Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 160, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 November 1934 — Page 11
It Seems to Me HEWN BROUN 'T'HE Mipreme court has asked the warden of San Quentin to show cause why Tom Mooney should not be allowed to file a petition for a write of habeas corpus and it seems to me that this is one of the greatest victories for law and order in the history of American Jurisprudence. To be Mire it may be said that such action or something similiar should have been taken years ago The fine legal points involved are somewhat beyond mv comprehension. For that I make no apology It will be better all around if American courts educate themselves to understand human needs rather than the imposition of the requirement that folk m general should become amateur lawyers. 1 do not think that there can be much question
that procedure has Decome ornate and complicated beyond all reason. The common man. for who'-e protection courts are supposed to exist, has every right to complain that he is confused by problems of precedent and jurisdiction. The victim merely says. "There must be some way,” and does not always find it. Modern industrial civilization has become so -complicated that it is perhaps too much to expect that law always should be clear and concise. But the movement ought to be in that direction. The Mooney case mav well stand as a symbol. We are interested in allowing a man to
9
llrrnnod Broun
prove his innocence. Only the lawyers can be expected to grow excited aoout the precise method under which such a review of facts is to be accorded. bub Court Rapped In fairly ON the whole, it seems to me, that the supreme court of the United States has been rapped a little unfairly by the liberals. The combined age of the Justices must approach closely to the figure of 600 years. Quite possibly it tops it and yet this tribunal of last resort is by no means the most stuffy end antiquated in our legal system. Holmes at 90-odd was much more receptive to new ideas than many judges who were younger in years and slighter in the heirarchy of authority. Some of the most swaggering of reactionary decisions have come from young fellows of 51 or 52 in the minor courts. I do not believe now and never have that the supreme court should possess a legislative veto. At times decisions have been handed down which W’ere in distinct opposition to human progress. Nevertheless. Mr. Dooley was right when he declared that the supreme court follows the election returns. Without this flexibility it seems to me that it should not and could not survive in a Democratic setup. According to a most unappealing fiction the nine men in the black robes are situated high above the emotional appeal of human necessity. It is sometimes held that all the pronouncements which are handed down are based upon legal points regardless of the human equation. Law, although far from perfect, is a good deal better than that. Any Judge worth his salt can always find a legal loophole lor a human need. B n B Accusations Are Exaggerated I WILL admit that certain ones who sit in the high places do not seem to be worth so much as half a flip of the shaker. There are individuals who do not become fair, or wise or learned by some automatic process when they are elevated to the supreme court. Those of the most modest good intention and ability have strayed into the fold at time. F. rtunately they can not last forever. Yet even in the case of the worst appointments there is something about the tradition of the court which brings even the feeblest recruits a little nearer up to scratch than they would have been otherwise. New manners and customs and fresh points of view can not be excluded wholly from the chambers where the old men gather. I think that some of thr more radical accusations have been a little bit exaggerated and likewise I believe it has not helped to have an air of special sanctity set up around the nine justices. At times the supreme court has erred and later admitted this fact by reversing its own decisions. These men are venerable, but not by any means above the reach of complaint and criticism. Within fortv days there must be some action in regaid to Tom Mooney. In the last analysis it does not seem to me that the judges are in any way infallable. By their works they shall be known. From this quarter no hat throwing will occur until the judicial gentlemen have made up their minds. I hope they realize the gravity of the situation. They ar( \ in effect trying not only Thomas Mooney but in addition the name and fame and the life or death of the supreme court of America. <Copvr:Kht. 1934. bv The Times!
