Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 68, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 July 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

The Indianapolis Times (A mmPPS-HOWA*D mSWSPAPRB) ROT W HOWARD PrnKfni TALCOTT POWRLL Editor EARL D. RAKER ' Railn'ii Umi^r Phon# Riley MSI

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MONDAY. JULY JO. IJ4. STRATOSPHERE ROBOTS OTRATOSPHERISTS KEPNER, STEVENS AND ANDERSON: May you have another chance to probe the stratosphere. You thrilled us Saturday, but next time may you have a softer and slower landing. While this elaborately planned National Geographic-United States army flight is having its results written into history, consideration should be given to the possibility of having robots, inanimate instruments that speak by radio, undertake this hazardous task. It would cost relatively lew dollars and risk no human lifes to make free pilot balloon ascension that might break the Settle-Ford-ney altitude record. Lightweight radio transmitters could be carried upward, vary ing their messages according to the pressure, temperature and humidity they encounter. Radio transmitting balloons were used successfully last year in the Arctic to get weather information from high in the air. Researches of the United States army corps and the California Institute of Technology indicate that improved balloons might be used frequently to supplement the daily airplane flights that reach about 15.000 feet in a dozen United States localities to supply weather information. Larger balloons carrying more instruments couid be sent to the stratosphere for a fraction of the cost of human attempts. Through repeated flights, through the constant ingenuity of scientistts, the information to be obtained probably would surpass that which it was hoped to obtain in Saturday s valiant effort. THE AFTERMATH Convalescence, like disease, has its dangers, as the Pacific Coast is learning. Its dockers’ strike is on the way to a just settlement, and San Francisco's “general strike" is a bitter memory’. But the poisons engendered by the long struggle now are breaking out in malignant social madness. Vigilante committees, recalling the lawless pioneer days, are abroad in coastal cities and towns, bent on destroying radical movements by methods often cruel and illegal. They are raiding halls, arresting men right and left for mere possesion ol opinion, destroying workers’ literature and seeking to spread terror among unpopular minority groups. A rebuke of these enemies of law and order was administered by an official who w r ent through the heat of the strife. “Our policy should be to give the Communists little fuel to work with and to see that they are given little cause for complaint.” said District Attorney Mathew Brady in a San Francisco police court where the judge just had assailed a band of alleged Communists—before their trial. "Legal penalties," said Brady, “should be imposed on those Communists who break the law, but free speech mould not be restrained even then.”

DOLLARS AND DEBTS WHAT a great hullabaloo reactionaries are raising over the cost of the New Deal! They speak in terms of dollars. But. after all. a dollar is only a measure of value. A government's debt problems are little different from the debt problems of a farmer or a manufacturer. A farmer doesn’t reckon his debt in dollars, but in bushels of wheat or corn or bales of cotton. And a manufacturer reckons his debt in the finished goods he produces. So. too, must a government reckon its debts in terms of commodities produced, which in the final analysis constitute the wealth of the nation. Perhaps the most accurate way of comparing the debt burden before the New Deal with the debt burden of today would be to make a computation based on wholesale nrice indices then and now. But that is a mathematical task too forbidding for hot weather Another interesting comparison could be made by weighing the public debt of eighteen months ago against the income of the people in the last year of the Old Deal, and comparing it to a similar computation showing the ratio that exists between the public debt of today and the income of the people in the first year of the Now Deal. But that also is a tough statistical job. However, there is a simple way to measure the public debt. And that is to do it in terms of commodities. How many bushels of wheat would have been required to pay the public debt in March, 1933. at the birth of the New Deal? Howmany bushels would be required to pay the public debt today? How many bales of cotton? How many barrels of oil? Here, roughly, are the figures, tin parentheses are commodity prices—average in the month of March. 1933. and the average last week): Debt in Dollars—March. 1933, $21,000,000.000; July. 1934; $27,000,000,000. Debt in Wheat—March, 1933. 42.8 billion bushels <49 cents a bushel; July, 1934. 31 biliion bushels <8" cents a bushel). Debt in Cotton—March. 1933. 600 million bales (1 cents a pound); July. 1934. 425.2 million Dales <12.7 cents a pound). Debt in Oil —March. 1933. 55.3 billion barrels <3B cents a barrel*; July. 1934. 28.7 billion barrels <94 cents a barrel). The same kind of comparison might be made with dozens of other commodities to ahow how the New Deal has made the public debt easier to bear. Os course, this is an over-simplification ol a complicated situation, but it is at least suggestive BULLETS DO NOT VOTE HOWEVER great the weaknesses of democracy may seem in a tin* of crisis. it 'ls hard to escape the impteaaioa that lhi

