Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 34, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 June 1934 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPPS-HOM AKD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD President TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Business Manager Phone RI ley 5551

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trios Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY. JUNE 20. 1934.

A CHALLENGE TO THE U. S.

'T'HE administration's new housing act is a challenge to w r hat has come to be the new American spirit of self-help through civic cooperation. Under this plan for rehousing the nation's millions the government abandons all notion of subsidizing private industry. It will not pour billions of public credit into building. It will, however, make it easier for the billions of private dollars now rusting in the banks to go to work. The new measure, no less than NIRA, is typically Rooseveltian. Harold J. Laski, in describing the President’s conception of the state, says: “For him the power of the state remains that of the reserve organizer who defines the rules, not the immediate agent who operates the process." Under the housing act the government do'es just this. By insuring private home mortgages for renovating and rebuilding; setting standards for anew type, long term, amortized, cheap interest home mortgage; providing mortgage money in high interest rate regions through national mortgage associations; insuring the savings of building and loan associations; the government proposes to attract capital into the mortgage market. While doing this it gives full play also to the old-fashioned virtues of thrift and personal initiative. The new measure will live up to the hopes of its sponsors only if loaning agencies and home owners co-operate to make it work. This will require a revival of the same civic enthusiasm that marked the early days of the blue eagle's flight. The time for a great rehousing movement 'is here. Home building is five years under normal. Families are living “double” and millions are in homes unfit for Americans. The consumption goods industry is picking up. People are returning to the cities. The marriage rate :: is going U p. Recovery lags only in the heavy : . industries. Rehousing seems to be the next ; New Deal play. 5 I FOURTH OF JULY HIEF MIKE MORRISSEY has warned against the retail sales of fireworks before July 2 and against premature celebrations. Although the conditions are set out in a city ordinance it is the wise thing on Morrissey s part to recall the facts to Indianapolis residents. In the first place, it is absolutely silly for persons to purchase fireworks before July 2. • No one wants to hear the noise until the last -iiunute and many don’t care for it then. ; Os course, in the years of depression the ; fourth of July noise has dwindled more each ; year. In the good old days when father blew ; week’s pay on fireworks the neighborhood ' resounded from dawn until midnight with a series of bangs and screeches. Any retail firm which disposes of fireworks before the legal time should be haled into court. Not only the disturbance created by the explosives is irksome, but there ahvays are more casualties than there should be, even on the one day of celebration. v •* i Chief Morrissey will perform a commend- ; fble duty if he and his men are able to en- * sorce the law to the letter this year. \ v ■ JUMPING OFF PLACES A MAN who once was an aviator, recently remarked that many Indianapolis streets consisted chiefly of “jumping off places.” Any one who ever has piloted a plane should be well versed in “jumping off places.” } , What he meant, how'ever, was that many\ Streets in the city are smooth for several blocks and then suddenly become a mass of bumps, ruts and chuck holes which tear up the constitutions of the car and driver. A check by city officials will confirm this statement. Without taking the time to cite each instance, it is safe to say that there must be fifty streets in Indianapolis that have smooth surfaces for many blocks and which suddenly become masses of seething pavement. When the city undertakes its next improvement drive, it will be a good idea to start on these streets first. A LITTLE MORE JUSTICE r H 'THOUSANDS of Indianapolis residents are appalled by the amazing death toll from automobile accidents thus far this year. They are taking it seriously enough, but are doing nothing themselves to help remedy the situation. They still are driving as fast as they ever ■ did, still as recklessly. They have little regard for arrests for there is always some politician handy who is ready to “fix” anything. It would be a splendid idea if Indianapolis tightened up NOW on its traffic enforcement. “Fixing” of speeding tickets should not and must not be condoned. Every automobile driver in Indianapolis who knows a politician is a potential reckless driver. He thinks he can get away with it. All too often he does. The release without punishment of speeders can be classed as criminal negligence. And Indianapolis is guilty of criminal responsibility in every case where a speeder wiggles himself free through the “influence” of his politician friend. Indianapolis has traffic laws. When arrests are made for violations of those laws, punishment is due. It is high time that this city’s public officials stepped forward ; with • a mandate to all drivers and driver- : politicians. That mandate should be: “Fixis barred.”

