Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 60, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 July 1934 — Page 16

PAGE 16

The Indianapolis Times tA ICHIPI'B-HUH 4RH *EU PA i'F.RI ROT W. HOWARD PreM*nt TALCOTT POWELL Editor EADL D. BAKER ....... Bostnei* Manager Phon# RI ley 5951

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H O** ±AC Qivm Lijht ant thi People Will Finn D*(r Oi m B'oy

FRIDAY. JULY 20. 1834. THE STRIKE TRUCE A CTION of the labor leaders In calling off ■**■ the San Francisco general strike is a truce, and only that. It ran be turned into a labor peace. But unless the continuing maritime and longshoremen's strike can be settled quickly and the troops ■withdrawn, the situation may grow worse rapidly. This is the danger not only in the San Francisco area, but also in Portland, where the Governor has mobilized troops against the advice of Senator Wagner, the President’s representative. and despite a labor agreement to withhold a general strike if troops were not called. High praise has been given to the regular labor leaders of San Francisco, who called off the general strike, by General Johnson in his message to President Roosevelt, by Mayor Rossi and others. That praise is merited. But it should not be forgotten that the same labor meeting which voted to call off the general strike also voted to continue support of the striking maritime and longshore workers and voted to retain the general strike committee for the time being. The general strikers, who now are hastening bark to work under General Johnson’s promise to get justice for the maritime and dock strikers, are certain to consider themselves tricked and act accordingly if that promise is not kept. Any attempt by the antilabor forces of the coast to use this situation to break up the unions will be an exceedingly costly blunder, it seems to us. Apparently the federal authorities, and at least some of the local officials, understand this danger. Mayor Rossi has issued a warning that ending of the general strike “must not be construed to mean that San Francisco either will desire or will tolerate any attempt to destroy union labor or invade its rights.” These federal and local authorities must carry out their pledges which the general labor unions have accepted in good faith.

A HOPEFUL SIGN /CREATION by the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce of a governmental research bureau and appointment of Virgil Sheppard to head that bureau constitute a reason for optimism in this city. It is always a healthy condition when a city's leading business men approach the problem of its government—and of the government of county and state—from the scientific. rather than the emotional, angle. Too, the reputation which Mr. Sheppard brings to the post he will assume Aug. 1 should be encouraging to thoughtful citizens. He would appear not to be one of the reactionary’ type all too frequently associated with big business’ ventures into governmental fields. In Toledo, 0., where he served in various public positions and where he taught political science in the municipal university, Mr. Sheppard is known as a man who manages to mix the liberalism of a good student of government with hard-headed, ‘practical” politics. For Indiana he handled the difficult job of relief in stricken Lake county during much of 1933 before coming to Indianapolis to be assistant director of the Governor's commission on unemployment relief. The Times wishes the new bureau and its chief well and hopes that they may justify the optimism arising from news of their prospective work. MORE PREPAREDNESS TWO air fleets of the United States army and navy yesterday were on the first leg of long test defense flights. At the same time the British government announced its decision to increase its air forces by forty-one squadrons. News items of this are becoming commonplace. Scarcely a week passes without additional evidence that the nations of the world, on the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the so-called war to end war. frantically are making ready for another and larger war. Why? Stanley Baldwin, lord president of the council, in justifying the new British aviation program to the house of commons, said that the disarmament conferences and negotiations were running on and on year after year without getting anywhere. That is true. But Great Britain as the largest empire in the world is not entirely blameless for the failure to achieve effective disarmament. More than once she has rejected American and other offers of fair arms limitation. And more than once she has aided the destruction of world peace machinery by supporting treatybreakers. If Great Britain and the United States, the two mightiest nations, had been able to co-operate fully during the last decade the peace system probably would be much more secure today. Maybe it is not too late yet. Apparently our two governments are understanding belatedly the dire necessity for them to work together to discourage the forces making for war in Europe and in the Far East. Norman Davis, American ambassador-at-large. denied yesterday in London reports that the American-British naval conversations had broken down. On the contrary he maintained that they had been “very beneficial, frank and friendly” and that they would be resumed in the autumn. We hope so. WHAT IS WRONG? A GENERAL strike is a fight in which labor transfers its efforts from the economic to the political field. It is a fight In which the original issue has become transformed into a symbol, so that men whom the original issue in no way con-

