Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 66, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 July 1934 — Page 16

PAGE 16

The Indianapolis Times (A M~Rirrs.ffOW ARI> >F.W SI AITR) ROT XV HOWARD rr<-Mnt TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER {iJiiOHi Manager Phone Kller SXI

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FRIDAY. JULY 27. 1234. AN NR A TEST 'T'HE L. Grief Ac Brother Bak.more case is a clear cut test of NRA. Shall sweatshop wages become the American standard? Upon the outcome of the controversy between NRA and this large manufacturer of mens clothing depends, to some extent, the future of the long struggle of organized workers and civilized employers to establish wages above the bare subsistence level. NRA finds that the Grief company has been engaging in the most ruthless kind of cutthroat competition—cutthroat prices made possible by cutthroat wages. Their competitor?, most of them smaller concerns, paying the wages specified m the mens clothing code, have been unable to match Grief company prices. The Grief company has observed the NRA minimum of sl4 40 a week, but is charged with forcing its more skillful workers to accept wages near the minimum for the unskilled. Its competitors, obeying the code, have paid more skilled craftsmen wages running as high as $35 and SSO a week. It is easy to see that either the Grief company wages must be raised to the level paid by competitors or the wages paid by competitors must be lowered to the level paid by the Grief company. NRA'S order forbidding the sewing of the blue eagle label on any more of the Grief company's garments deserves and, we think, will receive public support. It was drastic action. because blue eagle retailers are bound by codes not to purchase garments that have no blue eagle labels. It is the kind of action that strikes at the pocket book—the only kind of argument that is persuasive to some people.

NOT ENOUGH NEW DEAL T)ARTISAN critics arc trying to pm blame on the Roosevelt administration for the long and bitter labor struggle on the Pacific coast. Too much New Deal, they are saying. Now, by admission of both capital and labor, it appears there was not enough New Deal. Both employers and maritime union leaders are urging President Roosevelt to put into effect the labor provisions of the shipping code, a highly important Instrument that failed early this spring because of foreign rate complications. Had tills code been in effect before May 9 it is doubtful if the costly Pacific coast dockers’ strike would have occurred. This, at least, is the opinion of Paul Scharrcnbcrg, secretary of the California State Federation of Labor. The employers feel that its imposition now will tend to prevent future struggles on the waterfront. The shipping code's labor sections were not ideal, but they did provide for union recognition and bargaining, minimum wages, better hours, and other obvious reforms. There were provisions for a national shipping labor board end regional boards for hearing disputes. Had there been such a meeting ground the workers need not have resorted to strikes. Thus, it appears, the trouble on the Pacific coast was not too much New Deal, but too little. WAR WITHOUT PROFIT with its fight for pensions and the like, the American Legion in recent years has paid scant attention to its most constructive proposal—legislation to take the pro: it out of war. Now, however, legion leaders plan to put thus subject at the head of the program when they meet in Miami in October. "The legion. - ’ says the report of its legislative committee, "now should turn its attention and its strength toward enactment of a universal draft law which will take the profit out of war. require equal service from all and allow special privileges to none in time of war. Such a law would be our surest bulwark agamst war, our best insurance for peace.” Although it is refreshing to see the legion again pushing its anti-profiteering proposal, the public is justified in withholding approval until it learns what kind of legislation the legion w ill sponsor. A lew years ago. this same crusade petered out into support of the old Capper- Johnson "universal draff bill. Labor was skeptical of that bill—and properly so—because its conscription provisions, while definite In regard to man power, were vague in regard to wealth. Such a law might make for more efficient conduct of war. but it would not “take the profit out of war.” would not “require equal service from all” and would not be an "insurance for peace.” Modern warfare being what It is. universal conscription of men is inevitable in the next war. The legion should, therefore. direct Its attention toward whatever legislation or constitutional revision is necessary to insure the drafting of property in war time. Speaking before the war mobilisation commission in 1824. Edward F. McGrady, American Federation of Labor spokesman and now assistant secretary- of labor, said: "We are willing to go on a S3O-a-month basis, ar.d we are ready and willing to eat arrr.y rations, when you can make the brokers and bankers and the business men and the war contractors and members of congress and members of the supreme court do the same thing. Let us all get in the same boat.” PROFIT FOR ALL er'HE success of the Tennessee Valley * Authority in increasing the service of electric power to Tupelo <Miss.) citizens is important to the entire nation. Tupelo, once consuming 34 000 KWH of electricity a month in her 976 mired homes, Jumped her use to 48.000 KWH after low TVA electric rates were introduced. And the consumers bought 331 pieces of electrical equip-

