Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 106, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 September 1934 — Page 14

PAGE 14

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WPDfrEBnA Y. SEPT. 13. 1934. HOBGOBLINS! LOOK OIT! . QENATOR ARTHUR R. ROBINSON of Indiana makes a speech before a group of Indianapolis Republicans. Senator Robinson — the man who voted for the NRA and the AAA —tella his audience that America is headed straight for destruction under President Roosevelt. The only hope for America, Senator Robinson tella his audience, is the Republican party. In other words. Senator Robinson still is trying to get over that "grass growing in the streets” idea without using those exact words. That phrase didn’t go over so big in the last election and so the senator is rewording it. But, in spite of rewording and rephrasing. Senator Robinson and his fellow Republicans are carrying on practically the same campaign as they earned on in the effort to elect Herbert Hoover. Then it was "grass growing in the streets." Now is "destruction of American ideals and American institutions." Ho, hum. You’d better watch out, folks, or the hobgoblins will get you! Oh, my! REORGANIZING GEN. JOHNSON F'ROM the summer White House comes the statement that NRA is to be reorganized into three branches. Following the federal setup there are to be administrative, judicial and legislative or policy branches. It is reported that General Johnson is to head one branch, probably the administrative. There have been so many false alarms regarding this long delayed reorganization the public probably will remain somewhat skeptical until it is an accomplished fact. Meanwhile, it is rather generally admitted that the NRA, which did such effective work in the beginning under tremendous difficulties, has disintegrated rapidly during the last few months. Todav it lacks direction and morale —even its routine mechanical efficiency is low. How much of this is due to General Johnson and Muss Robinson, who maintain a dual dictatorship over the organization, is a matter of disagreement. Certainly the tendency of the general's critics is to make him the scapegoat for many of NRA's difficulties which no executive or administrative board could have overcome during the relatively brief period in which NRA has operated. Nor do these critics give the general enough personal credit lor his initial achievement of "selling" NRA to the country. Nevertheless, even after the general is gi\ en his due as a promoter and emergency' organizer, his best friends are beginning to realize that other and quieter qualities are required for the long haul. The general, himself, recently admitted that NRA can not remain a one-man show. And, having the defects of his virtues, the general so far has not been able to fit into any other kind of operation. Therefore, any new paper reorganization—and there have been several in the past—is not apt to be effective so long as the general remains at NRA. The real choice, apparently, is for the President to continue NRA as an outright Johnson organization or to put it under anew administrator or board as an integral and disciplined part of the larger New Deal operation. We share the growing public belief that the latter choice is tne better one. But probably either of those two alternatives would be less hazardous than the present disastrous method of trying to let General Johnson go and keep him at the same time.

THE MISSION DRIVE r T'HE Indianapolis Flower Mission has launched its cam pa um to obtain a hospital for tuberculosis patients, a structure which will house 102 patients. There can be no finer contribution to the health of a city than a contribution to this cause. There is no hospital in Indianapolis or in Marion county for that matter which will admit an advanced case of tuberculosis. The Flower Mission did maintain a hospital for such cases but it was condemned as a fire trap in 1930 and closed. Since the closing of that hospital, the mission has made every possible move toward insuring against the spread of tuberculosis. All this haw not been enough. Children still continue to be exposed to the germs of tuberculosis. whole families in some cases finally come down with the dreaded "white plague.” The New Deal, through its public works administration, now has made a hospital for advanced cases possible. The sum of $38,500 has been granted toward the construction of the hospital The mission through the years has accumulated an additional SSO 000; this it has offered toward the objective. Approximately $55 000 remains to be raised and that amount is the goal of the mission's drive. The Indianapolis Times hopes that every cnizer will do his share, that the Flower Mission will be eminently successful in its drive. There can be no finer cause. AN ANCIENT CONCEPT JOUEIT SHOUSES recent assertion—in reply to a White House criticism—that human rights and property rights are inseparable, suggests that we need to re-examine the whole question" of what constitutes freedom. Hie inter-relationship ot human and property rights dates back to the dark ages. The legsey of law and order that came down from the Roman empire was little better than • memory. For the ordinary man. might made Tight, and it did no good to cry about it. In those days the common man was little

