Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 205, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 January 1935 — Page 6

PAGE 6

The Indianapolis Times U ICRIpri.HOfTABO KEWBPAPEH) BOT W. Howard President TALOOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Bunin?** Manager Phono Riley 5551

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A Gir IAQh r and the Propl o IT ill find Thrir Ovn ITog

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5 1535

THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE PT'O increase purchasing power, and thereby A balance consumption and production; to keep that balance, then to enlarge consumption to the Nation's full capacity to produce— That is the essence of the New Deal. Out of the attempts to make it work have come complications, difficulties, mistakes. But the unity of the idea has been preserved and is continued in the President's message to Congress. As increased purchasing power is the key to increased consumption, so increased employment is the key to increased purchasing power. A long way is yet to go in this primary matter of increased employment—a way beset by many pitfalls. It seems to us that the President sees most of those pitfalls, and plans to avoid them. First, he separates the from the employables. He would put up to the states and comm uni ties the task of caring for those who can not work. The rest—the employables—are out of work, he says, because of a depression caused by national conditions; millions idle through no fault of their own. If provided with work they become millions of customers for the goods that the industry' of this Nation is ready to produce and sell. a a a "'T'HE Federal Government,” the President says, “is the only agency with sufficient power and credit to meet this situation. We have assumed the task.” But not blindly. He watches for those pitfalls. He distincuishis between work that is useful and work that merely wears out autumn leaves. He recognizes that work-making public expenditures should taper off as reviving private employment absortK the surplus. He proposes wages for this public work not so large as to encourage rejection of private employment. He would select projects competing little, if • at all, with private enterprise. He advocates projects requiring the biggest possible i -entage of direct labor. The m effect of the program heads to that singl ibjective—to stimulate purchasing power, to create customers, to revive consumer demand, and thereby to bring -about an accompanying revival of private industry'. lYom such a revival would come the increase in gross volume of the Nation's ousiness from which, in turn, the tax bill could be paid. Without that revival, without that increase in the Nation's volume, the tax bill mounts beyond the Nation's ability to pay, and we are forced down the dangerous road of unrestricted currency inflation. u a a IT would be foolish to assume that the course is altogether clear. There will be more obstructions. The President s figures—a million and a half unemployable and three and a half million employables—seem small in light of most statistics. Also there is a large question of how' soon millions can be set at labor on his proposed projects. It takes time to draw blue prints, and white-collared workers can't easily shift from the chair to the shovel and do an effective job. So we think the President has oversimplified in the intimation that the Federal dole can be dropped quickly or completely. Some, perhaps many, can not be absorbed in useful public works. The Federal dole to them should continue until primed private industry reclaims them. But, despite the obstacles, we say that, in the thousands of proposals and panaceas put forth during all the depression we have seen no adequate substitute for the President's program. It is working. Slowly still, but distinctly visible even now, it is gaining momentum. We believe we will come out of the wilderness if we follow through on this path. STATES’ DUTIES THE opening of Congress in Washington should not obscure equally important matters unfolding in the 48 state capitals. This month will witness the inauguration of 34 new Governors and the convocation of 44 State Legislatures. These states must assume a greater share of the burdens of relief, recovery and reform than they have in the last four years. In 1933 the Federal Government bore 60 per cent of all relief costs, last year 70 per cent. This is too much. The Government proposes to turn back to the states and localities all care of the 4.000.000 or so “unemployables.** human slag of the depression and the industrial system. The re-employment of able-bodied jobless is also a task that states and cities must share with Washington. To facilitate this partnership. President Roosevelt has requested the Governors and Legislatures to pass laws for closer Federal-state-city co-operation in public works. He urges legislation simplifying city bond issue procedure; creating improvement authorities for building power and light plants and other self-liquidating utilities; paving the way for co-operation in slum clearance gnd low-cost housing; creating "non-profit public benefit corporations or agencies to provide for the electrification of rural communities with the assistance of the Federal Government.” Without some such measures the Administration's rehousing movement probably will fail. The states should also work with the Federal Govemmenet on social security laws, public employment services, ratification of the child labor amendment, and otherwise making the New Deal's gains permanent in state laws. The states should evolve sound tax system* that do not encroach upon Federal sources. They may meet their educational and other N

