Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 100, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 September 1934 — Page 8

PAGE 8

The Indianapolis Times (A nemrPs-How*nn sewrAi'r.Bi ROY W. HUWARI) . Prelil*nt TALCOTT row ell Editor EARL D RAKER .... Boilmh liuipr on# Rl!x W 1 BUrotwr of United Pren vrlpt'i • Howard Ntatptptt Alliance. N wi>* per Entcri>rl Aaaoctatloo. .[.*t>r Information Berrien and An--lit Baman of Circulation* Owned and publlabed daily (except Mnndarl by Tbe Inlianapolia Tltncn Pohllabln* <*ompaay. 214-220 Went Maryland afreet, ladlanapolla Ind Price In Marlon coonty 2 -enta a copy: elsewhere. A ~nta ■■ Retire red be .artier 12 ca-ee at*ui -enta a week Mall anhacrlp*fon ra’ca l Indiana *3 a Vie# Lvjhi ga (ft* rear: otitaid** of Indiana. W> _ *enfa a month **op*e IF I4 fiaa i hew Own Wop WEDNESDAY. SEPT 5. IM4. HOOVER, CONSERVATIVE ( RITIC HERBERT HOOVER has written a book attacking the New Deal. He calls it The Challenge to Liberty.” Part of it is published in advance in the current Saturday Evening Post. It is easy enough to reply to Mr. Hoover with wisecracks. After all he is like the badly defeated general who is taken out when the army is in retreat, who returns to And another general regaining the ground he lost and then proceeds to lecture his successor on how it should be done. So Mr. Hoover knows tnat he Ls a target for Jibes. The fact that he rocs ahead, and voices his criticisms just the same, is an evidence of courage. Nor can his pronouncement be ignored as an outpouring of personal spleen. On the contrary the published portion is singularly free from personalities or bitterness. It does not have the marks of comeback campaign oratory. Mr. Hoover writes as one who sincerely believes in the old order, and who feels called upon to warn the nation against its passing. He does not do the Job very effectively, especially because he is confused in his own mind about liberalism. He thinks he is defending liberty. "Liberty" Ls a large wordmost politicians and political economists, from the extreme Tones on the right to the Communists on the left, point to it as the goal of their conflicting systems. But the issue of government in a democracy is how to achieve the much discussed largest liberties foi the largest number. Mr. Hoover believes in the kind of liberty which existed in his administration, which worked out in actual practice as freedom for the few and bondage for the many—bankruptcy bondage. debt bondage, breadline bondage. Most Americans, after the disastrous experiment with the old order in which Mr. Hoover still believes, prefer to trust their liberties and livelihood to the New Deal experiment We share that faith of the majority But it is an experiment. As such it is subject to trial and error. If it is to work, the errors must be detected and corrected. Hence the need for critics, particularly conservatives who are super-critical. That is the function Mr. Hoover seems to have taken upon himself. and it is a legitimate one. If the New Deal can not profit by criticism and survive its critics, it is not worth as much as we think it is. # GENERAL EVA T OOICALLY, the Salvation Army at its London meeting chose Miss Evangeline Booth as its new general. Daughter of the army's founder, she personifies its spirit. Since girlhood she has worked to reclaim the untouchables. Along with her songs and sermons have gone warm food and clothing for the hungry and ragged. Os course, it is not enough to reclaim miserable individuals while the society that made them miserable is unreclaimed. But even under a regenerated society there will be need for personal help and friendliness. Here is one army and one general every nation hopes will win. HIGH COST OF MONEY PURSUING its intelligent experimental * method, the administration did one thing after another to restore normal, credit. It built up an enormous machine of potential credit inflation, lifted the banks back to their feet, established a deposit guarantee system to obviate the need of liquidity and steamshovekd in the taxpayers' money to encourage lenders to lend and borrowers to borrow. Some of these experiments obviously are not working. For about a year, bank loans have b**en declining steadily, and in recent weeks there has been a discouraging evidence of a general recession in private business and employment. In view of charges that one of the reasons for the failure of credit to circulate is the excessively high toll exacted by creditors, the time appears npe for this open-minded administration to take a fresh look at the record. The farmer, through the farm credit administration and subsidiaries, can get money at 5 per cent to refinance his mortage, at 7 per cent to produce new crops and at 4 per cent to hold his cotton or com off the market. The urban home owner, in distress, is charged 5 per cent for a Home Owners Loan Corporation mongage. The home owner, borrowing for repairs on an unincumbered house, may be charged up to 9.7 per cent for a loan from his bank insured by the federal housing administration. (The nominal rate is 5 per cent, but because the borrower has to pay the interest in advance on the whole um and repay the principal m installments, the real interest can run up to 9.7 per cent.) The housewife, living in a community with reasonable electric rates, may purchase electrical household appliances on electric home and larm authority installment credit with real interest averaging about 10 per cent. Industries, denied credit by load banks, may borrow "at the rate prevailing in the community"—generally 6 per cent—from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation or from a federal reserve bank, on adequate security. Railroads pay 5 and 54 per cent to the RFC for operation loans, and 4 per cent (interest free the first year) to the public works authority for improvement loans. Cities, counties, school districts and states barrow construction loans from the public works administration at 4 per cent. Bar,ks and mortgage companies can borrow the RFC at 4 per cent and then re-lend

