Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 87, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 August 1934 — Page 10

PAGE 10

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AN ECONOMIC COUNCIL THREE years ago when Senator La Foilette proposed the three-foid relief plan for direct federal unemployment relief, national public works and housing programs and a national economic council, it was ignored by the politicians as too radical. Now the first two parts of the plan are in operation under the Roosevelt administration and the third has been taken up by a member of the cabinet. Thus is progress forced by necessity. Agriculture Secretary Wallace, speaking in Rockford. 111., on Sunday, said that a national economic council is necessary to co-ordinate the activities of NRA and AAA and to provide the machinery' for economic democracy. Os course much of the machinery of the New Deal is dedicated to just such economic democracy. But it has not been functioning well of late. Most of the trouble is lack of coordination. The different agencies too often pull at crass purposes. The NRA probably is the worst of the lot in this regard. General Johnson recognized that as early as last June when he made his recommendation to the White House for reorganization. President Roosevelt has sensed this need from the beginning. But co-ordinating is one of tho>e things every one talks about and nobody does anything about. At first the President set up a cabinet committee to control NRA and relate it to othrr government agencies and functions, but the vigorous General Johnson soon was operating more or less as a one-man show Last winter the President established the national emergency council. and more recently the industrial emergency council. The latter at last seems to be getting somewhere —at least with a paper plan of coordination There may be much backing and filling on this most difficult problem before a practicable organization is worked out. but soon or later there will have to be an effective centralized and co-ordinated agency, representing not only the government, but also the diverse interests of farmers, banker, business man, consumer, and laborer. Political democracy without economic democracy is no democracy. MARK TWAIN’S NEW DEAL COLUMNIST F. P. A., illuminating the controversy over the origin of the term New Deal, quotes this from Mark Twain's “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”: “And now here I was. in a country where a right to say how the country should be governed was restricted to six persons in each thousand of its population. For the nine hundred and ninety-four to express dissatisfaction with the regnant system and propose to change it would have made the whole six shudder as one man. it would have been so disloyal, so dishonorable, such putrid black treason. So to speak. I was become a stockholder in a corporation where nine hundred and ninety-four of the members furnished all ihe money and did all the work, and the other six elected themselves a permanent board of direction and took all the dividends. It seemed to me that what the nine hundred and ninetyfour dupes needed was anew deal.” SAVE NATURE IT was a most attractive photograph. It showed a wild waterfall, toppling over a rocky ledge and foaming down into a gorge whose banks were covered with virgin timber. Everything in view looked, presumably, just as it did centuries ago. before there was a white man on the continent. The paragraph of printed matter that accompanied the picture said that this watertall was on the Tahquamcnon river in the upper peninsula of Michigan. A movement was aioot to turn the region into a state park, it was said; and then came this sentence—“the place is difficult to reach at present, but a highway will be built to the falls if the park is O. K.d.” And while all of us who like to go places by auto would be glad to have one more beauty spot put within reach of our summer tours, it occurs to us to wonder ii we aren't overdoing this business of putting roads into the wilderness, just a little. A good part of the charm of some of these wild spots is their isolation—the fact that they are not only unspoiled, but that they are so hard to get to that people don t get a chance to spoil them. We have built so many roads in the last decade that it is hard to think oi any beauty spo f which the casual motorist can not reach. And while this is. m the mam. an excellent thing, we might reflect that once you make a wilderness thoroughly accessible, it ceases to be a wilderness. There ought, m ether words, to be some areas which can'; be reached by car; spots which one must penetrate afoot, or with a pack horse, if one is to see them at all, and which contain no tourist cabins or general . stores. Let there be a few prizes for those' who are willing to rough it. a few bits o! wilderness which w e never can see ll we aren t game to park the car and hike a bit. A recent editorial in Nature Magazine stressed this very point. It remarked acidly that there are people who won't be satisfied “until the crest cf every mountain range is scarred by a skyline highway or scenic boulevard.” and it pleads for preservation of some wilderness area in their natural, roadless state. This doesn't mean that we must stop making mountain and forest accessible to the auto. It u simply a reminder that we can build too many roads, and that if we do we shall rob ourselves of something very much worth preserving.

