Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 145, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 October 1934 Edition 02 — Page 7

OCT. 27, TOST

It Seems to Me HfVHIISI BROUN 1 THINK that I have seen the polished, patentleather toe of recovery coming around that corner where he has so long been hiding. The old gentleman was not running or even walking briskly. He was ambling. Nevertheless it seemed to me as if he had made up his mind to come home in the hope that everything would be forgiven. I warn him here and now not to knock at my door. Tliere is no lamp in the window of my apartment and Old Man Recovery will find no edible fatted calf around these premises. My grurigp against Enoch J. Ra-

rovery is that he has left behind him the man who was supposed to be his pal and traveling companion. I refer, of course, to Rrger X. Readjustment. Indeed, there is room for a grave suspicion that Recovery has done away with Readjustment in some foul manner hidden the bociy. For more than a year our newspapers and magazines have been dealing with the problem as to whether the vital concern of the country’ should be to secure some measure of immediate prosperity

Ileywood Broun

or whether it might not be wiser to make here and now fundamental changes leading to a more balanced economic stability. It was hold by many that a preoccupation with readjustment was an impediment to recovery. This school of thought, from all present appearances, has won the day. As business picks up you will hear less and less about unemployment insurance, old age pensions and oth r social measures. a a a Penitents Doff Sackcloth I'UST the vaguest ripple of better times induced many penitents to take off their sackcloth, put the ashes on the dumb waiter and go back into giddy raiment. While the nervous breakdown was upon us, many promises were made. Sick industrialists were ready to get together and agree on a new dispensation. Old devices of carelessness and corruption were to be rigorously uprooted. I believe there even were remarks about labor being a partner in industry and with my own ears I heard several prominent manufacturers assert that they would be wholly satisfied with smaller profits than they knew r in the old days, if only peace and security could be established along the economic front. Not very' much of that soil of talk is being heard today. My prediction of the return of prosperity is based to some extent on the decided spurt in the enterprises concerned with luxury and entertainment. This is a theatrihal season far beyond the feeble mummery’ of last year. People are coming bark to the restaurants, football games are crowded once again, and there is betting at the race tracks. These may be trivial symptoms. Sometimes an Increase in this sort of spending rises merely out of desperation. I doubt if it has any such significance right now. Chiefly I base my prophecy on the obvious fact that big business is growning arrogant once more. It is no longer compromising and conciliatory toward employes. a a a Wailing, Gnashing Goes On MUCH wailing and gnashing of teeth still goes on. When a man has been sick long enough even a return to health seems to him no more than another symptom. The lads of Wall Street still are crying that all is lost, including honor. They are going to miss their tribulations. But the stock market prices are inching up. A few new highs of the year have been established in the last month or so. Last week I sold a short story to a magazine. The depression must be over. Frankly, I think America is recovering from its slump too quickly. We did not go through our travail long enough to accept the fact that it was constitutional. Today, or at any rate tomorrow', we will say that it was no worse than a bad headache and let it go at that. I am not so heartless that I would like to see Jobless men carry on under their misery one day or one minute longer. Unfortunately what we call prosperity has too little to do with jobless men. It may cut the total of unemployment somewhat but even the most piping sort of business in the past has left millions on the side lines. Unlike Santa Claus, Old Man Recovery misses many chimneys. He is coming back now to behave in the way he has behaved before. There will be large benefits for a handful, small sops for quite a few, but for very many there won’t even be an orange in the toe of the stocking. I'm all for sending Mr. Recovery back around the corner from whence he came and I would ask him not to return until he brings his distant cousin, Mr. Readjustment. a a a Peter and Paul Brothers \ S things stand now we are establishing a defiA nite stratified society in which there will be a certain semi-permanent group called “the workless. It has been argued in the past that there could be nothing like prosperity without a high proportion of employment. That undoubtedly is true over any long term of years, but in short cycles it just isn’t so. That was proved during the war. From an economic point of view, the army was not engaged in productive labor. It merely consumed. Under our present relief program we have a similar situation. Os course it is the clumsiest way imaginable to deal with the fact that machinery has made man infinitely more productive. Instead of shortening the work week, the present setup condemns multitudes to do nothing. This is no passing fluctuation. No practical, hardhearted disciple of the profit, system has suggested any way out. If you cut relief you cut prosperity. If you increase it by just so much added purchasing power is recovery supported. Recovery depends upon takme from Peter to pay Paul. This is not a system which can last forever. Neither Paul nor Peter are what you might call enthusiastic about it. Readjustment would move in another way. Its slogan would come from Rudyard Kipling and Gertrude Stein. It might read. “Peter is Taul and Paul is Peter and they are brothers under the skm. ’ Cenvrißht 1034. fov The Timrs*

