Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 84, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 August 1934 — Page 16

PAGE 16

The Indianapolis Times <4 KIPPS-HOWAH!) NEWSPAPER) ROT W. HOWARD PraMdant TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Ballot** Manager Phnn# Riley 5l

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Oiri Lijht ml th 4 Will Find Thrie Ovn Way

FRIDAY. AUO 17. 1934. _____ A PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM THE most enlightened and realistic political platform we have seen is that laid down, yesterday by Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin in his campaign for re-election. While not all progressives would agree on all the details, taken as a whole his program seems to us to represent the high order of statesmanship so much needed in the United States today. Much of it Is material taken from earlier progressives by both Senator La Follette and by President Roosevelt, and some of it goes beyond the New I>al. Here are its high points: Farm returns should represent the cost of production plus a fair profit, market speculation should be stopped, co-operative marketing outlets ex'ended. credit supplied at low rates. Labor should have shorter hours, effective collective bargaining, social insurance. Credit should be controlled by a govern-ment-owned central bank. Steady and fairly-rewarded employment, rather than profit, should be the first charge on industry. In the present emergency government should increase the program of public employment and raise relief standards. Public ownership of the power and railroad Industries. Taxation on the basis of ability to pay, including graduated income and inheritance taxes. No general sales tax. Discontinue taxexempt securities. Take profit out of war by government ownership and manufacture of all war munitions and implements. Restrict the power to declare war. except in cases of actual invasion, to a direct popular referendum. Restore civil liberties. Prevent excessive profits of monopolistic control over production and distribution. •The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can not survive in the modem world without the right to work. It is the duty of government to guarantee to every' home economic security and the enjoyment of fruits of labor. The combined powers of government must be used to restore equal economic opportunity, to maintain and impro\e educational advantages, and to destroy the extremes of hopeless poverty and concentrated wealth which today threaten the existence of our institutions.”

SO WHAT? LIKE the ancient builders, politicians and political writers can't get along without straw Straws show the way the wind blows. In the last few days there have been several straws and much blowing, not to say wind So the soothsayers should be happy. But thev are not. In fact, the readers of signs are somewhat mixed in their mirnls. It seems that the primaries were to foretell the New Deal's November future. The primaries in general, but especially those in West Virginia. Ohio and Nebraska were to reveal the mystery. Well, the revelations have been vouchsafed. The political seers have read the signs. They have spoken. They tell us: In West Virginia, Mr. Ciem Shaver, the senatorial candidate of National Chairman Postmaster-General Farley, was defeated by a 29-year-old outsider. That primary proved the administration weak. But the youngster was a flaming New Dealer, and Mr. Shaver was notoriously conservative. So that proved the administration strong. In Ohio the alleged administration senatorial candidate. Representative NVest, was defeated by the veteran ex-Governor Donahey. So that proved the administration weak. But Donahey announced 100 per cent support of the New Deal, proving the administration strong. In Nebraska the administration senatorial candidate. Representative Burke, one of whose New Deal speeches was quoted at length recently by President Roosevelt himself, defeated Brother Charlie Bryan, a critic of the New Deal. That, of course, proved that the administration is very strong in the country. Straws in the wind. Weak—strong—weak —strong! So what? So probably these primary results are local straws only. As national omens they signify everything and nothing. DELAY MEAN'S .'MORE DOLES IN describing opr dole system as far more expensive and wasteful than the unemployment insurance systems adopted by other nations. Secretary Perkins said something that should command the attention of those citizen* who are forever protesting against the growing tax burden. Not only are our doles more costly, but they a-e less dignified, less in keeping with what should be the American way of doing things. To build up reserves to protect workers against unemployment, sickness, injury, and in old age. is essentially a democratic approach to economic and social stability. All of this Miss Perkin* ably presented to her audience. But then she left her audience down by a note of timidity. The committee on economic security, of which she is chairman, will not have ready lor the next congress a complete program for social insurance, she said. "The net total income of our people is still at a very low point," she said, adding. "... we shall not lose sight of the important fact that the primary’ objective of everything that is done now must be recovery and the development of a more stable economic order.” If we are waiting for the total net Income to rise to a satisfactory point, we may find

