Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 204, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1935 — Page 18

PAGE 18

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FRIDAY. JANUARY 4. 1935

l NDEMOCRATIC DEMOCRATS THE Democrats of the House decided yesterday that Representatives should not be trusted to legislate. They chained themselves to boss rule. They voted to shackle and stifle minority groups so it would be easier to crush them under a legislative steamroller. By requiring a majority of the House members, instead of one-third, to sign a petition in order merely to get a chance to consider a vertoben bill, the Democratic "New Dealers" established a system of legislation by machine permission—the same system that was used by the Republicans old guard in its most arrogant days. To make this gag rule even tighter, the committees in control are to be packed with four Democrats to one Republican, although the numerical division of the House elected by the people is only about three Democrats to one Republican. The Progressive and Farmer Laborites, apparently, are to get only the leavings in committee assignments. The result will be to keep in committee pigeon holes ail measures that the leaders do not like. It is sometimes necessary and fair to shut off debate to curb a filibuster and to get a vote. But this gag rule is the opposite—it prevents a measure from coming to the floor, prevents any debate and any vote. That junks representative government. The gag rule, the leaoers admit privately, is directed not so much against the Republican party as against minority factions, which include Democrats as well as members of other parties. Its alleged purpose is to prevent action on "unwise” legislation. But under our system of government, neither President Roosevelt nor a congressional leader has the right to determine autocratically what legislation is wise and what is unwise. Such a cloture on free government comes with bad grace from an Administration whese policies are avowedly and necessarily experimental. WORDS AND MORE WORDS TT is necessary to turn back to a hot day in June, 1932 to appreciate fully the sustained capacity of the Republican party for saying practically nothing with many words: To reread the platform of that time and. along with it, the program of Republican legislation just promulgated by Bertrand Snell, Republican Floor Leader. Nothing has been lost, in the time that has intervened, in that gentle art of evasivenen which contributed so greatly toward fixing upon the Republican party the impotence which now’ so completely dominates it. Some of the passages among the 1935 utterances of Snell actually rival that masterly equivocation of 1932 which, dealing with the Eighteenth Amendment, said: "Members of the Republican party hold different opinions with respect to it and no public official or member of the party should be pledged or forced to choose between his party affiliations and his honest convictions.” So. after two and a half years, years which have tried the souls of those who were called upon to take the awful responsibility of leadership, we find the party that is out going on record for an honest and speedy balancing of the budget; for a legislative, executive and judicial form of government; for government by laws passed by the regular constituted body for that purpose; for a sound and stable money policy at home and abroad; for the merit system in government employe for a protective tariff and restricted immigration; against child labor and sweat shops; for the universal draft mot defined) in time of w>ar; for sound legislation to restore agricultural buying power. For those and other things in a long list of political bromides, most of which w’ould give no more nourishment for an inter-party debate than could be discovered in that other gem from the campaign textbook of 1932 wherein Republican statesmen declared "that the time has come when Senators and Representatives should be impressed with the inflexible truth that the first concern should be the welfare of the United States.” A rugged opposition in our alleged twoparty system of government would be extremely useful and stimulating in times like these. But it can’t be found in the outgivings of Bertrand Snell. THE RIGHT START PLEDGE of Mayor John W. Kern to carry on with the policies inaugurated by Reginald H. Sullivan during his five-year term as mayor is a promise that the taxpayers will get another honest and efficient city administration. Mayor Kern could not have selected a more String pledge as he took office. That the policies of the Sullivan regime are substantial and for the best interest of the city has been shown by the records of Sullivan and his aids. Frankly it is a distinct pleasure to Indianapolis residents to have had the services of one competent city hall group and then be able to look forward to another one. It is the first time such hope ever has been held out to Indianapolis taxpayers. COSTLY NAVAL PICTURES WE are never more proud of our Government than when it refuses to lose its head over a foreign spy scare. Only a Government conscious of its great power would order the release without lnvesrigation of a lieutenant commander of a foreign navy caught taking naval photographs immediately after the denunciation of the naval treaty. The attitude of the American press has been equally serene. All of this, of course, is in sharp ot-