better than property himself. He was attached to the soil, and his life was at the mercy of his overlord. The whole development of feudalism was simply the story of society’s effort to evolve some kind of protection for him. When the common man of those days tried to w:n a little freedom for himself, he had no abstract concepts of liberty Jn mind. Our modern concern over freedom of speech and conscience would have been beyond his understanding. Liberty, to him. meant the right to own a bit of property, and to be secure in that ownership. no matter how much the rich and powerful might covet what he had. As the years passed, this struggle for freedom continued. The merchant in the town, the peasant on his farm, the exporter who took pack-loads of goods over makeshift roads or sent ships past the haunts of pirates—all of these people wanted, first and foremost, to be secure against the threat of dispossession. If freedom meant anything to them, It meant that. Property rights, ther, meant human rights, very directly. Now the property right of those days was a very personal thing. The ordinary man was struggling to get out from under; he could do it only through the medium of his possessions. To be able to do what he wished with his own was the supremely necessary first Step on the road to liberty. What we need to do today is to study whether that still holds good in a time of far-flung, impersonal corposations; to determine, for instance, whether the same sacredness attaches to a corporation's rights in a coal mine, for instance (which no stockholder has ever seen*, as it does to a peasant’s possession of a cow which is his family's insurance against starvation. We might find that the fight for freedom today is on a different basis than it was centuries ago—and, on the other hand, we might not. In any case, we need a thorough public discussion of the whole subject.

BY THEIR WORKS JN summing up this New Deal's year-and-a-ha!f war against want, Mr. Richberg’s final report describes it as ‘‘a record of many difficulties and some disappointments, but, on the whole, of great achievement.” There is achievement in the attack on unemployment. An estimated 4.000,000 workers are back on private pay rolls, 4,000,000 others have been given temporary public jobs, and 675,000 are directly employed on public works. There is disappointment over the delay in reorganizing NRA, a delay now playing havoc with the hopes its early victories stirred; over the high interest rates and other obstacles slowing down the rehousing program; over labor strife now spreading in part because of failure to enforce the collective bargaining law. There is impressive achievement in relief, both for the millions of destitute individuals and for business. Although inadequate, federal relief is keeping the wolf from America's door. Os the $5,000,000,000 granted or loaned to relieve financial distress more than $2,000,000,000 have been repaid, a wholesome sign. Higher farm prices have increased farm income by “far more than $1,000,000,000.” But debt relief agencies have not lightened greatly the ultimate mortgage burdens of home and farm owners. Disappointing also are the relatively minor victories in the fight to regain foreign trade and the apparent breakdown of Russian negotiations. Much more progress has been made in the protective services, notably in the new commission regulating securities and exefianges. A beginning has been made in national planning—in the petroleum administration, rail co-ordinator's plans, power policy committee, subsistence homesteads, CCC, erosion control, PWA and TV A. Finally, there are efforts to improve the inadequate information services, particularly through the central statistical board. "The nation has risen out of the depths of its worst depression, is moving steadily forward in the process of a definite economic recovery and is building new defenses against a recurrence of the economic ills from which it has been suffering,” says the Richberg report. ‘ The money expended in these great constructive efforts is far less than the cost of one year of participation in the World war with its vast destruction o{ life and property. It has been a small price to pay for so great a gain." Compared with March, 1933, the gain has been great; compared with the tasks remaining to be done the progress is not so satisfactory.

MISPLACED CREDIT P ITHER the representatives of munitions ■*“' manufacturers have a way of taking credit for things they never did. or they sometimes step about ten miles over the bounds of propriety. • The American people have not yet forgotten how William B. Shearer took the glory (or whatever you care to call it> for the wrecking of the Geneva naval conference. Now t the 'senate investigators find a letter in which Sterling J. Joyner claims the credit for placing of two congressmen on the powerful house rules committee in 1928. It has been asserted that the Geneva conference would have failed even without Shearer's efforts, and it may well be that the two congressmen in question would have got on the rules committee without Joyner's help. But the whole business leaves a bad taste, in any case. The munitions makers' representatives either claim too much—or do too much. Hard knocks may be good for all of us. but the baseball pinch hitter is the one they really help most. Rumors have spoiled many beautiful friendships. says Jean Harlow. And roomers have spoiled many beautiful marriages. Wonder if that senbe who wrote John Dillinger’s boyhood days in the slums ever saw the towenng tenements of Mooresville, Ind. Sometimes, in an irreverent moment, it seems that the world still might wag on whether Doug and Mary - were reconciled or not. Well, even if all the other codes fail to stick, that one on the animal glut industry should. Every thing I am I owe to honest advertising. says Sally Rand. There's one case where the bare truth certainly paid. .

