Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 97, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 September 1934 — Page 6

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SATURDAY. SERI f. J 34 LABOR DAY IT is ironical that this Labor day will find the nation scarred by widespread unemployment and industrial strife. From 8 000 000 to 10,000.000 workers are Jobless. The cotton textile strike beginning tomgnt and involving some 400 000 men and women in thirty-one states, the woolen strike of approximately 150.000 more, swell the total of strikes to a figure Jar in excess of any in recent years. B' :de these major walkouts there are upward of 100 smaller ones. Behind this unhappy picture, of course, lie grave e'. ils in our economic system. But more to the point is the fact that the vast New D* al me chan., m the government developed to establish industrial justice and maintain peace seems to have failed so far to do either. The admini. t ration and congress have taken a year and a half to build this elaborate bulwark against industrial chaos.. They did it not out of a of justice only, but because it was axiomatic that recovery could not be won or sustained without high mass purchasing power. They were backed not only by the workers and general public, but also by most employers. Why is it, then, that at the time when its services for prevention, for adjustment, for enforcement are most needed, the NRA is engaged in bickerings and personal politics? Why is it that the National Labor Relations Board, with its otherwise spendid record and its great decision today in the Houde collective bargaining case, should have delayed in meeting this larger crisis? Why, with all its powers, has tin* government been so futile in enforcement? Labor day 1934 is a challenge to the government and to Americans generally to make our New Deal work. We have the laws. But we need wise and courageous men to enforce them. With forthright compliance and enforcement. Labor day next year can be a happier occasion than today.

THESE GROWN-UPS [From a column called "Mugwump Musings.” by Marion Filet, in the Concordia (Kan.) Rladc-Fmpire.] QINCE a pretty young student at the University of Oklahoma died in her effort to avoid maternity,, and since murder charges have been filed against the boy who was her lover, the papers have been full of pious editorials about the wages of sm. And of*course *he sin under discussion has been that of the two young people who loved one another. Nothing has been said about the sin of the parents or the sm of society. At least nothing was said until the boy's father himself broke down in the extremity of his grief and confessed that the blame was partly his because of his attitude of uncompromising intolerance toward his children. “I should have told them to come to me when they got into trouble," he said. But they weren't told to come. They were told to "stay out of trouble or stay away from me.” And so a boy and a girl ran terrible risks to avoid something which they had been taught to believe was a disgrace. They were old enough to know that they were taking risks. But they knew also that their parents were hard and that society is cruel. They were desperate. So desperate that they tempted death. It's the old tragedy. One sees it so often and so intimately in the small community—among mere children, high school boys and girls and college freshmen. And when the curtain is rung down one hears the same refrain: "Poor children! Why didn't they come to grown-ups for help?” Well, one grown-up at least has had the courage to answer that question. Poor children indeed! Why should they ever come? Have these grown-ups been so wise and kind as to have invited the confidence of youth? Has a society dominated by grown-ups been so tolerant? Suppose that so-called "erring” youth should seek the counsel of its elders, what would it find? A mind paralyzed by fear and poisoned by notions of original sin. It would be met with tears and reproaches and threats and anguished cries, until verily one would think that the birth of a child was a major calamity. Too often youth turns from the coun.-el of the aged with its wings clipped, its dreams sullied and its banners furled. Small wonder that it doesn't seek the counsel of the aged any more. And besides, youth which is baffled or hurt never turns to a befuddled mind for guidance. An unerring instinct saves it that last indignity. And what must youth think of the social mind which raises monuments to wholesale slaughter and looks with hoi*ror on one life begot in love? What must it think of the mmd which laughs at the cowardly, abortive phiiandenngs of the middle-aged and which frowns on the clean daring of young love? Small wonder that youth, like Juliet, too often looks to the tomb for sanctuary from the stiff-necked prides and the idiotic prejudices of grown-ups. It is not a very* flattering commentary on civilization when youth will risk death rather than face the hard eyes of virtue. But perhaps it is a wise choice after ail. Perhaps the parent earth which holds anew year shamelessly in her deep womb is kinder than these grown-ups. THE M’GI’FFEY “WARBECAUSE onions, and not autos, textiles or shoes came out oi the fields of McGuffey, 0., a labor war there has been allowed to exceed all reasonable bounds and endanger life and property. Because these fields were remote country jynil, rather than krbau industrial areas, the

