Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 102, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 September 1934 — Page 20

PAGE 20

The Indianapolis Times (A RIPP*-BOff ARD JITWIMPPRI HOT W, HOWARD PrnH*nt TALCOTT POWKLE Editor EARL D. BAKER Batlnei* Utnigtr rhnn* RH.r AVI

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FRIDAY. SEPT. 7. )*3 BOTH SIDES WIN A NEW two-way stream of trade is flov.r.g x *• between the United States and Cuba as a result of the reciprocity tariff treaty. The Pearl of the Antilles, her luster dimmed by poverty, is beginning to gleam anew, largely because her diplomats and ours got together on a trade agreement. A million pounds of American lard is clearing the customs at Havana. Another million pounds have been ordered, and also a million pounds of pickled meats and sass pork. That is good news for our corn-hog farmers. Good news to our cotton farmers are orders for 250.000 pounds of cottonseed oil. and good news to Akron are the orders for 5,000 automobile tires. Cubans have placed substantial otders for American automobiles, trucks, paper, cardboard, potatoes, wheat, rayon fabrics, feedstuffs, cigarets and onions. There is scarcely an American state that will not benefit directly. Secretary Henry A. Wallace estimates that a million acres of American farm land will be needed to produce the expected Cuban orders for $10,000,000 worth of farm products. What have all these blessings of trade cost us? Very little! Cuba will sell us no more sugar than if the treaty had not been signed. Her sugar quota was not changed. But Cuba will make more profit on her sugar sales, because of our lower tariff. And apparently she is buying from America in anticipation of that greater profit, and profit on other Cuban products such as rum and tobacco. UNDERCONSUMPTION ' - T~'HOSE who assume that business is depressed because our farms and factories glutted the markets with foo much goods should study the report today by the Brookings Institution in Washington on "America's Capacity to Consume." The cause of our plight, say the Brookings experts, was not overproduction but underconsumption. The root of our trouble is the maldistribution of the national income, making it impossible for the people to buy back what they produce. An income of about $2 000 m 1929 was the minimum needed to support a family. Yet in that top year of so-called prosperity more than 16.000.000 families, or 60 per cent of the total, had incomes below that minimum standard. In that year the aggregate income of the nations 27.000 000 families, a total of $77,000,000.000, was distributed so badly that 36.000 families at the top, about one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total, received practically as much as 11.500.000 families, or 42 per cent of the total, at the bottom of the social scale. It is something to ponder that in 1929 nearly 6.000,000 families, or more than 21 per cent of the total, were getting incomes of less than SI,OOO a year; that 12.000.000 families, or more than 42 per cent, had incomes of less than $1 500; that nearly 20.000.000 families or 74 per cent, had incomes of less than $2,500. And what can be said of a system that allows 16,000000 families to spend only $18,300,000 while 11.000.000 families receive $58,900,000,000. most of which they can not spend on useful goods? If the incomes of all families under the $2,500 level were raised to the $2,500 level, or if SI,OOO a year were added to the incomes of all families in the class under SIO,OOO. we read, America then could sell all it produced in 1929. In light of these facts it appears that America's basic economic problem is a more just and efficient distribution of wealth.

CIVILIZING RUSSIA! IT has been a lone time since the newspapers have printed any story quite so ineffably rrvealinc as the one telling how Mrs. Edward B. McLean, the Washington society ladv. wore her million-dollar Hope diamond while traveline through Soviet Russia. The experience, she says, was ' a bit bloodcurdling.” since the hardy proletarians were not at all pleased by the display. "They hated me. That was obvious,” she reports. *‘l stood for all that women who wear jewels represented, yet they were fascinated. . . I think that I taught them a lesson, and that henceforth it will be safe for American women to wear jewelry in Russia.” In a year of change and tribulation, chalk up this one victory for the human spirit. A great victory for freedom has been won. Hereafter, any American woman who possesses a million-dollar diamond can wear it in red Russia without being tom to pieces by the angry mob! “MERCHANTS OF DEATH” IN A tew brief hours, witnesses at the open;ng hearing of the senate committee told enough probably to convince most people that the manufacture of munitions is one line of private business that has had too little government regulation. Also enough to demonstrate that munitions control is a world problem, too big for any one government to handle alone. In one day the committe learned from officers of one cmopany: That Sir Basil Zaharoff. the Greek-born Spanish duke and British knight, Europe's czar of wars, collected more than $2 000,000 in commissions from one Amenoan firm. That American manufacturers of the deadly submarine have a long-established cartel agreement abroad by which patents and profits are Interchanged and world markets are divided. What a model of co-operation: No destructive price cutting, trade secrets shared; a camn.union banded together to promote profits and efficiency in mass murder. It takes a wild imagination to guess what