budget needs by constructive economies as well as by new revenue. Some progressive states are planning to consolidate governmental units to save duplication. Oklahoma's new Governor, Marland, 1s having economists draft a state merit system and retire from the public trough some of its costly politicians. Such stoical reforms are more profitable in the long run than easy sales and other tax makeshifts. Finally, the states need to revamp hastily passed liquor laws, making them effective for revenue and more temperate drinking. To modernize state government and retain democratic principles will require quite as much statesmanship as the people expect from the White House and Congress. Not one New Deal, but 49 co-operating New Deals are needed. CUTTING’S VICTORY A TTEMPTS by his election opponent to prevent his being seated having failed in the New Mexico courts, Senator Bronson Cutting will be on hand to answer roll-call when Congress opens Thursday. It is to be hoped that this opponent, backed by partisan administration leaders, will not carry their fight to the Senate floor. Senator Cutting has won his certificate with what his state's canvassing board says is a safe margin of 1300 votes. An attempt to press vague fraud charges in the Senate now will cause a bitter schism between progressive and old-line Democrats, delay important legislation, react against the New Deal administration. Senator Cutting is one of the country’s outstanding younger statesmen, a liberal who is both intelligent and fearless. When he opposes the President, he does it under conviction that he is right. This kind of opposition is better than blind loyalty. He is in the best sense of the word a New Dealer. New Mexico and the United States are lucky to have him in the Senate. DIRE SITUATION useful thing the depression-born relief problem is doing for us. It is acting as a microscope through which we can get a new' look at some of the phases of American life which we never bothered to examine very carefully before. We talk about unemployment, about the need to get people back to work, about the American standard of living - ’ which must be preserved; and all the while, tucL.d away in the relief statistics, are figures w nich give us a dismaying new view of the way a large percentage of our people have to live. These statistics were studied by C. Hartley Grattan in a recent Issue of Scribner's Magazine. Mr. Grattan takes his figures from the FERA lists, which show that in September, 1934, some 18.300,000 persons W'ere receiving relief. Slightly less than two-thirds of these people were city folk; the rest were from the farms or the small towns. Then, by analyzing the figures, he makes a further discovery—that most of the people on relief are precisely those peoplip w’ho, when employed, receive incomes so lo*r that they can not build up a nest egg for hard times. For instance: Unskilled and semi-skilled urban laborers make up only 41 per cent of our general urban population; but they compose 63 per cent of our urban relief group. Skilled workers, composing 17 per cent of our population, nuke utj 19 per cent of the relief group. On the other ..and, proprietary, professional, and clerical workers, composing about 41 per cent of the urban population, contribute only 18 per cent of the relief group. It is the same way with rural workers. The share-croppers, the tenant farmers, the men who have been struggling with marginal or sub-marginal land, never prosperous even in good times—these are the men who make up the bulk of the relief gioup in the rural regions. In city and country alike, these people are the ones who never, even in boom times, touch our famous “American standard of living.” They live in those homes at which our slum clearance plans are aimed. They never get adequate medical attention, diet, or clothing; they never can build up bank accounts big enough to carry them very long when trouble comes. Studying the relief figur's makes us realize, as we did not realize befi e, how many o's these people there are. Ye.. *• after year we have to carry this load of poverty. In hard times it makes the relief list almost unendurably expensive; in good times it limits our markets and gives us all the social problems which are born of poverty. We can not be complacent about any “recovery” that does not permanently raise the status of these people in the lowest income brackets. AVOID PARTIALITY "PENNSYLVANIA, one of our greatest indus- -*• trial states, has never been exactly famous for its industrial peace. Pennsylvania strikes have a way of being somewhat violent; a contributing factor unquestionably is the state law which permits corporations to pay the salaries of deputy sheriffs sworn in to preserve order and protect property in time of strike. Now it is announced that the United Mine Workers will petitiou the State Legislature to wipe that law off the books; and such a step should do much to ease the tension in future strikes. Law officers who are paid by one of the two parties to a dispute can not be impartial. The mere fact that they are paid by the company inevitably exacerbates bitterness and creates hatred. Pennsylvania would be well advised to repeal the law and make all peace officers what they are supposed to be —non-partisan servants of the state, free of all obligations to either party in any industrial struggle. Professor Einstein admits tha\ after all. there may be no end to the universe or to theories about the universe. In Russia more than 100 were shot for plotting against the Soviet: in Bulgaria 500 were jailed for plotting a Soviet state. But in Russia. that ends it. People from all over the world are traveling back to the Saar to vote. Politicians in America are amazed. - Thirty-six thousand were killed in automobile accidents during 1934. So, you see, there are some of us who sull get away alive.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

