Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 175, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 December 1934 — Page 6

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(/ire Lujhi ant the People Will Ftn*t Their Oten Wav

SATURDAY, DECEMBER t. 1934. THE HOLDE CASE FRANCIS BIDDLE, new chairman of the national labor relations board, Is to be congratulated on finally getting a go\ em- 1 ment suit filed in the Houde case. But. because of two and a half months of j delay In the justice department and because j of the slowness of federal courts, the case may j not get up to the United States supreme court J In time to guide congress in passing permanent labor legislation. That is unfortunate. NIRA expires next June. It is desirable that congress act speedily on a permanent measure so industry and labor can learn the future rules that are to govern their relations with each other and with the government. In Section 7-A. congress tried to strengthen workers' legal right to bargain collectively with their employer. Then congress, through public Resolution 44. authorized the President to set up the national labor relations board as machinery to facilitate such collective bargaining under the law. In its Houde decision the NLRB —in line with many earlier decisions of labor boards during and since the World war —ruled that effective collective bargaining must be based on majority representation of employes, the proper industrial unit to be decided in each case. The Houde company and others have refused to recognize that decision. Until the rights and obligations of employers and employes are defined clearly and affirmed by the supreme court, industrial peace will be insecure and recovery efforts retarded. PENNY WORTH O’HEALTH WHEN you buy your Christmas seals you know that you are helping to purchase for the nation the most precious commodityhealth. The long war on tuberculosis has proved that health can be bought. In 1900 the death rate from tuberculosis in the registration area was 201.9 for each 100,000 pcpula.ion. Last year it was 59.5. The dow rnward curve has been relentlessly steady. This one-time white plague once stood at the top of the list of killers among the disases. Today it is sixth. Because of this fight the lives of more than 160.000 Americans are being saved every year. On this year’s seal is the picture of the first cottage in the pioneering sanatorium of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau in the Adirondacks. Dr. Trudeau went there to die. - But he learned—today it is a medical truism—taat tuberculosis need not be fatal. It can be cured and it can be prevented. The annual Christmas seal sales have helped to do both for hundreds of thousands of Americans. GANGS AND MOBS "IT7TTH legitimate pride Attorney-General * * Homer Cummings points to his department's record for catching and punishing kidnapers. His new division of investigation in one year has wiped out some of the nation's most ruthless gangs, cleaned up twenty-seven notorious kidnap cases, obtained 3,351 criminal convictions. He will ask congress for 200 additional D. I. operatives to supplement his relatively small force. And he should have them. While the federal government is meeting the challenge of criminal gangs, it is silent on an equal menace to law, the lynch mob. A report has just been sent to Washington authorities on the lynching of Claude Neal, a Florida Negro, last month. This report, made by a white investigator, tells how an armed Florida mob invaded the neighboring state, took Neal from an Alabama jail and brought him back to Marianna, Fla. There, in the presence of thousands, he was subjected to almost unbelievable tortures and mutilations before death mercifully claimed him. This ghastly crime was the seventeenth lynching this year, the ninety-fourth in five years. What does the government propose to do about such mobs? On Dec. 10 Mr. Cummings is calling a national conference cn crime. He has been asked whether he will put before this conference the lynching proble.n. whether he will ask support for the Co6tigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill. He has not replied. SAFETY—OR ELSE TT might interest Governor-elect Merriam of California, could he know how many of the near-million of votes cast for Sinclair expressed demand for the pardon of Tom Mooney, since Sinclair was the only nominee with sufficient backbone to declare that, if elected, he would promptly do just that. Elected, Mr. Merriam says that he will not consider Mooney s plea for pardon while his case is before the United States supreme court, nor until the new California legislature adjourns late next spring. Six months or more added to the eighteen years already served by an Innocent man. convicted by the perjured testimony of harlots. dope fiends and police tools, testimony admitted to be false by trial court, trial Jury and *y the state attorney general who is now to combat the Mooney habeas corpus case before the United States supreme court. But, what do six months, more or less, matter to an innocent man who has already endured eighteen years of hell? The delays and denials of justice in the Mooney matter have become an habitual, foul indictment of the abortion of American justice throughout civilisation. As courts delay, as executives sneak behind the current political expediency, Mooney bids fair to be overtaken by death before justice reaches him. after eighteen years of miscarriage. However, hasn’t Mr. Marriaxn at least a

