Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 98, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 September 1934 — Page 4

PAGE 4

The IndianaDolis Times <a iCRim-Hontui KiwsPArr.Ri ROT W. HOWARD PresHDot TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Butloeis Manager i’hoaa Riley STAI

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Give Light and ski People Will find T hrtr o<ni Roy

MONDAY SEPT. 3. 1334. A NEW ERA of Labor day has had a dull gray tinge. In recent years, due to the unpleasant fact that the spirit of earnest toil which the day is supposed to commemorate hasn't been getting much chance to exercise itself. It has been a little difficult to put on a good, old-fashioned Labor day celebration at a time when millions upon millions of erstwhile wage earners were out of work, had been out of work for mon’hs and saw little chance of being anything but out of work for months to come. Now it would be very nice to report that Labor day of 1934 is different from its immediate predecessors in that unemployment has practically ceased—nice, but untrue, because, unfortunately, unemployment is still very much with us. We can say that things are somewhat better than they were, and that the future is pretty encouraging —but. meanwhile, the American Federation of Labor estimates that there are something like 8,000.000 man who want to work but have no jobs, and the federal government continues to spend millions of dollars every week for unemployment relief. However, we can say one more thing, and by saying it can help to make Labor day far more significant than it has sometimes been even in eras of high prosperity. We truthfully can say that the depression years have taught us to reassess our old ideas about the place of labor in organized society. We have learned that the community is not healthy when labor is not healthy; that unemployed workers mean trouble for farmer and banker and industrialist and whitecollar worker; that wc are all. in short, in the same boat, and that none of us will get along properly unless all of us are getting a fair break. Once we fully realize this—and we are a lot nearer to its realization than we have ever been before—the way will be open for labor to travel a much smoother road than it has traveled in the past. There will be less exploitation and more fairness; less class antagonism and more co-operation; less aimless drifting and more progress along the road to a broader, luller richer life for every man which is the essence of the great American dream. ATOP MT. FORAKER A STUDENT and two professors, returned to the outer reaches of civilization in McKinley Park. Alaska, telegraph news that they scaled the twin peaks of Mt. Foraker. Braving a subzeio blizzard, they climbed through deep drifts of new snow to three mile summits. It was no afternoon outing, but required . several weeKs of scouting, cautious advance and the establishment of six base camps. Standing where no human ever stood before, the trio perhaps gazed through the clouds toward the twin crests of nearby Mt. McKinley, 3.000 feet higher, and marveled at the fortitude of the Lindley expedition which ascended to those summits two years ago. Or perhaps they thought of the dozens of hearty fellows trying in vain to conquer that highest of peaks, Mt. Everest, on the other side of the world—and dreamed that they might succeed. We who like the comforts of steam Hfeat in winter and refrigerated air in summer can only speculate as to their thoughts and sensations. Theirs are the hardships and dangers, the thrills and glories. We are the softies. We stay home and do the work. PARDON MOONEY NOW! Unfortunately, but inevitably, the Mooney pardon case has become a partisan political issue in California. The refusal of that state's courts and five governors to right the 18-year-old wTong have made it that. Upton Sinclair, Democratic nominee for governor, made the pardon a campaign issue when he wrote to Mooney early in August: ‘T am publicly pledged to pardon you as my first official action.” Mr Sinclair won with nearly 400.000 votes. Mr George Creel, who polled a large vote, also was understood to be friendly to a pardon. The primaries proved how foolish is the claim that a pardon would be unpopular. Governor Frank Merriam. Republican nominee. can take the case out of politics once for •11. A pardon application is before him. It will deg his candidacy for re-election unless he acts promptly and favorably. He can take the case out of politics by an act of belated justice. MACHINE WAR EUROPEAN strategists believe that the next war will be a war of rapid movement. with trench warfare almost obsolete and with the infantry occupying a secondaryplace. Italian experts say their recent army maneuvers show that assault by fast tanks and swiftly moving shock troop detachments will break any trench line and force the fighting out into the open. British creates its first permanent tank brigade. France studies the movement of troops by airplane, and American authorities agree that trench warfare is probably a thing of the past All this reflects the force which new inventions are exerting. The whole science of warfare seems about to swing on one of those pivots which human ingenuity provides every few centuries, and while weapons are becoming ultra-scientific, the military art itself may be reverting to the conditions of bygone generations It is possible, that Is, that we are going back to the relatively small, highly professionalised army such as was the vogue for centuries prior to the French revolution. For a long, long time before that, the mass