ourselves In the position of the farmer who couldn't patch hi* roof while it was raining and who wouldn't when it wasn’t raining. And if we must wait for the development cf a perfect social insurance system that will not be at variance with this objective’’ of recovery’, we may have to wait eternally. The Wagner-Lewis unemployment Insurance bill and the Dill-Connery old-age pensions bill, which were not passed by the last congress because the administration asked for delay until the next session, are not perfect measures. Neither are they half-baked measures. They are the results of many years of study of the problems of social insecurity. And unless Miss Perkins’ committee can evolve better proposals, they are entitled to a fair trial. We can not wait for utopian conditions to overtake us, nor for experts to draft foolproof laws. We must start work with what we nave and trust experience to guide us toward more perfect laws and administration. The start should be made by the Perkins committee now, so that the next congress can act quickly. HUMANIZING ECONOMICS IT would be a lot easier to figure out how successful our present recovery efforts are likely to be if we only had some way of telling Just how exact a science orthodox economics really is. According to the old school economists, recovery from a depression must follow certain natural laws. There must be a deflation long enough and severe enough to readjust all the relationships of prices, wages, and debts, which were put out of line by the previous inflationary trend. Until that readjustment is complete, we are told, there is no possibility of recovery'. Now the reason why people are refusing to wait for these natural processes to do their work is that a terrific price in human values must be paid. A fair expression of the orthodox viewpoint is contained in a bulletin recently issued by a New York business advice firm. This bulletin asserts that recovery can not come until wages have been deflated to a point at which industrial operation is profitable under a deflated price scheme. Such deflation, it says, is being retarded by present government relief policies. “As long as the government continues to provide the unemployed, either through jobs on public enterprises or through direct relief, with sufficient funds to deprive them of the incentive to secure private work at any price,” says this bulletin, “the supply of labor will not be large enough to exert on private wage scales the pressure needed to force a quick adjustment ... A return to sound business prosperity will be postponed until the government voluntarily modifies its relief policy to a point where it will not interfere with the proper deflation of w r age rates.” That does not make pleasant reading. During the last couple of years we saw examples of what happens when labor has “the incentive to secure private work at any price.” We saw men employed at $5 and $6 a week. We saw w’omen glad to get jobs as household servants for no pay at all but their board. We saw college-trained engineers and skilled mechanics mowing lawns for 25 cents an hour. We saw, in brief, enough sights to make the heart sick, and we saw enough of them to last us a long, long time. If that is all the hope that orthodox economics holds out—that such things must be endured indefinitely, without any attempt to alleviate them—it is hardly surprising that ordinary folk are beginning to feel that they want something a little less orthodox and a little more humane.

HOW TO GET A JOB 'T'HERE are a great many reasons why peopie seek public office. The poorest of all reasons, probably, is simply that the candidate needs a job—any job at all—and hopes to get one on the public pay roll, all other expedients having failed. That is why elections held in a time of depression are peculiar affairs. In the current primaries, according to a United Press tabulation. more than 300,000 American citizens ran for public office. In Indiana, for instance. more than 36.000 people declared their eagerness to get on the public pay roll. In Montana one citizen of every ten was a candidate for something or other. It will hardly be surprising if the fall elections present us with some public servants who have no qualifications whatever for their jobs. A public office-holder, even in a democracy, must have some recommendation aside from the fact that he needs work. DESPITE A LIFE HANDICAP 13 AYMOND PHELPS, young Colorado rancher, is a cripple: but we have a notion that he is going to make a success of his life in spite of his handicaps. This youth always had wanted to see a sunrise from the summit of Pike's Peak. So the other day he set out to gratify his wish. On his hands and knees, he crawled all the way to the mountain top, starting in the middle of the afternoon and reaching his goal at 3 a. m„ just in time to see the sun come up. To be sure, he had friends who would have taken him up in an auto. But he wanted to achieve this ambition by himself, by his own efforts; and he did so. at a cost of physical exertion which is appalling to contemplate. A young man who has the stamina to do a thing like that ought to be able to build a pretty fair sort of career for himself—cripple or no cripple. RAYMOND HOOD TOE DAVIDSON, famous sculptor, had just ** returned from Paris. During his absence abroad, the Daily News building. 220 East Forty-second street, New York, had beer finished. It was pointed out to Davidson from a window on the twenty-second floor of the New York Central building, a view that gave him the full sweep of the severe, flat-topped skyscraper. “What do you think of it?” Davidson was asked. •'Stupendous” he replied. “When the archaeologists dig up Washington and find the Lincoln Memorial, they'll say, The Greeks have been here.’ But when they dig