Todays Science __ B\ DAVID DIETZ

\NEVV theory of relativity is the latest object ol m the world of science. It includes the corrections to the Newtonian theory which Prof Albert Ernstein made in his original famous theory, but it does not abandon Newton with the thoroughness cf the Einstein theory. In addition, it does not require an expanding universe, the extension to the Einstein theory made by the Abbe Lemaitre. Author of the new theory of relativity is the chief judge of the h. h court of Allahabad in India, the Honorable Sir Shah Mohamet Suleiman. The judge is a mathematician trained at the University of Cambridge and in addition is vice-president of a Moslem university. Dr. Harlow Shaplev lists this new theory among a dozen of the outstanding developments in astronomy during 1934. Among other events listed by Dr. Shaplev were the following: 1. Study of the eclipsing double star Zeta Aurigae by more astronomers than ever turned their telescope on one star at the same time before. 2. Confirmation of the antiquity of the earth's crust by a Viennese scientist. Miss Kroupa. who finds that the pre-Cambrian rocks of Canada are at least 1.725.000.000 years old. a a a CONTINUING a brief summary of Dr. Shapley's list of astronomic events in 1934: 4. New studies, particularly at Mt. Wilson and Harvard, on the sizes and shapes of the exterior galaxies and their distribution in space. 5. Discovery of anew astronomical puzzle by Dr. Paul Merrill of the Mt. Wilson observatory. For some time, it has been known that so-called empty space between the stars was not really empty.

WALL STREET and the DEPRESSION

Rebuilding of Financial Structure, Trade Restrictions Urged

l'ndr the witrhful tyt of l nrle Sm. Wall Street matthe* forth—to what? John T. Flrnn. in bi. lint of i* articles on “Wall Street and the Depression—The Story of Oar Past Pise Years,'* sentores a forecast of the stock market’s future. In past articles he has |isen readers of The Tunes retealin* tlimpses of the causes that lay behind the crash and the continuance of the depression, and has resriewed the (rowing (oyernmental supervision of the marts of trade. a a a BY JOHN T. FLYNN (Copyright. 1934. NEA Service, Inc I XJEW YORK, Oct. 27.—What is to be the future of Wall Street? IN In New York you can hear any sort of prophecy you desire. Men in the Street will tell you that the great days of the old Street are over forever. Still others Insist that with the first real lift in business it will come back bigger and “better’' than ever. I have been peering into the crystal and I must confess it is very obscure and murky. For one thing those who suppose that Americans have learned their lesson and will hence be protected from any further similar disasters are sadly mistaken. In March, 1933. this nation sank down in the most complete collapse of its history. Yet within three months, these chastened people were in the throes of another bull market, built on inflation and the return of alcohol. There were more pools, rumors, options, crazy children fresh from the fire than I ever have seen in Wall Street. And it cracked on Julv 18 in a disastrous day almost as bad as Oct. 23, 1929. Incredible? Yes. But while this bull market was in progress everybody was satisfied from the White House down. It was only when it cracked that the roar of anger went up. The AAA administrator told the Chicago Board of Trade it must put grain prices up and “keep them up.” Senator Thomas of Oklahoma wired the Stock Exchange that if it didn t adopt a rule to limit declines in a single day congress would get after it.