other details will be unfolded before the committee closes its inquiry. After !he last chapter of the committee investigation is written will come the legislative and diplomatic battles to control the "merchants of death." In the last congress, the senate ratified the United States’ signature to the Geneva convention, designed to give certain world powers a measure of control over International traffic in arms. Congress also empowered the President to declare an embargo on the shipment of war implements into the Chaco jungle. But it refused to pass a ’•esolution giving the President blanket arms embargo powers. • Much more than has yet been attempted in the way of world co-operation will be necessary before the governments of the world can gam ascendancy over the munitions racket. But our immediate problem is to determine what the United States must do to be in a position to uphold its end of any effective world accord. It may be necessary to establish a government monopoly in arms manufacture. Or regulatory methods may suffice. The people will be better able to Judge after this committe has finished its work. A GLORIOUS PROMISE IF you could take all the visions of the future. as expounded by various Americans in the last year and a half, and put them end to end in the good old statistical manner, they would undoubtedly reach all the way from here to Utopia. Pprhaps it is because we are dissatisfied with our present; perhaps it is because there are signs and portents in the world indicating a time of change. Whatever the reason, the business of describing the kind of world our children will inhabit has never been as popular as it is now. Agriculture Secretary Henry W. Wallace can conjure up about as pleasant a vision as any one; and in a recent interview in Kansas City he predicted future farmers who will work short hours, escape most of their traditional drudgery, and treat themselves to week-ends off as blithely as so many corporation lawyers. The secretary pointed out that It usually takes about fifty years for the discoveries of science to get widespread, practical application in every-day life. So far, he said, the farmer has not taken full advantage of the possibilities of paved roads, electric power, and so on. By and by he will—and then he will begin to lead the life of Riley. Mr. Wallace sees, for instance, the possibility of an automatic machine that would gather crops of hay and grain while the farmer sat in the shade and pressed a button. He sees, in fact, an increasing application to agriculture of the same scientific and mechanical principles that have revolutionized industry, with the farmer stepping calmly into the white collar class as a result. One man's guess is as good as another’s, when it comes to foretelling the future. But therp is no very’ good reason for thinking that Mr. Wallace is indulging in idle fancies. Stranger things than this transformation of farm life have already happened. Our grandfathers, used to factories wherein the twelve-hour day was common, would have suspected the sanity of any man who predicted the five-day, forty-hour week. They would have goggled unbelievingly if told that each factory would have to be flanked by a vacant lot, for the parking of the machines which bore the workers to and from their jobs. The picture of a modern electric power plant, where dirt and human effort are reduced to insignificance, would have struck them as a pipe dreamer’s fantasy. We are only beginning to take advantage of the new freedom given us by applied science.