SCAPEGOAT NOT ENOUGH r TT'HE Rogers committee of the house has -*■ made very serious charges against General Foulois, army air corps chief. And the committee's report was approved unanimously by the four Democrats, three Republicans and one Farmer-Laborite, after what appeared to be exhaustive hearings. But the public should suspend judgment on the general until he has had full opportunity to meet the accusations. The army being what it is, it hardly is possible that General Foulois alone could be responsible for all the things charged by the committee. If there is “mismanagement,” “inefficiency,” and “gross misconduct,” as charged, it would seem that other high army officers and war department officials must be partly to blame. The recent grand jury investigation into charges of army graft and two contemporaneous congressional inquiries, bringing out charges and counter-charges of all kinds, proved beyond doubt that the aviation and procurement branches of the army are rife with office politics. Such a situation obviously can not be cleared up by taking the shoulderstraps off one or tw'o men. I Piercing the nasty accusations that have come from all sides, we find that basically the controversy rages around the question of what method should be followed in purchasing army equipment. General Foulois and some of his colleagues favor “negotiated contracts.” Some of the general’s superiors and some of his subordinates, together with members of the Rogers committee, favor open competitive bidding, saying that negotiated contracts lead to favoritism. Even in congress there is dissent as to method. A group, led by Representative Collins (Dem., Miss.), a conscientious student of military affairs, contends that only by negotiated contracts can the army be certain that it is securing the best possible equipment. Somehow, the navy air corps, by combining the two methods, has escaped criticism entirely, and there is no question of naval air efficiency. Since it failed in its attempt to fly the mails, the public has known that something is wrong with the army air corps. This public alarm can not be dispelled by anything short of a complete and authoritative inquiry, and fortunately such an inquiry—that of the Baker board —is now under way. Efficiency of the corps is the goal. A NORTH SIDE NEED TNDIANAPOLIS is rightfully proud of its -*• park and playground system. Children in almost every portion of the city have playlots and parks in which to play. away from the streets and away from dangerous automobiles. But one section of this city and the most thickly populated—the north side—can boast of no playground from Thirty-eighth street north to the canal. Something should be done about it. Such things, of course, are not done in a day. But by 1935 Indianapolis should be able to number among its playgrounds one on the north side. THIRTEEN MONTHS ONE of the oldest of reform movements is that of the calendar reform people. For decades they have agitated the idea that the year should be divided into thirteen equal four-week months, with anew month inserted between June and July, and the 365th or extra day used, presumably, to go call on your Aunt Minnie. Now the NRA has given the idea an unexpected impetus. Washington officials, collecting data on various industries, found an amazing variety of report periods, weekly, biweekly, every four weeks, monthly, and quarterly. It was highly advisable to get together on something. So the central statistical board asked adoption of a uniform four-week period, and now more than seven hundred individual firms are using this system, according to the International Fixed Calendar League. It is the league’s belief that this foreshadows adoption of the reformed calendar for business, and later for public use. Stranger things have happened. MORE ABUNDANT LIFE IT is slow, but it is inevitable. The forces moving toward securing more of the good things of life for the common man are making progress even while we look aghast at temporary setbacks. The most recent evidence of this tendency is in the new yearbook of the National Recreation Association, showing a large increase in public recreational facilities during 1933. At the end of that year there were 7.434 outdoor playgrounds, an increase of 444. Nearly 800 new baseball diamonds were built during the year, and fifty-eight new bathing beaches. More than 500 new recreation areas and centers were opened; in fact, almost all sports facilities were enlarged greatly except municipal golf courses and swimming pools, which showed a slight decline. Federal aid made these expansions possible, as most counties cut down their recreation budgets. More leisure, more sunshine, recreation, and fun in life for the average fellow. It’s coming, slowly but surely. THE COST OF BREAD IN rejecting the bakers’ code the national baking council complains that bakers are paying millions for the farmers’ benefit in processing taxes without being able to collect increased labor and commodity costs from consumers. This statement is untrue and unfair, says Dr. Frederic C. Howe, AAA consumers’ counsel. From what facts he can gather Dr. Howe finds that on May 22 consumers were paying 1.42 cents more for a pound loaf of white bread than they paid in the year ending June 30, 1933. The cost of ingredients going into a pound loaf increased in that time only .87 cents. This leaves a half-cent for each loaf with which to pay increases in labor and other costs. The trade is not paying farmer benefits out of its pocket. “It is fair neither to the bakery workers nor to consumers, who have been paying a higher price for bread since last July, to give this impression,” says Dr. Howe. Now that the Hitler-Mussolini conference is over, perhaps'the rest of the nations will be , able to discover what their destiny is to be.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES”