No word about limiting boosts. No! We learn little and forget plenty. I have been reading extensively lately in the history of Athens four hundred years before Christ. There was a depression then which paralleled almost all the factors in this one, including all the follies. And ending, as almost all depressions end, in war. Will the securities and exchange act really bring Wall Street and the exchanges under control? I think it will have to be conceded that the personnel of the present commission is a good one. Judge Healy, the able lawyer who conducted the brilliant power trust investigation for the federal trade commission; George Matthews of Wisconsin, an experienced practical economist, well versed in blue sky security operations; James Landis, an able lawyer who has made a study of corporate finance; Ferdinand Pecora, whose brilliant castigation of Wall Street speaks for itself. Joseph P. Kennedy, chairman of the commission, was a Wall Street man and I opposed his nomination. But he knows Wall Street, is aware of its sins and has shown himself to be at least as vigorous as his colleagues in taming the exchange. He is particularly interested in forcing corporations to mend their ways. If this commission is let alone, I believe it will ultimately force a comprehensive program of reform in the stock markets. a a a ISAY if it is let alone. At present, immense pressure is being applied by the exchange, by business and by politicians to frighten it. The commission is being warned that drastic regulation will result in crippling the issuance of new securities and blocking the revival of the capital goods industries. In my book on speculation, I have tried to show through elaborate studies, that the stock exchange really does not perform any function whatever in producing any new capital funds for industry.

THE NATIONAL ROUNDUP a a a a a a By Ruth Finney

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27.—With election only ten days away returns are in from most of the straw' ballots and betting odds are fixed on most of the candidates. This is the way they line up. In the first gubernatorial race to steal the spotlight from national contests. Governor Frank Merriam of California is a 2 to 1 favorite to defeat Upton Sinclair and his end-poverty plan. The trend is toward Merriam. But Democratic registration is larger than Republican and thus it is anybody’s race.

In sheer melodrama, Pennsylvania's contests lead. Governor Gifford Pinchot. who tried for the Republican senatorial nomination and failed to get it, is being accused of a devious plot to pdt him in the senate anyway. He is denouncing Joseph F. Guffey, Democratic candidate, and losing him many votes. But at the same time he is denouncing David A. Reed. Republican candidate, and promising to help the senate committee on campaign expenditures prove that Reed's primary expenditures disqualify him in case he is elected. He is denouncing the Democratic candidate for Governor and supporting the Republican. Both parties fear he may eliminate GufTev at the polls, Reed at the bar of the senate, and take the seat himself by appointment from a Republican Governor. Even money is being bet on the race. * In Ohio, odds of 6 to 1 are being offered on Vic Dona hey, former Governor, to defeat Senator Simeon D. Fess. Fess is one of the few candidates still denouncing the New Deal with untempered hostility. SENATOR* ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE is the favorite in Wisconsin, though he is having the fight of his career. John M. Callahan. Democrat, is his most dangerous opponent, but is receiving no help from Washington. Callahan's last-minute conversion to New Deal doctrine, after publicly denouncing it in the primaries, has not helped him. Arthur H. Vandenberg. who may be the Republican party's nominee for President two years from now if he retains his Michigan senatorial seat, seems to have a slight edge over Frank A. Picard, Democrat. The trend, however, is away from Vandenberg. Senator Couzens, extremely popular in Michigan, is keeping silent. In Nebraska. Representative E. R. Burke, Democrat, is a favorite to win. though by a small majority. Farm sentiment is turning against the New Deal. Nebraska's recent corn-hog poll indicated. Harry S. Truman is a 4-to-l favorite in Missouri to defeat Senator Roscoe C. Patterson. Patterson. like Fess. still is denouncing Roosevelt policies, and former Democratic Senator James A. Reed is helping him. Truman is a candidate of "Boss" Pendergast. In West Virginia, betting odds favor Rush D. Holt, 29-year-o^d

