Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 224, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 January 1935 — Page 9

JAX. 28, 1935

It Seems to Me HEW# B TON I HOPE I've never pretended to be hardboiled. I'm not and I don't want to be. Asa matter of fact the hardboiled reporter who struts his stuff in plays and pictures is a fake. Os course, some newspaper men affect the pose. They are romantic enough to want to emulate the glamorous heroes of the screen and in addition they feel the need of insulation against the impact of things which may come up suddenly in the course of a day’s work. Accordingly, nobody on a paper wants to be put ' in a position where he is compelled

to say, “I'm shocked.” He doesn’t mind admitting that he’s “sore” or “good and mad,” but “shocked” is different. Nevertheless, I'm shocked right now\ I’ve Just seen a newspaper picture captioned: “A spectator at the Hauptmann trial wearing one of the souvenir ladders now peddled in Flemington.” The picture shows a smug-faced young woman with a toy ladder pinned outside her fur coat. Upon her face there is a silly grin. It is quite evident that the lady thinks she is most comical. What comment short of profanity

Heywood Broun

can one make in such circumstances? This seems to me anew all time low in brazen vulgarity. And I wish I had a better word than “vulgarity.” Plenty of vulgar things are funny and healthy and necessary for the preservation of the human race. a a a Sense of So-Called Humor BUT there are people who make hideous mistakes as to the cue for the entrance of the clowns. I rather imagine that the young lady with the ladder on her lapel is fond of telling her friends that she wouldn’t take anything for her sense of humor. And offhand I wouldn’t know just what she could take. Still it is unfair to pick on a single person. If ladders are being peddled at Flemington it must be that there is no lack of customers. A mist rises from Flemington and drifts across the meadows engulfing the millions of America. And this fog contains a deadly gas which eats away the fibers of human decency. A man is on trial for his life and he is charged with the commission of a horrible crime. But I am beginning to believe that the nature of the proceedings may constitute an even graver offense against the public welfare. No one will ever know the extent of the ravages which may occur when an entire nation is under a barrage of morbid detail Many of the results of this gas attack will never be identified. Engrossment in the case is so profound and widespread that we are losing sig.n. of all reasonable human values. nan Always in Good Humor I WAS talking to a newspaper man the other day and asking about various friends of mine just now assigned to Flemington. “What s Bill doing down there for the Morning Blank? I asked. Oh, Bill’s doing the daily humorous column,” I was informed. “What?” I inquired, a little startled. “Sure, you know, the comic sidelights of the trial. He does a burlesque of Mrs. Hauptmann s Dutch dialect and things like that.” I rest my case and I would never have brought It if the remedy for this Flemington condition were not easy and apparent. It consists in the abolition of capital punishment. Any newspaper man can tell you that the essential curiosity in this case rests upon the fact that headlines play up the fact: "Hauptmann Fight for Life,” or “Prisoner in the Shadow of the Chair.” I read again that more than 5000 have already applied for permission to witness the execution if a conviction is found. The death penalty Is the added fillip which whets the buried sadism of us all. It is the force which breaks the dykes of decency and floods the land. a a a Pity for the Many IT has been said on previous occasions that in a perverse way I always choose to pity the possible criminal and his interests rather than the undoubted victims in any crime. I don’t think that’s perverse. Os course I feel pity for Mrs. Hauptmann and for the Hauptmann child. Possibly for the prisoner himself. Certainly I don’t hate him because I don’t understand him at all. But in arguing against capital punishment and the vicious kind of circuses which follow in its train I am mast concerned with those not. directly connected with the case at all. Is it really an ideal situation to have millions of youngsters gossiping and arguing as to whether someone is going to get “the hot seat?” I say that under our present criminal codes and practices every time we kill a man we maim a million nameless ones. Indeed I think that in a psychological but still a very actual sense capital punishment is mass murder. We should be done with it. <COPVTIRht. 1935)

