Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 213, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 January 1935 — Page 12

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TUESDAY. JANUARY 15. 1935. LIBERTY IN INDIANA SEVERAL years ago. the Ku-Klux Klan rode Indiana. In the columns of his anti-klan weekly, George Dale, crusading publisher, criticised the official acts of a circuit judge. The judge cited Dale for contempt. The case was carried to the Indiana Supreme Court, which affirmed Dale's conviction, saying: ‘ The truth is no defense.” Indiana shook off the klan. It changed its laws, giving to a defendant in a contempt case the right to be tried by some judge other than the one aggrieved. A few days ago, another contempt case was decided by thus same Indiana Supreme Court —the same court but anew set of judges. Don Nixon, a publisher since deceased, had been found guilty bv an impartial court, of contempt for criticising a judge's appointment of a receiver. Although holding that, in the appointment of the receiver, the judge had done “nothing that was not fair or proper,” Indiana's high court reversed the conviction, saying: “The right to fully criticise actions, opinions and Judgments of courts is of primary importance to the public generally. "It is not only good for the public but has a salutary effect on the courts and judges as well. Courts and judges are not and should not be above criticism." Indiana has rejoined our union of free states. THE SAAR’S FUTURE gets back the Saar, as expected. That may aid the peace of Europe, as expected. But it may not. It depends chiefly on Hitler. Already there are ominous signs that return of the Saar is stimulating the two worst ' features of Naziism. One is the mania to grab Austria. The other is terrorism against labor organizations, against Jews, and against Catholic and Protestant leaders. Doubtless Hitler has learned enough by this time to know that excesses of this kind in the past caused the other nations to join in a virtual protective alliance against Nazi Germany. It has driven even the suspicious France and Italy together. Any revival of Nazi plots in Austria and neighboring countries, or of terrorism in the Saar, will complete the moral, political, and miltary isolation of Germany. Even if Hitler acts in good faith and restrains his terrorists at home and his plotmongers abroad, he will have his hands full with economic problems created by the return of the Saar. Economically, the Saar is part of France. Germany proper can not now absorb her own products and has been unable to hold foreign trade. Now she will have the added burden of finding a market for Saar coal and other products. This means more severe internal stress in Germany with the Saar in cutthroat competition with the Ruhr. At best, this involves lower living standards for the Saarlanders. If they also suffer loss of civil liberties under Nazi dictatorship, the reaction may be unhealthy for Hitler. For the Saar has voted itself back into Germany not because of Hitler but despite him. So the patriotic Germans of the lost province may, in returning to the Fatherland, bring with them the leaven of a free Germany of the future. WASTED WEALTH THE report of the Minerals Planning Committee to the National Resources Board, is a document of 50 pages. “It is probable.” the committee says, “that during the time it takes the ordinary person to read over this report enough fuel will have been wasted in our gas and oil fields and coal mines to keep at least 10,000 relief families warm during the coming winter.” If you think the conservationists have been crying “wolf.” listen to this committee's words — At the 1933 rate of consumption our proved oil reserves will last 15 years. “A shortage during the coming 15 years’ period can be prevented only by discovery’ of new fields.” Already the coal industry has reached the stage of increasing costs. "In many of the high grade seams depletion is far advanced." Stabilization is needed to minimize waste and protect wage standards? P.oduction of key minerals shows signs of migrating to newer countries. Today 63 per cei.t of our minerals hide behind tariff walls. "The handicaps of thinner beds, leaner ores and growing depth are beginning to be felt.” Present over-development of some minerals tends to obscure the stark fact that “our mineral supplies are too limited to excuse the wasteful exploitation that now prevails." What to do? Broadly speaking, the committee urges the United States to eliminate waste and improve mining technology. Production control through NRA codes should be continued: for some minerals, coal particularly, minimum and maxium prices may be needed; tax, tariff and public lands policies should be re-examined; the states should use their police powers to stop waste. Obviously if minerals are to remain in private hands there must be greater public controL ANOTHER YEAR OF ODDITIES A* S though to check the faintest hope for a really "new” type of year, the very first week of 1935 brought a suicide at Niagara Falls, and so another twelvemonth of inconsistencies and contradictions begins. Thus. Fifth Avenue shoppers in New York get their annual laugh at Tony Sclafani, who appears again in a bathing suit while the * C

