Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 191, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 December 1934 — Page 18

PAGE 18

The Indianapolis Times ( A <SC RIPPS-HOW \RI NF.WSrAFER) ROY VV. HOWARD Prf*ld<*nt TAI.COTT I’oWELL Editor EAKL D. BAKER Businop* Manager Phone If Her sV>l

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THURSDAY. DECEMBER 20 133 U NEEDED: COURAGE -* w rniLE liberal Republicans Irom one end VV of the nation to the other are fighting grimly for reorganization of the party along more progressive lines, Indiana Republicanism seems content to drift along passively under the death grip of leaders affiliated with the Old Guard bloc—the repudiated Robinson-Coflin-Payne group. As long as Indiana Republicanism remains in the control of men like Senator-reject Arthur Robinson, Boss-r ct George Coffin and Leader-reject Gavin I-: yne, the Republican party can expect no massed support from the voters of this state. The Indianapolis Times repeats once again that 1* can not, does not and will not support the one-party system of government. Only through the two-party system of government can the United States and Indiana, in turn, be guaranteed efficient, economical and democratic rule. The Republican party has allied itself too closely with “property rights.” In the mind of the voter, the Republican party stands for “property rights” above “human rights.” Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, and that great statesman-Senator from Nebraska, George W. Norris, stand in the vanguard of liberal Republicanism, urging young Republicans all over America to step forth in their own right as leaders of the party. Indiana s Republicans can not—dare not—remain silent. Party reorganization is sorely needed. And what is needed even more is courage— courage by the younger, more far-sighted members of the Republican party. Are Indiana’s Republicans afraid? A GALLANT LADY THE premature death of Mrs. Mary Harriman Rumsey ends not only a gracious and useful life, but a strange human paradox. Mrs. Rumsey. daughter of the great railroad builder and heiress to millions, never knew poverty. Yet few worked with more sincere devotion for :he poor. As chairman of NR A S Consumers’ Advisory Council she fought tenaciously against odds to keep the cost of necessities for workers’ families in line with their incomes. Her services in this important Government work were consistent with a life full of private and public benefactions. Asa debutante in Now York she applied a larger meaning to the world “social” than most of her set, and founded the Jiuior League to work for the New York College settlement. Asa Virginia country gentlewoman she sought to improve rural life through the American Farm Foundation she organized. Asa friend of the President’s family and a political left-wing liberal she spared none of her energies to help make the New Deal a success. She had courage as well as kindness. This was shown by her outspoken attacks upon price-fixing, the mis-labeling of goods and upon other things she felt were unfair to American housewives. It also was shown by the gallant last battle she made against death. Life gave Mrs. Rumsey every luxury. She treated herself in turn to the luxury of doing good.

JAPAN ACTS THERE is one good aspect at least of Japan's action in abrogating the naval treaty. It does not come as a sudden bombshell. She has given so many weeks of advance publicity that the event itself is almost an anti-climax. That is fortunate. For it removes much of the danger of heated emotional reaction in this country. This is a thing the American people must consider calmly. It does not actually become effective for two more years. Meanwhile it is barely possible that Japan may have a change of heart. By her action Japan has isolated herself. Apparently that means nothing to her present rulers. But her position of isolation will become increasingly uncomfortable. Governments change, even in Japan. The people who are now excited by the strong drink of imperialism may be in a different mood when they come to pay the bills. To the British and American people, who have had more experience in this business of imperialism, the price seems pretty high. Even Japan's short experience in Manchuria already has raised serious doubts in Asia as to whether Japan ever will get out as 'ch as she has put into that adventure. There is better than an i 1 chance that the Chinese, so greatly superior in numbers, will inherit all the Japanese have put into Manchuria and that Japan will be left flat. Nevertheless Japan can continue for some time to pour more money into her army and navy to support her imperialistic policy—until the military government can get no more money out of the hard-pressed Japanese peasants and taxpayers. The danger to the United States from Japan's abrogation of the naval treaty is neither direct nor immediate. There is no reason to fear that the Tokio government plans to attack us. Her eyes are on the Asiatic mainland, not on America. And the fact that she is so completely engaged nearer home is, in a sense, an added protection for us. The danger, rather, is indirect. It is that Japan, by throwing over treaties and precipitating armament races, is increasing the general condition of world rivalry and suspicion. The balance of world peace is very shaky. World war never comes from one source, but from an accumulation of causes. So Japan's action is highly dangerous not