ment which will add another 27,000 KWH a month to the city* domestic consumption. In a few months, the service of electricity to the housewives, and the families of Tupelo has been more than doubled. E-. ery one has profited. The TVA. supplying electricity, is getting a maximum lead on its lines. The heavier the load, the cheaper the cost per unit of transmission of electricity. Busy electric wires pay. The retail equipment dealers of Tupelo, who sold one major appliance to every third electricity user in the city between May 21 and July 14. certainly aren’t complaining. True, their margin of profit on each item was reduced. but the volume of business has much more than made up for the percentage losses. And the citizens of Tupelo are getting twice as much service. ON SEA AND IN AIR THE British cabinet is reported to have agreed on a plan to double the size of the British air force in the near future, so that the country will have an air fleet capable of handing that of any nation within striking distance. It Is possible to see in this decision a reflection of that ancient British policy which for centuries has kept the British navy supreme on the seas. England is an island close to Europe. At any time within the last 200 years, the nation could have been crushed by any continental power possessing a stronger fleet. The British, realizing this, insisted that their navy always be strong enough to cope with any possible European foe. Now the introduction of aerial warfare has changed the picture. It would hardly be surprising if in the near future the old British naval policy were extended to the field of aviation as well. The recent cabinet decision looks like a step in that direction. JUSTICE BY SURGERY LAST March a Chicago woman filed a suit for divorce, charging that the husband she had married in January was cruel, irritable and generally cantakerous to such extent that there was no living with him. Shortly after the suit was filed, the husband underwent a thyroid operation. And a short time later his lawyer begged the court to delay the trial, asserting that the operation had so changed the husband's disposition that a happy married life ought to be possible. The court consented, and the wife returned to her husband for a two-week test period. Now the divorce suit has been withdrawn. The husband, it seems, had been mean and ugly because or a toxic thyroid condition. That condition having been relieved by surgery, his wife now finds that he is a pleasant and companionable sort of chap—and she no longer wants to dvorce him. How r many other “mean dispositions," one wonders, might not be remedied by a little timely medical attention?

THEIR OWN BUSINESS WHILE all the shouting about clean movies is going on, it is interesting to take a peek at the facts about moving picture salaries, as revealed recently by an elaborate NR A report. This shows that, although the industry as a whole suffered a loss of more than $19,000,000 last year, it paid to no fewer than 110 persons salaries larger than the salary received by the President of the United States—which is $75,000 a year. One actor drew down $315,000 for his year’s work—the peak of the lot. Another—whether an actor or an actress is not stated —got $296,250 for the year. Considering one thing along with another, and comparing the social usefulness and intellectual ability of a movie actor with a President of the United States, all of this seems more than passing odd. But Sol Rosenblatt, the NRA division administrator, who made the survey, points out that it all happens according to economic law. “No salary,” he says, “is excessive if the picture produced by the individual receiving the salary meets with unusual public favor as a result of unique direction or artistry.” So there is no sense in getting indignant about this situation. A movie actor, or a prize fighter, or blues singer, may get paid more than the President of the nation—but the fault lies with the economic system, and not with the industry Involved. For there is, and there can be, only one way of gauging a man's worth, as far as his pay check is concerned. It depends solely on how much he is worth to the stockholders in hard cash. This leads to some peculiar situations, very often. It gives to a Madame Curie only the most modest of rewards, and makes a Sir Basil Zaharoff one of the world's richest men. It makes a millionaire out of a Jack Dempsey and leaves a Jane Addams the income of a good clerk. It enriches a Charley Mitchell and leaves a Senator Norris with nothing but a competence. But the fault is the fault of the whole, and not of the parts. It is silly to criticise the munitions industry, or the prize fighting racket, or the banking business, for these things. That's the kind of world we live in; what a man gets has no relation whatever to his usefulness to his fellow men.

