Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 225, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1935 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times <A KCRirr-HOWABD >'tW^PAPER/ ROT W. HOWARD President TAI.COTT POWELL Editor EARL D. BAKER Buin*is Manager Phone Riley 5551

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TUESDAY. JANUARY 29. MR. WOLL’S LETTER MATTHEW WOLL, vice president of the American Federation of Labor, in a letter to the Srnpps-Howard Newspapers, published on Page 1 of this edition, has asked our views on the high wage principle as it relates to the question of prosperity's return. He says that the thing which most distinguishes the American economic system from all others is that principle; that it has been expounded not only by NRA in a Democratic Administration, but by previous Administrations of different political faith, mentioning especially Mr. Hoover. Mr. Woll expresses alarm because today certain leading industrialists are urging reduction of labor cost as the way out of the depression. He says: •'The abandonment of the high wage principle would not only check the tendency toward recovery, but might lead us into anew collapse." nan \IIE believe that future prosperity can be " " achieved only by increased consumption, by establishing a balance between our capacity to consume and our ability to produce. Our nation has a combination of raw materials on the one hand and productive capacity on the other such as the world never before has seen. Technocracy (the inventor, the machine which will do the work of a hundred men! should be an economic blessing and not the cause of the curse of unemployment that it has proied. Make it possible for our people to buy what they would buy if they had the money, and the chicken-in-every-pot dream could come true, easily; and • iverty could be abolished from the land. But the combination hasn’t been found. So, Instead of the prosperity that should be ours, we have our vast unemployment, the dole, mounting taxes on top of an increased incapacity to pay, and financial grief in all directions, public and private. Wages constitute the chief medium for the distribution of buying power. So, on the face of it, ihe higher the wages, the more quickly we am*? at that capacity to consume—that happy balance of buying and producing But apparently, only on the face of it. I’or the high wage principle of which Mr. Woll speaks is by no means in actual effect, when *otal wages, as distinct from wage scales, are considered.

The wag“ scale of the bricklayer in New York Cuy, for example, is $13.20 a dav. That looks pretty good. But when it is discovered that the average yearly employment of all bricklayers is, say, three months—and we believe that figure high under conditions prevailing today—we have a high wage principle all right but no high wage return. For the annual buying power of the bricklayer becomes less than SIOOO. Even in that year of high prosperity, 1929, the average manufacturing wage was SI3OO. In 1933, the average was about SIOOO in the highly skilled automobile industry; about S9OO in steei and rolling mills; in cigarets, $622; in men's shirts and work clothing, SSOO. "It is not very useful to pay a man $lO a day if he is only employed 65 days in the year.” So it seems to us that as th' - now stand, the high wage principle, in t f mass buying power, is pretty much ol r. myth—and that leaders of labor like Mr. Wo.l should concentrate their primary attention on how the annual wage of the various crafts can be increased, rather than making their first consideration the establishment of a scale which in times like these works out merely to a delusion. We would even urge for the consideration of that most basic of all industries, tnt building trades, the question of whether the scale which, after all, nets such a small return to the individual, if reduced temporarily, might not stimulate building and thereby broaden the scope of employment. And simultaneously we would urge upon the material makers the same question of price reduction, to encourage more construction. Should such a scale reduction be agreed to, labor should be protected by a contractual agreement that the scale would be resumed after the volume of construction is increased to the point of a general revival of business, which most certainly would accompany a revival in the basic industry of building. Certain it is that ; f you build today and pav the labor and material prices which the very few who are building have to pay, the cost of the structure, generally speaking, is so great that the rent payer, who is the "ultimate consumer,” just simply won't meet the bill. As advocates for over 50 years of the high wage principle, such a suggestion from the Scripps-Howard Newspapers may appear inconsistent. But we do not believe so. Nor do we wish to appear dogmatic in our opinion as to its worth. We merely propose open-minded consideration by our friends in organized labor. as one of the possible ways of getting things going, of getting purchasing power stimulated in terms of total wages rather than merely in terms of wage scales, which labor is not actually now getting. This nation is still on dead center in this •11 important matter if private employment. Open-minded consideration of any policy by which the stalemate could be broken is in our opinion called for. Then, as things do pick up, may both the scale and the annual wag? rise and rise to the point where the American consumer can match whh his buying power everything that the American producer can make. THE SEX RACKET Legislator Roberta west nicholson wants to curb the racketeers of her own sex. She asks the enactment ol a law to

A Legislative Program by TALCOTT POWELI

“People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If lau's are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous . . . ” —Edmund Burke, 1777.