government’s labor conciliation machinery has been slow in moving in, or has moved in only perfunctorily. Now the labor department has a delicate and dangerous situation on its hands. The onion fields are desolated and harvest probably will mean little. A strike leader h.-s been kidnaped, beaten severely, and threatened with death if he returned to the onion marshes. The home of the mayor of McGuffey has been bombed. There have been sluggings and other violence. Armed "vigilantes lean toward mob rule. There is even more ready belligerence now than at any other time during the dispute, which has gone on for three months. Where once the issue was between two sides, the strikers and the empioyers, now strike breakers represent still another front with which conciliators must reckon. It’s time for the government to act, and the action must be decisive. Agrarinn warfare in the fields of Hardin county threatens to become as bitter as anything that has been seen in industrialized cities. The government's immediate problem is to top violence, and, if possible, to place responsibility for the disturbance which has gone on all summer. But it must go further. It must study the whole industry to determine whether it ever can be an economically sound industry, as it is operated today. Child labor wages of 8 cents an hour can not be reconciled with what we have come to know as the New Deal. In theory, at least, mere shacks for homes, and overalls for Sun-day-best clothes are supposed to be anachronisms. Ana yet they are found at McGuffey. And because strikers have asked for more, there has been trouble. Perhaps the owmers can not pay more, as they say and still stay in business. Perhaps it may be found that, in onions at least, America's "garden spot” is uneconomic, and maj have to be turned to something else. This is the problem the government faces. Its study must go deep, if it is to count for anything. The difficulty has become too aggravated, and feeling too bitter, to make any cursory action effective.

DEPRESSION AND 3IISERY TT is easy to glib about the victims of the A depression; easy to say airily that jobless men can live on their savings if they have been prudent, can get help from relatives, and can, all in all, "get along somehow.” But it is a little different when you take a close-up look at things. , Such a look is provided in a study just completed by the United States department of labor. The department's experts investigated the cases of 1,000 representative railway employes to see what happens to a wage earner when hard times come. These workers took a general 10 per cent wage cut in February, 1932; but short time and loss of overtime work already had reduced their pay very materially, so that during the four years of the depression half of them had lost as much as 30 per cent of their incomes. In 1932, for instance, two-thirds of these 1,000 men earned less than $1,500; only 18 per cent got as much as $1,750. Meanwhile, many family burdens increased. Fully 200 of the 1.000 workers took jobless friends or relatives into their homes. Alany other made regular gifts of cash or groceries to needy families in their neighborhoods. So what happened? To begin with, savings had vanished. Nearly all these 1,000 families used up their bank accounts; half of them had to sacrifice their insurance policies. In 115 families, all with small children, the daily supply of milk was reduced. Thirty-two families cut off their milk entirely. Nearly all the families cut down drastically on their purchases of butter, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables. Health was neglected. In nearly a third of the 1.000 families one or more members required medical attention, but could not afford it. Teeth were neglected. Requests from school authorities for dental or medical attention were ignored repeatedly. Lodge, club, and church memberships were dropped. In 135 families all subscriptions to newspapers and magazines had been canceled. Many of these people reported that they had not even seen a movie for years. As one man put it, "when Sunday comes, we just sit.” Tins, then, is a picture of the human cost of the depression. It is worth remembering that these 1.000 families were far better prepared than most to meet the depression, and suffered much less than the average. But the picture is. nevertheless, an appalling one. It is, as the labor department experts remark, a picture of “a slow retreat from relative security toward destitution.”