AN EXAMPLE FOR US \ FEW weeks ago the British authorities made an experiment by prohibiting the sounding of automobile horns in the city of London between 11:50 p. m. and 7 a. m. This experiment now is found to have worked so well that it will he extended to every city and town in England. Englishmen have made the not entirely surprising discovery' that the night is a great deal more pleasant when its stillness is not constantly being shattered by the raucous toots of motorists who lack consideration for their neighbors. One wonders how' iong it will be before American cities begin to follow suit. Certainly this is a reform that would help everybody and hurt no one. MAN’S SINCERITY BEAUTIFUL theory occasionally runs headon into unpleasant fact, and when it does the result is apt to be rather messy. This seldom happens anywhere more often than In enlightened and humane method of dealing in the field of criminology. The criminologist, that is, can devise an enlightened and humane method of dealing with lawbreakers. On paper it will be very fine indeed. But to put it into practice calks for utilization of human instruments, and these instruments seldom cut the way the theorist wishes. A fair sample is to be seen in an address recently made by Dr. Walter N. Thayer Jr., state commissioner of correction for New York. Dr. Thayer proposed that judges be deprived of the power to send criminals to prison for definite terms. Instead, he would have all sentences left indeterminate, with release of prisoners dependent on the decision of the parole board, the prison authorities, and the correction department. These authorities would study each prisoner's case, and would release him when they felt that he was "mentally ready to rejoin society.” This might be very soon after his imprisonment, or it might be delayed for years; and it jyould not necessarily have much to do with the gravity of the enme for which he had been sentenced. Now such a scheme is clearly the product of an intelligent and humane mind which has observed that our present method of handling criminals is both expensive and inefficient. In theory-, at least, it is nothing less than simple common-sense. But to put it into practice, we would have to use the existing mechanism of parole boards; and most states have permitted such groups to fall into the hands of selfish politicians, in a way that makes even the rudimentary parole laws already existing work out pretty badly. In other words, the most enlightened system imaginable can ; e no stronger than the men who operate it. II your parole board is

appointed by a Len Small or a Huey Long, it will run your parole system in the Len Small or Huey Long manner, no matter how intelligently the system itself was devised. Men like Dr. Thayer do us a great sendee by pointing out ways in which we can meet the problem of crime and punishment more efficiently and justly. But they are helpless until we ourselves insist on putting public office In the hands of men who will bring real devotion to duty to their jobs. Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES THE beginning of another school year and the eve of a political campaign give special importance to the report of the American Civil Liberties Union on “School Buildings as Public Forums.’’ It is a platitude that we can have our choice between progress by education and progress by revolutionary violence. Even a conservative, if pressed on this issue, would admit that he preferred the former. Yet we do our best to favor revolution through trying to make education an obstacle to intelligent progress. This is not the place to discuss the absurd curriculum and the intimidation of progressivelyinclined teachers. We are here concerned with the possible use of school buildings as public forums which might offer illuminating suggestions not only to students, but'also to their parents and other members of the community. School buildings usually are not occupied for formal instruction at night. It is a real service to the community to use school auditoriums for forums addressed by speakers who have diversified suggestions to offer as to how we may move forward to better days. There seems to be little inclination, the country over, to take advantage of such opportunities. n a a THE Civil Liberties Union gathered the material for its report from the questionnaires submitted to the school boards of ninety-three cities each with a population of more than 100,000, to local officials of minority groups, and to members of the Union in twenty-one large cities. It was revealed that in only twenty-one states are there legal provisions for holding political meetings in public schools, and in only five of these are there legal safeguards against discrimination by local school boards—lndiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota and Oregon. In thirteen states there is no statutory provision whatever for the community use of school buildings, and in the fourteen remaining states there is no provision for their use in holding political meetings. In twenty-one large cities, each with a population of more than 100,000, no political meetings whatever are allowed in school buildings. Eighteen cities of more than 100,000 permit political meetings but discriminate against minority and progressive groups: Sar. Diego, Cal.; Denver, Colo.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Washington, D. C.; Atlanta, Ga.; Peoria, 111.; Evansville, Ind.; Springfield and Worcester, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Minneapolis, Minn.; New York City; Akron, O.; Youngstown, O.; Erie, Pa.; Houston, Texas, and Richmond, Va. n n tt ALMOST without exception in every city where these minority groups were discriminated against, use of the schools was accorded freely to the Republican and Democratic parties. In the few places where minority groups were allowed to use school buildings for forums little or no disorder or damage was reported—certainly no more than would have been incidental to meeting held by Fundamentalists or Republicans. “A notable example pf the use of public schools for community forums is furnished by Des Moines. la., where under a grant made by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1933 a five-year experiment in adult education is conducted. “Forums in public school buildings all over the city were started with a discussion of all sorts of public issues, and with speakers representing all points of view. Even well-known Communists have spoken on the programs. “The forums are under the direction of the superintendent of schools. The response is reported as most enthusiastic. In addition to these forums, radical organizations are permitted to use school auditoriums in Des Moines without discrimination and apparently with full community approval.’’ There is no evidence whatsoever that Des Moines has been headed toward a Soviet by this excursion into civilized adult education.