Today s Science BV DAVID DIETZ
THE annual watch for the Leonids is on this week. Astronomers will be on the lookout for the November shower of shooting stars on the four nights, beginning tonight. Tliis year astronomers have their fingers crossed. If anything spectacular happens, they will be pleasantly and agreeably surprised. But they are making no predictions and they are holding out no hopes to amateur enthusiasts to expect a de luxe performance. Amateurs are urged, however, to aid in charting the flight of the Leonids since such information is pf immense value to the progress of astronomy. There is alwavs the possibility that professional astronomers may find their stations obscured by clouds while amateurs may be located where the sky To see the Leonids, watch the northeastern sky between The hours of midnight and dawn. Members of the American Meteor Society, scattered from New England to California, will be doing this. How many shooting stars they will see or how spectacular they will be. no one can say. It is possito predict a meteoric shower. It is not possible to predict its magnitude. U 9 * THE Leonids consist of millions upon millions of chunks of cosmic rubbish —tiny rocks, bits of sand and dust particles—which are revolving around the sun in a great orbit. This orbit cuts across the orbit of the earth. Once a year, therefore, the earth plows through the Leonids and that accounts lor the display of shooting stars each November. Most of the mass of the Leonids seemed at one time to be concentrated in one spot in the orbit. Since the Leonids took thirty-three years to go around their orbit, the earth would encounter this concentrated portion every thirty-three years. At such times, there would be an unusually spectacular display of shooting stars. Such a display took place m 1933. So awe-mspir-Ir.g was the sight that many persons thought the end of ihe world was on hand. For years. Nov. 12, 1833. was known as the "night that the stars fell.” Astronomers who viewed the spectacle estimated that more than 2.50 000 meteors were to be seen from one observing station during the course of the night. A brilliant display occurred again in 1866. • m a ASTRONOMERS were all set for another glorious spectacle in 1899. But to their keen disappointment. U did not take place. Astronomers calculated that there was a possibility that the gravitational attraction of Jupiter had pulled the mam mass of meteors out of its original course. In 1930 and 1931. rather good displays of Leonids were seen Dr J J. Nassau, director of the Warner & Swasey Observatory of Case School of Applied Science. counted Leonids at the rate of about fifty an hour in 1931. Accordingly, astronomers looked for a big display In 1932 or 1933. But again they were disappointed. In neither year did they see as many Leonids as they did in 1931. For this reason they are holding out no great hopes for the present year. The Leonids got their name from the'fact that they enter the earth s atmosphere from the direction of the constellation of Leo and so give the appearance of originating in that constellation.
Full Ueaxed Wir* Ser*lc or th* United Pre Ao*i*tlon
THE NEW DEAL AT TOP SPEED
Workmen of Highest Type Recruited for Giant Valley Projects
Thu i* th* third of *tx storir* on wht President Roov*lt will see when he risiti the Tennessee Valley, No. 1 social-plannin* project of the New Deal. What ha* actually been done by eighteen months of work and spending? These stories tell yon. B B B BV JOHN T. MOUTOUX Written for NEA Service tt NOXVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 14.—Twelve thousand men and women work IV for the Tennessee Valley Authority and they constitute one of the finest groups of workers this or any other country has ever known. Two things account for this. First, the organization was built up during the worst of the depression and the TVA directors had the pick of the country to choose from. Second, the alms of the TVA—to set up a planned economy in a whole section of the country—appealed to many who had felt or observed the injustices and insecurity of a depression-ridden economic system and who wanted to have a hand in fashioning something new and better. It was like building anew world, and department heads, engineers, architects, and others in the salaried group so gloried in their task that thry remained at their offices long hours, night after night, during the first six months or so, to get the program under way as swiftly as possible. The high quality of the salaried group has been more than maintained. Often in governmental organizations the good men are taken over by private business and the mediocre ones remain. In the TVA the policy has been to sift out the ones at the bottom and feed it from the top. The men who work for wages, the bulk of the employes, have also caught the spirit of the TVA—and Norris dam In two months is ahead of schedule. This pnae in the job is shown by the prevalence of TVA insignia on the men s sweaters and coats. This army of 10.000 workers was taken mostly from the valley states. They were chosen from the 50.000 of the 100.000 applicants who passed physical and mental examinations given by the TVA.
