Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 193, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 December 1934 — Page 6

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Lidht and the People Will Find Their Own Wap

SATURDAY. DECEMBER 22 1934 LAWYERS AND SHYSTERS Conscientious lawyers win applaud the Justice Department's drive against shyster<s who connive with criminals, share in the lon and advise clients how to evade arrest and punishment. America's legal fraternity today does not enjoy the good reputation that once gave it unoisputed civic leadership. Many bar associations have been notoriously lax in ethical standards, because the majority of decent lawyers have been too busy or too timid to prevent bounders from prostituting the progression. Typical of the inability of lawyers to keep their own house in order is the situation which has developed in Missouri. There the state bar leaders talked for years about the nped of a purge in the progression, but nothing was done until the State Supreme Court moved in with a big broom. Part of the blame rests with judges and prosecutors who have shut their eyes to the malpractices of fellow lawyers, and have been loath to treat lawyer criminals like other criminals. The term “shyster" is applied too exclusively to attorneys engaged in defending with improper methods persons accused of the lower crimes. The term should include all lawyer criminals, and in this group there probably are as many engaged in civil and corporation practice as in criminal practice. Lawyers who concoct financial schemes to rob investors are as unethical as lawyers who shield racketeers, and generally are better paid. Too many of the rewards of the legal profession have gone to corporation lawyers most adept in defeating the purposes of our laws. MORE INSULL TRIALS epHE state was wrong, said a Chicago jury’. Martin Insull did not steal. Acquitted of embezzlement charges. Martin Insull may now join his brother Samuel In claiming “vindication.” Brother Samuel won a “not guilty” verdict in a Federal mail fraud trial a month ago. Next month, the state of Illinois will try both Martin and Samuel on other embezzlement charges. Whether those prosecutions fail, or not, the Federal Government then will try to prove Samuel Insull and others guilty of bankruptcy violations. Present plans are to continue prosecutions until all Insull indictments are cleared off the dockets. In this country are several thousand people who doubtless are puzzled by what has transpired in the Chicago courts. They are the people whose savings were invested in the Insull bubble. They do not know, legally speaking, whether they we defrauded through the mails or whethet aeir savings were embozaled or vanished in ie smoke of bankruptcy. All they know is that their money somehow disappeared. The prosecutors who are trying to inflict social punishment on the Insulis represent society in general. But these disillusioned investors are their special clients, and deserve the best representation the prosecutors can give. THE FIT VS. THE FAITHFUL TT'XCEPT among “professional Democrats.” the Civil Service Commission’s proposal to curb patronage evils will be widely approved. It is begging the question to say that “professional Republicans” smothered similar proposals when their party was in power. One thing decidedly old about the New Deal is its method of providing jobs for the party faithful. Today there are 214.000 Federal employes outside the civil service, compared with 109.000 before March. 1933. There never was a sound reason for waiving civil service tests in the appointment of postmasters, collectors of customs and revenue, deputy collectors or deputy marshals. Efficiency in these services could be improved by merit appointments and promotions from the ranks. Many of the jobs could be abolished without damage to efficiency—and would be if patronage were not a factor. Many New Deal agencies were set up too hastily to be staffed by civil service methods. But now they may be overhauled —and should be. It would net be necessary to throw all jobs open to competitive paper examinations. BMt each employe should be required—and should be willing—to take an examination to prove that he is qualified to hold his position, in accord with civil service standards. Future vacancies should be filled by the regular competitive method. It is not proposed by the commission, or bv any one, that officials with the power to fix policies be subjected to rule-of-thumb tests. Those who make a living out of politics may not like it. but most people agree with the Civil Service Commission that: “The competitive system is the best method of public employment that has been devised in this or any other country’. It is democratic and American, is based on merit alone, and offers a fair field and no favor.’ To those who care to investigate there is available an abundance of evidence that it is economical, that it adds to government efficiency.” THE JOINT BUSINESS PLAN * I S HE joint business conference did about as A well as could be expected with its compromise plan in view of the wide difference of opinion among business leaders concerning recovery methods. The President will get nothing much from it that is definite and a practical program. For. in order to get any sort of agreement, the conference had to stretch its canvas wide

