Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 226, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 January 1935 — Page 12

PAGE 12

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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 30 1335 FOR THOSE WHO CANT DANCE EAST coast. West coast, all around the nation nwn and women who can will dance tonight in behalf of those who can t. The occasion has a dual purpose, to celebrate the President's birthday and to raise funds In behalf of his fellow-victims of infantile paralysis. Little is known of the cruel malady that attacked him in his early prime and that now accounts for fully one-half of the country’s 300.000 cripples. Money raided at the many birthday balls tonight will be used to find out more about it. Os the funds to be collected 70 per cent will go to finance local rehabilitation campaigns and 30 per cent to a national research fund. Last year’s birthday balLs netted $1,000,000 for the Warm Springs Foundation. Tonight's jollity will be tinged with lament for those who have lost the power to dance. Nevertheless the prevailing spirit will be that of hope. Inspired by the man who today has reached 53 and the highest office in America under a handicap that would have discouraged a less valorous soul. A toast to his courage!

BACK THEM UP! THE .special, six-man committee appointed by the General Assembly to investigate the alleged monopolistic practices of natural gas companies operating in Indiana and other Middle Western states started to work yesterday and. in a first session of about one hour, obtained what seem to be promising leads. To accomplish anything, it must have sufficient funds to press its investigation thoroughly, to summon witnesses from other parts of the country if necessary, to hire special counsel if the investigation becomes protracted. On the companies’ side is great massed wealth. The five or more companies involved are among the largest corporate giants in the land. Two of them have, as of their last statement. assets of more than 51.035,000,000. The committee needs funds. The Legislature should back its members up! TO HELL WITH THE WORLD—AND AMERICA u npo hell with Europe and the rest of those nations!” With that cry beating upon its ears the Senate voted down the World Court resolution. How simple it all seems to those who say, to hell with the rest of the world! All we have to do is stay out of the court and international co-operation—the evil world will go on with its wars and virtuous America will sit at home, prosperous and safe. But there are questions which these pipedreamers never answer: “How does it happen w'e were dragged into the last World War, when we were not in the World Court or any other international organization? If isolation means peace now, why didn't it mean peace then? And if isolation means prosperity in the future, why has it not brought prosperity in these last five terrible years? The truth is that we are a part of the wori<S, whether we like it or not. We are all in the same boat. If there is another World War, we probably will go down with the rest. If there is another world depression it will pull us down with the others again, as it has this time. And all the shouts of "To hell with other nations” will not help us in the future any more than they helped us in the past. They will merely deprive us of a voice in the decisions by which others influence the fate of the world and of America. The World Court issue in itself is secondary —our membership would not change the course of history. It is important rather as a symbol and as a challenge. If President Roosevelt and the majority of the American people, who have shown themselves in favor of the court, are now intimidated by this Senate action into withholding American co-operation for world peace our nation is apt to pay a very heavy price in the end.

PREPARE FOR A RISE 'T'HE cost of living is going to take a jump, if charts prepared by New Deal forecasters in Washington are correct. Between now and June 1, it is estimated, prices will undergo a steady rise. This, It is stated, will be due chiefly to increased employment, a great volume of business turnover. and the expenditure of $4,000,000,000 on tire recovery and relief budget. , The prospect is one to be greeted with mixed emotions. A steadily rising price level will be accompanied by a general increase in values which will make it easier to pay debts—and reduction of our tremendous load of debt is an essential to recovery’. On the other hand, if the cost of living rises faster than wages and salaries, the wage-earner and the white collar worker will feel the pmch severely. Fixing things so that prices rise just fast enough, but not too fast, is apt to be a ticklish job. SIMPLER LIFE T>ENJAMIN FRANKLIN has been called -■-* "the first civilized American;” nevertheless. wise old man that he was, he was never entirely sold on the idea that the civilized man is really happier than the untaught savage. All this comes to light in the discovery of marginal comments by Franklin in an old

