Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 133, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 October 1934 — Page 6

PAGE 6

The Indianapolis Times (1 KCRIPrs.HOWARD Xf WP*PFB| rot w. howahd Pn>*Mot TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER .... Bnilntii Umtftr Phon* Riley MB*

Member of Pr**. >rripp* • Howsrd Newpper Ailfanre. Newspaper EaterprHe Aorlat!i*i. Newspaper Information Serriand Audit Cureati of Circulation*. Owned and •■nbllahed dally Snndayi by The Indmnapnlta Tin.-a Pnhliehin* (Vmpany. 214 200 Maryland atreet. Indianapolla In<L Prlca In Marlon county 2 cenfa a copy; elaewhere. 8 r „ n r—delivered hr carrier. 11 rente a week Mall anbarrtptlon rate* in Indiana. 83 a year; ontalde of Indiana. 8-1 -enta a month - • ' •

- BKmBSSSSB #•' 00 9 *• W Aif O'Ue Ugnt and the People Will Finn Their Own Wop

SATURDAY. OCT 13. 1934 THE CODES CAN WORK ppWO of the major objectives ol labor —the right of collective bargaining and shorter work hours to spread employment—are receiving attention of the Roosevelt admimstraiton. Due to a technical defect in the Houde case there has been a temporary setback in enforcing the collective bargaining principle. But the administration has not abandoned this law. The national labor relations board continues making its decisions under Section 7-A of NIRA. And the President is working out a more effective co-ordination of the three enforcement agencies. NRA, federal trade commission and the justice department. Tangible progress is reported in the drive for a shorter work week. Under the executive order signed by the President yesterday, in the cotton garment industry a thirty-six-hour week will become effective Dec. 1, with no reduction in individual weekly wages. This is expected to place 10,000 jobless workers back on the pay roll. True, these 10.000 persons represent but a fraction of the total number of the unemployed, but It is significant that they are to be re-employed without the cost and disastrous consequences of a strike; and without any apparent dislocation within the industry itself. At first the employers were defiant, but their hostility melted in the face of the government’s patient arbitration. The government showed that other apparel and ncedlccraft industries selling competitive products were already successfully on a thirty-six-hour basis. Much more intelligent and less dangerous is this method than the blanket thirty-hour week legislative fiat sponsored by the American Federation of Labor. It is easy to sympathize with the A. F. of L. premise that the severe industrial unemployment situation requires a major operation. But it does not follow that a scythe should be used instead of a surgical knife. Some industries are already on a thirtyhour week. Others, doubtless, should adopt it. But there are some industries, in the present state of business, that might be strangled immediately if forced to reduce the work week even to thirty-six hours without at the same time reducing hourly wages. And to strangle these industries would be to add to the breadlines. The whole point is that each industry should be handled separately and realistically on the basis of the evidence. That is the method of the NRA codes. By its handling oi the garment industry case, the NRA has pointed the way. Can this machinery function fast enough and -fficiently enough to achieve substantial results in time to head off the growing political pressure behind the demands for a blanket thirty-hour law? It can if employers and labor will co-operate with the administration. TWO GOALS IN the west officers are searching for the elusive Pretty Boy Floyd, gunman extraordinary, and in Indiana and Kentucky authorities are pressing the hunt for a kidnaper who upset a nation by snatching Mrs. Alice Stoll, 26-year-old Louisville woman. Each case is outstanding. The hunt for Floyd, which has been going on for months, is marked by numerous rumors and false reports that Floyd is here and there. His chase much resembles that of Dillinger in that reports place Floyd in many places at the same time. In Kentucky the officers of the United States, the state of Kentucky and police of Louisville find themselves the victims of a circumstance that a short-sighted public policy has permitted to exist. They have failed to t take the precautions that would prevent the escape a man such as the kidnaper of the Louisville woman. Even the continual cry -of economy should not be offered this time as an alibi. When life is at stake it is a poor time for public officials to wail about what it costs to block crime's disgusting progress. When the legislature meets this winter, members of that body should concentrate on two goals: 1. Revision of the penal system of the state, placing it under strict civil service and the merit plan, and. 2. Formation of an alarm teletype system which would link Indiana. Kentucky. Ohio and Illinois. A GRIM FIGURE ONE hundred! This grim figure appeared in the news columns of The Times yesterday. It represented the dismal toll that Marion ; county has contributed to traffic tragedies since the first of the year. Safety campaigns may have helped, but the figure has grown steadily this year. Apparently the real trouble is that some residents of this city and county do not have enough brain power to drive automobiles safely. No one can cure that defect in a human. But the human might have enough sense to leave his car in the garage most of the time. STALIN’S VIEW JOSEF STALIN'S remarks about the predestined failure of the New Deal make interesting reading—not because Mr. Stalin's opinion of Mr. Roosevelt matters particularly, but because his statement forms a sort of looking-glass in which we can get anew slant on the American recovery effort. For. by stating the Communist position so clearly and flatly, the Russian leader simply throws our own position into greater relirf. By making a blunt declaration of things we f 3

