Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 85, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 August 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

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BATVRDAY. AUG 1* 13J4

r.OOI) NEWS C COMMANDER V. M ARMSTRONG wisely J and courageously has announced that politics arjl] be kept out o t the state legion convention, which meets at Gary' on Aug. 25. Charges of meddling in local and national politics have levelled frequently at the legion in recent years. Whether they have foundation or not such accusations are bad for this great fraternal organization. Its officials should treasure its reputation so jealously that they keep it above reproach. The founders of the legion were well aware of the insidious danger that politics might bring to it. That was why they inserted the lollowing paragraph in the constitution: • The American Legion shall be absolutely nonpohtical and shall not be used for the dissemination of partisan principles nor for the promotion of the candidacy of any persons seeking public office or preferment. No candidate for or incumbent of a salaried elective public office shall hold any office in the American Legion or in any department or post thereof.” The congress paid the legion the high honor of granting it a national charter. The constitution of the legion is a solemn covenant between the veteran members and the people of the United States. Every legionnaire has a deep and abiding moral obligation to keep the taint of partisan politics out of the organization. There have been numerous cases in which individuals have used their legion connections to further selfish political ends. This is the sort of thing that Commander Armstrong is anxious to stop He is right and every decent thinking member should back him to the limit. TAX RELIEF THE poor old taxpayer is pinching himself these days just to make sure that he is really awake. Taxes are coming down! This is the best news he has heard in nay a jreary year. Each afternoon as he picks up his newspaper he finds that one more taxing body is swinging into line for lower rates. First he heard that Mayor Sullivan and tht city fathers have found a way of lightening his burdens. Next he is told that the school city is going to charge him less. Today he discovers that the Marion county rate will be reduced at least 24 cents —the largest slash in the history of the county. All of which makes extremely cheerful reading. It means, of course, that local business will have a better opportunity to move along the road to recovery. It means that more people can be employed and that industries which have been hobbled by heavy government costs can really step out. , Tax reduction does not make sensational reading, but those at the head of the city, county and school governments could do nothing of more importance to Indianapolis. A RECORD WORTH SAVING rpwo young artists are starting on a long trip through the mountains of Tennessee. Kentucky and North Carolina. They plan to make a complete pictorial record of the lives and customs of those isolated and fascinating folk, the "mountain whites,” in the belief that this group is a passing race. Great changes are beginning in the land, and not least of them is the new development in these southern mountains. The federal government's plans for the Tennessee valley, its use of subsistence homesteads, its scheme for decentralizing industry and tying city and country more closely together—these things will profoundly a fleet the conditions under which the mountaineers live. These artists believe that the mcflmtaineer of tradition will soon be living under very different conditions; so they want to make a record of him before it is too late. Whether the change will be as great as they expect may be open to question. It is certain that, if it is. something peculiarly and fundamentally American will pass away. Let us have this pictorial record, by all means. It will preserve the memory of something that is deeply rooted m our national life. HITLER’S ENEMIES HERR HITLER Is holding a popular referendum all by himself. Opponents are verboten. Americans do not give Hitler the high rating of genius accorded him by his Nazi idolaters. And yet even the most democratic American should at least give him credit lor genius in one direction. That is his capacity for making enemies. Few dictators in history have achieved world distrust so widely and so rapidly, or have won such bitter hatred at home. Abroad, even the dictator he tried to imitate. hia friend Mussolini, has had to mobilize an army against him. H:s Austrian fellow countrymen have executed some of the Nazi plotters, killed others in civil war and chased thousands out of the country* Not content with the enmity of France. Belgium and the little entente nations, plus the new enemies Italy and Austria, he has added Great Britain and Russian to the list; and the little sister Teutonic nation. Holland, is reported in antiHitler negotiations. Os course, there is nothing unusual in a demagog using foreign enmity for the patriot ee ring purpose of turning hostile home opinion from himself to the alien ioe. But Hitler's genius for multiplying enemies at home seems even greater than his capacity abroad. He started by murdering Communists, followed with Socialist victims, then destroyed old line trade unions, and hunted down mikl