because It is an Immediate threat to the United States, but because it multiplies the factors making for a general war whose scope none can foresee. RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS 'From the Buffalo Times! TT'ARMERS attending the State Grange meeting at Niagara Falls went on record against the New Deal and all its works. It was a sweeping condemnation, lock, stock and barrel. The farmers of this sovereign state of freeborn American citizens want no more “regimentation,” no irore of “government in business,” no more “bureaucrats” telling them what they may and may not do. The husbandmen of this commonwealth, at least, are willing to face the world barehanded, asking no quarter from any man, and giving none. They’ll have no more of this illadvised effort of government to help them. After this declaration of independence of the New Deal, the farmers adopted a few little resolutions asking the State Milk Control Board, not to set a price on milk below the cast of production; asking the same board to permit them to sell milk at less than 10 cents a quart outside of incorporated cities and villages; asking the same board to permit them to give milk away if they want to; asking the state to appropriate $2,000,000 to pay them for condemned tubercular cattle; asking a tax of 15 cents a pound on all oleomargarine, in addition to a 10-cent Federal tax, to protect them from the competition of the butter substitute men; asking a state law to compel veterinarians to disinfect their footwear before entering cowbarns; asking the right to take water from the barge canal free of charge; urging the purchase of all relief food in the county where it is to be distributed. Outside of these modest little requests, and a little government help in staving off foreclosure, the farmer remains our outstanding rugged individualist. STRANDED COMMUNITIES r I ''HOSE 500 Oklahoma miners who went on a hunger march are members of a typical stranded community. A few years ago the McAlester coal region was prosperous. About three years ago the last large mine clased when the railroad using its output shifted to oil-burning locomotives. Huddled on the hillsides, the miners and their families are victims of economic and industrial changes over which they have no control. Belatedly, their Government is trying to think of ways to improve their lot. The Government’s rural rehabilitation program does not meet the problem. The miners by tradition and training are industrial workers, not farmers. There is no assurance that the majority could support themselves permanently, even if established on small farms. Nor do they fit into the Interior Department's general subsistence homesteads plan, which is to build suitable homes on garden plots to sell on liberal installment terms to families with low incomes. The miners have no incomes. They can not buy homes even on easy terms. One hope for stranded populations—hundreds of other groups are in the same fix as the McAlester coal community—lies in decentralizing industry. This would spread parttime cash employment into semi-rural regions. There appears to be a natural trend in that direction. But it is necessarily slow, for factories must have markets. The Government can help speed decentralization by removing freight rate discriminations, and by promoting cheaper industrial electric power both through steam plants at mine heads and hydroelectric development. KEEP CRIME FROM POLITICS 'T'HE American public never got sounder advice on its crime problem than it did when J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Department of Justice investigators, told the National Crime Conference that the crook's political allies must be obliterated. “Until political pressure is doomed, and until there arrives a continual state of cooperation among all arms of law enforcement,” says Mr. Hoover, “we must regard eradication of gangs like those of Dillinger and others as transitory phases of a condition which can change overnight.” This sort of thing has been said before, of course, but it can not be repeated too often The really dangerous underworld gangs invariably “have an in” in politics somewhere or other. Until we rearrange our politics so that such alliances are impossible, we shall continue to have our Capones and our Dutch Schultzes.