' WHAT WILL RESULT? '"P'HE national air races, where the fastest planes and the most daring fliers in the land are put through their paces before a vast crowd of spectators, remind one. somehow, of the jubilance of a child playing with a fine new toy whose full use he has not quite discovered. That, as a matter of fact, what modern aviation itself is like. The air races simply bring its chief characteristics into focus. These planes are masterpieces of skillful design and construction. The short, stubby racers, the graceful gliders, the sturdy, broadwinged transport planes, the grimly beautiful machines of the military services—these are artistic creations, in a very real sense, supremely fitted for what they are supposed tc do The men who fly them, likewise, are artists. They have taken a brand-new craft, made their own precedents, and developed their own skill. In so far as an incalculable element like the air can be mastered, they have mastered it. And yet. when all this is admitted, there remains the fact that we are still a little bit foggy about the uses to which we shall put these fine planes and the men who fly tjiem. We have here an instrument which is completing the job of shrinking the world down to pocket size—a job that began when men discovered the principles of clipper ship construction, continued with the steamship and railroad train, went still further with the telegraph and telephone, and came down to date with the automobile and the wireless. But while we have set up far-flung transport lines, and used the airplane to bring remote spots in the arctic and the tropic closer to civilization, we spend too much of our energy in developing the plane as a war machine.

An invention which brings all nations

closer together has served chiefly to make war far more horrible than it ever was before. Instead of increasing our neighborliness, it has increased our fears and suspicions. It has even made us accept the fact that in future wars we shall visit death on women and children, and not Just on fighting men. All this, of course, is in no sense the fault of the men who build and fly the planes. It is the fault of humanity everywhere—humanity, which solves the secret of flight and then uses its new knowledge to make the world a mbre dangerous place than it was. CONFLICTING POWERS of the oddest conflicts within the machinery of the New Deal is coming up for settlement just now. The administration is pondering the overlapping fields presided ever by the NRA and the federal trade commission, and it is hinted in Washington that these two bodies eventually may be combined. The federal trade commission is a body set up to see that industry be kept from making large-scale combinations that might be against public policy. Its theory dates straight back to the old anti-trust days. The NRA. on the other hand, holds that a large degree of industrial combination is both necessary and wise. Thus, naturally, there has been a good deal of conflict. It is high time that it be straightened out. The government can hardly fight combination with one hand and help it with the oiher. HIGHWAY WARNINGS VTEW JERSBY authorities, aroused by the rising toll of traffic deaths, are trying to impress the dangers of reckless driving on the minds of motorists by painting white crosses on the highways at spots where accidents have occurred. This is similar to the stunt Ohio once tried —putting up a wooden cross by the roadside at the scene of every traffic fatality. It was a sound and logical scheme, although for some reason Ohio has since given it up. A little reminder like that is bound to have a sobering effect on the not-too-careful driver. When you have passed three or four little w-arnings, like that, in the course of an afternoon’s drive, you automatically pay a little more attention to your driving. FAULTY FIGURES "O EPUBLICAN and other critics have atAN. tacked the two Richberg recovery reports on the ground that the statistics quoted are inadequate and unco-ordinated and therefore of little value. The point is exceedingly well taken. But contrary to w'hat the critics infer, the fault is not Mr. Richberg’s. It is a standing evil in our governmental methods. The Roosevelt administration has improved government statistics somewhat, but they still are so incomplete and unreliable as to be almost worse than useless because they often are so misleading.