army which depended on sheer weight of numbers for its triumph was practically unheard of. Even the largest nations had small armies, by modem standards. Military science was formalized and intricate. It took years to create a professional soldier; once created, however, he was Invincible to all opponents except those as fully trained as himself. Then came the French revolution, and the application of conscription. Time and again the French defeated better troops by the simple process of overwhelming them with numbers. The art of war changed. Armies grew enormously. Numbers became more important than professional skill. This condition lasted to the present day. But the tide began to turn several years ago. The machine gun gave one man the fire-power of a company; the airplane became more potent than the cavalry regiment; the tank acquired the hitting power of a brigade. The result has been to lessen the importance of mere size. As things are now, the strength of an army depends on its equipment and training, not on its size. Because of this it may be that we never shall again see armies as gigantic as those of the World war. Apd that, in its turn, would mean that the frightful mass slaughter of 1914-1918 would not be duplicated. PARIAHS IN LAW J 7 ARLE W. EVANS of Wichita, president of the American Bar Association, deserves the thanks of the country for his ringing demand that the bar institute a vigorous campaign against the crooked lawyer. “The lawyer criminal,” he declares, “is an offensive creature, usually found in the large centers of population, who advises clients how to commit crimes with the minimum risk of detection.” This is true enough; and it might be added that seme of our most dangerous lawbreakers would have been jugged long ago if unscrupulous lawyers had not been willing to use any and every means to keep them out of jail. Such lawyers, of course, are numerically an insignificant group in the country’s bar. The things they do, however, have a farreaching effect. It is good to see that the head of the country’s bar association is alive to tne harm they do and is determined to stamp them out. HIGH COST OF STRIKES IF you ever have doubted that the strike is * the most expensive way of settling labor difficulties, you might scan the figures presented by the Minneapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce, dealing with the recent truck strike in that city. The truck drivers themselves, in wages, lost $575,000. Employers lost, in diminished business, $20,000,000. Taxpayers, through the calling of the national guard, had to foot a bill of $450,000. In addition there were deaths, injuries, much property damage, wage losses to thousands of workers not directly involved in the dispute, and the loss of much business, some of which will never return. All this makes a pretty heavy bill for a community to pay. Almost any kind of peaceful settlement would have been cheaper than that, in the long run. “GNAWING AT THE VITALS’* I RENEE DU PONT, one of the founders of the new American Liberty League, has amplified somewhat the vague statement in the league charter in favor of upholding the United States Constitution. According to him, the league was necessitated by "the continual gnawing at the vitals of the Constitution, both by change of interpretation and by giving fictitious names to unconstitutional acts so as to make them appear constitutional.” Os course the only agency that has power to interpret the Constitution is the supreme court. Many liberals insist that the supreme court has usurped legislative function in making law r through interpretation and the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Is it possible that the conservative American Liberty League is trying to get rid of or restrict the supreme court, historically the chief bulwark of our government? Probably not. And yet. at what can the league be hitting for “continual gnawing at the vitals of the Constitution” and for “change of interpretation.” if not at the supreme court? Assuming that the august members of the supreme court are gnawing at the vitals of the Constitution, just what can the American Liberty League do about it? The only apparent answer—besides agitating for abolition or restriction of the court —is to subsidize better lawyers to present property's case before the court. But that would seem far-fetched since property always has been able to command pretty fair talent. Most of the justices of the supreme court were once lawyers for corporations, and any prejudices they may have are apt to be on the side of property. Yet even this supreme court recently has held that “the Constitution does not secure to anyone liberty to conduct his business in such fashion as to inflict injury upon the public at large, or upon any substantial group of the people.” Again the court recently has held, in the words of Chief Justice Hughes, that “the economic interests of the state may justify the exercise of its continuing and dominant protective power notwithstanding interference with contracts.” But. the American Liberty League may protest, this "radical” legislation is dangerous. To which the supreme court already has replied, through the chief justice. “Whether the legislation is wise or unwise as a matter of policy is a question with which we (the court) are not concerned.” By anticipation the supreme court also has ruled out of court the complaint of Mr. Du Pont of the Liberty League as to “change of interpretation” of the Constitution. The conservative chief justice in the recent Minnesota case held: “It is no answer to say that this public need was not apprehended a century ago. or to insist that what the provision of the Constitution meant to the vision of that day it must mean to the vision of our time. If . . . •t is intended to say that the great clauses of the Constitution must be confined to the interpretation which the framers, with the conditions and outlook of their time, would have