THOSE who advocate immediate payment of the $2,100,000,000 bonus to veterans argue that such action would bring an immediate improvement in business. History indicates that the contrary is true. This country has seen seven major drives by ex-soldiers for greater subsidies. These movements reached their peaks in 18-0, 1833, 1880, 1393, 1909, 1926 and the present cycle, which arrived at one high point in 1931, has probably not yet run its course. All these cycles are amazingly similar. An average of them is fairly typical of each. Somewhat less than 10 years after every war the cost of veteran benefits begins to rise. General business conditions are poor, but the Treasury has a surplus of 20 per cent over its total revenues. Three years later the nation is floundering in economic depression. Despite this veteran relief has risen to its peak for that cycle with the Treasury paying for'this purpose 21 per cent of its total expenditures. The government surplus is either reduced to microscopic proportions or an actual deficit has replaced it. Business remains poor while payments to veterans continue at their high point. After a little more than a year pensions are reduced, the Treasury once more has a surplus, business Tkes an upswing. This is a representative pension cycle. a a a IIfHEN Congress a few years ago allowed ’ ’’loans" on bonus certificates it was argued that this measure would end the present depression, then just getting under way. Os course, nothing of the sort resulted. Most appealing to the unthinking veteran is the argument: ‘'Everybody else is getting theirs; why shouldn't the veteran get his?” This is the old fallacy that two wrongs make a right. It is tantamount to saying: “My neighbor is a successful burglar, therefore it behooves me to be a burglar.” If this is a sound argument, why isn’t the Townsend plan? Why shouldn't the old folk of this country band together to get S2OO each a month trom the Treasury? They believe themselves as worthy as the veterans. The cruel thing about the bonus agination is iixxu it deceives the veteran. He is being made the tool of those who want inflation. The only way that the $2,100,000,000 can be paid in a lump sum is by inflating the currency. Suppose this inflation amounted to one-

book owned by the Library of Congress. This Dook, published in 1770, undertook to review the happiness which civilization brings, and Franklin scribbled his dissent on the edge of one of the pages. "The difference,” he wrote, “is not so great as may be imagined. Happiness is more generally and equally diffused among savages than in our civilized societies. No European who has once tasted savage life can afterward bear to live in our societies. ‘‘The care and labor of providing for artificial and fashionable wants, the sight of so many rich wallowing in superfluous plenty, whereby so many are kept poor and distressed by want; the insolence of office, the snares and plagues of law', the restraints of custom, all contribute to disgust them with what we call civil society.” If Franklin found the leisurely pastoral society of his day uncomfortably complex and contradictory, one wonders what he would have thought of life in the America of 1935. Probably he would have yelled for anew sheet of paper and sat down to make anew list of the in which the savage has it all over the civilized man. For savages, after all. do not get themselves into the kind of tangle where people go shoeless because there are too many shoes, breadless because there is too much wheat, and moneyless because there is too much hard cash in the land. Nor. getting themselves into difficulties, do they seek to remedy shortages of essentials by cutting down the available supplies of food, <• clothing, and other necessities. In lesser matters, too, the savage has the bulge on us. He does not have to read about Hauptmann trials; he does not have to listen to crooners, nor does he kill 35,000 people a year in the process of moving from one place to another, as we do. He does not have the infidelities and imbecilities of a Hollywood to support, nor must he listen to Senators explaining that his country will go to the dogs if it joins the World Court. Is the answer, then, that w'e must give the country back to the Indians forthwith, and woo the simple life while squatting placidly under a tree? Not at all. We simply might remember that the society we have today is not an end. but a beginning. By civilizing ourselves, we have surrounded ourselves with much foolishness; our only hope is that we shall discard most of the foolishness as we go along, and some day reach a state which will repay us for the vexations we are going through now.