this taxpayer!' money to the taxpayer so, 9.7 per cent, as in the case of housing. The government is trying to persuade the citizen to make use of high interest loans. Will the little man borrow at such rates? Can he afford it? Before the administration goes much further in its consumers’ credit program it will have to get the answer to these questions. A NEW STUNT 'T'HE most Interesting stunt that will be tried in Germany this winter will be an attempt by the Nazi authorities to persuade everybody that it’s nice to be hungry. Germany faces a terrifically difficult winter. The economic crisis gets graver. An actual shortage in certain food supplies is foreseen. The raw materials on which many of Germany's greatest industries depend can not be obtained, because Germany has nothing to use for money to buy them. 80, facing a season of want and hardship, the Hitler government is preparing to meet it in anew way—by persuading people that tightening your belt is great fun. The opening guns in this strange propaganda campaign already have been fired. The bad economic situation is being blamed on the errors of Hitler’s predecessors in office and on the hostility of "certain international cliques" outside of Germany. After this will come great broadsides extolling the virtues of endurance and selfsacrifice. A tremendous barrage of oratory, billboards, and newspaper articles will glorify Uie Spartan ability to do without things. Germany will be sold, if the energetic Nazis possibly can accomplish it, on the idea that a winter of extreme hardship is only anew challenge to patriotism. Now this is interesting, not simply because Herr Hitler is going to try to make an asset out of a great liability. Its real significance lies in revelation of the tremendous pewer which control of the sources of propaganda gives to a man or a party in this modern world. A dictatorship does not, in the last analysis, depend directly on guns and bayonets. It depends on the power to mold public opinion. All that the guns and bayonets can do is put that power exclusively in the dictator’s hands. In other words, a dictatorship does not survive because it makes people put up with its sway; it survives because, quite literally, it can make them like it. It does violence to the mind and not to the body. It creates the state of mind that is favorable to it; as long as it can do that, its acts of actual terrorism are only incidental. Could there be a greater object lesson in favor of free speech and a free press? As long as the sources of propaganda are open to all, there can be no dictatorship. EXTREMES IN MOTORING kTI/ILLIAM COLLINS, head of the Cook * ’ county highway police in Illinois, believes that neckers and naggers cause more traffic accidents than do drunken drivers. Engaged couples, he said, indulge in the traditional by-play of engaged couples as they drive along the road. Being thus occupied, they fail to watch their driving closely. Presently—bang! and there's another smashup. With married couples it often works the other way. They quarrel, as married folk occasionally do, get all wrapped up in their quarrel, forget about the hazards of traffic—and again, there’s another smashup on the highways. The moral seems to be that any activity which diverts any part of a motorists attention from the job of driving is likely to have serious consequences. CAPITAL’S RETURN IF you can believe Relief Administrator Harry L. Hopkins, the present period of economic evolution is going to end in a system of 4 per cent capitalism. By this Mr. Hopkins means that the return on invested funds will proceed at a much slower rate than we hav'e been used to in the past. Capital's share of the profits in industrial enterprise is going to be smaller, in other words; the day of fortunes built on a shoestring will be over, and money invested in a going company will bring in only a little more than it brings now in a savings account. The prediction sounds fairly mild, until you begin to look into it a bit. Then you discover that it is a forecast of almost revolutionary change. The old axiom—never literally true, but close enough to it for practical purposes—has been that putting your money in common stocks is speculation, while putting it in bonds is investment. Buy bonds, and you get a sure return, limited to a certain figure; buy stocks, and you run the risk of getting no return at all —but, as compensation for this risk, you may turn a profit many times' higher than any bond issue could bring you. Under a system of 4 per cent capitalism, the stockholder would be right where the bondholder is today. If he put SIOO,OOO into a company, he would be satisfied to take out $4,000 a year in profits; he would not be expecting—as has been the case in the past—that his SIOO,OOO would be worth a million in a few years, if things broke right for him. Those who have suspected the New Deal of a radical tinge hardly will be reassured by Mr. Hopkin’s remark. This suggestion is radical, beyond question. It calls for a