! not believe, he helps its see what we really do ! oelieve. The essence of his theory is that the New \ Deal—or any other effort to Improve condi - I tions upon the capitalist foundation—must I fail. In the very nature of things, j Unemployment is inherent in modem capitalist society. The ills against which workers protest can not be cured without putting society on anew foundation. The division of human beings into exploiters and exploited is fundamental, and the only possible solution is to give the exploited complete control. It would t>e hard to find one paragraph which expressed more precisely the exact opposite of the sentiment which animates the New Deal. We are dedicated, that is, to the theory that the ills that have afflicted us in the last four years can be cured within the framework of capitalism. We believe that unemployment is not a necessary accompaniment of modern, massproduction capitalism. We oelieve that the worker and the consumer can be given a decent break without destroying the rights of employer and investor. We believe that co-operation can be substituted for exploitation in such way as to help all hands and not for just cne class. We believe all these things so firmly that we have room for a great diversity of opinions as to the way in which our goal can be reached. Most of the time we overlook the fact that we are actually at a crossroads in our national life. The Russian leader’s remarks remind us that we are making a great fight to prove that the traditional American way of life can be preserved. That is the real stake at issue in the recovery program. The way the battle is fought—whether via the New Deal or some other kind of strategy —is relatively unimportant. The big thing is to prove that we have the intelligence and the determination to win it. FEDERAL INCORPORATION A NATIONAL incorporation act is sugA- gested by the senate banking committee as one remedy for financial abuses. The committee’s latest report contains impressive evidence of how some holding companies and investment trusts have been used to plunder the investing public by legal methods. State regulation of corporations operating nationally has not been affective. A few men can speculate riotously with the savings of millions, making insecure the property rights of widely-scattered and helpless stockholders. The committee’s suggestion of federal charters seems to offer a logical solution. States rights arguments hardly can be sustained in defense of a system which makes state laws ineffective. The need of adequate regulation is admitted by such defenders of the holding-com-pany system by George Whitney, Owen D. Young and O. P. Van Sweringeij, and such champions of the investment trust as Clarence Dillon and Otto H. Kahn. RELIEF FOR U. S. TREASURY that the treasury department is preparing to continue the task of converting Fourth Liberty loan bonds into securities bearing a lower rate of interest is a reminder that we have a fine qhance, in this way, to relieve the current strain on the federal treasury. This bond issue originally totaled a little under $7,000,000,000. It bore 4!i per cent interest when issued. Last spring approximately $1,875,000,000 was converted into 3 per cent % bonds. At present some $1,250,000,000 more is being converted into 3 1 * per cent bonds and 2’ 2 per cent notes. Now' it is planned to convert the remainder of the issue; and it is worth noting that a substantial saving is) in prospect. Already something like $33,000,000 a year in interest charges has been saved. If the whole issue is converted, the annual saving will reach $66,000,000. At a time w'hen federal finances are being strained to the utmost, such a saving is well worth making. OLD THEORY DIES HARD 'T'HE old, moss-covered theory that the sailor -*• in the United States navy is a crude, unmannerly, and rascally lout seems to die hard. It may have been true in the days of squarerigged frigates, but it isn’t true now and it hasn't been for a long time. Yet some people still believe it. New York authorities recently accused a taxi-dance hall proprietor of permitting his business to sink to the level of an ordinary vice joint. One of the dance girls was a defense witness. Insisting that all the girls at the hall were refined and lady-like, she added that “even when the fleet was in, no girl walked out with a sailor.” There is something rather laughable about this attitude. Where, do you suppose, does a taxi-dance girl get off, assuming such superiority to the bluejackets? Considering the gang of drug store cowboys, gangsters’ apprentices, and loose-lipped corner loafers that infest most taxi-dance hails we suggest that the tone of such joints would be improved considerably if the sailors did patronize them. READY FOR THE JOB r l''HE "deliberate improvement of the NRA,” prophesied confidently by Donald Richberg to Chicago Rotarians. will depend upon more than the wisdom with which Mr. Richberg’s industrial emergency committee formulates policies and the new national industrial recovery board revises existing codes. Great policies and great codes will not operate unless there is intelligence and integrity of those placed in charge of enforcement. One thing that makes President Roosevelt’s proposed capital - labor truce possible of achievement is the confidence in the good judgment and effectiveness of the national labor relations board in handling labor disputes. / But the administration has not yet designated the agency which is to have charge of the other phase of enforcement—that which concerns unfair trade practices, such as misrepresentation, fraud and secret rebates prohibited in many codes. Honest employers will feel secure if enforcement of fair competitive practices is turned over to some trusted and

