Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 226, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 January 1935 — Page 11

It Seems to Me Ural BROUN Jan. 30.—The pottage which * * they are serving hereabout has fallen off in quality The brand that is offered now goes under the curious label • Something Just as good.” Men in high position gaze in bewilderment at strangers who grow excited and say, “But don't you remember that the section said .” AL this point all the keepers of the Eaele blink wearily and answer. “We are busy men. Don't waste our time. Please be realistic .** The days of 1933 are done. That

was the age of fire, but now the glaciers have come down along the banks of the Potomac. As an occasional visitor to the nation’s capitol I can remember as if it were yesterday the period when the world was being made over. Men ran, not walked, along the interminable corridors of the Commerce Building and each and every one had a look about him of dedication. God was in his heaven and “idealism” remained in the dictionary. There was even talk of cracking down great palisades in the economic structure of the

Hey wood Broun

United States. And now in these same corridors and offices men sav. “But let s be practical.” They do not raise their voices as they did once in speaking of plans and projects. In facts above the conversation one can sometimes hear the clank of ghosts rattling their chains cheerlessly. And why not. for these are the rooms where many bright aspirations have died. And some perhaps were done to death. a a a City of a Dream That H ns WASHINGTON is now the city of a dream that was. Its motto has become "We do the best wo can.” And I think this is always a defeatist sort of talk foi it seems to me that those things which ran bo done are never carried out. It is the history of 4iuman beings that mankind never accomplishes anything but the impossible. The same civilization which has created machines capable of flying across the broad Atlantic has never produced anything competent to open the w indow in a Pullman. Os all the various sects in the city only one tribe is faithful to its ancient ideals of 1933. Mark Sullivan and the members of his clan are still maintaining that the Administration is racing Hades-bent for Socialism. But Mr. Sullivan, I fear, is one who would impose traffic laws upon the turtles and ask the snail to moderate his reckless progress. The pk.in truth of the matter is that the movement which was once known as the “Roosevelt Revolution ' turns out to be a carousel for kiddies. a tt b Washington Isn't Going Anywhere! AND in the big tent of NRA the patrons ride the horses and zebras about the circuit. Some of the passengers play the game avidly because the signs all say that there is a brass ring which may he snatched by some fortunate one who will be handsomely rewarded. And occasionally the trophy falls to one of the devoted dervishes, but when he conies up to the booth to claim his boon he is informed that as a reward for his industry he may go right back to the carousel again and he taken for another ride. On the whole defeats cause less woe than victories. This Washington of the glacial period becomes animated only when the news is bruited about that somebody has won something NRA. When that happens the sirens sound and the police, the fire department, the cavalry, and the tanks are sent to take it right away from him. Nobody need worry any more that Washington is going left. Indeed nobody need worry that the Washington today is going anywhere. iCopvricht. 1935i

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ—

NEW knowledge of how plants grow and adopt their structure to the conditions under which they must live is coming from a 30-year study which a croup of scientists has been carrying out upon the American desert. The United States is the only great power which has desert country within its home borders. In character, it ranges from regions like the unsettled areas in the colonies of Great Britain, France, Italy and Portugal through various degrees of dryness to semi-arid regions where agriculture is possible but precarious. Semi-arid and arid regions togcthei comprise 24 per cent of the nation's area. At Tucson. Anz.. close to the geographical center of this North American desert region, is the Desert Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. • Desert is commonly thought of as sandy or stony waste devoid of all life” Dr. Forrest Shrevc of the Desert Laboratory, says. “Asa matter of fact there are only a few very small spots in the whole world that would fit this definition. It is nearer the truth to think of desert as country with little rain, few streams, dry soil, high temperature, low humidity, and almost unbroken sunshtne.” The life of a desert plant is an incessant struggle acainst adversity from the vary start, Dr. Shreve says. "Os the many seedlings which appear in the rainy seaons not more than one in a thousand survives to the next rainy period, and few' indeed are the ones that live to reach full size,” he says. a a a \ GREAT deal has been learned about the devices which help plants to meet arid conditions, Dr. Shreve continues “Some plants grow and flourish during the rainy periods and dodge the whole problem of desert life by existing only as seeds during the dry months,” he says. 'Some of them build up a store of water m the rainy seasons which is great enough to supply their needs for a year or more. "Others send their roots deep into the soil and secure every day a little water to balance what they ha%e lost to the air. The plants in each of these croups have achieved certain advantages and at the same time have run into difficulties which limit their activity or restrict iheir distribution.” Expeditions into the American Desert emphasize the fact that it is as difficult for men to exist upon the desert as it is for plants. The scientists of the Desert Laboratory make their expeditions with automobiles so equipped as to render the party as independent and seltf-supporting as possible. Adequate supplies of food, water and gasoline are carried. The tools and spare parts necessary for repairing ordinary motor troubles are likewise carried, to say nothing of shovels and axes for making of road repairs. Frequently, the expedition finds no road at all and has to travel cross country, picking its way between cacti and creosote bushes. One member of the staff of the laboratory. Dr. T. D. Mallery. makes four journeys every year. Two are from Tucson to the Gulf of California. The other two are from Tucson to Tinajas Atlas in southern Yuma County. nan A COMPLETE list of the perennial plants to be A found in the broad valleys and bare mountains of the Camino Del Diablo is very small. Dr. Shreve says. “Hardy creosote bushes are the commonest of these.” he says, “growing up to within 10 feet of each other in favorable pots or more often limited to a dozen plants to the acre. Whether there is the usual rainfall or four or five inches a year or no rain at all the creosote bush is at least able to survive. Like most other desert plants, it grows and blooms when it can but spends most of its life marking time.” Questions which the scientists of the Desert Laboratory are seeking to answer include the following: Whence came the plants of these regions? What families and genera have contributed most of the flora? What has been the origin of the groups that are found only in this inhospitable area? To what extent have slow changes in a plant accompanied its migration into the desert? Are there groups of plants that have lived for countless centuries in th° desert and have sent migrant representatives into moister regions?

