Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 132, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 October 1934 — Page 22

PAGE 22

The Indianapolis Times <▲ SCRirrs.HOWARD NEW CPAIT.B) ROI W. HOWARD PresKlant TA.LCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Bualnesa Ur.;>r Fbon* RHT •* aßl

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FRIDAY. OCT. 12. 134. CRIME AND TELETYPE ALMOST twenty-four hours after Mrs. Alice Stoll, young Louisville society woman, was kidnaped from her home Wednesday, Indianapolis police had no official word of the crime from Kentucky or federal authorities. It appears that all precautions taken by states and United States officers to block the nation's terrific kidnap toil will go to waste if such practices are permitted. Indiana is the neighboring state of Kentucky. The kidnaper who slugged and bound Mrs. Stoll had the choice of fleeing into the hills of Kentucky or turning north into Indiana. To And him in Kentucky' may be a tedious job but to have warned the principal cities and towns of Indiana of his flight certainly would have put forth a stumbling block for him had his detour from crime sent him into this state. The kidnaper of Mrs. Stoll is facing a hopeless future. Surely he will be caught. And just as surely he will pay for his crime. But if authorities of Indiana and Kentucky had been in co-operative touch with each other there is no telling how soon the criminal would have been captured after commission of the kidnaping. In eastern states, authorities of important cities and towns are linked by tne famed teletype system which flashes the word of a crime to each and every police officer whose duty it is to prevent escape. If Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois had been interlocked on such a teletype alarm system, the word of the kidnaping would have flashed across the wires soon after the Louisville officers were notified of the crime. When The Indianapolis Times called the Indianapolis police department in midafternoon yesterday the answer still was that the department had not been notified officially. The time for Indiana to act is now’. Why should there be any delay in halting the flight of a criminal such as the man who kidnaped Mrs. Stoll? Indiana officials immediately should join in a pact with Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio leaders against crime and install the famous teletype system. It would be one of the greatest steps in the prevention of crime. Without it, this and other states of the midwest still will be at loss to cope with the misdeeds of the populace.

LABOR FIGHTS LABOR THE fights now taking up so much time of the American Federation of Labor convention are added arguments for some machinery for the orderly settlement of juridictional disputes. Such disputes are serious obstacles to orderly collective bargaining. Often they result in senseless strikes. A recent dispute between carpenters and sheet metal workers over the installation of SBOO worth of equipment in the new labor department building in Washington tied up work on this much needed building for eight weeks and cost the workers an estimated $320,000 in wages. Behind the rows often are selfish motives, such as memberships dues or the vested interest certain labor leaders have in their jobs or in control of A. F. of L. policies. But chiefly, it would seem, the evil lies in the lack of any central body within the federation with courage enough to settle such disputes or discipline member unions. Union labor naturally wants no interference from the public in its internal affairs. The public on its side has the right to expect orderly self-discipline from labor. If the labor unions can not agree among themselves how can they expect to get responsible agreements with employers? The A. F. of L. officials apparently do not realize all of the dangerous implications in this continuing jurisdictional warfare. DEFEAT OF A DISEASE NEWS ihat scientists of the Pasteur institute have at last perfected a vaccine for yellow fever brings one of the most heroic and inspiring chapters in the history of medicine nearer to its conclusion. The fight to wipe out this great plague has enlisted some of the finest brains in medicine, and some of the oravest spirits. From Reed to Noguchi, the work has been in the hands of men who did not hesitate to risk their own lives; and it has been carried forward with an intellectual skill and a patience that are nothing less than amazing. It is fitting, too. that two American scientists—Drs. Andrew Watson-Scllards and Hans Theiler. both of the Harvard Medical school — should have played prominent parts in development of the new vaccine. It was Americans who struck the first great blow in the fight against yellow fever. It is good to learn that Americans, also, were in on the last campaign of the war. “RURAL REHABILITATION” TN its new role of big brother to the destitute, the federal government has pioneered in many acts of kindness. When history of these deeds is recorded, honorable mention must be given to that humble little Federal Emergency Relief Administration service known as rural rehabilitation. This service has been carried to twentyseven states, chiefly in the south, where the FERA is moving stranded families on to leased small acreages of fertile land. Instead of giving them doles, the government provides lowmtcrest loans or buys equipment, such as mule*, chickeps, seeds, implements and other essentials for self-help. The head of the family may repay the loan in work on relief projects. Asa result, 80,000 families hWre been taken ofi the relief roles. Aiabam. was allotted