cems become ready to go into action for the sake of an abstraction. Ultimately, the thing at stake is a thing ordinarily sought at the ballot box. These things being so, the general strike becomes a fearful social phenomenon—a development which bespeaks a profound discontent lurking somewhere below the surface. It is industrial warfare transformed into something perilously like class war. Push it far enough and you get to the very edge of revolution. Looking at the San Francisco dispute, therefore, is like gazing into a microscope in which some of the major social maladjustments of our time are magnified on one slide. What we are seeing is no longer a disagreement between employers and employes about one particular point, but a knock-down struggle in which all kinds of unmentioned grievances are operating, on both sides, to produce determination and bitterness. And it becomes, for the moment at least, relatively unimportant who “wins” in this fight—for, as a matter of fact, nobody really can win, and the general public is bound to lose. The important thing is that all of the complex issues which combined to make such a disaster possible shall be passed in review and straightened out; all of the things which made organized labor, on the one hand, ready to go to almost any extreme in order to gain its point and which made the employers, on the other hand, ready to fight to the last ditch before surrendering. r*r a disaster of this kind does not burst on a community out of a clear sky. Employers don’t forego dividends in order to win a labor dispute out of pure cussedness; workingmen don’t quit their jobs and get out on the picket lines just because the cool breezes off the Pacific have gone to their heads. Somewhere underneath the attractive surface of San Francisco’s civic life there have been very deep and serious maladjustments. The general strike will be unrelieved catastrophe unless it jars the general public into a determination to find out precisely what those troubles were and get them set right. HELP GREATLY NEEDED 'T'HERE is widespread misunderstanding of ■*- the emergency work being carried on by the federal government. Asa result the local welfare services, such as hospitals, nursing organizations, child and familv-care institutions, are suffering seriously. They haven’t the funds t- do their work. People think the federal government has assumed this burden, but that is not the case. The federal government, co-operating with state governments, has undertaken to see that nobody starves and that nobody is without shelter or clothing, during this depression. But there is still left a tremendous task for the welfare agencies. Hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and similar institutions still are dependent upon gifts from those citizens able and willing to give. The national emergency already has taxed them beyond their resources. Since the depression began the privately supported nursing units, for example, have had to increase their services by 21 per cent, while the free government nursing service has not been increased. Free services in privately supported hospitals has been increased 46 per cent as against an increase of only IP per cent in government hospitals. The government is doing a lot, mOre than it ever has done before, but it is leaving a lot for private citizens to do. Now, as never before, the welfare agencies need the support of every person able to help.