That is an old fiction which has been sold to legislators for years. It is pure bunk. But it is being trotted out again to scare the commission. There is some ground for believing that it has already scared some of the exalted politicians who rule our destinies. The chief peril to adequate regulation of the exchange now is the possibility that a nod from the White House may cause the commission to slow up for political reasons. But this must be remembered. Whether Wall Street is governed in the interest of the people or the interest of Wall Street will depend on the commission. The original act contained provisions which would make it impossible for the commission to be a pro-Wall Street one. Rules controlling margins, regulations prohibiting brokers from gambling for their own account, drastic provisions affecting pools were in the bill. The Wall Street lobby with the aid of the United States treasury department took all these teeth out of the act. They left the whole subject up to a commission. As for margins, this was left to the federal reserve board. A good commission can be trusted to penetrate the pretensions and fakes of Wall Street and enforce sound transactions. But the future will depend on what kind of men make up these commissions. There is no guarantee that they will not, in the end, fall under the dominion of the powerful interests they are set up to control, as has happened to our utility commissions, our railroad and banking and insurance commissions. a a a LET us not be too sure, there- ' fore, that Wall Street will not come back. To afford us some insurance against this, however, I urge that the following measures should be adopted 1. First of all, the trouble does not lie just in the stock exchanges. It lies in our whole financial system, w'hich is ramshackle, un-

I Democratic opponent of Senator I Henry T. Hatfield, another bitter- ; ender. He is supported by labor. Senator Henrik Shipstead is backed to win in Minnesota over Einar Hoidale, his Democratic foe, and a less formidable Repub- i lican opponent. He has not declared himself on the radical platform of his Farmer-Labor party, and is conducting his campaign apart from that of Governor Olson, who helped write the platform. e tt tt INDIANA'S senatorial race seems to be a toss-up. Sherman Minton. Democrat, though handicapped by the unpopularity of Governor McNutt, is giving Sena- ! tor Arthur Robinson a desperate j fight. j New Jersey is betting that i Governor A. Harry Moore. Democrat. will defeat Senator Hamilton Kean. Odds are even in Rhode Island, where Peter Gerry is trying to defeat the Republican Hebert to return to the senate. Senator Bronson Cutting’s stock is mounting in New' Mexico with Senator Hiram Johnson in the state making a vigorous fight in his behalf. Voters who support Presiden Roosevelt are bewildered by the Democratic fight against this stanch supporter of most New* Deal doctrines. Another western liberal. Lynn ’ J. Frazier, is a slight favorite ■ over Henry Holt, his Democratic I opponent. Labor is for Frazier. Omitting states where the outcome is a foregone conclusion, dopesters line up the rest of the country this way. Senatorial races in Arizona, Utah, Maryland. Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New York, Tennessee. Wyoming and Washington will go to the Democrats. Vermont and Connecticut will j go Republican. NATURE STUDY GROUP TO HEAR TRAVEL TALKS Nova Scotia, Hawaii and Jamaica to Be Topics Tonight. Illustrated talks on trips taken all | summer will be given by three Nature Study Club members tonight in Cropsey hall, city library. Mrs. J. W. Noble will tell of Nova Scotia. Miss Mildred Vincent of Hawaii and Miss Norma Koch of Jamaica. The club will hold its annual Halloween party Tuesday night at the j Women's Department Club. Wilj liam Knox is in charge of reserj vations.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

' J S fJ.

Members of the National Securities Exchange Commission, organized by the government to protect the investing public, are (seated, left to right) Ferdinind Pecora, Joseph P. Kennedy, chairman, and James M. Landis! (standing left to right) George C. Matthews and Robert Healy.

scientific indeed the craziest thing in our civilization. It was not created by experts to meet the needs of a highly complex society. It just grew, without any logical relation to the functions w ; hich a financial system ought to perform. Therefore we ought to make a study of the whole thing and effect a thoroughgoing reformation of it all—which means our banks, our savings mechanisms, our insurance organization, our investment devices, our corporation laws and our trading markets. 2. We have made a beginning on our trading markets. This should be strengthened by (a) prohibiting security brokers from speculating for their own account; (b) prohibiting them from acting as bankers and making loans on securities; (c) prohibiting banks from making loans on securities or any other form of collateral save self-liquidating obligations; (and) taking away from the Federal Reserve Board all control over margins; (e) taking the autonomous direction of exchanges out of the hands of brokers and giving representation to all interests concerned in trading; and (f) finally putting all these things into laws and directing the commission to enforce, not make, these rules. 3. To reach our investment system, our corporation laws which are at the root of most of our troubles should be completely recast. Corporations never were intended to be instruments in the hands of promoters to milk, industry. They have grown so chiefly through the competition of certain charter mongering states. The first step is for the United States government to enact a na-