legal excuse for his present attitude? Wouldn't any action of his hi Mooney's behalf, with the Mooney case pending before the United States supreme court, be contempt of that very august body? Editors have tasted of jail life for assuming any sort of attitude toward cases pending in even the very ordinary courts. One editor, within our remembrance, got into a Toledo Jail for stating that a judge was but a two-legged animal, like any other man, and we are not yet informed as to whether that court preferred to be described as one-legged, three-leggd, or nine-legged; but, the description was contemptuous, as the honorable, unbiased court itself decided. Safety first, Mr. Merriam. If you’ve got any light, It is legally fit time to hide it under a busheh And, maybe if the new California legislature is a bit Sinclairlsh, you can get some things your way by turning your Mooney light on It. WHEEL CHAIRS T>RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has given his consent for a second nation-wide birthday ball next January to raise funds for fighting infantile paralysis. % Seventy per cent of the money will be given to communities and 30 per cent for research. Last year's balls brought In $1,000,000. Much remains to be done before this mysterious blight is conquered. The number of cases is diminishing slowly, but last year in forty-five states infantile paralysis laid low 4,983 victims and claimed the lives of 716 of them. In 1931 in forty-two states there were 15,780 cases, 1,937 deaths. This disease is not as fatal as some. It takes only 25 per cent of those it strikes. But its aftermath of wheelchair patients is appalling. It & fitting that the birthday of President Roosevelt be dedicated to the conquest of this plague. CARRIE NATIONS JOHN BROWN’S and Carrie Nation's bodies lie a-moulderlng In the ground, but their souls go marching on. In their good old Kansas the prohibition war rages unabated. The people have just voted to stick to a fifty-four-year-old bone-dry amendment. Wetness laps the state’s borders on all four sides, yet “taint legal” inside that rectangle even to buy a bottle of 3.2 beer. Still the drys are unappeased. The W. C, T. U. ladies are out to mop up the blind pigs that somehow seem to flourish. As the late Carrie Amelia swooped down on a Wichita barkeep—shouting “Glory to God! Peace on earth; good will toward men!” while she smashed a $1,500 mirror to bits—so these ladies are ready to hatchet away at Kansas “vice.” “My fighting blood is up,” shouted President Mary Frazee of the Arkansas City W. C. T. U. “I am ready to go in with my hatchet anywhere the law is being violated. I mean hatchet and I’m not speaking figuratively.” _ Soberer drys are wondering. William Allen White, dry editor, says “thft bone-ury day is passed.” He advocates the sale of 3.2 beer, the legalized manufacture of beer and wine in the home, legalized importation of small portions of wine and liquor for family use. “An arrogant, bigoted attitude by the victorious drys,” he adds, may end in repeal. BLIND ROADS ■yy'HAJ kind of astigmatism-is it that impairs the vision of the railroads? Why does this transportation industry always seem to frame its policies on the assumption that it is above economic laws that control other industries? Through the depression, while prices and national purchasing power sagged, the railroads tried to maintain prosperity-scale freight rates, and, whenever possible, to push rates higher on dwindling traffic. Competition finally forced the roads to ask higher rates only on freight that could not be diverted to trucks. Lumber happens to be one commodity on which railroads still have a virtual transportation monopoly. So the roads are now before the Interstate commerce commission asking increases in lumber rates. The fact that they are not making a profit Is advanced as a compelling argument for rate increases, in disregard of the equally obvious fact that many of their customers also are operating without profit. Enlightened selfishness should restrain the railroads. With the administration working on all fronts to revive the building industry, and with lower building costs necessary to revival, railroads should ake their chances with other industries. They should rely upon a greater volume of building materials freight rather than higher rates on imaginary traffic. Russia is fast discarding the rationing system for the open sale of goods. Capitalists have one or two good ideas, at that. Admiral Byrd has added a vast area to United States territory, and it's in the Antarctic where some of our politicians can’t get at it so quickly. United States secret service has issued instructions on how to detect counterfeit bills of large denominations. Wouldn’t it be better to tell us how to detect the good ones? Scientists have announced the latitude and longitude of the Washington monument, so visitors sailing three sheets to the wind may locate it. J. P. Morgan returns from Europe and tells us we can get along with less excitement. Still, he wouldn’t want to get along with less of what causes the excitement. Uncle Sam has sent out his annual bills for payment of war debt installments. He might as well do so, or even Finland would forget to pay. The football team of Sing Sing prison in New York netted more than $5,000 this season. which is much more than the eleven could have matje on a holdup these days. It is a good thing, finally, that we have Christmas to enjoy before congress convenes. We might thank the doctors for prolonging our lives, on the average, but on the other hand imagine paying taxes so much longer. Perhaps Uncle Sam wouldn't hesitate about buying more dirigibles if he had a few Eckeners to operate them. “—-