$629,000, an average of slll a family aided. More than half of this has been liquidated by work relief. Gorrington Gill, assistant FERA administrator, considers this “the cheapest and best method of helping rural families.** He says the number of families benefiting from it will be doubled In the next six months. Os course, here is subsistence farming at rock-bottom standards. These families are not those of “a bold peasantry, their country's pride.” But they are better off than they were and, with the government's help, they may become self-supporting again. BOYHOOD ENDS T ITTLE Peter Karageorge, who becomes a king at the age when most boys are thinking abaut schoolwork and games, seems to be one of the least enviable figures you could find in all the world of childhood. A great many stories have been told about the good fortune of the boy w’ho lives in a palace. But there are several million snubnosed kids in the United Slates whose chances for happiness are almost infinitely better than the chances of this little Serbian youngster. The throne of Yugoslavia lies under a shadow. That part of Europe is not called “the cockpit of Europe” for nothing. The greatest of all wars began there; if another one comes, it is very likely to begin there, too. To be king of Yugoslavia is to sit amidst powder kegs, waiting for menace to take shape beyond the borders. But if there is danger from without, there is also danger from within. Since the Serbs won their independence from Turkey in 1804, the land has had eight kings—and only three of them, died natural deaths while on the throne. Three were assassinated, one was driven out by revolt and another was forced to abdicate by parliament. Alexander’s murder is only the latest in a long scries of violent acts. A turbulent land set down in a troublous and incalculable situation—that is Yugoslavia. And the 11-year-old boy who now becomes king of this land is one of the most pathetic figures in modem history. A king is apt to be a prisoner of his own palace, even in the happiest of lands. The gold braid, the bowing functionaries, the guards of honor and the intricate web of custom and etiquet that surround a throne usually cut off all chances for existence as a normal human being. Whatever a king may do for himself or for his people, the only thing he can not do is seek happiness in the ordinary way. And if this is true for a grown man, how much more is it not true for a schoolboy! Peter was in school in England when King Alexander was slain. From an English school boy he now becomes a king, with court chamberlains to wait on him and a plumed troop of horsemen to attend his coming and going. And the chances are exceedingly good that he never again will be as happy as he was before they fitted a crown on his childish head.