ROTARY GLOB WILL INSTALL NEW HEADS E. R. Hisey to Take Over Presidency Tuesday. Newly elected officers of the In.dianapolis Rotary Club will be installed at the meeting at the Claypool meeting Tuesday. Edwin R. Hisey w'ill be club president for the coming year; Omar S. Hunt, first vice-president; Ray F. Crom, second vice-president; Hal E. Howe, secretary; Walker W. Winslow, treasurer, and Audley S. Dunham, sergeant-at-arms. Mr. Hisey announced today that Winston O'Keefe will entertain club members at the meeting Tuesday with a program of cowboy songs and stories. Mechanics to Hold Dance The Junior Order of United American Mechanics will hold a card party and masked dance at 8 Monday in their hall. Eleventh street and College avenue, it was announced today. The public is invited.

SIDE GLANCES

y - ~

4< JN T ow he won’t be home all afternoon and I wanted him to 4 clean out the garage.”

tional corporation law compelling all industries engaged in interstate commerce to take out national charters. Thus alone can corporate abuses be reached. No single state can act alone. A company can incorporate in any state where it gets the most favorable charter law. That is why most of them go to Delaware, Maryland and other such states. The national government should then abolish holding companies of all kinds. These are the machine guns in the hands of corporate promoters. To talk about individualism while individuals can arm themselves with the resources of a hundred thousand men is ridiculous. We have not a nation of equal individuals, but for millions of individuals and a few corporate monsters. tt tt a WE must deal with our banking system. We have done little about that. The GlassSteagal Dili does not go nearly far enough. We must have a national banking system. Here again the reason is the same. While state and national systems are competing there can be no adequte banking protection. Right now' our banking system is defunct, held up wholly by the federal deposit insurance fund. This, therefore, is the time to recast it. Financial institutions should be rigidly divided into banking and savings or investment institutions. Banks should be banks and nothing else. They exercise a sovereign function—the creation of money, because all the money w r e do business with is created by our banks through deposit currency. They must, therefore, be kept rigidly liquid. This can be done only by

Jhe-

DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27.—A lot of people missed a small item in the labor department's latest announcement of employment statistics, but it was extremely significant. It was an item showing a marked increase in hiring of workers in the retail and wholesale trades. A gain of 160,000 employes w’as recorded during the month of September. These figures confirm numerous unofficial reports of a distinct improvement in consumer activity. Two of the largest mail order corporations privately informed Sec-

retary Perkins last w r eek that the volume of their sales for the current month already exceeds the total for October, 1933. A nationally known manufacturer of men's readymade clothing has sent word that buying has been so heavy that his stocks are nearing exhaustion. Labor and commerce department experts concede that a considerable proportion of this activity is of a seasonal character. But they also attribute a large percentage of it to the increased purchasing power of the farmers,

By George Clark

limiting commercial banks to lending on absolutely self-liquidat-ing obligations—ordinary commercial credits. Those who wish to borrow for long terms should do so from lendin Institutions which are not banks and whose existence is not imperiled by the freezing of its funds. Above all, lending by banks in the stock market should be rigidly prohibited. I know that most bankers will not agree with these recommendations. That is chiefly because bankers, who may know a good deal about how to run a bank, know little or nothing about our economic system. If we w'ant a reasonable stable economic machine we must come to this. Above all, I warn solemnly against any continuance of the vicious holding company system applied to banks. Our people, I daresay like all peoples, are obdurate about turning a deaf ear to warnings. But this one is serious. If holding company banking is permitted to flourish it will absolutely destroy us. I warned about holding company banking back in the twenties. It was this indefensible thing which wrecked the banks of Detroit and Cleveland and, for that matter, many other places and sent the repercussions of those failures through thousands of smaller banks. I see signs too obvious to be ignored that it is to this astounding folly bankers will turn for their exploits if prosperity should return. There is, indeed, much to be done if w r e really w r ant to make a serious effort to get the capitalist system of functioning again. (The End)