Constitution and the New Deal BY TALCOTT POWELL

This is the last of a series of articles on the Constitution. A DECADE ago an impressive play was produced called “R. U. R.” The initials, unless our memory is faulty. stood for "Rossom’s Unversity Robots.” The plot was simple. A scientist invented a mechanical man which he sold to industry. These robots could even feel pain—that was necessary to keep them from messing up machines by getting their hands caught in the cogs. They were very useful. But after a bit the robots because too highly refined. They rebelled and wiped human beings from the face of the earth. The drama was merely a variation of the old Frankenstein theme. Modern society is just beginning to realize that it, too, has its robots. During the great expansion period in America it was necessary to invent a device that would provide ready and flexible capital. The corporation, already well on the way to development in Europe, proved readily adaptable to the needs of the New World. Since the Constitution was conceived the conservatives have driven toward giving the corporation—a legalistic robot—more and more freedom. Today a belief is growing that the robot—the synthetic man—needs to be sharply curbed. Various explanations are offered for the depression: over-production, stock speculation, concentration of wealth, too much machinery, monetary maladjustment. There is not one of these things which is not attribute of the unhindered, unregulated grhwth of the corporative idea. Last year 200 non-banking corporations controlled one-quar-ter of the national wealth. Here is what Supreme Court Justice Brandeis said about the situation: a a a ~rJ ''HROUOH size, corporations, once merely -i- an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business, have become an institution—an institution which has brought such concentration of power that the so-called private corporations are sometimes able to dominate the state ” Throughout the entire history of the Nation the intellectual descendants of Alexander Hamilton have succeeded in getting the corporative "man” more privilege. The robot served well while the Nation was shouldering back the frontier. Today there is no frontier. And it is proving as difficult to limit the corporative device as it would be to keep a fuil grown lion in a wardrobe trunk. The chief‘issue of the Roosevelt Revolution, through which we are now living, is to adjust the radical differences which have grown up between the human being and the robot corporation. Flesh and blood people have twice expressed their opinion at the polls. The present session of the Supreme Court must decide whether the wishes of the voters are in conflict with the Constitution. There is little doubt that the court, if it chooses, has ample legal authority to move along with the voters. Chief Justice Marshall, the great conservative, remarked, in his opinion in the Cohens vs. Virginia decision: “Whenever hostility to the existing order shall become universal, it will also be irresistible. The people made the Constitution and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will and lives only by their will." Let us take the arguments, one by one, of the privileged group which declare that New Deal legislation is inimical to the Constitution. a a a FIRST, there is the charge that Mr. Roosevelt aims at a redistribution of wealth. Possibly, but that is not unconstitutional. Hear John Marshall—certainly no “red”—on that: “The exigencies of the Nation may require that the treasure raised in the north should be transported to the south, that raised in the east conveyed to the west, or that this order should be reversed.” Second is the claim that the New Deal is attempting to regulate business beyond the limits of interstate commerce. But the Supreme Court has already decided that Congress has authority over purely local matters which unduly burden interstate commerce. The enforcement of Federal grain standards, the regulation of intrastate railroad rates, the strictures on forged bills of lading are sufficient proof of this power. No less a conservative than the late Chief trast to the attitude of the Japanese government and part of the Japanese press w’hen American tourists, much less officials, take harmless pictures in Japan. But, regardless of the unwillingness of the American Government and press to exploit them for war purposes, these incidents inevitably spread suspicion and hostility among the people. Years later these incidents are remembered, and magnified, by the man in the street. Since the Japanese government wants peace with the United States and since the Japanese government has notoriously strict disciplinary control of its officers, would it not be wise for the Japanese government to order them to stop taking these very costly pictures? A PROMISING START T TITTING the high spots of a busy week at the end of a busy year . . . The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War prepares a series of articles by ten prominent American women on “Why Wars Must Cease,” and Irenee du Pont, w’hose powder company cleared $250,000,000 during the World War, warns United States Senators that we’ll "have a hell of a time” if w’e don’t prepare for war in time cf peace. Senator Millard E. Tydings, Maryland Democrat, visits Manila and warns the Filipino constitutional convention that the islanders will be undertaking grave and risky responsibilities when they get their freedom. Just by way of showing that the Senator knows W’hat he is talking about, the American Federation of Labor announces that 500.000 Americans were added to the relief rolls last year and that dividend payments of large corporations went sharply upward. Meanwhile, the Japanese denounce the Washington naval treaty. On the heels of that, an Ohio strike leader is given three months in jail for "threatening” a mob of 150 men which had taken him out to the woods and beaten the daylights out of him. and a psychical research society in New York announces that it has succeeded in photographing the soul of a dying grasshopper. Three justices of the New York supreme court rule that there is nothing lewd about nudism. Army commanders at Ft. Jay prepare to take stem measures against cats which prowl about the post after 7:30 p. m., and Bronx County, New York, dedicates an $8,000,000 Courthouse, only to discover that a $29,000 mural painting in it shows flowers in blossom and trees in leaf at the end of November. A 200-pound New York cop raids a burlesque show and is ordered by the judge to demonstrate the movements of a dance which impressed him as illegally improper, after which the judge promptly discharges all the arrested dancers. Akron University scientists are puzzled because a white rat, which they have supported on a healthful diet of spinach, carrots, and cod liver oil, has developed a cold, and it is discovered that young girls of the Ute