Full Lea***! Wire Berricc of he United Prei Association

The supreme court weighs cold u T

HTIIE gold clause is peculiarly American. It is as native as buckwheat cakes, stuffed possum, corn on the cob, sweet potato pone and Battle Creek breakfast food. In no other nation has the instrument gained any popular acceptance, and to most of the peoples of the world it is even more mysterious than the high court in \\ ashington now trying to determine its validity. It was a product of the Civil War and of the subsequent legal tender litigation which was the first true test of the powers of the various branches of the government. At root it reveals the naivete of the American conception of money. The gold problem which still confounds the \\ hite House and the Congress these three-quarters of a century

later emerged in all its distinctive meaning In 1861. The Congress passed an act providing for issuance of $50,000,000 of Treasury notes. The northern banks, busy hoarding gold since the start of the war. suspended gold payments Dec. 30 of that year. The destiny of the nation was in the balance, but the bankers were determined not to pay out their gold for doubtful government notes. The congress had to resort to printing press money. A total of $346.661.000 of greenbacks was put in circulation, a purely fiat currency not redeemable in gold. The Legal Tender Act of 1862 made this fiat money acceptable at par in payment for government bonds, but the bankers had inserted a clause specifying that the government would not use the greenbacks in paying “interest on bonds or notes, which shall be paid in coin.” That amendment was the gold clause in embryo. Under the law as it stood the government still could pay bond principals in legal tender. The act stated that the greenbacks were “lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, public and private, within the United States except duties on imports and interest on aforesaid.” The lobbying bankers, using a contant threat that they would cease marketing bonds payable in legal tender, got the Congress to pass an additional act March 3, 1863, providing that both interest and principal would be paid in coin. Coin, of course, signified gold. The gold clause, as such, appeared for the first time in November, 1865, when the government issued gold treasury certificates of indebtedness. a u n NOW, the greenbacks had begun depreciating in value tw r o months after the first issue. In 1864 a dollar of the paper money was at one time worth only 35 cents of gold. When the war was over the northern states were confronted with the issue of whether debts contracted before the Legal Tender Act could be paid in the depreciated paper. There were eight years of dislocation and uncertainty. The confusions of the time culminated in the crash of Black Friday, Sept. 24, 1869. when Jay Gouid and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the free gold supply of the nation, estimated at about $20,000,000. In a few hours that day they drove the price of the gold dollar, stated in greenbacks, from $1.40 to $1.60. Hundreds of firms were ruined and thousands of individuals. A few months later, on Feb. 7. 1870, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision four to three, declaring the Legal Tender Act unconstitutional and ruling that all debt contracts entered into before that act were payable in gold. The decision was written by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. The Chief Justice had been Secretary of the Treasury when the greenbacks were issued. He was now, as a jurist, taking a position exactly opposed to the position he had taken as a member of the Cabinet.