POVERTY IS DANGEROUS QTUDIES by the United States public health service in ten states reveal that workers in the unskilled, low wage group have just about cne-half the chance of living to old age as their employers or fellow-workers in skilled, clerical, professional or agricultural groups. The unskilled workers had a death rate of 13.1 for each 1.000 of population; semi-skilled workers, 9.9; clerks and similar help, 7.4; proprietors, managers and officials, 7.4; professional men, 7, and farm workers, 6.2. The health service finds that mortality among unskilled American workers is considerably higher than among similar groups in England, while the death rate is lower among American business and professional men on this side of the Atlantic. The main causes for high mortality among America’s unskilled and semi-skilled are found not so much in the hazardous nature of their work as in their way of living. Diet, housing, medical care, contacts with infected persons, low incomes, play Important parts. For instance, among unskilled workers the tuberculosis death rate is 184.9 for each 100,000 people, compared with a 26.2 rate among professional men. Pneumonia takes 135.9 unskilled for each 100,000, only 38.8 professionals. Accidents kill 51.7 unskilled for each 100,000. only 14.5 professional persons. “It is suggested,” said the health service report, “that other factors (such as economic status, occupation, standards of living) must be of great importance in explaining the relative excess mortality in the lower occupational groups.” Which is to suggest what already is known—that poverty is dangerous. By its report the health service proves again the need for decent wages and hours, better housing, cheaper medical care and more rigid enforcement of safety standards. SOVIETS GAIN CONFIDENCE EVIDENCE that the Russian government is growing more and more confident of its solidarity among the masses is to be seen in the new rules which liberalize the Soviet election laws. Although the Russian government does not pretend to be a democracy, or to have a great deal of use for democratic processes, voting rights in the forthcoming elections for local Soviet governing bodies have been extended to the kulak class, to certain minor capitalists, and to various members of what the Communists like to term the “parasite” groups. This, to be sure, is only a shadow of genuine self-government. The average Russian will have very little more to say about the way his country is to be run than he has had in the past. But relaxation of these rules, unimportant as it is, would seem 'o indicate that the Russian government is feeling anew confidence in Us own popularity. MORE AND BETTER JUDGES A LTHOUGH federal dockets are less congested, due largely to the drop of 50,000 in the number of prohibition law prosecutions last year, the actual work of the courts will not be reduced appreciably in the near future. This is made clear in the report of the judicial conference, at which the senior circuit judges, presided over by Chief Justice Hughes, recommended the creation of four additional judgeships. In the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of California, crowded dockets cause delays of from seventeen to thirty-three months In reaching trials. Federal court machinery as & whole isjoow

functioning rapidly. In a majority of the districts the average interval between the Joinder of Issue and trial is less than six months. But the failure to provide a. sufficient number of Judges, says the conference report, has caused serious congestion in some districts. The multitude of New Deal laws now being tested, the many bankruptcy cases and the increase in prosecutions under internal revenue laws since repeal, threaten to keep the courts as busy as they were during prohibition. Speed and precision in handling litigation challenging the validity of the Important laws passed by the last congress are vital to recovery. “It is of no avail to multiply laws,” say the senior Judges, “if machinery of enforcement is inadequate.” GRACE ABBOTT’S SUCCESSOR RACE ABBOTT'S departure left the children's bureau without a chief and put up to the administration the hard task of finding her peer in courage, common sense and ability. That was four months ago. No successor has been named. Never before have the nation’s children so needed a champion at Washington. The depression's fifth winter will bear down cruelly upon the poor and leave its blight upon helpless children in millions of homes. In its great work of human salvage and repair the government requires particularly a specialist in child protection, who stands far above the average type of official or social worker. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, who will make the selection, doubtless will choose wisely some w T oman like Miss Katherine Lenroot, who was Miss Abbott’s chief assistant, or Dr. Martha Eliot of Yale, who heads the bureau’s child health division, or Dr. Neva Deardorff of the New York welfare council. Political considerations should not enter into this important appointment.