thermometer slinks down to around 20 degrees above zero; and in Milwaukee a music critic insists that, except for only half a dozen of the greatest compositions, music • generally leaves us as wicked as the day we were born—“and that's pre'ty wicked.” In Guayaquil, Ecuador, a father gave his son 300 lashes on his bare back for stealing 80 cents, after which the boy died; while In Los Angeles a 17-year-old boy proved that he was "boss” of the household by shooting his 20-year-old brother. A 90-year-old resident of Long Island, N. Y„ proposes construction of a tunnel under Long Island Sound to furnish a way for the escape of the island's inhabitants in case of invasion by a foreign power, while the American baseball players who have just returned from Japan can’t get over the enthusiastic reception they got there. A doctor, out all hours of the night, gets a ticket for parking his car on his own lawn overnight in Washington, while the same city’s police are still looking for the burglars who stripped the Washington monument of its 107 gold-plated, platinum-tipped lightning rod points. In Chicago, a restaurant* owner, three patrons, and half a dozen lawyers are wrangling over the ownership of a SI9OO pearl found in an oyster served to one of the customers, and in Mexico City and Warsaw, Poland, workers threaten mass suicide unless their demands for more pay and better working conditions are granted. A child specialist in Madison, Wis., tells us that cheese and beer are exceedingly beneficial in nervous cases of both children and adults; and in Martinsville, Va., a 10-year-old child threw away a piece of candy and nibbled at a miniature bomb, resulting in the child's death. The great Abbe Moreaux of the Bourges Observatory informs us that the brightest rays of sun on earth correspond to the heat of 103,000 candlepower from a distance of only three and a quarter feet, while a woman in White Plains, N. Y., testifies that for the last six months she has been sleeping in kennels with her 13 English sheep dogs, to keep them quiet. And so, you see, the new year goes on just as dizzily and as unconventionally as any of Its predecessors. WHAT REALLY COUNTS HENRY FORD is one of those men whom you’re pretty apt to feel strongly about. Either you are one of the many who feel he is a great industrialist and a great man, or you are one of those who feel he Is a man whom N fortune has advanced beyond his actual talents and deserts. Lots of people didn’t like Ford's defiance of the NRA, didn't like his attitude that his plant must be an exception. And some liked him all the better for that. In the same way, opinion divides on his attitude toward organized labor. But neither partisans nor enemies can quite laugh this off: That today in his River Rouge works there are 70,000 men at work, more than at any other time since 1929. Addition of 10,000 more men since his new models were announced has stepped up his production to a 3000-a-day pace, and he may soon achieve 5000. If more employers could show a similar employment record, there would be a less precarious situation confronting us today. FIGHTING IN THE OPEN r T'HE well-balanced budget, ample salaries and comfortably filled coffers of the American Liberty League indicate that fighting for freedom nowadays comes easier than it did, for example, at Valley Forge. The league has just filed a report with Congress showing 1934 receipts of $104,000 and expenditures of $95,000. The league should be commended for filing this report. Our laws, unfortunately, do not make such reports compulsory. But the league chose to lay its cards on the table, saying “the public is entitled to a full and frank disclosure of the business affairs of any organization which appeals to the public for support and co-operation.” In view of the furtiveness of many lobbying and propaganda bodies, this attitude is refreshing. We may not approve the platform of the American Liberty League, but are glad it proposes to fight its battles in the open. RELIEF FROM RELIEF TN a little story from London, light is thrown on just what the relief problem means—and what patience is going to be required to work it out. In London, one Frederick Head, unemployed father of five children, was sentenced to one month at hard labor for refusing to learn a trade in the government training classes. The new British regulations provide that a relief beneficiary must show that he has made an honest effort to get work. But the interesting part of it is that Head had been drawing about $8.50 a week in relief ever since 1923. For 12 years, the public had paid this man in cash because it had been unable to give him a chance to work. And after 12 years of that, Head refused to go to the trade school because he said it was “a waste of time.” It is to avoid this sort of thing that an effort is now being made to substitute work for handouts in this country. In his estimate of the number of people still unemployed, did President Roosevelt include General Johnson? The Republican party has outlined a 20pomt program for recovery, the main point being the recovery of the Republican party. Huey Long announces he'll broadcast anew cure for cancer. So many cancer cures have proved false that we'd believe in this one if it cured Huey. Never mind the weather baseball teams are getting ready for spnng training. Tc show how backward the South American countries are, it has taken aU these years for Brazil to discover that debt payments to the United States needn't be made. Evcu as in bridge, you can expect the real argument to come after the New Dt?al has been played out. More than 2200 bills were ready for Congress before it convened. Forecasting the coming ot the big wind. v