John Bunyan: Mechanick Preacher, by William York Tindall (Columbia University Press, 1934. $4). Christianity and Social Process, by Shailer Mathews (Harper. 1934, 32). The Rise and Destiny of the German Jew, by Jacob R. Marcus (The Union of Hebrew Congregations, 1934, $2). THE holiday season has revived discussion of the place of Christianity in social processes and suggested the relationship between Christian* and Jew. These books make an important contribution to several phases of such issues. John Bunyan is popularly known chiefly for his pious fantasy, Pilgrim's Progress, but as Professor Tindall makes clear he was a mouthpiece for the political and economic discontent of the oppressed artisan classes in seventeenth century England. In words which are not irrevelant for our own day, Professor Tindall portrays the social background of Bunyan s age; “To the bewilderment of the comfortably fed, the obscure and the hungry appeared to be discontented with their portion. Burdened by what they presumed to call economic injustice, saddened by social inequality, and animated by the fervor of heaven, the vulgar relieved their passions in occasional riots which were carefully suppressed, but chiefly in those conventional sighs which their leaders and agitators, the lay preachers, formulated and vented for the satisfaction of the inarticulate. Their own position had prejudiced these preachers against rank and learning, and as leaders of the people they made the troubles of the oppressed their own.” a a a BUT, as has usually the case, the preaching of Bunyan and his associates against oppression had little practical effect in relieving the lot of the poor. As Professor Tindall observes; “The f;ars of the rich were idle; the energies of the oppressed dissipated into ineffectual mutterings against the rich and the mighty, and the propaganda of the preachers is of significance today not as the incentive to an historic insurrection, but as the monument over their hopes.” Dean Shaiier Mathews of the University of Chicago has long been known as a leader of relgious enlightenment, devout modernism and the social applications of Christianity. In this book he brings together a very interesting and cogent summary of his views on the social, economic and political applications of Christianity to our contemporary problems. He holds that Christianity faces today a situation comparable to that which confronted it at the close of the Middle Ages. Then the feudal and manorial system was breaking down and insecurity faced the mass of mankind. So Protestantism, and especially Calvinism, sought security by throwing its weight to support of the rising capitalism of that age. Today, capitalism is disintegrating and progressive Christians are facing the alternative of imposing social control on capitalism or else devising some other economic system which will bring them economic security. But any effort to create a social gospel to aid mankind is “bitterly opposed by ultraconservative groups within the Christian church.” a a a THE issue today is one of “moralizing” the machine age so as to give security and justice to the mass of mankind. If capitalism can not produce this security and justice we shall have to turn to some other mode of controlling our economic life, and Dean Mathews fails to discern much hope in imperialism, Fascism and war. One group to whom the Yuletide has brought no special joys are the German Jews, to which Professor Marcus devotes what is by far the best historical study which has appeared in the English language. He gives us a full history of the achievements of modern German Jews in culture, economics and politics, exposing incidentally with great effect the myth of the Jewish dominance in German economic and financial life. Professor Marcus clearly reveals that the Hitler persecution, like all other persecutions of the Jews, is defeating its purpose, namely, of suppressing Judaism. Germany Judaism was well on its way to satisfactory adjustment to German culture and politics. What Hitler has done has been to stimulate Jewish racial and national sclf-consciousncss to the highest pitch it has ever reached in Germany, it has also created intense pro-Semitic feeling outside Germany. T he Germans have been famous for their study of history, but apparently the National Socialists m Germany are devoid of competent historical advice in relation to the Jewish problem as well as in most of their other policies.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL—______

