Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 134, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 October 1934 — Page 8

PAGE 8

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MONDAY OCT. IS 1334

HITLER SLIPS AGAIN IN his dealings with the United States government, Herr Hitler is getting nowhere fast. He has moved to denounce the trade treaty Detween the two countries. With characteristic Ineptness he times his treaty move to coincide with the German announcement that American holders of Dawes plan notes are to receive only 75 per cent of the interest due them today. Naturally, the state department is highly displeased with these maneuvers. America long since has become accustomed i to defaults of one kind or another on foreign financial obligations. But no government in Washington ever will submit to discrimination in such matters without protest. Discrimination is the issue in this case. While striking at American bondholders Germany will pay j other foreign bondholders in full. Great Britain and others would seize available German credits on balance in their own countries if Germany withheld the interest payments. Because of Germany's unfavorable trade balance in the United States, there are no Hitler financial credits here which our government could take over for the protection of American bondholders. So Hitler has coldshouldered American Ambassador Dodd and the state department in their repeated protests. In this bond matter, as in trade treaty revision, it is true that Germany is acting under severe economic pressure. Her extremity is due in part to old allied policies and in part to America's high tariff wall, but it is due chiefly to nationalistic measures of the Hitler regime. Germany is suffering now from the absurd Hitler attempt to cut off foreign trade and make Germany self-contained. The resulting distress is slowly teaching the German people that the Hitler method is a boomerang which hits Germany hardest. Whether Hitler evades payment of full interest on Dawes bonds of American holders today is not important so far as the amount goes. But the principle involved and the tricky method employed by Hitler are important in influencing future American-German relations. If Hitler were wise he would see that he can not get away with that $2,087,000 of American money without losing much more than that in the end. WITHIN 16 DAYS A STORY fit for the ironic pen of Thomas Hardy is that of M. M. OShaughnessy, builder of San Francisco's great mountain water and power system. This master builder of dams, tunnels and penstocks worked on the $100,000,000 Hetch Hetchy project for twenty years. For years before that he had dreamed of turning a valley in the high Sierras into a reservoir and bring the melted snows across the San Joaquin valley to the city by the Golden Gate. Oct. 28 his dream will become reality when Interior Secretary Ickes officiates at a ceremony turning Hetch Hetchy's water into a reservoir in the hills above San Francisco. The builder will not be there. He died last Friday at 70. ON THE OTHER FOOT TT is logical for Republican Chairman ! A Fletcher to complain of Democratic campaign tactics. A number of Democratic candidates are asking for votes on the ground that they have entry to the federal treasury, which their Republican opponents do not possess. They do not put it quite so badly, but they make themselves understood. Nor has the administration repudiated these unseemly claims of party candidates. The administration's electioneering pacesetter, James A. Farley, postmaster-general. Democratic chairman, in a speech in Ohio Saturday night, pointed with pride to the millions of dollars the federal government has poured into Ohio in loans, grants and expenditures. But Mr. Farley was too astute to make the mistake of some Democratic spokesmen in other states, who frequently have warned that the federal government will stop playing Santa Claus to them if they vote Republican. The urge to get something for nothing is strong within the human breast. And. since Republican warnings that the taxpayers eventually must pay the bill usually fall on deaf ears, it is easy to understand the plight of Chairman Fletcher and his indignation. But isn't it a case of the sins of the Republicans coming home to plague them? For decades spokesmen of the grand old party went about the country boasting that the party's protective tariff was a patented process that gave the people something for noththing. In those days. Democratic warnings that the people themselves were paying for the cost of the protection also fell on deaf ears. NAVAL TREATY IDEALS IF the experts who are looking over the "*• ground in London and Tokio are to be believed, the famous Washington naval treaty will expire painlessly at the end of this year, and all limits will be off 'naval construction. Japan does not propose to be bound by treaty limits any longer. England feels the need of more ships. France and Italy are openly building against each other. And Uncle Sam, apparently, is going to be left to contemplate the wreckage of what once looked like a remarkable achievement in disarmament. Before we permit ourselves to get too stirred up by all this, it would be a good thing for us to look at the whole question realistically, with eentiment discarded. We like to tell ourselves that the Washington naval treaty was the result of a great bit of pure unselfishness on our part, forced on de-