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ-

TWO stars are battUrg for the attention of the world's astronomers. They are Zeta Aurigae and Nova Herculls. During the late summer and fall. Zeta Aurigae gained the title of “the most interesting star in the heavens.” More astronomers, according to Dr. Harlow Shapley of the Harvard College Observatory, were watching the star than had ever watched any one star at the same time. Then in the weeks before Christmas, Nova Herculis flared forth in the heavens and telescopes everywhere were turned upon it. Both stars continue to hold the interest of the professional and amateur astronomers alike. Both are special types of stars. Zeta Aurigae is an eclipsing binary, that is. a system of two stars. From our vantage point of the earth, we see one pass in front of the other, thus affording an eclipse. Nova Herculis. as its name indicates, is a nova or “new star.” a star originally so faint as to be invisible to the unaided eye, which suddenly has flared out with great brilliance. The two stars ere interesting to astronomers, not only for themselves, but for the light which they shed upon the many problems of stars in general. The reader should have no difficulty in finding both these stars for himself on any clear night. a a a TO find Zeta Aurigae, look straight overhead. You will see a very bright star. This is Capella. brightest star in the constellation of Aurigae and hence sometimes called Alpha Aurigae. Just southeast of Capella. you will notice a triangle of famt stars. The one farthest from Capella Is Zeta Aurigae. Now to find Nova Herculis. Look to the west about an hour after sunset. You will see the very bright and beautiful star. Vega. A line from Vega to the northeast bring you a cluster of small stars which form the head of the constellation of Draco or the Dragon. About twothirds of the way to Draco, you will encounter the new star, Nova Herculis. nan CALCULATIONS show that the red component of of Zeta Aurigae is a red giant, a star 200 times larger in diameter than the sun. It has a diameter of 175.000.000 miles. This puts it in a class of such giants as Betelgeuse and Antares. The smaller star is four or five times the diameter of our sun. having a diameter of about 3.000,000 or 4.000.000 miles. Astronomers are not yet certain. Nova Herculis reached its greatest brilliance on Dec. 22. This fact made many astronomers wonder whether the star of Bethlehem might not have been a nova. Since Dec. 22. Nova Herculis has been declining In brilliance. Astronomers have been astonished at the rapidity with which the brilliance of Nova Herculis has begun to decrease. The decrease has been almost three times as rapid as was the increase. Q—What is a deist? A— A believer in God as revealed in .ire, not by soeci&l revelation.

-p* SUPREME It is unprecedented drama now being enacted in i- jM ishington, with unparalleled ramifications and potential- ‘•.T '■ i ars in new dollars. | * e^ ore ’ |, ronl j a P un: * las ' n j State Court of Appeals In ■ < ■ fair the $22.50 of P gold specified ir

A $22.50 debt. A boyish attorney nervously pleading- his first case before the United States Supreme Court. Nine grandfatherly justices in black robes under necessity of rendering a decision which will vitally affect the future not only of America but of the entire world. It is unprecedented drama now being enacted in Washington, with unparalleled ramifications and potentialities, and a counting room civilization on four continents

