Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 232, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 February 1935 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times (A SO HI PPS-HOW AHD 9PAI‘F.R> ROT W. HOWARD Pre*M*nt TALCOTT PO KLL Editor KARL D. BAKER Buiineia Manager Phone Riley 5531

A ; ■ B 'Jlr# lAffht nn<i fS# People Will Fx.4 Dftr Own Way

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WEDNESDAY. FEBI.UARY 6. 1915 CIVILIZATION—OR BARBARITY? “Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment will prevent farm children from doing ordinary chores." • # • 'T'HAT is one of the chief arguments advanced by out-of-state industrialists who •re striving to block ratification of the amendment by Indiana's Legislature. The answer is: ‘'Claptrap." Behind that great argument for farmerconsumption lurk the slinking, groveling figures of overgorged sweatshop operators who have one stock in trade and play it to the limit. Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment will bring none of the dire disasters predicted by foes of the measure. Ratification merely signifies that the states indorse Congress' move to outlaw exploitation of children by Industry. What remains—and therein lies the key—is for Congress to **nact suitable laws to regulate the “gainful mployment” of children in indui*ry. Does any one think for a moment that Congress is going to bar every bit of endeavor on the part of youth to aid their parents. or to work after school? Does any one think that Franklin Roosevelt would sign such • measure?

Ralph A. Scott of Greenfield addressed the Irvington Republican Club the other night. He saw iniinite dangers in ratification. “It means complete regimentation of the people.” he cried. The late United States Senator Albert J. Beveridge was a greater Republican than Ralph A. Scott and an even greater foe of what Mr. Scott calls “regimentation” than the Greenfield rice broker can ever hope to be. And yet. Albert J. Beveridge saw no great evil in abolishing child labor. He laid the foundation for the present amendment more than a decade before its introduction when he spoke for three solid days on the floor of the United States Senate on the evils of child labor. a a a 'TMIE history’ of social legislation in the world shows the United States almost beyond the pale of civilization. England launched the first of its great social legislation series in 1802. Twenty-two short years after the birth of the American republic, England was legislating for the protection of the health and morals of women and children employed in Industry. In 1819. England moved to aid "unapprenticed children.” and followed it up with important legislation in 1825 and 1833. The Consolidation Factory Act of 1844 limited the hours of labor for children, and in 1848, England barred a working day of longer than 10 hours for women and young persons. Take social insurance for an example. Germany and Austria enacted compulsory accident insurance in 1887. Hungary took it up in 1891, Norway in 1894. Finland in 1895, Great Britain in 1897, Denmark in 1898, Italy and France also in 1898, and Spain in 1900. But the United States didn’t flicker an eyelash mjtil 1908. when the measure was adopted for Federal employes ONLY. Greed was still in the saddle of American Industry. Twenty-five of the states passed the accident Insurance measure between 1911 and 1913, but only after tremendous pressure had been brought to bear. an n NOW. the United States moves to put itself into the front rank of civilization and every money-grubber in America is at the throats of the Legislatures. No fabrication has been too petty, too shallow to use. The rarmer is told his children will be unable to help with the chores, the churchman that Congress will forbid any child attending any school conducted by the church, the taxpayer that it means “complete regimentation of the people." Holmes worded it correctly when he wrote very simply: “Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.” Indiana's legislators MUST place this state within the circle of civilization. The Democratic majority has a duty to perform. Elected almost to the man on pledges of “standing with Roosevelt.” Indiana’s Democrats now give signs of wavering, deserting the Rooseveltian banner on the child labor issue. Every legislator—Representative or Senator—who casts his vote against ratification of this amendment will be remembered—remembered as a spineless tool of sweatshops, a tool who voted to keep Indiana in the lists of the barbarians. NEEDED REVISION Treasury secretary morgenthau makes three suggestions for improving the Administration bills old-age security provisions. Os these two appear entirely reasonable. one open to question and further scrutiny. Sound is his proposal to increase employerworker contributions under the measure so as to render the old-age security fund solvent “without imposing heavy burdens on future generations.” He would raise the security tax rate from the bill's 1 per cent to 2 per cent, which would increase to 6 per cent at the end of 12 years, instead of 5 per cent at the end of 20 years. In this way the fund can be built up quickly and the government relieved of onerous oldage pension costs to care for workers now in their 40s and 50s. Under the measure as it stands the government would be paving $1,500.000,000 in 1980, a millstone this generation has no right to wish on a future one. Reasonable also la his suggestion that tpe Treasury sell voluntary annuity