signing nations by American idealism. As a matter of fact, it was not that at all. The close of the World war found us with an enormous building program under way. We had six tremendous dreadnaughts under construction —ships of 43.200 tons each, mounting twelve sixteen-inch guns apiece, and estimated to cost $21,000,000 each without guns or armor. Also under construction were four dreadnaughts of the Colorado class, of 32.600 tons each, mounting eight sixteen-inch guns, and costing upward of $20,000,000 apiece. Six great battle cruisers were also being built—incomparable vessels of 35.300 tons, mounting eight sixtecn-inch guns, designed for a speed of thirty-five knots, and estimated to cost $30,000,000 each. In addition, ten light cruisers were on the way, and something like one hundred destroyers. All this represented one of the greatest naval programs in any nation’s history. It was going to be horribly expensive. We wanted to get out from under. Tax reductions were inevitable. The load could not be carried. So we proposed and put through the great naval treaty—and saved ourselves hundreds of millions of dollars that we probably could not have persuaded ourselves to spend anyway. Now the treaty is expiring; and we will do ourselves no good at all if we feel that high ideals of a dozen years ago are being flouted. It will be much better for us to re-exam-ine our whole naval policy and decide whether we really need to be worried if England and Japan decide that they need more ships than we think they need. TRAGIC SECTIONALISM AMERICA is so complicated that historians can not understand it without compressing it into formula. The latest formula is the class struggle. Not long ago, the dominant historical group used the “frontier” formula to explain America. Still another device is to interpret events as a part of the conflict between section and section, chiefly, of course, between the north and south, and between west and east. All of these devices are oversimplifications. But. in proper hands, they can be useful and illuminating. James Truslow Adams in his new book, ‘Americas Tragedy,” (Scribner’s), writes of sectionalism. The beginning is symbolized by the statement of John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, who recorded in 1619: “Came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars.” Though other sectional conflicts are described, most of the book is devoted to the major clash which led to the Civil war and continued afterward between the north and south. As usual, Mr. Adams is a popularizer of American history. But he continues to do a good job of it, as he did in his earlier popular histories, “The Epic of America,” and “The March of Democracy." His attitude toward the problem of sectionalism is summed up in his title word “Tragedy.” He is careful, however, not to load the dice against the south. He concludes: “To accept what benefits and markets a machine age brings and yet isolate one’s self from an industrial life is to try again what the south tried to do before the war—to cut itself off from a hostile world opinion and live its own life within its own borders. It was impossible then, and will be again. “What those of us who are born into this confused age of machines, advertising, new wants, and universal suffrage have to do is to try to bring some order out of the chaos of moral values, and in an irretrievably altered world to reassert the philosophy of the old south, to bring the new democracies to see that the values of the good life are other than material. That may be the end of the tragedy, and the peculiar and happy function of a yet newer south in a united nation.” SIGN OF HEALTH EXPRESSIONS of regret at the outburst of rowdyism that marked the final game ot the world series seems to us to be out of place. The outburst simply indicates that the grand old game of baseball is enjoying excellent health. For baseball, when you get right down to it, has a rowdy streak in it. It isn’t a polite game, formalized and toned down by generations of "good sportsmanship.” It derives from the small towns and the sandlots where players get sore and slug one another occasionally, where "kill the umpire” is a familiar cry, and where bleachentes are not afraid to vent their displeasure on the visiting team. That sort of thing may be regrettable but it's part of baseball, and part of America. So long as baseball retains a touch of it, it will continue to be the typically American game. DAMMING THE MISSISSIPPI THE Mississippi valley committee has given Secretary Ickes its recommendations for future control and development of the Mississippi river, and while the report has not yet been made public it is understood in Washington that it calls for a vast system of dams up and down the whole length and breadth of the Mississippi valley. If this is correct, there is foreshadowed one of the most remarkable internal developments ever undertaken by any nation. The dams, it is said, would be designed primarily for flood control. Secondarily, however. they would provide enormous quantities of electric power, make possible the irrigation of vast stretches of now arid land, and aid navigation up and down the whole river network. What now is being done in the Tennessee river valley would be duplicated in the valleys of the Mississippi's other tributaries. It will be interesting to see how much of a start the administration proposes to make on this stupendous project. EARTHS NEW EYEPIECE 'T'HIS country, conditioned as it is to bigness in all things mundane, is about to get a real thrill. A giant glass eye for the world's largest telescope has just been cast with infinite care in Corning. N. Y.. and soon will be shipped by special train to a clear mountain top near Pasadena. There it, or its twin now being cast, will be installed by the California Institute ol