up New York and And this building, they'll say. ‘This is anew civilization.’ ” No finer tribute could be paid to Raymond Hood, the architect, whose death has taken one of the greatest builders of all time. He symbolizes the skyscraper. He it was who broke the tradition that there must be pillars or flying buttresses or other earmarks of the pa:-t. In breaking away, he did not sacrifice either beauty or utility. The spirit of challenge, that always urged him, enabled him to unfetter himself from the “Glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.” He was a true pioneer. While Rockefeller Center was his masterpiece, the Daily News building was his first frontier, AMERICAN HOMES, PREFERRED is a program designed to open up V-J a nd make available for the improvement of housing standards the vast reservoir of private capital which has so long been stagnant.” This was the thing stressed by James A. Moffett, administrator of the national housing act, in starting the government’s campaign to repair and modernize 13,000,000 American homes. Moffett's fair statement of the national housing program offers a direct challenge to privately held capital. Here opens the way to those who want less government competition with private business. The act is specific in its provisions. The government can not loan directly for housing improvements. All funds must come from banks, building and loan associations and other types of private financial institutions. And the government urges that these agencies employ the same method in making loans as they have employed in the past, placing only one major regulation upon their operations—they must not charge more than $5 for each SIOO for each year for the use of the money loaned if they wish to have the loans insured up to 20 per cent of face value. Such insurance as offered by the government gives a virtual guarantee against loss. Statistics gathered over many years show that the average loss on this type of loan is less than 3 per cent. Millions of dollars today are seeking investment. They have shied away from real estate because of fear. Real estate received a black eye when the nation’s banking system tottered during the dark days of 1930 and 1931, despite the fact that homes and the soil on which they are built constitute the most tangible form of security. Now the government is removing the fear by the offer of a guarantee on home investments. Private capital and credit must flow back into construction before we can have full recovery and before the 4,000,000' persons once employed in the building trades can go back to work. The government has opened the way for such a move. The momentum must be supplied by the private lender. P. O. KINGS TTERE is something for posterity—this incident in Bridgeport, Conn., where the Republican names of Ogden Mills et al. have been chiseled off the corner stone of the rising new postoffice building and the names of Henry’ Morgenthau and James A. Farley* substituted. Such are the glories that radiate from the turning wheel of political fortune. A few thousand years hence, perhaps, archaeologists will excavate at Bridgeport, and, coming upon the corner stone inscription, will read with awe—somewhat as the poet, wandering over the desert sands, came upon a half-covered tombstone and read the hieroglyphic epitaph: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