PERHAPS the most persuasive argument of a decade for social and economic radicalism was John Strachey’s “The Coming Struggle for Power.” Shortly after the volume was published, the author made a trip to the United States in order to study the Roosevelt New Deal and come to a conclusion as to whether it offered any real hope of averting what Mr. Strachey had deemed to be the inevitable struggle between Fascism and Communism. He now has published a special chapter on the United States to be added to anew edition of his work. Mr. Strachey doubts thd ability of President Roosevelt to restrain predatory piracy and to steer a successful middle course between the extremes of Fascism and Communism. This opinion will not surprise those who are familiar with Mr. Strachey’s volume. It is doubtful whether anything Mr. Roosevelt could do would alter Mr. Strachey’s already pretty firmly fixed convictions. Those who do not share his views as to the hopelessness of the New Deal will, nevertheless, find most instructive Mr. Strachey’s trenchant summary of European Fascism He blasts the guilded romance which has been disseminated by American reactionaries and shows Fascist Europe in its stark reality. We recommend the following paragraphs to those who rant for an American Mussolini: tt tt “ATTHAT, then, would a Fascist world be like? ▼ V There is little difficulty, at any rate for a European, in answering that question. For Europe today is predominantly a Fascist continent. Nor should there be much need to remind the American reader of what Europe is like today. “This motherland of modern civilization is split up into over twenty sovereign states, the great majority of them maintaining the power of the capitalist class by an open and ruthless dictatorship. Trade is stifled by an almost incredible system of tariffs, quotas, licenses and controls. “Censorships are maintained over every form of human thought and expression. Some Fascist states impose heavy penalties on those who doubt the superstitions of the middle ages; some compel conformity to the new, far more barbarious and far less beautiful ‘racial’ myths of the twentieth century. “Science, art and letters necessarily must languish and are doing so visibly; spiritual despair and material want are alike seizing the intellectual classes. “Each and every one of the Fascist states suffers from incurable and violent economic disorders; its workers are decimated by unemployment; its peasantry is crushed by taxation and by debt. In each, the state finances are in disorder, the budget is unbalanced, the public debt is growing greater and greater. n a a “T>UT this does not prevent each state from 13 piling even higher and higher a fantastic mountain of armaments, of conscripting more millions of its young men, of imposing yet heavier taxation to build more and more warships, tanks, gas containers, and bombers. For each can see that anew war is very close. “Such is the reality of Fascist Europe. It is a reality which already is nothing less than the first stage in the break-up of western civilization into anew dark age of barbarism. Nor would a Fascist world be anything other than a Fascist Europe on a gigantic scale.” In my own opinion we still are far from a demonstration of the utter hopelessness of the New Deal. It has a desperately hard road to travel, blocked in large part by those who stand to gain'most by its success. But it still has a fighting chance, at least for the destinies of our generation. It does seem to me, however, that it is true that the New Deal offers the only immediate alternative to a Fascism which would be even more black and terrible in the United States than it is in Europe. In the latter area peoples have become accustomed to a degree of collectivism to which the American pirates never would consent. When we tend to be annoyed by the relatively trivial restraints and inconveniences which the New Deal imposes, let us turn to Mr. Strachey’s picture of European Fascism. The choice ought not to be difficult for any person above the level of sheer idiocy.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