certificates. There Is no reason why either the Treasury or the PostofTice should not conduct this wholly business function. Questionable is his proposal to remove from the old-age security system all farm help, domestics and casual workers. It is true that the administration of security benefits to these classes is a Gimcult task. But it is also true that, out of the 34.000.000 workers to come under the bill's old-age security provisions, no group is so in need of protection ip old age as the 8,500,000 farm, domestic and casual workers. A score of other countries operate old-age insurance laws. The systems of 11 of these —Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium included—cover agricultural workers and domestics. While casuals are included in only the Italian and Hungarian systems, labor is more stabilized on the continent than here. Doubtless it will require time, patience and statesmanship to work out administrative problems blanketing this lower third of America's wage-workers into the security system. In the meantime, as Rep. McCormack of Massachusetts says, the act should count them in as a matter of present policy and pledge of future protection. “If we don't get them into the bill now,” he warns, “we never wall.” HOW THE NAVY IS USED Hugh GIBSON, American ambassador to Brazil, on March 12, 1934, sent the following cable to State Secretary Hull: “Received a call from Robert Aitken Workman, the New York Shipbuilding Cos. vice president. He asked .hat I wire immediately recommending scout cruiser be sent to Rio for the ‘moral effect’ while the Brazilian government was considering bids for naval construction. “His manner was rather truculent and he took me to task for not being here when he wanted to see me. “He pointed out the fact that there were two British cruisers in uhe harbor and referred caustically to the fact that the British knew how to take care of their interests.* “The cruisers were there on a regular schedule—arranged some time ago a fact which I pointed out to him. in spite of this he said that he would .ake ihe matter up with the Navy through his own channels—to have a cruiser available for detached service sent to Rio. “I feel that no cruiser should be sent because of the effect its sudden appearance would have. I question the value of such a visit in view of the present unsettled political situation, without some valid reason.” Secretary Hull concurred in the views expressed by Ambassador Gibson. But, evidently, the ‘truculent” spokesman for the shipbuilding company did “take the matter up with the Navy through his own channels.” For, on Aug. 14, 1934, Admiral Standley, chief of naval operations, informed the company that the aircraft carrier Ranger would visit Rio De Janeiro on a “shake-down” trip, and that the cruiser Tuscaloosa, built by this firm, would appear in the Rio harbor “late in December, 1934.” Although a scandal by itself, this is but one of several disclosures snowing how high government officials and Navj' officers have helped to promote foreign sales for American munitions manufacturers, often in defiance of our governments foreign policies. In 1929 the Navy sent the cruiser Raleigh to the harbor of Constantinople so that the Driggs Ordnance and Engineering Cos. might demonstrate anti-aircraft guns to the Turkish government A few years ago, while our State Department was trying to keep Colombia and Peru from going to war over the Leticia dispute, a United States naval officer, “loaned” to Colombia, was working hand-in-glove with this same ordnance company drawing up plans for Colombia's defense from a prospective Peruvian submarine attack—which had been mapped by a United States naval mission to Peru, in co-operation with the Electric Boat Cos. Some Senators on the investigation committee, it is said, have decided to recommend a’ government monopoly in the manufacture of lethal weapons. Certainly they have enough evidence already to prove that under the present system the drive lor private profits has made the munitions industry a kind of supergovernment in foreign affairs.