Technology in the greatest and mostly costly Instrument of research ever devised by man. Earth's new monocle will have twice the diameter of the largest existing telescope glass, a 100-inch one built on Mt. Wilson seventeen years ago. It will increase the light-gathering power of the human eye 1,000,000-fold, and may bring into human vision more than 2,000,000 nebulae, some rivalling our own system of stars in size. Scientists may measure and test the temperature of the remoter stars as they have the nearer younger ones, our neighbors. It will lift men's sights so they may scan a bit farther into what Isaac Newton called “the great ocean of truth” that remains undiscovered. STILL MORE FOR RELIEF '■pHE relief problem continues to put a pressure on the federal budget which may have incalculable effects. Harold Ickes, interior secretary, announces that he would “like to have a real appropriation” for public works this winter, and it is reported that congress may be asked to give him as much as $2,000,000,000. Just where such a sum would leave our hopes for a balanced budget is not quite clear. Certainly the outlook is not exactly rosy. And yet it is hard to see how the appropriation of some such sum for public works can be avoided. Our relief problem is a stupendous one. It simply can not be dodged. We can not let our people starve. That means huge federal expenditures, as long as unemployment remains acute. Spending money on public works is more effective and less wasteful than making direct payments for relief. If this keeps the budget unbalanced, we probably shall just have to put up with it. A German scientist has invented a device that measures the density of a fog. The next step is an instrument that measures the density of a man in a fog. The Lindberghs were forced down in Oklahoma and showed what good farmers they are. But, all the same, they rushed repairs on their plane. Austria is expecting another Nazi putsch and is preparing to thwart it. Hitler has been silent too long. Haitian delegate tells League of Nations President Roosevelt’s political roadway leads to Geneva. It’s been so bumpy at the start, how could he ever get there? Some day General Johnson won’t say a thing, and the country will agree with him. The yacht races off Newport, R. I„ are worth the effort, if only to rid the stores of their leftover summer nautical outfits. “In union there is strength,” says labor’s slogan, but we'll soon learn whether it is as strong as steel. Fact Is, the President isn’t so sure, when congress takes up the money question, whether he'll be able to budget. With no revolution and a taxicab strike on, Cubans have nothing left to dodge but American tourists. Italy has banned the exportation of quicksilver, but will permit the import of gold, no matter how slow.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

