Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 122, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 October 1934 — Page 6

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MONDAY OCT 1. 1934 THE HIG ELECTION of the most important "elections' of our history is scheduled for this fall or winter. It will be secret, the date of it will not be known even after the announcement of its result some Monday, and there will be only nine voters. The United States supreme court, meeting Monday, will hold this “election” on the New Deal issue some time this session. Several cases Involving the Roosevelt program already are filed, and others are on their way to the court. Some but not all of these cases will probably call for a statement by the court of its philosophy and attitude toward the New Deal. Some of the legal points will be determined on the basis of procedure or Jurisdiction. But the important “election" will come on the basis policies. Supreme court decisions seldom are reversed. and then only after many years. Its rules of government, as set forth in its decisions, are conformed to closely by federal and state legislatures. The supreme court sets boundaries, beyond which law-makers rarely venture. Congress under the emergency of 1933 enacted certain necessary measures, with specified time limits. The emergency Is not terminated. but some of the New Deal laws will end soon. Many of them have been challenged, unsuccessfully for the most part. In the lower courts. Now the supreme court is to rule. When the fundamental policy cases come up. and the legal technicalities are sheared off. the issue will be clear. Is the Constitution a strait-jacket; more specifically, does the "due process" clause of the fourteenth amendment prohibit congress from attempting to attain social justice? Conservatives contend the answer is "Yes.” They long have used this clause, adopted incidentally after the Civil war and not by the founding fathers, as a legal cloak to protect property Interests at the expense of human interests. The supreme court Itself, by 5-4 votes in a few cases involving state laws, last term upheld emergency legislation against attacks of property interests. Now the real test comes.

CRACKPOT CRIME CURES AT the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention. Chief Siccardi of Bergen county. New Jersey, urged the fingerprinting of every man. woman and child in the United States. This familiar artifice may fit the social morality of old world dictatorships, but certainly not that of a free republic. Less extreme is a campaign, led by Lawrence Elliman. chairman of the New York Btate Chamber of Commerce, to have congress require the finger-printing of all aliens. The fact that the Lindbergh suspect happens to be a deportable foreigner should not lead us into another spree of alien-baiting. Other suggestions are that the Federal Bureau of Investigation be enlarged into a great American Scotland Yard, that all major crimes be broadcast over the radio, that harsher penalties be imposed. There are no short cuts to a crimeless America. We must perfect police and court personnel and procedure to insure swift and certain justice. As President Roosevelt told the police chiefs. "This respect for law and this security are possible only when the administration of justice is entrusted to wise, upright, patriotic and courageous officials." We must make the whole mechanism of crime abatement and punishment more intelligent. more honest. But even then, unless we cleanse society of crime s breeding places, we shall have criminals who rob and kill and terrorize. Hawkers of crackpot crime cures need some of the understanding of that outstanding criminologist. Austin H. MacCoi mack. commissioner of correction of New York. Here is his remedy: “Crime prevention must go back to the sources, and criminology must become sociology in its broadest sense.” he said. "A juvenile court is worth more to society than a criminal court. A child behavior clinic is worth more than a prison. A slum clearance law is worth more than a penal law. Social justice is worth more than criminal justice. If you would prevent crime back at the roots hack at the roots!" THE ACID STORY WHY did Acting Captain Warms of the Morro Castle fail on his first appearance as a witness to tell the sensational acid# story he told the commerce departments hearing the other day? The testimony is more significant because it implies serious criminal intent on the part of George Alagna. first assistant radio operator. who had declared that madmen were in charge of the ship." The extraordinary new story is that Captain Willmotl. ships master, was so afraid the night he died that Alagna would throw acid on him he locked himself in his room out refused to have Alagna put in irons or have his room searched, saying. “Hes so damned smart fie wouldn't keep anything around his room." The story is very, very weak. Par more to the point is Captain Warms admission that be did not have enough junior the owners did not provide them. We are gratified to note that Chairman Hoover of the board will examine the Ward Line officials. We believe that Captain Warms’ new accusation makes it more indispensable than ever that the board not only question the line Officials closely but recall witnesses ana ask them explicitly what the line lawyers or officials said to them, whether they sought to intimidate or coach them, and in what manner. The lawyers also could be called later. It la unfortunate that the board did not question Captain Warms more thoroughly a