Liberal Viewpoint 1 BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE executions in Russia as retaliation for the murder of Kiroff and as protection against further plots against the Soviet government have furnished the occasion for another of the periodic outbursts of criticism of Russia in the conservative press of our country. Russia has been portrayed as bathed in blood by a brutal bureaucracy because, to take the figures of the enemy press, some 117 persons have been put to death as the penalty for a plot which threatened the integrity of the Russian social and political system. Now, as a civilized person, I naturally prefer a social system where nobody is put to death for political crimes and I regret the execution, however necessary, of a single person in Russia or elsewhere. But only sheer ignorance, deliberate malice, or both, could dictate any special criticism of the recent Russian severity, in the light of the policies universally followed by states for milleniums when their integrity has been placed in jeopardy. Take the French Revolution, for example. The situation of Russia —an island of communism in vast oceans of capitalism—is highly comparable to the situation of France during the Reign of Terror —an oasis of revolution in a desert of reaction. What happened in civilized France, the pride of European culture in that era? Professor Leo Gershoy describes the situation in authoritative fashion: “Summary punishment [death] without even the semblance of a trial brought the figures to the high total of 20,000 for all of France. Aside from all exaggerated accounts, the butcheries, as they actually were, were horrible enough. nun IN Lyons, Fouche and Collot commandeered a detachment of the revolutionary army and embarked upon a senseless and odious butchery of the populace that nothing can justify, that shocked every principle of justice and humanity. ... In the Vendee, the worst of human passions were aroused and military columns systematically ravaged the country, making it a veritable desert. At Nantes occurred frightful massacres whose ferocious cruelty surpassed even the horrors at Lyons. Yet the situation in Nantes was scarcely worse than elsewhere in the Vendee, where the record of man’s inhumanity to man is unparalleled.” Turning to the history of pre-Soviet Russia the record of the Tsars is one of almost unrelieved barbarism in the cruel and summary way in which they met any uprisings. Take, for instance, P* ter the Great’s retaliation when the •‘Streltsky’’ or royal bodyguard rebelled in 1698. Says Professor Bain: “From the middle of September to the middle of October, 1698, banquets and orgies alternated with torturings and executions, in which the Tsar and his favorites played the parts of inquisitors and headsmen. During these few weeks no less than a thoust nd of the captive ‘Strelsky’ were done to death with every refinement of cruelty.” Or, as Prjfessor Pares describes it * “There w’as a series of terrible executions, sometimes of hundreds in one day, in which Peter struck down (beheaded) the first five of the condemned rebels, and compelled his principal lieutenants each to kill a given number. The executions were preceded by prolonged torture.” tt tt IF some complain that it. is unfair to go back to the end of the seventeenth century for comparisons, let us turn to the twentieth. On Sunday, Jan. 9. 1905—“ Bloody Sunday”— a delegation of workers, known by the Tsar and his generals to be unarmed and peacefully inclined, came to the winter palace to present a petition of grievances to the Tsar. The authorities knew of the proposed assembly and made deliberate plans for the massacre in advance. The marchers were lured into the palace square under every impression of safety. Then, suddenly and without warning, “the bugle sounded, and the troops opened fire. The killed and wounded fell in hundreds. The human crowd was so dense that the fire could not miss its mark.” Such was the temper and policy of the Tsarist regime which the American conservative papers now defend either directly or by implication. Nor should we forget the wholesale massacres in Rumania, Yugoslavia and Venezuela since the World War, as well as the murders and cruel imprisonment of his critics by Mussolini —who has had the incredible effrontery just now to criticise the Russian executions as acts of barbarism. The Russian executions may be regrettable, but neither the White Russians nor our modern governments are in any moral position to cast the first sone in their criticism.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL

THE Belgian embassy here is all agog and waiting for the arrival of its new ambassador, the distinguished Count Robert Van Der Straten-Ponthoz, who was due to reach Washington today. From top to bottom, the embassy has been polished. Carpets have been swept. The liveries of footmen glisten with new gold braid. Dust has been swept from the corners of the ballroom. There is fresh Roquefort and Camembert cheese in the electric ice box. (The former ambassador, Baron de Cartier de Marchienne, loved Roquefort.) . Meantime, the staff of the embassy is hoping for a little gayety, a little relaxation. Never have the Belgians had a sadder, drabber social season than the past few months. Not a single brilliant party has been given by them for a long time. . Black ties have been worn by the Belgians —but not the black ties that go with dinner jackets. The death of the universally beloved King Albert caused the Belgian tri-color to fly at half-mast and a period of mourning. All social engagements were canceled. Then, popular Ambassador Paul May of Belgium died and was replaced by Prince de Ligne as charge d’affaires. About the only social diversion of Prince de Ligne is to shoot clay pigeons. Belgian diplomats are hoping for better times. a u a ONE foreign envoy here quoted the beginning of the famous poem about Waterloo: “There was a sound of revelry by night And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry and bright The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men”— “I hope,” he added, “that the poem will not end with the firing of social cannon.” NOTE—Belgians have every reason to suppose that Envoy Van Der Straten-Ponthoz will be a social and diplomatic addition. He had a brilliant career in Buenos Aires and Copenhagen, entertained extensively and did notable work. Accompanying his Belgian excellency are Countess Van Der Straten-Ponthoz and their 14-year-old daughter, Marie-Henriette. Baron Beyens, secretary of the Belgian Embassy, is also a member of the party. n tt n MME. VAN HAERSMA DE WITH, wife of the Minister of the Netherlands and one of the loveliest women in the diplomatic corps, the other afternoon entertained at a reception for her debutante daughter Nora. Many diplomats and members of Congress attended, admired Mme. van Haersma de With’s poise, corsage of gardenias, and her patience . . . standing in a receiving line for hours. Mile, van Haersma de With, dressed in turquoise blue, found the huge bouquet of roses too heavy, ran to the hall and replaced them with a smaller bouquet. Minister Prochnik of Austria loved the chocolate eclairs. Most fascinating hat at the reception was worn by Mrs. Katherine Whitten. It had birds-of-paradise plumes. Congress seems to be sure of defeating the bonus proposal, but—well—it's willing to compromise on half. This year the Government begins to make income tax returns open to the public, so see that your neighbor gets an eyeful, anyway.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can hare a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) tt tt tt LOCAL OPTION KEY FOR RETURN OF BOOTLEGGERS By Eloway. L. E. York has been touring the state extolling the “virtues” of local option. Unless he is a fine appearing man with a winning personality, I can’t feel he has made any impression. “Local option” seems to be the last straw the Anti-Saloon League can grasp. The league must fight £or something and their aim is prohibition, so “local option” is their battleground—either that or fold up. It doesn’t take any great thinker to compare “local option” to a good case of eczema. One township or county overtaxed and in constant uproar fighting a useless battle to maintain prohibition. Does Mr. York believe where the Government failed a county might succeed? A county has never had to pay prohibition bills, either. He doesn’t touch on this subject of expense and needed taxes “for virtue’s sake.” One good way to make a city bereft of homes would be local option. People might continue to w’ork there and spend their money there; but, “just outside the limit is a nice little town —and I can drive to work. We’ll save on taxes and have congenial surroundings” will be ,the result. One county “dry” and isolated among “wet” counties. Tourists wouldn’t dare stop or even pass through. Deterioration would result from population leaving and none coming in. Bootleggers would again foster county crime and corrupt officials. Don’t think the criminal doesn't agree with you, Mr. York! You would bring back the good old days to them. tt tt THRIFTY “ERRORS” WOULD DIE UNDER TOWNSEND By Dewey Stierwalt. The Townsend pension plan will not be employed to solve our economic ills. We who see the light and know that it would be worthwhile are only fools for even hoping. The reason is twofold. The first is ethical. It would cause that Satanic instinct called greed to die of starvation, for it would do away with the teaching of that age-old rule that one must slave and save in order that they do not starve when they are old. No more would the word spendthrift be dishonorable. No more would we be compelled. to slave and save during the enjoyable part of our lives in order that we might enjoy a few years of ease at a time when life is at its best a burden. Under the plan, one could devote part of his time to mental development and the preservation of his health rather than its destruction. I venture to say that many minds scientifically bent have been checked or wholly stopped because he had to work and save for his old age. Had that spectre of old age not haunted him, he might have lightened the burdens*on a thousand backs. The world has been denied many a poem or beautiful canvas because the rules say, "Work and save.” No, I'm not saying one should not work. Mankind should dig potatoes. but not all the time. While he digs, he should not be handicapped by a worry of the future when he’s old, tired and unproductive. The teaching of thrift is paganistic. It perhaps necessary;

