Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 115, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 September 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

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SATURDAY. SEPT 22. I3J

THE WAR MERCHANTS npHE senate munitions committee recesses until late fall, with a sea of headlines in Its wake. Aside from the lesser sensations of bribery, lobbying, excess profits, army-navy aid to arms exporters, and so on. what abuses has the committee shown to be in need of corrective action? From the viewpoint of national defense, it ha* been proved that American manufacturers help perfect the munitions plants of potential American enemies, and that the army and navy permit manufacturers to use their secret specifications in making weapons for foreign powers. Regarding interference with American foreign policy, it has been demonstrated: That munitions lobbyists have fought arms embargoes, and then tried to circumvent such embargoes by passing South American war orders along to British allies; That Americans have helped equip insurrections against friendly powers; That they have complained bitterly against the ••fomenting of peace’* in South America, and against the pernicious activities of the state department" in seeking to pacify Latin belligerents; That they have flouted the Treaty of Versailles by helping put Nazi Germany on something approximating a wartime basis in the air. As to the charge that Americans are part and parcel of an "arms internationale,” the committee showed in black and white that du Pont and Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries divided the world explosives trade between them, and that the Electric Boat Company and Vickers-Armstrong engaged In a similar partitioning of the world market for submarines. That the cause of peace was specifically and immediately damaged by the highpressure arms salesmen was amply proved. In South America particularly, the committee had evidence of arms agents flitting between the capitals of warring powers, egging one on against the other with reports of rival's purchases. The United States navy itself, through a naval mission to Peru, charted a naval policy for that nation, and then assigned to neighboring Colombia a naval officer who mapped Colombia's defense against peril. Many of the munitions men were obviously honest, upright, patriotic men—according to their lights. Others left the impression of plain money-grabbers with no concern at all for the consequences of their sordid vocation. But personal and business recitude can not exempt them from their share of the blame for a state of affairs in which foreign policy and military strategy are sometimes dictated almost as much from Wilmington or New York as from Washington. The Nye committee is doing a good Job. But the job is just begun. When the committee resumes its sessions it should reveal the relation of steel and other industries to the munitions racket. The solution rests with congress. Whether it be by nationalization of munitions plants, by licensing of exports, by international pacts, or some other method, we shall have to curb vvar-mongering for profit if we want peace. USELESS *CAMI*AIGNS’ IT is an unusual American city which can get through a year without having an elaborate traffic safety campaign. It usually happens about like this. A succession of bad accidents compels a thoughtless public to realize that the traffic death situation is intolerable. City government, civic organizations and newspapers demand action. Traffic authorities announce a big drive." For a few days the city court is clogged With traffic law violators. And then, pretty soon, everybody forgets about it. and the traffic toll keeps right on rising. Until the moment comes when all of us here in 'lndianapolis, as motorists, have a fully developed sen>e of our own responsibilty. only two things can be done. One is to increase the size and efficiency of the Indianapolis police traffic squad very materially; the other is to abolish the "fix" in traffic court. Until we do these things, our safety campaigns will have little effect. NEIiLECTED TEACHERS THE unpaid sclioolma am has become a familiar spectacle. In Chicago, after four very lean years, she finally has been given her money; but in some other cities she has not. and in a great many more she has had to take drastic reductions, or has been given only part of what is owed her. What has been happening to her in these hard years? Does she look on the society whose youth she is instructing with the same enthusiastic eyes that beheld it in 1929? Nobody can speak for ail the teachers, of course. But once in a while a teacher speaks * for herself, and what she has to say can make disturbing reading. In the current issue of The Nation, a Chicago teacher tells how she felt when that city finally borrowed money from the RFC and paid up. She got. ajt last, her four years' pay. By the time she had settled all her debts, she had just $94 left—all that she had to show for four years’ work at a supposedly good salary. As she says, she was luckier than many of her colleagues. She had not gone hungry nor lost her home, during the depression “I lost only my insurance, my automooile aryl my self-respect.** she writes. "I did lose one thing more, but that is not to oe regretted —my faith in the status quo. Few of us are the sweet, complacent, nonthinking 100 percenters we used to be.” And this new attitude, which the teachers * >