ENFORCED ENTHUSIASM of the surprising things about the German situation has been the wholehearted way in which the people of Germany turn out to greet Herr Hitler whenever he makes a public appearance. Off hand, one would suppose that that reflected an immense personal popularity. But a lawsuit in a Berlin “labor court” recently let a fairly sizable cat out of the bag. Certain workers in a Berlin factory were fired because they had refused to march under a boiling sun to hear Hitler speak at a big Nazi demonstration on May 1. They sued for reinstatement. But the court held that the law required workers to join in such demonstrations. and that refusal to join constituted a breach of duty to the nation. So the appeal was denied, and the workers stayed fired. The vast size of those crowds is a little easier to understand, now. Motorists are expected to spend $3,000,000,000 touring the country this year. Anyhow, when you get back home, whatever they've spent will feel like three billion.

Liberal Viewpoint —BY UR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE Tugwell pure food and drug bill seems to have been one of the casualties of the last session of congress. But there already exist resources and facilities of the government to give much the same protection and safeguards against fraud and poison as the Tugwell bill provided. I have reference to the research work of the bureau of standards, the food and drug administration, the bureau of mines, the department of agriculture and the like. These departments and bureaus gather the relevant information which would protect us in our purchase and use of foods, drugs and most commercial products. They could give out the facts to the public. • Honest and reputable producers of reliable commodities would be rewarded duly and appriately for their integrity by the increased sales over their irresponsible competitors. The facts in this situation are analyzed in an amazing article by Dr. F. J. Schlink in the “Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. “He reveals a simply astonishing perversion of the convention assumption that our government is run in the interest of the people of the United States. tt tt tt THE above mentioned official organizations have an elaborate equipment for research, gather the information which would be priceless to the American public, and give it out freely to manufacturers. But they deny it almost entirely to the American public which foots the bill that enables this information to be gathered. Indeed, these federal bureaus refuse, except under very special circumstances, to divulge their information to state or municipal governments. I some cases valuable information only is not withheld; it is suppressed actually and deliberately. For example, the bureau of standards discovered that cold water paints are cheaper and more satisfactory for painting plastered surfaces than oil paints. The oil paint industry, however, got busy and the bureau suppressed the report so thoroughly “that even the members of its own laboratory staff were unable to obtain copies.” tt tt tt ANOTHER instance is one which may be put up straight to the department of agriculture. There has sprung up a “process cheese industry," which regrinds old and spoiled cheeses and by certain subtle processes creates new, adulterated, blended cheese. Tire process cheese industry cuts into the market for pure cheese and helps to sw r ell the excess of unused cream and milk. The department of agriculture could give out the desired information to the public through three avenues —the bureau of dairy industry, the bureau of home economics, or the food and drug administration. It has not taken steps to do so. All of which raises the question r.s to whose government this is—the government*of all the voters and taxpayers or of just “business.”