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

WASHINGTON. Jan. 30.—There is a great deal more to the Administration's $4,800,000,000 omnibus relief bill as it passed the House than is generally realized. The unprecedented peace-time appropriation is ony part of the story. The measure also contains unprecedented Administrative authority under which the President by a stroke of the pen could do the following:

Recast practically the entire administrative machinery of the government, abolishing, if he desired, the Interstate Commerce Commission, Federal Trade Commission and other important agencies. Fill "without regard to Civil Service requirements” the thousands of administrative jobs the relief program will create; also fix the salary to go with each post. In view of the latter it is no wonder Big Jim Farley is going around with a contented grin on his face. Things are picking up in the patronage line and it won't be long before the dinner bell will again be sounding for the faithful. a a a BUT while Jim Farley is grinning. some of the New Dealers who recently have been edged away from the President’s elbow are looking glum. Their worry is due to the haste with which recent legislation has been slapped together and the danger of a Supreme Court veto. The court's objection to the hot oil law was that Congress did not lay down basic specifications for guiding the President. It gave him a blank check. This also may be the Court's objection in the gold cases, namely that Congress must delegate its powers specifically. not in blanket fashion. The new relief bill has the same flaw. It is the greatest blanket bill ever placed before Congress. a a a TANARUS) FC Chairman Jesse Jones is IV noted for his easy-going imperturbability. But on occasion the big. drawling Texan can be definitely vitriolic. Appearing before the Hotse

The Indianapolis Times

Historians are not agreed as to what happened then. At the very moment Chief Justice Chase was reading his decision President Grant was submitting two new Supreme Court nominees to the United States Senate. Joseph B. Bradley and William Strong. Official historians of the Supreme Court contended unanimously that the appointment of the two new members at this critical hour was a mere coincidence. Critics have contended that the Congress and the White House deliberately enlarged and packed the court for the purpose of obtaining anew legal tender decision. You can have your choice. At any rate, a year later, on May 1, 1871, the nine-member court reversed the decision of *he seven-member court and declared the Legal Tender Act to be constitutional. In 1884 the constitutionality of legal tender and the

Banking Committee on behalf of the Administration’s bill extending the life of the RFC for another two years, Jesse was subjected to some barbed interrogation by Massachusetts' Republican Rep. Charles L. Gifford. Gifford was particularly critical of what he described as the RFC’s "failure to save the textile industry.” “It seems to me." he remarked acidly, "that the RFC has a glasseye sympathy—so typical of bankers in general—toivard the problems of the textile industry.” Jesse’s smile dropped like a plummet and he sat up stiffly in his chair. "That's ridiculous,” he snapped back. “Ours is a very real sympathy. If you will see to it that the law is changed so that we can do something for the industry our glass eye will cease shedding crocodile tears. "Just like yours,” he added. (Copyright, 1935. bv Urited Feature Syndicate. Inc.) ANNUAL HOME SHOW ARRANGED FOR APRIL Landscaping Plans Are Presented to Itoard by Architect. Plans for the landscaping and gardens for the 1935 Indianapolis Home Show have been presented to the boarl of directors by Donald B. Johnson landscape architect. This year's show will be presented April : 5 to 14 in the Manufacturers Building at the State Fair Grounds. Locai landscape men and nurserymen, garden clubs and the Indianapolis Park Board, will further cooperate with Mr Johnson in preparing the displays, it was ani nounced.

INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1 30, 1935

iOURT WEICHS COLD -i *t H ; 1 T - -pT '• i pfu v'v-!-

validity of such money in the settlement of contracts was clarified in a third decision. ana WHETHER or not the Congress and President Grant packed the court to obtain reversal, it is true that two powerful economic factions were battling for supremacy at that period, the railroads and the banks. The railroads were the chief debtors of the bankers. The first decision that debts must be paid in gold rather than legal tender was a crushing blow to the railroad magnates and a handsome victory for the bankers. It is also true that the two new justices appointed in 1870 both had been conspicuous railroad attorneys and directors. One of them. Justice Strong, wrote the 1871 decision reversing the earlier decision, and Justice Bradley concurred in an opinion in which he expressed belief that Congress had intended to make the legal tender valid for debts, even where the contract specified gold Justice Bradley’s opinion echoes with a special meaning today when that exact issue is before the court. He said: “The heart of the nation must not be crushed out. The people

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

.cTIWBV JIM, Oft.

“Hurry up—l’m saving a strap iot you.**

Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase (left) handed down the decision, declaring the Tender Act unconstitutional. The dramatic scene above is of the Gold Room during the excitement of Sept. 24, 1869. The sketch is from Harper’s Weekly.

must be aided to pay their debts and meet their obligations. . . . If relief were not afforded universal bankruptcy would ensue and industry ivould be stopped, and government would be paralyzed in the paralysis of the people. . . . But the creditor interest will lose some of its gold. Is gold the one thing needful? Is it worse for the creditor to lose a little by depreciation than everything by me bankruptcy of his debtor? Nay, is it worse than to lose everything by the subversion of the government? . . . And can he not consent to trust that government f or a brief period until it shall have vindicated its right to exist?”