experienced agency such as the federal trade commission. 9 This agency already handles part of the investigative and compliance work for NRA. Even before NRA, by its fair trade practice conference and its cease and desist orders, the federal trade commission accomplished good results with minimum friction, despite inadequate laws and limited appropriations. It alAady has a staff of investigators trained in this type of work. OUR DREYFUS /''VVER in Paris Colonel Alfred Dreyfus just celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. About him were his devoted wife, children and grandchildren. He is growing old in the honor and respect of his fellows. About forty years ago France did this man a great wrong. “Framed” by a fellow officer, court-martialed and convicted of selling militry secrets to Germany, he was sentenced to life on Devil's Island. There he spent four tortured years. The flaming pen of Zola aroused France to the injustice and made the case a national issue that almost caused a revolution. The guilty officer confessed. Captain Dreyfus was pardoned, promoted and made a member of the Legion of Honor. The United States has a parallel in the “Mooney affair.” The difference is that Tom Mooney, as innocent as Dreyfus, is spending his eighteenth year in prison while our own republic has yet to make amends. Until the United States supreme court or California’s Governor frees Mooney and his fellow frame-up victim, Warren Billings, M. Zola’s passionate “I accuse!” will be pointed at America’s conscience as it once was at France. MORE SPOILS Tt/jTR. AUSTIN, United States census bureau “*-*-*■ director, admits that some 25,000 deserving Democrats are to be employed to take the agricultural census, beginning next January. We admit the farm canvass is to be taken under a law passed by a Republican congress and approved by a Republican President. We admit that, were the Republicans in power, they, too, would award the 25,000 jobs to deserving partisans, as they have done repeatedly in the past. And we admit that, should Director Austin try to upset this tradition of spoils, the Farley-Hurja machine probably would try to get his scalp, and succeed. But w-e wonder whether this is the best way to do the job? How about the millions of voters and taxpayers, who are neither professional Republicans nor professional Democrats, but mere American? ROOSEVELT’S ALPHABET A N invaluable guide to the functioning of Deal machinery is provided by the Brookings Institution’s latest volume in its series on government: “New Federal Organizations,” by Laurence F. Schmeckebier. The book might better be known as “F. D.’s Alphabet,” but that title would connote a Henry P. Fletcher approach which this volume distinctly has not. The book is the best source produced so far for a study of the Roosevelt administration’s daring extensions of government. It is factual, descriptive, and complete as far as its limitations of length permit. It lists forty-six major organizations, and numerous minor ones, know'n as administrations, corporations, bureaus, boards, etc., set up or enlarged in scope between March 4 1933 and June 3, 1934. They are classified as to activities and duration, purposes, method of creation and chronologically. The relation of the new agencies to the civil service, from which some of them, including the HOLC,AAA, NRA, PWA and TVA, are wholly exempted, is carefully charted. This book rather than the Republican national committee’s press releases, should be consulted when there is talk of “bureaucracy.” The bureaucrats shown here by the actual hard facts are not by any means the numerous “lice of Egypt” of which ex-Senator Jim Reed speaks so bitterly.