complete change in our economic system. It took more than the lure of 4 per cent to build up this country's great industries; it took the prospect of unlimited profits,, such as those which made multi-millionaires out of poor boys like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Nevertheless, there have been times in the last few years when any business man would have been satisfied with 4 per cent—if he could get it. A low profit is better than no profit at all. A regime in which capitalism was held to a 4 per cent return might be acceptable, if capital could be assured that it actually would get the 4 per cent. Warden Lawes of Sing Sing prison had to undergo a second operation to havp a sponge, left by a previous operation, removed from his leg Only those who ever were left inside prison walls by mistake may laugh A greased pig escaped from a Chicago alderman at a ward picnic, which is one of the f-w times on record that a politician ever lost out on pork.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES MANY* see in the formation of the Liberty League the beginnings of a rational and logical realignments of parties in American politics. In our political past party lineups sooner or later have come to conform to some reality. The American Revolution brought together highly incongruous elements. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and Hamilton was an officer on Washington’s staff. But shortly after the revolution a logical party lineup sprang into being. The conservative property interests lined up behind Hamilton and the Federalists, while Jefferaon and his followers in the Democratic-Republican party tried to preserve some of the liberal ideals and policies for which they had fought during the revolution. These early party differences evaporated in a generation and the followers of both Jefferson and Hamilton surrendered to nationalism, the development of the west and a tariff system. It was not long, however, before new economic forces produced another rational party division. The industrial revolution brought oppressed factory workers to New England and other northeastern states, while the settlement of the west erected a self-reliant and almost radical pioneer population which distrusted the "money-bags" of the east. Andrew Jackson and his new Democratic party appeared in 1828 as champions of the workers and frontiersmen. Opposing it were the Whigs, the party of early American capitalism, strong supporters of the United States bank and of public improvements. a a a IT was not long, however, before this Demo-cratic-Whig rivalry was undermined by economic changes. The conservative slavocracy of the south captured the Democratic party from the workers and the pioneers, if northern Whigs were inclined to oppose slavery, the southern Whigs ardently supported it. The compromise of 1850 marked the last effort to perpetuate an increasingly impossible situation. In 1856, anew party lineup came into being which once more conformed to reality. Against the Democratic party now dominated by the slavery interests was now set off anew and radical Republican party, drawn chiefly from eastern workers and the settlers in the new west. Its social basis was muph like that of the early Democratic party under Jackson. It was progressive, idealistic and strongly anti-slavery. The Civil war completely altered the character of the Republican party. It was captured successfully by the business interests which fattened and greatly expanded during the war decade. It became a party vested in the business interests and has remained such ever since. For a short time, however, marked changes in the character of the Democratic party preserved some semblance of realistic party strife. The Democratic party emerged from the Civil war shorn of the slavery octopus and transformed into a liberal reformed party. tt tt tt UNDER an able leader, Samuel J. Tilden, It polled a majority of the vote in 1876. If the Republicans had not been able to use the army in the south to steal the election away from Tilden, the party history of the United States since 1876 might have been far different and far more constructive. The theft of the presidency away from Tilden and the Democrats all but stifled idealism and progress in the Democratic party. Cleveland was an honest man and a rugged personality but he was not even a progressive to say nothing of a radical. Capitalism gently but formally extended its grip over both the major parties and has never loosened it to any marked extent since. Every effort to develop anew and more radical party lineup has thus far come from the progressives. Here we have had a number of temporary spurts such as the Granger, Greenback, Mugwump. Populist, Bull Moose, and La Follette movements. But they have all been suppressed or else absorbed in part within the old parties and then strangled. Now the reactionaries seem to be trying their hand in fabricating anew party. We hope that they have better luck in so doing than have the radicals.