Justice Taft in a decision in 1922 pictured interstate commerce as a continuous flow, which, touched at any point, affected the stream as a whole. It is but a step from this to the idea that a business which buys, as well as sells, in interstate commerce is subject to Federal regulation. Then there is the argument that the last Congress, in passing New Deal legislation, improperly delegated power from itself to the Chief Executive. Search of t*e decisions of the Supreme Court reveals not one case in which an act of Congress has ever been declared unconstitutional on such grounds. . a a a NOR is there any doubt of the powers of the President in a national emergency. Those who wrote the Constitution freely discussed such a contingency even to the point of the possibility of a dictatorship for a limited period. It was their intention to provide such powers and Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson freely exercised them. Surely the depression is an emergency. The Constitution provides cold comfort for those who believe that the world can be returned to the piping days of Coolidge prosperity and held there, indefinitely, in a sort of suspended state. "A Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory,” said Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in his Lochner opinion. “It is made for people of fundamentally differing views. Every opinion tends to become a law.” To be sure, this is an excerpt from a dissenting opinion, but it is a truism that the dissenters of yesterday become the authorities of tomorrow. One of the strange things about the present economic upheaval is the fact that the tories have had to go into complete reverse. For nearly a century and a half they fought 'and died for a strongly National Government.. Now that National Government has gone definitely liberal. So we have the amusing spectacle of the sons of men who fought localism at Gettysburg and Antietam now doing battle for a return to the theory of states’ rights. The simple fact is that they will seek any form of government which allows wlat they believe to be the greatest freedom for the untrammelled activities of their robot—the corporate "man.” a K a a THE Roosevelt Administration, providing the Supreme Court approves its activities, has two courses open to it. First, it may definitely come to grips with corporate privilege and settle the conflict. Second, it may postpone the conflict for political reasons and allow some future Administration or Government to deal with the problem. At the moment the President is a bit like a trick circus rider mounted on two horses at the same time. On the one hand are the Farleys, the Ropers, the Joe Robinsons, the Pat Harrisons. They care no more for Mr. Roosevelt as an individual or the New Deal as a philosophy than does the "late” Arthur Robinson. What they are interested in is power—building up the Democratic organization. They can not see beyond the political machine. Their intellectual equipment is limited to that nearsighted horizon, but they are intensely practical. And if public opinion favoring Mr. Roosevelt fails for one moment they will crucify him. On the gther hand are the Tugwells, the Ickeses, the Wallaces, who are personally devoted to the President, but who are even more committed to the ideal of a great, and beneficent Government. These men are not always practical. They sometimes incline toward making guinea pigs of the citizenry because they are looking toward the future rather than the present. They quarrel among themselves publicly. They have no political sense. And yet they would go to the barricades if Franklin Roosevelt but crooked his little finger. There is no need to worry about the Constitution. No people ever had a greater pattern of government, despite its shortcomings. It is the people who live under the Constitution that give cause for concern. a a a HERE is a Nation with unprecedented resources and opportunity. We have learned how to move a ton of freight with an ounce of coal. We can not move a bushel of wheat, rotting in the field, to a starving mill-hand in the adjoining township. Man’s wisdom is not yet commensurate with his opportunity. Indian tribe have taken to face power and lipstick. A Kansas City child named after Dizzy Dean celebrates his arrival at the age of nine months by eating the family goldfish, a Chicago physician stops a policeman’s attack of yawming by tickling his feet, and the Governorelect of Ohio appoints as state superintendent of banks a man who still owes $61,000 to two of the banks which w’ent bust in the famous collapse of two years ago . . . And so the new’ year gets off to a promising start. ‘HEAVY WATER’—AND NERVE 'T'HIS discovery of “heavy water” by modern science may give rise to one of the most eerie little tests ever performed on a human being. "Heavy water” is an odd substance of unknown potentialities. Scientists know that its effect on life is utterly unlike the effect of ordinary water. They believe that if a man were to take a small drink of it he would be aged by at least 50 years, and it has been rumored that the American Association for the Advancement cf Science would pay a large sum to any one willing to put the matter to a test. Hearing of this, a Toronto mail carrier named George H. Carter announces that he is game. He offers to bet the association SSO that he can drink some of this "heavy water.” Considering the rather shivery possibilities, most people will doubtless agree that the gentleman has his nerve right along with him. CALIFORNIA’S BLUE MOON A DISPATCH from Santa Barbara recounts that a man named Perez Simmons, who comes from Fresno and whose calling is that of entomologist, has seen a blue moon. He saw’ it, he says, right after sunset peeking through a cloud bank of begonia blue, against a sky of spectrum blue. Mr. Simmons was not celebrating New Year’s Eve. Moreover. four other men saw’ it and say he’s right. But a blue moon floating on begonia clouds against a background of deep blue sky! Frankly, if the story didn't come from Southern California we would enter it in the tall story contest or turn it over to the poetry editor. But, after Aimee McPherson, Upton Sinclair and Dr. Townsend we’ll believe almost anything about that fabulous comer of the nation. Science Service says there are such things as blue moons, that one was seen here in 1883 and in Ireland in 1927. Surely once in a blue moon Southern California is bound to have at least one. Senator Bilbo of Mississippi has been unusually silent, probably taking all this time to think up something snappy to tell Huey Long when they meet in Washington.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