TNDIANA legislators might well ponder these words. The present session is confronted with grave matters. Burke's words are as true today as they were a century and a half ago. The people, in the last analysis, is the true legislator. First among the legislative problems, we think, is the purifying of the ballot. Our whole theory of representative government falls if voting is dishonest. Suggestions have been made that the direct primary should be abolished. This would be a return to “bossism.” It would utterly disenfranchise women, who are rarely elected delegates to party conventions. Every good citizen should fight such a measure. The League of Women Voters has suggested a number of primary reforms. Chief among them is a provision whereby the ballot boxes would be collected at some public place and the votes counted publicly. This is a splendid Idea. The reasons for it are obvious. It will be fought by every crooked politician in and out of the Legislature. Ballot tampering is what gives political machines their power. Let us stop it. A second problem is that of law r enforcement—another word for decent government. We must set up an efficient State Police force which will make another Dillinger episode impossible. Indiana became the laughing stock of the world because of Dillinger's gang of rats. Give us an efficient force of State Troopers, free from political influence, and it will take care of future Dillingers. nun A NOTHER angle of the same problem is the granting of power to the Governor to investigate his own departments. He is held responsible by the people for the administration of the state's affairs. Therefore, he should have the power to compel the appearance of witnesses before him. If the chief executive is to be accountable for corruption he should be able to conduct an adequate investigation to determine whether corruption is present. The Bar Association has suggested a number of measures lor cleaning up the legal profession. Its bills are excellent. They merit public support. One of the worst evils in the Indiana judicial system is the ability of a judge to

eliminate breach of promise suits and leave to the discretion of the court the naming of corespondents in divorce suits. Mrs Nicholson is an ideal person to propose such legislation. She is no dried up theorist, but the young and attractive mother of two children. Although she bear- a distinguished name she is not a person who enjoys either wealth or privilege. She has been a gallant fighter for causes which she thought w r ere right—whether they happened to be popular or not. lew will oppose the latter part of her bill —that the court should decide whether corespondents should be named. Every one is familiar with the neurotic and vengeful man or woman who names every personal enemy he or she has when a divorce suit is filed. Her proposal that breach of promise suits be abolished will meet with stiff opposition. The legal profession will be in the forefront of the battle against her. They will base their opposition on the fact that if her bill passes it will take business away from them. The public will know how to weigh such an argument. It i as selfish as though the medical profession condemned the use of insulin because this relief for diabetics cut its fees. Her principal opposition, however, will come from those females, who, whether consciously or not, place a monetary value on themselves. We can see little difference between the woman who values her person at two dollars and the one who vaules it at, say, $200,000* One discriminates between them only as to degree, not as to motive. Indiana has plenty of laws on the statute' books to shield really innocent victims from harm. Mrs. Nicholson’s bill would not disturb these. No honorable, decent woman ever sues for breach of premise. The Nicholson bill will be opposed. But thinking people, we believe, will know exactly how to gauge the character of those who are against it.

THE STUDENTS SPEAK \ DVOCATES of a more peaceful world will be encouraged no little by the first published returns in The Literary Digest's poll of the nation's university students on questions of war and peace, and, in the summing up of vote totals, Indiana's universities need not hang their heads. Students at Purdue. Indiana and De Pauw Universities, along with others, agreed, by varying margins, but decidedly, that they would not bear arms for this country in any war of aggression. They agreed, too, that it should be possible for the United States to stay out of another great war. This last may be wishful thinking and their commendable willingness to fight for their country if its boundaries are crossed by an invading foe may seem to some ultra-ardent pacifists to conflict with their wise decision not to fight in wars of aggression. Many others will be disappointed that the League of Nations did not seem desirable to and Purdue students, though De Pauw did favor United States’ entrance into the League. But, the general tone indicates that the students from whose ranks will come the soldiers in any war in the next decade, are thinking —and thinking straight. HOLDING COMPANY HALTERS FACED by what they feared would be a hostile Senate investigation, public utility lobbyists succeeded in having the inquiry shunted off on to the Federal Trade Commission. The lobbyists thought they had heard the last of it. That was six years ago. In the meantime, mighty utility empires have been built up and have crumbled, leaving startled investors impoverished and dispossessed; and the Federal Trade Commission's attorneys, accountants and examiners have plugged steadily at the job of revealing the practices of the electric and gas companies. The periodical reports of the commission have been damning indictments. Its concluding recommendations lor new legislation are