The NRA Issue

George Abells, conductor of "Capital Capers,” is on vacation. Today this space is devoted to a behind-the-scene story of the NRA. BY LYLE A. BKOOKOVER (Copyright. 1034, by United Press) WASHINGTON, Sept. s.—Developments in the NRA dispute within the last few days indicated today that the ax is swinging for General Hugh S. Johnson if he persists in opposing reorganization plans of other New Dealers. Insiders believe General Johnson is aware of the situation. He is expected to back down next jveek when he confers with President Roosevelt at Hyde Park. If Johnson insists upon continuing his one-man control of NRA, the chances are he will be out of a job in the relatively near future. There are strong indications Johnson will back down and keep his job. The nub of dispute between Johnson on one side and Miss Perkins and Richberg on the other is: Shall NRA become a vehicle by which industry may govern itself or shall there be a large measure of federal supervision? Bound up with that question is Johnson’s personal relationship to the Blue Eagle. He believes industry should govern itself; that the federal trade commission should remain stripped of former authority to enforce antitrust laws against monopolistic price fixing. Richberg, who was second man in the NRA setup and now is secretary of the executive council, joins Miss Perkins in demanding a firm federal control over industry. tt tt u ' | ’’HE United Press was informed on unimX peachable authority that the breach between Johnson and other key New Dealers began almost a year ago, soon after NRA began to function. Informed persons make the unqualified charge that Johnson has consistently refused to co-operate in the administration’s general attack on depression. The recent, muchpublicized row between Johnson, Richberg and Miss Perkins merely brought public attention to a situation which has troubled the White House for some months. An official who followed the NRA dispute from its inception explained it today to the United Press as follows: ‘‘ln the Roosevelt recovery army," the informant said, “NRA and AAA are the forward divisions to carry the brunt of the enemy attack. Public works and other government departments are supporting units, similar to finance, ordinance, and quartermaster department in the army. "The federal emergency relief is a ‘mopup’ division, comparable to the Red Cross. "We might as well carey on a war without a general staff as to operate this recovery army without a co-ordinating board and a general plan in which all divisions work together. "Lightning-like changes of policy are undoubtedly brilliant military strategy, but they are dangerous unless they are merged with the general plan.” Communism is saturating our college youths, warns an educator. And all the while we thought it was beer that was making them sing "Sweet Adeline.” That Georgia golfer who missed a rattlesnake with his first brassie swing and killed it with the second seems to need a little coaching on his choice of clubs. It doesn’t take long for anew fashion to catch on. Now they’re saying that a bandit brain trust planned that $427,000 Brooklyn holdup.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