Liberal Viewpoint —BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES —

THE nation celebrates today the landing of Columbus on the Island- of San Salvador (Watling Island in the Bahamas) 442 years ago. How do the historians of today size up the significance of his achievements? Without knowing it, Columbus rediscovered America and encouraged other Europeans to follow his example. The spirit of the times was such, however, that others would have performed the feat of Columbus if he had not possessed the great courage to set out for the Indies on Aug. 3, 1492. Yet Columbus is of sufficient importance for American history to warrant a reconsideration of his career. Columbus did not, of course, discover America. The first human beings to come here were the Mongolian forebears of our American Indians who crossed from (Asia by W’ay of Alaska with a stone culture perhaps 10,000 years ago. They built up civilizations in Mexico, Yucatan, Peru, and central New York. In some other places they remained in state of barbarism until long after the white man came. Some, following G. Elliott Smith and his school, believe that America was next “discovered” by civilized Africans crossing the Atlantic and bringing with them the pyramid culture of Egypt. This supposition is not impossible, but it is certainly unlikely. The adventurous Northmen came here in successive explorations between 875 and 1050, but any settlements they may have left were wiped out before Columbus, j It is believed that fishermen from western Europe frequently reached the Grand Banks of Newfoundland before Columbus sailed. tt tt IF Columbus did not discover America, he was certainly the finft to come here after the time was ripe for extensive and continued interest in exploration and after inventions in the science of navigation had made possible successful traversing of the great ocean barrier. For thousands of years sailors off the coast of Europe had possessed ships about as large as those used by Columbus. But he had the mariner’s compass which made accurate navigation possible, if not wholly safe, far out of sight of land. Columbus was not the first man to think the world is round or to talk about getting to the riches of the Indies by a westward passage. Most geographical scholars of the fifteenth century believed that the world was round and there was wide interest among scholars and traders in the western passage to the far east. Columbus was the first man to combine the necessary bravery with the lucky breaks in the way of financial and political support. These facts do not detract from his repute for courage and initiative, but they give a better idea of the background of his voyage of discovery. It is an interesting fact that a major geographic error was. probably responsible for Columbus’ willingness to make his daring trip. Medieval geographers held that the world was slightly less than half its actual size. This placed the East Indies essentially in the region of Central America. Had the real size of the earth been recognized, it is doubtful if Columbus or anybody else would have risked the voyage in the puny ships then available. tt tt tt COLUMBUS’ reputation for veracity as a geographer, naturalist and historian has been assailed severely in recent years by a number of scholars, among them Dr. Leo Wiener of Harvard. Columbus, it is true, had soaked himself in the lurid accounts of the far east in the travel books from Marco Polo to the spurious “Travels of Sir John de Mandeville.” He had come to think in these rainbow phrases. Believing that he had found the East Indies, he related his “discoveries” in terms not so much compatible with what he really found as with language about the far east in the work he had read by the earlier overland travelers to the fabulous realms of the Mongol Emperors. His description of his discoveries was like writing the history of our oil industry in the language of some of the more optimistic prospectuses of oil syndicates. Yet this lurid fabrication proved all to the good in its effect upon subsequent history. ‘ A sober and accurate narrative would not have attracted such great popular interest. Columbus’ grandiose exaggerations helped mightily to sell the idea of the western route to Europeans, and so helped on the further exploration of the Americas. Columbus did not, of course, sell the idea of America to Europe, for he died believing that he had tapped the riches of the East Indies. As late as 16C9 Hendrick Hudson Imagined, as he sailed past the Palisades, that he soon would burst forth upon the open sea which quickly would bring him to me treasure islands of the Orient. That was a dizzy deal Dizzy Dean handed Detroit in the last world sarles game. President Roosevelt might have taken the complaints against the New Deal seriously, until Stalin came along and added his kick. Naval officers are suggested to go on American liners, for their safety. Better yet, high company officials should be forced to go as passengers. “T World series, football, revolutions, assassinations, who cares? John D. Rickefeller has gone to Florida.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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The Message Center

