Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 220, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 January 1935 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times (A SCBirrS-HOWARD JfZWSPAPEB) HOT W. HOWARD Present TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Bnslneu Manager Phone Riley 5661

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WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 23. 1935. A TEST IN TEXTILES "TVELAY has been a major irritating factor in adjustment of labor disputes under the New Deal. Last spring a textile strike was threatened. Gen. Johnson prevented it by pledging four prompt NRA studies of textile labor conditions. Two of them have never been publicly released to this day. The delay caused a renewal of demands in July and August which resulted in the national strike on Sept. 1. After three weeks, the strike was settled under the formula of the Winant Textile Board providing that the Department of Labor and Federal Trade Commission should make necessary studies. Their factual reports have been submitted to the President. Under the Winant agreement, they are to be passed along to some board designated by the President for final determination of the justice of workers' demands for adjusted wages, shorter hours and elimination of the stretch-out. The workers, although generally reported as even more restless now than when the 'September strike occurred, have waited patiently for the studies to be completed. The task required more time than anticipated. Unless prompt action Is taken on the reports, another and larger national textile strike in the spring is predicted. Similar situations exist in other large industries. Government recognition of the importance of prompt adjudication proved by strikes attributable to old delays—will do more than anything else perhaps to determine whether the spring brings anew crop of strikes. BABY BONDS THE United States Treasury intends to give Mr. John Citizen a chance to become a creditor, as well as a tax debtor of his government. Its general refinancing program includes anew plan to offer to the public 10 and 20year bonds In denominations as low as $25. There will be no coupons to clip. The bonds will be sold on a discount basis. Mr. John Citizen, who probably hasn’t seen a government bond since the last Liberty Loan drive, can go into the nearest postoffice, and—if the interest rate is fixed at 2 , .i per cent as expected—pay S7B for a bond which he can cash 10 years later for SIOO. If, at any six months interval before maturity, he wants cash, he <fan sell his bond for S7B plus interest to date. Os course, those John Citizens who have plenty of money always have been able to buy government bonds through the banks. But to the millions whose savings are small, the baby bonds will be a safe and attractive investment. The plan should stimulate thrift, should help make the market for government securities even more steady than it is, should make more Americans feel that they have a real interest in their government and make them less inclined to fall for every blue-sky plan that comes along. Until it has been tried, no reliable forecast can be made of the extent to which the government's obligations can be withdrawn from the hands of the banks and insurance companies and placed in the hands of the people. Nor can there be any dependable estimate of how much of the government's indebtedness can by this method be converted from shortterm into long-term obligations. But the baby bonds surely will encourage such healthy trends.

“WAR AND PEACE” "PRESENTATION of a course on ‘"War and Peace” in any American university should, ordinarily, be a cause for congratulations, especially when word comes that the course, though not adding diploma credits, is enlisting many of that university's students. Word of such a course has come from De Pauw University, but this newspaper, eager to commend, finds itself in a quandary. What is one to think when, in a course presumably designed to promote a desire for peace—and no other presumption is possible—there appear listed as speakers representatives of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Cos., munitions manufacturers extraordinary? That representatives of this vast organization for manufacturing messengers of death could honestly desire peace was doubted by the American people even before the sensational disclosures of the fearless Senate committee headed by North Dakota's Gerald P. Nye. To bring such witnesses before a youthful and impressionable jury—can this be construed as kindness or, more important, as impartiality in a course on "War and Peace?” There is little else reassuring in yesterday's news story telling of the inauguration of the course. United States Army officers, trained for war. will be among the speakers. Frank N. Belgrano Jr., national commander of the American Legion, an organization of veterans, never pacific in attitude, is to be asked to be the first speaker. The only crumb of comfort to be found lies in the statement, almost as a postscript, that "a Methodist (Episcopal) bishop will be asked to present the church's view.” it is, perhaps, significant that the story says he will be asked to do this “later.” Are we training for war or peace? POSTAL POLITICS T7*EW congressional proposals “to take palltics out of the postal service” are worth considering. Futile, piece-meal measures, such as the suggestion that first, second and third-class postmasters be appointed in the same way that fourth-class postmasters are chosen, I would be of little or no benefit Although tilt matter must pass what are called competitive