WHY GET SHOCKED? \ DISPATCH from Los Angeles telling about that malodorous “extra girl” trial asserts that sordid testimony in the case has “shocked women’s club representatives” as they “awaited resumption of the trial.” From what we have heard, it is easy to understand how’ even the most case-hardened person could have been shocked. Certainly there have been few trials in American legal history that plastered the record with any more disgusting stuff than this one. And yet, one wonders—if these estimable ladies were so shocked, why did they go to the trial? So far, there is no law’ in this country compelling any one to be a spectator at any lawsuit. When the testimony in a case is shocking, the free American citizen has the inalienable right of staying entirely away from the courtroom. In that way he doesn't get shocked. BACK TO CANALS TT is interesting to note that army engineers are busy these days discussing proposed routes for anew canal to link Lake Erie with the Ohio river. According to recent reports, the engineers now believe that a canal running from Rochester. Pa., to Ashtabula, 0., would be the most feasible. And all of this represents an odd way in which a whole cycle in transportation seems to be completing itself. Just about a century ago canals were being dug everywhere. Lake Erie was linked to the Ohio river by water, and the prosperity of the mid-west was greatly enhanced as a result. Then the railroads developed, waterways fell into disuse, and most of the old canals passed out of existence. Now we seem to be rediscovering that there can be a place, in a nation's transportation tun- of progress, we are retracing our old steps, system, for the canal, after all. After a cenWONDERS OF SCIENCE r T'HE latest word in scientific aid to indolence has just been announced by the gadgeteers of the radio industry. It is a robot radio clock, which when once set for an evening’s entertainment will automatically switch the radio back and forth among seven stations to pick up programs which the listener has chosen in advance. Only one step remains for the radio engineers. They have overlooked, so far, the development of a device which would: 1. Automatically hoist the listener to his feet when The Star Spangled Banner Is played. 2. Mechanically guide his foot in a tap dance when a rhythmic rhumba is being performed. 3. Deliver a mechanical imitation of an appropriate remark when a saxophone or a tenor tries for a high note and fumbles;-'

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

Editor's Note—This is the second of four articles by Harry Elmer Barnes, Ph.D., on the causes, course and immediate results of the uprising in Germany. u a a KNOWING well that dictatorship, even under the most favorable circumstances, calls for forceful methods and recognizing his specially precarious position on account of the cross purposes of his followers, Hitler set out vigorously on a ruthless process of solidifying his power. Appealing both to patriotism and religious fanaticism he first launched a nation-wide drive against the Jews which culminated in an antiSemitic onslaught unprecedented in modern times. Almost simultaneously he crushed the radicals and stemmed the tide toward Communism. He let the conservatives go on believing that he would re-establish monarchy in Germany. In keeping with his program of unity at any cost, he clamped down a censorship upon Germany as intehse as that of wartime. Freedom of speech, press and assembly disappeared. The schools, even the great German university system, were eompelled to conform to Nazi dictates and ideals. Hitler relied not only .upon patriotism but also upon the closely allied sentiment of religion. He w mt as far as he dared in the way of nationalizing German religion revived the ancient Teutonic mythology, and proclaimed the Germans a race of pure Aryans. a a a MENTAL and cultural unification was paralleled by a program of political and administrative centralization. The old political federalism which had been established by Bismarck and had survived through the republican days gave way to a rather effectively centralized state. Hitler thus brought to completion the work of Bismarck in unifying Germany. On the positive side Hitler’s work seemed at the outset to vindicate the promises he had made during his campaign to assume leadership in Germany. He openly attacked the Treaty of Versaillees, announced that he no longer regarded it as binding upon Germany and declared his determination to re-arm Germany and bring her up to a military parity with the rest of the major European states. He made high-sounding speeches and proclamations about national unions and the advancement of the interests of the working classes. At the same time, he enlisted the loyalty of the peasants by sweeping promises to break up the great estates of the old Prussian Junkers and to give the small farmers a fair shake. a a a BUT the opposition which was implicit and inevitable in the composite nature of the Hitler movement soon came to the top. The monarchists were disgruntled because Hitler made it clear that he did not propose to dim his own luster by calling back the kaiser or any other Hohenzollem. Moreover the monarchist movement was recruited mainly from the Prussian Junkers who were alarmed at the proposal to encroach upon their feudal domains. The great German industrialists and bankers, while glad to see Hitler suppress Communism, were aroused by the talk about socialization on the part of Hitler’s radical followers, and by Hitler’s pronouncements with respect to national unions. They were dismayed particularly over the collapse of German credit and foreign trade as a result of the antagonism and suspicion stirred up by Hitler’s crusade against the Jews and his bellicose foreign policy. The industrial workers and the peasants, for their part, found that Hitler’s promises with respect to radicalism and social justice were a hollow sham. Neither the great industrial trust (cartels and syndicates) or the banks were nationalized and distressingly little was done to re-distribute the estates of the great land owners.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