appoint one of his friends to sit for him. Thus, a lawyer may be trying a case today and sit in judgment on it tomorrow. If we must have temporary judges—and we are not convinced that we must—let us have them appointed by the Supreme Court, and nobody else. The present system leads to the foulest sort of special privilege-perversion of justice. Liquor control is still another moot problem. The present liquor legislation has been a mere experiment. It has not worked. It has tended to set up monopolies. Under the importer system beer has become a vehicle for the enrichment of those “in right” politically. Hard liquor control is in the hands of a few wholesalers. Stop and think, have you ever seen liquor prices advertised in Indiana? Why not? Because the law has made it possible for a few individuals *o control competition to line their own purses—special privilege again. The result is that the poor man can buy neither beer nor lard liquor because the “take” of the privileged is excessive. The bootlegger thrives. nun THE Legislature, we believe, should direct its attention to breaking these monopolies. The tax should be lowered on all alcoholic beverages. Beer and- wine should be made attractive. Whisky and brandy should be somewhere within the reach of the poor man if he wants them. The whole traffic should be controlled by state authority and not by selfseeking business men or dollar politicians. Our lawmakers should also consider the question of whether our streams are to continue to be open sewers for the benefit of selfish interests. Indiana’s stream pollution problem is a menace to public health, a reproach to an otherwise civilized people. You would not permit your neighbor to dump his garbage in your front yard. Why should cities and industries be permitted to do just that? Let us put teeth in our stream pollution laws. These, it appears to us, are the important problems confronting the legislature: An honest ballot, efficient law enforcement, just and wise liquor control, cleaning up our streams. Let us solve these problems. If you don’t like what your representative in the Legislature is doing let him know about it. The Indianapolis Times will inform you how he votes on each one of these measures.

worth the six years’ wait. Investors might have been saved a few millions by swifter Federal action. But the years of exhaustive study make possible sounder reforms. Utility spokesmen certainly can not charge unseemly haste. Four methods are suggested to correct the abuses which have grown up since holding companies have become middlemen, many of them plundering utility investors of profits made by overcharging consumers. The commission suggests that Congress use the government’s taxing power, or lass direct prohibitory laws, or require Federal licensing, or provide for Federal incorporation charters, or do all of those things. The several remedies suggested have a single purpose—to bring *bout an honest relationcnip between the private owners and the public, especially the customers of utilities. For years, utility holding companies and superholding companies have been outside the reach of state regulatory bodies. The Federal Trade Commission’s proposals provide Congress with weapons to force an end to public utility anarchy.

THE FEAR OF WAR 'T'HERE is pending in Congress a bill which would establish 10 great military aviation posts. Each would be capable of accommodating 1000 fighting planes, and each would cost not more than $19,000,000. There would be three bases on the west coast, one in the Great Lakes region, one near the Gulf of Mexico, two on the Atlantic coast, one in the Rockies, and one each in Alaska and Panama. This measure, it is said, embodies an air defense program submitted to the Federal Aviation Commission last summer. Some members of the Army general staff are said to approve it. Offhand, one would suggest that such a program should get the closest kind of public scrutiny. Military preparedness on this scale is something new as far as the United States is concerned. Are we in such danger of war as to make an elaborate and expensive aviation program like this either necessary or desirable? IN THE CAUSE OF POLITICS "ITTE are so used to politics and politicians that we generally fail to realize the outrageous things which are done in their name. Here's a sample: Martin L. Davey recently became Governor of Ohio. At the head of the state's minimum wage division was a woman named Louise Stitt. She had made an enviable record in administering the law which protects Ohio's women and children from economic injustice. But one of the Davey administration's first official acts was to reifiove her from office "because she wasn't a vote getter.” Now this sort of thing is as common as grass; and because it is so common we don’t recognize it for what it is—an outrage, pure and simple. To fire a capable public servant because he or she didn't get out the vote for this or that office-seeker is to strike a blow at the very existence of the democratic principle. And we're so used to it that we don’t greet it with the indignation it richly merits. Folice in Shantung are going around cutting off the queues of Chinese v. ho stick to the old custom. And, in explaining, they cut the tab short. As things stand now, the youngsters are figuring out how to spend the S2OO a month their parents would be getting under the Townsend plan. King Zog of Albania has failed to find an intelligent American heiress with $1,000,000, to marry her, because he asks too much. Can’t he be satisfied with the million?.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