They found, first of all, that their wages were much higher than the prevailing wage in the south; 45 cents an hour for unskilled, 60 and 75 for semiskilled. and $1 for skilled. At that time workers on state highways in Tennessee were being paid as little s a dollar for a 10hour day. Next, work was steady and the hours short—five and one-half hours a day, six days a week. b a b Finally, living costs were cheaper and camp life pleasanter than construction camps as a rule. The men who wanted to live at the camp were housed in neat new dormitories for $4.50 a month, and they could eat at a new T cafeteria in the camp, run by a dietitian, for $19.50 a month, about 22 cents a meal. The dormitories at the camp were for the single men. The TVA then built in the woods adjoining the camp a brand-new town—the prettiest workers’ town this country ever iws seen. ' It consists of 360 wood, brick> stone, steel and concrete-block houses ranging in cost from $1,500 to $6,500 and renting for from sls to $45 a month. Half of the houses—the higherpriced ones—are heated by electricity. The town has oiled streets, water, sewers, police and fire protection, garbage collection, and a model town management. This is the town of Norris, built by the TVA for its married workers. 808 THAT wasn't all. Working only five and one-half hours a day left a lot of time on their hands. TVA directors thought the workers should have a chance to put some of that time to good use. So a training program was launched. A modern factory building was erected for the trades school. Farm land was bought and a dairy, a creamery and a poultry house were put up for agricultural courses. Courses in engineering, English, history, mathematics, science and other subjects were offered. Workers' wives were not overlooked; courses in home-making were started. Participation in the training program was entirely optional; it was there for those who wanted it. Today practically every worker in the camp takes one or more
THE NATIONAL ROUNDUP B B B BUB By Ruth Finney
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14.—President Roosevelt has handed state utility commissions a big stick with which to reduce electric rates to domestic and commercial consumers. He has made public a formula worked out by the New York Power Authority by which the cost of distributing electric power—for years the unknown quantity in the utility business—can be determined quickly and accurately by public bodies. The report indicated that distributing costs assessed now by private companies are excessive.
Most of the state utility commissioners are in Washington for their annual meeting. They studied the report with keenest interest. At the same time they listened to a solemn warning from Chairman Frank R. McNineh of the federal power commission, that results, not promises, must be forthcoming if the principle of regulation is to survive. Frank P. Walsh, chairman of the power authority, has said he sees no reason why regulating bodies in each s:ate —and in each city—can not proceed at once, on the basis of New York's study, to require a general lowering of rates. Such action, he believes, will increase the business of private companies and their revenues, as well as saving hundreds of millions of dollars annually to consumers. It will increase by $194.OOO.OCO a year the power of consumers in the northeastern section of the country alone to purchase other commodities, he estimates. Figures on the cost of generating power and of transmitting it to the cities where it is sold long have been available. Private companies have refused, however, to reveal the cost of getting electricity into homes, and have tried to shroud it with considerable mystery. man CONGRESS decided last year that determination of distribution costs was the key to successful regulation of rates and direeted the federal power commission to investigate. Its report will be ready sometime this winter. Meanwhile the New York Power Authority had discovered it could not guarantee consumers cheap power from its St. Lawrence project without having these same figures. Its study already was under way when the general one was ordered. Its figures are not as complete as the power cotnrusi
The Indianapolis Times
courses. They filled the classes and asked for more subjects, and the curriculum was enlarged to include shorthand and typing, surveying, radio, public speaking, bee-keeping, construction problems, accounting, social science, natural science, genetics, auto mechanics, auto body building and painting, machine shop practice, forge shop practice, cabinet making, carpenter, blue print reading and all types of electrical work; and for the women, food planning and preparation, clothing for children, dressmaking, child study, and use of electrical appliances. Many of the workers are making practical use of their newly acquired training at the trades school by making their own furniture for their houses at Norris and by repairing their own automobiles. SUPPLEMENTING the classroom instruction and trades school practice is a general and technical library at the camp. Across the campus from the cafeteria it built the largest structure in the camp—the Community building. This is the meeting house and play house for the camp and town. The large auditorium is used for movies, plays, dancing, lectures, basketball, volley ball, forum meetings, concerts, shuffleboard, and religious services. A smaller auditorium is used as a classroom. In the large lobby the workers congregate after meals and spend their time before shows or lectures at ping pong or checkers, tables and boards for which are provided by TVA. Outdoor sports include tennis, croquet and horseshoe-pitch-ing. There are four fine tennis courts. Last summer the workers had an entire baseball league of eight teams within the camp; now they have a dormitory basketball league. Every night a program of general interest is put on, such as lectures by TVA officials, movies, basketball and volleyball games, wrestling matches, dances, community sings, and parties. Most of these programs last an hour, usually from 7:30 to 8:30. From there the workers break up into smaller groups and go to their classes, to the library, or to their rooms.