FASCISM AND COMMUNISM 'T'HE way the public reacts to atrocity ■*- stories seems to depend largely on where the stories come from. Last spring a wave of horror went over the United States when the Hitler government in Germany executed some 75 men for counterrevolutionary activity. Hitler discovered a plot against his regime and struck with decisive swiftness, and the stories about it created a shudder of revulsion. A week or so ago a very similar thing happened in Russia. Some sort of plot—just what it was could not quite be made out, at this distance—was uncovered. In no time at all Soviet firing squads nad executed 66 people, with the threat of more executions to follow. Now the odd thing about it is that hardly anybody in the United States gave the matter a second thought. The wholesale executions of the Nazis made Americans heart-sick; equally wholesale executions by the Communists left almost every one unmoved. Why should that be? The actual circumstances of the Russian “blood purge”—as dictators fondly call these little exercises—were actually more revolting than those of its German counterpart. In Germany there was at least a well-organized plot against the government, and the men who were slam had had a direct, demonstrable connection with it; in Russia some dozens seem to have been killed on suspicion, or as a warning, without any guilt having been proved—or, in some cases, even charged. Why should the German affair shock us when the Russian did not? Perhaps part of the answer is the fact that we long since got case-hardened with Russia. No one on earth, probably, knows just how many people have lost their lives in the “red terror” since 1918. but the number is unoues-

tionably high in the thousands. The world is used to Soviet killings. With Germany the case is different. Human life was supposed to be secure in that land. The orderly processes of law had seemed to be on a firm basis. They had a long tradition back of them. Kaiser Wilheim's regime did not leave a legacy of oppression, brutality, and despotic cruelty as did Czar Nicholas. We expect violence and bloodshed in Russia. We don’t expect it in Germany. That may be why Hitler shocks us when Stalin does not. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that such bloody outrages are the only way in which a dictatorship can operate. Fascism and communism are equally abhorrent in that respect. Each must maintain itself on the corpses of its opponents. RESTORE CONFIDENCE /''vNCE more the doctors have gathered by N-' the bedside, and this time their prescription seems to be that nature must be allowed to take its course. Specialist Leonard P. Ayres, the Cleveland Trust Co.’s famous statistician, reports bluntly: “We have enormous shortages of goods and buildings needing to be made up, millions of idle workers eager for jobs, and billions of unused credit seeking employment. “Always heretofore that combination has produced prosperity. This time the barriers blocking the way are of our own making. They are not natural economic barriers, but artificial political ones. The question is whether we as a nation have the stamina of character to remove them.” Simultaneously, President Alfred P. Sloan Jr. of General Motors remarks that the NRA is nothing but a scheme of “poverty for all,” and that the country is turning away from a belief in regimentation to anew confidence in the old pioneer virtues, and he continues: “Men are becoming increasingly aware that the strongest instrumentality of revival and reconstruction is the existing system of free enterprise.” These remarks by Messrs. Ayres and Sloan do not stand alone. They are made against a background of similar statements by other industrialists and economists in recent weeks, and they indicate pretty clearly a widespread conviction on the part of business and industry that now is the psychological moment to begin a great revival, if only people will keep their hands off the machinery. And right at this point we encounter an odd thing—the cross-currents set up by two opposing lacks of confidence. Business lacks confidence in the Administration’s willingness to keep its hands off and let the profit motive have a fair swing, and John Citizen has not entirely regained his confidence in those great financial powers which must stand back of any business revival. Furthermore, it is this second timorousness—born of the memory of Insull and Wiggin and Mitchell and the others—which causes the Administration to do those things which undermine business confidence. Need this create a permanent stalemate? Not at all. The ordinary man will be perfectly willing to give business the leeway it asks once he is convinced that the game is going to be run in a fair manner. The full restoration of his confidence is the important issue. Once that is done, the rest will follow in natural course.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL DAPPER, smiling Hirosi Saito, Ambassador of Japan and sportsman extraordinary, was guest of honor at a banquet in the Kenwoed Golf Club where frequently he chases the little pill across the links. “Mr. Ambassador,” said the chairman, “we take pleasure first in presenting Your Excellency with a year's supply of whisky, since you have been kind enough to refer to the fact that you wished to drink whisky—with Americans.” Amid roars of laughter, he solemnly handed Saito a two-ounce bottle of whisky. ‘‘Well.” remarked Saito, “my doctor has told me not to drink any liquor for the rest of the year, so I suppose this year's supply will last me until 1935.” But the chairman had not finished his antics. “Japan demands naval parity,” he said, “so it gives me pleasure to present Your Excellency with five new battleships.” Graciously, Envoy Saito accepted five tiny battleships made of aluminum. They were about four inches long. “I particularly am pleased by the tonnage of these ships,” he said. Japanese naval parity, however, disappeared rather rapidly. Mme. Saito seized two of the battleships, one was confiscated by Capt. Yamaguchi in the name of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and another was taken by Mme. Keinosuke Fujii, wife of the Counselor. “Ah, such is justice in this world,” sighed Ambassador Saito, and he cynically put the remaining battleship in his pocket. a a a ONE of the secrets of the popularity of Persian Minister Djalal has been discovered. He doesn’t eat onions. At a cocktail party yesterday, Envoy Djalal was persuaded to taste an onion—then two, then three. But he balked at a fourth. “I like them very much but—oh, the breath!” he explained. a a a CLAMOROUS Jim Moffett, Federal Housing Administrator, always does things on the grand scale, whether it's renting a palace or giving one of his famous dinner parties. Recently it was a dinner party—and it vied with the bigger and better affairs of the early Washington season. There were 27 guests; the men wore white ties and red carnations. It began with caviar and ended with champagne. Here is Jim’s menu: Caviar Blinish ala Moskovitch Green Turtle Soup Terrapin ala Maryland Roast Turkey Salad Russe, with Pate de foie gras Frozen Strawberries and cream. Gourmets found only one course to criticise in the Moffett menu. They thought he should have served either duck or quail instead of roast turkey, with such a gamey dinner. Naturally there was plenty of red and white wine. One of the hors and oeuvres consisted of tiny slices of ham with asparagus tips. Ranking Administration officials and friends of the Moffetts from New York and Chicago attended the dinner, gazing in admiration at Mrs. Moffett's magnificent engagement ring, a brilliant pear-shaped diamond almost as large as a small pigeon egg, which blazed on her finger. Host Moffett’s daughter, Adelaide, and his young son, Jim, a sophomore at Princeton,.were present at the party, as well as lean, austere Marvin Mclntyre, presidential secretary, who relishes good food despite his ascetic appearance. After the dinner Mrs. Moffett donned an ermine cloak, while Jim democratically changed to a black tie, and took some of the company to -a might club.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