liberals. Then he turned from the left to the right and his predecessor in pow'er, General von Schleicher was shot. Finally he purged to death a goodly number of his own Nazi aids. That was something of a record m nonpartisanship of persecution. At the same time he approached evenhanded injustice in his treatment of religion. Though he was more ruthless in persecuting Jews, he soon earned the hostility of Catholic societies and churchmen. Now the Protestant clergy are openly defying him and his edicts —and being jailed, of course. Indeed, the religious leaders have been far more heroic in their defense of the real Germany, and against Hitlerized distortion of Germany, than most of the political leaders. So Herr Hitler is staging what he calls a plebiscite. The object is to prove that his victims love him. This is to be achieved by the simple device of controlling not only the election machinery and secret police, but the press, radio and all means of communication —through which the citizens are being warned in effect that any one who votesj against Hitler is an enemy of the state. In the Nazi lingo an enemy of the state means a person of any age, sex, political or religious belief who is in danger of being taken for a ride. The people of the world may judge Hitler bv such a plebiscite, but they will not judge the German people by it. THE TEXTILE STRIKE A S a prod to the administration to enforce *■ labor provisions of NR A and the textile code, the almost unanimous union vote for a national strike may help. But if the issue actually is allowed to come to a strike two weeks hence, the chances of labor victory are slight. Perhaps that is why the national officers of the union went along with the rank and file demand only reluctantly. Labor has a case. The fact that textile code violations are w idespread seems clear. The 25 per cent cut in production time authorized by NRA last June for a three-month period not only took one-fourth of the low wage out of the pay envelope, but also increased the evil stretchout system. So, although NRA previously had added about one-third to the number employed in the industry, raised the pitiful minimum wage, and enabled the union to multiply its strength more than five-fold, textile labor on the whole still lacks a living wage and a free bargaining power. If thus were a prosperous industry in prosperous times, a national strike might be effective. But it is difficult to see how a national strike can remove the chief barriers to labor’s welfare under present conditions. The three major causes of the present bad conditions seem to be: 1. A limited textile market reflecting general business conditions and inadequate national power. A national strike can not change that. 2. Extreme disparity of conditions within the industry, with some employers dealing fairly with labor and some not. The chiselers in turn apparently consist of two groups; one group of unscrupulous employers and competitors, and another group of companies so inefficient and uneconomic that they can not comply with the code and survive. While local strikes might correct some of these conditions, a national strike would tend to align the good employers with the bad and create a powerful united front against labor. 3. The breakdown of NRA. This is a general condition, not peculiar to the textile code. It has grown progressively worse until the President is now in the process of completely reorganizing the work of code enforcement, especially labor relations. This is a difficult task involving all industries, involving indeed thp future of the Roosevelt administration and national recovery. It can not be achieved simply by a national textile strike. But the danger of this and many other strikes, mast of them growing out of the same failure of NRA machinery, should hasten the President's long-delayed reform of NRA. GOING INTO REVERSE IF the full history of use of the national guard in labor disputes is ever written, not the least interesting chapter will be the one furnished by recent events in Minnesota. The national guard is called out in strikes, generally, to "preserve the peace.” This usually takes the form of camping out around the plant which is the center of industrial disturbance and presenting a hedge of bayonets to all who try to get at the machinery. Since the strikers, in the very nature of things, are on the outside looking in. this usually means that use of the guard cramps the strikers’ plans. Picket lines‘and the like do not thrive under military rule. A factory which is protected by the guard can go on with its production in spite of the angry cries of the mob outside. But the Minnesota case has provided a surprising reversal of the usual procedure. Here we have had the guard, in effect, doing the picketing. A plan to settle the truckmen's strike is proposed, accepted by labor and rejected by the employers. The latter, naturally enough, having rejected the offer, seek to run their trucks as usual. But at this point the guardsmen, called out to maintain public order and keep the peace, begin doing precisely what the union pickets would do if the militia had stayed at home; they refuse to let trucks run at all unless they are being operated under terms of the offer of settlement. Now the use of the guardsmen is always, in theory, impartial. They are not supposed to take sides; they are supposed tofkeep property from being destroyed and to keep heads from being cracked. Usually, because of the circumstances in which they are called to serve, this has the effect of breaking the strike. In this Minnesota case—and it is hard to think of any other case quite like it—things are reversed. The guardsmen's law-and-order activities have the effect of helping the strikers. The whole method of meeting the problem of violence in labor disputes has been turned upside down a precedent has been set. It will be exceedingly interesting to see what comes of it. A dam-minded United States is predicted for the near future by President Roosevelt. A good many Republican ex-office holders nave been minded that way ever since last election.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