sion’s will be, but they foreshadow them. New York home owners should pay no more than 3 ! 2 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity, the power authority finds. They now are paying an average of 6 cents. The difference is the amount by which the power authority believes distribution charges should be reduced. It arrived at its conclusions this way: It made a physical inventory of the distribution property—poles, conductors, transformers, and so forth—placed a value on the property based upon reasonable unit costs, and determined the fixed charges and expenses necessary to operate tne property. It allocated charges to the various classes of service.
It allowed for 6 per cent return to private owners of all useful fixed capital, and an additional 5*2 per cent to cover depreciation. taxes and insurance.
With this same formula, any public engineer can follow in their footsteps. The power authority points out that valuing the property is comparatively simple because if., elements either are visible or. in the case of underground systems, are included in the highway record of the city engineer. Operating expenses should include salaries supplies, service to customers, meter reading and billing, new business expense, and such general items as insurance, telephone, legal advice and employe welfare, it says. The power authority did not find this pioneering easy. It was handicapped, it reports, by the fact that the "holding companies, as a matter of policy, prevented '.he power authority from gathering data directly from the men actually operating local distribution systems. They insisted that all information pass through holding company offices. Dependence on such data alone would have threatened the survey with many of the
INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1934
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Work, study and play blend into a harmonious whole in the new life that has come to the Tennessee valley with the vast, power projects of the New Deal. Upper left is the workers’ library at the Norris dam construction camp; uppejr right, workmen oiling the cableways that carry steel buckets of concrete to the dam; lower left, a ticklish moment in the movement of one of the huge "pipes” at the dam; lower right, a group gathered about a ping-pong table in the Norris community building; center, Curtis? Stiner, mountain farmer who must move from his farm when the reservoir is flooded, though lW says, “I love my mountains and want to stay here the rest of my life.”
PERHAPS the most striking thing about life in the Norris and Wheeler dam construction camps is the absence of drinking, gambling and other forms of recreation usually associated with such camps. Gambling and drinking at the the camp are forbidden. Although beer is legal in Tennessee, it is not sold in the camp. Os course, the workers can go to nearby towns or to the city of Knoxville, twenty miles away, in search of night life amusements, but the fact is they don’t. The camp at Norris was established some fourteen months ago. Since then around a thousand men have lived there. And in all that time there has not been a single fight. In the five monChs since the establishment of a police force at Norris there have been eight —most of them among the more than 100.000 outsiders from every state in the Union who have visited the dam, camp and town since last May. “It is the most amazing record I have every heard,” said K. A. Rouse, police and fire department director for the town. ‘T attrib-
pitfalls into which regulation has fallen,” B B B FINALLY the power authority sent out its own engineers. Officials of operating companies said they could look around, but as one of them said “I’d rather you wouldn’t even ask me the closing time of the office.” The result was the formula for independent determination, checked for accuracy with officials of municipal systems. The power authority arrived at tl!ese general conclusions from its study: Public plants can operate efficiently with lower expenses than can private systems.
SIDE GLANCES
■ 1 I
. -"This is the one.. He’s going _to inherit million some day.”
ute it to the fact that the men were of a high type to begin with and that they are proud of their jobs and of the TVA.” BBS 'T'HE labor troubles that have -*• swept the country have not touched the TVA. There has not been even the whisper of a strike. Most of the skilled and semiskilled workers belong to labor unions; even the office workers in Knoxville have a government employes’ union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The TVA board welcomes suggestions from the workers’ council which represents all unions. A for TVA workers now is being prepared. The council also has charge of laundry, cleaning and pressing, and shoe repair cooperatives at the camp which lower the cost of these services to the workers. A co-operative bank or credit union provides a convenient place for the workers to deposit their savings and enables them to borrow money at a reasonable rate of
-The-
DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Alien
/CHICAGO, Nov. 14.—There is one thing which strikes you more than anything else about last week's Democratic landslide. It was not so much a vote for the Democratic party. It was not even so much a vote for President Roosevelt—although his personality influenced the picture. Chiefly it was for what he has done. In other words it was a vote for the New Deal. Not the New Deal of campaign oratory, but the New. Deal which has saved mortgaged farms from the auction-block, which has kept drought-stricken areas from starving and which has sent AAA checks to farmers.
