Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 38, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 June 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

The Indianapolis Times (A 8( RIPPS-MOW %RD nIWRPIPEII ROt W. HOWARD . . . President TALCOTT POWELL Editor XARL D. RAKER Baiiscti Manager i’bona R 1 ley 5.331

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MONDAY. JUNE 35. 1934

ANOTHER BANK STORY \ N official of the United States district * *■ court has filed a report that contains many serious charges against former officials of the former Fletcher American Company. These charges are to be aired in open court, in view of the fact that an appeal from the report already has been tak.-n. Today anew bank which according to its officers has "a clean slate,” has been rebuilt on the "site” of the old Fletcher American National bank of which the Fletcher American Company was a subsidiary The charges made against the old institutions subsidiary have no effect whatsoever on the new bank. Indianapolis, in the last few months, has witnessed many and varied revelations against financial institutions which hav3 gone defunct. Os course, the charges in the Fletcher American Company case which have been made must be aired in open court and must undergo many tests before their proof is apparent. This ca.se, like all other bank cases in the city, must be laid before the public and there is no doubt but that in the Indianapolis federal court the case will be given the fullest consideration and judgment, always necessary in matters of such importance. THE TYPHOID MENACE SATURDAY eighty residents of the little town of New Bethel went to the high school and received inoculations against typhoid lever. The epidemic has raged in the town for many days, with the result that one young man is dead and several other persons have become ill. Reactions at a community meeting Wednesday night led many persons to believe that perhaps the residents of ,New Bethel would not heed to the pleas of co-operation on the part of Marion county health authorities. But apparently this feeling passed, and the citizens of the community have decided to heed the advice that lives are more important than petty bickerings. The residents of this town are to be congratulated for the change in their attitude. It will prove profitable in the long run. BABY BANKS J7EW realize that congress in its last hectic * days enacted a truly important bit of banking legislation, the Sheppard bill, authorizing the federal government to charter credit unions. Under this act, when signed, the Farm Credit Admuiistration may nationalize and standardize the young American system of “baby banks," an institution that many consider a key to unlock a vast amount of frozen consumer credit. The District of Columbia and thirty-eight states now permit credit unions by law. The Sheppard act will extend their benefits to the ten remaining states. The credit union movement is young in this country, but not in the older nations. It started in Germany forty years ago. Today Germany has some fifty thousand such consumer "banks,” co-operatively managed by peasants, artisans and small business men. They arc commonplaces in Ireland. South Africa. India, Canada and :he Scandinavian countries. Here they have been operating only a decade and already there are more than 2.350 credit unions, with total membership of 500.00? people and assets of $65,000,000. It is significant that in the United States credit unions have weathered the depression bravely. Although they are self-managed there has been recorded not a single instance of forced liquidation in the last five years. This probably is due to the fact that they have remained small in membership. The danger lies in their becoming too large. Properly rim credit unions should prove tremendously useful in recovery. They should encourage thrift, mobilize small savings for co-operative u.-e and turn into buying power the unworked gold mine of credit based upon character. Credit unions will not hurt the banks for these are fundamentally merchants’ services. They will hurt the loan sharks, nowcharging people from 30 per cent to as high as 100 per cent a year for small loans. In the “old country” millions of farmers and wage earners have doubled their efficiency improved their livestock, added to their' wealth and that of the community through co-operative banking. Millions in this country should be able to do the same. WORK FOR EXPERTS ROOSEVELT has no immediX ate task more difficult than selection of the seven members of the new federal communications commission. Unfortunately, too few men in this country have both the experience and the public viewpoint essential to the purpose of the new commission. \ stupendous task lies ahead. The commission assumes wider powers over the radio field than are now exercised by the expiring federal radio commission and undertakes limited jurisdiction over the telephone and telegraph industries. The men who start the work of the new commission are called upon bv congress to study and recommend additional legislation. This looks toward a more complete integration of the nation's communications facilities to the end that the people may be more efficiently and economically served. The logical place to find talent for the commission is In the various state regulatory boards among men who have learned by sore experience the difficulties involved in controlling the large public service corporations.