The President’s Speech An Editorial

WHEN the President got through last night there was not much left of his Tory critics. To the Old Guard cry that the government should not Interfere with business, he answered. In the words of the venerated Republican, Elihu Root, that economic relations "present new questions for the solution of which the old reliance upon the free action of individual wills appears quite inadequate. And in many directions, the Intervention of . . . government seems necessary to produce the same result of Justice and right conduct which obtained through the attrition of individuals before the new conditions arose.” At the Tories who try to use the Constitution as a club against progress, he flung the challenge of Chief Justice White, the conservative: “There Is great danger, it seems to me, to arise from the constant habit which prevails where anything is opposed or objected to. of referring without rhyme or reason to the Constitution as a means of preventing its accomplishment, thus creating the impression that the Constitution is but a barrier to progress instead of being the broad highway through which alone true progress may be enjoyed.” On the defensive side it was an exceedingly effective speech. a a a BUT on the offensive side the President did not get far. The people are much more interested in learning the definite recovery plans of their chosen leader than in seeing him turn to flay his already defeated and discredited Tory’ enemies. ( The real enemy is depression. That is not yet defeated. The business upturn reported by the President was last spring. In the last two months the curve has been steeply downward. Profits are decreasing. Unemployment is increasing. Cost of living is rising. Real wages and purchasing power are dropping. The national debt and the current operating defict are mounting. That does not mean we should get panicky. None but fools and quacks expected the country to pull out of its deepest depression within a year and a half. All we have a legitimate right to expect is—as the President phrased it last year—that we are on our way, that we are moving forward by the trial and error method. This momentary backsw ing would be alarming only If the President lost his ability to correct the errors, to make decisions, to tell the people frankly what the next move is. Last night's speech was unsatisfactory precisely because it was unlike the positive President Roosevelt.

about his conferences with the line lawyers or officials. The rights of the disaster victims can be protected against the company’s campaign to defeat them only by aggressive efforts of the investigators to learn the full truth about the company responsibility and the conduct of its officials and lawyers. THE CHURCH BOWS TO MARS IN its appeal for a national back-to-church movement, the National Committee for Religion and Welfare Recovery points to a fact that should cause us to stop and consider. The single fact is that, “even during the depression, America increased its expenditures for armaments by more than $100,000,000. while contributions to the church decreased nearly $300,000,000." In other words, the United States government increased its funds for military’ purposes from $680,000,000 in 1927 to $788,000,000 In 1933, while its people contributed $833,000,000 to the churches in 1927 and only $550,000,000 in 1933. The National Committee for Religion and Welfare Recovery uses this fact in its effort toward getting Protestants, Catholics and Jews to attend their churches and synagogues on Oct. 6 and 7. But perhaps nothing but war itself may drive some of us back to thoughts of the better things of life.