SHIFT THE KEYS

Production and Profit

By L. D. S. “A Reader” of Jan. 9, in his closing paragraph, challenges any one to show how profit under the capitalist system can be added to production cost without creating unbalance between purchasing power and production. It seems simple. Limit profit to a point where it can be practically all consumed by its recipient as living costs. Not necessarily living costs as you and I have grown to understand them, but still distributed. Hiring the washing done; paying for shoe shines; having the scissors sharpened; paying railroad fares; hiring a chauffeur and gardener; hiring medical and dental services. tt .it a By F. M. Since the national pastime is how to find the cure of the depression, we must find the cause before we can attempt a cure. There is one very bad symptom which the economic doctors have overlooked. The spread between the production costs and the distributing costs of our national products. My contention is that the two, production and distribution, must balance closely. If distribution costs run riot, as at the present time, we have havoc. If overhead was balanced with

when in ancient times man was forced to live individually. But why now that we are in a position to live collectively, do we cling to such a water-soaked spar? Do not quote me, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard.” You have always been taught a misinterpretation of that expression made by a very wise man. If you will really go to the ants and study them, you will learn his true meaning. The ants are very highly developed along social lines. Their ways are truly wise. The sluggard was living individually. He was not co-operating with his fellow-men and was admonished to go and study the little insects who have gone mankind one better and developed true co-operation. No, the author of the thrift theory will not let his most effective weapon be destroyed by the Townsend plan. Greed is but thrift having grown up. The instinct to strive for an accumulation of worldly goods, which is greed, can not be associated with the teachings of Christ. The second reason, is, of course, economic. The present scheme demands that there be an over-supply of labor. Our rulers, the over-privi-leged, keep the masses in subjugation by fostering insecurity, deliberately planning it. Why, don’t you see that with the supply of labor and demand for it more nearly balanced, the worker would be in a position to bargain. Then he would not have to say, “Please give me a job. I'll work for anything for my children are hungry.” Conditions have gotten a little out of control at present, however. There is a trace of fear in the hearts of the greedy ones, a fear that the masses will ask, “Why?” a a a VISIT DISABLED SOLDIERS IN MARION, IS PLEA By Anne Knowtton. I have just returned from the United States Veterans Hospital at Marion, where we gave a party to the disabled men. More than a