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

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.—The smashing eleventh-hour defeat of the Administration on the World Court will affect American foreign policy for an indefinite time to come, it was admitted here today. The impassioned cry of Minnesota’s Senator Schall: “To hell with Europe and the rest of those nations!” not only made vocal the spirit behind the opposition to the court, but to the packed diplomatic gallery it was a fiery warning. By the iistening diplomats gathered there from

The controversial issue of whether President Grant and the Congress packed the court in 1870 is of extreme importance today. In Washington and elsewhere it is being widely suggested now that if the high court declares the gold clause abrogation unconstitutional Congress and President Roosevelt can appoint additional members and get anew decision. The Constitution does not specify how many justices there shall be. tt a a CONGRESS has varied the number more than once, and presumably for a definite purpose. During the Civil War when four members were Southern Democrats, Congress increased the number to ten, apparently so there would be less danger of decisions dangerous to the Northern cause. When President Lincoln was assassinated and Vice President Johnson, sympathetic with the South, came to office, the Congress reduced the court to seven members, apparently so that the new President would not be able to appoint new' justices who would oppose the bitter reconstruction policies put upon the South. Then, when Johnson was out and Grant was in, the number w'as made nine again. It w'as after the reversal of the legal tender decision that American creditors began writing the gold clause into debt contracts. It became routine practice. No lender w'ould provide money unless the borrower agreed to pay it back in gold of the weight and fineness current at the time the debt was created. The gold clause developed out of the disillusionments of the legal tender controversy. Long after the alarms of that period were forgotten lawyers continued from habit to write the clause into all bonds and contracts. For decades it remained an empty phrase, a legalistic reminder of a time past. Not until Washington deserted the gold standard and devaluated the dollar to 59.06 cents did the clause come alive with meaning again. The droll thing about the gold clause is that it has never meant exactly what people thought it meant. The true meaning of the gold clause is hidden in the true meaning of the gold standard. The gold standard has always been a mythical thing.

Europe, Asia and Latin America it was interpreted as the sign of a rising tide of nationalism in the United States. The adverse vote meant that this country will not only stay out of the court until further notice, but, more emphatically still, out of the League of Nations. u a a T AST November, in New York, a powerful movement was launched to put America into the league. Newton D. Baker, keynoter for the occasion, declared that “we live today in a world that is at the mercy of an incident.” He advocated joining, or associating ourselves with, a modified league. “Economic forces,” he said, “will compel international co-opera-tion.” Whether or not President Roosevelt shared these views—he called the league “a prop in the world peace structure,” and indicated he intended to co-operate with it whenever possible—this nation's entry therein any time soon seems out of the question. What licked the World Court was distinctly the knock-down-and-drag-out fight made by the opposition against the league. The issue was not fought on the merits of the - court, but on the alleged perils the United States was courting by thus being “tangled up with the league.” Setlement of Europe’s $12,000.000,000 war debts to this country was likewise given another setback when the Senate trampled on the court. Again and again the debts bobbed up in the Senate, and by inference, if not by words, the refrain was always, “to hell with Europe.”

Second Section

an Second Matter at FostolTire. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER lYyf-R. FORD FRICK, the new president of the Na- ■*■*•*■ tional League, has been asking the citizens to send in suggestions for the improvement of the game of baseball and, incidentally, for the improvement of the baseball business. Encouraged thus to advise his masters, your correspondent would propose that the restrictions which were imposed upon the pitchers about 15 years ago. in order to stimulate home run production and box office trade, now be revoked. A whole new generation of potential customers has

come along in the meanwhile who never saw the sort of pitching that was common up to the time of Babe Ruth's arrival and the inflation of the home run. These potential new customers have not fully lived up to their potentialities, however. Among the older patrons the memory of the game which they used to know so well has become blurry and remote. The old style pitching was gold standard pitching, so to speak, and the hitter who made a home run under those conditions smacked out a gold standard home run which was worth at least three and probably more of the inflated home runs. But.