SOME Washington officials are shaking hands and congratulating each other on the excellent taste shown by Pedro Guevara, Commissioner of the Philippines, in the selection of a Christmas gift for his wife. Pedro decided he must buy something especially nice for Sirs. Guevara. So he walked into a downtown department store and began looking. “Whs ‘j about a miniature bar, sir?” suggested a salesman. Pedro was impressed. “You see, there is an English fox hunting scene painted upon it, and a brass rail,” pursued the salesman. Pedro was doubly impressed. “The glasses and bottles are kept htr’- j," explained the salesman, opening a special partition. Pedro was triply impressed. “And (his bar will fit anywhere,” added the salesman Pedrc bought the bar. Sincf. Mrs. Guevara is in Manila, Pedro has temporarily had the portable bar installed in his home here. There will be a slight delay (possibly a year) before it is shipped on to the Philippines. a a a r T'HERE will be a few Republicans in Congress J- this session. One of the stanchest is Samuel King, delegate from Haw r aii, an Annapolis graduate and real estate dealer, who has just arrived in the capital. Delegate King, neatly dressed, small in stature, with thin Titian red hair and a prominent nose, reached town with definite ideas about what he wants to do. “The Sugar Act must be amended,” he announced, and Hawaii must be put on the same basis as the Continental United States.” Intensely insular, Delegate King is proud of the fact that he has a trace of Hawaiian blood in his veins, that he was sent to the Naval Academy at Annapolis as a “courtesy student” while the Hawaiian Islands were under the old monarchy. Meantime, former Delegate Lincoln McCandless, known as the “Moses of Hawaii” (he made a fortune out of digging artesian wells), is contesting King’s election. Poor McCandless spent thousands of dollars supporting the Democratic party, was snowed under when the islands went sweepingly Republican. It is expected that Delegate King will be enabled to take his seat when Congress opens next week. Note.—Last delegate whose election was contested was from Alaska. The furor continued for tw’o days and was settled by the seating of the delegate. a a a PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT recently held one of the shortest press conferences on record. As newspapermen filed in to be received by the Chief Executive, he smilingly announced that there was no news. A question about relief work brought the same answer, and correspondents filed out again, no wiser than when they ! arrived . . . except to realize that the President j was busily working on his message to Congress. Certain parts of China have paid their taxes as far as 40 years ahead. Now, how can the Chinese expect future generations to remember them?