Chicago people are looking ahead to a pleasant wunter. They can sit around in the evenings and count up all the relatives they’re going to get even with next summer for just dropping in on them while at the world’s fair. A grandmother has been found in Tennessee who didn’t take her first air ride on her 100th birthday, has no opinions on the younger generation, and needs glasses to read her newspaper. Maybe you’ve noticed that the person who always talks about the depression as past never has taken any pay cuts. The-e seems to be no limit to American endurance. Many people who read the “Life and Loves of Max Baer” are said to be looking forward to anew life story of Iron Man Dave Hutton. Wonder what the rattlesnakes will do for thrills now that biting evangelists is going out of style? Harvard is conducting a series of tests to study fatigue. It should include the Harvard accent, which fatigues many people. Some court stenographers take down as many as 50.000 words a day, more than an ordinary stenographer takes in a month, and almost as many as some husbands take in an entire evening. Great Britain now’ has only one woman town crier, but that’s overlooking all the women who talk over the back fence. Goat gland specialist lost in governor race, which shows tnat you still can’t break the monkey's hold in politics. Herbert Hoover is writing a book, but it probably lacks the suspense that will make a mystery best seller. Were still waiting to hear if General Johnson lost his Blue Eagle for trying to fire his NRA union chief and failing to get away with it. Huey Long doesn't mind every other man being a king, if Huey only can be the ace. Judging from the fate of other Dillinger gangsters, “Baby Face” Nelson should stay out of alleys if he wants to keep on being Public Enemy No. 1. Several burlesque troupes have dropped Louisiana from their routes. The competition from free home talent acts is too heavy. It looks like a hard autumn for midwest poets. The pumpkin crop is short and they have no place to put their frost.

THE INDIANAPOEIS TEVIES '

The Message Center

(Timet readers art invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so a'l can have a chance. Limit them to ISO words or lets.) * * DEFENDS INDIANA PENAL SET-UP By a Fair Flay Reader. I am writing this in reply to Ed Featheringill’s article blaming incompctency for jail breaks. He speaks as if no man hired under the New’ Deal is capable of holding any position at a penal institution. I wonder if he knows that more than 50 per cent of these employes are hang-overs, and has it ever occurred to Ed that he should go over the records carefully for the last six years before he comes to any such conclusions. Does he know that federal institutions have their escapes also? Two of our three penal institutions are headed by some of the best penologists in the central states, having had years of experience. One of these men, Mr. Miles, practically built the Indiana reformatory, and is the superintendent there now. Mr. Howard, a Republican, is superintendent of the state farm, and is entirely capable of holding the position. I am of the opinion that Mr. Featheringill isn’t very well informed or he wouldn’t ask w’hy appropriations should be increased. Doesn’t he know that federal restrictions have been imposed on prison made goods, and the institutions no longer are self supporting in as large a measure as heretofore. Please consider the escapes at Michigan City and count the New Deal officers involved in these breaks, and then tell those you are associated with, who these “whittlers” really were, and after observing the score you will be assured that Governor Paul McNutt hasn’t made a failure in choosing new men, neither does the New Deal parole system include train-wrecked footbail players. Perhaps previous administrations did let the inmates un these institutions to please -hemselves, but he should know that there is more discipline today under these so called political plum pickers than in years past, while the “whittlers” held full sway. I am sorry to know that you think this administration has no right to employ taxpaying Democrats who for the past twenty years maintained 95 per cent Republicans, the same ones who reformed the Dillinger gang. Now when you speak of removing the governor, I wonder where you were when the horse choked on a corncob, or for instance, when the statehouse was washed. I am mighty proud of our governor when I recaiil twelve years of the blackest pages in history of Indiana, previous to 1932. n n u PRISON CONDITIONS FROM WARDEN’S VIEWPOINT By S. R. O'Haver. Why ex-convict saw fit to even mention Mr. Featheringill's recent statement of facts regarding the present politically responsible criminal incompetency of Indiana's institutions is rather vague. Mr. Featheringill only made an intelligent resume of front page headlines of the last few months. When a political system is so corrupt that the bereaved parent's of an officer who was killed in line of duty, finds his last pay check, received after his burial, has a 2 per cent deduction for the present New Deal in Indiana, then that system is the most corrupt, con-