AVOID RELIEF ONE of the dangers we face in considering any unemployment relief bill is the chance that we may forget that unemployed relief, no matter how it is set up or what benefits it may provide, is in the end only a substitute for something better. Recent argument over different relief measures seems to have taken it for granted that there is, somewhere, a magic formula which, if we only could find it, would solve this vexing question forever. It is most important for us not to forget tnat even the wisest relief bill is only a poultice. Even if every idle worker in the land were drawing ample relief allowances under a scheme which magically prevented the financial load from burdening the taxpayer, the real problem would remain. We would still face the task of getting these idle men back to work. There Is going on In Washington now a lengthy argument between proponents of different kinds of relief. One kind is typified by the Administration’s relief measure, which would operate through state systems and would give jobless men an allowance ranging somewhere around SSO a month. The other, infinitely broader, is represented by the lmdeen bill, now being discussed before a House subcommittee. This bill would boldly pay all persons past 18, who are jobless through no fault of their own, a weekly sum equal to the prevailing wage rates in their locality. Those on parttime work would draw from the government the difference between their part-time wage and the prevailing wage. Now this bill, naturally enough, is drawing superlatives from each camp. People whose viewpoint is thai of the political left are hailing it as a measure which will at last do Justice to the unemployed: conservatives, on the other hand, see in it a piece of extravagance which would commit the government to unbearably heavy expenditures and would promote idleness. What both sides are apt to miss is the fact that our real problem is to arrange things so that no unemployment relief bill will be needed. - * - . L The immediate need may be la take cate

of the Jobless, but the long-range need is to get the Jobless back to work. Any relief bill, strictly speaking, is a piece of extravagance—a sign that our economic machine is out of gear somewhere. No matter how wisely we plan for a relief bill, the problem won’t be solved until we have fixed things so that the Jobless man can get a job and not a handout. AUSTERITY BREAKS DOWN WE generally take it for granted that the British Parliament is the very home of parliamentary dignity. Other nations, including our own, may send sons of the wild jackass to represent them at their capitol; Britain has an old tradition under which statesmen, not politicians, are elected, and the House of Commons does not witness those wild and uncouth scenes which make exciting reading in other seats of government. This conception, however, is rudely upset by a reading of the recent flurry which took place in the House of Commons when a Labor member rose to relieve ms mind on the subject of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. Here are some of the things the man said: “He is a mountebank. He should be flung and horsewhipped from public life. He would double-cross his own aunt. He attained power on the pennies and half pennies of the people and now he is robbing them. When he dies, he will be cursed by millions.” Undignified and ill-considered as some of our own congressional outbursts may be, it is a long time since any congressman has attacked the head of his government in terms as wild as these. HOW A LEGAL MIND WORKS / T'HE amazing way in which some persons can follow legal formalism regardless of the human issues at stake is illustrated by a current case in the Texas courts, where some one’s mistake in writing a date may mean the difference between life and death for a convicted criminal. A Texan was convicted of murder and sentenced to electrocution. Early in January the then Governor, Miriam Ferguson, issued a commutation, ana the judge before whom the case appeared prepared to change the sentence to one of life imprisonment. Then it was discovered that a careless clerk, in making out the commutation, had dated it Jan. 8, 1934, instead of 1935. So the judge has ruled the document invalid and has sentenced the man to the electric chair on March 8! MAN STILL RESPONSIBLE A ST. LOUIS man has just learned that the old common law presumption that a man is responsible for the acts of his wife can still be invoked. A St. Louis relief worker went to call on a family which had been on relief for some time, and an argument developed. Husband and wife began calling her names, and before long the wife got angry enough to sail in and start clouting her on the head. Presently the husband and the wife were arraigned in court. The judge refused to send the wife to jail, because she had four children to look after; instead, he gave the husband a 60-day term, although the husband had not lifted his hand during the set-to. Here is an old-but-new slant on the ancient question of husbandly responsibilty, which, if generally adopted, might give a good many husbands food for sober reflection. Radio eventually may be able to transmit the sense of smell, says an expert, but that’s a long time off for some of the program sponsors to worry.