RED roses, strawberry shortcake adorned with little American and Japanese flags, white flannels and jokes in dialect by senators and featured the luncheon given by State Secretary Hull for Japanese Prince Konoye. Host Hull was in fine humor. His Tennessee drawl could be heard distinctly during lulls in the conversation. He did most of the talking at his end of the table, since Konoye said hardly anything. The prince is afraid as yet to speak English at length. He sat, while-fianneled and mute, while Japanese Ambassador Saito conversed with his host. a tt THE gay end of the table was that where eloquent Senator Tom Connally and Representative Sam Rayburn of Texas whooped merrily over jokes of the Lone Star state. “Did I tell you the one about , . . came Senator Connally’s resonant voice. After an interval, gales of laughter followed. “That reminds me,” Sam Rayburn would chime in and, in due course, a second roar was heard. John Dickinson, assistant commerce secretary, (put in excellent mood by the sight of miniature lighthouses on the desert) then told of a few good ones in dialect. The hilarity that ensued was so loud that Ambassador Saito glanced down from his end of the table. Mr. Keinosuke Fujii, the Japanese counsellor, was much puzzled by some of the American idioms and slang catchwords. But his diplomacy equaled the test. “Very funny ... a most clever story,” smiled poor Mr. Fujii, after a great storm of laughter from his neighbors. He tactfully showed his white teeth. tt tt tt THE sultan of Johore—who rules an independent state on the Malay peninsula—recently had tea with President and Mrs. Roosevelt at the White House. The sultana of Johore accompanied her husband. Sir Ronald Lindsay, the British ambassador, also came along—in case his highness needed any advice. The British government has been advising Johore since 1914. The sultan is an educated, cultured man who replied in excellent Oxonian English to the President’s interested queries. The sultana, incidentally, is an English woman. Throughout the east the sultan of Johore is noted for two things—as a great sportsman (he shoots tigers) and as one of the wealthiest men in Asia. A state department official who knows him said: “He has more money than Henry Ford ever dreamed of. The amount of his jewels, gold and other treasure is almost fabulous. He ranks next to the gaekwar of Baroda in wealth.” On gala occasions, his highness dresses in a magnificent native costume ornamented with precious stones. But he dressed in simple European clothes—without formality, NOTE—It was reported (but not confirmed) that the sultan invited the President to come to his dominions for a tiger hunt. That wandering Japanese diplomat who nearly started another war with China fortunately was found. But there still are many diplomats loose in Europe. Now that Father’s day is over, it will be Mother’s day the rest of the year. So many bombs have been found in Pans lately, you’d think that city was the capita l , of Cuba.

_ THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _

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r I p IV/i PQQO rfA | I l wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 J- i-VX defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

(Times readers are invited to express their vietcs in these columns. Make pour letters short, so all can have a chance, limit them to 250 words or less.) ana CHARGES FAVORITISM IN POOR RELIEF By Mrs. J. Smith. I can’t get any information from the trustee of Wayne township in regard to the government supplies of meats, butter, lard and eggs. It seems like there are only a chosen few who can get these supplies. I know an ex-deputy sheriff, who boasts he can get anything he wants, and makes his boast good. He is working for the Public Works Administration and has a soft job. He gets sl2 a week and government supplies, and his children are clothed by the township. He bought anew radio and keeps it going all day. There are other families who need help more than this man does, but try and get it. Why not help those who need it? There are three grown girls in the family who work away from home. There are only four small boys at home, and there are lots of people with as large families as his, who get no help. There are a few others who are getting the same treatment as he, but I only told about him because it will be easy for you to check on him and learn that this is the truth. We are all poor together. Is every one entitled to those government supplies or not? Twelve dollars don’t go very far in feeding eight, paying rent and clothing children. a a ICE MEN ANNOY NIGHT WORKER By Night Toiler. I arrived home at 5:30 after working all night. It is just 6:10, and as I am writing this, ice men are raising the neighbhorhood with their voices I used to get to bed as soon as I came home, but decided I would stay up until they were past. Well that worked for awhile, but doesn’t now, for in about thirty minutes they come around again. It seems to me that Chief Morrissey could at least use his good judgment, and put a stop to this menace. He certainly can understand what one has to contend with who works at night. They don’t allow it in any cities I ever have been in, except Indianapolis. BELIEVES RED RUSSIA MOVES FORWARD By Jack Dolan. My previous letter brought forth some sharp retorts in your issue of June 16. No doubt those writers put out the best they had and are entitled to respect. Marx’s philosophy, call it socialism, Communism, or what you will, has two kinds of critics, the nonessential parasite who never contributes to the maintenance of the human family, and the misled individual who stubbornly refuses to investigate for himself, neither of them ever has produced an intelligent argument where Communism has failed or capitalism has succeeded. They are forced continually to shift from one bugaboo to another. If you would accept proof of Russia’s progress, look up the discussion of Russian recognition. When the subject was brought out into the open where facts were necessary, the opponents did not get to fi/st base. Go over the files of the magazines and newspapers of national prominence and see the articles of their reliable international writers. Just a few Sundays ago Arthur Brisbane stated in a Chicago paper he visited Russia several times and gave her