(Times 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 less.} a a a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TERMS EXPLAINED By Franklin Dickey. Under the heading “Mind in Relation to Medicine,” a recent contributor to The Message Center stated: “Mrs. Eddy defined mind as ‘spirit, soul, principle, substance, life, truth, love’”; using the common noun in each instance, adding the comment that Mrs. Eddy’s definition “is as bewildering as Mr. Webster’s definition,” and quoting the latter as follows: “Mind is the intellectual or rational faculty of man; consciousness; soul; memory; intention; opinion.” Since this contributor, unintentionally no doubt, failed to state Mrs. Eddy’s definition of this word accurately, it seems proper that a correction of the error be made. On page 225 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states: “Christian Science is not understood by the writer or the, reader who does not comprehend w-here capital letters should be used in writing about Christian Science.” On page 469 of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” the textbook of Christian Science, in answer to the question “What is Mind?” Mrs. Eddy says: “Mind is God.” And again on page 465 of this textbook, in answer question ‘What is God?” she says: “God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love,” using the proper noun in each instance. It is not in accord with the teachings of Christian Science to use, in the deific sense, any of these seven synonyms for God as a common noun or in the plural number. Nowhere does Mrs. Eddy define mind as spirit, soul, principle, life, truth, love, using these words as common nouns. a a a WAGE SCALES AND CONSUMING POWER By Working FooL A correspondent said that the greed of the workers is responsible for the depression. I fail to notice the clock punchers going out to their North Meridian street homes and country clubs. Their chauffeurs seem to be street car and bus employes, and they seldom appear at the banks with their bond coupons, which they surely must clip all day long. Most of these greedy workers shop at the overall counters. 65-cent shirt; shelves and low-priced food and clothing stores. What a queer turn of mind these greedy workers have. The textile workers’ recent strike, involving a cut in hours and wages of 25 per cent, exhibited more of the greed of the workers, for in 1929 profits j and wages in textiles were equal in 1 dollars, while in 1933 profits got $156 to SSB for wages During the “profitless” era of 1929. Samuel Insull built his windmill empire, while the workers signed 1 notes and mortgages for homes that are now floating on Home Owner Loan Corporation bonds. These greedy wage workers in 1934 in Illinois, are getting these j weekly averages of wages: In union coal mining, $17.44; road I construction, $16.91; mail order houses, |18.9i candy,

THE O. K. OF THE BOSS

Municipal Ownership Procedure Explained

By M. Perry. Your readers have recently been favored with several interesting contributions on the subject of municipal ownership. These letters serve to give both sides of this interesting economic subject. One of the letters charged that those favoring municipal ownership were only one-half socialistic in their opinions as they wash to hold all they have but desire to force the other fellow to divide up. The advocates of municipal ownership of public utilities do not desire to confiscate property and the law does not permit confiscation of property. The law does permit a city to condemn a public utility for public use, the same as it permits a public utility to condemn private property when necessary for the good of the public. The law in either case provides for legal condemnation proceedings in order to determine the actual value of the property to be taken and under the constitution the money must be paid before the property is taken, except where the state takes property. The advocates of municipal ownership do not ask any one to divide his property with the public. In condemnation proceedings the utility has every advantage. It has sufficient money to pay for the necessary expert testimony to prove the value of its property in addition to its own large corps of lawyers, engineers and accountants. The city does not have these trained employes and very little money to hire experts to resist this array of experts. The only way that any security holder will lose any money will be in case the utility has more securities outstanding than the property is worth. Condemnation proceedings will run these securities through the ringer and squeeze out the water or at least a part of the water. The holders of bonds will be paid in full. The preferred stock holders will then be paid out of

ning, $14.42; underwear, $11.84; women’s clothing. $13.10; overall and work clothes, $13.85; men’s shirts, $12.93; knit goods, $12.16; shoes, $16.99; furniture and cabinets, $15.32; autos, $17.94, and brickwork, $14.67. Besides taking these outrageous wages, the workers insisted on the stretchout so they could do more work than formerly, and the speedup helped them to hold on to these appalling high wages. Because these fellows get such high wages, they are so greedy for money that they leave the products they produce in the warehouses for the boss to consume, while they go on wearing shoddy goods and eating the cheap cuts of meat and living in cheap houses. ' Why won’t they consume the goods on these good wages? ORGANIZED LABOR DECLARED MISLED Bt a Spectator. The American Federation of Labor voted to ask for a thirty-hour week. Labor refuses to take responsibility upon itself in providing the facilities and capital to operate industries. The leaders think they are doing something for the rank and file, when they call a strike for higher wages. Higher wages are a joke, because the producer merely adds the higher wagp to the cost