Capital Capers by GEORGE ABELL

THE White House recently was crowded as it used to be during the days of the Hoover regime, as President and Mrs. Roosevelt received the largest number of guests this season at their reception for Congress. Vice President Jack Garner and Mrs. Garner did not appear, but nearly every one else and ’his cousin seemed to be on hand. Missing conspicuously from the gathering were Commerce Secretary Roper, Navy Secretary Claude Augustus Swanson (who has recently been ill) and Mrs. Jim Farley, She remains in New York much of the time. A false rumor that Huey Long had just shaken hands with the President caused a great craning of necks. It turned out to be some Congressman from the sticks. However, despite the absence of Garner. Huey and some of the other influential big wigs (who passed on their invitations to clerks and secretaries), the party progressed rapidly. Soon one could scarcely move in the Red Room, the Green Room, the State Dining Room or even the East Room, where a score of brave souls gallantly tried to dance. The Democratic majority milled about Postmaster General Jim Farley, devoured cake, crunched nuts, patted hundreds of shoulders, elbowed its way to the punch bowl (the one with a “stick” in it) and appeared to be having a glorious evening. nan HOUSE MEMBERS particularly seemed to enjoy themselves. One man leaned back against the walnut paneling in the State Dining Room and puffed at a cigaret—somethtng strictly forbidden by all White House rules. Gold-laced aides failed to spot the offender, who carefully kept the cigaret behind his back and took a sly “drag” at intervals. Another group of Congressmen attacked the cake and munched it with relish. “Well, this isn’t bad cake,” said one of them, “but why don’t they serve coconut cake? I think we ought to write the President and ask him to serve coconut cake.” v ana OUTSTANDING among the feminine contingent at the party was a Republican lady, Mrs. Warren Barbour, the tall, dark-haired wife of the New Jersey Senator. Mrs. Barbour wore a blue taffeta gown cut high in front with sleeves puffed to the elbow and open in back. A rhinestone belt glittered about her waist and on her head was a tiara of diamonds. A diamond La Vallie.re hung about her throat. Mrs. Kahn, veteran Republican Congresswoman from California, wore wine colored velvet. Mrs. Champ Clark, wife of the Missouri Senator. was in blue taffeta. Two senatorial brides appeared for the first time, smilingly escorted by their husbands. They were Mrs. Park Trammell, wife of the Senator from Florida, who wore white satin—and Mrs. Robert Bulkley, wife of the Ohio Senator, who was in white crepe, trimmed with horizontal tucks and groups of fringe. One of the gowns that attracted most attention was worn by Miss Eleanor Kane. This was a creation of tangerine matlesse with deep full ruching resembling a Hawaiian lei. • Mrs. John J. Cochran, wife of Rep. Cochran of St. Louis, was asked the coior of her dress by a fashion monger. “Oh, just say any color!” she replied lightly. He* dress was of peach satin.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

WHERE A LITTLE CHILD WOULD LEAD THEM

./L 'I y. ~..■■■■ ...i 111 mn nwii l.