Liberal Viewpoint —BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

r T"'HE New Deal prophets and statesmen of our day may derive inspiration from past prophets of reform. How true this is well brought out by Miss Ida M. Tarbell in an article on “New Dealers of the Seventies” in the Forum. Miss Tarbell had a long and honorable record as a crusader for justice, having been an eminent member of the noble band of muckrakers who tried to infuse some idealism into the United States at the turn of the century. More recently she departed widely from this role and saw fit to eulogize the late Judge Garry and Owen D. Young in biographies glowing with fulsome praise. But the depression seems once more to have kindled the old. fire within her. She tells of a recent experience: “Stepping out of a cab at the Grand Central station in New York last winter. I looked into the eyes of a boy of 18, with a decent intelligent face. Shivering in thin clothes, he solicited clients for his shoe brush. “It was the contrast of the boy and his background which rooted me to the spot. “Behind the huge plate glass window in front of which he stood, a gay pyramid of baskets piled with rare fruits and rarer sweets and bedecked with multi-colored ribbons reared its brilliant and costly self. I knew the price of those baskets. That boy w'ould not make in a week as many cents as the dollars the window behind represented.” Miss Tarbell now finds her heroes no longer in the steel trust or the public utilities game. She tells us rather of the services to humanity and reform rendered by Henry George and Edward Bellamy who tried to point the way to a better day on the heels of the great panic of 1873. a a a WHILE Henry George always reflected a quasi-pioneer perspective and never thoroughly adjusted himself to the facts of modern industrial capitalism—knew nothing indeed of that finance capitalism which is the key to the modern economic order—he did make the century conscious of the evils arising from the private absorption of socially-created land values. Even friendly critics are pretty generally agreed that Mr. George was far abler as a courageous crusader against privilege than as a formulator of an adequate program for the future. Few broad-minded commentators regard his program—the single tax—as an adequate solution of our economic ills. It is a fine plank rather than a whole platform. Bellamy oy no means matched Henry George as a social critic, but he far surpassed him as a suggestive and realistic social planner. His "Looking Backwards” is one of the few sweeping and inspiring proposals for a New Deal set forth in the literature of American social reform. Li Mr. Bellamy’s eyes there is only one way out, namely, supplanting the many great private business corporations by one vast and all-inclus-ive corporation, the Great Trust, or the government of the United States. This is his prediction : ana “In a word, the people of the United States concluded (about 1935) to assume the conduct of their own business, just as one hundred odd years before they had assumed the conduct of their own government, organizing now for industrial purposes on precisely the same grounds that they had then organized for political purposes. “At last, strangely late in the world’s history, the obvious fact was perceived that no business is so essentially the public business as the industry and commerce on which the people's livelihood depends, and that to entrust it to private persons to be managed for private profit is a folly similar in kind, though vastly greater in magnitude, to that of surrendering the functions of political government to kings and nobles to be conducted for their personal glorification.” In his later book. "Equality,” Bellamy outlined his scheme for training citizens to undertake the responsibility of administering the One Great trust. If private capital continues to insist upon sabotaging the New Deal it is quite likely that Bellamy's proposals will be found to have a practical import as well as historic interest for today.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so a’l can have a chance. Limit them to £SO words or less.) a a a SOME CONSIDERATIONS OF PRISON CONDITIONS By Mrs. William Myers. I have read so much in The Times of prison conditions. I have a keen interest in this great work and read every bit of it. My heart goes out to imprisoned men and women. In so many cases, they are young men who have risked their lives to get money to keep up with a fast set. After all, sin is to blame. I don’t know anything about prisons, but I do know this—these men are restless. They never can be reformed unto peace. They will have to be regenerated. I so often have wondered how much room is given to God’s work in our prisons and who brings God's message to these men. Is it a spiritfilled soul who has a love and passion for the souls of men, or is it someone who is paid to do his little part? I think the prison question is one which the nation should be ininterested in. I am in favor of better and bigger prisons, with plenty of room for churches which preach repentance and let these men find rest in Jesus. God’s forbearance must never be mistaken for laxness in government. There can be no love of God and no forbearance of God that is not also just.