A TRADITION GOES EVERY American tourist, and everybody who hopes to become one, will entertain a feeling of disappointment and sorrow over the latest’ruling by the Riza Shah, absolute monarch of Persia, that women discard the traditional white veils that have covered their faces for centuries. To be sure, the Occident should consider this order as a concession on the part of the east to enlightenment and progress. Abandonment of the feminine veil Is only one of several such steps made under direction of Persia's modern ruler. But what kick will the average American visitor to Teheran get out of Persian women who look like women, and out of a nation that is getting more and more to look like any other civilized country? The glamour and mysticism of the east is dving out. and with it goes much of its attraction for the Occidental traveler. FOR THE NEW POOR IF there is any one who complacently thinks the scanty relief of government doles to the depression’s victims is enough, he has much to learn from the evidence presented in Washington at the Mobilization for Human Needs conference. This conference represents social services maintained largely by private giving. President Farrand of Cornell told what five years of want and near-want have done to the health of the people. Medical care furnished the new poor today is little more than half of what they were accustomed to receive during normal times. Studies indicate 66 per cent more sickness among families of the unemployed than those of full-time workers. Others pleaded the cause of the depression s child victims, who rftust have fresh milk, special care, recreation, the personal attentions denied them from broken homes and extreme poverty. Private givers are asked to maintain maternity and nursing services, recreation projects and character building agencies. It is to impress Americans with these obligations, and remind them that they must not relax in their giving, that thirtyfour national welfare organizations are meeting in Washington on the eve of the community chest season. “Unemployment," said Chairman Newton Baker, “has increased sickness, proved a menace to normal childhood, brought about 0 IT/

The only definite part was about NRA reorganization, which was known already. Even there he did not say how far he is going in dropping price fixing and production restriction; or in enforcing the collective bargaining law. His Intimation that he will repeat the Hoover request for a capital-labor truce only can end in failure as the Hoover truce ended—unless there is business revival. What good is a shorter week or higher wage if the factory shuts dowm? On the basis of last year's experience it seems fair to assume that there will be no major sustained recovery jjrtil private capital goes back to work, until the vast credit reservoir Is turned into productive channels. No amount of government spen ding can take the place of private investment as long as this is a capitalist system. The barrier is not spite, not a boycott against the New Deal. It is uncertainty. People who have money and credit are not buying and are not borrowing, because they do not know what the value of money is to be, what the rules of the game are to be. They do not know whether the federal budget is to be balanced, or how or when; whether inflation or taxation is to be the method. Or what kind; whether tariff walls are to continue or foreign trade to be attempted; whether the federal reserve is to be revived or a central bank established; whether the farm processing taxes and crop destruction are to continue; whether the RFC is to go out of business; whether TVA is to be extended; whether public w’orks are to be cut in half or doubled, and so on down the list—the New Deal policies are not known to the public. And that uncertainty—rightly or wrongly—is feeding the fear of the future which helps to block recovery. a a a T? CONOMICALLY there is every reason why this country should forge ahead rapidly. The natural resources are here, the financial reserves, the industrial equipment, the trained labor and will to work, and the largest consuming market in the world. Many of the recent barriers have been largely removed: the ivatered stocks, the speculative setup, the banking joker, the farm foreclosures, the child labor and sweat shops, the overbuilt plant and glutted market. Most important is the sincerity of the President’s leadership and the willingness of the nation to follow. But to retain that faith and hope the President must continue to lead, and must be franker with the people than he was last night. He need not worry about the elections. It is recovery that counts.

enforced leisure with attendant dangers and increased fear and insecurity in millions of homes. ‘‘Society can not be rebuilt by relief measures alone. The privately-supported social agencies of our communities are necessary.” President Roosevelt told the conference he w’as confident the people of America will understand and co-operate ‘‘in this great mobilization for human needs.”