LET THE NAVIES STAND ALL the naval experts are predicting stormy weather for the big naval conference to oe held next year. The existing naval ratios for England. Japan and the United States come up for revision then, and it looks as if the parties are going to have a hard time agreeing on anything. Japan wants a bigger navy; more exactly, she wants the right to build on a basis of equality wtih the United States and England. And these two nations have no intention of granting that wish. Naval authorities have to build their fleets in the expectation of war, of course. But an ordinary, landlubber of a civilian could be pardoned for supposing that the existing arrangement, which makes war improbable, is almost ideal. Why? Simply because, as these three navies now stand, no one of the three nations is strong enough to risk a fight on the other fellow's home grounds. American naval experts are just about unanimous in the belief that the American fleet could not successfully prosecute a war in Japanese waters. The Japanese navy is smaller than the American, to be sure; but distance counts heavily in naval strategy, and the Japanese fleet is so strong and so wellbased in its own waters that no American admiral would dream of attacking it there. The same thing is true of England and Japan. Any fleet that England could put into the western Pacific would be almost certain to be whipped by the Japanese fleet. It is also true of the United States and England. . Under existing conditions, neither of these nations could conduct offensive operations of real magnitude in the other’s waters. And, finally, the Japanese fleet could not hope to carry on war to the United States or to England, in event of trouble with either country. All this being so, why isn’t the present situation almost ideal for all parties concerned? Each nation is so strong defensively that she hardly need fear attack by either of the others. As long as that is true, there isn't much chance that any two of the three will go to war. Nation's don't declare war unless they figure they have a good chance to win. And how are you going to figure that way when you know in advance you'll have to stay at home to do any effective fighting? DEMOCRACY MINUS BOUNCERS AITISDOM prevailed when the California " * state convention of the American Legion voted down a resolution censuring Madame Secretary Perkins for not being more aggressive in deporting alleged Communist aliens. In the nick of time, the convention learned that since the United States has not yet negotiated an immigration treaty with the Soviet government. Secretary Perkins hasn’t the power to send Russian radicals back to Russia. Most of the men who seventeen years ago risked life to “save the world for democracy” —not to mention liberty and freedom —are not now joining in the shout for tyranny. Ours is a democracy that draws its strength from within. It is something more than a bouncer. RELIEF FOR TEACHERS 'T'HE new federal emergency relief administration educational program is a good example of intelligent planning. More of our relief operations should be of this productive character. Forty thousand teachers, cither on or dangerously near the dole, will be put to work doing the things for which they have special training. They will conduct literacy classes and nursery schools. They will give vocational and other training and guidance to unemployed adults. The direct benefits to the 2.000,000 persons who are to be helped, and the indirect benefits to society, are so obvious that few will question the long-range wisdom of the plan. Not the least important feature of the program is the new lease on life that this productive employment will give to the teachers. Few, if any, other professions have suffered as much from the depression. Nor is there much promise of improvement in the near future. De"bt-burdened municipalities and school districts have cut to the bone. More than 200 000 teachers are unemployed. More than 2.000 rural schools failed to open last year. More than 40.000 rural teachers last year earned less than SSOO. The average salary of employed rural teachers was $750, or $22 more than the blanket code minimum for unskilled industrial labor. The average salary of city teachers was $1 416, or $350 less than the average four years ago. Teachers deserve better treatment from a democracy based on popular education. THE PENSION HURDLE TT was to be expected that the railroads would take the new employe pensions law into court. Social progress of this type is seldom achieved without fighting every inch of the way. Perhaps a court battle is the best thing that could happen at this time. If this legislation is unconstitutional, the sooner we find it out the better. The administration has promised to lay before the next congress a broad program of social legislation. Old age pensions md unemployment insurance for workers in all industries are the objectives. And it is important that congress get authoritive legal guidance as to how this can best be done. If the courts find some constitutional flaw in the rail pensions law, congress can take care not to make the same or similar mistakes when it enacts the broader legislation. If a satisfactory legal method for providing greater security for all workers can be found, railroad labor probably will not begrudge the delay necessary to blaze a clear trail through the courts. A man in Spokane. Wash., made a violin out of 39.000 toothpicks, yet he'll go on picking the strings with his fingers. The latest kind of contract bridge eliminates the dummy, but still permits your partner to play. MUSbolini has "purged” the Fascist party of twenty members for insubordination, and all he did was expel them, the sissy. It won t last forever, but our idea of "splendid isolation” these sweltering days is a moth in a Kansas overcoat.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