-OR WHAT HAVE YOU

Declares Party Chairman Fared Badly

Bv A. L. Huff. Who is game enough to act as state chairman when one realizes how both the Republican and Democratic parties have treated each of their chairmen? Both were kicked out; Mr. Morgan for failing to carry the state and R. Earl Peters for successfully leading the party out of the wilderness into the land of milk and honey. All the big guns of each party privately connived in selecting the most competent, the shrewdest, the most efficient man in the state to carry the banner and guide the last national campaign to win. Mr. Morgan is a gentleman. I know Mr. Morgan personally and he made the hardest fight ever put up by any Republican state chairman. He even brought into the parade the elephant and astride it some noted personages. Mr. Morgan also brought from

as high a tribute as any Communist could. As to sanitary conditions, let us watch the report of our own housing committee and hope to win the race. Police brutality—read a front page editorial in the same issue in which the letters appeared. Burning Christ in effigy; I grant they stopped the barnstorming type of evangelists who shake down the people for a few millions regardless of how, but in their stead they are teaching the fond utterances of our belo.ved Jesus in practice such as do unto others as you would be done by, you shall not charge your brother usury, and you shall earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. T never have seen Russia. I did see Milwaukee. Marx students have had charge there for more than fifteen years and it is the only city in the country that has weathered the storm of five years of depression and held its own. SEEKS DATA ON * HOGS IN RIVER By E. H. A member of the Klan quoted a speaker at one of their meetings as saying: “He stood on the bank of a river and saw the bodies of pigs, that the government had killed, and thrown into the river, so thick that he could not put his nand in the water without touching a pig.” The speaker was not quoted as to the distance the river was in this condition, but it seemed so unusual a condition I thought I would try to have it verified by The Times or some reader who was also a witness.

I am under the impression all states as well as the federal government have laws regarding stream pollution. It is also a mystery to me how it would be possible to get that many pigs in the river at one time. I do not recall the name of the river, but believe it was either the Missouri or Mississippi. Information from any reliable source is welcome, if authentic. tt tt m NOISY MOTORCYCLES CAUSE COMPLAINT By G. E. F. Indianapolis has a police force that prides itself on its so-called efficiency. It rigidly enforces that law which says that a car which is being operated with a cut-out going shall be stopped and the driver arrested. It is a wise law and the police deserve praise for enforcing it. But in what manner Jiar with

other states the most noted speakers. And all this procedure only made it harder for R. Earl Peters, but he took off his coat and sacrificed his upersonal interests and, without fear and without asking favor, carried the Democratic platform as the banner of the party, with all the candidates pinned to the four corners, and fought a fight that won. Mr. Peters believed he was entitled to the nomination for United States senator, but the intrigue of persons for whom Mr. Peters spent long, restless hours defeated him and gave the nomination to a man who spent no time, lost no sleep, and did not sacrifice any of his personal interests, yet he holds an appointment at good pay under who —Greenlee or McNutt? Do you expect Peters and his friends to stand pat under such treatment? A house divided against itself can not stand.