classified Civil Service examinations and their Jobs are more Or less permanent, partisanship nevertheless influences the appointments. But there is real merit in the proposal of Senator Vandenberg of Michigan to establish a career service in the Postoffice Department, so that clerks, letter carriers and other subordinates may rise from the ranks to become postmasters and department executives. There also is much to be said for the proposal of Rep. McLeod of Michigan to appoint the Postmaster General for a 15-year term, and make him ineligible to succeed himself. This would help stop the demoralizing disruption of the postal service that occurs every t: ne an Administration change in Washington turns the department over to anew chief patronage dispenser. Making the Controller General a 15-year non-partisan appointee has eliminated politics in the General Accounting Office. In its last annual report, the National Civil Service Reform League said: “It has unfortunately become traditional in this country that the Postoffice Department, instead of being administered like the great business institution which it is, shall be actually used as a vast political machine. Postmaster General Farley has not departed from the tradition. “The examination system now conducted for these postmasters is a sham and a mere cloak for the spoils system. It is a disgrace to the Roosevelt Administration and a serious liability to the United States Civil Service Commission. Try as it will, the commission can never make such a system represent the merit principle.”

NOT JUST AN ACT TT7ILL ROGERS, the gentleman who made * ' himself a world-famed stage figure, who is one of the movies’ top-flight' players and who shines on the radio as a “comedian,” is hardly that. Mr. Rogers came to Indianapolis to stage a benefit performance in behalf of the Junior League’s drive for the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children. He visited the hospital, joked with the children, praised the wiiole setup. He was touched and every one knew it. After his performance here, Mr. Rogers refused to accept the check for expenses due him. No, he said, he didn’t think he ought to have it. Then he sat down and wrote a check as his own individual contribution to the Riley Hospital. Will Rogers is hardly'a comedian. Will Rogers is a true American—and a man.

INCONSISTENCIES A N English visitor not long ago made a three or four weeks’ trip across the United States, and the things he saw impressed him so deeply that he had to retire to his study at once and write a book. In this book, according to advance reports, he expresses his utter amazement at the contradictions he found in American life. Accustomed to the staid and orderly conditions of England, he was bewildered and a little appalled by what he saw over here. These things being so, his only possible recourse was to turn author and speak his mind about things. It is impossible not to feel a little sympathy for him, because if there ever was a country which it is impossible to understand at a glance it is this America of ours. 5 5ome of us, indeed, have lived in it all our lives and still don’t understand it It is, all in all, about as amazing a land of contrasts and contradictions as human beings ever made. It is a land which professionalizes college athletes and makes heroes out of prize fighters and baseball players; it is also a land which produces scientists like Millikan and Compton and casts a 200-inch telescope to look at stars that man never saw before. It is the land where the dollar is worshiped, but it is also the land which is willing to go seven or eight billion dollars in the hole in an effort to break its way out of a trade depression. It is the land of cheap movies, cheaper radio, and “society leaders” who indorse tooth paste for pay—and it is also the land that produces persons like Jane Addams and gives men like Leopold Stokowski free rein to create beauty. It puts a Huey Long in its Senate, and then counterbalances him with a George W. Norris. It is the land of the Lindbergh kidnaping, but it is also the land which produced Lindbergh himself. It is world-famous as a land of boasters, but for years it has paid good money to foreign authors and lecturers to tell it what is wrong with it. It is the hard-hearted land of lynchings, and it is the generous land which will send millions of dollars to Japanese earthquake victims. It maintains a gigantic Navy and spends millions on aircraft, but it is the only nation brave enough to expose the chicanery of munitions manufacturers. You could go on like that for an hour. How, indeed, is any foreigner to understand such a people? A compound of wisdom and foolishness, of braggadocio and humility, of strength and weakness —we can’t understand ourselves. We can only sense that we are a strange people of infinite possibilities, who are building a society unlike any other on earth . . . and our saving grace is the fact that we have the courage and the idealism to insist that it shall also be better than any other. The mayor of Marblehead, 0., has held that office for 31 years, and probably will keep on holdir ~ it until the town decides to grow up. Besides being premier, Mussolini holds seven of the 13 portfolios in the Italian cabinet, the six still being willing to say, “Yes.” Anew comet has been observed from south of the equator, so that can’t be any of our new streamlined trains. We’re in favor of Huey Long’s proposal to limit a person’s earnings to $1,000,000 a year. We can hardly wait for our first million. So the latest gold rush in Arizona turned out to he inflated as a New Deal dollar. Dr. Townsend inspires a change in that old song, “Everybody works at our house but my old man ” to “Everybody lives at our bruse but on my old man.”