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Mdke your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) a a a GARNISHEE LAW SCORED BY EMPLOYE GROUP By H. H. Kimmerling. We, the committee appointed by and representing the 1300 employes of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Cos., of Elwood, for the purpose of opposing the garnishee law, hereby submit the following reasons for our opposition: Our first objection is based on its conflict with the Constitution in that it applies only to the wage earner, thereby raising the question of class legislation. We contend that class legislation is un-American, disagreeing with the Constitution on the point of “equal rights to all and special privileges to none” and deprives the individual of the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The drafting of anew garnishee law, if not based upon the American principle of equality of all irrespective of class, still retains the unsavory odor of class legislation. Wes are willing to accept without legal contention a garnishee law’ that will be applicable to the banker, the merchant and the professional man as well as the laborer. Referring to the new law recently presented in which the laborer is permitted an exemption of sls a week for the support of himself and family, we wish to know why the amount of exemption should be the same for a family of two as for a family of 19. We denounce the garnishee law as an opponent of the New Deal because it is a means of destroying the buying power of the people. It f Iso causes numerous misunderstandings between the employer and the employe and is a burden to both. The above petition has been submitted to the representatives of our legislature for their consideration and their action will determine whether or not human rights shall be considered above property rights. a a a INCREASED CONSUMPTION IS ONLY DEPRESSION CURE By H. L. Seegar. The new setup for relief whereby the local township will be responsible for all unemployable persons on relief, and the removal of the employable persons from relief and made work to public work, at $12.50 a week is not merely comic, but a serious blunder. Many families now on relief are receiving more than $12.50 worth of goods under the present program. These families will not consume as much under the new program as under the old. Increased consumption of goods is the only remedy for the so-cailed surpluses. No form of “relief” based on supplying $12.50 worth of goods for each family can provide the means of stimulating private employment. The President is about to subsidize the destruction of all private industry, by forcing down the volume of consumption: The rising price level resulting from crop reduction is adding fuel to the flames by creating “profits in dollars,” instead of consumer goods. Financial collapse and Facism are the only outcome of the imbecilic and moronifc procedure of bootstrap relief. We do noT need relief at all, what

The Ship Would Not Turn

By G. G. H. There was an interesting moment on the floor of the National House of Representatives Jan. 24. It was the particular moment when the public utility holding companies brought out their favorite slogan, “governmental interference with business.” The slogan was used to tack an amendment on to the President’s relief bill. The President’s supporters described the effect of the amendment as follows: Mr. Celler of New York: “An unwarranted attack upon the bill. It will hamstring, emasculate and destroy utterly its efficacy. It would prevent slum clearance, rural housing, electrification, reforestation. It would involve the business of roofing, foundation building, brick laying, contracting, plastering, carpentering, plumbing. Private industry is in the doldrums. People must work or they perish. If that work can not be supplied privately, it must be supplied publicly.. The banks are bursting with funds. Let business men try to borrow and they will meet with denials right and left. The banks are hurting, not helping, business.” (It seems that the slogan for the strike of capital—“business on nervous edge”—will continue until the Mr. Dillingers of forbidden finance are unconditionally turned loose). Mr. Oliver of Alabama: “It will seriously interfere with the Tennessee Valley Authority.” Mr. Sabath of Illinois: “I fear

we do need is horse sense. If relief pumping is to prime the profit pump, the consumption level should be set at three times the proposed lever, at $l5O a month. Anything below that is just a complete waste of money and public credit. Profits can only be translated into bonds and investment paper, and these can only be supported by increased consumption. The handwriting is on the wall; let him who can read take heed. Let government aid go to raising the consumption level until all industry is operating at peak capacity. Taxation can reduce all profiteering to a level where it will not destroy production. We are heading for the ditch, unless drastic changes are made soon. These 500,000 Hoosiers on ‘relief” will wreck the rest of us. Shall we sit idle and crash? Or will we lease idle factories to reemploy the idle millions to produce more goods to raise the consumption level. Increased consumption is the only solution to more employment. a a a STATE SHOULD COLLECT FROM GAMBLING ACTIVITIES By a Peddler. I am just a peddler, one of the 10,000 in Indiana, who have had to resort to selling needle books, thread, shoe strings, apples, ice cream, and about everything to make enough to keep from starving. I know hundreds of my fellow peddlers over the state, but I do not know of one who can average $1 a day. We' go without food, sleep in shacks and wear discarded clothes to keep going. are to pay a $3.50 ,a year license to the state. I am willing to pay, if I can. But as a citizen I would like to