THE imperial Japanese Prince Kaya, who arrived yesterday in Washington for a brief visit, is known as one of the greatest baseball fans in all Nippon. When his visit was being planned for the United States, Japanese diplomats scratched their ears and puzzled: “How can we arrange the tour so that his imperial highness may view an American ball game?” At first, the idea was to have Prince Kaya see a game in the capital. Then officials decided there wasn't, time. The imperial visitor will attend a luncheon given by Secretary of State Hull, sip tea at the White House with President Roosevelt, pay a visit to Mount Vernon and place a wreath on Washington's tomb, go to Ft. Myer and then place a second wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier, have dinner at the Japanese embassy and do some sightseeing. Obviously, there wasn’t much time for baseball. Furthermore. Prince Kaya returns to New York on Saturday afternoon and all this excitement had to be sandwiched into a quick two-day program. It taxed the embassy’s ingenuity. Finally diplomats agreed that his imperial highness might see a base ball game in New York at the Yankee stadium. So yesterday the youthful prince saw the Yankees battle the Tigers. u U tt JAPANESE imperial princelings are rare birds of passage in Washington. Last member of ! the imperial household to visit here was Prince Takamatsu, brother of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who came several years ago and was roundly feted. In 1928 another imperial brother, Prince Chichibu, former heir apparent to the throne (before the birth of Emperor Hirohito’s son), also stopped here on a trip around the world. It is worth noting that Priilfce Kaya, although a member of the imperial household, is a cousin ! of the emperor. • a a a MUSICAL talent in the diplomatic corps (not anything to brag about, if one discounts a few strummers on banjoes and ukeleles) has ; reached a somewhat higher level with the rei turn from Canada of M. Louis Micheli, the handsome Swiss counselor. There was a little gathering of diplomats and officials the other evening. And there was M. Micheli. And there was a piano. “Oh, do play something!” insisted several admirers of the handsome Swiss counselor. Thus urged. Pianist-Counselor Micheli brushed his black mustache ala Persane. and sat down to the piano. He sat as Paderewski sits, but he had the intent, rapturous air of the Russian composer, Rachmaninoff. Suddenly the gaiety of the little party was stilled. They realized (most of them) that the long, slender fingers of Pianist-Counselor Micheli were creeping over the keys making beautiful music. It was Chopin ... the divine Chopin. Micheli, overcome by emotion, stopped, rose, choked, bowed. “Bravo! Superb! Encore!" resounded from all sides. “Now. please play T Miss My Swiss,’ ” begged a young lady.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Hey, Beebe—Why Go So Deep for Queer Fish?

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The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short , so aH can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a a OBJECTS TO ATTACKS ON CAPITALISM By E. F. Maddox. I am sure you will wholly disapprove of what I am going to say and I doubt very much Whether you will permit it to be published in the Message Center; however. I hope you will be personally benefitted by this letter. This letter is in regard to the way you use the Message Center as a Communist and Socialist vehicle for spreading their propaganda and the you have of giving them a decided advantage in any controversy. It is unusual to find a Times without at least two Socialist or Communist letters attacking capitalism, which in short means our democracy. Now here is what I want you iO get: Since you have become editor of The Times, you have tried to boss the whole community, including the Governor, mayor, business firms and private citizens. You made a special attack on Pleas Greenlee and tried to oust him from his job and now you have turned your guns on Mike Morrissey because he happens to interfere with some Communist agitators. Well. Mr. Editor, you will find defending Communists will not make you many friends in this city and if you don’t be more careful about your editorials, you are going to be accused of being a Communist sympathizer. If all signs don t fail, the national reaction against Communism has begun, and we can expect it to reach Indianapolis at any time. . If I were you. I would advise tne Socialists and Communists to be a little more careful how they show their “absymal ignorance,” as that is what you called it some time ago. Communism is not popular in this town and neither is a defender of Communists, and to insinuate that Communists are defending American ideals or that they are patriotic is the height of “abysmal ignorance.” You don’t need to print this if you don't want to, but just keep it as a reminder that you and your friends have not got control of this neck of the woods yet. Editor’s Note Communists polled 102.991 votes in the last Presidential election. Socialists, 884,781. Population of the United States in 1930, 122,775.046. Together their membership is less than 1 per cent of the people. Yet Socialists and Communists are guaranteed the right of free speech under the Constitution as is the writer of the above letter, even though we believe his facts to be incorrect and his argument specious. a a a OBJECTS TO DELAYS AT CITY HOSPITAL. Bt Wm. Mills. Did it ever occur to you just how long it took to be waited on at the city hospital, when you go there for treatment or medicine? You may be in misery or have a chronic ailment—you wait and suffer just the same. We realize there are several hundreds of people who go out there daily for treatment and the hospital is very busy and has lots to contend with, but why should a person or persons sit there from 3 a. m. to 11 or 12 noon for a five minute interview with the doctor? I myself have been out there many times with the children and alone and I have always had to wait from one to three hours for a five-minute examination. There