enough to cover all business groups represented. Thus it covered both those who oppose and those who favor Federal relief by saying that the Government should give aid “only when absolutely necessary.” Similarly, as regards crop control it opposed only “undue” restrictions. In urging stabilization of exchanges and a fixed gold standard dollar, it added the qualification “as soon as practicable.” Though opposing Government interference in business it requested one more year's extension of a modified NIRA as necessary to certain industries. By struggling to find a simple, easy answer to these public questions and failing to do so, the business leaders are now in a better position to appreciate the hard job of the President. Since their program shows that they are confused and uncertain, they can be more tolerant when the Administration is unable to reach in a bag and pull out a formula for quick xecovery. The President has made it clear that he is ready to talk over these problems with the conference representatives if their purpose is to co-operate and not obstruct. A THWARTED LYNCHING GANT did his duty when he tried to calm the mob at Shelbyville, Tenn. Judge Coleman did his duty by declaring a mistrial in the case of E. K. Harris, the Negro, when the mob surrounded the Courthouse. The mob set fire to the Courthouse. The Tennessee National Guard did its duty, training its guns upon the charging mob and carrying the prisoner away to safety. The mob overturned and burned the guard's motor trucks. Shelbyville police did their duty, risking their lives to save the City Hall from the torch. The firemen did their duty, fighting the Courthouse flames. The mob cut the fire hose. Gov. McAllister did his duty by sending more troops to restore law and order in Shelbyville. It now remains for Shelbyville prosecutors to punish the vandals and round out a perfect score of official courage in Tennessee—in this one case. Back of and largely responsible for the bloody Wednesday in Shelbyville were three successful lynchings in Tennessee in the last 18 months. Two w'hite men and one Negro were tne victims and the latter was lynched in Bedford County, of which Shelbyville is the county seat. He was lynched after a grand jury had refused to indict him. In those three lynchings, Tennessee officers did not do their duty, and because they failed mob spirit spread in the state. But on Wednesday, Tennessee authorities demonstrated how a mob should be handled. A few more such salutary performances by local authorities might end cowardly lynchings in this country. NO MANANA’S TODAY ■pRESIDENT ROOSEVELT w r as considered very bold when he Invited all Americans writh complaints against the Government to write to him. But compared with the recent action of President Cardenas, new chief executive of Mexico. Mr. Roosevelt’s invitation looks like a mild bid to increase postal revenues. SCnor Cardenas has ordered all government telegraph lines reserved one hour a day for free transmission of citizens’ complaints. Something is happening to Mexico’s “manana” tradition. Looking through the 200-inch telescope, now under construction, scientists could see a three-story house on the moon, says one of them. So moon residents soon will have to pull down their shades. UNIFIED FIGHT ON CRIME A PERMANENT national institute of crimi--1 nology, such as was suggested by the Attorney General’s recent conference on crime, ought to be an excellent means of helping the cause of law enforcement throughout the count ry. Joseph B. Keenan, Assistant Attorney General, pointed out that the criminal is helped greatly by the fact that each city and each state is independent in its law enforcement activities. Some method of co-ordinating their work must be found. A national body which could tie Federal, state and local crime-prevention and detection agencies together would make the task of cracking down on the crook a great deal easier. With such a body in active existence, it would not be necessary for Federal agents to chase a Dillinger for transporting a stolen auto, when he was actually wanted for murders and bank robberies. Now Clara Bow’s baby boy is “It.” Coach Biff Jones of Louisiana State University talked back to Huey Long and quit. It still remains Huey Long's university. For the first time in diplomatic history, the word “I" was used in a note Mussolini sent to the League of Nations, and some of the delegates still wonder what he means. The National Resources Board has found an easy way to get rid of Communists and loaiers—a 25-year plan that will provide work for all. A policeman caught a crook in New York and imediately began questioning him. punctuating his questions with a suitable black and blue mark on each eye. A Cleveland bridge expert, sues two others in New York fer not recognizing his system, although he wouldn't care if they didn't recognize it in a game against him. Co-eds in a midwestern university have been getting low grades to attract the boys, says a professor. That's not so dumb! Washington scientists report anew nebula 1.200.000.000.000.000,000.000 miles away. Some day those scientists will slip and say something we can check up. A Philadelphia woman has willed SSOOO a year to the man who marries her daughter. It s a dare that can't be overlooked. It's a great forward step to think of eliminating profits from war, at a time whtn we wouldn t x dare think of eliminating war itself.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