AT LEAST THE BOOTSTRAP BUSINESS IS FLOURISHING

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to etrpresitheir views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) ana FORCED LEADERSHIP GETS SCANT PRAISE By Hiram Lackey. - Timely and profitable was the thinking of the conservative editor of The Times who wrote, "The radicalism of today is the conservatism of tomorrow.” More fitting and proper would it have been to pause an hour to pay tribute to the memory of the Christ-like men, such as that of Debs who sacrificed all which the world holds as dear to the end that we might appreciate the need of this change the merits of which you so loudly proclaim. But, most magnificent would be one grand resolution on the part of The Times to give our social workers .who have followed in Christ’s lead the full consideration which the thankless service of Debs deserved. This way lies greatness. Small credit is due "leaders” who wait until the clamoring mob pushes them on to their duty. This weakness did not characterize Lincoln. Your quotations and intimations do not make this accusation true. It does disgrace The Times. The strength of Lincoln’s mature character is a glory too finely beautiful to drag through the dirt in efforts to sanctify the weaknesses of our politicians at Washington. Our unfortunate slaves who, in their voting, followed the advice of The Times are still waiting for a chance to cleanse their defiled souls from the stench of charity and to live decent lives. I would be patient if I did not know that this unnecessary delay and devastation of human rights and values are the result of this Administration's ignoble ambition to keep the power of the wealth of this country in the hands of their small circle. Therefore, Roosevelt must cherish and preserve the major evils of the system that has made the Morgans and Mellons so powerfully unhappy. His intelligently humane attitude is consistent with this ugly purpose. Relatively speaking, justice demands our admission that The Times richly deserves praise for the immeasurable good which its courage and intelligence have accomplished in leading us from the despair of Hooverism into our hopes of today. Yet, judging by the same method and looking upward and forward, The Times as justly deserves to be taken severely- to task. Editor’s Note: Tsk! Tsk! a a a NEW SOCIAL ORDER BENEFITS CITED By James H. Job. I wish to ask the question, “Who or which ciass of our people would welcome the solution and elimination of the unemployment problem?” It is that portion of our people who are able and willing to work. If all our workers were permitted to enter the field of labor without let or hindrance and receive the full price of their labor, none need be either unemployed or want for the things they produce. Under such a social order each and every worker would be permitted to give in exchange every dollar s worth of what he might produce for its equivalent in what some other worker might have produced, on the basis ol an even deal, with-

This Won't Relieve Farmers

By R. J. B. It is interesting to note just how little our Indiana, as well as our national lawmakers know about the American farmer. If they did know him intimately, there would be no kowtowing to favor him, whatsoever, at the present time. One of our best known American writers recently said: “The farmer is everywhere and always a capitalist. He is never so happy as when looting the pockets of those he sells to, but when the looting turns the other way, his screams are heard from coast to coast.” This writer is beginning to fathom where our trouble is, and when more do, and expose some of the tactics of the farmers, then and then only, will the legislating be done for those who really need it, and not those who by their skillful organization demand it. I am speaking from experience. I own a fair-sized farm and lived on it for years. All my relatives are farmers, and I am asqualnted in every community in my county, so I am well versed in farming conditions. My farm, though operated now by a tenant, has been the only holding I have that has shown a profit every year for the last five. It has taken w r hat I have made there to help defray my living expenses in the city and keep up city property. During the war we sold wheat for $2.25 to $2.85 a bushel; corn for $2; hogs, $26 a hundred; milk at 40 cents a gallon, and everything else in proportion. These prices were too high, but since every one was handling money profusely, they paid the demanded price and kept still. Were these high prices satisfactory to the farmers? Absolutely not. They bitterly condemned President Wilson for setting the price of wheat at $2.25, instead of allowing it to skyrocket. I recall many farmers back in that time who felt the government should pension them. They were working for the country the same as the poor devils in the trenches, who were half-starved and endured a living hell, while working for $1 a day, with nothing to come to, if they ever reached home again. The largest class of people who have had to call for help in every community have been the laborers in the cities and towns. Not one call for relief out of 100 has been from the farmer. Then why don’t we see to it that the class hardest hit should be the one to be helped first, and permanently, if possible? Instead of this being the case, the ones the least needy have been the ones to be helped most generously. The farmer Is now accepting a

out profit to any capitalist employer or speculator. What is meant by profit, is that which any person receives over and above that which he has earned fairly. In no other way can consumption equal production. On the other hand, none save those who are in position to employ and exploit labor and thereby become rich, or such as desire and cherish hopes of getting into like positions, will oppose a realignment. It is claimed by some that man is the embodiment of all animal creation. IX so, It follows that man is