HOUSE hunting during the heat wave is no easy matter (particularly if one has a large family). Minister Hector David Castro of El Salvador, who has just arrived here, is finding this out. “How many in your family?” real estate agents inquire. There is myself. ..my wife.. .Benjamin... Helen ... David... Alexander... Hector... Teresita ...six children,” replies Envoy Castro. And the hunt for the home begins. It is still going on. Minister Castro so far has been less successful than Joe Kennedy, new chairman of the securities and exchange commission, who recently leased a suburban estate here for himself his wife and nine children. B B B A PROPOS of housing, they tell a tale here of -fA. how James A. Moffett, federal housing administrator, obtained his present job. It is reported that General Johnson and his assistant, Miss Frances (Robbie) Robinson, were traveling Miamiward by train when Robbie suggested to the general that it might be a good idea to conclude the trip in a motor launch. By this means, newsmen awaiting the party in Miami would be sidetracked— and. besides a boat trip is more pleasant than a train ride. No sooner said than done. The general and Miss Robinson descended from the train not far from Miami and proceeded along the Atlantic seaboard via a hired motor launch. Unfortunately, the sea was rough. Big waves caused the boat to pitch and foil. General Johnson became seasick. So did Robbie. The motor stalled. In this dilemma, a second motor launch sped to their assistance and towed them into Miami harbor. You have guessed the rest. The providential rescuer was none other than Jim Mofett. He got the job. It sounds too good to be true, but it is repeated with many head-waggings, and assertions of veracity in the very best official circles. nan T>TL ERTO RICANS here are chuckling over the A translation of a recent remark made by President Roosevelt during a speech at San Juan which caused a stir throughout the island. ™ appears that the President in the course of his address remarked (colloquially) • worlcT” are tr5 ’ ing t 0 ‘ Sell ’ Puerto R 'co to the Translators who rendered the speech into p ave f t o e WOrld “ sel1 ” its rneanRlc JL n readers became vastly disturb.d, tninkmg that President Roosevelt intended to sell their island to the highest bidder. A Frenchman has grown tobacco which is practically devoid of nicotine. But that must be for export. The kind Frenchmen smoke is nicotine that is practically devoid of tobacco. General Johnson spoke only for himself, says the state department, when he condemned Nazi terrorism. That’s the official explanation, but unofficially he spoke for a great number of Americans. "To an American God's country means New England,” says Viscount Hailsham, to whom the stretch between Florida and California seems to hold none but Indians. If littlt Shirley Temple gets that $2,500 a week her father demands for her, perhaps he’ll buy her that pretty bicycle she’s been wanting so much. It’s "General” Will Hays now, by order of Governor Ruby Laffoon of Kentucky, so if you call him anything for the way he’s handled the movie situation, it will have to be done with more respect.

. THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .

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The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a B B UPHOLDS JUSTICE OF GENERAL STRIKE By Paul B. Sallee. When it comes to knowing or giving sympathy to the labor movement, the Scripps-lloward press is a very effective strike breaker. When a great chain of newspapers which claims to be a tremendous power nationally is unable to get an innocent working man pardoned from prison after going on record indorsing such action, the labor movement certainly knows how much effective friendship they can expect. The Times editorially praised the very Governor who could have pardoned this innocent working man because the Governor paroled a gang of bootleggers. So to state that the ScrippsHoward press is a friend of labor, that the basis of labor is the union contract and that the general strike is suicidal, is sufficient proof that The Times is trying to mislead the workers, or that the editor does not know labor’s cause. If the contract is such a beneficial instrument to labor, why did the employers of San Francisco object to the contract, force a lock-out and demand a wage reduction, which caused the strike in 1920-22? Millions of dollars were spent by the California Merchants and Manufacturers’ Association to destroy organized labor and reduce wages. Scabs were imported by the hundreds. Boys were sent out to work as journeymen after a few months in the M. and M. Trade school. The employers refused to abide by the 7Vs per cent wage reduction after they had signed a written agreement to accept the findings of an arbitration board. The board consisted of the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, a former state supreme judge and an industrial expert. The craft union shop strike was ineffective twenty-five years ago, and because of its use, organized labor was intimidated by local and imported “plug uglies,” the police and state militia, and was forced to protect itself by counter methods, where, if it had been organized industrially with local strike autonomy and had used the general strike, it could have gotten in a few days strike, a fair consideration and avoided much hard feeling from their employers and the public. It certainly is not the intention of Washington to take too much interest in the troubles of labor. While the bullets whiz and the gas bombs burst and women and children starve in San Francisco, Roosevelt fishes and fiddles, leaving labor’s troubles to his blustering job holders who hope to get votes by handing out blah, while the press sings the praises of these men and the New Deal. Labor has little to look forward to, unless it uses the general strike to enforce its demands. BBS EVANGELIST’S VIEWS ON MOTION PICTURES Bt Evangelist Agnes Pierce. I note that a group of churches have united in battle array against immoral and indecent films. They have gone so far as to name several pictures which they declare unfit for the public to see. I would Mke to ask these church members how they know these pic-