DURING the last week or ten days the air' has been full of anti-crime talk. A conference of crime experts and public officials met in Washington and discussed ways and means of coping with the crime menace. The President addressed them and gave them encouragement. Attorney General Homer Cummings has promised further vigilance on the part of the Department of Justice. In New York state, the Commercial Crime Commission has been launched to help along the very important work of suppressing business sharpers, commercial fraud and the like. This is certainly all to the good. The national crime bill is certainly staggering. It runs each year to something between twelve and eighteen billion dollars. This means little until we translate it into certain equivalents. It amounts to about one-fourth of our total national income at the present time. It is nearly three times the present value of the war debts owed us by our foreign debtors. It is about fourteen times the total pension benefits paid by the government. It is about equal to all the relief and extraordinary expenses of the Roosevelt Administration to date. It is a sum which, if put into public works in a single year would give us an extraordinary spurt of temporary industrial prosperity. an tt IT will profit us little, however, to indulge in any ballyhoo about crime repression so long as it remains relatively safe to steal SIOO,OOO and up by clever legalized methods of exploitation. So long as the big operator can get by with what, from every social point of view, amounts to the theft of millions or billions, it is going to be very difficult to discourage the small fry criminals from trying to imitate him in their feeble and modest way. Only the thorough student of contemporary’ crime realizes to how great a degree most of the menacing crimes of today are based upon direct imitation of the ideals and methods of the corporate racketeer. The average man reading his daily newspaper and noting references to crime, usually conjures up in his mind the picture of the house prowler, the pick-pocket, the stick-up man and other figures familiar to him from his youthful reading about crime and criminals. Some of these criminals of the olden day still persist, to be sure. But their depredations are relatively slight and constitute no large part of present day criminality. The socially dangerous crime of today is overwhelmingly organized crime of some sort or another. It is gangster work, large scale racketeering, organized thefts, mercenary or commercial crime of some type. It is all to<j often carried on in conjunction with the aid and counsel given by able but unscrupulous lawyers and is linked up with political gangs and machines which make apprehension and conviction extremely difficult. Even the Dillingers are not the typical criminals of our time. The latter are far more clever, obscure their work much more effectively, and render their apprehension and conviction much more difficult. tt n n HPHEY are inspired by the same “something-for-nothing” psychology which motivates the suave and dignified manipulator of holding companies and paper pyramids. Our present-day criminals likewise, have adopted the slogan that “only saps work.” Many of them are foreigners or, more often, children of foreigners whose parents earned an honest living by pushing fruit carts, shining shoes, and operating small shops and restaurants. Such an arduous and toilsome career no longer beguiles their offspring. The latter have caught something of “the American dream” and reason that if the big boys can get away with theirs there ought to be a place for the small fellow at the bottom. It is highly desirable that every effort should be made to catch all active criminals, arid the public authorities should ever be more alert and equipped with the best devices for fighting crime. But, if we wish to end the crime menace, the development of fundamental honesty and integrity in American business and finance will help more than all this. In the first place, if such decent ideals permeate those at the top they may gradually sift down through the masses, in the same way that the anti-social practices of the flossy racketeers in American business have of late seeped down and stirred the under dog to criminal action. In the second place, such business and financial honesty would do much to restore prosperity, provide jobs and remove the sheer economic pressure to commit crime.

Capital Capers BY DAVID DIETZ

THE traditional Cabinet dinner opened the official social season at the White House. President and Mrs. Roosevelt received 80 guests, including all the members of the Cabinet, headed by benevolent, silver-haired Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Mrs. Hull. Pink roses and snapdragons added a brilliant touch of color to the long table. Among the four-score guests one noted ambassadors, State Department officials, NRA chieftains, senators, newspaper men, New York visitors and presidential secretaries. Alec Weddell, who is American Ambassador to Argentina, was a guest with his wife. So was Bill Bullitt, Ambassador to Soviet Russia, looking very serious these days. Chippgr Dr. Leo Rowe, director general of the Pan American Union, for once was a guest instead of a host. (They failed to serve Leo’s favorite lamb stew.) The Bishop of Washington, Dr. Freeman, gravely occupied a seat at the table, with his usual dignity. Dapper, alert-looking Francis Biddle, Philadelphia blueblood, who is here as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, chatted animatedly. Busy Jesse Jones, RFC chairman (whose thoughts habitually stray to Palm Peach at this season), was present with Mrs. Jores. The American Ambassador to Italy, Breckin idge Long, who has his hand., full just now wi h the debut of his daughter, Christine, dashed back from Philadelphia for the dinner. Sedate Joseph H. Choate Jr., chairman of the Federal Alcohol Control Administration, and Donald Richberg, bald-headed NRA leader, sat near each other. It was a cosmopolitan dinner, as informal as a formal White House dinner can be, which isn’t very informal m tt ONCE a Venezuelan was exiielled because he failed to mention the name of PresidentDictator Juan Vicente Gome’; in a speech delivered here. Poet Pedro Rivero of tbi Venezuelan Legation, certainly will never be expelled. Yesterday, he gave a talk over the radio and mentioned the name of “Juan Vicente Gomez” so frequently that is sounded like a poem. In the first paragraph, he said “Gomez.” In the third paragraph he said “Gomez.” The fourth paragraph began with “Gomez.” The fifth included “Gomez.” In the sixth. Poet Padre slipped up and forgot to include the Dictator. but he made up by mentioning him once in the eighth, twice in the ninth, and ending with a salvo of “Juan Vicente Gomez.” NOTE: Occasion of the Gomezian fireworks was the celebration of the 26th anni“?rsary of the presidency of the noted Juan W.ente —an occasion honored not only by Poet Pedro but through a champagne luncheon by white-haired Minister Arcaya. a tt tt SOME comment was caused yesterday as smartly groomed Ambassador Felipe Espil of Argentina (selected as one of the 12 bestdressed men in the world) strolled along State Department corridors. There was mu: comment as Envoy Espil entered the office of Assistant Secretary Sumner Welles, another of the 12 best-dressed men. “What are they talking about — hazarded some