This it the flr*t <*f tw article* by Harr* Flmcr Barnet. ph-8.. n the character *f the aetnal Fascist organization* operating in the Inited State* today. nun THE question of whether the United States is bound to go Fascist as an inevitable phase of the terminal stages of capitalism is being warmly debated. In an able article in the June number of Harper's magazine J. B. Matthews and R. E. | shallcrass examine the evidence and poitn out i the dangers. They indicated that there is a decided drift toward Fascism in this country, but denied its coming is by any means inevitable. In the July issue of the American Mercury, George Sokolsky described in more positive fashion the American dnft toward Fascism and concluded that ‘‘the New Deal is in a very real sense the father of all these Fascistic tendencies.” More precise and factual is a report made for ! the American Civil Liberties Union by Travis Hoke on the actual Fascist organizations nowextant in this country. First and most important are the "Silver Shirts,” led bv William Dudley Pelley. Mr. Pelley is a "200 Per Cent American.” son of a New England Methodist minister, and "of uncontaminated English stock.” He was at one time a very successful popular writer for American Magazine, Coliers, Good Housekeeping and the Red Book, earning, he tells us, at one time as much as $25,000 a year. nun IN 1929 he resigned to form the League for Liberation, about which he has subsequently established the Foundation for Christian Economics and Galahad college. Their headquarters are at Asheville, N. C. The chief organ of the movement is entitled “Liberation.” The militant organization which he has founded is known as the Silver Shirts of America—“a ! strictly Christian militia.” The doctrines and purposes of the League for Liberation are compounded of occult oriental mysticism and high-power patriotism. The general flavor of the organization is admirably summarized in the following official statement of its objectives: "Do you know that right here in America there is already a preventive and protective militia long working under cover, called the Silver Shirts, and that its representatives in fortysix of our forty-eight American states are fully apprised of these facts (such as allegations that President Roosevelt is of Jewish descent) and more, some of which would prevent your sleep- ! ing soundly tonight? "Do you know that this strictly Christian militia, the Silver Shirts of America, means to save America as Mussolini and his Black Shirts saved Italy, and Hitler and his Brown Shirts saved Germany—but without our republican i representative form of constitutional governJ ment, if it can be managed?’’ n n n THERE is a close relationship betw’een the Silver Shirts and the Hitler movement in Germany. Pelley tells us in Liberation that he has received a revelation from on high to the following effect: "When a certain young house painter comes to the head of the German people, do you take that as your time symbol for bringing the work of the Christian militia into the open!” Accordingly, Pelley launched the Silver Shirts on the day after Hitler’s rise to power was announced in the public press. If anything, Pelley outdoes Hitler in his anti-Semitism. Pelley holds in specially reverential awe Conressman Hamilton Fish and Louis McFadden. He also was vastly impressed by Dr. Wirt. Os the latter’s revelations he wrote: “The ominous clouds of economic and social chaos which have been curdling blacker and blacker above the nation since October. 1929. parted for a fleeting instant on Friday, March 24. and a shaft of real light reached eyes so blinded by camouflaged skullduggery that they could scarcely recognize what they were beholding. Then as swiftly the servile publicists for the marplots closed that brief cloudrift and a bei fogged and outraged press started to wither the j episode with scorn.” The Silver Shirts have claimed as many as | 2.000.000 members, but it is doubtful if the actual 1 membership exceeds 75.000. Just now the move- ! ment is cramped by the suspension of Liberation.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