due to the operation of the AAA and stimulation of the building industries as a result of PWA expenditures. a tt tt IT doesn’t pay to be flip with foatless men about the office of Secretary Ickes. The other day an out-of-town lawyer strode briskly into the reception room of the head of the interior department. At a desk in one corner was a man in shirt sleeves busy with a large pile of papers. The attorney strode over to him. announced: ‘‘l have an appointment with Secretary Ickes.” "Yes?” said the man at the desk. “Yes,’’ snapped back the visitor, "and promptness, you know, is a royal virtue.” “I am Secretary Ickes,” was the quiet reply. * a a THE war department will not admit it, but it is intensely interested in the case of the two college boys who have gone before the supreme court as conscientious objectors against R. O. T. C. drill at the University of California. Equally interested are fifteen land grant colleges. If the case is decided in favor of the two boys, not only is the war department’s R. O. T. C. program in danger of collapse, but the fifteen universities fear an exodus which will kill their war department subsidy. Os the fifteen universities, six have an immediate interest in the supreme court decision. In each one of the six is a pending case of conscientious objectors now in college. They are: Ohio State university, Kansas State college, Pennsylvania State college, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (seldom thought of as a land grant college), University of New Hampshire, and University of Illinois. One vital angle of the case is not generally known. The boys, whose fathers and grandfathers were ministers, are not Quakers but Methodists. Quakers, a relatively small group, long have been accepted as sincere in objecting to military training. But to put Methodists in the same class would be to make eligible for exemption the largest Protestant denomination in the country. No wonder the war department is worried.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER SAN FRANCISCO. Oct. 27. Let me explain to him,” said Mr. Hjalmar Utzebeck. Upton Sinclair’s enormous friends from Denmark by way of Alaska. Up to this time Mr. Sinclair, himself, and three other imported Californians had taken turns explaining their EPIC plan for changing California's government but had made no yards against your correspondent's alert stupidity. They had used straight old-fashioned power arguments and Intricate economic spinners but had been stopped dead

at the line of scrimmage by the simple fact that they were arguing for Socialism. In fact, the triple-crash man from Los Angeles who had failed in banking and the movie business and was now going down hill fast in the come-apart bungalow business, had lost a few yards when he tripped over his premise and sprawled on his conclusion. ”1 am a capitalist.” he had said and your correspondent had smeared him in his tracks with Mahatma Sinclair's own admission that the goal of the EPIC team was the complete oblitera-