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

dole from the Government for not producing, while the poor man in the city, who is at all able, is made to work for every dollar he gets, often exposing himself in all kinds of weather and then not knowing whether he will eat tomorrow or not. The security the farmer has is priceless. This dole given to the farmer and for which we all pay the process tax, benefits no one but himself. He has almost his entire means of sustenance around him. He spends nothing at all in comparison with the man in the city. He ra.ses and cans his own vegetables, fruit and meats; has his own milk, butter, lard and eggs; has his own wheat ground into flour and often his fuel comes off his place. He raises most of the feed to support his stock. He trades work with his neighbors and all the commodities he runs short of, he borrows and pays back. Through home economics clubs their wives learn to make nearly all their clothes, as well as make and refinish some furniture. Persons in the cities can not do this. It takes cold cash for every necessity. Many farmers would starve to death if they had to come to tovCn and work for a living the way the poor man there does. Where does all the money given to the farmer ever help you and me with this kind of frugality? A like sum of money put into the hands of people In town would show a turnover immediately. It would help us all. for it would have to be spent. It would help the farmer too, in a legitimate way, where, as it is, he is holding all the money given to him. to buy anew tractor so he can lay off more help, and be able to buy more broad acres. The ultimate ambition of every farmer, is to own more land. There have been several good sized farms sold recently, that I know of, and all have been purchased by some other farmer. They seem to be the only ones with money enough to buy with, and it must be a paying investment, or why do they want more ground? Most farmers I know of today are doing without any form of milk, butter and cream on their own tables, in order to save it and extract more dollars from their innocent victims. The farmer, because of his organization, can make demands and get them. What other class of people can afford to hire a man in every county to represent their interests as the farm agent does for the farmer? Through these agents, and his various clubs and bureaus, the farmer works for his own good, regardless of the hardship to other persons.

part reptile, part fox and part hog. Man employs his reptile nature to conceal his under-cover methods, and his fox make-up for slyness and cunning. His hog-like characteristic prompts him to take all of everything in sight he wants. The names of many of our great American money hogs are so familiar to most of us that it is needless to mention them. We all xnow how these money hogs have accumulated so much of the money of the country and piled it up in the banks to remain there until the government borrows It and

_JAN. 29, 1935

spends it in a futile effort to restore prosperity. And still we have 12,000,000 unemployed and 19,000,000 on the relief rolls. Mr. Roosevelt, realizing the seriousness of the situation, recommends pensions for the aged and unemployment insurance, neither of which can solve the unemployment problem. Evidently, Mr. Roosevelt is paving the way to perpetuate the capitalist system and at the same time perpetuate unemployment. No form of slavery is so distressing as to be bound down to a chair bottom, hungry.

So They Say

As seen by science, the universe is a vaster and more orderly, more dependable place in which to live than was once recognized. Dr. John C. Merriam, president of the Carnegie Institution. I hate an alibi, especially in politics. —Speaker Joseph W. Byrns. If anew public inquiry into the films is inaugurated, people who consider sex sinful of itself must be excluded, like other lunatics. George Bernard Shaw, famous dramatist. The masses of workers in factory, mill, and mine are regimented to a degree unknown to any previous society.—Dr. Lewis Lorwm, economist. My advice to young painters is to remember that nothing is denied to well-directed labor.—Frank O. Salisbury, British artist.

Daily Thought

Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise, therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord.—l Chronicles, 22:19. 'T'O yield reverence to another, to A hold ourselves and our lives at his disposal is not slavery; often, it is the noblest state in which a man can live in this world.—Ruskin.

QUESTION

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLIMCK You who have worn the wind for cloak; The stars for crescents in your •hair. The moon for gold to clothe your limbs; The night your love; the dusk your dare! You who have shared the symphonies Os birds that peck the sky’s plate blue. Who knew the scarlet songs of bells Swung in the twilight just for you. You who have climbed the pillared clouds. How can you sweep this house with pride? How can you wear this ginghanj frock? How can you be so satisfied?