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T\/Ti2kOOO I* 7 wholly disa w rove °f what y° u sai J and will l X HU I 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 a a MARTINSVILLE HEALTH BOARD SHOULD ACT Bv a Martinsville Subscriber. Some of the people down here would like to know if Martinsville has a health board. If so, it is about time the board was forcing hogs and cows out of town. The people in the southern part of the town have about enough of hearing hogs and cows from dark until dawn. It is a nuisance and these sheds and hog pens are just the place for flies to breed. There is no hog pen that doesn’t have an odor. Any one who has ever seen a hog pen knows you can't keep it clean. a a a DANIELS SHOULD REPLY TO COUGHLIN CHARGES By John Kennedy. On Sunday, Dec. 26, Father Coughlin openly accused Ambassador Daniels of supporting, through speech, the Mexican educational system which, according to Father Coughlin, is not only indecent and inhuman, but un-American and unChristian. He also accused Mr. Daniels of ordering out the Navy, when he was secretary of that unit, for the sole purpose of closing the only port that the then Christian president of Mexico had for importing arms, that would have saved Mexico from the present prostituted government. Now Father Coughlin has millions of admirers who believe in all he says, and above all, in the veracity of his statements, and it is my idea that Mr. Daniels owes a statement to these people. For if he is guilty of these charges, he is not fit to represent us or any other civilized government. He must admit or deny these charges. a a a SYSTEM OF GREED, INJUSTICE IS SCORED By Elmer J. Martin. So indignant was I when I read Tom Berling’s letter, I decided to write you to learn what consideration The Times would give to a letter written by a man, who is above prostituting his intelligence and education. I noticed the prominence which you gave Mr. Berling’s letter which praised Mr. Roosevelt and gave more power to the profiteering Legrees of our day. Expressing the most baleful curse of slavery, this loyal Sambo defended the rich and condemned the greed of the workers. In referring to the greed of the poor, if he wishes to write truth which is constructive and profitable to study, why did he not look within his own heart and then reveal this fact; When a pauper or worker votes a rich man’s ticket, either Republican or Democrat, he tacitly says: Mr. Grafter, I would like to be just as big a thief as you are, if I were bright enough to oppress my fellow-workers and get by with it. Hoping that the day soon will cctae when. I. too, can stick a knife into my brother, I will vote with you and preserve our system of greed and injustice. a a a LINDBERGH SERIES IN THE TIMES LAUDED By Willis Howard. Mr. Times Reader, if you read the last of the Lindbergh series with a I sigh, you are a foolish person. No | one has ever asked you to read all that appears in a newspaper. An editor tries to satisfy the interests !of thousands of readers. For this reason he must include stories for | the pleasure readers as well as the thinkers. 1 No. the fade-out of John Smith’s

WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO THEM?

By L. Ert Slack. You have my sincere thanks for sending me the Jacket Library book, “Other People’s Money,” by Justice Brandeis, written twenty years ago. I enjoyed reading it even though much of it is facts and information I had uead before. It appears that Justice Brandeis, Woodrow Wilson. William Jennings Bryan and some others seem to have unfolded 20 years ago certain facts and conditions that should nave more deeply impressed the people of this country. At least, during the last four years every one, rich or poor, high or low, has suffered from conditions that were bound to result from things going on back some years before this depression hit the country. Perhaps hereafter, the people of this country will pay more attention to what is going on. Honest and fearless publicity will help future generations to learn what is really going on and what to do about it without delay. Justice Brandeis’ articles with respect to stock inflation in this Nation from 1900 to 1912 and beginning again in 1920 and continuing to i930, proves it damaged this country more than any money inflation produced by action of the Government. The power of three banks in New Ycrk with the system of interlocking directorates disclosed in child would not have been carried across the country in headlines. Freedom from publicity is; one of the advantages of being a John Smith. I sometimes wonder whether Lindbergh would not rather be an unknown flier than a national hero. When it comes to the actual Lindbergh murder, it is not a question of being rich or poor, capitalist or Socialist. It is a question of a human being suffering a terrible wrong by a fellow human. a a a THREE READERS EXPRESS PENSION PLAN VIEW’S By G. T. R. I am a regular subscriber of The Times. In the Jan. 1 issue, I read a Message Center letter written by a person named Cook. This letter was in regard to the S2OO a month for old age pension. Mr. Cook said he wasn’t a hog but he thought that less than $1 a day was plenty for them. I am not entitled to a pension and would not be for many years, but I will bet if this Cook were offered S2OO a month, he would grab it like a hog would an ear of corn. c a a By a Times Reader. I'm for the Townsend plan and work for it, though I see a weak point in it. That is the proposed 2 per cent transactions tax. Two per cent taken from what is spent and given to the elders to spend puts no extra money in circulation. It is merely spent by different people. Even eo, it would be an excellent thing because every payer of the 2 per cent would know he was paying for his own security after 60. In my own community, the N. W. Townsend Club is headed by two older men, who have railroaders’ pensions. At the Riverside Club, the most interested member is drawing a postal service pension. Old workers are standing together. State old-age pensions are meant to be substitutes for poor houses. The Townsend plan has nothing