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

the balance, if sufficient, and any thing left will go to the holding company owning the common stock of no par value. If any security holder does not get back his money as the result of this legal proceedings, he can blame only the financiers w T ho floated the worthless security and not the public which wants to pay utility rates based on actual value of utility property. This same contributor contended that municipal ownership w’ould destroy the life savings of some 60,000,000 persons who are directly or indirectly financially interested in private utilities, whetherthrough direct investments in the stocks of these utilities or through insurance and savings bank investments which in turn hold large blocks of utility stocks in their portfolios. Insurance companies and wise investors do not buy the watered preferred or common stock of utilities. Why should the citizens of Indianapolis continue to pay high rates for utility service in order that some persons who have been fraudently induced to purchase securities that have been watered, will not lose some of the money invested? Experts in real estate and in every business have suffered heavy losses as the result of high finance and watered stock. Why should the security holders of utilities be an exception? The advocates of municipal ownership desire only to get what they pay for and pay for what they get. They have tried to obtain reasonable rates from utiliities for years and find that efficient management means that the holding companies will continue to fight for every cent they can while cities, both larger and smaller than Indianapolis, owning their own electric plants are able to not only supply electricity at lower rates but operate plants at a profit and turn the surplus earnings over to the city and reduce property taxes.

charged to the workers as a consumer. When the rank and file do not have the dues necessary to pay the leaders, a strike fails. Unionism built on the sand of dependence will drive the workers to everincreasing misery. The workers constitute the market for the goods they produce. They are both producers and consumers. But they hire out to capital instead of hiring capital to work for them. They blame the capitalists Itk exploiting them, while they fail to make a single effective or intelligent move to emancipate themselves by providing labor-owned industries. Their leadership is playing horse with the workers, collecting dues from their small earnings, calling on them to starve during a strike, giving them loud talk and bologna about solidarity, principles and union strength. In economics, dollars talk with auDaily Thought Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.—Lamentations, 3:43. IT is easy to condemn; it is better to pity.—Abbott.

OCT. 12,1931

thority and the poor fish without dollars is not recognized. Labor wastes the money it can ill afford to lose upon strikes, and dues to moss-back leaders. Labor turns its financial power over to the fellows who use it as a club over its head. Real union labor leadership would marshal the economic financial power of labor to build up a system of American labor industries, owned and operated by organized labor, producing and distributing to its members the products and the profits. Labor turns its savings over to institutions that provide its exploiters with the money that builds the factories for others. Labor needs anew leadership with a program leading to independence, and a bountiful living. a a a LIQUOR DEALING STILL HALF ILLEGAL By a Times Reader. The convention of the National Wholesale Liquor Dealers Association heard one of the leaders urge the industry “to commit itself to the wise policy of sponsoring, preaching and practicing that liquor bo consumed in moderation.” This speaker also brought out in his address, that bootleggers still control about 50 per cent of tho market for liquor. Since the repeal, advocates made so much noise about balancing the budget with liquor taxes, either the recognized dispensers of liquor ought to see to it that they sell all the hootch and turn in the revenue, or their “uncle” should put all tho prohibition officers back on the job, to stop the sale of “Forty Roses.” Either way it’s done will suit your Uncle Dudley. Maybe “Uncle” can not handle the job. Could there still be a partnership between rum runners and public officers? Sc They Say For months now the American public has been waiting for Farley | to explain why he caused the army pilots to be sent to their jeaths. The stigma, the shame is his. Yet not once has he confessed his grievous error.—Justus L. Johnson, chairman Illinois Republican State C tral committee. I am a dancer, not a fighter. I’m not just a fan dancer, either. I do interpretive dancing, but the Kir. •- fish (Levinsky) couldn't interpret it. —Mrs. Kingfish Levinsky. The development of Alaska expends to a great extent on more rapid communication with the United States.—Harllee Branch assistant postmaster-general. ALONE' BY VIRGINIA KIDWELL I walk alone because my heart is sad; My fnends seem strangers and my loves seem cold; I feel remote from any hopes I had Os happiness. I know my tale is told. Desire is gone and nothing has appeal; My days proceed without a varied tone. I’ve felt all feelings—now I can not feel. My heart is tired and so I walk alone.