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE discussion ove T the bonus brings clearly to the fore th? question of the larger implications of the American Legion as a force in American life. Indeed most thoughtful opponents of the bonus are more fearful of its political implications than its economic dangers. The money which is to be paid might actually make a valuable contribution to the restoration of purchasing power and prosperity. The danger lies in ‘the encouragement it might give to tuture drives of the Legion upon the government in support of measures which would be more exceptionable than the bonus. The record of the G. A. R. as a force for political intimidation and reactionism comes to the mind of all historical students of the bonus issue. The whole evolution of the American Legion policy is handled in admirable fashion by Walter Wilson ir. an article on “Labor Fights the American Legion” m ihe American Mercury. Mr. Wilson points out clearly that the Legion was really formed in the beginning not to promote the actual interests of the soldiers, but rather to suppress the discontent which was arising within the expeditionary force as a result of the autocratic features of the army system in France and contact with radical soldiers and movements abroad, 8 u t THE value of the Legion as a bulwark against radicalism in this country, once the soldiers had returned, was quickly recognized. As Mr. Wilson puts it: “It may fairly that Wall Street took over the job of wet nurse to the Legion and that it has not neglected the growing child. “Large sums of money were raised from the wealthy to promote the organization and publicity of the Legion and it formed friendly relations with the National Civic Federation and other patrioteering and red-baiting organiza;ions.” The whole situation surrounding the origins and early policy of the Legion is admirably summarized by Mr. Wilson: “In short, the Legion was arrogant in the early days. It didn’t even bother to cultivate the conservative officials of the American Federation of Labor; it didn’t bother much about claiming neutrality in industrial wars. It merely went about openly as an ally of big business. “The Legion did not do these things because it took a delight in such activities, of course. It was performing a duty in maintaining ‘law and order’ and the ‘right’ Os labor to have the ‘open shop.’ Striking and picketing were against law and order. The employers said so. “One doesn’t have to be long-whiskered and to be armed with bombs and daggers to be a ‘subversive element’—and the Legion is hell to all such. All militant laberites are ‘reds’ to the Legion's officialdom. Progessives, Liberals, Pacifists, Socialists and Communists are all ‘subversive.’ ” 8 8 8 IN spite of the fact that the Legion was drawn mainly from working classes, who constituted the bulk of its membership, the anti-labor policies of its early days dominated the Legion for more than a decade. Then Herbert Hoover quite unwittingly performed a highly beneficial service by turning the troops on the bonus army in Washington and driving these ex-service men out of town as though they were stray dogs. This woke up the Legion, and at its Portland (Ore.) convention in 1932 “it was proposed that the 16 billions of war profit garnered by big business during the war be taxed to raise the funds to pay this obligation which had already been recognized by Congress.” There had been some dissent within the Legion before 1933 on s he part of certain enlightened posts like members of the Willard Straight group in New York City, who knew what it was all about. But these had fallen on deaf ears before the bonus army was ousted from Washington. It was not long after this latter event before there were many notable symptoms of dissent from the patrioteering and anti-labor policies of the plutocratic hierarchy at the top of the Legion. Instead of break strikes, Legionnaires all over the country began to help them along and take their place as pickets. World War veterans have been shot down in considerable numbers among the strikers who have been fired upon by the militia, state police and private guards. Mr. Wilson concludes that: “It isn’t likely that the organization will ever again be foolhardy enough openly to show its bias against labor, “This being true, it is impossible, of course, for it to become an avowed Fascist organization. Any attempt to steer the good ship American Legion into such dangerous and turbulent waters would cause it to crash on the rocks of the labor movement.”