Terms Inflation

By Deflated. The ballyhoo being handed out on inflation is another one of those stunts intended to scare people into buying beyond their immediate requirements. It was such a scare that was responsible for the rush of factories getting foods produced last year before the NRA was set up. The rush idea was generated by a desire to reap profits from low wages, going into the products before NRA schedules took effect. The result was a boomlet that punctured as soon as NRA started. Rising prices caused by a shortage of crops in the drought area can be only temporary, as the income of the people of this area where drought destroyed their purchase power will be the determining factor as to what they can buy with what is left of their already too meager income. We had real inflation prior to 1929, created by the printing of money to the tune of many billions of dollars through “bank loans,’’ which are even more effective inflation than paper money printed by the government. Printed government money must first find customers willing to spend it, while bank loans are really spent money advanced for goods in the making.

are some who are not working at all, and have lots of time on hand, but I, for one, can think of lots of better places to spend my time than out there waiting. It seems there is no system: first ones to come are last ones out and visa versa. It would seem logical to step along and dispose of the crowd and worry. I waited the other day three full hours for them to find my chart before they would even take my temperature. I suppose if a person was in terrible pain they would not touch or help him if his chart could not be found, or until it was his turn. When a person is unemployed and can not have his regular doctor and has to go out to the city hospital for treatment, he is shoved around and made to wait. I was sick enough to be in bed, but sport enough to go out instead of call. I was given a bottle of medicine and examined all in five minutes time, after I had waited three hours, and was told I would be 0. k. in a week, if not, come back. Gee. I hope lam better. I don’t want to go through that againfeeling like I do. I wonder if there aren't a few more doctors available to take care of the rush hours. I sincerely hope so. The patients and hospital force would surely profit by it. a a a CAFE S LATE HOURS ANNOY NEIGHBORS. Bt a Times Reader. I am a reader of The Times and have read so many times of the Indianapolis police arresting proprietors of beer places for not closing at 1 o'clock. How come they let one on East Washington street stay open until 1:30 or 2 every night, with dancing, music and no matron? People in this nei' .lborhood can’t sleep. It’s all right some nights, but every night is too much. The only time the police come around this place is to sneak in the back door to get a drink. It's funny they can get by with whisky, noise, music, dancing, no matron, when other people are getting knocked off. Also, the place is never closed on Sunday. I think the police should clean out such places instead of upholding

I wholly disapprove of what you say and wiU j defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

alk Propaganda

The soundness of “bank credit money” created by privately owned banks was demonstrated by the solar plexis blow that closed 14,000 out of 30,000 banks in this country a year ago. The depositors are still listening for a tinkling of the coin they de- ’ posited in these banks. There need be no gold or silver behind our currency if the quantity is not purposely permitted to become excessive. Taxation can reduce the volume to any desired sum. This method of currency control is much more reliable and infinitely safe than permitting the “bank loan” method of inflation. Deflation of “bank loan money” is the same as burning up the paper currency; creating a shortage of money in circulation, which is as destructive to commerce as the burning down of factories would be. We ought to agitate immensely over the fact that this shortage of money is deliberately produced and that the measly spending of money by the government can not begin to stem the downward slide of business which is the result of deflating the “bank loan currency.” We need to get “het-up” about deflation going on rather than oppose a sane inflation that will start business going.