Brandeis Book Praised

his articles merely produced an inflated condition of business. There can be no valid defense to the organization of large businesses where the bond and stock issues were inflated for the purpose of passing out a distribution of bonus stock to promoters and which, of course, had to suffer a loss sooner or later. \ The crashing of the stock market in the latter period of President Hoover’s Administration was inevitable. It discloses that private business went wild because it was led to believe everything going on was sound and the politicians at that time constantly announced that prosperity was permanent. It now iooks as though President Roosevelt, who had knowledge of what was going on back there, is not going to overlook his opportunity to remedy and reform finance, business and social conditions generally. The depression forces this action on the part of those in the control of government and, of course, this remedy and reform must- have the cooperation of finance and business as well as labor. Justice Brandeis’ article is a great lesson, and The Indianapolis Times is to be commended for sending out this booklet as well as for its general attitude with respect to the operation of the socalled New Deal, which is evidently progressing permanently in this country. in common with pauper’s relief schemes. The Townsend plan says, “Everyone over 60 shall have a suitable pension, same as the old railroad, postal, regular Army and industrial pensioners, who do not have to be paupers to receive pensions.” Most people have worked, but their employers have shirked the responsibility of pasturing their old horses. Enormous fortunes pass to relatives, leaving the old worker who has created the wealth, to dissipate his small savings, sell his home, if any, and then appeal to charity. I’m for the Townsend plan. I think it could be fettered by getting the money through a confiscatory tax on large inheritances, a stock transfer tax and a stinging tax on hoarded wealth, not savings. Bring out wealth not now in circulation and a revolving pension plan can be created. a a a By Georca A. Mays. Another narrow-minded critic objects to old-age pension law. I've been a reader of The Times for several years and this is my first fetter to the Message Center and I hope it will be printed. I am almost 68 years old. Therefore, if they pass the old-age pension law’ I will be eligible for a pension, but may God have mercy on a mam who is so narrow-minded and puffed up with selfishness and greed that he puts such men as myself in the animal class. Now, Mr. Cook, you say all you like about being hogs. I’ve helped rear a large family and I did my part during the World War, but through no fault of my

Daily Thought

Seeing then that these things can not be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. —The Acts, 19:36. RASHNESS is the characteristic of ardent youth, and prudence that of mellowed age,—Cicero.

own I have not been able to save for old age and if this letter weren't limited to 200 words I could and would say a great deal more, a a a RELIEF WORKERS’ UNION IS UNDER FIRE By Annnymnus. Relief workers will do well to pause before joining the Relief Workers’ Union. I consider it an organization hostile to the purposes of President Roosevelt, who has remembered the "Forgotten Man.” He is censured in speeches tainted by communism. This organization is bitter in its criticism of Dr. Keyes and his associates in their conduct of the flop houses. Os course these places are no first-class hotels, but Dr. Keyes is doing the best he can under the circumstances. a a a DEMANDS PROBE OF FERA ACTIVITIES fey an FERA Worker. I understand that the Government Is supplying the boys on FERA with work clothes. Do you think it is right for the state to make the boys work on their days off for their clothes? Why not give them more money, so that they may buy them? I think the national Government should investigate this.

So They Say

In the past I’ve been pretty good at talking to tigers, but not so good with elephants.—Alfred E. Smith, dedicating new New York Zoo. All I got out of the v ar was experience.—Vincent Astor, listed by Senate Munitions Committee as million dollar income receiver during war. America will demand something more than mere window dressing before she will again give her aid to the Republican party.—United States Senator Gerald P. Nye. It is not in the spirit of partisans, but partners, that America has progressed—S. Clay Williams, chairman of NIRB. God was good to me every day— John D. Rockefeller Sr. A middle-aged man can drive a tank as well as anybody. . . It would not be a bad thing if men were called to the colors at the age of 40, not before.”—Dr. Herbert Levinstein, president. British Institute of Chemical Engineers. The inefficiency of state prosecutors is responsible for many criminals being at large today.—E. W. Puttkammer, national secretary of the Association of American Law Schools.

IMAGES

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLLVICK This pool Is a witch, Laying a snare for the moon, Proud and silver above her. This pool Is a dark flower, With petals opened wide. This pool Ls a sorceress With trees drowned at her brink. This pool Is a black pearl Which I pluck for your throat.