Liberal Viewpoint aV UK. HARK i ELMER BARNES

I OFTEN have said that whatever the instability of the capitalist system In any long-time view, a little enlightened selfishness would revive It and perpetuate it for a generation or more in the United States. At last I have found a capitalist who recognizes this and state* his convictions in most forceful language. He is Milo Perkins, manufacturer of Houston, Tex., and he sets forth his contribution in the Nation. He frankly admits that the capitalists only have themselves to blame if the people have lost confidence in them: “After all, as a class, we business men are offering no program of action to the American people which would make tomorrow seem more attractive than today. We who have done such an amazing job of selling the public everything from soap to radios are failing miserably in selling ourselves. Small wonder people turn in strange directions for their inspiration.” Nowhere have I read a better piece of ridiculing the bourbon attack upon the alleged radicalism and bureaucracy of the Roosevelt administration: “This talk about a Communist brain trust trying to undermine American institutions comes from political nursemaids who are trying to frighten us American children with stories about anew many-heady bogyman. “Every big corporation has its engineering department and its research men, and every general manager throws away morq of their suggestions than he But he puts out good hard cash for those he keeps, because it pays. The public has sense enough to know that President Roosevelt Is doing the same thing, and they expect the policy to pay dividends to the people. t a a a “JT is equally silly to tell the average voter X that the New Deal has deprived him of his constitutional rights. He knows congress has not tampered with his religious freedom, or permitted the quartering of soldiers in his home. He still can buy the Milwaukee Leader and the Wall Street Journal from the same newsstand anywhere in the country.” Mr. Perkins has realism enough to recognize that capitalism is not yet out of the woods and that it will require intelligent direction if it is ever to get out: “Because markets are up from the levels of March, 1933, we capitalists are not awake, as a class, to the crisis which faces us. Men and women have a right to jobs that are interesting and homes that are fit for their children. The whole private ownership of production is failing" as a system to provide those fundamental things for our people. “Revolution has been averted by government help for the unemployed, but if capitalism is unable effectively to work out a program which will solve these problems, our people v/ill demand their solution from other sources. Every child knows that we have the machinery and resources to raise our standard of living enormously if things were properly managed.” Perhaps most unusual but most sagacious of all Mr. Perkins’ observations is his statement of the fundamental fact that capitalism can not operate unless the masses have money to buy ithe goods that are produced: “The majority of our customers always have been found in' the group working for us. On the whole they have spent their earnings of one week before the next Saturday night rolled around. The so-called white collar class has made much the same contribution on a monthly basis. u * a “/'APEN shop fanatics may gloat over the V-/ achievements of their brain trust, but only the stupid can feel secure. We capitalists, aided by science, have reduced the number of men to whom we need to pay salaries or wages. They are off our individual pay rolls, but they are also lost customers for capitalism as a system. , “We have deprived them of income in a civilization where money is needed to buy what one w r ants. It can’t go on. Plants can not be run without customers, and customers can not buy without money from capitalists trying to turn their wheels at a profit.” How different is Mr. Perkins’ recovery program from that of the average short-sighted industrialist : "Capitalism should fight for a thiry-hour week and a flat 25 per cent increase in all salaries and all wages. That is the only way in which it can finance the working public so that they can buy the products it has machines to make. Any lesser plan, such as a 10 per cent decrease in hours and a 10 per cent pay increase, will be a self-defeating compromise. It is destined to fail because it does not go far enough. “This plan will be opposed by diehards who will insist that they can not afford to pay higher wages. The job of progressive capitalists is to move forward over such tories, just as our forefathers moved forward over their kind in the adventurous days of the revolution.” If American capitalism wishes to get out of the “red,” and to be safe from the Reds, here is its program and its spirit.