bloody troubles of Europe today arise in large part because of the denial of democracy. Austria, swept by the repercussions of an assassination ominously similar to that of Franz Ferdinand twenty years ago, simply is the most recent example. For the underlying cause of such disorders is the feet that ordinary democratic processes have been suspended. Racked and torn by cross-currents ol passion, resentment, and despair that have been in the making ever since the war, the central European peoples have no way of expressing themselves but with guns. Germany furnished an object lesson a few weeks ago. Discontent with the way the Nazi policies were working out came a head and demanded expression. No peaceful means of expression was possible. Men could not argue their cause, they could not propagandize by means of newspapers and magazines, they could not look forward to a chance to use ballots. The machine gun and the revolver became their only recourse—and so, inevitably, the government had to use the same implements In replying to them. * Now it is Austria’s turn, and the same kind of thing happens. Instead nf a political campaign, with speeches, pamphlets, advertisements, and so on, there must be a “putsch,” with bombs, gunfire, assassinations, and all the rest. There is no other possible outlet for discontent. One does not need to look at these tragic nappenings very long to get anew realization of the inestimable value of democracy. Democracy has its weaknesses, to be sure—great and glaring, some of them, for which we often pay a heavy price. But it does provide a safety valve for public discontent. It does make it possible for people to get rid of a government, a party, or a policy which they do not like, in peaceful and orderly way. It lets every man have his say about the state of affairs about him; it makes the appeal to force unnecessary. We need to keep this constantly in mind. There are people in this country who profess an admiration for dictatorship—whether proletarian, Fascist, or w'hatnot on the ground that democracy is inefficient and unwieldy. One look at the woes of Germany and Austria is enough to show that democracy’s benefits are almost infinitely greater than its drawbacks.

MURDER BY THOUSANDS A STRIKING contrast betw-een crime conditions in the United States and crime conditions in England is drawn by J. H. Wallis, popular writer of detective stories, who has devoted a little spare time to comparing statistics on real and fictional murders in the two countries. , * In England, he finds, detective story writers actually ‘‘kill” more people than do real-life murderers. In England there are approximately 200 homicides a year, and the fiction writers can keep ahead of that mark without half trying. But in the United States—well Mr. Wallis finds that American murderers remove some 13.000 mortals from this earthly scene every year; and that’s a mark that even the most active S. S. Van Dines. Ellery Queens, and Mignon Eberharts can't hope to keep up with. Which perhaps explains why the American detective story generally has more homicides in it than does the English variety. One murder, by itself, is an unusual and absorbing thing, to an English reader. They have to come in bunches to thrill an American. FAREWELL, MARINES! "ITfriTHIN the next fortnight or so, the last * * American marines will be leaving the island of Haiii—and neither the Haitians, the American public, nor the marines themselves will feel very badly about it if they never go back. The marines have been on the island for many years. Their greatest strength there was in May, 1921, when more than 2.000 of all ranks were concentrated there. This spring and summer the number had shrunk to approximately 750; and now, because of the new understanding reached between the American and Haitian governments, it is shrinking to nothing at all. It is good to see the marines leaving. The islands situation was very tangled indeed when they first landed, and they did a lot oi very excellent work; but in the end the Haitians must work out their own salvation as an independent state, and they can’t do that until the last American marine has gone home.