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

These “service charges” are the safety valve of the capitalist system. They distribute purchasing power for which there is no equivalent in commodity production. The real evil in the profit system lies in the excess above consumption expenditure which is used for too-rapid investment in overproduction. Given a regulated condition of higher wages and less-rapid investment in new production facilities, there is still a good ride to be had from the old capitalist buggy. The trick is: How to get the regulation? How to regulate the rate of saving for reinvestment? tt tt tt production, 47,200,000 workers, including 19,000,000 production workers, not including farmers, earning $25,600,000,000 yearly, or SISOO each; 10,600,000 farmers would be earning $16,200,000,000 yearly, or SISOO each. The total production group would receive one-half of the national income and would have included two-thirds of the working population, and each producer would have taken in on an average of SI4OO each. At the present time, it costs on the average of $2.70 to get a dollar product to the consumer. Think it over.

thousand human wrecks, wards of a government that is doing all that is possible for them, are there. These few lines are for you boys that were lucky enough to come back from France with a body that was whole. Yell for your bonus, yes, but boys go to Marion. Take your wives, sisters and mothers. Give these men a handshake and a smile, because a bonus won’t do them any good, then come back and you will really feel lucky, whether you get your bonus or not. And to you boys who think the veteran is getting too much, you will see that they don't get all that they deserve. a a tt SUGGESTS PENSION FOR CONGRESSMAN’S WIDOW By John Hurley. It is the consensus that Frederick Landis gave his life and drew heavily upon his earthly possessions to obtain his election to Congress from the Second District. Fred was loved and honored by the masses. His political opponents within his own party ranks were his worst enemies, defeating him when the Governorship was within his grasp. The same influence prevented Fred's widow from receiving the nomination for Representative from the Second District in the recent delegate convention. In a primary contest Mrs. Landis would have won. It is true that a Republican in the House of Representatives can be of little or no service to the people of the Second District, because of not being allied with the great ma-

Daily Thought

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the v’orld.—St. John xvi, 33. TROUBLES are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.—Henry Ward Beecher.

.JAN. 15, 1935

jorities that are promoting the executive program. But Mrs. LSndis, who was left behind without an adequate income, could have been present and drawn the pay check. The friends of the Frederick Landis family, and there are hosts, resent the action of the controlled convention that denied Mrs. Landis this privilege. Someone, who is working and is in accord with the majorities in Congress, should promote a bill to give Mrs. Frederick Landis a substantial sum, say a year's pay, out of regard and respect which the people of Indiana and the Nation had for the deceased beloved Frederick Landis.

So They Say

Only in time of war have we consented to deficit financing, and even then we have been uncomfortable about it.—Professor Fred R. Fairchild of Yale. Any man who dies rich dies dis-graced.-George J. Johnson, shoe manufacturer. I got married in a daze. I wouldn’t give 20 cents for her. She can’t even boil -water. Tommy Creen, truck driver, who married Pittsburgh heiress. Automobiles no longer are a luxury to our rural population; they are a necessity to the business of farming. Fred Brenckman, National Grange official. The NRA is not a law and should not be recognized as such.— Prof. James A. McLaughlin of Harvard. It looks jike a picked chicken.— Senator Norris, commenting on appearance of Republican side of Senate chamber. Like many of you, I have two sons. I would rather have them die tonight than take part in another war.—The Rev. Edmund B. Chaffee, director Labor Temple, New York City. We want the American people to know that we are going to pay our debt, along with Finland, the only other nation that has paid its war debts.—Sean O'Kelly, Irish Free State Vice President.

Magnetic Eyes

BY M. He has come, a man of princely grace So tall and dark, great strong muscled chest. Smiles that dazzle, set in winning face, f Quickly takes my heart without protest! With a voice gay ringing, soft and clear Expressing thoughts of beauty, cool and warm— Lips to speak caressing words and cheerStern command, I’d tremble at their scorn. Now, all else forgotten—left no strife. When his eyes look straight at me, deep cast — So bright, so clear, gay dancing life, As strong magnet would —they hold me last!