WHEN a king dies in a foreign land, his demise has a very definite and immediate effect on the routine of official and diplomatic Washington. The sudden assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, coupled with the murder of Louis Barthou, foreign minister of France, caused a veritable cataclysm of social disasters in the American capital. Hundreds of notables who had expected to sip champagne, dance waltzes, ogle lovely ladies, nibble caviar, gossip and ride to glamorous social functions in top hats and ermine suddenly found themselves with completely blank calendars. News of the royal murder had no sooner reached this city than it caused a near panic and plunged the entire official and diplomatic contingent into the deepest gloom. Some of this gloom was caused by real sorrow at King Alexander's death. Some of it was caused by acute worry over possible political consequences. And some was caused—quite naturally—by selfish disappointment. a it a HERE are a few of the immediate results of his majesty’s death as it affected Washington : 1. President Roosevelt immediately sent a personal cable of condolence to Queen Marie in Belgrade. 2. Secretary of State Hull sent two wires to ranking officials of the Yugoslav government. 3. Secretary of State Hull called at the Yugoslav legation and at the French embassy to express his regrets. 4. All formal diplomatic parties were canceled immediately. 5. The White House called off a large reception which was to have been given in honor of foreign delegates to the Congress of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. 6. Ambassador Andre de Laboulaye of France recalled invitations to a dinner in honor of French delegates. 7. Minister Ibrahim Ratib Bey of Egypt canceled what was to have been a brilliant reception in honor of his majesty. King Fuad I. 8. Rumanian Minister Charles Davila announced that he would not give a scheduled dinner in honor of Prince and Princess Bibesco, nor a reception which was to follow the dinner. b b a WORD of the assassination was flashed here crashing like a bomb amid frantic preparations for official revelry. Foreign visitors—especially those from countries in or adjacent to the Balkans—showed much concern. They gathered in groups, animatedly discussing every political angle to the murder and speculating on the effect. In most of the foreign missions where dinners and receptions were planned, consternation ruled. Orchestras had been engaged, cases of champagne and whisky were piled high in the cellars,-major-domos and footmen were engaged in setting tables, flowers and other decorations had been selected and arranged, enormous quantities of food, ranging from such delicacies as caviar and ices to substantial hams and succulent fish, were ready to serve. After a series of hurried conversations all these magnificent provisions for a gay time were summarily put aside. When certain uniformed guests, silk-hatted and furred, arrived at the place of revel, they saw servants departing. A footman quietly opened the door for each guest, stated: “The reception has been called off on account of King Alexander's death.” Cards of condolence replaced calling cards. Thus does the assassination of a king many thousands of miles away affect the doings of Washington society.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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A /fXIC IV*

(Tivies 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.) nun CHARGES VANDALISM RUINS BARBER SHOPS By a Reader. Since The Message Center seems to be reserved as a medium by which the underdog may present his plea for justice, I wonder if I might have space for my plea. In the last few months there has been a vandal or a band of them running at large in this city who have chosen barber shops for their operations. In numerous cases barber shops have been either bombed, the windows broken, or the interior of the shop saturated with stench. Business is bad enough as a result of the depression and most of us are having troubles trying to avoid public relief, but if this vandalism is allowed to continue, we will be forced to close our doors and apply for relief. If this siege is the result of some imaginary grievance of some individual or group, and since the police seem to be powerless in this case, perhaps if such grievance is made known, it could be thrashed out in a manner to the mutual satisfaction of all. a it it COMPARES METHODS OF POOR RELIEF By a Reader. This is in answer to Mr. Britton’s article on the Center township trustee while Republicans were in office. I would like to say that I remember that time very well and so can many others. If you were in need of a basket you applied to the trustee and was given a card. You were to take this card around as you looked for work and if you were turned down the card was signed. When the card was filled you had to go back to the trustee and get a basket. I have a friend who was trying to get a basket at that time, and I went with him to get a card. I was asked to walk with him as he wanted to get it filled so he could get his basket. This man lived in Brightwood and we walked-out Massachusetts avenue. There are five or six small factories on the way and so we stopped at each place. At one there was a sign. “No Help Wanted,” and I asked him why he stopped there. He said he knew he would not get a job, but he needed a signature and was certain he could get one. So I ask, is that any better than the present system? We at least don't have to eat what the grocer can't sell. We get to work and we can buy what we please to eat. If a man has six in his family he gets twenty-four hours work at a good wage. Still there are some persons who want those good old days when they walked all day and begged someone to sign the card, so they could get a basket that was worth, possibly, S3. I ask you. is it any wonder that when our feet hurt we wrap up our heads? BBS DECLARES STRIKES HARM BOTH SIDES By an Onlooker. Strikes seem to be the order of the day and strikes, as I have seen them, always have been a loss to all concerned. The recent textile strike was called when locally the union had only forty-six members, but these forty-six with outside sympathizers, almost closed the mill. They created fear among the 85 per cent who were not in favor of a strike to such an extent that