waits. Here are some of the things that have already happened House uncertainty; in Wall Street uneasiness. All markets unsettled and foreign exchange in disorder. Shrewd traders bewildered; great corporations in fear; acquisitive bankers suddenly too timid to buy gold and reap Ponzi profits. In Buenos Aires, Canberra and Oslo, in London, Paris, Berlin and Tokio, in the capitals of the world doubt bordering on dismay. What has happened thus far while the nine juridicial patriarchs search their minds is only a hint of what can come If they decide that the $22.50 brought to their judgment is really worth $38.10. There are other gold clause cases before the high court in Washington, but this Is the first, the cause celebre, which will determine the value of more than a hundred billion dollars of debts. The issue Is simple. Norman C. Norman, New York jeweler, 40 W. 48th-st, holds a SIOOO bond issued by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The semi-annual interest coupon specifies the railroad must pay him $22.10 In gold of the weight and fineness current the day the bond was sold. ana A T that time the American dollar was worth 25.8 graihs of gold 9/10 pure. Since then, by presidential proclamation, the dollar has been devalued to 59.06 cents of its former value and is now worth only 15 5-21 grains of goid. That makes $22.50 in old dollars worth $38.10 in new dollars, Mr. Norman contends the railroad should pay him the $38.10. His attorney, Emanuel Redfield, 31, 420 Lexington-av, fought the Issue through the lower state courts and lost. The case reached the State Court of Appeals in Albany and had six weeks’ delay because three of the seven justices owned Baltimore & Ohio securities and were, therefore, disqualified to sit. No case can be heard without five members on the bench. That problem was solved when Justice Henry T. Kellogg retired and Gov. Lehman appointed John T. Loughran to his place. Then the State Court of Appeals heard the case and ruled against the gold clause four to one. Mr. Redfield, with the confidence of youth, carried the issue to the United States Supreme Court and stammered so much he could not pronounce “constitutionality.” Imagine a young lawyer facing the august Supreme Court in Washington for the first time. Os course, he stumbled and stammered and hesitated. Opposed to him were the most expensive attorneys the B. & O. could hire, and they were backed up by the Attorney General of the United States, Homer S. Cummings. a a a LATE in the day, after the B. & O. attorneys had had their say. Mr. Cummings arose and reminded the court of the crisis of March, 1934, when every bank door in the land was banged shut

I COVER THE WORLD * a a a a a By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28.—Soviet-American relations are approaching a showdown of vital importance to both countries. For almost a year debt and trade negotiations between them have been deadlocked. Behind the scenes, since the last meeting of their respective spokesmen, the atmosphere has been one of irritation and gloom. Steps leading to a resumption of Soviet-American conversations, the writer is informed, are now about to take place. Ambassador Alexander

Troyanovsky has just arrived here from Moscow, and Ambassador William C. Bullitt, American envoy to Russia, has purposely delayed his departure from Washington. These diplomatists are expected to confer with State Department officials this week to determine whether the stalemate can be broken. The outcome can hardly fail to have a profound effect upon the economic and commercial relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. n a a RUSSIA requires literally billions of dollars worth of industrial, automotive and aviation equipment, raw materials such as cotton, agricultural machinery and semi-finished products. America has an abundance of these things to sell. These purchases would be distributed over the next decade. The „ulk of the orders seem likely to go to that country which first completes a satisfactory deal with the Soviet Union. Americans are eager for the business. It would give work to many jobless, and, once this flow of trade begins, nations less alert would find it difficult to break in. New orders generally follow old. Russians have expressed, and in practice shown, marked preference for American products and methods. Groups of their experts are now in this country loooking over the field. Whether they place many large orders, however, depends upon the settlement just ahead—if there is a settlement. The Soviet Union wishes to obtain credits. In fact, if there is to be any extensive trade between Russia and the United States there will have to be credits. • a m THE United States, in turn, insisted upon payment of the

and anew President had the problem of opening them, if possible. Dry, practical, not given to either stammering or eloquence, the Attorney General spoke: “It is enough to say that an emergency of the highest importance confronted the nation. Banks, sound and unsound, were failing daily. Gold was being hoarded. Gold was taking flight abroad. International finance was completely disorganized. The situation was one of extreme peril. Our people were slipping toward a lower level of civilization. It was a crisis of the most terrifying character.” How that restrained address affected the United States Supreme Court remains to be seen. Definitely it did not satisfy many economists of the country. The Attorney General spoke as a lawyer to lawyers; he betrayed no knowledge nor gave any warning of the world-wide chaos which might result if the nine aging jurists should decide American gold clause contracts were inviolable and must be met. In this chaotic after-Versailles world economics have superseded law, and even economists have found it impossible to predict tomorrow on the basis of yesterday.