Incidentally, much of the work of the new federal commission muat be done in co-ojfera-tion with state commissions. Novices can not be expected to cope successfully with the high-priced lawyers of the great monopolies in the communications field, and, as is the case with similar federal regulatory bodies, the public is not represented by counsel—the board itself having to perform ! that function. FOR BETTER LIVING JT is seemly of the administration to plan its rehousing campaign along educational instead of ballyhoo lines. But the country will be deprived of the higher social returns from this new adventure if the campaign fails to promote the larger values of aesthetic and social planning. Banks and loan companies should be persuaded to co-operate in the mortage insurance plans. Investors should be told of the advantages of the new type of insured and standardized first mortgages to be made available under the act. Doubtless, railroads should be urzed to reduce their rates and material men their prices in order to bring construction costs within easier reach of home builders. It is even more important that the billions of private funds that may be released for renovating and new home building be turned into channels that will enrich the nation in the years to come. For generations Americans have been building their cities, towns and villages without benefit of order, imagination, social welfare, or sense of beauty. Most cities have tried to ape New York, its skyscraper offices and apartments, its dingy slums. Slovenly towns have sprawled themselves along highways and railroad rights of way with no thought of community appearance. The process that the mock turtle would call the uglification of the United States has gone on almost unchecked. Here and there the city planners have been heard, and social architects have built communities after a pattern. The colonial type towns of Cape Cod and the little Mediterranean city of Santa Barbara are examples of what can be done. The new building movement may offer America its opportunity, not only to woo and win prosperity, but to set in motion forces that will carry its civilization far beyond the old ideals We are five years behind in normal building and we should this year be spending $3,000,000,000 more on construction than we are. The new housing act should make it easier to raise the money. If we spend with some thoughts of a better life every one of the new building dollars will multiply itself in the satisfaction of new wants. Conducted with less rugged individualism and mere social co-operation the rehousing movement in the new few years can become a dynamic uplifting force. HUMANE AND WISE SOME 1.200 deportable, but otherwise worthy, aliens were due for exile this summer under the immigration law. Colonel D. M. Mac Cormack, the department of labor’s new immigration commissioner, could see no justice in tearing these people from friends and families, while racketeering and criminal aliens, legally here, were allowed to remain. He asked congress for a law authorizing the department to separate the sheep from the goats and deport only the undesirables. This would not have increased immigration. since for every alien permitted to remain one person would have been checked off his country's quota. The measure came into congress late. It was met by the prejudice of certain restrictionists. who persuaded house members that it would increase immigration. It was lost in the closing days of the session. Colonel Mac Cormack, however, did persuade congress to give the department power to stay the deportations until next session. Studies revealed that 546 persons who otherwise would have been deported would leave behind them 987 members of their families, children and adults, ot whom 838 are United States citizens. Approximately 665 of those left would have become public charges. For each three deportees the country would have had to support four as dependents. The next congress should remedy this manifest folly. BUSINESS FOR NR A AMERICAN business, after one year's experience. seems to prefer the so-called regimentation of NRA to the old dog-eat-dog rules of competition so sacred to the traditions of rugged individualism. Thirty of the nation's business leaders, meeting at Hot Springs, Ya.. decided that NRA or something closely akin to it should be preserved permanently, and that business should be more active in its support of and more helpful m its advice to NRA. Thus do the industrial captains recognize that the> have- more to gain in the long run by recognizing the community of interests between capital, labor and the government. They prefer not to return to the alternative of capitalistic anarchy with its destructive economic warfare. They concede that the government has a right to a voice in industrial relations and planning. But what the American people want to knew of these business leaders is: Does big business intend to continue trying to skim off for itself all of the cream of NRA? The news dispatches out of Hot Springs say nothing of any consideration being given by the conference to the widespread violations of the collective bargaining section of the NIRA law. They say nothing of any concern over the failure of mass purchasing power to rise faster than consumer prices, or of the failure of codified business to absorb a larger portion of the unemployed. Do not the business leaders realize that NRA has succeeded only to the extent that it has spread jobs snd purchasing power, and that all other achievements are mere superstructure which will collapse unless the foundation is made more secure? The fact that half the houses in eight American cities have no bath tubs proves we're not so bad after all. At least that many families never made gm. General Douglas MacArthur brought suit against two Washington newspaper men lor $1,750,000 for alleged libel, and the writers almost thanked him for the compliment.