Liberal Viewpoint -til UR. HARRI LLMLR BARNES—-

AT a time when the NRA is particularly under fire at the hands of American busii ness and reactionary political leaders it is grati- ! tying to read John T. Flynn’s article in Harper’s magazine on "Whose Child Is the NRA? ’ i This one of the most important and illumi- | nating articles published in any magazine since j the Roosevelt administration came into office. ! Mr. Flynn admirably states the popular conception of the background and authorship of tho NRA; "There is a notion that the NRA is the mon- ; stcr child of the Brain Trust. Whenever NRA , bares its teeth and puts some little tailor in jail for pressing pants at a discount, the enemies of the administration point their fingers in scorn and hatred at the flaming red rascal, Tugw’ell, who is supposed to have Sovietized the good old U. S. A. through the NRA. "Ogden Mills denounces the administration for its un-American conspiracy to regiment’ American business and life, and Mr. Mark Sullivan explains at least once a w’eck that this is the prime objective of the Brain Trust, which plots remorselessly for the Russification of the iand cf the free.’’ Mr. Flynn amply and clearly demonstrates that nothing could be further from the facts in the case. Aside from Section 7-A, the National Industrial Recovery Act was almost exclusively the product of the thinking, policies and pressure of American big business, particularly the United States Chamber of Commerce. a a a FOR more than seventy years a powerful element among American business men have sought to regiment American business under their dominion. Up to 1933 the United States government fought a winning, if W’aning, fight against this tendency. Contrary to general conviction the NRA did not constitute a victory of the government over business men, but was a surrender to them giving up the fight of three score years and ten against business control over American industry. A specific anticipation of the NRA appeared in the trade practices codes worked out by the trade relations committee of the United States Chamber of Commerce following 1925. More than forty such codes were adopted. Then in October, 1931, the United States Chamber of Commerce submitted a series of recommendations very similiar in spirit to the NRA. About the same time a plan was .set forth by Gerard Swope, which bore a marked resemblence to both the Chamber proposals and the later NRA. Thus, when Mr. Roosevelt came into office in March, 1933: ‘‘The Chamber of Commerce and what is called big business had a program which included (1) modification of the Sherman anti-trust law; (2 self-rule by trade associations under codes of practice to regulate production, prices, and trade practices; (3) authority to shorten hours and establish minimum wages; (4) a long-term plan for setting up unemployment, disability, and oldage insurance.’’ a a a MR. FLYNN gives a clear historical analysis of the actual genesis of the national industrial recovery act under the Roosevelt administration. He shows that it was the product of almost everybody except the real brain trust. A conference called by Senator Wagner, senator and congressmen, some members of the departments of agriculture and commerce, and General Johnson, had a leading part in the discussions and formulations which led to the act. Section 7-A was contributed by the department of labor, and its most aggressive enemy seems to have been no other than Donald Richberg. Big business was not at all disappointed with the contents of the NRA, with the exception of Section 7-A, which it has been able to all but nullify during the last year. Mr. Harriman declared that ‘‘it was a complete victory for the chamber.” Mr. Flynn seems amply justified in his conclusion: “In short, with the exception of the collective bargaining provision—which as we have seen was robbed subsequently of much of its original strength—the NRA plan represented almost entirely the influence and ideal of big business men. The share of the brain trust in its paternity was microscopic; the share of the Chamber of Commerce and other business interests was predominant* "There is little in the present outcry about government's regulating industry. The government merely has given up its long fight against the attempt of industry to regulate itself.”