tion of profit and the substitution of production for use in California. * "Let me explain in language which he will understand.” said Mr. Utzebeck. and Mr. Sinclair, lying on the bed. let Hjalmar get on with the spinning. Mr. Utzebeck is built on the lines of a heavyweight wrestler. He would and he may yet be a great man on the ramparts. His shouiders are a ten-minutes walk from arm to arm and lus hands were made for throwing paving blocks. a a a Big Wheels—Little Wheels MR. UTZEBECK advanced to the center of the hotel bedroom, shot his cuffs, flexed his shoulders and turned on a smile so muscular that it jiggled his scalp. • Now,” he began, spreading his hands in a reasoning gesture, “we have a very' simple proposition. We will imagine two big wheels, spinning rapidly. One is a big wheel and the other is little. The big wheel gets littler and the little wheel gets bigger. One is employment, the other the unemployed. When capitalistic industry doesn't want the workers, they go to work on the other wheel and it grows bigger. When capitalistic industry picks lip the wheel gets bigger again.” “Tell him,” Mahatma Sinclair suggested, “the one about the twelve barter transactions in which not a cent of money changed hands.” “That is a long one,” Mr. Utzebeck demurred. “AH right; anyway, I tell him.” Knowing what was in store, Mahatma Sinclair moved to the table and fortified himself with a baked apple. The come-apart capitalist excavated the interior of a baked potato the size of a football. And your correspondent, alreadv dazed by Mr. Utzebeck's huge arms, waving in circles in illustration of the rapidly spinning, expanding and contracting wheels was now bowled down by the terrific confusion and power of Mr. Utzebeck’s long one about the twelve transactions. We expected to be hit almost any moment with a nut or bolt from that spinning human mechanism. a a a Debris Just Piles Up IT began with 200 calves on a farm somewhere and a farmer who wanted some lumber for anew barn. It swept on through a sawmill and up the California hills to an old gravel bunker. Veering and reversing, Mr. Utzebeck knocked over an old windmill and a water tank and swept on and on, accumulating debris like a roomful of Rotarians singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Chickens, parsnips, leather vests from the hides of the 200 calves, lumber, veal stew, old iron and bolts and nuts from the dismantled bunker and windmill filled the room. Suddenly, Mr. Utzebeck stopped. The air was clear and still. The unemployed lumbermen were eating veal stew in leather vests. The farmer was milking a cow out behind his new barn and the windmill was going around and around on anew site. Always, in Mr. Utzebeck’s illustrations of the EPIC plan there were wheels of one kind or another going around and around. Mahatma Sinclair smiled serenely and led the way back to his bedroom. Mr. Utzebeck did not follow immediately. Mr. Sinclair lay down again. ana Tears Apart Jail Bars know,’’ he said, “Hjalmar is a great writer. A He has a great story. He was up in Alaska one winter, broke and hungry and one night he broke into a grocery store and stole a can of tomatoes. They arrested him and he got a year in jail. “He lay there a while, but one night he tore the bars out of his window and ran away. He ran down the coast and every so often he would come to a mountain. He would climb the mountain and swim a river and climb another mountain. And so no, until, at last he reached Seattle. “In Seattle he went sraight to his fiancee and asked her to marry him. But the lady refused to marry him until he returned to Alaska to serve out his sentence and clear his honor. So he did. It i3 really a wonderful story.” (Copyright. 1334. bv United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

A WORLD that was once fairly quiet is now besieged by noise of many varieties. The coming of the machine age, of rapid transportation, and of new devices for carrying sound through the air have multiplied immensely the sounds that assault the ears. Engineers have in the meantime been developing methods of sound-proofing so as to make it possible for those who wish to shut out sounds to have a certain amount of quietude. In England there is an anti-noise league, concerned with cutting down the total number of noises, because it is felt that these constant stimuli may seriously irritate the sick and also greatly impede recovery. Certain sounds are painfully loud. It can be taken for granted that if they are so, they are harmfully loud either to the ear or the brain, or both. a a a WHEREAS rhythmical sound has the effect of preventing or postponing fatigue, as an example in soldiers who are marching, sounds that are not rhythmical may startle, disturb, or irritate. The reaction to a sudden, sharp, or unexepected sound is a muscular spasm. It is an intensive gathering of the muscles for flight or for defense. Associated with this sudden muscular spasm there are the usual accompaniments of fear; namely, a contraction of the blood vessels so that we become pale, trembling of the limbs, and what is generally called shock. If this happens frequently, there results, of course, exhaustion and in the end breakdown. a a a IT is because of these shocks to the nervous system that noise is tiring. To persons who are quite ill it may be so serious as to have an unfavorable effect leading even to death. There are, of course, persons who do not react as much to noise as do others. They have the ability to concentrate and to shut out the world from their consciousness. Os course when we become accustomed to noise we learn to ignore it. This applies to workers in boiler shops, in musical instrument testing laboratories, carpenter shops, and similar industries. While a healthy man can stand the ordinary noises of the streets, including even unexpected blowing of motor horns, a hypersensitive or weakly man suffers exceedingly to such stimulation of his nerves. In cases of pneumonia, sepsis, heart disease accompanied with insomnia, and persons who are much weakened after surgical operation, noise is a serious menac ( i

PAGE 7

ft. M'M

Westbrook Pegler