CAPITALISTIC BRANDED AS REAL DEVIL By Charles Burton. Capital punishment should not be administered, if at all, except to a murderer whose guilt has been established to the satisfaction of the great majority of the persons in the community of which the accused is a part. If William II really was the devil behind the European war in which 30,000.000 young men lost their lives and if Thomas Mooney really was the devil behind the San Francisco explosion in which ten citizens lost their lives, a punishment of death might be urged with much show of reason as a special necessity, but if both were hung on the same gallows, the world would go on suffering by the ever recurring and closely related misfortunes of war and riot as if nothing had happened. The real devil behind all war and riot is the capitalistic system. There never will be an end of war and riots until this devil is overthrown. Just now the human part of the world is especially afflicted by un necessary and therefore unjustifiable deaths. The Governor of California, should save Thomas Mooney, the revolutionist, as Pilate the governor of Judea, according to the verdict of all right thinking men and women, should have saved Jesus, the revolutionist. MINIMUM CHARGE* FOR CURRENT ASSAILED By W. H. Richard*. The minimum charges made by he Indianapolis Power and Light Company constitute a gigantic grab. Thousands of patrons of the company are paying each month for current they do not use. or in other words, are paying a rate of two or three times what it would be if charged at the kilowatt rate for the current consumed. I have looked over the bills for the last six months for my small shop, where I have two small motors, neither of which run anything like full time. The bills show that the

The Message Center

BUT LOOK AT THE RESULTS

Taxes and Old Age Pensions

By J. W'ilson White. Agitation for reduced taxes begin again with consideration of budgets. Farmers are owners of land and the land is worth more than he will need during life. Any man who pays high taxes has something worth a great deal more than he needs to live on, and any good farmer does not need to suffer for food if he is industrious and thoughful to plant the seed that makes all kinds of food, as well as corn for hogs and cattle. But in calculating profits he does not count in what he eats. As to the man who has nothing but his hands to labor with and poor as Job's turkey with only one feather left in its tail, it takes all that he can make to get by. How much have wealthy farmers ever helped the poor? How many farmers and real estate men are willing to suffer with a little emergency tax to get the old age pensions started to help the old and helpless men and women that have no way to live, and no one to help them live?

current consumed in six months was j sixty-nine kilowatt hours; the charge each month was the mini- \ mum; discounts off, of $2.14, making a total of $12.84 paid to the company, or at the rate of 18.3 cents a kilowatt hour. In justice to the public, the minimum charge should not be allowed and the company should be required ] to collect only for the current actually used. Even then, the rate of 7 cents for the first fifty kilowatt | hours is enough to yield a big profit according to reports of costs of electric service in many places where the plant is publicly owned and operated for the good of the community. It is time the public awoke to the practice that is being carried on by public utilities and demanded social ownership for service to the people without private profit to a lot of idle owners who do nothing useful. A wave of enlightenment is sweeping over the country and next fall there will be a mighty vote cast for Socialism, the only thing that can get us out of the mess that the greed of profiteers have plunged us in. a a a JOINS ATTACK ON COURT BROADCAST By Disgusted. I listened to the broadcast of the traffic court proceedings this week, and heartily agree with the letters that have appeared in your paper recently. I was surprised to learn that the courts could use so little judgment in disposing of minor traffic cases. It was an easy matter to predict, when each case was called, what the verdict and fine would be. “Three dollars and costs and I’ll suspend the cost for ya,” was the usual hasty decision. Regardless of the type of violation, the fine was the same. While the cab drivers usually are accused of reckless driving, whie'h I believe is often unjust, one can not help feeling sorry for the way they are treated in traffic court. I know’ their incomes must be very meager, and still fines are meted out to them without any consideration. It is unfortunate that Indianapolis must take the blunt end of such a publicity stunt. And still, as long as such proceedings are taking place, the general public should