Liberal Viewpoint —BY UR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THERE has been much nonsense written since President Roosevelt declared in his i message to congress that the American people are entitled to a home, a job and the protection of ncial insurance. The President has been accused of being a dreamy Utopia builder, out of touch with all reality. It has been implied that the satisfaction of even the most elementary human necessities of the American people as a whole is beyond the realm of reason and common sense. It is taken for granted that the gratification of our material wants is a sort end, to be attained only in some mythically distant future where the problems of perpetual motion, the transmuting of the baser metals into gold and the indefinite prolongation of the human life already will have been achieved. The absurdity of any such attitude recalls to i mv mind the notable passage in Plato's "Republic” where he draws an engaging picture of a population which had become satisfied thoroughly with all its material necessities: "Will they not produce corn, and wine, and clothes, and shoes, and build houses for themselves? And when they are housed they will work, in summer commonly, stripped and barefoot, but in winter substantially clothed and shod. "They will feed on barley meal and flour or wheat, baking and kneading them, making noble cakes and loaves; these they will serve up on a mat of reeds or on clean leaves, themselves reclining the while upon beds strewn with myrtle. "And they and their children will feast, drinking of the wine which they have made, wearing garlands on their heads, and hymning the praises of the gods, in happy converse with one another. a a tt “ \ ND they will take care that their families -t\. do not exceed their means; having an eye to poverty or war. Os course, they must have a relish-salt, and olives, and cheese, and they will boil roots and herbs such as country people prepare; for a desert we shall give them figs and peas, and beans; and they will roast myrtle berries and acorns at the fire, drinking in moderation. "And with such a diet they may be expected to live in peace and health to a good old age, and bequeath a similar life to their children after them.’’ This is, admittedly, a somewhat more expansive prospect than was implied in Mr. Roosevelt’s restrained plea that all normal Americans be. assured of a roof over their heads, clothes on their back, and a square meal on the table. Did Plato regard this set-up as a Uptopian achievement? He most certainly did not. He described such a society and culture as "a city of pigs.” And he was not wrong in viewing a civilization which merely supplies our materia* necessities as essentially swinish in character. In spite of all the exaggerated talk about the wonders of our material civilization —and they are wonders indeed—the life of the mass if Americans has not yet reached what Plato described as the "pig stage” of cultural evolution. tt tt a THE aims embodied in Mr, Roosevelt’s message at least would enable us to attain the level of what Plato calls a society of happy pigs. This is the first immediate necessity. But the real problems of civilization will lie ahead to be conquered. We must first triumph over the challenge of necessity and then be in a position to tackle resolutely the more noble and worth-while issues of leisure and civilization.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

SOMETIMES a chance observation means a great deal in a diplomatic career. The Ambassador of France and Mme. de Laboulaye entertained the other day at a vast luncheon in the embassy. White wines sparkled. French pastries enticed the appetite. Wit and repartee flew merrily. Gracious Mme. van Haersma de With, wife of the recently arrived minister of Netherlands, sat beside the hostess. She commented pleasantly upon the party. Whereupon Mme. de Laboulaye turned to her and remarked: “My dear, everybody is out of town . . . positively no one left in Washington. So we just dragged in a lot of people from the highways and the byways . . .” Several diplomats who had been “dragged in from the highways and byways” overheard the remark, showed their resentment by leaving immediately after luncheon. The little incident has caused a stir in diplomatic society. tt tt a SECRETARY OF STATE CORDELL HULL has acquired enough sheepskins this month to make himself a sheepskin coat. He has received no less than five honorary degrees—and could have more if he wanted them. Only on one of these occasions did Mr. Hull make a speech That was at William and Mary. He pointed out that four secretaries of state had been students at this college—Jefferson, Randolph, Marshall and Monroe. Warning graduates that a student’s career should not end with graduation, he said: "Os course, a diploma does not mean that education is completed. It rather means that education has just begun.” The last few days foreign complications have kept Secretary Hull too busy to write or make speeches. He has been forced merely to accept each degree with a bow and depart silently on the fastest train. NOTE—Hull’s first LL.D. was awarded by the law department of Cumberland university, Lebanon. Tenn., from which he was graduated. He is a lawyer by profession. * tt tt MR. GEORGE BRONSON REA. who is here as the unofficial observer of the Japanesefostered state of Manchukuo, is being mentioned as one of those who will receive from Emperor Kang-Teh, the former Henry Pu Yi, the "Order of the Orchid.” The newly created order tits full title is "Grand Imperial Order of the Orchid”) has nine grades. The highest decoration is called the "Collar of the Grand Order of the Orchid” and the lowest “the Grand Order of the Prosperous Cloud.” Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, U. S. minister to Denmark, has won a third share in a large Ceylon tea company, thus making her eligible for a bigger diplomatic post. Roger Babson says this country is on its way toward dictatorship. He probably hasn't read the speeches of some of our congressmen. A savage night bird is believed to be terrorizing a section of a Long island village. New York has practically no control over liquor sales. Hopeful sign of recovery: One of Detroit’s exclusive business men's clubs recently blackballed an applicant. A1 Capone failed again to get out of Atlanta penitentiary on a writ of habeas corpus. Now, if he had used a wooden pistol . Science will take the place of man in the role of father, in years to come, says a Philadelphia physician. There seems to be no hope for women. By this time Finland should be sorry it paid its war debt installment on time, since so much more attention is being paid to the other countries.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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r pU 0 "j\/j /2kQQQ Cf | /2kT - * Ot* F wholly disapprove of what you say and wilt -X lit? JLVA defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, ilake your letters short, so all can have a chance. I Unit them to SSO words or less.) tt an PLAYGROUNDS ON NORTH SIDE URGED By G. L. The editorial in The Times of June 21 entitled, “North Side Need,” as to “no playground between Thirty-eighth street and the canal,” is both timely and good. The park board may now plead financial difficulties, yet the Woodstock Coimtry Club is leased to it by the city. Why not have the city lease from the owner a large tract of ground at Central avenue and Forty-sixth street, between Central avenue and Washington boulevard, which could be leased during the summer months for perhaps a small rental to help him pay the taxes. The north side civic clubs should get behind this movement and make it an issue. I am sure the progressive Indianapolis Times would help to establish such a playground which would also be agreeable for adults to have the “more abundant life” in the New Deal of which another editorial on' the t same date speaks. n a a MINTON CONSIDERED LOGICAL NOMINEE By A. Leader. Asking for R. Earl Peters' nomination for United ; States senator upon the ground that he was opposed by the Governor was the predominating cause of Mr. Peters’ defeat. While Mr. Peters professed to and did indorse the administration, those with an imaginative cause for grievances against the 1933 remedial legislative acts recognized an opportunity to combat the Governor over Mr. Peters’ shoulder, thus unintentionally detracting attention from Mr. Peters’ merits and worthiness of recognition, all to the detriment of his candidacy. It was recognized by the rank and file of the citizenry that the resentment against tne Governor was due to the much-needed tax spread, utility and other imperatively needed remedial legislation together with the impossibility of providing positions for all applicants. All this was considered by the logical thinking citizenry as an illegitimate excuse for the repudiation of the Governor and his administration. At all times the delegates were out of bounds of organized control. The selecting of a citizen other than Mr. Peters as a senatorial candidate was the result of a growing desire on the part of the delegates to resent the movement for repudiation of the state administration.! which I dare say. without fear of successful contradiction, is popular with the masses. Sherman Minton’s undefiled stewardship in public office, together with his personality and stamina, made him a logical nominee. a tt a LETTER ON “NEGRO” AND “COLORED” APPROVED Bv Spokesman. The writer of this article speaks for a group of co-workers, numbering about twenty-five persons, all catering to everyday downtown business. Referring to a letter in this col-1