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

DR. LEO S. ROWE, director-general of the Pan-American Union, whose trip to Colombia was delayed more than a week because of a sudden fever of politics among his LatinAmerican diplomats is at last off for South America. At the last moment. Dr. Rowe was cheered Immensely by a wire from Bolivia. It stated: “We are happy to inform you that you are to be awarded the Order of the Condor of the Andgs by the government of Bolivia.” Dr. Rowe's annoyance at being held up by the political maneuvers of diplomacy vanished in an instant. Delightedly, he exclaimed: “I am honored to receive such a decoration.” a a a FROM exclusive Watch Hill, R. 1., comes word that Dr. Hans Kindler, conductor of the National Symphony orchestra, has recruited two new musicians. They are Professor Albert Einstein, worldfamous discoverer of relativity, and Lawrence Tibbett, the opera star. Each evening, clad in white ducks, the Herr Professor. Singer Tibbett and Hans gather outside the Kindler cottage (all three have leased cottages for the season) and give musical renditions. Kindler plays the cello, Einstein handles a violin and Tibbett warbles grand opera. The entire summer colony is thrilled at the results. By day the three virtuosi relax from their musical efforts and cruise around in the sailboat which Kindler has purchased and which he has learned to pilot with the savoir faire of a Gloucester fisherman. Roosevelt has proposed a New Deal for the Indians—with reservations, of course, if you know what we mean. Instead of the debt payment, we got 18,000,000 head of broccoli from England this year. Still, only the money itself wouldn’t be spinach to us. Mdrines have been ordered to evacuate the Philippines by Aug. 15. What more independence do the Filipinos want? We’ll bet that wall of “force rays” invented by Dr. Nikola Tesla to prevent invasions couldn't keep the Japanese from China. A Swedish archeologist has discovered the cradle of the Aryan race in Persia. But no Aryan will admit it's the cradle; he insists his race were born men. A New York insurance company reports a big boom in marriages, since there seems to be no chance of a war breaking out soon. There are 860 languages and 5,000 dialects in the world, and practically all of them are Just Greek to us. Germany has issued an arrest order for Otto Klemperer, famous conductor, because he failed to play the right tune for the Nazi goosestep dance. The Aztec name for the god of war is Huinzilopochtorntl. Still, peace is more difficult to pronounce. Americans are said to consume 20 per cent more snuff today than they used to years ago. From the odor of some pipes, that s a conservative estimate. The newly-born sextuplets in Rumania turned out to be twins, a father's first impressions always being exaggerated. Perfume is what wins men, a professor at Michigan State Normal college tells girls. Especially the perfume that comes from the kitchen. Robbers stole $24,000 worth of jewelry from a resident of Watch Hill, R. I. The town's lucky they didn't also take the Watch and just leave the Hill. You might not have heard the report, because there was no shooting, but a president just was elected in Brazil. This matter of giving birth to plural children may stop with the new sextuplets in Rumania, for what mother knows the word for , seven births at the same time!

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

L■ rj " / ® mmm x ■ V' ct / %

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. TAmit them to 250 words or less.) a a a FAVORS RETIREMENT OF BONDED DEBT By Dollar Idolator. Arthur Brisbane keeps harping about printing nice new money, insteady of letting the bankers drain the public through the sale of bonds. If the public really understood what the process was, through which the enormous public debt was created, it is likely that every dollar of it would be repudiated. As long as a gang can filch the public through this unconscionable racket of putting up $300,000 to buy ope billion dollars of bonds, which is the cost of printing one billion in currency, and then collecting interest on a billion dollars worth of bonds, and getting a billion in new currency to loan a 6 per cent or more, so long we shall never be able to recover. The whole bonded debt ought to be retired by non-interest bearing treasury notes. Confiscation is mild compared to this magician's trick money racket. an a ASSAILS RELEASE OF DEPOSIT SURETIES By Tilters. Governor McNutt praises the acts of the last legislature. The act that permitted sureties on the bonds of banks, holding public money to slip out from under the obligation when these banks folded up needs more than praise. A pickpocket is jailed for touching a single victim. But here the banks in which confidence was placed, as a depository for tax money, received and secured these tax moneys with a bond to protect this "public money.” The last legislature threw this money belonging to the public, deposited in these banks, into the fire and destroyed it. Then it added insult to injury by levying a tax on low income workers’ salaries or receipts in excess of SI,OOO to cover the loss. To whom were the legislators subservient? a a a CROP REDUCTION PLAN ASSAILED By Observer. The crop reduction program should be followed by a consumers stomach contraction crusade. The sale of alum ought to increase, as stomachs are reduced. That process should also shrink the underwear sizes. Shirts and dresses need not be so large hereafter. Italy has proceeded far in a reduction of the standard of living. Does our own road lead to Rome? Does Henry contend that babies are not entitled to the milk, since they have not worked for it? Can not the millions of mouths now eating from relief funds find a normal appetite again, to consume the fake “surplus” of food and clothing? Are we going through the monstrous fallacy enacted in Denmark, of grinding up our cattle into tankage for hogs, then grind the hogs into fertilizer for wheat, only to have a mountain of wheat? Get the people to the surplus and we will have a shortage of everything. The cost will not be anything compared to the waste of everything that makes persons comfortable and well fed, instead of ragged and hungry. Increase the crops and the clothes for distribution, and den t spare them. Reductions while persons live on a bare subsistence level is barbarism. Muddled brains create a “scarcity economy.” Planned economy built on a low standard of living, when