in the course of time, the old customers got restless for one reason or another and expressed a wish for more home runs even though they realized that they would not be genuine homers. Inflationism is a curious business, anyway, which nobody seems to know much about, considering the violence with which noted experts disagree. The baseball inflationists knew the home runs of the new issue were not worth as much as the old ones. Still, they looked like genuine homers and the patrons were willing to kid themselves as every true inflationist must. tt tt a They Knew Some Swell Tricks CONSEQENTLY. the soulless corporations which own the baseball industry altered the formula for the manufacture of the standard baseball and took away many little tricks and devices previously allowed to the pitchers. Contrary to popular belief, baseball is not a national treasure, but the property of the soulless corporations. They specify the size and weight of the ball and the ingredients, at their discretion. Thus, they may add more rubber or kangaroo fuzz or other lively ingredients at will whenever they believe that more home runs will draw more customers. The pitchers, up to the time of the inflation, were constantly improving their science whereas the hitters had reached a certain point of development and then stalled. The pitchers were using slippc#,- elm, licorice and tobacco juice, resin, emery and paraffin wax and were known to nick or scuff the hide of the ball with their finger naiLs to make it perform certain trick in flight. Some of them, with their big, banana-bunch hands, could wrench and stretch the leather peeling until the ball wobbled around in its cover like a lone potato in a gunny sack, and fell dead with a dull, punk sound no matter how hard or square it was swatted. The master pitchers themselves never knew why the ball did what it did in response to their tricks. Mr. Will Evans, a college-taught umpire of many years’ service, studied these problems devotedly, but never arrived at any explanations. He learned that Eddie Cicotte, the shine-ball pitcher, for instance, given a smear of paraffin wax on his baseball pants, could rub a ball on the wax until he had shined a high polish on a spot about the size of a quarter. tt a tt Tired of All the Inflation “ A ND then,” Mr. Evans reported, “he would throw Ik the damnest, craziest ball you ever saw. Not even an umpire with infallible eyes and judgment, such as mine, could tell what it was going to do. Often I couldn't even tell what it had done after it did it.” Mr. Ruth and Hack Wilson, who hit 59 home runs in the National League a few years ago, did not have to deal with the gold standard ball or gold standard pitching when they were hitting their inflated home runs. Mr. Ruth did face the old ball and old pitching early in his artistic life, but his achievements then were comparatively modest. His average for those days might provide a mathematical basis for the final evaluation of the inflated home run. Now, the citizens seem to have tired of home run inflation and they might be attracted back to the ball yards by a promise of gold standard baseball. That seems to be the way it is with all inflation, eventually. (Copyright. 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. Tnc.)

Your Health —BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN-

WHEN your arm has been injured particularly at the elbow, you are likely to develop stiffness and difficulty of motion. The elbow joint moves in two ways; by flexion and extension. Flexion is that motion in which the hand is drawn toward the shoulder; extension, the manner in which the hand is drawn away from the shoulder. You also have two other motions known as pronation ands -pination. These are brought about by rotating the elbow joint, moving the palms of the hand toward the body or away from the body. After the elbow joint has been carried for some time in a sling or cast, it is necessary to develop motion again. The experienced doctor does this gradually. a an THE expert who handles cases of this kind tries at first what is known as passive motion, in which the person with the injured arm sits qiuetly. The doctor then takes hold of the arm with one hand just above the elbow and the other on the wrist. He moves the elbow joint very gently, but firmly, using one or two motions the first day and gradually increasing the number. Once the arm is taken out of the sling, however, you can undertake certain exercises which will restore motion to the injured elbow joint. These are as follows: Lie face dowm, forearm supported by the operator over the edge of the table; bend the elbow, with the aid of gravity, to increasing angles. Lie on the back, forearm supported by the operator; straighten from increasing angles. Sit with the inner side of the whole arm resting on the table on powdered cardboard: >&> Bend the elbow by sliding the forearm along the table, ib) Start with the elbow bent, and straighten. Sit or stand, arm at the side, raise the forearm until the hand touches the shoulder, (ai Book in hand, lift the book to the shoulder. a a a SIT or stand, arm at the side, weight in hand; (&> With the palm facing forward, bring the weight to the shoulder and lower to the side. <b) With the back of the hand facing forward, bring the weight to the shoulder and lower to the side. Sit, back of the upper arm resting on the table, elbow bent to a right angle: (a) Palm facing the shoulder, turn the forearm until the back of the hand faces the shoulder. <b> Back of the hand facing the shoulder, turn the forearm until the palm faces the shoulder. Sit, forearm resting on the table, elbow bent to a right angle: <ai Hand resting on the little f .ger. turn the forearm until the palm faces down, ib Turn the forearm until the back of the hand touches the table, (c) Back oi the hand resting on the table, turn the forearm until the hand rests on the little finger. <d > Palm of the hand resting on the table, turn the forearm until the hand rests on the Uttie finger.

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Westbrook Pegler