NO PLACE FOR THIS ' . r INMAMA™ WSON SVSTiTM H

The Message Center

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so a'l can have a chance. lAmit them to ZSO words or less.) a a a HINTS LIBERTY LEAGUE LINKED WITH G. O. P. By E. G. One of the founders of the American Liberty League is Nathan L. Miller former Republican Governor of New York; another, John W. Davis, a disappointed nominee for President in 1924, and a third, Alfred E. Smith, another sorehead who lost out, pouting considerably since. Gathering from what I read in the papers, it really sounds to me like a league that was quite prominent a few years ago. It had quite a following in Indiana; in fact, I believe, elected a Republican , Governor and he appointed a United States senator who is running again this fall. Can it be possible this Liberty League is a kind of anew name to develop and safeguard the interests of the good old party? I may be wrong, but I have always said and believed that no league or. organized body, formed to interfere with our government or its workings could be anything but disastrous to itself and it belittles our judgment in electing the administration. It sounds un-American to me. n n a NATION’S FINANCIERS DECLARED ON TRIAL By Anti-Autocrat. The Green Bay speech indicated that our government does not intend to repeal the laws and rules governing the operation of business. The blanket barrage of the champions of rugged individualism inveighs against government interference with business. Since business has been, in control of government, the rules it calls interference are merely checks on the foul players; the rules were not made in advance, but only after the foul punch had been struck by some business. Why did not our egotistical business heads change the gears in our economic machine, during the four years they were running in reverse in the Hoover administration? All the priming of the pump for starting the wheels has not reduced an acceleration necessary to absorb men on relief, who could produce their every need, if permitted to do so by this “has been” gang of incompetents. Finance capitalism is on strike, a strike which has cost our nation many times more than labor strikes. Will these financiers break the nation, or will the nation break the financiers’ strike by creating an independent. publicly owned system of banks of credit and issue, and a public system of production and distribution, which will supply the needs of all the people in abundance? The financiars are on trial. If they fail to produce soon, the public will write finis. aa n m LIKES ROBINSON AND VETERAN BUNK By b Fighting Solditr. Will you be so good as to grant me an audience in the Message Center again? Replying to James F. Walker. The first time I met Senator Robinson was in the Argonne forest. He was an officer and well liked by his men. However, I don't think that will interest you as it was more than 4,000 miles away and you were

Charges Laxity in Prison Administration

By Richard Applegate. Your paper speaks the truth, no matter whom it helps or hurts. Why give Governor McNutt and Warden Louis Kunkel all the heat for the escapes from the Indiana state prison? I am one who knows and saw everything from the start, from the shirt shop until the passage through the front door, of the most daring and smoothest escape in penal history, that of Harry Pierpc-nt and his gang. Let me ask, was it under the supervision of the Democrats? No. It was right under the nose of

safe at home on mother’s breast or feeding the chickens. I am glad you think I never voted the Democratic ticket. I sure want to forget it, so help me. You talk as though all Republicans were crooked. Well, maybe so, but I notice the Democrats are letting quite a few of them out of prison; maybe they think they will need their help in future elections. Well, they should show their appreciation in some way. I suppose you have landed a position with the civil works administration at $24 a month and think these are good times. I would like to refer you to Presidents Harding -and Coolidge's administrations as an example of what real prosperity was. Os course, Mr. Hoover was different. He turned from a Democrat and ran on the Republican ticket just in order to give the Democrats one more chance. Me for Robinson and his veterans’ bunk. I served as a machine gunner with Alvin York. You all have heard of hiim ana SLOT MACHINES AND POLITICS By a Blindman. Slot machines usually get a lot of attention just before an election, mostly to get the so-called church vote into the sack. Politics as the American play it must have a source of “long green” to pay the regulars who depend on election day wire-pulling jobs. The candidates do not pay for the whole show. Donations come from the interests whose stalking horses the candidates usually are. Have not slot machine owners for years played a part in financing these political dramas? Part of the game is the regular or irregular drive on these machines, or rather on the owners of the outside machines. It would be interesting to have a complete list of the donors to political campaigns and to know their connection, not forgetting the roles they play later in the game, when public and private interests conflict. That is what makes our democracy so interesting and amusing. a a a GIVES DETAILS CONCERNING ROBINSON AS SOLDIER By A. E. F. In view of the recent interest expressed by correspondents regarding Senator Robinson’s war record, I am giving you the following information: Captain A. R. Robinson was assigned to command Headquarters company. Three hundred and thirty-fourth infantry, Eightyfourth division, at Camp Taylor, Ky„ in the early part of the summer of 1918. In August this division

[/ wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

H. D. Claudy and his assistants, Evans and Ferguson. Guns and ammunition were found by one of Claudy’s stool pigeons a week before the break and no search was made for other guns, but four or five innocent men who had not been in the institution thirty days were put in the hole and then in seclusion for six months. Welfare island was given a shakeup, but it was a Sunday school compared to the administration of W. H. Daly and H. D. Claudy.