Liberal Viewpoint -B* DR. HARR* ELMER BARNES—-

Tkyf'R. HERBERT AGAR won the Pulitzer prize in history last spring for his 1 book, "The People’s Choice,” which aimed to prove that the mass of American voters have failed notably in their choice of leaders of the republic, particularly so in most of the chief executives whom they have placed in the White House. In the current issue of The American Scholar, the national magazine of the famous Phi Beta Kappa society, he offers an interpretation of private property which will prove equally upsetting to conventional minds. Mr. Agar contends that capitalism itself In its developed form is the very antithesis of a system of real private property. He summarizes his interesting thesis in the following fashion: “One error underlying American liberal American thought is the belief that the United States now is engaged in a struggle to preserve a system of private property against the menace of Communism. In fact, the tradiiional American social order, which was based on the institution of private property, already has been supplanted largely by thorough-going capitalism. nun “ A ND the essence of captalism,” he goes on A “and this has been true ever since its origins in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is thal property in significant amounts is not owned by the ordinary citizen. Everybody in America still may own something. But only a small proportion of the population owns a share in the means of production—land, tools, natural resources. “It is only when private property in this real sense is widely distributed that the institution of private property can be said to exist; it is only then that the benefits of that instituion such as responsibiliy, enterprise, family stability, can be expected. But when the means of production are owned by a very small percentage of the population it is vain to expect the watching millions to be filled with enterprise or endowed with responsibility or hope. “It is this latter state to which America has come today. And the name of the state is capitalism. And capitalism is the negation of private property. But the liberal continues to talk and plan as if capitalism meant private property, which explains why the liberal finds it hard to solve the problems raised by capitalism.” nun “AN amusing example of this lack of realism.” continues Mr. Agar, “was offered by Mr. William Wirt when he complained that the members of the President’s Brain Trust were out to destroy the ‘America of Washington. Jefferson and Lincoln.’ Mr. Wirt might just as reasonably have been shocked if some rash youth had suggested destroying the America of Pocohontas.” Mr. Agar believes that we can restore private property without resorting to either Communism or Fascism. “If American people made up their minds that they really wished to return to a system of private property it would be quite possible for the modern tools of production to be owned on a share-system by companies whose shares had a real meaning. “The first step toward such a system would be to break the existing credit-monopoly, which gives finance the power to make all so-called ownership a joke. The second step would be to pass laws to foster and protect the small owner, creating artificial disadvantages in the path of enormous concentrations of ownership. “The details of such a program have been worked out and can be found in the copious literature of distributism; they need not be repeated here. But jyhat does need constant repitition is that there is nothing about modem machine technique w’hich makes the system of distributed private property impossible.” For some time a Frenchman has been trying to bring Into the United States 100,000 gallons of whisky. This is the only Instance we can cite where red tape is an advantage —the whisky is getting older all the time.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Timet readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or lessj n n ts LAST DEPRESSION SET FOR 1943. By Star Gazer. The President’s problem in attempting to increase industrial production is vexatious because of the conflict of interest between the various producers and between producers and labor. Rugged individualism is the mainspring of the capitalistic system of production. The system forces labor to yield a large part of its real earnings in the form of profits to capital. When this profit is taken from labor, without providing additional employment, through new construction of capital goods, and more consumer goods, then the capital structure is undermined and will fall. The capitalistic system is not experiencing a decline in stability. No radical change from capitalism is possible until the system completely fails to meet public need. This depression will very likely be the last one before the system go into the discard. Another so-called boom period will follow this depression, beginning in 1936 and gradually reaching its peak in 1942, but 1943 will see the end of capitalism, because two major depressions within seven years will be more than the rising generation will take lying down. The collapse of 1943 will make the 1929 collapse look insignificant. The hardships ensuing will force reorganization of industry along cooperative lines, eliminating the waste of competition, setting new standards of efficiency, creating coordination in each industry and with other industries. Ownership of the industries will be similar to municipally owned utilities. If the change comes by evolution, the groundwork for it must be laid during the next period of rising Industrial activity. Failure in this portends disaster. The change will come whether we want it or not; conditions will force it to preserve civilization. Government is a mere “will of the wisp” in stemming the natural forces in the social order. nun THERE’S NOTHING NEW ABOUT REGIMENTATION By a limn Reader. “The Challenge to Liberty,” written by Herbert Hoover overlooks the regimentation of every industrial worker. That regimentation started about the time the Constitution was written. All who hire to others for wages or salaries immediately drop their own ideas about how, when and where they shall perform their services. They must accept regimentation as the first premise of employment. Usually, in our American system, the card index system already lists the worker's name if he has been regimented before. The information card requires complete data on positions filled and salaries received in other places, or industrial regiments, and time of service on previous drill grounds. Liberty seems to be a catchword for a skin game. Slavery by any other name would still be slavery. Real liberty, not the kind Mr. Hoover wants, will create an economic system in which there will be no parasites. It will be a planned economy, eliminating all the waste of useless competition; it will destroy poverty for all who work, and let those who won't work starve. The workers of America have been regimented since the indus- j trial revolution began more than a century ago. They have practically nothing to say about how the j industry u* which they cure at-

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The Message Center

GOOD MORNING, TEACHER!