j I | 11 ;!i j

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a a FERA DOES NOT AID SANTA CLAUS By a Times Reader. We read and hear so much about helping one another at Christmas time, and no one seems to think about the men on Federal Emergency Relief Administration work as needing anything or their children longing for anything for Christmas that their parents can’t afford to buy. We have four children, the oldest 7 and the baby 11 months and he has been sick nearly all his life and is so small for his age, he often sleeps in a doll bed. Death came into our home and took our 4-year-o!d girl away less than six monts ago. We miss her, but the children miss her more and the three largest ones grieve for her. Our home is not the same and never will be. Christmas is so near and there is not enough money to pay bills and buy shoes with, let alone having a cent to spend on the children or to get a dinner. My husband works on FERA and draws sl2 a week, and we pay $6.50 grocery bill; $1 for coal; $1.50 for milk; 50 cents on a bed; 50 cents on a loan, and $2 rent. Our big sl2 is gone. It is so hard to try and make the children understand that Santa can't possibly come this year and there will be no gifts or extras for dinner. No one knows but a mother or a father how much it hurts to shatter all their dreams of a Merry Christmas and about Santa Claus. Here's hoping that this letter will let some people know that this FERA money doesn't buy the world and all that is in it and that FERA workers could use a little help, too. a a a ONLY THREE INDIANA CONGRESSMEN VOTED By Perry Rule. Price fixing for farm products has again and again been proposed by a number of farm organizations. When H. R. 3835, the Agriculture Relief Bill, passed the House and reached the Senate, that body attached to it what is known as the Norris-Simpson Amendment, which jirovided that the cost of production of farm products should be ascertained and that the government in effect should arbitrarily set a price over and above the cost of production, which would guarantee the farmer a reasonable profit on all his products. When the amendment came back to the House the record shows that only three Indiana members of the House voted for it, Durgan, Gray and Griswold. The amendment failed of passage. The three members voting for it are known as radicals on farm and labor legislation. a a a REAL SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS LIVES Bv Ruth S. Perkins. With the season of well wishing here again there is much to fill the hearts and hands of all good people. Christmas may mean so many things to some that perhaps the spirit which prompted its beginning has been partly lost in the maze of complex meanings which have grown up around the original thought. Yet, even commercialized, fabiized. and made into a Roman holiday, as it has been in some rei spects, there still remains a beautiful and holy tradition which, though perhaps just for an hour, fills the heart of the world with ineffable peace and hope and illuminates earth-worn faces with such a light of understanding that the angel in man gleams out to light the darkness. What Heaven-inspired thoughts