them and letting them run wide open. I work every day and my wife and I can’t sleep at night. I say the law isn't very good in this case. a a a SAYS SOCIALISTS COULD BRING RECOVERY By Forrest S. Rogers. Your cartoon in Monday's paper showing the G. O. P. elephant looking for campaign issues should be framed and hung in every home. The Republican party, the Tory party of the United States, overlooks the fact that welfare of a state is the sum of the welfare of all its citizens. Pinning the red label on the President, shouting Socialism, or Communism, will be like so many blank cartridges. They scare a few “nervous Nellies,” but do no damage. The howls about bureaucracy, returning to the Constitution, and less interference with business are for the consumption of the gullible. But, in order to be a loyal Republican one must have considerable gullibility, for the Republican leadership, like Hitler, would like to put the clock back. Supposing that the business leaders had no restrictions as in the period of 1930, 1931 and 1932? Would they bring on another period of panic like the dark days of March, 1933, or would they reduce hours and raise wages and put more men to work? You know the answer. There were no howls from the Republicans concerning expenses when the government built up big business with tariffs and other subsidies, or when the RFC began handing outs to big business in distress even before the federal government took an interest in starving humanity. As to the problem of taxes, there is only one answer, that is the capital levy, instead of any additional taxes on the low income majority who do most of the commodity buying. To soak the little man would mean stagnation for business and sure defeat for recovery. We should remember these things for the crisis of the New Deal is before us. This is no defense of the New Deal, for it is plain that subsidizing scarcity when it Is obvious that we have no overproduction, but underconsumption is an experiment that

.AUG. 17, 1931

is bound to fail. Mr. Roosevelt last his big chance to hasten recovery when he failed to nationalize or socialize banking during the banking crisis. Whoever controls credit controls commerce. To leave the control of credit in present hands is to dangerously expose the New Deal to its enemies. To register disapproval for the slowness of recovery or for any grievance against the state administration by voting Republican is to give the moneyed interests a chance to shout that Republican votes means a mandate from the people to scrap the NRA and let monopolies have their own way. There is one sure way to hasten recovery. A substantial vote for the Socialists will be a mandate to the government to take over idle industries in order that the unemployed may operate them (in order to help themselves, with production industries). A mandate to push the slum clearance projects and to wrest control from the money changers, by taking over the banks and to hasten the passage of social insurance and other necessary measures A vote for the Republicans is a vote for reaction, a vote for the Democrats is a vote that you are perfectly satisfied, and a vote for the Socialists is a vote that you want recovery and no fooling and experimenting.

PHOTO-ENGRAVERS UNION AIDS UNEMPLOYED By Jacob E. Baker. Indianapolis Photo - Engravers union No. 11 helps their unemployed with a membership of 105, with 25 to 33 per cent unemployed. They have paid out of work benefits during the last two and one-half years to their unemployed members more than $44,000 from June 1, 1933. to May 31, 1934. Local photo-engravers union:, with a membership of less than 9,000. have paid benefits to members as follows: Out of work $1,471.948 88 Sick benefits 13 983 42 Death benefits 23 343 09 Total $1,515,755 03 International Photo - Engravers union has paid benefits from June 1, 1933, to May 31, 1934, as follows: Strike and lockout .. $33 443 45 Tuberculosis benpfUs 32 B=9 20 Insurance premiums 93 573 30 Funeral benefits 14.000.00 Total $173 710 95 Not one member of Local No. 11 has been on the public relief rolls, and we are proud of our local union. To the users of photo-engraving.-, have it made in Indianapolis and help in this relief work. a a a THINKS STREET CAR PILOTS DISCOURTEOUS Bt Mack. We appreciate the new trackless trolleys. They are fine, but the street car company does not own the streets, too. as most of the operators seem to think by the way they plough along, regardless of the rights of others Also, whenever they want to make a right or left turn, they expect you to read their mind and gave them the right of way. Why don’t they practice a little courtesy? a a a GOVERNMENT BANK PLAN ADVOCATED Bt Frank Walton. I am anxious to see a government bank in every county seat for the convenience of every one. The interest accrues from all these banks to be used on public works for the uplifting of our country and American labor We could do this by putting real men in office, but not likely by the two old parties putting in milionaires as our chief executive officials.