THE DILLINGERS '■’r'HE Dillinger family is appearing on the stage of a local theater this week, answering questions about John Dillinger, the desperado, who was slain eight days ago on his last trip to a theater. That members ol his family, including his father, should appear in a theater so soon after the family tragedy, seems rather odd. But on the stage yesterday John Dillinger Sr , said he had accepted the stage offer because it assured him of a better living than life on the farm. However, those who actually sympathize with the elder Dillinger should hope that he doesn't count too much on his theatrical career. The farm probably will pay better dividends in the long run. not only financially, but also in the essential requirements of a bereaved family—peace and quiet. Young John Jacob Astor says life is difficult for him because of his riches. If pressed further, he might agre that life would be a bit more difficult without his riches. President Roosevelt says he can't tell what the party affiliations of his brain trusters are. We ll bet Postmaster Parley can. While, as one doctor says, every kiss you take shortens your life three minutes, your life may be shorter, but oh, how much sweeter! Barney Baruch has decided to retire for a while and write his memoirs—since he couidn t have himself called before a senate committee. A military dictatorship is predicted soon lor Germany, the present type being only of the Boy Scout order. The truth is that If the movie magnates really clean up the films, most of their products will be washouts. -*

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

<Thl* i* the fir*t of two articles on the film controrersy) THE fundamental cultural issue involved in the movement to purge the movies is one of far greater significance than is usually perceived. It goes more deeply than the question of the profits of a great industry or the salaries of its artists. It also is something wider than the issue of whether or not self-constituted bodies shall control the education, morals and art of the American people. It brings sharply to the fore the basic question of who shall be our guides in so advanced and highly civilized an age as the second quarter of the twentieth century. Moving pictures are more than an industrial product. They are, or certainly should be, a prominent element in our culture, ranking with the newspapers, radio and the stage. They have already attained a marvelous development as a manifestation of applied science and popular art. In spite of all the valid criticism which may be leveled against them it is doubtful that any other notable achievement of recent capitalistic enterprise offers more to the public for its money or contains so slight an element of evil in proportion to the educational and recreational facilities provided. nun ALMOST any sane and civilized man would, however, welcome any intelligent movement. within or without the films, to insure better pictures. We would profit greatly if we could have productions which deal with more vital and realistic themes. The movies could do far more than they accomplish at present in the way of popular education and social guidance. While not a movie addict myself, I have certainly seen representative movies which fall into every category of film production. I have been frequently impressed with the insufferable dullness or the incredible triviality and imbecility of many pictures. an tt Even this most deadly charge against the movies—that of a prevailing trend toward triviality, nonsense and too often sheer imbecility—may be lodged quite as much against the American public as against the film industry. I am personally well acquainted w’ith some of the leading producers and know that they would much prefer to make their millions out of worthy and educational films if they could do so. Many a producer has spent large sums In making pictures which dealt intelligently with an important current social theme, only to find that the antics of one of his clowns brought in a hundred-fold more paid admissions. Inasmuch as the film industry is not a charitable enterprise, but one of the most highly organized and expensively equipped of capitalistic undertakings, it can hardly be blamed if it produces what the public w'ants. No honest and fair critic of the movies can w'ell allege that the producers have been as reluctant to give us films providing both’social education and a high order of entertainment as the public has been in giving the necessary support to such laudable efforts.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