HOPE FOR REPUBLICANS ONE of the most entertaining of indoor games for cold winter evenings is trying to figure out what is going to happen to the Republican party. Is it dead, waiting only the services of coroner and mortician? Is it just sick, waiting for the services of a doctor? Or is it beginning a slow but sure recovery which will presently carry it back to full health and national power? Dr. Charles A. Beard, historian, suggests that one way to answer these questions is to look at history. In the current issue of Scribner's Magazine he takes such a look, and from it he concludes that the G. O. P. is a long way from dead, in spite of the merciless shellacking it has had to take. Twice before, he says, there has been a great upheaval of forgotten men at the polls. The first took place in 1800 and put Thomas Jefferson in the White House; the second occurred in 1828 and resulted in the election of Andrew Jackson. Each time the party of wealth and power was snowed under and the "revolution” looked like a permanent thing. But each time war and the development of business enterprise put the rich and powerful back in the saddle. The Jeffersonian revolution went along swimmingly until we got into the war of 1812. The war's end found American industry, stimulated by war expenditures, a giant in

The Bonus —BY TALCOTT POWELL—

third. A veteran has two dollars in his pocket. Inflate, then hand him another dollar as a bonus. He .ias no more actual money than he had before. He can buy no more with his inflated three dollars than he could with the two. More important than the bonus is the problem of whether the United States is to be run by privileged minorities, whether these minorities be composed of bankers, farmers, old people or veterans. If minorities are to rule, the average man, with no special claims on the Treasury, must foot the bill—which is impossible. 808 r T'HE veterans did their duty and deserve all praise and credit for doing so, although, remember, it was their duty. Surely they do not now wish to set themselves up as a privileged class because of this. Already the s.tate Legislatures have given veterans many special privileges not enjoyed by the ordinary good citizen. In Indiana these number no less than 13. Only New Jersey, with 16, exceeds this record. Washington might well consider the full payment of the bonus to those now on public relief. The government is borrowing money now to support these unfortunate veterans. By paying them their bonus the Treasury would be discharging a debt instead of incurring anew one. If the present cycle in veteran subsidies follows those that have preceded it the next demand will be for a service pension to all who served in the war. It will be argued that Civil War veterans were granted S2O a month for life. There were 2,128,943 men in the Union forces during that conflict. The dead numbered 359,528. In the World War 4,090,358 men were in the service. The dead were only 122,193. i ; In 1893 the cost of Civil War service pensions had risen until veteran relief was costing a third of the entire income of the Treasury. It is not difficult to calculate the staggering cost of a service pension for World War veterans. Thinking veterans ask no special privileges. They know that the more that is paid to the able-bodied the less can be paid to the warmaimed and the dependents of the honored dead. Above all, they realize that minority rule means the end of our Republic and the substitution of fascism for the institutions they have held dear.