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

Offiials cry for high salaries in times like these when thousands of men are only making a small amount of money for food and rent each month. These officers are getting high and steady salaries the year around. They should consider the poor men that voted for them who are now struggling to get by. Helpless old age seems to be unnoticed by politicians in making speeches. I have heard none mention it. Thousands of voting old pension applicants with their relatives and friends, aggregating thousands of Indiana voters, have their eyes open to see if there will be any cutting in the old age pension budget. The old age pension law should have first attention. The eyes of real estate men are watching the budget adjusters and so are the eyes of thousands of the voting friends of pension applicants. The days are ending when the words of a political boss like D. C. Stepenson can be law in Indiana.

know about it. Asa letter in your paper said today, it helps the public to appreciate real justice when it sees it. a a a ADAM, EVE AND "NO MEAN CITY” By Mrs. Clara Mick. I am very much interested in the Message Center. From it one can judge what people think about. One man w’rites that he thinks the Chamber of Commerce is to blame because Indianapolis doesn’t grow. I say if every one would sw'eep before their own doors first, and do unto others as they wish others to do unto them, this might be “an all right place” to live. But Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake, so that makes Indianapolis a bad place to live. Yes. in Chicago everything is cheaper than here—not only beer. ana ABOUT ROBINSON'S MILITARY RECORD Bv James F. Walker. Replying to The Fighting Soldier and Carl C. Reeves, will state that L'il Arthur's war record is somewhat like his record as a senator, a rear admiral, always in the rear out of notice, and admiraby despised by every one. He must have been in the signal corps also, for his performance on the platform, waving his arms and hands bellowing about the Constitution is evidence that the perfection was gained wig wagging signals in the army signal corps. His veterans bunk is an idea to prepare for a raise in pay, because after next January it will be his only source of income. You state you was once a Democrat. If you ever was, you should be one now. for we have for the first time in history, men in state and national offices, men who have tried to do something for the under dog. This is evidence conclusive that neither of you ever voted the Democratic ticket in your life, for any normal 5-year old child could understand, or examine the records of the two parties and determine which one has represented the masses, and I suggest that you look this up and you will find no Democratic Governors in the prisons and none that stood on the statute of

.SEPT. 1, 1934

limitations to keep out of a cell, no Tea Pot Dome grab or Mellon billionaires in the Democratic party. As for Arthur he is just another one of the birds of a feather that will flock together like the rest of the birds did in our last national election, never to be heard from again. a a a PUTS SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SLOT MACHINES By H. C. This blow-up about slot machine operation in and around Indianapolis and elsewhere in Marion county is sickening. Time? goes along for a few Issues and starts to tell all about things of this sort and claims that reporters make investigations and find nothing. If the above is true concerning The Times reporters’ investigations, then let me advise you that your reporters are blind men or they make false reports to the paper. Seventy-five per cent of the people of Marion county can state truthfully that there are slot machines in 98 per cent of the beer joints and barbecue stands. The police do nothing about it. Why? Because they are instructed not to molest certain places where slot machines are in operation. Why? Will The Times tell? They know. Ask Buck Sumner and Chief Morrissey.

So They Say

The immutable law of the ordered life of human society is the law of good will.—Dr. Clarence A. Barbour, president of Brown university. My slogan is work, and only through good work for the welfare of your country can you demonstrate your loyalty to me.-King Carol II of Rumania. This is not an alibi, but I feel that with generations of show folks back of me, the theater is my natural heritage.—Ethel Barrymore Colt, daughter of Ethel Barrymore. Boston is the only place where they speak the king's English in a way it can be understood in England.—George Cukor, film director. The German people turned me out, and if they want me back they will have to come and fetch me.— Ex Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany.

TO EVE

BY EUGENIE RICHERT You, like the older Eve, Coming to grief, Have not a refuge left. No shielding leaf. Mourn that lost innocence, Splendor so brief. Startled, young, aimless feet, All the world lies Ready to roam in. What’s Paradise? Even bland apples may Hold a surprise. r Under a tree at night, You will find rest— When you forget again Love is not best; When you recall Adam’s head at your breast. Eve. there are places yet Sweet for reposing. * Find them, and then forget Heaven's gates closing.