Capital Capers

BY GEORGE ABELL

WHITE-HAIRED Secretary of State Cordell Hull sat stiffly in his chair, as if about to sign a peace treaty. But he was only having his bust modeled in bronze-colored clay, through anew process which does away with' the tedium of protracted sittings. The eminent Cordell, indeed, maintained his upright pose for only a matter of a minute. “Click!" went a camera shutter. “That's all,” explained the photographersculptor. “You may now relax, Mr. Secretary. From the picture a bust of Mr, Hull will be made. Great care was taken to prevent the secretary of state from squinting or pursing up his lips in that profound Hullish manner. Fortunately for the photo, Cordell long since has given up his erstwhile habit of chewing tobacco. The bulge in the jaw would have hesembled Mussolini. NOTE—The photographer-sculptor is making the rounds of the Latin American embassies and legations, showing his samples. Finest bust of his collection to date is one of Dr. Leo Rowe, Pan-American Union chief. From the happy expression of the face, diplomats deduce the good doctor was photographed eating a plate of lamb stew—his favorite dish. ana THE Paraguayan campaign is progressing admirably—no reference to the war with Bolivia, but the struggle to introduce yerba mate (Paraguayan tea) into the United States on a big scale. Yesterday Envoy Bordenave of Paraguay entertained at a yerba mate luncheon for a group of friends. Wearing the scarlet boutonniere of the Legion of Honor, a pearl scarf pin and his usual beatific expression. Bordenave sipped a hot cup of mate, declaimed: \ “A book of verses underneath the bough, A cup of mate (maybe two) and how I love its fragrance as it gently streams, Ah, wilderness were paradise enow!” ana THE pink hair of Senor Rubio Vivot of the Argentine embassy (it turned that wav through a mixup in hair tonic) temporarily has transferred tonsorial attention from the allegdly pink whiskers of Senator J. Ham Lewis of Chicago to the colorful diplomatic corps. Rubio means blond and that's what Rubio's hair used to be. But labels are sometimes misleading. For instance, David Keys, young state department diplomat, used to be known as “Reddy” when he was Ambassador Dawes’ right-hand man in London. Today the name sticks, although Reddy’s hair is turning a deep chestnut color. Friends are now calling conservative Rubio the “pink” of the Argentine embassy.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

ST ; ‘ a fa - , . - • ’ STOLL I ' : §|§l KIDNAPER- j ■ : 1 j j •••••• - ' + • . ■ . •. • - . I - -fiz.aiseK-:

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express tueir views in these columns. Make pour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a tt EXPLAINS OBJECTIVES OF CO-OPERATION PLAN By C. A. Chambers Let us put the United States on a co-operative basis and see what happens. We will start at the farms and produce what, for example, will be shipped to our own mills. Flour is made and sent to co-operative warehouses from which co-operative stores will be supplied. From production to consumption it has been carried on co-operatively. Now, can’t you see by having our own farm land, ways and means of transportation, mills, warehouses and stores we will be able to reduce the cost of commodities? No middleman has a chance to intervene and make a profit by his advertising and salesmanship. From every angle the co-opera-tive society is organized on a nonprofit basis. This permits selling a commodity at a lower rate. In a co-operative organization every one works for the benefit of every one as a whole, and not just for themselves. There is no cutthroat competition in the co-opera-tive movement.