Munitions —A Game

WASHINGTON. Sept. 12.—Some of the testimony before the senate munitions committee : Senator Gerald Nye—Doesn't this letter (in which a Vickers official referred to “Geneva or some other fancy convention") indicate a desire that the arms conference fail? Henry R; Carse (president, Electric Boat Company)—Naturally no one desires actidn to be taken that would be contrary to his interests. Senator Nye—Who are the “troublesome organizations” referred to here (in a Vickers letter of 1933>? Mr. Carse—Oh, there are pacifist organizations in England as well as in this country. Sir Basil Zaharoff (in a letter to Mr. Carse) —I quite agree with you that the era of submarine boats is opening all over the world. . . . You may count upon my litle efforts always working in your direction. Mr. Carse (to Senator Nye)—Sir Basil is a very modest man. Sir Basil (in a letter to Mr. Carse acknowledging receipt of 391.497 pesetas)—with which I am doing the needful. Mr. Carse (to Senator Nye)—l don't know what the phrase means. He never told us. One can make all sorts of guesses. n n n SIR BASIL (in a letter of 1928)—My fifty years’ experience with government representatives tells me that tact goes a long way. Senator Homer T. Bone—l'm unable to understand why the United States goes to the expense of sending naval officers around to advise other nations how to build good navies . . . using the navy as a sales agent? Mr. Carse —Seems to me more a gesture of will. Senator Clark—You know that all your South American business was based on bribery, don't you? Mr. Spear—l wouldn’t say that. In my opinion you couldn't do business in South America without paying commissions. Mr. Spear (in a letter to Commander Sir Charles W. Craven of Vickers)—We all know, however, that the real foundation of all South American business is graft. . . . My own experience is that at the last minute there is always something extra needed to grease the way. Senator Nye—How far would the Electric Boat Company have got in South America without the aid of the state and navy departments, and your activities with money? Mr. Spear—l think they were helpful, but I don't know whether they were the deciding factor. Mr. Spear (responding to a question of Senator Bone)—Another World war would in my opinion destroy our western civilization. nan SENATOR NYE—We have It on pretty good authority that representatives of the munitions makers were behind the curtains at Montevideo < Pan-American conference) getting orders occasioned by such fears as they could work up. Mr. Spear (to Commander Craven) —It is too bad that the pernicious activities-of our state department have put the brake on armament orders from Peru by forcing the resumption of formal diplomatic relations with Chile. Mr. Carse (regarding his company's request in 1933 that the state department help collect money owed the company by Peru)—Why, England uses its ambassadors all around the world to collect its people’s debts. ... So Aubry (the company's Lima agent) thinks that's all we have to do. ... Os course I understand our state de-.j partment won’t*

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Many preachers failed to watch and warn the leaders of thought, and thus are partakers with-them in the filth which has flowed. Yea. practically all of us have helped put John Dillinger in his unhonored grave, by our indifference to moral and civil delinquency. The remedy—l resolve that I will cease dallying with the moral things of life, and will protest against iniquity and that which leads to it, and will encourage by word and deed those editors and preachers and other workers who are trying to make the world a safe and decent and happy place to live. It was not Dillinger who was public enemy No. 1, it was Dilly-Dalli-er. the moral Arifler. who is still much alive and loose, and is nowhiding, disguised, in the neglected regions of cur hearts. MESSAGE CENTER * CAUSES SMILES Bt Merrill Rockefeller. By nature, I must have my comic relief. Yes, I find it in The Times, all right, but not only on the comic page. In The Message Center there always is a generous supply of those refreshing little chuckles, and sometimes a genuine guffaw that makes the day lighter. To get the maximum number of laughs The Message Center must be followed daily, in much the same manner as Wash Tubbs would be followed. The loyal reader will appreciate this, for instance: On Monday, Mr. Robinson will be laughed at, have mud thrown in his face ancl denounced in no Elsie Dinsmore-like terms, and on Tuesday, figuratively speaking, will be set upon a monument— a shining example of a -fine, public-spirited