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABEI.L

HOSPITABLE Minister Don Manuel Gon-zales-Zeledon of Costa Rica entertained 300 guests at a buffet, supper that began frith frozen pineapple and ended with sleight-of hand tricks by Rep. Sol Bloom of New York. The rooms were crowded by diplomats, government officials and friends of Don Manuel. The host beamingly received guests, pointed to a towering buffet of pastries, anchovies, caviar and anything else you can think of, and exclaimed: "Make yourselves at home!” They did. The mounds of sliced turkey wings began to disappear before the onslaught of a bloc of hungry Americans, led by a young diplomat who had earlier announced: “I am not eating any lunch today. My dinner this evening is on Costa Rica. a a a REP. BLOOM, friend of Mussolini, George Washington and Manhattan taxpayers, resplendent in evening dress, approached the buffet and seized a handful of Brazilian nuts. “Now,” said Sci, ‘l’ll show you some tricks. Come closer, all you people.” A fascinated audience saw Sol roll up his sleeves, blow on his fingers and cry: "Presto, change!” Sol opened his hand. The Brazilian walnuts had disappeared. “Superb!” applauded Minister Sze of China, who had been peering at Sol through his thickrimmed glasses. “I think you ate them,” said somebody. “No,” said Sol, “but I’ll eat some now.” And “crunch” went a Brazilian w'alnut between the Bloom molars. NOTE:—SoI Bloom’s Spanish is improving. He said “Buenas noches” (good-night) as he left the party. tt tt tt WHAT delicious tamales,” enthused Dr. Leo Rowe, director general of the PanAmerican Union. Suiting the action to the word, he plunged wholeheartedly into the business of devouring four or five of the Costa Rican tamales piled on a great dish. In Costa Rica the tamale is prepared differently than in Mexico. Costa Rican tamales contain everything—like turkey hash. Usually one big tamale is enough for a whole Costa, Rican family. But tamales (fortunately for Dr. Rowe) ran smaller at the Gonzales fiesta. After eating his quota of tamales—and perhaps a little more. Dr. Rowe became Pan-Amer-ican-Union minded and began circulating among the Latin American guests. The familiar “Buenas noches” rang out, as he passed from group to group, patting shoulders. shaking hands, chuckling, uttering jokes in his Castilian Spanish accent, acting as a diplomat among diplomats. Every one realized that soon little gifts of grapes, apples and plums will be arriving at various Latin American embassies and legations. Thus—with fruit, music, magic words, back slaps, lamb stew luncheons and an occasional hot tamale—does Dr. Leo Rowe keep peace in the Pan-American Union. Brewers of the country are campaigning for the 5-cent glass of beer, now that the late Vice President Marshall isn’t here to disconcert them.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