AMBASSADOR ROA of Mexico, who has taken a cottage at Blue Ridge Summit for the summer, has with him his two beautiful nieces, the Senoritas Dolores and Sara Amalia Chico Alatorre. The two nieces have been anxious to learn how to play tennis, and last week end a young American player (who was visiting former Ambassador Bill Culbertson at Blue Ridge Summit) volunteered to teach them. "But first,” he informed Senorita Dolores Chico, “we had better start by a simpler game, so you’ll learn more easily.” And he handed her a badminton racket. Senorita Dolores took the racket and th# game started. “Ready,” sang out the instructor. He batted the shuttlecock across the net in a negligent manner. The next instant it came flying back, and struck him in the eye. To make a long story short, the game resulted in a complete victory for Senorita Dolores. “I didn’t know you played badminton,” said the disconsolate American. "I don't,” smiled Dolores, “but in my country I am an expert in a very similar game—fronton.” a a a SENATOR BILL BORAH, who recently left on a w-ar path for the west, will attend the annual three-day sun dance of the Bannock and Shoshone Indians this week at Pocatello, Idaho. The sun dance begins at sundown Friday. It is described as the most primitive of the American aborigines’ ritual and is calculated to heal the sick who participate in it. Senator Borah—a spokesman for the Indians, who is now in Washington, stated—will not participate in the dance, but will be a spectator. It is hoped that the senator will remain long enough to enjoy succulent watermelon which is served at the end of the weird ceremonial. During the entire dance, through seventy-two hours of scorching heat and choking dust, the dancers abstain from food or drink. In bare leet the braves tramp with a slow, steady gait to where the head of a buffalo is suspended on a large pole. Thumping of tom-toms and wailing of squaws accompanied the ceremony. Political friends of Senator Borah (amused at news that he will attend the ritual) suggested he may be acquiring some knowledge of Indian religious culture to bolster up his attack on the Democratic platform. H. G. Wells has finished his scenario for his first film, to be entitled “The Shape of Things to Come,” and just after such a rumpus has been kicked up about Mae West pictures. Isn't it funny that Austria should have to depend on other powers for its independence. Perhaps, if the starving cattle in the Chicago stockyards were told of the drought in the midwest. they mightn’t feel so bad about dying because of the strike. Leave it to the Chicago police. They didn’t catch Dillinger, to be sure. But they got the woman who told on him. The present drought and heat wave, suggests Professor Hobbs of the University of Michigan, may be due to radio broadcasting, although some of the material that goes on the air these days is enough to make the heavens weep. A Columbia university professor says married teachers are better than unmarried ones. Certainly, they have someone to try their ideas on at home. The next war will be brutal, predicts Mar-* shal Petain of France. Particularly if mistreated wives send their husbands into it. Jess Willard lost $7 when his pocket was picked in Boston, but he saved a bigger roll in his sock. Yes. he still packs a sock—on his foot. A Philadelphia scientist has devised a saliva test to discover whether a race horse has been doped. An easier way would be to bet on ’ the horse. Albert E. Wiggam, the writer, says there has been no new type of crime in 5.000 years. Wiggam, apparently, doesn't play bridge.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express thCir views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance, t.imit them to t 59 words or less.) a a a ITS NOT SO LIVELY IN EDINBURG By Main Street Observer. Dr. Thurman Rice of Indiana university was appalled at the complacent attitude of New Bethel citizens despite the fact that a typhoid epidemic was raging in their midst. I don’t believe Dr. Rice’s experience will be complete until he has made his home in a community of 2.000 or thereabouts. I live in Edinburg, an apathetic country town of 2,200, just thirtyone miles south of Indianapolis. Our little town has existed for more than 100 years, and today we face the complexities of life with the same complacent attitude that prevails in New Bethel. We are a smug, self-satisfied group, content to pass judgment on our neighbors and their affairs and quite convinced that our community represents Wells’ idea of Utopia. We have been without a bank for two and one-half years and during that time our merchants have never made an effort to organize anew bank, despite the fact that the closing of the bank caused a decline of 60 per cent in reatil sales. Our merchants association has not held a meeting in nine months nor has the president or secretary or the members made any effort to get together. One of our leading citizens became president of a bank in Franklin, investing several thousand dollars, because he found no sentiment existed here for a bank.,^ A state health board representative recently addressed a meeting in the high school auditorium on the advantages of a sewage system, but nothing has been done. Our town is dotted with toilets and dry wells, sewage constantly seeps through the soil and no longer is well water considered safe for drinking purposes With the exception of those native sons who wander away, we are such as we were twenty years ago—smug, self-satisfied and proud to boast that we have the best kept and most beautiful small town cemetery in the state. a an PROPOSES CHANGE IN TRAFFIC PLAN By Offended. Traffic deaths can be reduced materially by zoning all residential streets to one way parking, with a yellow line indicating the parking zone. The obstruction of view resulting from cars parked on both sides of the streets would be reduced 50 per cent by ,such change. Trucks hauling freight in excess of three tons should be kept off residential streets and confined to main thoroughfare arteries. These new freight trucks hauling four cars, have made our residential streets freight yards. Shall we drive them off, or will they drive us into the cellars? City council, answer that. van DISCUSSES OUTLOOK IN ECONOMIC SITUATION By A Reader. Whistling in the dark to the old tune, “We Are on Our Way,” while we provide new jobs for political henchmen, but fail to provide the opportunity for real jobs for those on relief doles may be a pleasant pastime, but it won't be for long. Capitalism automatically digs its grave when it fails to invest the profits taken from consumers in new capital goods. Such investment alone can keep capitalism alive. Refinancing of dead horses, which