the claims of its nationals against the present Soviet regime. Until there is such a settlement, the United States contends, there can be no credits. The deadlock is over two main points. First, the amount Russia shall pay this country and its nationals and, second, the size of the credits to be extended and the time Russia is to have within which to repay them. On principle, Russia still refuses to pay anything whatever on the American claims, as such. She is willing, however, to pay much more than the normal interest on any loans or credits she may get here, the United States to do what it pleases with the excess. In practice, of course, the excess would be utilized to pay off American claims. The next few weeks should determine the fate of the negotiations. Ambassador Troyanovsky says he is hopeful. He is believed to be the bearer of what amounts to anew offer from Moscow. Secretary Cordell Hull may modify the American terms. Should the deadlock persist, American business men have strongly signified to the Administration, this country will “miss the boat,” so far as Soviet trade is concerned. Some even go so far as to say it has "missed the boat” already. No one here in responsible position takes seriously the demands of a few individuals in and out of Congress to break off relations with Russia. Should the rew efforts at agreement collapse, relations between the two countries doubtless would be less profitable, and perhaps less cordial, than at first they promised to be. But that is all. World peace, in the Administration’s opinion, still requires their co-operation.

.'THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

LIVING in a lawyer-made and lawyer-interpreted civilization, the economists have not yet learned eloquence nor achieved power. Their observations are muted and for the most part delivered in camera. As well as can be determined, this is their consensus: If the venerable lawyers who constitute our United States Supreme Court uphold gold clause contracts this country and most of the world will be plunged Into a renewed deflation which will make the last four years of depression seem like only a training period. More than a hundred billion dollars of internal debt will be manifolded. In the first place, the bulk of the money was lent from 1919 to 1929. The index of the purchasing power of the dollar at wholesale averaged 108.52 for that period. Today the wholesale index stands at about 76.7. That means, if you are paid back SIOO you loaned from 1919 to 1929, *you are receiving $l6O of purchasing power in terms of the money you loaned. lan Mack, World-Telegram

PUTNAM JOUR SLATED Cleveland and Chicago Alumni to Hear Butler President. James W. Putnam, president of Butler University, will address the Butler Alumni Club of Cleveland Feb. 2. Dr. Putnam’s son, Russell C. Putnam, is president of the Cleveland organization. A week later, Dr. Putnam will address the Chicago club.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

! f BY NEA SCRVICE. INC. T. M. BtC. q_S.

“He said if I’d stay on that diet there’s no reason why I shouldn’t live to be eighty."*

financial writer, an authority in the field, calculates what would happen to the internal debt if the gold clause is upheld as follows: Total loaned under gold clause $100,000,000,000 Value in present buying power 160,000,000,000 Total gold clause victory would add 69,000,000,000 Additional buying power of last addition 41,400,000,000 Total buying power of original total loan 270,400,000,000 In other words, Mr. Mack points out, the Federal government, state and municipal governments and corporations borrowed $100,000,000,000. Today, to the loaners, the money is worth $160,000,000,00 in purchasing power. a a a THE lenders already have $60,000,000,000 more value than they gave. If, in addition, the Supreme Court rules they must be paid in the equivalent of undevaluated gold dollars, they will receive a purchasing power of $270.40 for every SIOO they originally loaned. The $22.50 interest which Mr. Norman is dissatisfied with in the cause celebre is thus worth $36 in purchasing power as compared with a similar amount of interest

-The DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND ——By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen —

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28.—Reports persist that Homer Cummings, Attorney General, will quit the Cabinet to accept a partnership with the New York law firm of Chadbourne, Stanchfield and Levy, attorneys for various moguls of big business. Incidentally, Homer has been urging the President to appoint George Whiteside of the same firm as district attorney of southern New York. Various New Dealers