; s os you ,j ■ — -■—.... - ■,*

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) tt tt a WAR VETERANS EXPRESS SENTIMENTS ON BONUS By a Reader. The boys in the World War want their bonus. It is due them now. There are Administration leaders in Washington now who would have found everything possible wrong with them if they had had to go to war. They did not take that excursion to hell some 16 years ago with us, or they or any one else would not belittle the veterans now or later. They have forgotten we went on that little trip just to save such people. Look at Admiral Byrd, Admiral Sims, Gen. Pershing and all President’s widows; they get big pensions. But you don’t hear ex-soldiers putting up a ballyhoo about them, do you? We will not yell for any bonus, free hospitals or the $2,000,000 they mention. If we can only start where we left off in 1917 for our rights. They don’t know what they are talking about when you say ex-service men are Treasury raiders. We paid for our bonus and pensions with our money, our health and our happiness and also our families’ happiness. Did you ever stop to think how much we paid for war risk insurance? Or, how many of us had to drop it when we came home. That was clear gravy for the government. All of us did not get what was coming to us, and plenty of us got rotten deals that were not due us. We voted for this Administration for a square deal we did not get. Will we do it again? Through shells and gas we are still Americans, and we do not get justice. a tt a By Wilbur H. Murrell. Immediate cash payment of soldiers’ adjusted service certificates commonly called the bonus, will be demanded of this session of Congress by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. The V. F. W. which for the last several years has led the fight for cash payment of the bonus, recently has been joined in this issue by another major veterans’ organization. Public sympathy and interest also show increasing evidence of veering to the support of this proposal due, in all probability, to a growing recognition of the fact that immediate cash payment of adjusted service certificates is a matter of vital importance, not to veterans alone, but to the people as a whole and to the industry and business of every community in the country. Immediate cash payment of adjusted service certificates will mean money in the pocket of every business man, every storekeeper, every doctor and dentist in the city of Indianapolis. Immediate cash payment of the certificates will distribute approximately $2,200,000,000 in cash throughout the. entire country, $6,957,505.03 in Marion County. The average World War veteran living in this county will receive approximately SSOO in cash that will enable him to pay delinquent taxes, overdue accounts, and to purchase the many necessities of life that he and his family have been forced to do without during the years of the depression. Every business man in this city will admit that we are vitally in

OUT OF THE STATE

Urges FERA Merit System

By Michael Murphy. I can not let some writers get by with what they say in regard to F'ERA work being carried on in and around Indianapolis. There is quite a lot of talk about the treatment of men working on these projects. I was never on a job in my life where the so-called bosses, tried to ride men as they do on these projects. There is no class distinction on the project and these bosses treat all men like they were dogs and ho matter how hard we try we can not do enough work to please them. Many of ■ the men working are skilled mechanics and office workers who never worked at anything else. These men can take these bosses and put them on a job that required skill or in an office and the boss would be at a loss to know what to do. Yet the bosses expect these mechanics to get cut on a job they know nothing about and do two men’s work each day. We all know there are many men who will lay down on any job and a good boss can soon learn who these men are. The men who are selected as foremen are men who are not bosses, but what we ex-service men call hand-shakers. I can do anything any other man can do and I am willing to do just as much, but I must first learn what is to be done. I never in my life did manual labor, as I have always been in an office, but I do not like the idea of some man yelling at me when I am trying to do my best.

need of an increased purchasing power that will place more money in circulation, and in the hands of those who need the things the merchant has to sell. If he will join with us in looking at this bonus question as an issue of major importance in the national recovery program, he will support us in our endeavor to obtain Congressional enactment of the bonus bill in this session of Congress. The business man who refuses to recognize this point, and fails to give the veteran this support by conveying his views to the Senators and Congressmen of this state, is merely turning down a chance to help himself as well as the World War veterans to whom this money is due. tt tt tt AUTO ACCIDENT PREVENTION URGED By Russell J. Dean. What about automobile accident prevention? According to recent reports automobiles killed 30,000 persons in 1933 and 36,000 in 1934 and injured 900,000. No accurate figures are available as to the economic loss, the cost to the taxpayer for hospitalization and aid to invalids unable to work for a living. Something should be done to curb this growing menace. tt tt n G. O. P. CAN MAKE GRADE WITH HUEY By George Gould. A Washington correspondent sa. 5 that new members of Congress are now listening intently to the Longs and Thomases who want to “soak the rich.” This sounds terrible to some, but it should be good news to the Old Guard Republicans. It suggests a way to split the Roosevelt vote. If the country could be ini duced to take Huey Long at all seri-