a cut-out. going different from a roaring motorcycle? That is something which has been puzzling many of us on the north side for many moons. Summer certainly is anything but a restful period for us on the north side. Every night from 6 until midnight motorcycles operated by drug store delivery men roar past our houses, most of them driving at speeds exceeding the limit. But perhaps our police department is more interested in industry’s welfare than the comfort of the taxpayer. Why doesn’t Mike Morrissey make those stores get bicycles, or, better still, small automobiles, and give the north side some rest? # ( tt tt LAUDS STREET CAR SERVICE IN CITY Bv K. M. W. Asa reader of The Times and patron of Indianapolis Railways, Inc., I wish to express my opinions about the article that you published last Tuesday about the Street Car Company. I do not work for or have any connection with it. I think you, or rather the men in the automobile, took an unfair view of the incident. I have ridden the street cars for p any years, not only here but in many cities and have found the operators here the most courteous that I have been in contact with. Os course there are one or two in every system, but this can be remedied. As for the man who was inclined so nobly, he was at fault if he had called to the operator and directed his attention to the approaching woman he would have done the right thing. Instead he stood outside the door like a “bump on a log” and held on to the door until the car started. The article stated that four other men had boarded the car ahead of the “helping” man, thus obstructing the motorman who helps the crippled, blind, aged and heavily burdened passengers on and off the car. To the stranger in town or a person unacquainted with a section of the city, he directs him to his destination and calls the streets, but if he makes one slight mishap or forgets to call a street for the passenger all of the good deeds are forgotten and he called dumb, asleep, stupid, and even worse. Now for the automobile drived How many of the motorists know

.JUNE 20, 1934

that there is a city ordinance which makes it unlawful to “pass a street car while loading or discharging passengers” and to cut through a safety zone? The street cars carry 75,000 to 100,000 passengers daily with no serious accidents. Then the safely carried passenger tries to alight in safety and is struck by the auto of a careless or ignorant driver and the street car company is blamed. If the men who witnessed the incident the other day are so concerned about the passengers, why don’t they keep their car, which carries four or five passengers, out of the way of a car which carries from fifty to sixty passengers? The automobile in question was halted twenty feet from the rear of the street car. The passengers were boarding the street car at the front door. n n n CONDEMNS SHUNNING OF BIRTH CONTROL By H. L. Each day when I get my copy of The Times, I first turn to The Message Center. With growing interest I have read all of the letters on birth control and Communism. I am thankful that one Indianapolis newspaper is imbued with the genuine American spirit of democracy, to the extent that it will give publicity to both sides of these mooted questions. I notice that the American Medical Association, the supreme body of medical men, has met again and for the fifth consecutive time refused to give birth control the consideration which it deserves. To me, this indicates timidity on the part of these scientific men in refusing to take a firm stand either for or against this question upon which the public will has not been definitely expressed. This indicates how little regard selfish men have for those expressions of democracy which credit the public with enlightenment and the capacity to bear intelligently responsibility. This condition should be a challenge to every man and woman. Let us accept this challenge by studying the civic problems of the hour and by expressing our opinions to those officials in whose hands rest their ultimate fate. These learned physicians of conservative, or may I say selfish thought, have indicated by their action that, the costly lessons of the Inquisition, prohibition and Hooverism have, upon them, been wasted. Birth control is not a cure for all of our social and economic ills. Birth control doctors the effects of greed. Yet, I believe, that the woman of slender means is more entitled to this scientific relief than is her more wealthy sister who, perchance may be the physician's wife. The point is that the same selfishness which has produced our industrial depression now is active in frustrating the designs of unselfish scientists and physicians.

ROMANCE

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK So much remains when love is dead. The romance lingers. The little words you always said, Your clinging fingers. The little walks w'e always took I still remember. The pale rosebuds you brought to me In cold December. Although I could not love you how This much remains with me: The lovely beauty of your smile; Our farewell kiss to ecstasy.