Thi i the second of two article* by Harry Elmer Barnes. Ph. D. on the character of the actual Fascist organizations operating in the t'nited States today. ana IN my column Saturday I called attention to the origin, nature and strength of the socalled “Silvert Shirts” or “Christian Militia” led by William D. Pelley of Asheville, N C. There are a number of lesser shirts enlisted in the American Fascist movement. In 1931 the Crusaders for Economic Liberty were organized by George W. Christians of Chattanooga, Tenn., who probably excels even Pelley in his talents for appealing to the discontented masses. The militant branch of his Crusaders are known as the “White Shirts.” Christians wishes to set up a dictatorship to destroy the gold standard, repudiate the public debt and punish political grafters. The insignia of his White Shirts is indicative of the ideals of the organization: “They shall wear white shirts with a large red Crusader cross on the front middle, and with small crossed American and red Crusader flags on the left breast, the White Shirts denoting the purity of our purpose; the red Crusader cross denoting the religious significance of the Crusade; the American flag, patriotism; and the red Crusader flag courage and sacrifice.” The procedure envisaged by Christians Is admirably summarized in the following paragraph from his “general orders,” “The first objective should be to take control of the local government in the following manner; march in military formation to and surround the governmental buildings. Then, by sheer numbers and a patriotic appeal, force the officials to accept and act under the direction of an economic adviser appointed by the president of the C. F. E. L. This adviser’s first duty will be to repudiate the public debt and utilitize the payments assigned thereto for the public welfare.” a a a GRAFTING politicians are to be dealt with summarily but fairly: "Dishonest officials should be immediately brought to justice . . . Great care should be exercised so that the situation does not get out of control and some poor, muddle-headed but honest politician get hung without fair and legal trial.” The most militant of all shirt organizations to date have been the Khaki Shirts led by General Art J. Smith. They derive their inspiration primarily from Mussolini, rather than Hitler. Among Americans they are most fond of Congressman McFadden, General Smedley D. Butler and Huey Long. They once started to march on Washington with the plan of looting armories on the w r ay and installing Mr. Roosevelt as dictator. The “march” was disrupted in Philadelphia when a patrol wagon of Philadelphia policemen dispersed the “army.” Smith boasted that he had an army of 1,500,000. When his encampment was stormed at Philadelphia only a few hundred were discernable and all of these were generals. The high command seemed to be ample but the rank and file had failed to rally. General Smith is now serving a sentence of from three to six years as a result of a perjury conviction in connection with the murder of a youthful anti-Fascist by one of his overzealous generals. n n tt \ MONG the lesser organizations are the White Legion, organized in Alabama to repress Negro radicalism; the Gray Shirts or “the Pioneer American Home Protective Association,” designed to protect and preserve the sanctity and safety of homes owned and maintained by its members; the United States Union of Fascists, organized by a New Jersey Italian war veteran and drawing heavily from the former supporters of General Smith, and the Order*of ’76, whose mania is fingerprinting everybody they can get to submit and who are vehemently against the Jews and bankers. Finally there are “the Dress Shirts,” leaders of whom are Seward Collins, who publishes the American Review, and Lawrence Dennis and Harold Lord Varney, who edit the Awakener. These are Fascist publications and appeal primarily to the silk hats. Dennis and Varney make a special play for Republicans, but insist that the only way in which the present Republicans can come back into power will be through abandoning the Republican party and forming a frank Fascist organization. v All this might sound very much like a contribution to high humor were it not for the fact that we can profitably reflect that Mussolini was a ludicrous joke in 1919 and so was Hitler after the ignominious failure of his Munich putsch a decade ago. At that time Hitler's followers Vere less numerous than the members of one of our lesser Fascist organizations like the Order of ’76.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