We would not need any consumers’ research or government bureaus, because co-ope:ative organization automatically stops the practice of short weights and measures and improves the quality of all necessities of life. No one can benefit from dishonesty and poor quality. The public would be saved millions of dollars by eliminating government bureaus and inspectors. The co-operative organization can not be built overnight; it will take time to prove itself succecssful. Cooperative Associations started on farms and have moved gradually into the activities of the city. Persons are learning more about this organization because they are in distress and looking for a w*ay out. As long as persons are satisfied they do not w r ant to change, but since the depression, many have turned to the co-operative organizations hoping for something better. % ana ♦ BETTER TIMES TALK BRANDED BUNK By W. H. B. To keep on telling persons they are about to get something done that will benefit them seems about the only way to keep them fooled. Your editorial, “A Practical Plan," is in line with all the rest of the bunk that is being handed the public. Had the editorial writer looked into the matter and said, “all this is bunk about helping get us back on the track—it must be cut out. and the writers pretending to know anything about economics must figure from a base, not continue to get figures from big rents, wartime costs, big interest rates, wartime salaries and big profits.” Start with all salaries paid by the government. Cut them to the bone. When this is done, then and not till then, can economics be applied. Os course, these men who figure all this out to please the office holders by continuing to figure big profits, big interest rates, big wartime salaries, despite millions idle. All it does, is to keep adding to the army of idle, putting it on a lower level of living, and they know

Capitalism Branded Foe of Progress

By Sherman Long 1 . The most perplexing task confronting the promoters of collecr tive bargaining seems to be the obliteration of the many pernicious legends which have been so successfully instilled in the minds of the toiling masses. The masses seem obstinate in the belief that capital has been solely responsible for all technical development, and that labor would have been utterly helpless but for the inclination of the capitalists. Obviously, the competitive and profiteering system invariably has suppressed industrial art by monopolizing the natural resources, and by owning and manipulating the tools of production. Under the capitalistic system, when an inventive genius perfects any profitable device, it is first thoroughly investigated to ascertain whether its use will effect the profits of any capitalist enterprise. If so, it is immediately concealed and suppressed regardless of the economic advantage it would bring the majority. As the saying goes, “It is necessary to burn one house in order to • save the village.” So, under the capitalistic system. it is essential to exploit and oppress the masses so that the

it, yet are goofy enough to keep at it. “ The press, and politics, both, must be dumped into the ash can and w-hen taken out perhaps a good cleaning will fit them for use. Tril the people the truth. Tell them that politics, the press and the big interests are not trying to get us back to good |imes. If the government wanted to end crime, it would have established federal police, set them to work going over the entire country with a fine-tooth comb, instead of the present costly plan which is not good. There seemed to be a fear that that kind of policing would get some of the big criminals and this may lead to no telling where. a a a ADVOCATES “AMERICA FOR AMERICANS” By Orie J. Simmons. It is significant that in 1917 a Democratic President believed in guarding the seas for the benefit of American shipping. It shows Republicans are not alone as friends of “big business.” even at the cost of American lives. ' There may be, probably will be, war in Europe again soon. Has Roosevelt the vision, the genius and the nerve to tell the world: The Monroe doctrine means America for Americans. The corrolary of this doctrine is, “The old world and its peculiar problems are not our problems.” As far as w r e are concerned it is jAsia for Asiatics; Europe for Europeans, and Africa for Africans. At any rate, we should not spend lives to protect any part of the world save America and its immediate strategic waters. Nor are visitors from our land to foreign shores to be protected as they wander. Shipments on the high seas during wartime shall be at the risk of the shipper or ship owner. No longer does America need foreign trade in order to live. We are deserting certain obsolete phases of our “freedom of the seas” formula. The forgotten man who fought in 1918 is still foolish enough to go to war to avenge the sinking of a shipload of American sightseers and (contraband) war munitions. Why?