got through working without pay, she says, has been passed on to their pupils. 1 A few days ago a pupil asked her if any big fortune had ever been made “by not stealing.” Four years ago she would have anrwered in the traditional school book manner. But now? "Now,” she says. *1 have seen the board of education in action. I have seen its members—coal merchants and real estate dealers—bending school policies to their own profit. I have seen the instructions of the United States Chamber of Commerce to reduce educational appropriations wherever possible. I have heard myself called red' for daring to believe I had earned my salary and was entitled to it ... I couldn't answer that boy honestly and patriotically at the same time." Pondering over this attitude and reflecting that this young woman can not be the only teacher who has reached such conclusions, one is forced to the belief that organized society can hardly do a more suicidal thing than permit its schoolma’ams to go unpaid during a time of great social stress. AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR 'TMiE revelations made by the senate munitions investigating committee have come so rapidly that the average citizen probably is pretty confused. But. in his confusion, he is unquestionably developing a very strong resentment against the men who make vast fortunes out of selling the instruments of death; and if, in the coming session of congress, there should be a strong move for nationalization of the arms traffic, it would hardly be surprising. Just how such program would work out, however, in a world where other nations continue to permit the munitions trade to lie in private hands, is another question. It is possible that negotiations with foreign capitals would have to precede any such step. For one thing that the investigation has shown clearly is that the munitions trade is an international affair. It may be that only joint international action can put it under proper restraints. BILBO OF THE BAYOUS /''VUT of the backwoods of Mississippi comes Theodore Gilmore Bilbo, hell-bent for the United States senate. Nothing can stop him. He’s the Democratic nominee in a Democratic state, and if that isn't enough he's out flat-footed for the plain people, especially the veterans. In more than 1,000 speeches he has told ’em so. The rise of Bilbo of the Bayou state is another success story. From the time he was born in Juniper Grove he has been "diligent in his business" and therefore destined to stand before kings. He worked himself up from school teacher, preacher, lawyer and Governor to a niche in Washington. Last year he was discovered working in the agriculture department clipping newspapers at $6 000 a year. Like Sir Joseph in Pinafore, who so carefully polished the handle of the big front door that he got to be ruler of the queen’s Navee, this hero clipped so well that now he is to be a senator at SIO,OOO a year, less 5 per cent. Neighbor Huey Long, whom the Mississippi statesman imitates, had better look to his laurels as a disturber of the senate peace. Bilbo has promised "to raise more hell than Huey’—a big order. The senate will have a lot of serious work to do next winter and, doubtless, will not applaud the Long and Bilbo act. VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL? IN declaring for vertical unions in industry, General Hugh Johnson would seem to have tossed himself blithely into the most difficult part of our whole difficult labor situation. American labor organization has not, in most instances, proceeded along vertical lines. The overwhelming majority of our unions are craft unions. They extend horizontally, not vertically. One union, that is to say, mpy have locals in automobile plants and in boiler factories, in small machine shops and in shipyards; and the stronger it is, the more militant its leadership, the harder it is apt to be to change it. Plenty of people have remarked that under the NRA the vertical union presents a much more 1 ogical way of approach to the task unionization. But union leaders themselves are exceedingly reluctant to admit this point, and by espousing it publicly General Johnson has let himself in for a great deal of verywarm argument. WH VT, NO SUCCOTASH? A MERICAN travelers who return from Europe are fond of telling the great number of ways in which American life is more pleasant than European. But it remained for a midwest newspaper correspondent to get down to the real essentials. This man remarked recently that the chief trouble with Europe is that you 'can't buy decent tomatoes or corn on the cob there. In Rumania. Austria and Hungary, he says, oorn on the cob is a popular dish; in France and England a few restaurants serve it as a concession to American tourists; but m none of these places is it the juicy and flavorsome delicacy that Americans know. The ears tend to be small and nubbly, and they are almost invariably cooked until they are pithy and tasteless. And. he adds. European tomatoes are small, pinkish, and generally worthless. Here, surely, is a point for patriots to remember. A land that can not provide good sliced tomatoes and sweet corn must, by that very fact, be a pretty second-rate sort of place. If California becomes the land of milk and honey. Mr. Sinclair, won't there be a lot of flies? -—— . While the textile strike is on, how will the Nazis get all their flags and shirts? All of 'he New Deal reports will look good foi a while. Elections are here. Recently a donkey fell out of a truck and choked on its halter. Would the elephant have dor.e the same tiling? Protactinium, anew metal worth a million dollars an ounce, has been discovered. How long before Cecil B. De Mille will make a bathtub out of U?