THE BOOK WORM

Robinson and Machine Politics

By Will H. Craig. Asa smoke screen a lot of organizations like those of the veterans, labor unions, officers’ associations and fraternal orders declare from the house-tops that they are opposed to Communism and at the same time are condoning graft or laying plans to look for treasure in the treasury. If taxpayers’ organizations would fight as hard and hit the nail on the head instead of dealing in generalities, results would be different. And Senator Robinson shifts from national to state issues, blasting away at the McNutt machine. I am opposed to the McNutt or any other machine, but how about the machine that put Mr. Robinson in the running? Its dictator was Stephenson, now in prison for life. Its tool was Ed Jackson, who missed prison by the statute of limitations. Its chief henchmen were Duvall and Coffin. A man living in a glass house should not throw stones. So Mr. Robinson should shut his mouth about machines. Didn’t he butt in and try to organize the state committee into a little Robinson machine? Birds of a feather flock together. The character of some of his appointees smell to heaven. His excuse is that it was not his business to look up the character of appointees. The only requisite was that the man was regular to his party and loyal to the Robinson machine. Since when was such a policy that of the G. O. P.? finally they left their looms and frames to protect themselves. This strike was silly and foolhardy and the paid organizers who created such confusion and brought hardships on so many unwilling strikers should be compelled to share the mental agony, physical ills and financial burdens. Then perhaps they would not so readily force persons from their work in the name of organized labor. Mr. Young, the mill manager, has always had a good name for being fair to his help and paying a wage above the average in many mills, and he still is held in high esteem and admiration by the thinking persons among his employes. The result of the strike was thirty days of idleness, debts galore, beatings and sluggings, cars and homes shot into and wTecked and friendships broken. Many believe if it had not been for Mayor Sullivan and Talcott Powell, editor of The Times, coming into the negotiations, this reign of terror would have run on indefinitely. When the issue finally was submitted to the rank and file for return to work, there were only thirtynine who voted against returning to work. Yet today, after being back at work only ten days, these thirtynine are threatening another strike. If this second strike should come, I hope the forces of law' and order wall see to it that honest persons with a desire to live in decency and respectability will not have to run the risk of getting kilfcd by running the line of outlaws as they did in the last strike. I believe in organized labor, but am not a believer in organized outlaws. May the time soon come when the golden rule will be considered more by both the employer and employe. B B B BELIEVES VETERANS WILL DEFEAT DEMOCRATS Br William Cniick. No political party can win the election Nov. 6 without the support of the veteran vote. Today the vet-