WHEE! >

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

greedy ingrates may retain and increase their profits which the workers have produced for them. Evidently the desire for gold and silver has not been the sole source of inspiration for every invention. Had it not been for the insatiable dollar grabbers our productive ability would have been practically insuperable. Emphatically the convenience of mechanical production would promote and necessitate more proficiency amongst the mechanical contrivers than just the mere lust for individual gain. With the system of production for private profit, many of the industrial geniuses are deprived of the advantage of their own invention, because of the lack of sufficient funds for completion of a discovery. Consequently, the patent is sold to some manufacturer who utilizes it for selfish purposes, instead of for the economic advantage of all. Supplanting of the private profit system by anew era of collective ownership, social production and more equal distribution apparently is imminent, because the producing class will grow weary of producing untold wealth while receiving scanty compensation from the idle class.

Because there is money in the dirty business. Money for you, for me, for every American workman and for capital. The New Dealers are mouthing about the importance of foreign trade, whilst they destroy domestic trade with half-baked collectivistic tampering. Shove a fat handful of European munitions orders under America’s nose today and every ranting American from President to pauper would hurrah and go to war to protect profit-bearing ships. Yes, as the Message Center editor sarcastically headlined one of my previous letters about .foreign trade, I am preaching the gaspel of isolation. I believe Washington knew his onions, when in his farewell address he advised America to “avoid European entanglements.” ana DEFENDS JOB HOLDNG BY MARRIED WOMAN By a Married Woman. I see where some fellow writing to your column gives married women who are working an awful razzing, but I can take it for the shoe doesn't fit. I have worked and helped to rear my three children. Seven years ago, I took in a little homeless girl. Then my daughter married and she and her husband parted, leaving me a little grandson to raise. He will soon be 5 years old. The little girl is 7. I still work, as the depression has left my huusband almost jobless and I often think what would have become of these two little ones if I didn’t have work. And so I would say there are times when the married woman needs work. I am glad I am able to work and do, for these little ones and my husband. We still have three good homecooked meals and clothes washed and ironed and we are one happy family. ana SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT ARTHUR G. GRESHAM By Kenneth Adam*. The chronic fault-finder, Arthur G. Gresham, again expresses himself in the Message Center. What

_/)CT. 13,1984

is the matter with him? He has been in my hair for a long time. He is a man of few words, but he says them over and over again; a very shining example of Republican soreheadedness. Was, or is, Mr. Gresham a member of the klan which sponsored Stephenson, Jackson, Duvall, Li’l Arthur and others; and what kind of a job has been promised him by Mr. Coffin if Mr. Pritchard is elected? Mr. Gresham should find a spot in the community doing some constructive line of work and quit writing these trick articles for the papers; but I guess he likes the gravy train too well for that. He, like some others, does not realize that the war has been over for some time. ana DEFENDS CHARGE FOR CASHING CHECKS By Rosemary Meeenhardt In regard to the statement of Halford Williams in this column on Oct. 9, condemning banks for charge on cashing checks: Is it necessary for others to do favors for you with no payment?, Would you expect to go to a grocery and buy its products at cost? It must have a small profit to enable it to go on serving customers. Present banking laws, made to safeguard the public’s money, have cut down the earning powder of the banks and increased expenses. To offset this, a service charge must be imposed. Your suggestion that banks quit altogether is made in ignorance of facts and The politicians that you flay have made your federal relief check possible. If you wish, return to the obsolete cash pay envelope, thereby saving much work and expense for the banks in general.

Sc They Say

Life is just one big movie and w-hich heroes are made, and made glamorous.—The Rev. Henry Scott R’.ibel, now scenano writer. People are never happy when they are ruled by a majority, but only when they are ruled by a minority. Our minority is not alien to the majority, but represent the cream of the German folk.—Adolf Hitler. The church must reassert her independence or wither and die—The Rev. Dwight Jacques Bradley, NewCon, Mass. Neither liberty nor peace will be secure with international news partly free and partly controlled.—Dean Carl W. Ackerman, School of Journalism, Columbia university. Feminine curves shall not be seen by men!—Admiral Chang Chi-ying of Canton, China.

CHANGE

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLIMCK My love for you was mad and new, A shy. adoring child. I placed you on a pedestal, With ardour undefiled. Today my love has grown to heights On steady, flame-tipped feet. I love you more now I have learned That love is bittersweet.