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The Message Center

IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE

Union Labor Branded Menace

By Will H. Craisr. How long will this country tolerate the menace of union labor? How long will the government allow union labor to have a stranglehold on industry and business and indirectly on agriculture? How long will the newspapers and politicians remain silent on the domination of groups and classes in this socalled land of the free and home of the brave? I am not an enemy of honest, fair-dealing labor, but I want the masses to be considered as well as the organized, favored classes. I have labored on the farm and other places and sympathize with the common man. When the New Deal was started, labor unions took possession and considered it “of, for- and by” union labor. Under such domination, the unions got their pound of flesh and the common laborer went on Civil Works Administration jobs. And when the recovery act gave union labor shorter hours and higher wages, then it went on a rampage of strikes that lias about upset the gains in industry and business. Most of these strikes are based on a demand cf the American Federation of Labor that they alone be recognized in bargaining; that a card of union labor is the only passport of employment. When did the American people surrender their liberty and freedom of action? When was so un-

is. now taking place, by throwing good public money after bad private debts of all kinds, only aggravates the anemic condition of our paralyzed capitalism. Half of the supposed value of capital goods has evaporated during four years of capital contraction. The supposed reds as a menace to capitalism are insignificant, compared to the ignorant, stupid leaders who claim capitalism a divine order, if capitalism fails to meet the needs of the coming generation, being graduated from our schools, who expect a better conditon of living than the present order is forcing on them, then capitalism is on its way out. The question is not one of back to the constitution, but can we constitutionally make the necessary impending changes in our capitalistic structure, which will give us the universal culture, the utmost in a high living standard of moral values and better social organization, or shall we have to wreck the decaying order? a a a SEES PROPERTY RIGHTS ALWAYS DOMINANT By A Times Reader. The freedom of the press seems to have had a setback iij Minneapolis. Since when has the constitution been altered to read, “there shall be freedom of the press, except when certain public officers decide that no criticism of their actions shall be permissible?” The real reds in this country are the yokels pretending to embody the principles of democracy, while ihey flout every decency. The right to strike is the last stand of labor against the tyranny of capital. But the right to strike really only amounts to the right to starve; that is commit economic suicide. That ought to be an inalienable right. The law is on the side of property in every strike. Since the strikers do not have property to protect, they have no right to protection. They do not seem to understand that property is more sacred under the constitution than mere human rights. How dare labor threaten the su-

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

patriotic a demand ever made by any class of American citizens? What does the constitution, bill of rights and laws of the country amount to with this union? Very little, if they interfere with the rule by might instead of right. The bill of rights has guaranties “against loss of life, liberty or property.” Yet the strikes lead to deaths, loss of property and the liberty of the individuals. Leaders of the union claim that violence and riots are due to anarchists and communists, but who called the strikes that led to riots? And do union leaders try to stop the violence? Not at all. They are guilty of starting and fomenting all the strikes, violence and anarchy that is a disgrace to the country. Union leaders claim to be patriotic, but like many politicians and veterans, they are patriotic for pay. During the war, a labor lobby threatened congress that if the railroad labor bill was not passed that' a strike would be called and tie up all the railroads of the country. Congress surrendered and under government control, dominated by union labor, it cost about three times as much to run the railroads as under private management. Then, as now, we need a President with the guts of Grover Cleveland, who in 1393, when labor unions were striking and rioting, ordered federal soldiers to quell the riots and move the trains.

