these declarations significant. n n n r | ''HE American people believe A that the people can be educated. On this faith our civilization rests. They have believed that with opportunity there would emerge from the people leaders and thinkers, inventors and organizers who would know how to make democracy work. They would not have built these schools had they not had this faith in their fellowmen, had they not believed that wisdom will respond honorably to honorable treatment, that in the long run men, if they are trusted, will be worthy of trust, that when things are expected of them they will rise to the expectation. There is much disillusionment in the world today. But on this fundamental article of the American faith, that the mass of men are good enough to be educated and that they can be trusted, we still stand and by ceremonies like these affirm our faith. Let other nations, if they choose, put their hopes in tyrants and self-selected superior men. Our hopes are in free men making their decisions by open de- * bate. Let others, if they like, try to achieve a glorious destiny by turning their schools into barracks, their teachers to drill masters, their learning into instruments of policy. n n n OUR destiny is in the hands of the young men and women, a million of them a year, who come out of schools and colleges that are dedicated to freedom. (Copyright. 19?4) t

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffiee, Indianapolis. Ind.

Fdir Enough mmSm NEW YORK, June 19.—1f they haven’t committed themselves too far already, will the Lawrence Lewis Gillespies of Park avenue and Newport, R. 1., please get in touch with your corerspondent at once, with a view to making a little money for themselves and also for your correspondent? The Lawrence Lewis Gillespies are the parents of the little girl who just barely missed becoming the stepdaughter-in-law of the potential light heavy-

weight champion of the world, Enzo Fiermonte, when her engagement to young John Jacob Astor was called off. If the Gillespies’ little girl had married young John Jacob she would have been entitled to sit in the Astor family group at the ringside when John Jacob’s stepfather fights Siapsi e Rosenbloom for the light heavyweight championship and yell “Hit him in the slats. Enzo!” However, that opportunity is past, and it is just the Gillespies’ hard luck ’ that they never will be able to claim step-kinship-in-law to a poten-

tial light heavyweight champion of the world. They should have thought of this before. What your correspondent has in mind is the serial rights to the correspondence which was exchanged between John Jacob and themselves and the further possibilities of the radio, vaudeville, testimonials and moving pictures. Your correspondent has been around in this business for some years, and it pains him to see the Gillespies, paw and maw, throwing away valuable material which could be marketed at considerable profit to themselves and your correspondent with professional handling. But, first of all, your correspondent would earnestly advise the Gillespies to release no more of this material until they have conferred with him and heard rus proposition. Astor Missive Exclusive THE Gillespies have a big thing there. The memoirs of Miss Evelyn Nesbit have been printed many times in the last twenty-some years and they are running again, better than ever, at the present time. Miss Peggy Joyce’s story is another twice-told tale which could be touched up slightly today and sold over again at good prices. But nobody ever has been able to offer the letters of a John Jacob Astor for publication, and if the Gillespies, paw and maw, intend to publish this correspondence, it seems a sinful waste to release it free of charge. Your correspondent would undertake to put on a great publicity campaign in advance of publication, with posters on the circulation wagons and doubletrucks in the newspaper trade publications. If an old story of Charles Dickens could sell for more than a quarter of a million at this date in competition with many other stories by the same author, the first rights to the first published letters of a John Jacob Astor should be worth enough to interest the parents of Enzo Fiermonte’s ex-stepdaughter-in-law-elect. 8 .8 8 SI,OOO a Week to Start /'"XN the air Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie could string VJ out the story of the family quarrel with John Jacob as endlessly as the little adventures of Amos ’n Andy. They would not even have to write their own copy. There are staff ghosts who could take one little phrase out of one of John Jacob’s letters to the Gillespies and write a fifteen-minute routine around it. They could get SI,OOO a week to start. In vaudeville they might like to use a little act which your correspondent has been working over in his spare time these last few days. It starts with Mrs. Gillespie reading the letters before the fire and remarking to Mr. Gillespie, “Paw, do you really think that ring that John Jacob gave our little girl was worth $100.’)00 like he said?” Mr. Gillespie, fiddling with the dials on his radio, says, “Hush, maw, Enzo Fiermonte is fighting Rollo Rollova at the Ridgewood Grove A. C. tonight, and I want to hear the broadcast.” The act then proceeds through a reading of some of John Jacob’s letters, including his letter of apology for passing unkind remarks about the Gillespie family. Then comes the broadcast of John Jacob’s stepfather's fight and the shrill voice of John Jacob’s maw cryipg, “In the belly, honey; he don’t like ’em down there.” Enzo wins the fight by a knockout, and each member of the family then says a few words on the air from the ringside. Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie sit silent, and just at the curtain Maw says, “Paw, if you hadn’t been so temperish with John Jacob we might have been at the ringside ourselves tonight among all the celebrities, instead of sitting here reading old letters.” (Copyright, 1934, by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Today s Science

BY DAVID DIETZ A FORTUNE awaits the inventor who can devise adequate methods to prevent the deterioration of fish nets. In all probability, the average person never has given this subject a.thought. But the facts are, according to Dr. A. C. Robertson of the University of Illinois, that depreciation of nets costs the nation’s fishing industry $10,000,000 a year, or about one-fifth of the value of the annual gross catch. The life of a fish net is a precarious one, according to a report which Dr. Robertson has prepared for the American Chemical Society. The subject interests chemists because of the possibility of developing a chemical preservative for treating the nets. “Nets usually lead a short life,” Dr. Robertson says. “Not only do powerful fish, sharks and seals entangled in a net escape easily and demolish it, but floating debris often tears holes in a net or pulls it adrift. “Storms effect even worse damage, especially if the net is fouled with marine growths. In addition to the damage caused by these external and obvious agencies, a net is constantly losing strength by reason of normal routine use.” n n n BACTERIA, cause of so much damage in this world, also play their part in the deterioration of the nets. i “It long has been suspected that the general weakening of nets was due to bacteria, and a recent study of the deterioration of nets in fresh water showed that certain cellulose-digesting organisms were indeed to blame,” Dr. Robertson says. “The hydra, or red slime, which fisherman dread so much, was found not to be guilty.” nun DEVELOPMENT of net preservatives, according to Dr. Robertson, has narrowed to two types, a copper resinate fluid for the treating of gill nets and a cuprous oxide paint for trap and gill nets. The difference in physical properties of different types of nets has made impractical the evolution of any universal net preservative. Bacteriological inquiry revealed interesting phenomena which led to tests of new textiles and new types of preservative treatment. “It was noted that when the tensile strength of fibers began to decrease rapidly, the bacteria at the same time had entered the lumen of the cotton fiber, and that the two events were simultaneous,” Dr. Robertson continued. “The fibers began to swell rapidly after this entry. The swelling was accompanied by a quick growth of bacteria, which presumably were feeding on the nitrogenuous matter in the pitch. The fiber wasted away within until destruction was complete.” To combat this destructive force in gill net experiments were conducted with dyes which stop the growth of the bacteria.

Es| ! —-

Westbrook Pegler