Railroad Co-Ordinator’s Task Described

By a Student. Mr. Eastman, railroad co-ordi-nator, faces two serious obstacles In his efforts to bring the transportation lines up to date. The first problem relates to useless overhead resulting from multiple organization. If as many postal units existed as railroad companies, with each unit having separate bookeeping, supervisory personnel, duplicate equipment, and useless salaries from top to bottom, then the postal system might also show a $13,000,000,00 bonded debt. A 4arge part of that debt represents equipment which has been scrapped years ago. Since the property behind much of this debt has vanished, the securities would seem to be somewhat insecure. Twenty per cent of the capital structure of the roads must be written off, before they can move off of their dead financial center. Postponing the write off of $5,000,000,000 of capital structure only adds to the difficulty. Eastman’s problem of consolidation will be simplified materially by 1936.- because the decline of business volume in 1935 will force a write off of both debt and capital. Price declines will reach new

tached shall be operated. If they attempt to say anything, their dinner pail is in jeopardy. They dc have the liberty to starve. We have seen plenty of dictatorship over labor, which has set the standard of living through low wages, on a scale as low as slavery. Will Mr. Hoover sponsor real liberty for the workers of America, or ballyhoo for a fake liberty to continue their exploitation? nun ASSERTS ROOSEVELT’S PROMISES FUTILE By Old Timer. In asking President Roosevelt to make a statement as to the administration’s future policy and program respecting matters pertaining to business, the business men of the country have apparently not learned anything during the past year and a half. Suppose that the President were to issue a statement and proclaim a definite policy to reassure business, is there any one gullible Enough to place any confidence in such a statement? The policy of President Roosevelt in the past has not been such as to inspire confidence, and it is not likely that any statement that he might make will be accompanied by the least attempt at sincerity. The.history of the present administration is nothing but a continued series of broken promises and repudiations. History does not record anytning that even very nearly approaches it. For that reason it is foolish in the extreme for American business men to ask the President to state his future policy. If President Roosevelt desires to restore confidence, he should do so by actions rather than attempt to do so by words. nun FEARS POLITICIANS HAMPER V. F. W. By R. L. Warner. I have been a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars for a good many years and have always enjoyed its teachings and also the principles of the organization, but in the past few weeks it has seemed to me that certain members and their posts have been slipping. Perhaps it is none of my business, as I am not a member of any post in Indianapolis, or for that matter, in the state. One of the principles of posts over tbs country Urn 2 have been a

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

low depths next year. A “buyers’ strike,” caused by lack of chasing power, will put the brakes on industry next year to such a degree that 1934 will look like a boom year. This decline in production will smash prices. The price smash will topple the American debt structure, and force capital reorganization, receivership, and bankruptcy of many small and large concerns. A tense period of financial suffering will be experienced, but this operation will be beneficial in that the recovery period then \:an really begin. Our debt structure, both public and private, is the real obstacle to recovery. With the railroad debt structure reduced and capital written down, anew era of railroading can begin, by modernizing the railroads, with rubber tired trains, Diesel locomotives, paved right of way for fast freight and passenger traffic, elevated grade crossings and stream lined air conditioned trains. The second big job will be to displace the useless duplicate equipment and salaried personnel —this will be as hard as junking the debt. But it is part of America's evolution. Mr. Eastman holds a position of opportunity.