comparison with its "previous status; it also found an immense public debt in the hands of banks and business men. So the forgotten man had to gather his forces for anew assault. This came in the election of Jackson, and this time the revolution looked even more like a solid and 'Everlasting affair. But once again business enterprise went ahead at an unforeseen pace. And once again there came a war the Civil War, this time —to upset the balance still further. When the dust had cleared away, the elements Jackson had overthrown were firmly re-established. Now we have the “Roosevelt revolution,” with the Republican party taking an awful beating. Is the new state of affairs to be permanent? Dr. Beard sees no reason for thinking so. The economic base has not shifted. The New Deal has not taken the instrumentalities of economic power from their former possessors. And dark on the horizon lies the shadow of anew possible war—a Pacific war, this time, dimly seen but threatening. Studying all this in the light of history, Dr. Beard sees little reason to look for permanence in the overthrow of forces for which the Republican party has been the spokesman. If the Townsend plan ■were adopted, the fast life we’re living today wouldn't be half fast enough. With the aged getting S2OO a month, the insurance companies would have to insure us for security in our youth.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL SNOW and cold weather may disappoint a great many persons, but not the Scandinavian diplomats or the polar bears of Washington. Minister Bostrom of Sweden, pink-cheeked and jolly, added a daily walk along the icecovered streets to his daily routine of Swedish massage, rub-down and icy shower. "I love snow,” Envoy Bostrom maintained to a dinner companion who had complained about the frigid temperatures. As for Minister Otto Wadsted of Denmark, he grows daily more cheerful as the skies grow grayer. "I don’t like storms at sea,” he explained. “I was worried when my wife and baby recently crossed the Atlantic on their way back to Washington. But this is good, bracing weather—good for the soul.” Polish Ambassador Stanislaw Patek -won't go for a sleigh ride and frankly prefers warm spring days. But that is partly because his Polish Excellency suffers from chilblains. His Russian fur overcoat (purchased when he was envoy to Moscow) successfully acts as a barrier against the glacial breezes. When Patek appears amid snow and ice these days, the only things one can see are the glistening crown of his high hat and the tips of his patent leather shoes. All the rest is overcoat. a n b INCIDENTALLY, very few diplomats go in for the sleighing, skiing and ice-skating here. Envoys from the hot countries simply shudder and bury their noses in fur-collf. ed overcoats when the subject is mentioned. And those from the cold climates find winter sports here too mild. A young Scandinavian explained thus: "Oh. yes, I have a pair of skates with me! Why don't I go ice skating? Well, I’ll be frank. It isn't very thrilling to skate in Wash.ngton. In my country, you know, it is possible to strap on your skates and glide for miles and miles along ice-covered fiords. You feel like a bird . . . you go faster, faster, faster! What glorious sport! But here—you skate for half a block on a little pond and probably are knocked down by some fat old gentleman or a French poodle.” USB SOVIET AMBASSADOR TROYANOVSKY, who arrived here by plane from Los Angeles amid flurries of snow and a biting wind, has paid scant heed to the weather since his return. The envoy is more concerned with such questions as payment of American claims and an extensive grant of credits to the Soviets. He was met here by members of his staff after a three-month trip to Russia, looking sun-burned and fit, with Mme Troyanovsky swathed in brown furs and wearing a black hat. He left Moscow in the midst of one snow storm and arrived here in another. But only diplomatic storms worry him.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

SPEAKING OF HOLDING COMPANY STOCKS

The Message Center

(Times readers are incited to express their views in these columns. Make your tetters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) B B B DESIRES INVESTIGATION OF BANK CLOSINGS By Harry C. Moore. As it is about time for the "not forgotten men” to show up before our new Grand Jury, there are some of us hoping that the time they have taken lo show up hasn’t had any deadening effect upon the members of this jury, as it seemingly has with the pulbic. We have confidence in these new members, and know that all the evidence in these cases will be acted upon with good judgment. Every one knows that nothing exists without a cause, but the cause has never been explained to the satisfaction of the majority. The ignorance of the people and the members of this new Grand Jury isn’t quite as complete as some of these bankers think. There is “no hope of hoping forever,” says an ancient adage, and those of us who were made to suffer by the closing of these banks, are still hoping for a better explanation. From our own experiences we shall draw conclusions which concern us, until something different is offered. B B B FAVORS DISCLOSING FACTS ABOUT WAR By Hartwell Thixton. I do not wish to engage in controversy over the bonus or in defense of the ex-soldier, but I find it just as repulsive to listen to the prattle of those would-be patriots w-ho wish ro claim the distinction of one who would have gladly gone to war, had he been old enough, as to the discussion of the bonus. As our worthy contributor, who called himself Junior, has issued a call to his fellow patriots for organized efforts to eradicate the professional veteran, I would like to suggest that he, instead of boasting and leading us to believe that in the event of a future emergency, he would crowd others from the line in order to be first to enlist, w r ould limit his doctrine to that of a constructive nature and directed toward the abolition of war, it might automatically result in fewer veterans. Absurd statements such as his willingness to participate in future wars is nothing short of propaganda which has the tendency to poison the minds of children today who will be our soldiers of tomorrow. We in a united spirit should convey to our children and others whose future destinies we control the facts pertaining to war in its most vicious and barbarous form. Instead of glorifying war let us make known the facts, that in many instances soldiers were expected to believe they were no better than dogs. That in various organizations officers were known to resort to orutaiity for means of enforcing discipline on those who were desperate under the strain of hardships. That known cases of hunger forced the eating of blood stained hardtacks retrieved from the packs of fallen comrades. That the ambulance trailed the infantry and gathered the remnants of struggling dough-boys whose feet through forced marches had become swollen larger than their shoes. The revelation of those experiences may be criticised by some and doubted by others, but they are based on facts and are experiences of the writer and were shared by others who were fellow associates in the Second Division Infantry. We often wonder how mothers could fall under the spirit and become so imbued with patriotism that she would willingly sacrifice her son on the altar of human slaughter. hear today echoes of