ALL SET TO GO

Bible Defenders Declared Lacking in Logic

By L. E. Blacketor. It has been asserted that neither the Bible nor Christianity needs defense. Why, then, these exculpatory effusions from two writers in this column, which effusions belie the assertion? Moreover, why do they, in their replies to Mr. Cummings, renounce logic and resort to denunciation? Denunciation never answered an argument: it never will answer an argument. It has been said further that the Scriptures are so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein; but every divergent sect, every schismatic creed, is a certificate attesting the falsity of the claim. How, then, can these valiant defenders of doctrine expect Mr. Cummings or any one else to solve scriptural enigmas when they are so perplexing to our most learned divines? Their lack of logic is born of the biblical injunction that one must believe. Must, indeed! Can one be commanded to believe? Has man control over his belief? Belief is in no sense a matter of the will; rather is it the result of investigation, the weighing of evidence, for and against. Some minds are impervious to all reason. This breeds intolerance. It is this same intolerance now that causes man to hate his brother should they differ on matters of religion.

tures are immoral, and would our Lord count any of them moral? Being a Christian, I am very much opposed to moving pictures for the Christian. If this group has enough religion to protest against immoral films, it should have enough salvation to stay away from places where they are being shown. 1 John, 2:15 reads, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world: If a man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.” James 4:4 declares, “Friendship with the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” There are so-called Christians who will flock to the theaters to see the “Bible” pictures of “Ten Commandments,” “Lord of Lords” and “King of Kings,” and think they are great and profitable. Do they realize that the same persons acting in the immoral films also act in the socalled religious films, impersonating our Lord? James 3:11 says: “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” Matt. 7:18, “A corrupt tree can not bring forth good fruit.” Therefore, you can’t expect to have a sermon or be taught the Bible at the theater. If church members don’t like the way the devil runs his business, let them get out of his territory and come on the Lord's side, ytiere they belong. If they want to learn to live holy, let them separate themselves as Moses from the worldly things and go to church where it is taught. I refer them to Gal. 5:19-21. a b b STATION ATTENDANT PRESENTS VIEWS Bt a Union Attendant. Here are a few questions I would like to ask the average business man, the average professional man and the average laborer: What would you do if you were forced to work seven days a week,

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

Some dark, cloudless night, w’hen Nature’s voice is stilled, get yourself out on the green velvet of man's earthly garden. Brush the dust off your Bible and take it with you, the Bible, not the dust. And as, enchanted, you stand there, cast your eyes upward. What do you see? Nature’s nocturnal dome, inlaid with glittering gems. Your gaze holds fast and, transfixed in wonder and awe. you exclaim: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” This starts no quarrel. Now look to your hand and what do you see? A book, manmade, and over which some do quarrel. And why? Because of the twin ogres, tyranny and terror. As Lincoln snapped the fetters of physical slavery, likewise did Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll break the chains of intellectual slavery. They were benefactors of men. .Listen to these w’ords: “The world is my country; to do good is my religion.” One could not misinterpret that bit of philosophy if he tried; and as long as man lives that gem of sentiment never will start a quarrel. And whose words are they? They are the words of one w’hose name is immortal wherever the liberty and the rights of man are held sacred, the words of one who has been denounced as “that dirty little atheist,” Thomas Paine.