LEAN, handsome Jesse Isidor Straus. American ambassador to Paris, dropped into the state department the other afternoon to say good-by to friends before sailing today to resume his post. "Hello, Jesse,” was the greeting as the pleas-ant-faced envoy appeared silently on thresholds, a decidedly Rooseveltian smile on his lips. “I heard you weren't going back to France, Mr. Ambassador,” said an acquaintance, voicing the general rumor. “I sail Saturday,” replied Envoy Straus succinctly. He vanished into the office of Undersecretary William Phillips (just back from the north), to discuss “current matters.” A luncheon at the Carlton, a few talks with friends over a haze of cigar smoke, an interview at the White House with Chief Roosevelt, and Jesse was off for New York , . . and, despite all rumors, Paris. Note—Jesse's visit was a surprise to several friends here. But he is always persona grata, and the hearty echo of tales about "Jesse” lingered in state department corridors for some time after his departure. nun JESSE STRAUS isn't the only diplomat sailing these days. In fact, the difficulty seems to be pick diplomats who aren't sailing for some place. White-haired Ambassador Trucco of Chile, who flew down to his country recently and suffered injuries when his plane crashed, has arrived in New York via the slow steamer route. His son and daughters accompanied him. Second Secretary Senor Don Mario Rodriguez was on hand to greet his chief and escort him back to the capital by train. Charge d’Affaires Jules Henry of France has arrived in Washington after a week's stay in Newport, during which the excellent Jules took occasion to inspect several yachts. A great yachtsman and fond of sailing the briny deep is this Frenchman from the midi, who has often gazed upon the blue Mediterranean. The minister of the Netherlands. Jonkheer H. M. van Haersma de With, has sailed aboard the good Dutch boat Statendam. bound for his native Holland and an audience for his gracious sovereign. Queen Wilhelmina. Former Treasury Secretary Ogden Mills still l continues to cruise along the Atlantic seaboard— I from Narragansett Pier to Newport and back ; again—aboard his yacht, the Avalon. A lot of beautiful blonds have found that they can make more money telling stories to I juries than they can writing them. Private beach: small extra charge for fishing and crabbing, says a summer resort item. But any husband knows he can get the crabbing at home without any extra charge. Considering all the turmoil about shorter | hours, it's a sort of relief to see them steadily going into effect on daylight without the need for mediation. Cities and states owe the United States a total of $1.200.000 000. Couldn't Finland become one of the United States, to set an example? When we read that Vice-President Jack Garner is going on a vacation, we wonder whether he is headed for Washington or leaving there.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