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WINTER—WHAT IT MEANS TO THEM

.. ,„lF : " -e.u.ceuci-

rpl IV yr ["/ wholly disapprove of what you say and will l ne IYxOSScI£LO v><oXl.Loir [defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

(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 u tt BIG BUSINESS MUST NOT “KNOW” NEW DEAL SETUP By Patient. About May, 1931, the secretary and active general manager of one of our very large heavy industry manufacturing concerns told me that his company had just paid a cash dividend to the stockholders equaling 100 per cent of the outstanding common and preferred stock, and at the same time had issued a 100 per cent stock dividend to stockholders of record at that time. He also stated that the company had a cash surplus in its treasury more than equal to cash surpluses of all other manufacturers of the same industry. Having been connected with that industry in one way or another for many years, I know that if his statements were true, and I have reasons to believe that they are true, that concern has quite an accumulation of cash or possibly United States Government bonds. Later the same source reported that in spite of very poor business during 1931 and 1932 his concern had been able to show a profit, derived principally from United States Government bonds held. The capital investment of the concern being several million dollars, their holding of United States Government bonds must then indeed be considerable. My point is—then how does our Government expect to be able to induce business in the face of what these same manufacturers choose to pronounce unfavorable conditions, when they can keep their factories open, even indulge in cut-throat business tactics, pay taxes of all kinds, add to surpluses and reserves in the usual manner, when interest payments on United States Government bonds held by them will wipe out their losses and even show a profit to the concern? Many other establishments of all kinds in our country enjoy similar circumstances as the manufacturer we refer to here. Then is it not possible, yes even to be expected, that industrialists, bankers, insurance companies and all other similarly strong organizations will carry out the mandate reported to have originated with the American Bankers’ Assn, meeting during the summer of 1932 when it was the consensus of those present that a Democratic President would be elected in the fall, and that then would be the real beginning of the depression? It was then that bankers and their allies in industry determined to freeze the American voters for at least four years to retain their power over every activity of our American homes. Will President Roosevelt do something about our “money changers.” or will he let them outwit him and his professors and surely cause their downfall at the hands of the voters in 1936? It is amusing to read the daily reports of our Chambers of Commerce activities, statements by bankers and other financiers, pretending to be warming up to the Roosevelt New Deal. If they are, then the great mass of voters who supported our President really never have known ol his real plans.

Unemployment Insurance Supported

By M. E. Selby. In answer to a I’ecent letter concerning the good to be gained from unemployment insurance, in which the writer could find no “good” reason for making it a public instrument, may I offer the following plan which already has been tendered to one large company which employs thousands of people. Many employers have sponsored credit unions for employes, discerning the benefits of keeping workers from the clutches of loan sharks. The credit union is here to stay, proved by national laws enacted by the last Congress, permitting organization any place in this country. These credit union units are the ideal base for an extension of planned provision for periods of unemployment among people who are willing to provide for their own future but lack the initiative. Legislation for such provision is a certainty. It will take time, but must come. So why not include in the bill the right to organize or form “trusts,” set up within credit union units, for the purpose of administering trust funds accumulated by each worker contributing the small sum of 15 cents la base sum, used for illustration) weekly, which shall be matched by an equal amount for each worker from the employer, all going into the credit union investment shares, which according to law are to be lent for RELIEF WORKER OBJECTS TO “NAGGING” BOSSES By a Relief Worker. I am a subscriber to your daily paper but never before have I ever written anything for any paper. However, I think the public should know how we relief workers feel about our jobs. The great majority of us think our President is a wonderful man in working out a plan whereby we can make an honest living, but when we are told by a straw boss that we are just trying to get something for nothing, it is time for someone to call a halt. At a certain packing plant here, the boss told a number of men in our gang that he could take 10 men and get out more work in two hours than we were putting out in two weeks and that we thought the Government owed us a living. This may be a fact about the amount of work as none of these men are experienced meat cutters and probably never used a meat knife before. I never did but I am trying to do the best I know. When we go to work, we are charged with a white coat and cap and a sharpening steel and are watched like a bunch of criminals for fear we will walk out with something. They tell us we should be tickled to death that we have jobs. I am glad I have a job. but it is not very encouraging to walk up to a pay window and draw $8 and know this will not meet half our bills, so it may not sink through the thick skulls of some of the bosses how’ it makes a man feel to meet the collectors who call at our doors for the rent and we must tell them we have no money for them. Our children must eat and we must feed them, but one thing is certain, we can not pay rent and eat on $8 a week with a family ol any size.