placed upon them, the statement carries its own refutation. “It was to guard against such a narrow conception that Chief Justice Marshall uttered the memorable warning—‘We never must forget that it is a Constitution we are expounding—a Constitution intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.’ ” So this "continual gnawing at the vitals of the Constitution,” which the Liberty League hopes to stop, was started by the arch-conserv-ative John Marshall himself and is being carried on by Chief Justice Hughes and the present court—only they have not described the life-sustaining process by such harsh words as Mr. Du Pont. The chances of the Liberty League stopping that process are exceedingly slim. That creates a dilemma for the league: On the one hand, It can not stand the conservative supreme court gnawing at the Constitution; and, on the other hand, it dare not restrict the powers of the supreme court over legislation because congress is much less conservative and property-minded than the court. Perhaps the Liberty League will decide soon to forget about the Constitution so long as nothing can be done about that, and concentrate on its self-imposed task of combating radicalism in congress, in the administrative agencies of government, and in the country. This in itself is a pretty big job. without taking on the supreme court and the fathers of the Constitution. PERFECT, IN THEORY TT will be interesting to see whether the Ontario legislature puts through the “antiransom” law suggested by Attorney-General Roebuck. This official would have the police given authority to close the bank accounts, seal the safety deposit vaults, and otherwise supervise the finances of kidnaped persons and their relatives. The idea of this, of course, 'would be to make the payment of ransom impossible; and in theory, at least, it is a sound program. It is perfectly obvious that if you make it impossible for a kidnaped man’s family to pay ransom, and apply the rule without fail in any and all kidnaping cases, you are going to take ail the profit out of the crime—which, of course, means that it will presently cease to exist. , The practical obstacles in the way of such course, however, seems pretty big. It will be interesting to see whether the Ontario authorities are able, first, to get the law passed, and, second, to make it work. BREAKING A POOR CUSTOM TV/TRS. HENRY T. RAINEY, widow of the 3-”-*- late Speaker of the house of representatives, announces that she will not be a candidate for election to succeed her husband—thus reversing the tendency which had become more and more noticeable in recent years. In a great many cases, congressmen who have been removed from public life by death have been succeeded by their widows; and in some instances this simply was reflected in a wave of sentimental sympathy on the part of the voters. Such elections do small service to the cause of good government. It would be a bad thing if we came generally to accept the custom of putting widows in the line of succession. Mrs. Rainey does us a service by refusing to help establish that custom—although she herself, having served as her husband’s secretary, and knowing politics thoroughly, is better qualified than most women to take a place in congress.