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

I do not believe hard work ever hurt any one. Neither do I believe that a man should be made a boss without first having some experience in handling men. But such is not the case on these FERA and CWA projects. The man who has some pull can get any job he w'ishes and the public would be surprised to see some of the ditch diggers and coal heavers try to handle a gang of men. If the merit system were used on these projects there would be much more work put out and everything would run smoothly. I have talked to a great many men on other projects and they say their foremen, in most cases, are the same, although a few said the “bosses” acted like gentlemen. I have found in my short experience on this project that the man who is boss has never before had a position of any importance. In most cases he really imagines he is frightening some poor devil when the fact is every man on the job is laughing to himself. In many cases these foremen are not getting any more salary than the laboring men. The laborer knows this and decides the boss is only a poor man like himself and has very little authority, so he will let him enjoy life by thinking he is a big shot. In so far as showing any preference in regard to creed or politics I think we should all do as Father Coughlin says, “Forget our likes and dislikes and all work together for the good of humanity.”

ously, he would take the extreme radical vote. This is the only chance for the Republican party in 1936. They should start in boosting Huey. Perhaps they are afraid Huey might win. There is no danger. There is only one qualification that is indispensable for the presidency, as history shows, and that is dignity. The press has succeeded in making Huey look like a clown. There is another reason why Huey can never be President. No man ever reached the office who has exclusively attacked the rich. Mr. Bryan got as near to it as any one ever will. The middle class won’t permit it for a very good reason. The middle class is thoroughly convinced that concentrated wealth is the best thing in the world to maintain a good market for the goods and services which the middle class have to sell, namely; food, clothing, housing, radios, cars, ana other moderately priced doo-dads. Having been taught the virtues of saving the evils of spending, they have come to admire the storing away of purchasing power as the supreme social good. They believe it is necessary in order to finance great affairs. - And that the issuing of corporate shares is ineffective for that purpose. They have come to believe that only the inheritors of great wealth are bom with the brains to manage great enterprises

Daily Thought

And if a house be divided against itself, that house can not stand.— St. Mark, iiiixxv. DISSENSIONS, like small streams at first begun, Unseen they rise, but gather 1 as they run. —Garth.

_JAN. 23, 1935

and that such brains can not be hired. They feel that their fate is inseparably bound up with the fate of vast accumulations of hereditary wealth and that any increase of income and inheritance taxes in the higher brackets is a direct blow at them. The Old Guard has nothing to worry about. President Roosevelt nearly lost the nomination by mentioning the forgotten man. A1 Smith said he would tear his coat off and fight any man who made such a demagogic appeal. In view of these things, it would seem that the stupidity of the Old Guard is only equaled by that of the New Deal which could easily steal Huey’s thunder by raising income and inheritance taxes in the higher brackets. Should there be, by chance, any one interested in this subject, he could save himself the trouble of writing Senators Van Nuys, Minton or Rep. Ludlow, by just clipping this out and mailing it to them.

So They Say

If the states acquiesce in the increasing encroachments of the federa 1 government upon state sovereignty, there soon will be no state rights—and perhaps no states.— Patrick O'Brien, attorney general of Michigan. Prohibition is coming quicker than any of us think, and when it comes it will be stronger than ever. —Dr. F. Scott Mcßride, AntiSaloon League chief. The time has passed when it is up to the farmers to play Santa Claus to the industrial world.— Chester C. Davis, AAA administrator. Why did I marry a burglar? Well, I had a choice of wedding an attorney or a burglar, so I took the burglar.—Anna Price, Whitesburg, Ky., on witness stand in husband's triaL The feeding complex, together with that of visiting, which it lar; ely overlaps, occupies almost half the total leisure time which most people have.—Dr. George A. Lundberg, Columbia University. I am a Democrat, one of the few left, and I intend to remain a Democrat.—Senator Carter Glass of Virginia. They served cocktails and then told me I wasn’t a good Democrat, because I didn't drink any.—Mayor W. N. McNair of Pittsburgh, after St. Louis visit.

A PLACE

BY DAISY MOORE BYNUM You sweep ycur kitchen and keep your room And tidy and dust the whole day long, But I must follow the trailing wind And tune myself to his fresh song. He’ll show me a path to the highest hill, Another down to the laughing stream, Hell climb high heavens, I know he will And show me a place for my soul to dream.