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The Message Center

(Timet readers are invited to express their views < these columns. Make your letters short, so o’l can have a chance, f.imit them to SSO words or less.) VIEWS PRESENTED ON CRIME CAUSES By D. Austin Sommer. In beautiful Crown Hill cemetery, almost within a stone's throw of the spot where my mother lies, is the newly made grave of John Dillinger. We blush with shame at Dillinger’s crimes, and tremble at the thought that we still have hundreds like him. We can not help asking ourselves who is to blame for such a life. Dillinger himself was to blame; for though he was in part a creature of environment, like all of us, yet he knew right from wrong. Without the doctrine of moral responsibility all society collapses. Movie directors of gangster scenes helped John in his life of crime. He was bracing his nerves with their gangster play when he met a gangster's The directors’ defense that “we give the people what they want” is the same that the saloon keeper and dope peddler make. The “czar” of the movies, who never czared, should hide his face in shame and guilt at John's reproduction of crime—plays he permitted. The minimized moral in a gangster play has no attraction for the mind of a red-blooded boy in comparison with the thrilling deeds ,of voilence portrayed. Unscrupulous criminal lawyers should be classed in society with their clients, for they encouraged John and his kind with hope of escape. We have become nauseated with the lying defense that the murderer’s “mind went blank.” An old law book says “Woe unto them who justify the wicked for reward.” Judges wffio permit criminals to escape under cover of technicalities and tricks must bear blame, too. for the flood of crime which carried this gangster dowm. Newspapers and magazines wffiich j have featured crime, have lent their aid in educating John and his pals.

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

Meager Old Age Pensions Branded Disgrace

By W. H. Richards. Indiana has no reason to be proud of its generosity in granting a pension to the aged. The pitiful amount on which it is expected for those too old to find employment to live is a disgrace to a civilized community. One man, 72. almost stone deaf and tottering as he walks, gets the munificent sum of $7 a month. He has not a living relative and owns no property. In his lifetime he has produced enough wealth to support a large family in luxury for a ,century. He lives alone in one room for which he pays $4 t a month. This leaves him $3, or 19 cents a day with which to buy his food, clothing, medicine and tobacco for his pipe, his only extravagance. If he has any left he may indulge in such luxuries as he may desire. This man has not spent his earnings in riotous living. He has lived a clean, frugal life and at one time had a considerable sum saved. He has been past the deadline of employment for the last twenty years, and as he never got more than a fraction of the value of what his labor produced, he had no chance to save enough to

man who is giving his time and talents for the good of his country. As an example of the accuracy of statement and thorough knowledge and understanding of the questions involved in the contributions, I quote from'an article of Sept. 10: “I am a Communist. I believe in the government of the United States, but listen!” The Message Center is The Times' best feature. Keep it up. It should even be syndicated. And, Mr. Editor, in order that we may add to the ever-growing ranks of amused Message Center readers, please don't blue pencil this too much. It’s all in a spirit of fun. ASSAILS REPOfTt ON PENSIONING AGED By Guy L. Woodruff. Running true to forrm the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, after announcing it would make an investigation of the old age pension situation in Marion county, issues a report full of criticism. It seems that the chamber has learned nothing from the depression, especially the important point that human need is paramount. I understand that its old age pension report was based on a study of the situation on wffiich not more than twenty minutes were spent. Doubtless the pension administration in this and many other counties could be improved. But why does the chamber demand such a high degree of efficiency of the old age pension system in- the face of the fact that no other law on Indiana’s statute books is applied perfectly? Probably the outstanding point in the chamber's report is fne suggestion that unless Marion county commissioners act at once for the best possible administration of the law, no old age pension appropriation for 1935 should be recommended. Since when did the Chamber of Commerce take over legislative duties? Permit me to point out that Indiana's old age pension law is mandatory—county officials have no choice but to make appropriations. To the everlasting credit of officials of most counties, appropriations were made, despite the attacks of selfish interests and the difficulties of government in a time of economic stress without parallel in the nation's annals. The goal of the leading old age pension champion, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, is a more liberal law for Indiana. The poorhouse is going— liberal old age pensions will hasten its departure. ,

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

keep him free from want in his. last years. His savings have melted away. He is only one of a large group who, after being a wage slave all his life, is forced to beg for crumbs that fall from the table of the class that has made millions by appropriating to themselves the lion’s share of what his class produced. So long as the capitalist system exists there is no security for the workers. The only hope is that the downtrodden toilers unite and use the power of their great numbers to transform the industrial system so that there shall be no more extreme poverty or extreme wealth, but that all shall take part in both the production of wealth, and in its enjoyment. The workers will never get anything more than they have the power and the will to take. The ballot is the peaceful way to universal security and the only way by which a terrible disruption can be avoided with the sacrifice of human lives. Prosperity for all is truly ‘‘just around the corner,” but we must turn the corner to socialism, for there it is, waiting.