LINEN-SUITED, wearing a checkered tie and his beaming smile, Butler Wright, newly appointed American minister to Czechoslovakia. called last week on the equally smiling President Roosevelt. Purpose of the call: To say hello and goodby to the President, before leaving for Chicago. He sails Sept. 12 for Europe. Emerging from the White House. Envoy Wright disclosed a pertinent fact about Uruguay, where he has been American minister for three years. "There isn’t a bug in all Uruguay,” he declared. Leland Harrison, former American minister to Sweden, resigned his post in Uruguay after writing the state department that "the flies are too dreadful.” "I go where I'm sent,” boomed Envoy Wright. "I like South America. I like Uruguay. Now I'm glad to go to Czechoslovakia. I know I’ll like it. Funny, though, isn't it—being sent from one end of the world to the other?” He trudged off valiantly. 0 o*o SECRETARY OF STATE HULL, wearied with work, has departed for a short vacation at his summer place near Winchester, Va. He left the task of entertaining the imperial Japanese prince and Princess Kava to his undersecretary. social-minded Bill Phillips—who relishes few things more than a cup of tea with an imperial prince (unless it be two cups of tea). Mr. Hull, affably taking leave of the capital, was quizzed about his holiday plans. “What sport are you going to indulge in, Mr. Secretary? Will it be fishing?” “Er—yes—fishing,” replied Secretary Hull, “and—croquet.” NOTE—The report at the state department is that Mr. Hull can beat any of the cabinet at croquet, by at least a wicket. nan INTERESTING news from Chile—interesting to the many friends of Don Benjamin Cohen, Chilean diplomat, interpreter, liaison officer extraordinary, former charge d'affaires, etc. Ben Cohen, who just left Bolivia where he went on special mission, has been robbed of diplomatic documents and all his money by the international thief, "El Chico.” The theft occurred on the express between La Paz, Bolivia, and the Chilean town of Antofagasta Ben was en route to Santiago, thence to sail for the United States. He long has been due m Washington. Police of three South Aemrican countries are on the trail of “El Chico,” most notorious of the “rateros” <petty thieves) on the Pacific coast. His activities range from Guayaquil to Valparaiso. and he has been jailed in Santiago. Ben's friends are rooting for his capture. A famous movie star couldn't get into an airplane, to fly east recently, because her hat was too big—her hat, not her head. Some yachts carry cannon for their sunrise and sunset shots: on others they manage to get along with cocktail shakers.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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- /r . f / wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 He lVLeSS<3j?e [defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so a’t can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) n * a ABOUT BEING PAID FOR NOT RAISING HOGS By a Reader. , The following letter, which is supposed to have been written by a farmer to an agricultural experiment station, may be of interest: “Dear sirs: ‘‘l have a friend, who has a friend, who has just received a government check for SI,OO0 —for not raising hogs. My friend now prepares to get a farm and go into the business of not raising hogs. Os course, my friend will need a hired man and that is where I come in on the deal. “I am w'riting you for some information as to the best kind of a farm not to raise hogs on, the best kind of hogs not to raise and the best way to take care of the hogs I do not raise. Do you think capital could be provided by issuing nonhog-raising gold bonds “My friend's friend, w'ho received the SI,OOO. received it for not raising 500 hogs. Now I figure that we might easily not raise 1.500 or even 2,000 hogs, so you see that the possible profits are only limited by the number of hogs w’e do not raise. Any information you can give me will be appreciated.” nan DECLARES GOVERNMENT STINGY PAYMASTER By a Veteran Administration Employe. An editorial in The Times of July 27, captioned, “An NRA Test," stated, among other things, that the case of L. Grief and Brothers Company, Baltimore, is a clear cut test of the NRA and asks, “Shall sweatshop wages become the American standard?” Continuing, you commented that upon the outcome of the controversy between NRA and this manufacturer depends, to some extent, the future l of workers and civilized employers to establish wages above the bare subsistence level. How can the government justify its action in lifting the Blue Eagle from the Grief company because it reduced wages, but not below the $14.50 weekly minimum, while the United States veterans administration is paying some of its hospital employes, hired under the New Deal, $10.56 for twelve hours a day, six days a week, after deductions for board and room, both compulsory for New Deal employes. Those hired prior to the New Deal are not forced to pay for rooms unless they choose to occupy them, and they also receive a higher rate of pay for performing identical services. Possibly General Johnson has been too busy with the Grief company case to inquire into the working conditions of the veteran in the veterans administration. I am sure if he were aware of the existing condition he would “crack down.” PIE COUNTER FLOURISHES UNDER NEW DEAL By Recorder. The new Republican national magazine calls attention to the pie counter policies of the Roosevelt administration: the old party hacks are getting into the public crib regardless of their qualifications. The • paytrioteers” are.not inter-