ffti ' -- ? -: ... V

rpl TV /T Yn /'“N i [*/ wholly disapprove of what you say and will] JL IJ.O IVI PSS/t Pc I defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Male your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a a PEACE MAY BE BASED ON BAYONET, HE SAYS By R. H. Stone. As I look- at the map of the United States, I wonder what the course of events will do to it. In America we believe it would seem that ways of men elsewhere have little meaning for us. We are Americans. We are different. Are we? The Versailles Treaty was the work of a realist, Clemenceau, and an idealist, Wilson. Clemenceau wanted the realistic suppression of Germany. Wilson contended for the idealistic union of self-determined nations. Now, the lack of harmony in Europe has broken through the written words of statesmen. Men call out “peace, peace,” when there is no peace. The New Deal in the United States has been in vogue two years. It is for us the same as the Versailles Treaty to Europe. We have talked of the advantages of unity of all parts of the United States. Sectionalism has been condemned on every hand. The country Is agog to find that we have framed our immediate salvation upon the same conflicting lines as that of the Versailles Treaty. The East and South want the fruits of the middle section of the United States, while glorifying the ideal of unity of all sections. We have reached a place of public policy formation where we must make a choice. It is either a gold bar or a bayonet. The economic interests of the various sections of the United States are diversity itself. They must be allowed expression or suppression. Either we must allow the free circulation of gold or we will have to use the bayonet to suppress some sections as contrasted to other sections. This choice stares us all in the face. Which will it be? a a VETERAN IS NOT GIVEN PREFERENCE, HE SAYS By Overseas Veteran. Please explain to the public where and how veterans have preference other than the average citizen. The only veteran shown preference is the one drawing compensation. He receives the best attention. The public seems to think that the veteran has preference over the other unemployed. He is classed the same, as far as relief is concerned. I know a veteran, seven in family, drawing $54 monthly from FERA. If he were any poorer, the only place that would catch them would be Hooverville. He applied for Federal food relief. He was told by an investigator that he was not entitled to it and a non-veteran I know with the same number in the family receives it. At Christmas time, a veteran I know applied for aid for his children and was asked if he were a veteran. He said yes, and that was the last of it. In this depression a year or so back, the Government donated several hundred pairs of shoes to a local relief agency. A veteran called there for shoes on a rainy day. The man explained that he was a veteran, unemployed, showed his discharge and was asked where his home was. He told them that he was from out of town or he would not have gotten them. If a non-benefit veteran's family gets sick, he goes through the same routine as the non-veteran for medical attention. I know a veteran who last year received, through the efforts of a local newspaper, work on CWA, took sick while working and called in a Government physician. The doctor asked first, “Have you money for a prescription?” He asked if the veteran were drawing compensation. The vet-

OFFICERS’ MESS!

Katz Withdraws, Others Comment

By Joe Katz. I am going to write just one letter more about the Townsend pension plan, and I wish you would print what I have to say. I will have to admit that I might have been wrong about writing the letter against the Tow’nsend plan. I hope I have not done a lot of damage. I had a good reason for writing like I did. About two weeks ago there was a meeting in my neighborhood and they had the blinds pulled dowm. It was a Townsend plan meeting and I saw a a a By A Reader. An article in the Message Center by W. W. Cook entitled "Objects to Proposed S2OO Pension Plan” needs an answer. Perhaps Mr. Cook receives more than S2OO a month and does not want to give up his job, and, speaking of hogs, which one is the hog? The $25 a month would not relieve the unemployment situation a a a By J. E. Forster. In answer to the statement of W. W. Cook, I am one who does not think your statement is even sane or just. In fact you have no feeling for your fellow-men and only greed for yourself. You should have to live on your measly $25 or S3O a month and then see how you would like it. I suppose that you are one who has not known the meaning of poverty or probably been left a legacy. If that is the case be reasonable for you might come to want. The Townsend plan is not a plan to make any one rich, but merely a sound recovery act to bring back business and prosperity to all. Give the old of 60 years the S2OO

eran said "No.” The doctor then informed him he was not entitled to Government medicine. Show me the preference to the average nonbenefit veteran. These veterans have had no trouble with any relief organization. It just shows that the veterans are not shown preference. And for the bonus question, it would be detrimental to the veteran any way it is paid. If they die now, their wives may have enough money for burial and a week’s groceries and return to charity. If the veteran waits until 1945, interest eats it up and he may have enough money to see if he can enter the Soldiers’ Home. a a a RESENTS IMPLICATION OF PROHIBITION’S RETURN By A. J. Curtis. I have been a subscriber to The Times for years and always read the Message Center every day. But I have never seen a letter as narrow minded as was written by the person that didn’t have nerve enough to sign his name, but signed "Subscriber.” This was the person who wrote that prohibition again should be on the statute books. Maybe you don’t care to print this letter, but I have enough nerve to sign my name. a a a CONSTITUTION SERIES IS LAUDED BY READER By Flaccus. For the scholarship and service in Talcott Powell’s analysis of "The Constitution U. S. A. Inc.,” we wish to express our thanks. The first article contained so many historical facts of which I never had heard before. Yours is the splendid way of teaching history. It enables us to understand our own times. We see that which you car do; we