TWO EXPRESS VIEWS ON TEXTILE STRIKE By Two Strikers. I am a constant reader of The Message Center and wush to express my opinion of the local textile mill situation. Os course, we realize that there are always a lot of greedy persons fighting against someone wffio is trying to work for the poor. After Charles A. Young, manager of the plant, had a conference with Captain Helm, the scabs were escorted out of the plant wffiich Mr. Young says pays no less than sl3. But, the truth is that there are checks so small as $6.50 a week, full pay. We are glad to see red blooded Americans on the outside fighting for the poor while the ones on the inside are there for no other reason than to have the higher officials pat them on the back and speak to them when passing, which is very unusual. Even our best church members are sticking around and say they are going according to the Bible. We wonder what Scripture they use. nun UNFAIRNESS CHARGED IN FERA EMPLOYMENT By Ralph Ruhl. I would appreciate the use of this column to advise the public in regard to methods being used in the employment and discharge of employes working under the federal emergency relief administration in the government food stores in this city. This work is under the direction of Frank Wayman. I was placed in one of the stores last fall and worked until several months ago wffien I was transferred to the main store. I lost no time and had no trouble with any one. On Aug. 31, I was notified that two men were to take a week off, beginning Sept. 2. Two more men would be laid off for a week beginning Sept. 10 and so for three weeks, as there were six men working, four married men with families and two single men. The first two men picked for the enforced

Daily Thought

But he that shall endure unto the end. the same shall be saved.—St. Matthew, 24:13. GREAT effects come of industry and perseverence; lor audacity I doth almost bind and mate the I weaker sort of jniods.—Jßacoo.,

.SEPT. 12, 1934

vacation were Homer Watson and myself. On Sept. 8 we were told we were through. The two single men remained. I wonder wffiy? Mr, Wayman knows why, although it will be covered up in some way if possible and an alibi offered. Mr, Watson has a family of eight. 1 have a family of four, my wife has been ill for the last year, and I was placed at work by Mr. Pclfry because of my health, impaired by effects of gas received three different times during the World war. A deal like that smells rather strong, does it not? And that is not all; there are other cases of men working for Mr. Wayman who have no one to keep but themselves, anc a man with three separate incomes, and they never were on relief before going to work. Money paid to those who do not need it would enable several, married men to support their familits. I talked to Mr. Wayman at one time in regard to the man with three incomes, a‘nd he contended that as this man was placed on orders from Mr. Book, he w T as powerless to intervene. I wonder if Mr. Wayman will contend now that it is on orders of Wayne Coy? It looks as though the bootlickers hold the winning hand in those cases. Any one wishing complete data on any one of these cases, can get it from me at any time and I also have the proof to substantiate my statements. MODERN VERSION* OF SYMBOLISM By a Times Reader. In the matter of symbolizing it seems that the gigantic oil industries and others have chosen perfect symbols for themselves in the form of the huge prehistoric beasts. Os course, they pretend symbolism of the aged products. However, it may have fanned their vanity to feel that they also represented power motive, financial and political, as they have spent immense sums in perfecting their imaginary performances. Scientific theory is that the beasts’ bodies were so enormous and the brain so feeble that they were easy victims of attack by other wild animals or the survival of the fittest. A more modern version might be that on account of their huge siae they devoured all the other animals except the more clever ones which outwitted them. They then died of starvation, having defeated their own cause by their own greed. Seems as good a guess as the generally accepted one. Anyhow, it would complete the cycle of symbolism. nan Robert E. A. Crookston, whose letter on the relationships between capital and labor appeared in Monday’s Message Center, today asked The Indianapolis Times to correct a mistake in that letter. The printed version said, "I am a Communist . , .” It should have said, “I am not a Communist.”

BLOSSOMS

BY RUTH PERKINS I picked white blossoms on a hill When morning spread her fingers wide And singled out each shadowed place Where strips of night might seek to hide. I picked white blossoms on a hill Before the dew upon them dried. All day upon the hill I walked And fought the wind's swift moving load; Then home I went through thickening shade Where once the sparkling sun had glowed, , And dropped my blossoms bruised and dead, -Forgotten on .the dusty .road.