‘HERE NOW, CLEAN UP!’

Middle Class Fares Badly Under NRA

By One of Many. We have been told a house divided against itself can not stand. The NRA is splendid in itself, but there must be someone higher up who is a traitor to the cause. We know it isn’t our beloved President —then whom? One year ago to we of the middle class, who barely got by through the depression, the NRA seemed heaven sent. We visioned ourselves riding in ’ good cars again, living on a little better scale, going places, and saving a little on the side, but it is a changed picture, now. Men whose salaries were cut to the lowest possible level, who have given the best years of their lives to their employers, now find themselves either fired outright, or brow- . beaten into quitting their jobs and for u T hat? Employers conI stantly sing about the men they I can get and plenty of them for ! $14.50 a week to do the same work. Is there no protection under the blue eagle for such men who have executed their duties faithfully and honestly? Must their homes, some nearly paid for, be sacrificed: must they lose their cars and in some instances up* to $2,000 worth of good furniture for a S2OO or S3OO mortgage? Why did the cleaners scrap their code? What is there to prevent other industries from following

umn on June 21 about colored in preference to Negro, we as a group laud the writer of the letter for calling the public's attention to things we've often discussed among ourselves. This group formerly praised The Times for its action in bringing to light corrupt political bosses and machines, not only in the county, but the state, so as to aid a number of our race in the future. As advice to The Times, don’t be a small-town paper and let the News put you in the rut with our people. a a a PROPOSES LOCKOUT OF CAPITAL By XYZ. An editorial in Forbes Magazine declares that capital has gone on a strike. The most effective way to get rid of a striker is to “lock him out“ and let him starve to death. The way to kill striking capital is to declare a moratorium on government bond interest, and let the striking capital starve to death or go to work in productive enterprise. a a a PROTESTS AGAINST VACATION SET-UP By a Faithful Reader. • The letter by C. J., headed. “Deplores State of Nonunion Workers,” sure hits the nail on the head. In my particular major oil company, vacations this summer are being given as follows: All office force employes receive ten days with pay; all maintenance supervisors receive ten days with pay; all all garage mechanics get ten days with pay. Why the service station attendants don’t get vacations with pay the public will have to figure out as it is too deep for me.