Capital Capers

BY GEORGE ABELL

Thanksgiving in the diplomatic set was celebrated with a great deal of cheerfulness. Nearly all the diplomatic incomes now are above par. The diplomatic corps is living on the fat of the land this season, its collective salaries having gone up quite considerably on account of the recent depreciation of the dollar abroad. Many of the younger diplomats have bought cars, leased new apartments, moved into new houses. Parties are more frequent and elaborate than ever before. Diplomatic ladies sparkle in newly acquired Paris creations, their fingers a-glitter with recently bought gems. It’s one long giddy whirl this winter for the younger diplomats. Exaggeration? Not a bit. One has only to inquire of the various embassies and legations* Every one concedes that the boom won’t last. Hence, the feverish anxiety to make gay while the sun shines. The diplomats feel almost certain that their salaries will be chopped by an economic home government, as soon as the foreign office realizes just how prosperous its envoys are. ’ But, in the meantime, “eat, drink and be merry” is their motto. * tt SOME things diplomats are thankful for: Irish Minister Michael Mac White: That Colonel Fitzmaurice, the Irish flier, wasn't here for Thanksgiving day dinner at the legation. Signor Giuseppe Tommasi of the Italian embassy: That he didn’t meet any bears while hunting in Dismal Swamp, Va. Mr. Close, minister of South Africa: That he didn’t make a worse mistake when he tipped a railway porter with a nickel. Suppose he'd given him a silver dollar? Minister Otto Wadsted of Denmark: That Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, American minister to Denmark, and Representative Sol Bloom of New York weren’t both guests at the same party in his legation. Nothing would have remained of the Danish pastries. Ambassador Freyre of Peru: That he has been singled out by Sumner Welles, assistant secretary of state, and Mrs. Welles, as the one and only ambassador to be invited to their New Year's dinner. Don Adolfo de Urqulza. protocol expert of Argentina: That he can now see his feet, having reduced this summer from 250 to 198 pounds. Dr. Rowe of the Pan-American Union: That he balanced his budget (and diet) on lamb stew. Minister Prochnik of Austria: That he can wear an eye-glass and sing at the same time. Try to do it! Greek Minister Simopouloe: That invitations in his honor are now being sent out in Greek.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _

WHAT A LOT OF STEW ONE OYSTER MAKES!