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Fascism Noted in San Francisco Strike

By A Reader. With loyalty to the common men, the Scripps-Howard newspapers generally and The Indianapolis Times in particular, have an excellent staff of writers, columnists or “brain trusters,” as we may call them. It is due to one of these to discover the first Fascist movement demonstrated in full operation in the San Francisco strike. The Fascist group assumed the function of the government to raid and destroy imaginary red headquarters to help the employers. They called themselves the vigilantes to protect the unknown and always in the background employers. The leaders of the strikers and their names were well known, but

plenty of everything is available is not even common-sense. If our bureaucrats or our financiers corralled all the “greenbacks and credit tickets” under our present system, the rest of us could meekly starve, or would w r e take it away from them by force? The New Deal must justify itself by a bountiful distribution of the things that make life livable to all, even if they can not be employed in out silly system. tt a a ATTACK ON POSTAL SERVICE ANSWERED By Substitutes. To correct statements in a letter by J. G. C. published in the Message Center of July 25, we ask that you publish the following reply: “Mr. J. G. C., we assume from your positive attitude in making statements regarding substitutes, that you are a postal employe. “First, let us describe the mental picture we get of you as an employe. “When you arrive at the office your hat and coat are immediately placed in your locker, then to the clock, looking neither right nor left, no word of greeting to fellow workers. They are only ‘flies in your soup.’ or is it that you can’t look a ‘sub’ straight in the face? When you reach your place of labor you scarcely know your partner exists. You only know your iota in the postal machine well enough to hold your job, and when it gets tough going you lay off sick with full pay until the heavy part has been carried over. “Now how would you know the message you referred to was like a dead letter, when you wouldn't know a dead letter from a live one, or even where to find a dead letter in the Indianapolis postoffice? Just where would you go to find one? “If you don’t know that, how would you know the substitutes ha* i made more in the last sixteen months than ever before? The fact is, substitutes have made less, because there has been less mail to handle. “We do not question your statement about Mr. Farley. We don't know the answer. Neither do you.” a a a MESSAGE CENTER CALLED JOKE Bv Bob C. K. I would like to know if some school kid does the juggling of personal, serious convictions in this space called Message Center, or is it the Scripps-Howard policy of giving light for people to find their way? This is an excellent slogan and the illustration does not show a one-sided beacon light, which is farther sighted than Mr. Powell and whoever else is responsible for this section. This “right to say what you believe” page and the ccr-uc page is

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

the small group of employers and their names, against the masses of the strikers, never was known or mentioned. In industrial warfare the generals should be proud to be known if their cause is right. But are they? Rather, they hide behind the slogan, “protection of property,” or “know how to run my own business.” They will bring regimentation of industries by their conduct. The fact that the general strike was conducted in a human way, so none would suffer, caused the failure, but the employers wanted to see bloodshed, blood of the workers, not theirs. When will they see their errors and believe in the rights of many?