member of was that there would be no mixing in politics. But what has been going on In Indianapolis? We find one post not only mixing in politics but harboring a political henchman. Members of the post located In Haughville, I ask you what is this man Toney Flacks to your past? Is he a member or is he just playing you for suckers? Why was he the chairmatn at the county meeting held in Tomlinson hall? These are just a few of the questions that you will have to answer for prospective members. And now, to cap the climax, I see that Mr. Minton, the picked man of the traveling man of the statehouse was taken into your post as a member. Why did he not enter a post in his own city? This may be only another political move of the sly Mr. Flack. So wake up comrades and give this petty ward healer a ticket to the dumps. I have seen a good many posts lose all the prestige they had just because they listened to some politician and the good old V. F. W. is far too noble an organization to become the football of the politicians. nun TRAFFIC CONDITIONS CAUSE COMPLAINT Br J. Thornton. The writer, who is a frequent vistiter in Indianapolis, had occasion to drive downtown for a purchase at one of the Washington street stores. After driving around a block several times and even going as far north as the telephone building on Meridian street, I was forced to give up the idea of parking my automobile. Not only was every available and authorized space taken but I counted as many as twelve cars in one block parked double. It is quite possible that double parking hid more than one available parking space. What has .happened to the system of moving parked cars every hour or suffering a reminder? What has happened also to the rights of a motorist who expects the law and traffic regulations to be enforced The writer’s experiences of today happened to some persons driving through Indianapolis some weeks ago. Unable to park their automobile except in a forbidden zone and being decent enough not to obstruct traffic by parking double, they

_OGT. 1, 1934

drove on through the city without stopping. A few years ago in New Orleans, the writer thought his car had been stolen when finding it had vanished from where it had been parked. Investigation developed that it had been impounded for overtime parking and the city was $2.00 richer, the cost of redemption. The columns of your paper could be used to combat these flagrant annoyances and see that those too lazy to do other than park double and those who park for hours and perhaps all day be severely reprimanded. n n n UTILITY COMPANIES DENY NRA IGNORED Bv a Times Reader. If you want an example of how a prominent utility is not co-operat-ing with the times generally, you do not have to go any farther than the Midland group, composed of the Northern Indiana Power Company and the Public Service Company of Indiana. With business generally better than a year ago, the companies have decided upon a “general 10 per cent cut in personnel.” This in spite of the fact they have cut so much in the past, and employed scarcely any additional help since the depression, their statements to the contrary notwithstanding. You will find the groups’ officials draining the communities, paying themselves excessive salaries, but their employes a bare living wage, and then cutting that, and forcing them into overtime work. It seems such a direct slap at the general recovery program (officials all seem to be thorough haters of the New Deal), that I thought you might be interested in hearing about it. Unfortunately, I can not divulge my name, but I hope you can give all such concerns which refuse to co-operate with the administration and NRA the full publicity they deserve. Editor’s Note—Officials of the Northern Indiana Power Company and the Public Service Company of Indiana cite testimony several months ago before the public service commission as to increased operating expenses because of NRA observance, the 3 per cent federal energy tax, and rising commodity prices and taxes. It was pointed out that NRA wage scales are being observed and that the five-day week is in effect. A comparison of the pay roll of the two companies for July, 1933. with August, 1934, shows an annual increase of approximately $700,000, officials said. No preferred or common stock dividends have been paid since October, 1933, it was pointed out.

Sc They Say

I appeal to every woman in Britain to say to her husband or son every morning: “Be careful, come home alive!” Major Leslie HoreBelisha. Great Britain’s minister of transport.

NEMESIS

BY RUTH PERKINS Fortune's transientness in versatile form Offered me love, flung at me love. But I was a fixture unmindful of storm, A wiseacre, I killed this love. Ah, such vicissitude, capricious this flame Ceasing to be your gehenna Left you, oh sad love untrue to your name. Wherefore deserve I this gehenna?