Workers, Taxes and Relief

By Live and Let Live. It seems strange that in this great world of plenty that the man who has managed to hold on to his position during the depression should be taxed to death to help pay some who are tickled pink that the depression is here and that they don’t have to work; some who have never worked unless compelled to do so and have gone so far as to say that they are better off now than when they were working and are more than satisfied to go on accepting charity. Where are our law makers? Why don’t they make a law that no married woman, unless she is a widow or has an invalid husband, be allowed to take a position that can be filled by a man with a family, a single man or a sffigle girl, and just find a position that can not be filled by one of the three. Also make a law that the man who employs these married women pay a heavy fine, one he* won’t want to pay a second time. It is certainly disgusting and disgraceful to see a man and his wife both holding good positions while their neighbor, who perhaps

those fallacious inducements which gave us the incentive to don the uniform, join the ranks and accept the hardships which we were later to endure. Misconceived minds of some today would have us believe the welfare of our nation was at stake and that our participation was justified. The results of this misconception poison the minds of our future generations and pave the way for future conflicts. Through the pages of history we find wars have been motivated by man’s own selfish nature and contrary to his best interest. Powerful nations rose to glorious heights only to fall by the power of the sword. If nations would destroy all sinister forces operating to promote war and substitute in place thereof, organizations for the promotion of universal brotherhood, the ultimate state of perfection would then be accessible. That church and religion assisted those sinister forces can not be denied; while right thinking people would look to the church for spiritual intervention and offer to act as intermediary to attain a peaceful settlement, the attitude was completely reversed. The most forceful appeal for war came in the form of a prayer by Billy Sunday at the opening of Congress which we will recall: “Thou knowest, Oh Lord, that no nation so infamous, vile, greedy, sensuous and blood-thirsty ever disgraced the pages of history. Make bare thy mighty arm, Oh Lord, and smite the hungry walfish Hun whose fangs drip with blood.” Such prayers are propaganda in its most vicious form and we can only conjecture what the future concerning wars holds for us until we accept the spirit of universal brotherhood and resort to national plebiscites for declaring war to establish the first in its perpetuity. B B B VETERAN REPLIES TO BONUS OPPONENT Bt Harry Hf -vard. I am but 40 years old and am a disabled veteran of the World War and want to say that I am very, very sorry that our young friend who calls himself Junior was not old enough to have gone w r ith me in the early part of 1917. I would have loved to have had him along; he would have enjoyed it I am sure; in fact, he would have had to like it. I don’t know what kind of a reserve he is, perhaps he is one of those 30-day wonders, commonly

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

has a family of small children, can not get work simply because the positions are filled by married women. Some of them complain that they can not get by on what their husbands make. Well, if they would stay home and care for their homes and families as they should, no doubt their husbands would get better pay and perhaps some other husbands could feed their families also. Is it any wonder our young persons are becoming criminals? Idleness creates crime and the woman who steals their jobs or the man who thinks it is too much trouble to break in anew girl when the old one gets married on Saturday night and returns to work on -Monday morning may feel that they are helping to send some one’s son to the electric chair, or some one’s daughter to the gutter and helping starve some one’s children. My husband has earned what we have by the hardest work, but never has he been small enough to expect me to go to work or even to permit me to do so had I been so inclined. So why not give every one a chance? Let’s live and let live.