a man go in who I knew used to be a Kluxer. If you have ever had a fiery cross in the front of your house, you would know how I was scareG that something like that again was started. So I thought I would try to stop it with a letter to The Times. I am man enough to say I was wrong. The Townsend Plan Club in my neighborhood had another meeting in the church and a lot of women went in, so I knew it wasn’t anything like I thought it was. I went to the meeting and I am sorry I wrote anything like I did against it. a a a whereas the S2OO or a little less certainly would and would help business in general. Where has Mr. Cook been for a while and just when did any one ask for S2OO a month for old-age pension. It was Dr. Townsend's idea, and a mighty good one, even if it is cut down a little. I am far from 60. but have sense enough to know that it will benefit the country in many ways.” a a a a mjnth so they must spend it each month and it will create such business and prosperity we will never know again what hard times are. It surely will be a blessing to this nation, as a 2 per cent tax on national retail sales will not only pay this S2OO but will put more than one billion dollars in the United States Tresury each year. This will do aw’ay with all taxes which go for charity. If you are fair get a book and read Dr. Townsend’s plan on the old age revolving pension, for your statement shows you know nothing about it. I w’ant to state I am not dependent on this plan for a living, but I am surely in favor of it for my fellow-men, both young and old.

are going to hope for other articles of equal excellence. You are doing your part; it is our responsibility to persuade others to study your work. How can more people be lead to read such editorials? May I have the temerity to suggest that you print your next editorial of this quality on the front page? Will you please give your estimate of the percentage of newspaper readers who have the intelligence and education to read the editorial page? One other problem troubles us. If w’e were to write that article, how could we in 250 words or less,, say all that you do? a a a VETERAN REPLIES TO PREVIOUS LETTERS By Another Veteran. The veteran of Dec. 26 in his answer to the writer of Dec. 20 was correct and yet he too was misinformed. Writer of Dec. 20 is all wTong. During the war, I spent more than tw’o years in the service in this country, 18 months 0-1 the Mexican border. I enlisted in June,-1917, for the emergency only. I was granted a non-service allowance which was taken from me under the Economy Act of 1932. Since

Daily Thought

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. Daniel, 2:42. \ OH! It is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is ty.. nnous to use it like a giant.—Shakespeare.

JAN. 4, 1935

1932, I also have been refused a service connected allowance. However, I served more than 90 days and had been in the service more than a year when the armistice was signed. Also, the question so many times brought up is, “Were you overseas?” I went in the service, hoping to go across and do my part, but was not sent across. a a a COAT IS OFFERED TO NEEDY YOUTH By Times Reader. ... I have a used leather coat which I will give the boy who, in a Message Center letter, said he needed clothing, if the boy will call at the garage at the rear of 528 E. Marketst after 3:30.

So They Say

Tlie guilt or innocence of a man is to be determined by whether or not he is dangerous to the existence of the state.—Dr. Frits Rehn, president of the Nazi “People’s Court.” Japan must be prepared to fate with firm determination any power so ill advised as to expand its navy in disregard of Japan’s, fair offers of a disarmament agreement.—Admiral Mieno Osumi, Japanese minister of the navy. Our government does not underr stand that something catastrophic has happened in the world’s economic system.—David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister of Great Britain. I

JUDGMENT

BY THOMAS E. HALSEY “Away with him!” I heard gruff voices cry. •>' * “He gave us but delusion and despair!” And tempted, sir, to join this throng was I, For disappointment hadn’t passed me by. "Be on your way!” those voices bellowed loud, “And always shall our curses be your lot!” An old man, form decrepit, shoulders bowed, Cried out, "Have I no friend in this mad crowd?” , A youth then quickly stepped upon the floor And pleaded, “Let this old man depart in peace! Blame not him for your troubles, T implore, While records of his good deeds you ignore! "Praiseworthy things have happened. you w r iil find. Real fellowship prevails throughout this land. Unselfish now of heart and wise of mind, You’re stepping forward, failures all behind!” “And now I say to Nineteen ThirtyFour— As your successor, I shall do ray best, Completion of your efforts to insure— That men shall praise your memory ever more!” Those voices who were given to distort Each small success into a failure bold. Now this olf fe.low's virtues would exhort. They cried. “He was, at that, a worthy sort l ”