THE WRONG WAY

Dissertation on Strike Protection

By a Reader. It is difficult for those who are prejudiced either for or against labor or capital to assume an impartial attitude toward strikes. Impartiality requires, however, that no assumption be made as to whether capital or labor is justified in the particular dispute, but the position should be taken that an honest dispute has arisen which has disrupted temporarily the normal and proper relationship between capital and labor. Further, as regards private industrial disputes, labor's right to quit work must be freely conceded as long as capital rests under no

taminated, repulsive organization we ever have seen. Any and all mistakes and corruption, collectively reviewed, that the Republican party ever has found tacked on its door can in no way compare with existing conditions. The regiments of PPP (political plum pickers) must be disbanded and action taken to prevent selfish, nearsighted, overzealous politicians from ever again being able to exploit efficient public employes. As to ex-convict’s complaints against lack of education, acquiring trades on the inside and that punishment is the rule where infractions are made of prison regulations, and that the warden don't mind meting out this punishment, I have this to say: Let us try to appreciate what-the wardens and superintendents of penal institutions have to contend with. They must receive any one sentenced. They have no choice but to consider them guilty of the offense against society for which they have been committed. They must put them to the task to which conditions and information available “make a round peg in a round hole.” It would be almost impossible and rather expensive to have education in a prison. It would be necessary to employ masters of half a dozen different languages to instruct the large numbers of foreign illiterates in the English language and have teachers capable of conducting classes which would “pick up” the prisoners at the proper place to continue their education; classes ranging from the first grade of common school to the last degree of colleges. If, as his truck drivers and mechanics are released, the superintendent of an institution immediately could send notices to the various judges to sentence him some truck drivers and mechanics; if as his gardeners are released, he could advertise for gardeners; or, vice versa, he could refuse to accept any more carpenters and plumbers as his institution has an oversupply—perhaps he would then find it possible to apprentice his charges to the vocation to which a prisoner had suddenly chosen for his life's work. With hundreds of men in institutions, it is an obvious fact that the most important rule to be enforced in a prison is the observance of all rules. The rule disobeyed may seem an unnecessary rule, but any and all rules and regulations must be adhered to, and strict enforcement is the foundation of all successful prison management. So, after all, it is the violation that must be corrected and punished, as well as punishment for the particular rule violated. The prisoner already has demonstrated by his presence at the institution that he does not consider with any degree of seriousness the V

l wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire, j

obligation to employ labor if it does not wish to. What duty rests on the government? in general, government's duty is to protect life and property. It long has been the practice of government during strikes to protect property by the police or military forces. Is it not equally its duty to protect labor during the dispute? And how can protection be afforded, if it Is not to give labor necessary subsistence while the strike lasts? Protection of capital demands the corresponding duty of protection to labor. Under this view, it is not even neceessary to declare, “No man shall starve.”