knowui to real soldiers as shave tails, or he might mean that he is a reserve in the Economy League, Liberty League or some of the organizations sponsored by the multimillionaire munition makers. Speaking of reserves or shave tails as w r e called them, once in a while when we could not help ourselves they ran in some of them on us. Some were o. k. but the majority of them wouldn't keep, they spoiled, so to speak, so we just exchanged them for new ones, who would not get dizzy, when they got off the ground. As for Junior being a taxpayer and having to pay the living expense of some of those World War veterans that he refers to as "noisy frauds,” Junior must be a big shot in the financial world, probably owns a munitions factory. Right here let me give Junior a tip. The remnants of the four million men who in the World War—these are Junior’s figures—have a lot of friends, and sympathizers, and not a few of the aging "mercenaries” as Junior calls them, are pretty good with their mitts yet. I hope Junior lets his mind broaden a little, and that he does not run around in public much yapping about veterans being "whining, noisy frauds” or “aging mercenaries,” because someone might lose their patience with little Junior and then the Economy League or whatever anti-veteran league that he belongs to w'ould have a disabled reserve to put on the pension list. Asa statistician I think Junior is “the nertz.” He wrote that a very small percentage of the veterans want their adjusted service certificates cashed. Well, well, how perfectly dizzy one must be to believe such bunk as that. If Junior would travel around a bit, read both sides of all the different arguments on the subject, and reason things out a little, he would find that the members of the different veteran organizations that advocate payment at this time, represent a very, very small percentage of the millions of needy veterans who want, and need what is due them. I will say that the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, are making a brave and effectual effort for the veteran body as a whole. Judging by Junior’s figures, he was around 14 or 15 years old while the war was going on, yet makes the absurd statement that “We stepped in and won the war.” Who does he mean by “we”? Granting that Junior is a heavy taxpayer, mythical or real, I would

JAN. 30, 1933

advise him to go on loving such outfits as the Economy League and Liberty League and other antiveteran outfits promoted by the extremely wealthy then after the next war he won’t have any property to pay taxes on; that is, unless he is lucky enough to be a munitions maker. BB • B MEDITATION UPON HUMAN AFFAIRS Bv Jonfitz. In the drift and scatter froih preestablished pathways, man, as never before, is inquiring the cause of his errors. Adversity has painted a bitter and unpleasant picture of his shortcomings. He realizes his unduly prolonged adolescence. With much of yesterday’s knowledge looming up as not so, society has been thrown temporarily out of equilibrium. Tt sways m impatient expectation upon the support of vague and ill-defined cure-alls, blatant demagogues and ebullient self-seekers. The moon does not smirk when jackals howl, nor, when it views one of the saddest circumstances of an imperfect civilization. Americans, by nature aggressive and pushing, midst the quick touch and go of modern life, refuse to stay put. Anew order tugs violently at its moorings. Is the Appian Way of Progress at last nearing the untrodden summit of social security? Or, will shallow compromises and degrading concessions alter the route? Utopian principles have always failed because of gross ignorance concerning the elementary facts of life. It is a waste of opinion to overlook the nature of the beast. At least man has come to know that human want and misery can be modified; that slums and the breeding places of crime must go; that war and hate, entertwined as nations are, leads irresistibly to a hampering chaos; that, after all, the development of the individual is paramount. Man, with leisure and more leisure, will try the countless new qualities of his world. With due gravity I hazard my meditations here above the noisy haste of a great city. So They Say If I were a girl, I would never let a boy drive with one arm around me—Eddie Cantor. The only good book, in my opinion, is an honest book, and no book, I am sure, can be honest and wholly bad.—Vardis Fisher, author. Daily Thought But we will not boasc ot things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.—ll Corinthians x, 10. THE less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.—Bacon. Winter Rain BY MAIDA L. STECKELMAN Beads of crystal hang forlorn Where crimson roses once were bom. There swings wuthin each drop of rain Imprisoned fairies of the spring. They clasy their little hands and plead Within the circle of each bead Until the monarch of the air Selects his tools with expert care Designs from ice a castle grand And fairies dwell in Fairyland.