THE ONLY DIRECTION HE KNOWS

Boycott Favored as Labor's Weapon

By a Laborite. Senator Wagner, finding that the strike wave is costly to labor and capital, indicates that strikes are not the most effective weapon for dealing with reactionary employers. New weapons aimed at the profit of employers, not to decrease them, but to add to them, the patronage of organized labor in return for recognition of his employment of organized labor, and fair dealing in matters of wages and conditions of work, would be much more effective than strikes.

ested in serving the country; their fellow countrymen are honor bound to support these public leeches. The administration is collecting a dead weight of barnacles that will force it into dry dock for a scraping. The administration was given command of the ship of state to pull the nation off the sandbar on to which it had been driven by the gang that preached and practiced rugged individualism. The New Deal is supposed to give us a change from the anarchy of the tooth-and-claw tribe. The public cribbers are first cousins to the rugged individualists who propped up their business with federal aid. 000 URGES IMPROVEMENT OF CHRISTIAN PARK Bv H. B. I have been a constant reader of The Times and I am interested in the Message Center. But why stop to say this much, when there are other things of importance rather than rapping the slot machines, and beer joints? Christian Park is a place where we could have something worth while, but can not get it. I am interested in the building of the park for athletics and understand there is a petition in the hands of the mayor and park board to that end, but there is no action. They can use money for the building of boulevards for a square or two around the park, without an outlet, but we can not have a baseball diamond. 000 DOUBTS VALUE OF MILK AS FOOD By a Widow. I never have a drop of milk, much less ice cream like my neighbors who live on charity. I knew 7 a family on a farm when I was young who had eleven children. Not one ever drank milk; all j drank black coffee, from the baby up. All were given whisky toddy when sick. The youngest of that family is about 37, and the oldest is about 64. They never are sick; every one of them still living. 000 j “SNEAK COPS” BRANDS SOME POLICEMEN By a North Side Citizen. Instead of apprehending criminals, as is their duty, it seems that at least a part of the Indianapolis police department has stooped to petty things, usually considered far below the activities of gentlemen. For instance, a few nights ago two burly patrolmen, riding about in their city-supported squad car, came abreast of a high school lad trying to earn a little spending money by making bicycle deliveries for a north side drug store. They bullied him

The economic patronage weapon is the least used, but most effective in bargaining collectively. What retailer would turn down coldly a proposition to recognize his organized labor group in return for the patronage of a solid block cf 20.000 or 30,000 patrons? If the contract is not attractive enough, the workers could counter with opening their own retail establishments and buy from manufacturers who are not so foolish. Let’s see some real labor leadership for collective bargaining.