Liberal Viewpoint —BY OR. HARRY ELMER BARNES—

THE debate between the apostles of scarcity and the prophets of plenty goes merrily on. Mr. R. R. Doane is writing a series of articles for the "New Outlook," designed to show that we are still in reach of scarcity. The great defect in Mr. Doane's figures and reasoning lies in the fact that he deals more with what we do produce or have produced than he does with what we might produce under the most efficient known methods. Yet, his articles have not caused me as much > pain as they haye some readers because they | really justify stepping up production and protiding more consumer's goods. One of the most distinguished and socially I minded of American engmeers, Dr. Walter N. Polakov, returns to the battle with zest in an article on "The Scarcity of Plenty: A Card Trick of the Old Dal,” in "Commonsense.’’ He rightly calls attention to the justifiable alarm on the part of ' Old Dealers” over the conception of plenty or abundance. "Clearly, to those who are benefited by special privileges, who own scarce goods and commodities, who control the means of production, who can jack up prices and extract profits, the very prospect of plenty is a nightmare, a threat to the continuance of their privileged position. As soon as is replaced by abundance they go into’ the scrap heap, into the pages of history together with feudal barons, cholera, the hand loom, pow-dered wigs and Newtonian mechanics.” a tt a THERE is much truth in the assertion that the line between the apostles of the old order and those of a better day is pretty definitely related to their respective attitude toward the scarcity versus the plenty economy. Just so far as President Roosevelt subscribes to the scarcity economy idea, he is really playing with the old gang, no matter how "new” he calls his deal to the American people. The plain fact is that scarcity in the United States today is a scarcity of purchasing power and not a scarcity of producing power. Even in farm products, where the scarcity agitators can make a better showing than elsewhere, we have a surplus of grain and several other basic products. There is no reason to believe that improved methods of production could not supply all we need of those products in which now register a deficiency. When we come to manufactured goods, it is certain that we can produce vastly more than is at present turned out. This is the opinion not merely of the technocrats, suspected of w-anting to prove a case, but also ,of the most conservative and competent engineers. Dr. H. D. Person of the Taylor society, has estimated that a capacity utilization of our present physical plant would double the quantity of goods which we produce in normal times. Mr. R. E. Flanders, formerly president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in himself an-important manufacturer, has contended that: nan “ A LL engineers know that if an engineer diclY tator over industry could be appointed and given complete control over raw material, machinery and trained labor, he could flood, bury and smother the people under an avalanche of goods and services such as no Utopian dreamer in his busiest slumbers ever imagined.” When we turn to income we have another story. Even in 1928-29 the purchasing power of the mass of Americans was far from sufficient to buy the goods turned out in those years. Our income had fallen greatly since that time. In j 1932, the per capita income of the American peo- j pie was only $372. Our national income shrank from $83,300,000,000 in 1929 to $43,450,000,000 in 1932. The scarcity, then, which afflicts this country is an income scarcity for the bulk of Americans. This is tlie lesult of the hogging of the social income by the’ very interests who are today maintaining that we have a scarcity of goods in the country. Dr. Polakov puts the whole matter concisely: "Fancying ourselves to be poor and living in self-imposed scarcity, refusing, to produce food, clothing, housing and other goods simply because we fail to fill our purses with symbolic •purchasing power ’ has nothing whatever to do with the potential output of our coal mines, cotton fields, cement mills and textile factories.”