By George Clark
interest instead of the usurious rates of "loan sharks.” a b b A safety director, formerly with the national safety council,, is constantly on the lookout to prevent accidents. Thus far there have been only two fatalities at Norris Dam and none at Wheeler —a remarkable record. The health of the workers is looked after. They are vaccinated and inoculated without charge; when they are sick, medical and hospital services are furnished free. And if it’s the little things that count, this is a fair sample of TVA's regard' for its workers; When the water boy—though he isn’t a boy, but a man—comes around he doesn’t carry the usual open bucket or pail, but a closed container. And instead of dipping a tin cup or dipper into the bucket and passing the same cup from worker to worker, he puts a paper cup under a spigot. NEXT—How TVA has begun to restore a rapidly deteriorating farming region and is educating them in the co-operative movement.
BUB THIS, of course, puts a still greater burden on the man at the helm of the New Deal. With tremendous majorities in both houses of congress, with unequivocal support voted by the people, with a precedent for action established which may be hard to follow, Roosevelt faces a real test. The next two years may be his hardest. Indicative of this are some big question marks uppermost in midwestern minds. Os these probably the two biggest and mast significant are: 1. Is the government going to continue its program of enormous expenditure? If not, what will the midwest do? If so. where is the money coming from? 2. Is Roosevelt going to continue strict regulation of big business? Or is he—as indicated by his speech before the American Bankers Association—now out for a honeymoon between the New Deal and big business? Upon the answers to these questions will depend the attitude of the midwest when it ballots on the Roosevelt administration two years hence. BUB THE influence of government in this picture, therefore, can not be overemphasized. It had important effect on the Roosevelt landslide. In the first place. FERA payments had been made through this area—especially the drought states —all summer. Then just before elections, came a swarm of corn and hog checks. Business brightened over night. Farmers flooded the cities. Retail business in Omaha increased 30 per cent. In other cities it was about the same. (Copyright. 1934. bv United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)
Second Section
Knr*'rpl S4>ronrt ,r pns!i.ffir*. Indian*poll*. Ini
Fair Enough WSROoiffilß T7OR several years, in football season, your correspondent has made fitful inquiries into the strange mystery of the phantom football hero who happened into Kansas university as a hit-and-run student back in the time of Fielding H. Yost, which was 1899. This was in the so-called barbarian days of football, long before Mr. Yost distinguished himself for his ethical piety at the University of Michigan. The vanishing hero of the University of Kansas was no ordinary ringer. He was
gifted stooge, a mighty athlete, an actor who never stepped out ot character under strong temptation and, finally a college mystery of such stamina that he still gailops down field at Lawrence. Kan., like Irving's headless horseman ghosting along the hills of the Hudson river. Your correspondent had heard that his name was Krebs and. meeting Frank Parent, a realtor (God forgive him* in Los Angeles, recently, inquired, "Didn't you play football under Fielding Yost at Kansas in '99?" "Yes,” Mr. Parent stfiri proudly.