until he was scared to tears by informing him that unless he provided his bicycle with a headlight, a tail light and a license, he would be arrested, taken to jail and fined. The same police made a campaign a few nights ago by placing stickers on automobiles parked, without tail lights, in front of private homes and near theaters. While not denying the fact that such parking is outside the strict interpretation of the city ordinance, why is such parking permitted for a year, only to have an arrest order come suddenly? It seems to me that the chief might find pursuits for his policemen which would be more productive of results of benefit to the people of Indianapolis than that of “sneak cops.” a a a WAXES WARM ABOUT BYRD'S COLD TRIP By Fair Play. I would like very much to know why Admiral Richard E. Byrd is taking a trip to the South Pole at government expense? I well can understand why he would want to go away, after drawing a pension from the government and at the same time fighting the veterans’ cause through the Economy Leaguer After getting all the unpleasant notoriety mast any one would want to hide out for a while. The officials at Washington seem to be on a spending spree with government money. I thought living under Republican rule was awful and was elated at a change—but now a lot of we Democrats are wanting another change. With the New Deal’s price fixing, control of crops and destruction of hogs to bring prices up and persons dying from want of food; attempting to set up a dictatorship and General Johnson with his bullying is enough to make a Republican of most any Democrat. HINTS HAPPY FAMILY ISN’T SO JOYFUL By A Times Reader. The public is being fooled. I suppose the dear public thinks that the Real Silk Mills are once again “one big happy family,” and to further this prevailing, although mistaken, notion “Papa” Goodman is spon-

Daily Thought

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.—Matthew 23:25. IF satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has.—Colton.

.AUG. 21, 1932

soring a big picnic at Riverside Park today. The employes, who are not getting enough hours of work to keep a family, are being forced to take the whole day off, and although it isn’t compulsoiv to go, the good old E. M. B. A. has printed questionnaires to check up on who is and who isn’t. Prizes of about SI,OOO are being offered, but the average wages of the knitters who walked out on strike for the last two weeks has been around sls a week. Another interesting item about dear old Real Silk. The knitters were given a 5 per cent raise on their return to work, supposedly because of bad silk, but in truth as a pacifier, and then in a few weeks, the re-knit girls w’ho refused to strike were faced with a cut in w'ages. They raised such a row that they didn't have to take it. But the same little seamers w’ho stood up so staunchly for the dear old E.M.B.A. during the strike, not to mention the loopers, are now’ receiving pink slips, or in other words notices of layoffs. That’s a sample of Mr. Goodman's gratitude and how well he keeps his glowing promises. And another thing. You shou'd see the boarders these hot days. But it s your job if you mention how hot it is in the boarding department or how many girls faint. So my dears, if you see the b:g happy parade—oh, yes, there is even to be an attendance prize for those participating in the parade, don t be fooled and don't say I didn't warn you. The majority of the Real Silk employes are far from contented. Mr. Goodman still doesn't seem to realize that loyalty is something beyond his purchasing power. No, my dears, I am not one of those who had the courage to walk out on the strike. I am one of the poor saps who worked.

So They Say

Fascism is the only thing which prevented Europe from being plunged into a war like the one of twenty years ago.—Sir Oswald Mosley, British Fascist leader. We will have peace in Austria as long as Germany lets us have peace.—Dr. Heinrich Mataja, former Austrian foreign minister.

IN MEMORY

BV RUTH PERKINS Under the pressure of thousands of days I walk weary, loaded, in lavender skirts, My room is kept neatly and all of my ways Are precise—no one dreams how this calm order hurts. Rebellion is needless, one always submits, And besides I have no reason left any more. Like a smooth chiseled cog every still hour fits, Since someone has thoughtlessly closed the last door. In lavender skirts and red paint on my lips, I drearily climb over days to a year. With flashes of dreams slashed and cold finger-tips. And the lilt in your voice as it fell on my ear.