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

PLUMP, bespectacled Dr. Hans Luther, the German ambassador, whizzed back to Washington from Boston by airplane the other day. The solid doorman at the embassy marveled at the buoyant way Herr Doktor Luther leaped from his machine. He seemed merry as a cricket. Dressed in a gray sports suit, he rubbed his hands, chuckled, greeted his staff ’ with much jocularity. “Your excellency appears in excellent health,” bowed one of the younger diplomats. “Ja! . . . Ja!” - exclaimed Herr Luther, "Ganz gut! . . . Jai ... A sea bath every day at Falmouth. Mass. That is the proper tonic.” In sprightly fashion, he recounted the way he presented to Ezra Round, dean of the Harvard Law 7 School, a degree of doctor of laws from Berlin university. “And he answered me in German,” exclaimed Luther, his eyes twinkling. "Really, Mr. Ambassador?” "Ja! . . . And later we sat down to a real Germah dinner." The tantalizing odor of red cabbage (or was it sauerkraut?) was wafted to Luther’s nostris from the embassy dining room. Pale Munich beer glistened temptingly in tall crystal goblets on the dining table. At exactly such a meal had Ezra Pound presided. Herr Luther inhaled the fragrance with delight. "Ja! ... A real German meal . . . Well, gentlemen, let us eat!" NOTE —Still taking a daily sea bath at Falmouth. Mass., and’doubtless becoming as plump and sprightly as Envoy Luther on red cabbage, is Herr Johann G. Lohmann, second secretary of the German Embassy. o tt a FIRST to welcome Ambassador Luther back to town was lank, somber-visaged Dr. Rudolf (Relentless Rudolf) Leitner, German counselor, in appearance the direct antithesis of his chief. Rudolf looks weary, and with some reason. His has been the delicate task of piloting about the city and its environs no less a personage than the distinguished Charles Edward, duke of Saxe-Coburs-Gotha. prince of Great Britain and Ireland, first cousin of King George of England and grandson of Queen Victoria. SENATOR EDWARD ° (COTTON ED) SMITH of Georgia, friend of the "dirt farmer.” arch enemy of Braintruster Rexford Tugwell and proponent of cotton, yesterday arrived hotfoot at the office of Secretary of Agriculture Wallace. Senator Smith has anew plan —and it sounds fairly radical, despite his Tuewellian bias. He wants to create a special banking system for agriculture. Walrus mustache bristling, eyes aglow with inspiration, brown-suited and warm. Senator Smith told about the speech he will deliver at Des Moines. la.. tomorrow. In it, he will describe his new plan. “I represent," exclaimed Senator Smith, when asked just what he represented in this plan, "the greatest oppressed industry of them all." The next mayor of New Baltimore, Mich., is 26. Recalling Shirley Temple and Schoolboy Rowe, it wouldn't be surprising if the government d&lared an old age pension for any one over 30. The top hat is gradually disappearing from London. Streamline seems to be today's international byword.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Hake pour letters sho'-t, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or lessJ m 9 HEARTS OF GOLD AND HEADS OF IVORY By Daniel B. Luten. There is at present an excess both of capital and of labor. Paying more to labor will not put capital to work because it will reduce profits which is the objective of capital. But paying more to capital will put labor to work. What is needed for recovery from the depression is more encouragement to business to make profits. What folly then to condemn profits as Professor Tugwell and other professed altruists have done. Hearts of gold, heads of ivory. a a everybody works IN THEIR FAMILY By O. B. We have of late read much about the chiseler and this column has been full of -beefs” abou this and that until one wonders just where common horse sense really is practiced. There is a man working at the Real Silk, as does his wife, and he is trying to run a blue sky garage at his home, working until very late at night and Sundays and in the rain -at times. He runs cars up and down the alley at high speeds testing brakes, etc., creating a hazard for children who'play in the alley. This couple stayed at home dur- : ing the strike, but was kept well ini formed as to when it was safe for I them to come to work again by some I official of the company in exchange for some work on his car. Now the president of Real Silk | has made it known repeatedly that ! the company pays the best of wages I and the working conditions are the best and therefore the strike was j caused by Communists or somel thing and yet this man has to be assisted by his wife working and j also has to resort to working hair j the night on automobiles to make a I living. It would appear that if Mr. Goodman's statements are correst there would be no need for the wife work- ; ing, much less the late hour working ! on autos. Maybe Mr. Goodman could an- ! swer the question, ‘'Who is the chiseler?” a a a VETERAN STRONG FOR SENATOR ROBINSON Bv Sam Waller. Replying to John Samulowitz in The Message Center of Sept. 19, I wish to say that I am a Protestant : while he is a Catholic, although in j the very’ depth of my heart and soul *L am still a veteran, one of the boys. ! if you please, of T7-’lB that you all were so proud of but who under the present administration, of which I am guilty of having been kidded into voting and working for, have been paraded before you as a lot of lazy bums. My dear Catholic friend. I wish to ask you. did the government of the United States ask you if you we're a Catholic or a Protestant when it had a tack for you to do? You bet your neck it did not and you can also bet your neck that as we stood shoulder to shoulder during that rich min's war we are also going to turn a deaf ear to the politician’s cry of religion and we, the defenders of our fair and noble land b