provident purposes to members only, by this means keeping the funds in circulation for worker benefit and at the same time earning interest equal to other shares of the credit union. The interest from such shares in a few years would retire the fund payments completely. This plan is based on a pay roll of 300 people, which would with employer equalization mean a total of S9O a week. Payments to claimants of such insurance would be limited to fifteen weekly payments of $l,O each and not claimable more than once each year or until after two weeks of unemployment. Os course, certain limitations would have to be imposed as safeguards, but the cause of unemployment shall be no factor. It is needless to state that had such a system been in common use when this depression “hit” and had all the unemployed (10 million) had an additional $l5O, what a vast burden it would have lifted from the taxed public. One billion five hundred million. Indianapolis has paid out through its Community Fund nearly five million dollars in the last five years. Such a relief sum created by the small sum of 30 cents a week, if it had been previous to the depression, would have cared for 300 cities the size of Indianapolis for five years. And still unemployment insurance is not worth the attention of thinkers! I am not complaining about the work I have to do but of the treatment of the men. What we do not like is the way the bosses expect us to do as much work as a man who has had years of experience. The work is not hard and the hours are not long but the continual nagging about not doing enough discourages any man. If this does not stop, there may be a way of stopping it by taking Ihe matter up with some one higher up, but work is what we want and we are willing to do it, but we are not slaves and refuse to be classed as such. A contended man will do twice as much work, as a man who is discouraged. The bosses should get together with the men and have a spirit of co-operation. tt e a ANOTHER READER SEEKS AID FOR AGED Bv F. O. I am a reader of the Message Center, and I read in th paper where Gov. Paul V. McNutt is in favor of only sls to $25 a month pension for people 65 years and over. What is he going to do with men from 45 to 65 years who have large families and can’t get any work In factories? I wish someone would ask him for me if he thinks he could live oft $25 a month. Pay $lO for a

Daily Thought

These things I command you. that ye love one another. —St. John, xv, 17. HE alone has lost the art to live who can not win new friends.— S. Weir Mitchell.

DEC. 22, 1934

house cold as a bam, burn two tons of coal a months paying $6.50 a ton for it; $1.25 a month for water; pay a little insurance so the county won't have to bury him when he dies. Could he do it? No. Would he live as many of our city people are living? No. He would have to do just like the rest of us—go to the souphouse and get his beans. If he passes the S2OO a month, gets the money in circulation and starts these factories to paying the younger men a good living wage, ne would see old Indiana get up and move. I am in favor of the S2OO. I have two old parents, 71 and 80 years. Let the old people have a few good days before they go beyond. Thousands of these old people have lived in poverty all their lives, and don't know ,vnat a good time is. So pass the S2OO a month pension and get rid of the poorhouses. Don’t forget, I am a taxpayer.

So They Say

The time has come when England and the United States should show the world that our two navies are not competitive but complementary. —Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, of the British Navy. Financial wild oats have been freely sowed. It will be unavoidable to reap the harvest.—Prof. H. Parker Willis of Columbia. America awful nice place. People live like monkeys way up high. —Terengosi, African native brought to United States. The election of Upton Sinclair would throw fright into the people of the United States as nothing else has done. It would be looked on as an approval of radical principles. Senator Simeon D. Fess (R., O.). Under the recovery program we have done more proportionately than any other industry in America has thus far done for its employes.—George Arthur Sloan, head of Cotton Textile Institute.

THIS LOVE

BY RLTH SWAN PERKINS Sweeter than quince honey in the blood, Fiercer than winter air-tides, oh, strong wing, Radiant substance from whose milk I sup, From whose harp I pluck the notes I sing. Whyfore the quickened pulse, tha unsteady beat. Or the sweet stupor as a warm spring tide? All to the reason and the sign of love. Leash, wheel, spoke of the chariot I ride. Therefore, no questions ask I to my heart, Therefore, no doubts forfeit I for aim. Proudly unswerving, dominantly inspired, Drive I high Heaven on this steed ol Hame.