“I was second-string quarter back in '99 and captain of the baseball team next spring. I still have my football letter somewhere." a a a He Took It and Care It “T'vO you happen to remember a football man LJ named Krebs?” "Krebs?” Mr. Parent exclaimed, hopping out of his chair. "It must be thirty years since I heard the name. What do you know about Krebs?" "I understand he is a lumberman in Huntington or Wheeling. W. Va„” your correspondent said. "Well, Krebs was always a loner at Kansas," Mr. Parent said. "We got Fielding Yost to coach us in '99 because he had won a championship at Nebraska the year before and w> never had had an all-vic-torious season. He also had been a great coach back cast at Lafayette. “Krebs showed up as a law student. Nobody seemed to know him. But he was big and lean and a wonderful figure of a man. I went after him to come out for football, but he said he didn’t know anythin* about the game. He never had touched a football. Nevertheless, I coaxed him out. "He seemed a total stranger to Mr. Yost and, my goodness, he was clumsy. He nearly tore his foot\ off kicking the ground the first time he tried a \ punt but I marveled once when he happened to \ catch the ball just right, I thought it would explode. "Yost put him on the scrub at tackle for scrimmage and told three of us to rough him around and see if he could take it. We gave him a terrible mauling for a while. Then, suddenly, he banged all three cf us together so hard I thought my skull was broken. "We all pleaded with Fielding to use him against Emporia, but Yost said, 'No. He’s too green and unreliable." "We beat Emporia easily without Krebs. The next week we had to plead with Yet to use him against Nebraska. The coach still said he was just a big, gawky greenhorn. But finally, he consented. This was in the days of the tackles-back play. The tackle wore a big belt with handles on it. The back with the ball would grab the handles and the tackle would tow' him along. 808 Krebs Playing at Slaughter GREEN as he was, Krebs slaughtered Neoraska. He towed our backs miles that day and we won by a big score. "On the way bark to Lawrence, I was talking with Davenport Smith and said I was glad we had Krebs because I could count on him to pitch for my ball club. Smith gave me a funny look and said, 'Don't you know who Krebs is? I wouldn’t count on his being around next spring.’ "Missouri was our big Thanksgiving game and in this one Krebs was our whole team. He carried our backs over the goal for several touchdowns like a squaw- with a papoose on her back. "He came thraugh all cut and bleeding, but the hero of the first all-victorious team in the history of the university. We were planning to give him a reception back at Lawrence. "But just as we were starting for the train he got a wire that his mother was very sick in Coffeyville and left at once. “None of us ever saw Krebs again. Yost left us next season to go to Stanford. Afterward I recalled that early in the fall of ’99, Clyde Nichols, who is a big real estate man in Kansas City now, came around the fraternities and asked us all for $2 each for a worthy cause. He couldn't tell us what the cause was. but putting things together, I am sure it was very worthy. "I also learned in later years that they had a Krebs who played some wonderful football for Yost at Lafayette before Yost came as coach to Kansas. It is an unusual name, Krebs. “We ought to have a statue to our Krebs at Kansas. No other school in the country has a legend like him. Here, let me fresh up your glass.” (CODvrteht 1934 bv United Feature Svndicate. Inc.l
Your Health
BV OR MORRIS
THE 5-year-old child stands on the thresnold of life. The help and advice of its parents may determine the success or failure of its entire character. At this period the 5-year-old is likely to leave the home to enter kindergarten or school. He should be able hy this time to walk alone on the street with a fair amount of safety, to run and climb without too much danger, and to avoid trouble when it is near. He should be able to get a drink tor himself, to go to the toilet when he needs to. and to wash his hands afterwards without being told about it each time. The 5-year-old child should also know how to hang up his own coat and hat and to clean up his play things after he has finished with them. a a a THE very simple lessons of hygiene that every 5-year-old child should know include such matters as putting on warm clothing before going out to play and taking off wet clothing. The child should know enough not to drink or eat after other persons and it should learn also the dangers of putting pencils. fingers and play things in its mouth. The child of 5 has to learn how to get along with other persons. It must understand the necessity of giving up what belongs to others. It should understand the right of the teacher to tell it what to do, and it should also respect the authority of policemen and other responsible officials 808 CHILDREN of 5 want to tell about their new experiences. They should be given every opportunity to describe what they see and hear even though these things may not seem to be of importance to the parents. By this means the child learns proper use of language and expression. Children of this age frequently make believe ana tell stories that seem rather tall, but with propel training this is the age when they can b? taught the distinction between truth and falsehood. The food needs of the child at 5 need careful attention. Breakfast is of the utmost importance, because it determines the extent to which the child may become fatigued during the day The sleep program of the child must also be arranged in relationship to school. If the child has dropped its midday nap. it should go to bed early in order to get its full sleep quota. However, even in kindergarten, the child may take a midday rest, because the growing child needs rest at that time. Most kindergarten and nursery have only a period.
fry
Westbrook Pegler