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their vietos in these ootumns. Hake your letters short, so alt can have a chance. Limit them to 85 0 words or less.J mum SANTA CLAUS PARADE HELPFUL TO CHILDREN By Jimmy Cafouros. What was vividly brought home yesterday as one viewed the Santa Claus parade that so delighted the children was the potency of America—its great possibilities in a world of leisure. / How striking was the fact that the world into which we grow up is the w'orld we accept! How evident it was that a world of play, and sunshine and fairy tales, and makebelieve is the world for the young folk! With advancing leisure, America should become a nation of great artists —great architects, sublime design, and incisive reasoning power. America, it is only too evident, leads the world in technologic advance. Technologic advance means that machinery does the work formerly done by men. Every machihe is a wealth-producing unit. In the old days slaves did much of the work now done by machinery. Greece, and more particularly Athens and even Rome advanced to that ultimate peak of civilization they reached because some of the people were freed from hungerworry and devoted their time to pursuit of knowledge. America is in a similar position today. More power to the Santa Clause parades. More power to education. More power to leisure. The children should be encouraged in their fairy story imaginations. mum NATION SHOULD FIGHT AGAINST MORE WARS By L. M. On the subject of war, at least, we need a few fanatics in this country. Only a flat refusal to fight on foreign territory ultimately can prevent our entering into another w'orld struggle. The interests of the majority of Americans would not be advanced by any offensive war in which we conceivably could take part. If Germany again should take arms against the rest of Europe, if Russia should conquer Japan, if Japan perhaps, should invade China, our trade would suffer only until we could deal to advantage with the new states emerging from the conflict. Most of 6ur wars have been fought in the interests of a minority. It generally is felt that our entrance into the World war was caused by our desire to protect our loans. Those loans were not made by the people, but by a few large industrialists who had the support of the government. Our fear of Japan comes chiefly from the cries of American oil interests in China, and from those who tremble at the thought of Japan selling more than we do to South America. I see no reason why a concern should have the backing of its government when it deals with foreign powers. If it is willing to take a risk, it should not be allowed to use the blood and the wealth of disinterested people in maintaining its prestige. If war looms again, our militarists, our manufacturers of arms, our would-be war profiteers will send out the old alarm: we must fight to preserve democracy and civilization. It may be that the church will not hold out against war, that out

Indiana Lax on Pension

By Observer. The recently published report of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce showing that the average monthly old-age pension in Indiana is $6.13 is convincing proof of the need for drastic revision of the pension law by the 1935 general assembly. The? same report showed that Indiana is paying - pensions to a larger proportion of the aged in the state’s population than is any other of some fifteen states covered by the Chamber of Commerce survey. It is noteworthy that Indiana is paying far less a month than any of the other states. It is proper to conclude that Indiana is lax in applying its pension law, but that does not excuse the pitifully inadequate monthly pension. Against Indiana's $6.13 a month, is an average of $18.75 in the remainder of the old-age pension states. Indiana’s law did not become effective until Jan. 1 of this year, since then, officials have learned much about the application of the law, and it is reasonable to believe that next year will bring better administration. I note that the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the chief advocate of establishing an old-age pension system in Indiana, seeks amendment of the pension law so that county officials will be compelled to appropriate adequate sums for pensions.

pacifists, like the German Socialist party in 1914, will let fall their ideals and rush to the front. But any man who knows how much has been lost in all wars, -who knows that there is no excuse for bloodshed, who has at heart the interests of mankind, instead of those of h’s pocketbook, will prefer the agony of ostracism, jail and personal ruin to that of fighting a commercial war. There is no other kind. n m m DANCING STYLE CHANGES FORECAST THIS YEAR By a Reader. I am told that this winter more and more old-fashioned dances, tangos, waltzes and two-steps will be seen in New York ballrooms. They will bring back, I think, a gallantry and grace that we long have been without. There is a brutality and sensuality in Negro music that may disappear from our customs when we begin to dance to German and to South American airs. When the Bunny Hug and the Cancan swept the land in 1913 and 1914 we began to talk with anew callousness, our manners degenerated. Irene Castle was in despair. We leaped and wiggled all through the war; women exposed their bony knees and rotated their spines and waved their feet about up to 1929. Clemenceau, according to legend, said: ‘Look at all these people with such happy backs and such sad expressions.” The jungle had its day. In the last few years, we have been slowing down. But there is still a crueness and haste in our relations that makes society rather dull for those of us who remember the ‘‘Blue Danube” and have seen Argentine dancing. Perhaps young men and women in the years to come will waltz to the doors of a ballroom and go out to speak anew, or ancient, language under the moon. Instead of telling his girl that she's the nuts, the young man might say that she’s as beautiful as morning and as haunting as a violin. The way we dress and the way we