laws of society, so if the punishment inside a prison seems harsh and extreme, it is likely because of being looked at in the wrong perspective. This is not approval of brutality or abuse of power which could occur in penal institutions, but it certainly is a suggestion that the people of Indiana should appreciate and openly demonstrate that appreciation when they have an honest, efficient and conscientious prison head. ana POLITICAL ATTITUDE OF THE TIMES DEFINED By a Reader. I would like to be informed if the editor of The Times is a Republican, a Democrat, or a Socialist. After reading the rank partisanship of the other papers of Indianapolis, i£ would be such a relief to the Democrats to have an evening paper defend their national or state administration, especially through the congressional campaign. However, your criticism of NRA policies, and your antagonism to Governor McNutt are most disheartening. It is just too bad the President did not appoint the editor his confidential adviser. Editor's Note—The Times is not the personal political organ of the editor, who, like the newspaper, is politically independent. His votes in presidential elections were as follows: Coolidge, Smith, Roosevelt. Since 1930 he has registered as a Democrat, before that as Republican. Although The Times is back of the policies of Roosevelt, including NRA, and McNutt, it reserves its independent right to criticise both. n a a LIBERTY LEAGUE LIKENED TO “KNOW NOTHINGS” By George W. Curtis. The Liberty League occupies a position like that of the Liberty Party formed in 1860. No one could ascertain the real intention or purpose of its formation, consequently it was called the “Know Nothing” party and which finally materialized to be “Amerioa muse be ruled by Americans.” With the Darrow report on the NRA and the entire Republican party’s most sincere watchfulness, the citizen should be well informed. Considering the capabilities of Davis, Smith, Wadsworth and Irene Daily Thought One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that flghteth for you, as he hath promised you.—Joshua, 23:10. THE virtue of paganism was strength; the virtue of Christianity is obedience.—Hare.

SEPT. 7, 1934

DuPont, it would be very inappropriate to designate them as the Know Nothing League, as most every’ one concedes they know too much. Nothing but the absolute necessity of a national government gave us our present) federal Constitution. Hamilton emphasized the implied powers. Even Jefferson, the strict constructionist, yielded in the Louisiana Purchase, and characterized it as extra-constitutional. From the result of the Sinclair campaign, it looks as if the members of the Liberty League need President Roosevelt and his NRA more than they do a paralytic construction of the Constitution. If it becomes evident that it is impossible to regulate and control industry, and capitalistic enterprises under the Constitution, suitable for the existing state of society, then the usefuln zs and necessity of the Constitution ends. Is Mayor Sullivan declaring Sept. 17 Constitution day in order to razz his Republican opponents? Certainly, we Democrats who date our allegiance back to the days of the Democratic society in Philadelphia during Washington’s administration need no reminder of its significance. Never before has labor been lawfully engaged in strikes, if labor is dissatisfied with w’ages, they should organize under the NRA and demand more wages, and if refused, strike. President Roosevelt has given you a gun and hunting license; do you expect him to go out and shoot the game for you? can DEFENDS RELIGION AS HEALING POWER By a Christian Worker. I notice you expose religious persons for trusting in God for their children's healing, but if these same persons would trust the doctors and their children would die, there wouldn’t be anything said about it. If these persons trust God and their children die they are indicted for murder. In a certain Indianapolis hospital the other day, a doctor killed a little girl by giving her an overdose of chloroform. Can you tell me why he wasn’t indicted for murder. No, I don’t suppose you can. It only goes.to show that the world still hates Jesus and his works as it did in the beginning. a a a DECLARES SEATS LACKING AT FAIRGROUND By ,r. C. W. Please learn why seats are not placed, as in the past, at the state fairground. One old woman gave 10 cents for a place to sit down.

SEPTEMBER

BY MAIDA L. STECKLLMAN What is more inspiring Than the soft sweet tang Os blue September air? It thrills with energy untiring And makes a thistle puff of ctre. A child plucks at a brilliant leaf To top a curly head Feet dipped and dancing In a golden sheaf, Golden-rod in a golden bed. All this September brings to me— Chimes and rhymes and melodies— Golden hearts and golden thoughts. Golden dreams and memories.