averaged from 1919 to 1929 (60 per cent added to $22.50), according to Mr. Mack. If the Supreme Court decides he should be paid in the equivalent of undevalued gold dollars, 69 per cent or $15.60, additional must be added, making the total $38.10. That $15.60 has 60 per cent more purchasing power than $15.60 had on the average from 1919 to 1929. Therefore, from a purchasing standpoint, which is the only true way to consider money, $22.86 more must still be added. Thus, if the Supreme Court upholds his contention, the New York jeweler will get $60.96 of purchasing power for the $22.50 of gold specified in the interest coupon of the bond. a a a A TTY. GEN. CUMMINGS brought none of this to the attention of the Supreme Court. Nor did the Attorney General point out that increasing the SIOO,000.000,000 gold clause debt to $270,400,000,000 in 59.06-cent dollars would bankrupt the nation. The total wealth of the nation, even in boom 1929, was estimated to be only $360,000,000,000. Today, in 59.06-cent dollars, the national wealth totals only about $268,800,000,000. So, Supreme Court or not, how can a nation worth some $268,800,000,000 pay a gold clause debt of $270,400,000,000, exclusive of some $65,000,000,000 in non-gold clause obligations outstanding in the country. The law may say yes, but economics says no. It is impossible. But that is only the internal problem. The nine Supreme Court justices must also consider what upholding the gold clause would mean to other nations. America is the chief creditor of the world. Other nations owe some $7,080,000,000, of which they are still paying interest upon about $5,112,000,000.

have objected, particularly the Securities Commissioners who point out that strict regulation of the stock market will depend on a crusading district attorney. Whiteside is alleged to be too closely connected with Wall Street. . . . Illustrative of the tremendous interest in Huey Long is the fact that Capitol telephone operators daily receive several hundred phone calls asking if he is going to speak. When he takes the floor the seats of his colleagues are empty, but long lines form outside the packed visitors’ galleries. Liquor dealers have flooded the country with so many offensive liquor ads that strict regulations regarding advertising will be promulgated. Federal Alcohol Administrator Choate expects to make the regulations effective in March. . . . Tammany’s Representative Sirovich makes a hobby of studying Masonic symbols and ceremonials, is frequently asked to lecture on the subject. . . . a a a TN 1932 Walter Waters w?.,j commander of the “bonus army,” and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, army chief of staff, was commander of the troops which evicted the veterans. A few days ago Waters visited MacArthur, sought his aid in getting a job. MacArthur sent him to Gen. Frank T. Hines, head of the Veterans Bureau, and now Waters is a clerk in that agency. . . . Postal substitute workers have revived their fight for a fixed minimum wage. Last year they succeeded in putting through Congress a bill giving them sls a week, but on the demand of Jim Farley, it was vetoed. This session they hope to have better luck. (Copyright. 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.) i§£ ® : 4

Fair Enough HM PEGlftl NEW YORK, Jan. 28.—There is still much unfinished business but a backward squint at the | achievements of the last twenty years reveals tha the world has done very well in the matter of paying off grudges. Revenge is not sufficiently exploited. On the contrary, an effort is made to give revenge a bad name or change its name to something else, such as reform or progress. For example, if the man who killed the Lindbergh baby should at last be executed, the law

would say that justice had been done and the editorials would sound off to the effect that a challenge to society had been met. This might be true, of course, but it would all be only incidental to the human delight in the news that a hated person had got what was coming to him. The most enjoyable revenge in the experience of this generation was the terrified flight of the German kaiser and his son and the humbling of the Prussian officer caste. It is hard to see just now what reform or progress was marked by this event. Hitler and his Nazis