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

James E. Watson, former senator, met his Waterloo by the action of his machine. Senator Robinson will follow. He, like a lot of other impractical politicians, say the way to end the depression is to give work to the unemployed. Easily said, but hard to do. Why did he and his bunch not do this when the G. O. P. was in power? When I hear so much about the depression I want to ask who brought it about? And how? By widening the unbalanced conditions between agriculture and industry, between the masses and classes, Senator Robinson is catering to the classes. Every industry would be glad to operate if it had a market for its goods, but the high tariff wall and wartime wages destroy the markets both at home and abroad. The masses at home can not buy the high priced goods. Raise in salaries of public officials was an outrage on the taxpayers. Senator Robinson voted for it. His hobby is a bid for veterans’ votes. From his wailing one would think that the veterans all were on the way to the poorhouse. Our grateful nation has always taken care of its soldiers, and never better than the World war veterans. The policies of Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Minton are alike—take care of all deserving veterans. The policy differs from that of Senator Robinson, namely, a man serving a few months in a home camp should have a pension if he received pin scratches fifteen years after the war. eran vote is solid in its opposition to the Democratic party. The Democratic party made paupers of the men who defended the nation in time of war. They even cut the compensation of men wounded in action and the old G. A. R. vets. What kind of a government is this that turns down its disabled soldiers? Nov. 6 will show the Democrats that the veterans not only stand together but vote together. BBS REPLIES TO CRITIC OF ROOSEVELT By E. Louis Moore. At this time, when the American people are seeking information of political importance, the Negro is no less interested in facts relative to the affairs of state and the character of those seeking offices than any other voter. The article by John C. Bankett brings to the fore such besmirching information, which if true is a rather serious indictment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. John C. Bankett, it would appear, is speaking for the rank and file of the Negroes of Indianapolis and those elsewhere in Indiana. He styles himself as a writer and political economist, but Negroes have not designated Mr. Bankett as their spokesman. He no doubt recalls his constant attacks, in his paper, the Indianapolis World, against Herbert Hoover, when President. Referring to Mr. Hoover’s “sugar interest in South America, and the starvation wages paid the natives.” It was John C. Bankett, who. at that time, because of his knowledge of political economy and the character of men in office and those seeking office, renunciated the Republican party and took up the cause of the Democratic pary. and proclaimed Franklin D. Roosevelt, then candidate for President of the United States, as the savior of the nation. The Negro is now, as he has always been, above suspicion, and does not indulge in treason, tyranny or in any form of unpain-

.OCT. 15,1934

otic infamy. He has not authorized Mr. Bankett to act as his mouthpiece, and according to their well known tradition, they will remain patriotically loyal, and unmoved by spurious articles designed to induce fear and fright. The Negro seeks the truth, not lies. He is interested in the New Deal and he will ever stand by the national administration, whether a Democrat or Republican is President.

Sc They Say

This much I am sure of: That, unsuccessful as I am, I can attend to my own affairs better than any bureaucrat in Washington can attend to them for me.—Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher. Badly chosen color in dress or for home decoration not only reflects an uneducated color sense, but the character of the possessor. Negative persons do not throw off a strong color vibration. —Natalie Kalmus, motion picture director. I would rather vote for a man in a graveyard with a good respectable name than the rest of these puddingheads who are running around dead and won’t lie down. —SenatorElect Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi. I am tired of hearing Roosevelt described as the most religious President we have ever had. Since he has been President, he has attended church but three times. If ever he comes to my town, he can t get into the pulpit of my church.— Rev. L. R. Phipps, Newcastle, Pa. We have looked with suspicion on their (the brain trust’s) activities for several months, but now we demand an accounting. These theorists are interested chiefly in keeping their jobs and perpetuating their own bureaucracies. —Senator Arthur R. Robinson of Indiana. There is a main fault among younger feminine players. They are trying to ape the more successful ones—Darryl Zanuck, movie producer. I don’t think that, just because a man is nominated or elected to office, his family should step in the spotlight, too.—Mrs. Upton Sinclair. The New Deal is no revolution. Under it, economic, political and social power reside exactly where they did before—.jn the hands of tne capitalistic Class of the nation Charles Solomon, Socialistic gubernatorial candidate in New York. Agriculture is taking charge of production, just as industry has done for years.—Edward A. O'Neal, president American Farm Bureau Federation. SET not tnyseif to attain much rest, but much patience.— Thomas A. Kempis.

Beach S’andals

BY J. Dl KE MATLEY "A bareback rider I would be," Decided Speck, a modest flea. “Though chance and fate may pas* me by, Still I refuse to mope and cry.” Just then he spied a lady sweet. In swim togs dressed from head to feet. The fair one for a moment stopped, And on her nut brown back, Speck hopped. This story happens to be true. And points a message, dear, to you. Which shows that with a will to be. Goals can be reached, though you're a flea.