ONE RIDER TOO MANY

Faith Expressed in New Deal

By Perry -Rule. The early settlers of our country, the Pilgrims, the pioneers and trail blazers, are splendid examples of faith, hope and courage. Many times they were tempted to give up in despair for hardships and misery stalked their trails and scored many vicious victories. But they held on with confidence, determination and faith, and it eventually brought them happiness and contentment. We have high hopes because that spirit has survived. When the banks closed a little more than a year ago, business stood still, starvation stalked our cities, worthless crops glutted farms; everywhere it was asked, "Can America pull through? Will there be a revolution?” • With a grim belief in representative government, an abiding confidence in the leadership of our chief executive and a steadfast faith in our country to overcome all obstacles, the people have sub- • are going to get squarely behind our tried and true friend, Senator Arthur Robinson. My friend I salute you and hope to meet you at th.3 rally after our friend Arthur has been returned to the senate by the veterans, and although we know 7 The Times is against us, I believe it shall print this in The Message Center. Let all of us veterans, regardless of religion, go to work for our friend. Senator Robinson, to whom the veterans of the whole United States look as their lone sentinel in Washington. tt a tt CHARGES GAMBLING STILL FLOURISHES By a Subscriber. Sometime ago I read an editorial in your paper in which you threatened to expose downtown gamoling unless action was taken by police. I was very much encouraged to see your paper take this stand. However, I know that the police have not bothered any of the seven dice games that I know about. Your editorial evidently did not frighten the gamblers and I am anxiously awaiting your expose of the conditions. tt a tt URGES REMOVAL OF SLOT MACHINES By Mrs. Eldridse. In regard to slot machines, I really think it is time to move them out of business places. Persons can say all they wish about these beer places, but what about minors playing slot machines —dropping pennies in them — and never getting anything back. Children 8 and 9 years old play and persons wonder how children get the habit of gambling. It is nothing but graft. Who owns these machines? It looks as though they would have a mind and conscience about taking money and giving nothing in return. ana CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DECLARED FETTLE By Raymond E. Wisehart. I desire to give my views upon the subject of capital punishment. I register my opinion, which is extremely adverse to capital punishment, in the hope that it will stimulate faintly the idea among men that it is wrong to commit murder.

F I wholly disapprove of what you say and will l de f end to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.

scribed cheerfully to the New Deal, which is in compliance with the constitutional provisions for justice so all may have liberty. The New Deal has put men back to work, started the wheels of industry turning and put anew sense of hope and confidence in the hearts of all. It inspires us to believe that we are strong enough, rich enough and fair enough to help ourselves and our neighbors regain our proud and rightful place in commerce, industry and agriculture. The vision of better times is ahead. The responsibility nowfacing us is the determination to pull together and to give aid in a common cause; all snould want to see the nation get back on its feet and everybody prosper again. Naturally, we would all share in any prosperity that comes to the nation as a result of co-operating with the heroic efforts put forth by President Roosevelt and his coworkers.