t* yr , Ihe lVl6SS£lge

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so a 7 l can have a chance. Limit them, to £SO words or less.) INQUIRY ANSWERED ON GASOLINE BIDS Bv Curious Why is it that the city has not asked gasoline bids in the last two or three years? In the past it has been customary to receive bids every year. If The Times will have its reporters look into the matter, I am sure it will find some interesting revelations. The city purchasisg agent, I am told, is buying gasoline and oil from a company owned or controlled by a certain prominent street contractor who also gets a lot of street work from the city. Please look into this and “turn on the light.” Edtor's Note—Albert H. Losche, city purchasisg agent, explained that this year the city continued its old contract signed in January, 1933, which provides that two gasoline companies rumish gasoline at 5.8 cents a gallon below the standard price at service stations. When the county asd the postotlice department advertised for gasoline bids this year, Mr. Losche said, the best bid was 3 cents below the service station price. Rather than risk being forced to pay a higher price under anew contract, the old contract was continued, he said. Mr. Losche said he was unaware whether or not any contractors were interested in either of the two gasoline companies supplying gasoline to the city. *a a a SEES JOKER IN HOUSING ACT Bv Circus Spectator. The housing act is another one of those things we are supposed to ■ swallow with our eyes shut. If we , can only be patient long enough j while our economic doctors go i through our pockets, we will come! out of this coma soundly broke. To get a loan, to make repairs to a leaky roof that we had to let get leaky while our pockets were being emptied, we are now supposed to go to a bank to whom we have been perfect strangers for nearly five years, or to a building and loan whose officers had to yell for help to the RFC or the Home Loan bank. This gag is all right for the inside boys playing the “slap me on the back” game. The money ring circus performers will fix up the property now they have foreclosed on. their teammates will do the furnishing of the material and contract the work. The profits will stay close to home. FERA workers will have to keep on holding umbrellas over their leaky roofs, their pay envelopes don’t entitle them to new roofs. Neither do our smart business leaders know’ how to find a productive job” for these “relief cases.” Any way we go we are supposed to borrow ourselves out of debt, the whole relief program is based on more debt, while debt is the cause of the economic collapse. Bassett Jones, engineer and economist. cites figures to show that we have a 300 billion dollar debt in this country with only 200 billion dollars of property. If we can double the debt before we write it off. we can keep on tinkering with housing acts and relief doles quite a j while yet. We have everything to build new things with, plenty of materials

THAT’S A COMFORT

Holds Spending by U. S. Must Continue

By Critic. Much ado seems to be made of the fear that business is supposed to have developed by the spending program of the government. If business had any confidence before this spending program w-as started, there would have been no need for starting the government spending program. It is the lack of spending on the part of business that forced the spending on the part of government. And if business can not resume its spending program, while government is giving it a boost, then government will have to increase its spending rather than decrease it. No responsible government would drop its spending program until business shows its ability to pick up the responsibility. To stop the program before business shows its capacity to go it alone would only aggravate the need for more spending. Confidence to proceed with spending and labor, all we lack is money and with what money w T e have, we feed the politicians in style, the relief men for tinkering jobs and keep the factory wheels moving at a snails pace. Where did our leadership escape from? Who put the joker in the housing act? n n SEES NO REFORM UNDER REPEAL By Crystal Gazer. What did we really so’ve about the liquor business when -he pronibition amendment was repealed? Bootlegging still is prevalent; the j saloons that were not to come back j have merely adopted aliases. The accident toil has increased sharply. Would you say that drunkenness; has decreased with an increased j supply? Is the effect of liquor legally sold less harmful to the victim of alcohol? Ls there no more collusion of law officers, with the spigot twisters, no more bribery, rake-offs, pay-offs or partnership between government and booze? We “saved” our boys and girls I from the booleggers to turn them over to our “nice” rum shopkeepers i Hail the new professors in rum education! nan THINKS BIRDS ARE NOT APPRECIATED By Hiram Lackey Will men or insects be the future masters of the earth? What does it mean to us to learn that there is danger of human life becoming extinct with the passing of bird life? i This problem is disturbing the minds of our great scientists. Birds are an important factor in deter- j mining the success or failure of the human race in its struggle for existence. The success of plans for the protection of birds against their enemiles must necessarily rest on the public attitude. Today, the writer was told by a staff member of The Indianapolis Central Library’ that A. DuPuy’s classic entitled “Our Bird Friends and Foes.” is ready for 1 readers. An enlightened public opinion which DuPuy has made | possible, can and will give to birds their rightful place in the interest of men. If the beauty of plumage and song that strike so harmoniously upon the heartstrings of lovers and poets could be felt by all of us. this old world would drop its mantle of melancholy and burst into a song of redemption,

r / wholly disapprove of what you say and will \_iefend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.]