have taken the place of the kaiser and the military group on the hate list of the world and things are no better for this. But, recalling the enormous arrogance of the kaiser, his bombast and his attempt to muscle in on Divinity, the complete humiliation of the old man was beautiful satisfaction. You could actually drink it. a a a Whopping Revenge in Making AS Stanley Ketchel remarked of Jim JeJTries. whom he disliked, when Jeffries lost to Jack Johnson, the big bum wasn't even game. This was a terrible come-uppance for a man who had called himself the war lord and the world's enjoyment of it, even in Germany, was proportionate to his shame. The fate of the Russian dynasty will have to rank second. They were cruel enough and the revenge was perfect, but the czar was a mushy and futile individual, personally, and his family were blanks. Still, the ruling class had been responsible for many tortures and when they got theirs they got it all. There were no loose ends. If you would recapture the delight which the annihilation of the Russian ruling class conveyed you may do so by reading the Grand Duchess Marie’s naive admissons in her autobiography, “The Education of a Princess.” Here, too. in Russia, anew grudge has grown up to take the place of the old one. The Soviet r jvernment kills and persecutes just as savaeeh as ite predecessors and will one day provide the victims in another overthrow and another whopping big revenge. The satisfactions in the domestic American scene have been more enjoyable than is generally realized. They occur at intervals, there is a little whooping and confetti-throwing and they are forgotten. But, in the aggregate, they represent a very handsome roomful of trophies for the walls of the incumbent generation. ana Revenge in U. S. Sweet IT is reliving an old pleasure to recall the magnificent beating suffered by the Anti-Saloon League. There were dark times during prohibition, when people were being shot and imprisoned for owning liquor, when the most optimistic and resolute of the rebels despaired of ever seeing so little as claret and decimal beer on public sale again in the United States. Then, suddenly, prohibition cracked and, today, it is a strange joy to walk into an old-fashioned saloon of the kind which was never to come back, and buy a highball openly over a legal bar. The Ku-Klux Klan stormed over the country ' bullyi g and persecuting for a time and went down in a ridiculous heap. Men who concealed their membership 10 years ago because they were bound by oath to do so, deny it today, but for a different reason. They would be ashamed to confess that they had ever belonged to the ludicrous band with its goblins and klads and klokards. Arrogance has grovelled in the dust on all sides, Jimmy Walker rusticates in England and A1 Capone sulks on Alcatraz. Tammany is out, Dutch Schultz is in and the trial of Bruno Hauptmann is going full blast. That all this represents reform or progress I am compelled to doubt. But it is revenge and the taste is sweet. (Copyright, 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health —BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN-

H. G. WELLS, in his autobiography, mentions the very interesting fact that his grandfather, hi/! father, and his brother all died suddenly in the same way. He says: “In 1910 my father woke up very briskly one morning, delivered a careful instruction on the proper way to make suet pudding to his housekeeper . . . glanced over the Daily Chronicle . . . and prepared to get up. He put his legs out of bed and slid down by the side of the bed a dead man. “There is an irregularity in our family pulse. It misses a beat ever and again and sooner or later It misses more than one and that is the end of us. “My grandfather had leaned over the gate to admire a sunset and then in the same fashion ceased, to live. This last spring as I write (1933) heart stoppage came also to my elder brother; as he got up from his breakfast, he reeled and fell dead.” a b b DEATH due primarily to sudden stopping of the heart occurs under two different circumstances. First, when a heart has a prolonged struggle against overwhelming difficulties it generally plays out; second, when the heart, while still performing its work, suddenly stops. Playing out of the heart after a severe infectious disease, as pneumonia, or as an infection of the heart itself, is an easily understandable condition. However, the circumstances associated with sudden stopping of the heart in the midst of apparent health arouse much more curiosity and interest. Usually there is a disease of the heart muscle and obstruction of the blood flow in the coronary arteries which supply the heart with nutrition. It may be that these changes have taken place gradually over a long period of time, and that it is an accumulation of the changes which suddenly brings about death. • an IT has been suggested that a sudden rise in the blood pressure, because of excitement or some similar reason, may overwhelm a heart already crippled by disease. It may also be that some sudden spasm of the blood vessels, associated with nerve stimulation, may be responsible. There are also cases in which heart blocking occurs with failure of the beat of the heart to be carried properly from one portion to another. Os late, many sudden deaths have occurred due to the sudden blocking of the blood vessels of the heart. There has been some discussion as to whether coronary thrombosis or sudden blocking of the heart is more frequent than formerly. Some Investigators find that the condition occurs in younger individuals nowadays, but most doctors assert that It occurs in those past middle age, and that there are more cases because more persons are living longer.

Questions and Answers

Q—Do birds have eyelashes? A—They have small feathers on the rim of the eyelid. Qi_Give the name and address cf the Commissioner of Education of Puerto Rico. A—Jose Padin, San Juan, P. R. Q —Name the principal parts of speech In th® English language. A—Noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

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Westbrook Pegler