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

That such a change is needed is shown by action in Randolph county, where only $1 was appropriated as a pension fund. That county is the home county of James P. Goodrich, former Republican Governor of Indiana, and is known as a Republican stronghold. Results of the November election indicated quite clearly that the people of Indiana don’t want the Republican brand of social welfare policy, and the oldage pension appropriation in Randolph county is one of the reasons why. Other pension law changes advocated by the Eables include an increase in the monthly maximum from sls to $25; lowering the starting age from 70 (o 65; increasing the property exemption to $3,500 and reducing the county residence requirement from fifteen to five years. These changes would bring the Indiana pension system up to the standard of the system adopted in Ohio by its voters with a majority of more than 855,000. Indication that eventually oldage pensions will be paid through a combined federal and state setup will not justify delay in correcting the Indiana law. The combined system may be one year, two years or more away—the need of Indiana’s aged poor is acute and present.

dance are no little indication of the way we feel. It is not impossible that the youth of the land will form its amorous ideals on the legend of Tristram, let us say, instead of on a biological laboratory. The dances of Vienna are more conducive to romantic feelings than our adaptations from the dives of New Orleans and the writhings of the Kroo boys on the gold coast. a a a POET DEFENDS THEME OF DAILY VERSE By M. C. W. John Dupre states, “The local poets are overwTought by the season, they must be a suicidal lot, of the fourteen verses printed in The Times Nov. 1 to 19 ten are extremely sad about it all.” It may be only a bit of reaction to the season. Statistics show the months of May and November are the time of most suicides, November leading. Perhaps it is the weather and then the psychological effect of falling leaves and dying vegetation may be greater than it is ordinariiy thought to be, Repetition lends emphasis, the dally viewing of summer’s beauty fading and dying is comparable to the passing of a loved one and the funeral dirge in any language is sad. Courage and faith are lacking, he states. After several years of extreme trials, courage and faith are not as high and as great as they should be. or we would like for them to be. A great actor is one who can be looking back in the wing of the stage seeing the dust, dis-

Daily Thought

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.—St. Luke, 6:36. IF the end of one'mercy were not the beginning of another, we were undone.—Philip Henry. i

_DEC. 1, 1934

order, tawdriness, and jeauousy of the actors, the pretense and then say in a ringing voice, “What a lovely view!” But we are not all great actors. What we see daily leaves its imprint, in the poem about the lonely, old woman waits on the porch, there was no pretense to great height nor depth, merely a word picture of drab loneliness, witnessed daily and leaving a deep pity and hurt for one so completely lost to the outside world. There seemed no words of comfort, courage or hope left, only empty bleakness. “A Reader’s” gracious statement, “The poem was not at all bad in itself,” was most graciously received and for their belief I hope to learn better choice of words, a more beautiful imagery and especially a more powerful emotion. But I have the difficulty of extreme reticence inherited from English ancestry to overcome. Too, I know so little about writing poetry, an unnecessary statement I grant. The first poem that I ever wrote was last July and I think the surprise of my life was to see it printed, so instead of having attained any bit of growth, I haven’t eyen begun to crawl. I wonder that I ever had the couraga to try, but fools and babes, etc.

So They Say

There is no tragedy in growing old, but there is tragedy in growing old without means of support.— President Roosevelt. It is time to quit looking so much toward Washington and look more toward ourselves.—Louis J. Taber, master of the National Grange. We don’t think it fitting to spend too much in these times.—Prince Alexis Mdivani. I don’t want to see us give up any advancement toward a comfortable life.—Sherwood Anderson, author., Moral uplifters every once in a while have to shout from the housetops to justify their existence.—Premier Mitchell Hepburn of Ontario. We need a progressive government that does not permit economic monsters to be developed.—Professor A. L. Sachar of the University of Illinois. The whole protection of human liberty lies in free criticism and debate.—Herbert Hoover. You wouldn't think of calling me anything but “Sophie” after you knew me for a little while, now would you?—Sophie Tucker.

SCRAPBOOK

BY VIRGINIA KIDWELL Your scrapbook holds small bits of you And each selected treasure Betrays to friends who leaf it through Your character’s true measure. One bit of heart and one of soul And one of smile or scar; They piece the bits into a whole And know you as you are. So choose discreetly every part And cam ullage your task So those who seek to find your heart Will only find your mask.