THE ROGUE'S GALLERY

Visions Hope for Curbing Crime

By R. B. The country at last seems determined on real warfare against crime. Most citizens devoutly hope the latest and most promising offensive is no mere temperamental gesture. The latest determination, that criminal lawyers may have to wash their hands, is a heartening addition to the episodic serial which includes the Dillinger-Nelson “rubouts,” the Hauptmann indictment, the narcotic seizures and the simultaneous assembling of state and national crime fighters. Indiana has played too prominent a part in the national crime scene, and the approaching Legislature should devote considerable time to needed reforms. Chief among these is a complete reorganization of the state police department, now ably directed by the hard-hitting A1 Feeney, but still a piece of political putty. Until divorced from politics, the department will fall short of wide celebrity, for its overlords still confuse policing with “politicking.” Federal men may, as some complain, have taken the lion's share of credit in recent clean-ups, but their competence and methods are' attested effectively. They are chosen for work and succeed in it not because of political labels. come to men to give them this moment of at-one-ment with the power of love, give also the meaning that lies behind the seeming glitter and outward show of Christmas and brings again the spirit of the Wise Men’s inspired courage—leads them for a moment, too, to the humble cradle where truth lies. The eternal questions of life beat at our heartstrings as long as we live, but the answeis seem close when we hear in the hush of a white Christmas eve voices singing the old beautiful carols and the story of Christ. When we glimpse through the mist the unchanging reason of this tradition and see beyond the shining, glorious vision of a promise. a a a INDIANA CONGRESSMEN SEEK TO AID FARMERS By Perry Rule. During the recent session of Congress, Congressman Lemke of Minnesota presented a bill to the House, the authors of which were Senator Frazier and Rep. Lemke. both representattives of the FarmerLabor Party of the State of Minnesota. This* bill, among other things provided for an inflation of the currency to an alarming degree. Reports from the Government showed that it would inflate the currency from 22 to 25 billion dollars. The Administration was strictly against the enactment of such a bill, giving as their reason that it would overturn all of the legislation that had been recently enacted by Congress for the relief of farmers. Students of Government finance believed that the report of the National Administration on this bill was correct. So strong was the opposition of all leading financiers and recovery specialists to this bill that it remained in the commitee. An effort was made to have 145 members sign a petition to dismiss the, committee under the rules of the House and bring the bill on the floor of the House. This also failed because of loyalty to the Administration and a firm belief by the House members that it would retard recovery. This belief was shared by the National Grange Legislative Committee and the Farm Bureau National Legislative Committee, representing the two largest and leading farm organizations in America, and it is the consensus that the enactment of this measure would have resulted in inestimable damage to national