all I have time for. One should be serious and the other humorous, but they both turn out to be a big joke. Why not do away with the Message Center altogether, then I can stop taking the paper after all these years? Or rather enlarge it so as to, accommodate all letters and let it be a real light for us who are in the dark in this time of chaos to find our way. Print the names and companies of those who are at fault if the accusations are grounded properly and a well informed editor should know, or is it libel in the voice of us commons and news on the front page? I have written before and feel that I with some other friends have been slighted. Maybe you can’t read my writing or is it the stationary? In the real beacon book, you’ll find your answer, “The blind shall lead the blind and all fell into the ditch.” Let us know h'ow we can take to this space hereafter. a a a INTENSIVE FARMING DECLARED SOLUTION By 2. C. A. A major shift of population from our cities to the land is inevitable. Most of our idle persons on relief are doomed to stay that way since machinery will and ought to replace all useless hand labor. Federal subsistence homesteads, if developed, on the plane of dependence or seasonal industry, only assures our Babbitt's a cheap supply of labor. Farmers in Indiana and elsewhere have developed their business on a commercial scale, expecting to compete with cheap western land on a production basis. They have become wholesale producers, whereas the pioneers produced primarily for their own use. The size of Indiana farms could be cut down very much if intensive farming would replace the corn - hog - wheat - oats - clover process. Our farm population could be quadrupled by reducing the size of farms and making the smaller tracts fit the use needs of the family on the tract. Every farm should,have fruit trees, poultry, a few pigs, cows for the milk home supply, and a wide variety of garden produce concentrated on’ smaller acreage. Commercial farming has proven a

Daily Thought

But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.—ll Chronicles, 10:8. BELIEVE one who has tried it.— Virgil,

JULY 27, 1934

flop. The AAA program of reduction does not offer a plan to create a really sensible farm program. Our “has been farmers” in the cities, will have to return to the land, instead of living off of the “commercial farmers” on a federal “relief.” It's a problem of self relief that can be directed and financed by long term federal credit, or by our financial institutions, like banks, insurance companies and trust companies who are holding the bag with sick mortgages on farms. Bail out the farmers from under their mortgages by a real acreage reduction! New homes, less acres to the family will do it. a a a BELIEVES PETERS TREATED BADLY By A. L. Heuff. I never have spoken to R. Earl Peters or Mr. Minton, but after reading the comments on each and knowing what I do, I have come to the conclusion that a link was dropped out of the Democratic chain when a wheelhorse like Mr. Peters was unhitched in the middle of the stream. The Postmaster-General in his speech at the Claypool said that prior to the national campaign in which R. Earl Peters acted as state chairman, the Democratic party had been losing the state. This being the case, R. Earl Peters and not Mr. Minton should have been honored with a reward sufficient to hold him. By some hocus pocus trick, the delegates voted Peters out, forgetting the good he did and the damage they were likely to do. So we advise the party to forget the slaughter of Peters, Sullivan and state from going for Robinson, the Ludlow for Minton and hold the soldiers’ friend. a a a ERROR POINTED OUT IN CONSTABLE CASE By Nelson G. Alleyn. In an article in The Times of last Friday arrest of constables of Perry township was reported. The officers arrested are not constables of Perry township, but are constables of Franklin township. lam the duly qualified constable of Perry township, and J. H. Chatterley is the justice of the peace for Beach Grove and Perry township. I am not in favor of arresting persons without just cause, and then only when warrant has been issued by the court. Will you please give this article space in your valuable paper that the public may know that the officers of Perry township had nothing to do with the case.

From You

BY J. DIKE MOTLEY Today I had a card from you; It seemed too good to be real true. It wrapped my soul in ecstacy To know that you remembered me. For years in every crowded place, In vain, I've ever sought your face And wondered what on earth Id do If suddenly I should meet you. To know within a postman's pouch A card from you should once more crouch, Has flooded mem’ry's open door And gilded thoughts with days of yore. Perhaps the whole thing was a dream, A matchless hoax to thrive and team Upon imagination’s due. Ho, here's the card. It's really true.