The capital punishment law belongs to the dark ages. We knowthat we must have laws to combat crime, but the present law fails to eradicate the cause. It only intensifies the suffering and brings shame upon us. When Governor Lehman issued his 500-word statement endeavoring to vindicate himself for the execution of a Mrs. Antonio, he left out the fact that his state gave him power to issue a reprieve or to commute the sentence. His hands were stained with the blood of Mrs. Antonio, and her children. He knew it, and was thus publicly "washing' his hands.” In my opinion, no water can ever wash the blood from the hands of those who made such a law. This law does nothing other than premediate,carefully plan and enact in grim reality, a murder. The murder of the wicked fiend, committed in a moment of rage or insanity, is unlike capital punishment. What is there more horrible than the newspaper reports of the modern execution? What message will he who is dressed in the black death suit convey to the regions beyond? The electric chair does not get at the cause, if you look at it in a social way. Pontius Pilate lies in his grave with his wretched hands stained with the blood of Jesus Christ. He too tried to wash his hands, but miserably failed. I am particularly interested in the Antonio case in New York. I do not believe the case is ended. The Court of Eternal Justice will rule on it on the Day of Judgment. There is no cure for murder. When will we be sensible enough to realize this fact and make laws that will cause us to teach the offenders the sacredness of life? When will we teach them to regard life as man’s most cherished possession? I am afraid that such a thing would enter the realm of perfection, and on this earth no perfection is known. SOB ANOTHER REPORT ON CITY TRUCK DRIVER By a Subscriber. In reference to the article that appeared In The Times Message Center about the city truck driver on English avenue, accused of almost running down school children. I want to say that this article was

.SEPT. 22, 1934

exaggerated. I don't recall the number of the truck—l think it was 107 or 170. The driver was moving down English avenue to Rural street. He was in the middle of the street about to make a turn, when the policeman on duty motioned to him to go ahead. He made a turn into Rural street. He was driving very slowly at the time and if any comment is to be made on the way he drove, I can say he appeared to me to be a very careful driver and he gave the proper signals. There were several persons standing around at the time and they couldn't understand why the policeman called the driver at all. The statement was made that the children had to jump out of the street; there were no children in the street at the time. I am not in any way connected with the city nor do I know the driver but I wanted to correct a false impression that readers of your paper may have received.

Sc They Say

. The strikes are the sign of the awakening of the working class. Labor has arisen from inertia. They are the rumblings of the storm to come.—Emma Goldman, anarchist. V Banks are altogether too liquid. If they can find sound loans, they should make them. We can't have recovery unless loans are made.— Chairman Leo T. Crowley of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In the wdrds of Mark Twain, my political future is behind me.—Patrick J. Hurley, ex-secretary of war. The world now is not mentally attuned to the theater.—Max Reinhardt, famous German producer.

At Grandma’s

BY NELL MACE WOLFGANG Oh, Id like to go out to grandma's, To her old-fashioned clapboard house— Far—far away in the country, Where it's as quiet as a mouse. And there ’neath the silver leaf poplar, Away up high let me swing— And then to pull at the old long rope, Just to hear the dinner bell ring. Then to hunt eggs in the granary And bury myself in the wheat— While grandma laughs as she pulls me out And tells me we’ve got that to eat. I'd like to climb up to her cupboard. Put old-fashioned dishes away— Each with remembrances so dear to her From a bride to the present day. Then to go into her sittin’ room And find everything nice and neat— And she reads a verse from the Bible Ar.d her evening prayer would repeat. Oh. just to climb on her feather bed And soon be reposing in sleep— But I can't go back to dear grandma's. So this tender memory I'll keep.