suit? Then suppose that does happen? I am not a Red, not even a Socialist, but do you think intelligent American citizens are going to lose all they have gained and do nothing? I won’t lose my home without first fighting back for all I am worth. What would working men do with a thirty-hour week? Three years ago, I used sometimes forty gallons of gasoline a week on pleasure jaunts, I buy less than five now. No pleasure trips any more—no shows —no vacations, and barely enough wages with which to provide the necessities of life. Those who are on city or county relief profit by the NRA, because $14.50 every week looks big to them, but for SSO and S6O a week men to be reduced to sl6 and $lB a week is disastrous. As an aftermath of the depression, we find ourselves worse off than we were during the actual depression. During prohibition I could afford all the beer I wanted; as it is, I can't even afford the luxury of an occasional glass, as my extra money must go to a milkman. | Living expenses have increased, | my family has increased, and my | wages have decreased: that is the Dlight of one of many.

BELIEVES NEGRO BETTER THAN COLORED Bv J. A. Smith. I am quite sure that the better j informed Negroes hold a view opposite to that of a contributor to this ! column signing himself “A Witness” j who prefers the word “colored” to j Negro. Use of colored is inaccurate. Be- - the black, there is the yellow, i the broum, the red, and to make it complete, the wiiite race. aan RECOVERY PROGRAM CALLED FUTILE By a Terre Haute Reader. General Hugh S. Johnson says: “Higher prices first, and then will follow higher wages.” This is equal to saying we must first have an airplane, then we can invent an air- j plane. Prices on commodities are not de- j termined until the cost of produc- j tion is known, and for the welfare j of the nation, the outstanding of these costs is labor. Granted, how-ever, that prices rise j first let us analyze the result. For more than a year the brewer- i ies have been allowed to charge SIC j a barrel for beer —outrageous to be 1 sure—yet a skilled mechanic enters j a brew r ery and offers a service whichJ at the very least should reward him, 51.50 an hour. But the greedy profit 1 grabber takes the advantage of the man’s misery and offers him $2 a j day, in the belief that if one will 1 not accept it another will. And where is General Johnson to take my part? A lot is being said nowadays about chiselers. The only real chiselers, are those who always were—the greedy profit getters. It does not require a Philadelphia lawyer—it requires nothing more j than a boy to figure out that higher j prices are ruination—not prosper- j ity. The more your dollar will buy, the more you pull out of the market.! and the more labor it requires to j replenish the market. 1 *

JUNE 25, 1931

, The Roosevelt plan of recovery is going east by going west. Plowing under cotton, killing off hogs, and | putting land out of production does | not lead to prosperity, except for the chosen few who do not need it except to satisfy an uncontrollable greed. Let the people own the machines and all other means of production and prosperity will reign in the land forever. nun ICE MAN REPLIES TO NIGHT TOILER By The Ice Man. I read your paper every night and have for years. I did at one time sell it—when I was a boy. Today I am an ice man trying to make a living. I see in the Message Center i Night Toiler complains of noise. Night Toiler has a job probably where the roar of machinery keeps the neighbors awake or some other kind of a noisy job. Nobody 13 knocking about his job. Wc probably all would be working if we could find jobs. I have been in other towns, and I have found that the ice man and fruit peddlers yell their lungs out or ring bells there as well as here. So you see, Night Toiler, we all have to yell for a living. If you are going to kick, why don’t you pick on everybody—the ice man, the ragman, huckster, the ice cream man. the paper boys, and the coal man? I beneve in a fair living for every one whether it is yelling, singing or preaching. a tt tt NEW RELIGION BORN IN RED RUSSIA Br Walter E. Martin. I have read the letter by Jack Dolan in The Times of June 20. He grants the death of the old and the birth of the new religion in Russia. Those of us who have been privileged to hear Paul Wyson explain the application of Russia's revived practical Christianity now are able to understand its benign processes. Fervently, w ef thank our God that “Christ Is Risen.”

PAIN

BY VIRGINIA I planted my love and watch'd it grow Slowly, at first, It pushed its way through, But I gave it to drink Rain from my tears, And it feasted and thriv’d on my smiles Through the years. I tenderly nursed each bud As it came, Watch’d over them, Worshipped them, Called them by name, Tended companionship to the last bloom called love With the help of the Master Gardener above. It grew to be of astonishing height. And it wound its long tendrils about my heart, Tight, It drank up my tears, It ate up my smile, Slowly crushing my heart All the while . . . I destroyed it! Love, I had to dare. The pain was more than I could beaU