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

They are ordinary human beings, ambitious enough to train for the careers they seek and sufficiently trained to win their places in fair competition. Indiana's opportunity to build a police organization of similar high character can be realized through the institution of civil service. Then only those qualified for police work wil seek it, and those Desi qualified achieve it. Politifians will complain and do everything within their power to defeat such an improvement, but their loss will constitute a public gain. The adoption of a civil service system needs only statutory indorsement. No difficulties, either of confusion or expense, need arise. An existing board or commission could be empowered to admnister the law and a governmental corection long overdue would be in effect. Measures of every description will flood the Statehouse before February, and only a percentage of the most important will be enacted. But if the public will support the program already outlined by its advocates, civil service reform will at least come to the aid of the police department. industrial recovery acts and retard the turn to economic normalcy. I have the information from the National Grange Legislative Committee that Congressman Durgan shared this belief. And for that reason did not sign the dismissed petition. On June 16 a modified FrazierLemke bill was presented, the effect of which was to stop foreclosure of mortgages on farms. This was supported by the Indiana delegation. Congressional members and all farm organizations. Mr. Durgan worked for and ardently supported this bill. a a a PROTESTS JOBS ARE NOT AVAILABLE By World War Veteran. I am a war veteran with three small children. I have been out of work three years. I applied to' the Cleveland Wrecking Cos. for employment and was told I would get work. I have been there five or six times and never been able to get work yet. I think it is pitiful to have some outside wrecking company come from some other city and bring most of the men with them when there are thousands of men hungry and walking the streets right here in our own city. The wrecking company announced when the contract was awarded that only 75 local men would be employed. LIGHT, GAS-METERS SHOULD BE INSPECTED BY STATE By Mrs. H B. I have taker The Times for years and find you people supporters of the working man, that is why I am sending this to you. This summer the light company cut our rates and took off the 63 cents demand charge in Speedway City, which we appreciated very much. This helped a great deal the first month and my bill was 86 cents. The next week or so, they had some Daily Thought He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands can not perform their enterprise.—Job v, 12. FAITH in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.— General George W. Goethals.

DEC. 20, 1934

men out to adjust all meters. After that, my bills were: First month, $1.21; next month, $1.32, and next, $1.73. What a jump! And we were saving more each month, trying to keep it from going higher. Now I ask you, did they really cut our rates and take off 63 cents demand charge, as most of my bills before were $1.84, including 63 cents demand charge? I think the state should have men to inspect the light and gas meters as they inspect scales and other things. Just what can and should be done? Wiiat is your advice? There was nothing wrong with our meters before the cut in rate. Why the change in cost?

So They Say

I have seen miracles performed, and now, in my old age, I am still | hopeful for the joint action of the nations to establish and maintain permanent peace in the Pacific.— Viscount Makoto Saito, former premier of JaJpan. One who is a martyr to a principle—which may turn out in the end to be a delusion or an errordoes not prove by his martyrdom that he has kept within the law.— United States Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cafdozo. To bring together and reorganize a true family of nations is the outstanding human need of the time in which we live —Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. ’ j Animal experimentation has conferred immense benefits upon mankind.—Dr. Franklin H. Marshall, di-l rector general, American College of Surgeons. j I am not a man of science, ij have made no lasting discovery of any kind.—Dr. A. R. Dafoe, physician to the Dionne quintuplets. The farmer can not hope to solve his problems with less organization than that of either labor or capital. —Fred J. Freestone, New York state Grange master. When they rihe Dionne quintup-| lets) are wrapped up and ready tej be moved to the veranda, one feelJ that the same baby is being taker* out five times—Dr. A. R. Dafoe. The destructive power of science in war is absurdly overrated. Dr. Herbert Levinstein, British chemist. THEWINTER BY RUTH SWAN PERKINS Sagely impartial to tne age. Fluently master of your tongue, Through medium of the written j page ’ Your little scattered words are flung. To gather volume, meaning, power, And reach beyond the living hour. Unknown to you they find a way Far off from your established place, Impart a truth you did not say, Yet conjure up your distant face, Through yoi at times each reader speaks, Finds in j our words the truth he seeks. Remembering far reached effects Occa- toned by some slightest deed, These things the world of you expects. Make worthy for the world to read. For power of pen upon all stations, Has conquered time and toppled nations.