fifty-two weeks a year with no day off, no vacation, no sick leave, except at your own expense? Isn’t it true you would protest? What would you do if you were forced to pay from your own pocket, on a salary of S9O a month, an average of sls to SSO a month for gasoline shrinkage, gasoline that nobody ever used, gasoline that simply vanished from the tank? Isn’t it true you would feel you were being treated most unfairly? What would you do if you were forced to wear a pair of heavy coveralls that feel like an overcoat on days when the temperature reaches 100 degrees in the shade? Wouldn’t you protest? What would you do if, when you did protest these unfair practices, you were told that if you didn’t like your job you could quit? ■What would you do if the company you work for refused to adjust these differences even though the company had a cash reserve of $250,000,000 and never made less than $15,000,000 a year net, even in depression periods? The chances are you would do like we did and organize in order to bargain collectively instead of individually. We are not Communists; not radicals. We merely are fighting for fair treatment and wish the public to know our side of the case in advance of any negotiations we may open. DECLARES BIBLE SAVES REGARDLESS OF TIME Bt the Girl Evangelist. In reply to The Scribber: When was the Bible revised to suit the trend of modem times? If people would accept the word as it is written, instead of molding it to suit their individual plans, we would not have so many “isms” today. Religion is any form or system of worship aAd never saved any one and never will. I should have written, this country Is based on sal-

.JULY 20, 1934

vation, as our forefathers thanked God on their arrival here for salvation from death in crossing the water. History tells us of many incidents where our country’s leaders have thanked God for victory over conflicting conditions. There is only one plan of salvation, spiritually speaking, as it is written in John 3-16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That statement is recorded for every one to accept and it can not be changed to suit the philosophical outlook of the individual. You misinterpreted my statement in regard to our nation becoming as Russia, India or China. I said if the American people reject the Bible and Jesus, we will become a nation devoid of power and virtue, as those countries. It is true there is religion in India, by w’orship of Allah; hence the outcasts. Russia has Communism and the exiles. China has idols and starving people. I have at hand books and magazines of authority depicting conditions in those countries and I still contend they are torn, bleeding and starving, i am looking at them from a humane standpoint rather than commercial. B B B SWIMMING PLACE FOR NEGROES ADVOCATED Bt >lr. E. Potter. Asa reader of the Message Center, I would like you to print this. For twe've years the city recreation department has had plans to fix a place somewhere on White river or fall creek for Negro children to swim. Each year the excuse is the water is insanitary. But all up and down the river are places for white persons to swim, but none for Negroes. There is only Douglas park for all the Negroes of the city. If Negroes go near the river or creek, they are chased by the police, and if caught are carried to their homes by the police, and told if they are caught near the river again, they will be locked up. Negroes pay taxes to help keep up all the swimming places and yet, their children are not allowed to go in them. If there are just certain places in the river fit to swim in, and for white persons only, the recreation department should give one of them to the Negroes or open a new place.

Daily Thought

Judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the backs of fools. —Proverbs 19:29. OF all thieves, fools are tha worst; they rob you of time and temper.—Goethe. HIS EYES BY M. C. W. Eyes that look so straight at me Til I forget the cares—he. Alone, with voice so firm and clear Has brought cheer when I am near. Eyes so large, so dark and deep— I followed like walking sleep And lose myself—deep I fall ’Til I fear beyond recall. Eyes that look so straight at me— Terrified at what I see— They hold me as magnet would, No use reason 12 I could.