premacy of the law; that is the ; right of a few titleholders of prop- ! erty, to control the economic life of | mere workers? Such a thing is pre- | posterous. It is un-American, communistic, red, and dangerous to the government of the property barons. The people in government does not include outlaw strikers. Deport them, enjoin them by vassal courts, club them, gas them, and jail them. Theirs is the right to starve, not to rule. a a a CONDEMNS DESECRATION OF DILLINGER GRAVE By Hugh K. Hale. ! Your paper and others of the ! city gave an account of the mutij lation and robbery of the grave of | John Dillinger, robbery of the expressions of love that those near and dear to him placed upon his last resting place. I do not uphold his actions in the past, and I do not believe that, bad as he was, he would have permitted his associates to commit such an act of desecration. An article signed by Creedo gave me a great big pain in the neck. By what right has any one got to loan, confidentially or otherwise, his body for any purpose? If done, it would be robbery just as much as the theft of the flowers from the grave. His father purchased space in Crown Hill long before John went wrong, so there was no place else to inter him. Creedo says, “Let Crown Hill escape unwholesome notoriety.” Is Crown Hill any more sacred than the thousands of small burial grounds that dot our countryside? If it is. then I am glad ! my mother is in Memorial Park. tt a g FAVORS BETRAYALS AMONG CRIMINALS By William H I would like to answer Mr. Kay, who flays the Dillinger betrayers. He says they are worse than Dillinger. If they are, what of it? There are just so many bad underworld men and women who are going to do bad deeds. The best and finest way they can do a little good for society is lor them to betay eac k other. Fm*" 1 •: r 1 "•" / . -V" - - l

.JULY 30, 1934

Let’s hope there are some more like them to put Hamilton, Baby Face Nelson and many more on the spot. Incidentally, if it were done more often, it would teach prospective criminals to think it over. I, for one, am for the culprits to put each other on the spot. I also want to say something to you Dillinger sympathizers who are sure that he did not commit all the crimes laid to him. “We are sure,” they say. How could they know? The sympathizers should know that a small part of his crimes calls for extreme punishment. They, lijce others, feel that Dillinger was treated unfairly and was given no chance. Chance for what? Chance to kill, of course. Why should a criminal who never gave any one else a chance be given a chance? I have even heard it argued that he never killed unless he had to. Ask yourself whether he ever needed to kill anybody. Emphatically no, but it seems that he and his gang killed many. He is equally guilty of the murders which his gang committed. He needs no sympathy, but his good father and family do. a a a DILLINGER CARTOON DECLARED LACKING By Stanley Hastings. Asa reader of The Times, I appreciated the Dillinger cartoon entitled, “The End of the Trail.” However, I was struck by what was left out. You know the crime career of Dillinger began when Governor McNutt paroled him. This point was left out of the cartoon. Perhaps you are so intent on seeing McNutt's Indiana Tammany successful in its dictatorial rule that you are going to overlook a lot of things from now on. For example, you had an editorial not long ago, "Greenlee Must Go.” Now you play him up as a big leader instead of a peanut politician. Is the courageous Times slipping? I hope not,-because we need an honest, fighting paper in the Hoosier capital.

Make Believe

BY LFFIE L. WORKMAN Just around the corner Lives a little boy of three, Who loves to play the game of "make-believe.” With a gaud/ cap of red Placed upon his touseled head He becomes a “fireman,” brave ag he can be. When I hear my doorbell ring I often find him there, Asa salesman tryin? hard to sell his wares. With odds and ends of things Wrapped in paper, tied with string I must buy, if I his childish fun would share. Sparkling eyes of heavenly blue Look up at me, while a grin Slowly spreads across his dirty little face. He's as serious as can be, This tiny boy of three, And willingly I would with him change place. Just to be a child again, To be able to pretend, In a game where illusions still are real. For the make-believe today, That we each one try to play. Is the masquerade of things wo would conceal _