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

that again today these gentlerr en have in mind those industries that have been so patriotic that they have mulcted the government of millions of dollais, who, without interference under Republican Administrations, have brought ruin and desolation to the nation.” Mr. Connery of Massachusetts: “I am not going to vote to emasculate the bill, but to pass it in the form the President wants it passed. He is the one who has asked for it. He is the leader in whom the people have confidence. He is the leader whom the people are following. lam with him and I believe you are, too." And so they were—3o3 to 100 — on the Taber motion to recommit. But not Mr. Ludlow —not the Representative from Indianapolis. True to his promises to the voters, as set forth in his victory statement after his election, he arose, as he said, to pour oil upon the troubled waters, and never did the slogan, “governmental interference with business” sound more oily. Mr. Ludlow’s was one of the 100 eager and willing hands that heaved and heaved upon the helm but the ship would not turn back to G. O. P. Chairman Fletcher’s too well-known and too wellcharted seas. Thus we see how true and proper would be anew slogan for the standpat Republicans of Marion County—give a Democrat a tin can and his opponents can have the contents.

see the state legalize rhum, poker and other card and domino games of which there are more than 5000 tables in Indiana operating daily at a take-off from $1 to $5 an hour for each table. There is no way or desire by the law enforcement body to stop this gaming. So why not legalize these games and charge each operator a license of about S3OO a table a year, and let the state profit and supervise. Everybody knows they are running wide open. Don’t stop them; let them run. But the state should collect! a a a SOCIAL INSURANCE WILL SOLVE NATION’S PROBLEMS By Harry H. Ballantyne. This is a reply to the article against the Relief Workers’ Union by Anonymous. The Relief Workers’ Union is not a Communist union, is not political but is an organization to improve the conditions of the men on relief. Since the formation of the union we have put the aged, infirm and hospital patients on the cash allowance; reduced staff hours to 30 each week; abolished the “accumulated credits” system for pay on a daily basis, improved hospitalization, abolished bullying and slave driving and discrimination and given

Daily Thought

If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.—James 2:8. A IT is the duay of men to love even thos£ wh an jure them.—Marcus Antoninus

.FEB. G, 1935

the men a voice for their individual grievances, etc. Aren’t these things worth while? Anonymous shares these benefits but hasn't the courage to work for ihem or to sign his name to his article! When a man has to work 24 to 30 hours a week for a dollar and his bare necessities even Anonymous must feel something has been “forgotten.” We of the flop houses and the concentration camps do not believe that this form of relief is the solution we have been looking for. Flop houses are a disgrace to our “civilization.” We are not bums or criminals but want to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and these are denied us. Unemployment and social insurance is the solution. The Relief Workers’ Union will continue to criticise unfavorable conditions and to work entirely for the interests of the disinherited in the flop houses of Indianapolis!

So They Say

To be adventurous in the interest of peace rather appeals, I think to women.—Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. I used to wrestle with human beings. Now I wrestle with thought. —George Hackenschmidt, one-time wrestler, turned philosopher. Our railroads today are in a very low state of health, financially and physically.—Railroad Co-ordinator Joseph B. Eastman. Any attempt at the rationalization of shipping on an international basis must take into account the hidden factors of trade and defense. —R. J. Baker, president, American Steamship Owners’ Association. There’s no way for us to keep out of European questions if we got into the World Court.—Senator William E. Borah. I do not want Philippine independence to be a reason for some nation to gobble up the Philippines. —Pedro Guevara, Philippine resident commissioner in U. S. Decisions are expected in baseball, but every time you blow your whistle in a hockey game, you’re a bum. —Bill Stewart, National League umpire and ice hockey referee.

REQUIEM

BY ETHEL H. ALLEN You walked with me, for a little while, And clasped my hand with a childlike smile; You laughed with me and we sang a song, For the world was ours—and we were strong. You sailed with me on love's bright sea, Fearless and brave, sublimely free; You danced with me, to a lilting beat. And I knelt down—and kissed your feet! But a storm rode by, on wings of strife. And severed this cord that gave me life; So, I walk alone, for a little while, But fihen we meet—l trust you •mllaj