embarked for France, on arrival proceeding to the training area, and was stationed near Perigeux. Here the division began intensive training for combat service. However, in October several drafts were made upon the line companies for men to replace casualties of other divisions then in the front line. At the end of October the remaining skeleton of the division proceeded to Le Mans where the enlisted personnel was transferred to the First provisional training regiment, leaving the commissioned officers unassigned, including Capt. Robinson. It was during this period, just preceding the armstice that Captain Robinson was promoted and commissioned major. While I disagree decidedly with Senator Robinson’s political affiliations, views and statements, I see nothing discreditable in the above record, and hope it may settle the pointless controversy that has been going on, based largely on rumors and wilful misstatement. a it tt RADICALISM WILL BAR REGIMENTATION By Orie J. Simmons. After reading your Aug. 30 editorial, "The Sinclair Sign,” I added: "Yes, the reactionary minority should ponder the victory and realize that just a few such victories will not merely ‘disappoint and betray the masses that voted for’ the pamphleteer. These pamphleteer victories will disgust and nauseate and educate the plain people as no amount of conservative damning could ever do. Herbert Hoover's warning of the absurdity of the New Deal promised availed nothing, but silk-hatted pigs are easier for the still forgotten man to dope out.” As long as this country stays divided into forty-eight states and fifty-seven thoujand brands of radicals with “faces turned forward, not backward,” the threat of regimentation never will go beyond the asinine stage of alphabetical essay. I do not believe that "any attempt to correct evil is better than no effort at all.” (From “Drive Them Out,” same date). A radical knows not the difference between asinine essay and facing actualities. Calilomia can

Daily Thought

Thou therefore which teaches t another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? IN church they are taught to love God; after church they are practiced to love their neighbor.— Landor.

SEPT. 5, \

1 learn much from a dip into the mire of pseudo-Utopia, and forty-seven other states can profit by her negative example. Some day the people of this nation will have tasted so • many brands of silly cure-all, they will be sickened. Then will arise anew and better crop of timid and conservative men, with a much finer series of clubs and private offices and homes —millions of them—in which to sit whilst they damn radicalism. Conservatism is its own worst enemy. We just got tired of being the best fed, best • clothed, best housed people on earth, with no spree of wild theories to amuse and entertain. We started rebelling against sobriety, against wearing clothing, against staying married, against working for a living, against history, against keeping written promises, against cold logic, and in the fun of kicking over the traces, we found actual evils to rebel against too. Also, radicalism is its own worst enemy. If we could just elect Hcywood Broun as President, the reaction to decency would leave the nation sane for decades to come. Violent poisons often defeat their own purpose by being such good emetics, if taken in large doses. This letter is not to be read by radicals. They can very well. ana RELIEF WORKER COMPLAINS By a RHipf Worker. It seems poor persons here have to beg for everything they get and then many of them are turned away. The high cost of food makes it hard on the relief workers. I have five in my family and get twentyone hours a week at 40 cents tn hour. The $8.40 a week is needed for food and then we do not have what we want to eat. There is government food, meat, butter, corn beef, and flour to give to relief workers with their little weekly wages, but Just a few workers get it. You have to be on the right side of the fence to get anything. School starts soon and there are no clothes or books. Winter soon will be here. There is no extra money for bed clothes to keep the poor warm. Is this what Indiana calls a New Deal—making beggars out of good, honest hard working men. I think President Roosevelt is O. K„ and I still have faith in him, but these little state men put in office under him are tearing up every good thing he wants done.

DEBAUCH

BY HARRIET SCOTT OLINICK Swift beauty pressed me down and held Me spent; with pallid cup to lips I drank a draught of purple mist. I drank the sky in shuddering sips. I drank the suns last crimson drops; In anguish held the weight of trees To pinioned lips and knew the strength Os beauty, terrible and free! At length, quite drunk with beauty’g wine, I was released; too weak to try To stir I lay and gazed into The calm, mauve peace of twilight sky.