Liberal Viewpoint —BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

TF ever an occasion demanded the giving of light to the people of the United States, it is that presented by the newly-formed Liberty League, especially in connection with its pronouncements upon property. The first apparent absurdity is the implication that President Roosevelt and the New Deal have done things to date which place private property in jeopardy. No charge could be more preposterous. Mr. Roosevelt has not threatened private property, nor is there any indication that he will. At the most, it can be said that he has made some feeble and halting efforts to check evert thievery on the part of predatory finance. He has, to be sure, spent a good deal of public money for the relief of the needy, but this Is really a protective measure, so far as property is concerned. It has reduced discontent and held in check potential violence which might have actually assaulted property. His New Deal presents at least a gambling chance of saving the system of private property for another generation or so. Any really shrewd and sagacious devotee of property interests would woop it up for Mr. Roosevelt and urge him to move a little more to the left. n n TJUT the most devastating humor In the whole situation lies in the type of men and interests identified with the Liberty League and its iormation. If the stockholders in American corporations and the investors in American mortgages’ had come together to form an organization to preserve private property, there would have been some logic in such a movement and one could have had some sympathy with it. But when men like Mr. Davis and Mr. Miller lead off in a crusade to protect private property, one can hardiy contain his guffaws. These men are representative corporation lawyers who have devised the various ways and means whereby management has been all but completely divorced from ownership in the control of important American business corporations. It is here that we come upon the most systematic and extensive effort at legalized pilfering in the whole history of jnankind. An increasing amount of American investment is embodied in corporate securities. A few super-corporations are coming to control American business life. There are more than 300.000 business corporations in the country’, but the 200 largest control approximately one-half of the total business of the country. a u o IT is rare for the governing group to own as much as 10 per cent of the capital stock of the corporation. One of the greatest of these corporations is controlled by a single man with an investment of literally one-tenth of 1 per cent of the capital stock. In a situation such as this, there is a simply perfect imitation to gut and rob the concern from the inside rather than to manage it efficiently in the interests of the stockholders. No wonder that Professor Ripley could write in 1932 that “A multitude of people—a horde of bewildered investors—has little left in the world but ashes and aloes. These are all that remain of the precious fruits of years of self-denial and of hard labor. A raid upon the thrift in industry which lies at the very roots of our orderly civilization and culture has bepn, and still is, under way’.”

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

*1 r-~' DEM 5. . I-.- "• I

The Message Center

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make pour tetters short, so a’l can have a chance. Limit them to tSO words or less.) tt tt si EDITORIALS LAUDED WITH SOME RESERVATIONS By Hiram Lackey. To the author of “Drive Them Out” and “The Sinclair Sign”: Because of the worth of your editorials, I find joy in writing letters of praise to The Times. But I like better to offer you a higher compliment, the one which is reserved for men who are above the petty things. I like to tell you how an important group of your readers actually think and feel. In your editorial, “Drive Them Out,” your indignation is righteous. But will not your fine work and spirit appear in a nobler and more effective light if it be seen in the essence of “Let not your right hand know what your left hand doeth?” Surely, an institution which is worthy of so many grateful friends as is The Times can find no just excuse for exposing itself to the charge of boasting or praising itself. It is the function of our friends to do for us those things which we can not do well for ourselves. As devoid of honor as those hardboiled gamblers, politicians and officials may be, can we, with wisdom, entirely ignore this rule of common sense? “Never permit others to realize that you are controlling them. Tactfully allow them to believe they are free from outside influence as they obey your commands.” We must not fall below the Communist's standards of psychology’. Because of the significance and excellence of your second editorial, it deserves first place. In “The Sinclair Sign” you attack the cause. It is no exaggeration to state that the importance of this fight tends to make the first editorial appear ridiculous by comparison. But why did you not finish it? Why did you not give your genius its way? Why did you not give the people hope and courage? Remember your statement, “Our troubles begin and end at the polls.” Then with all of the nobility of unselfish service, write with this spirit. “Give them liberty or give them death.” a a o CHARGES “FIXING” OF TRAFFIC CHARGE Br A Times Header. It seems funny to me but I guess it's all right. Last month I was stopped because of a lost front license plate on my automobile. I ; was told to appear in court. I went : and it cost me a S5 fine. Then a truck owned by a large company was stopped for the same thing, and the driver was told to appear in court. The day he was to report a north side official called the company plant and said not to report; it was fixed, and not to,worry. My wages are from 50 cents to $1 a day. The driver received S3 a day, yet I paid my fine and he didn’t. Os course, it wasn’t the cops fault because he did his duty. a -a a VOLUNTEERS DATA ON SLOT MACHINES Br M. R. Emdrem. Why all this hullabaloo about one slot machine operator, when other and larger operators are not being bothered? Why raid only one club where this operator s machines are, when lodge halls, recreation clubs and other fraternal and semi-fra-

ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE FAMILY

Considers EPIC Plan Better Than New Deal

By Midwesterner. Upton Sinclair’s EPIC plan to abolish poverty in California will be a more interesting experiment than the New Deal. The reactionary forces of a labor smashing regime, which has grown in arrogance since the Mooney frameup, have at last compelled a coalition of the oppressed workers. Labor conditions in the imperial valley are as bad as peonage. The San Francisco strike settlement, forced by using officers tu strike breakers, has not made the settlement permanent or satisfactory. Those who branded labor leaders as public enemies in the general strike, now view with alarm the proposals of Sinclair to abolish poverty. Poverty is a necessary evil to maintain the special privileges of the workers’ exploiters. The constitutional rights of labor to life,

ternal organizations still possess machines? Asa matter of fact, a church on the east side, whose membership includes one of our police officials, also has these machines in the recreation room. A well-known beer tavern on Ft. Wayne avenue, the ownership of which is vested partly in a high police official whose automobile is seen parked frequently in front of the place, has moved machines to an upper floor. That these machines are in use is common knowledge around town. A tavern operated by a brother of a deputy sheriff and situated close to The Times office boasts of protection and has three machines which receive quite a play. It seems that machines identified by the letter “H” stamped in a wooden part are not being bothered by the police, which is an indication that this so-called slot machine war is nothing more or less than the powerful operators putting the smaller ones out of business. The public knows that The Times knows more than it has published about the slot machine racket and it is entitled to know everything there is to know about it. At any rate, why crucify one slot machine operator when a dozen other and larger operators, who also have machines, are not being bothered? a a PSYCHIATRY SUGGESTED FOR CURBING CRIME Bt B. R. O. Recently in an article you made reference to the use of psychiatry in prisons in New York. An epidemic of escapes and the desperation of some of the criminals should not blind us to tne fact that many others in the hands of competent psychiatrists, could be made useful members of society. And if they can be, what is the sense in the state supporting them behind bars and thus adding to the cost of government about which so many are yelling? It is known, for instance, that the firebuy usually is a person suffering from a compulsion neurosis which can be cured like a physical disease. Many thieves are kleptomaniacs, whose trouble is neurotic in origin. In many instances it can be cured. A failure to cure these curable cases means a tremendous waste in public funds and in manpower. Those who look upon all criminals as desperate and incurable, and whose ideas of punishment reflect their Neanderthal past,

[/ wholly disapprove of what you say and will] defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

liberty and happiness, are mere fiction to the property rights of Liberty : Leaguers. It certainly would alarm the stuffed shirts to find their under dogs taking away the royal authority of forcing poverty upon labor. The New Deal program of doles to those who have been scrapped in the production for profit line by the masters of industry is far from being enough. If Sinclair gets permission to establish the bountiful life for California workers, then 1936 may see a real New Dealer in the national picture. Perhaps Roosevelt will be forced to move for the establishment of industry as a source of bountiful living, instead of scarcity and poverty. The old order may howl until doomsday; the new order is building skids for the special privilege group.