by business is based on its ability to stand on its own legs. The reverse forces government to do the spending. The contraction of credits by our banking system is steadily going on. as it has since the Wall Street crash. That program means less spending continuously by business. Unless government speeds up its spending program to overcome the contraction being forced by financial institutions, the final outcome will be disastrous. This short-sighted policy of business and finance spells final collapse for all. "Confidence” is not a matter soothsaying, but of action demonstrated by deeds. Less government spending before business shows its backbone, only adds to the unemployment problem, which has caused the spending program of the government. The fear was here before it started and will have to go before the spending can stop. DEPLORES CONDITION OF PRINCIPAL STREETS By Newcomer. Why must Indianapolis, boasted as a town of beautiful homes, have streets on its principal residential boulevards which jolt one into illhumcr and disgust with the city management? At first I was impressed with the progressive appearance of Indianapolis, due mostly to its well-kept and attrac- ; tive residences, but after living here a short while I changed my mind One must drive down North Meridian and Illinois streets. Capitol and Central avenues and Washington boulevard, principal north side thoroughfares, like a drunken driver in order to avoid the ruts and "corrugated surfaces.” nan SEES DISCRIMINATION IN LICENSE SITUATION By A. B. C. We are forced to pay peddler's licenses of $22 a year, then the police allow any one to peddle without a license. This is just as much a law as traffic laws, so why ran t the police have traffic officers asd rr'“ircycle police pick up every t ic without a license? If any one is peddling with soldier’s or sailors liense, the license is supposed to correspond with license on car. Also, push cart peddlers are supposed to have licenses. nun FIREMAN SPONSORS BROWN DERBY ENTRY By a Fireman. To all city firemen: Once a year Indianapolis crowns her most distinguished citizen with the Brown Derby. This year let's put this crown on one of our own fire laddies. I now nominate one you all know and like, John X. Sullivan Come on, you 600 boys in blue, and let's make this selection a landslide for our own Indianapolis fire department. n n n URGES CRUSADE ON SLOT MACHINES B On* Who Know*. Your reporters might be of a great public service by publishing the j names of the owners of the Marion county slot machines. It w ould also ! help guide the voter how to cast his yote.

AUG. 18, 1934

ASSAILS SACREDNESS OF DEBT OBLIGATIONS By Onlooker. The Lafayette Journal and Courier seems to be disturbed over the four and one-half billion-dollar increase in the national debt in the last year. It does not seem to be disturbed over the multiplied debt of citizens represented by fixed charges, such as mortgages, bonds and taxes, where that multiplication is the result of lowered income for wages, rents, commodity price declines and failure of corporate earnings. Bankruptcy of the farmer and business man, also the decreased buying power of wages, do not seem to disturb the country's single track minds. It is no wonder we flounder in social science, if we fail to place our emphasis on human well being, as paramount to gold, leather, shells, beads or any other fake standard. The longer the total debt problem is left to grow, instead of reducing it, the greater the crash inevitably will be. We are as cockeyed about our own internal debts and their sanctity as we are about the foreign debts. Debtors and creditors who do not earn income, upon which rests their ability to pay, are as useful as stoves on the desert. When our antiquated money fetish ceases to be the driving power of industry and it is replaced by “social credit,” which will deliver a maximum of goods to all consumers, we will not be bothered by debts, either pulic or private. In the meantime we are just kidding ourselves over the “sacredness” of debt obligations and feed ourselves hooey and bologna and yelp for relief loans and doles. Summary on Your Birthday BY VIRGINIA KIDWELL After all, we are completely mated. Our love has made us think and feel as one And with desire for each we're never sated; We match at work or rest or having fun. Each year we find our love haul drawn us nearer; Our interests and emotions never pall. Each year our growing love has shown us clearer We are completely mated, after all.

So They Say

I am interested in a social insurance program only in so far as it tends to restore the equivalent of the garden and the woodpile which our industrial readjustment has taken away —Owen D. Young To any one who will work it, the soil will offer a real living.—Harvey Firestone, rubber magnate.

Daily Thought

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. that I might gain the more.—l Corinthians, 9:19. IT is fit and necessary that some persons in the world should be In love with a splendid servitude.— South.