will of course pooh-pooh such an idea. But it is working in a prison which has many desperate criminals, and whose system is one of the most modern, Sing Sing. One should at least reserve his criticism until he has read a few good books on the subject, such as Bousfield's “Outline of psychoanalysis.” Psychiatry will be employed more and more in prisons over the country, when Indiana catches up she will have a staff of competent psychiatrists as a regular part of her system, it will be cheaper than feeding dozens of curable cases in jails, and cheaper than running down those who escape with their psychic twists unaltered. a a u RURAL PICTURE IN URBAN FRAME By a Times Reader. If any poor children in this city, as in many of the large cities, have not had the joy of having visited the farm, there is no longer any reason why the privilege shoQld be denied them. They merely have to travel north to Forty-second street, then to a section between Fortysecond and Forty-sixth streets and from the Monon railroad east to the Lake Erie railroad. There will be brought to the view of youthful eyes a vast region known as Cherrypatch to the older natives. As youth strolls down the dusty road, there is blown to his sensitive nostrils on the early fall breezes, the sweet aroma of a horse stable near by, mingled with that of the little building that stands by itself. As he Hinders toward the outhwest part of this region, he will see herds of cattle, sleek and fat, grazing at ease at some native’s back door. As his eyes sweep the ! horizon, there will be disclosed to his view a number of goats frolick- ; ing and bleating noisily in the afternoon sun. He may hear the report of a shotgun as some husky farmer boy j blazes away at a flock of black-

Daily Thought

But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. —Acts, 8:20. ONE spade of gold undermines faster than a hundred mattocks of steel.—Lilly.

SEPT. 3, 1934

birds in a cornfield not far away. As he stops and leans to rest against a city water plug, his attention is drawn to the familiar scene of a work-worn farmer bringing his tired team home from a day of toil, W'ith his barking dog running at his side. He will be delighted to see flocks of chickens and ducks picking their way through the dusty clover along the roadside. Such is farm life in Cherrypatch. tt u a SARCASTIC SORROW FOR BANKERS VOICED By S. D. With the announcement of the bankers that they will increase the charge for small checking accounts, I would like to suggest that all small depositors pay all their bills with one-dollar bills. The banks will have to handle the money anyway, and it is my opinion that the great increase in the flow of currency will require just as large a clerical force as the handling of checks. I feel so sorry for the poor bankers I a a tt TRAFFIC COURT ON RADIO CONDEMNED By Another Listener. I want to compliment “A Radio Listener” for his letter to The Times, expressing his views, which incidentally are mine also on the traffic court broadcast. I have listened many times to the proceedings and have wondered why such broadcasts are pernftitted. As the writer of the letter pointed out, it seems impossible for the defendant to obtain a fair trial w'hile the proceedings are broadcast, because there is no doubt but that the decisions are for the effect they have on the listener. The decisions are given too hastily, with too little time for concentration on the seriousness of the offense. I’m in favor of ending the broadcasts.

So They Say

Fred Perry is a great tennis player, but he can be beaten. I’ll stop him at Forest Hills, unless someone else beats me to him.—George Lott, United States tennis star. Few people in this country speak the English language correctly. Consonants are disappearing from our speech in favor of vowel sounds.— Cecil De Mille, motion picture director. A radical is not born. He is created by the abuses which exist about him. —Father Charles E. i Coughlin of Detroit.

Light Loves

BY RUTH PERKINS I love a gay poplar, A light laughing poplar, Whose tinkle and Jangle is sw’eet, In silver-green fashion Beneath the wind's passion Its music is lovely and fleet. I love a wiiite birch tree, A slender white birch tree To grace an inconsequent hill, Its dances are maddening, Inspiring and gladdening. Its fluttering hands never still. But. ah, more than each Os these I love the beech, So staunch and so grey and 0 tall. Oh, I love a poplar, t A birch and a poplar, f But I love the beech best of aJL