Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 233, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 February 1935 — Page 13

It Seems to Me HEVMD H IN order to broaden the base of this column I am subscribing to some of the British papers and once a week or so I hope to make a casual report of the activities among the islanders. In spite of the decision of the United States Senate that there is no such place as Europe I think it is fun to pretend that out across the broad Atlantic there may conceivably be other peoples with pioblems not unlike our own. And if the Manchester Guardian is not a myth

there is support for the self-same | theory just now. It seems, according to the Guardian, that England is in a swivet over the cinema and sex. And sex has found an eloquent champion among the respectables. I doubt if you will be likely to guess so I might as well reveal immediately that he Is George Bernard Shaw. He sprang jito the fight suddenly the othr night as a “surprise item’’ on the ‘ wireless” which is the English locution for the radio. I “Sex Appeal.” said Mr. Shaw, “is a perfectly legitimate element in all the fine arts nat deal directly with humanity.” He went on to contend

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that it is censorship itself which vulgarizes sex appeal and he expressed the opinion that the films had done incalculable good in associating sex appeal with beauty and cleanliness and with poetry and musio. • a a He’n Playing a Sneak Game HOWEVER. Dr. Shaw felt that the licensing scheme was an effective expedient for keeping “decent order” pending the time until theaters and picture houses would be public institutions under the control of a ministry of education and the fine arts. It seems to me that Mr. Shaw gave rather too much aid and comfort to the very side he sought to smite. Miss Madeleine Carroll who accompanied O. B. S. on the air was more forthright in declaring that the average Englishman had always been his own censor and always would. I rather fear that the old Irishman is trying to sneak up on us. My own misgivings are grave that if Shaw’s fine arts supervision ever gets into the saddle it will seem very much like censorship to the film fan. One may express pleasure at the fact that Bernard Shaw has finally given a passing nod to “sex appeal ' and still feel that there was a slight trace Os hauteur in his greeting. It is a rather prissy kind of passion which he authorizes. Shaw would dower •ex with two Duennas called asepsis and art. Unlike the maternal counsellor of the jinkle, George Bernard Shaw would net seek to inhibit a young lady from leapmg into the lake. His advice wrould rather run. “Yes. my darling daughter, hang each garment in its proper place and arrange for the presence of a symphony orchestra." mum Then He Back s Up r \ 'HE old Dubliner begins to back upon his tracks. A He now accepts a legacy from men whom once he slew Possibly it would be extreme to say that Bhaw killed Shakespeare. It was not the left jabs of Red George which did in the bard, but certain constitutional weaknesses In the lad from Avon. But in the case of Sardou the punch was palpable fend so was the resulting concussion. It was my notion that Mr. Shaw undertook to •ay. a great many years ago. that the theater had tended to distort and prettify most violent human passions and problems. The London shop girl who Undertook to behave after the manner of Juliet would find herself a subject of high moral censure In her own community. And all for the lack of a balcony and the sanction of blank verse. Thais Would be considered the proper prey of a New York City vice cop if it were not for the fact that she comes into court bearing a note of excuse from Jules ftlassenet. And to tackle the same problem on a much lower gat form the things in the cinema to which Mr. law gives approval are the very factors which seem to me deplorable. I mean the swank, the elegance, the beauty if you please, by which directors try to make minor transgressions seem like heroic sins. Mr. Shaw, with his music and poetry, has strayed tti his seventies into thoughts which are primrose. Before he knows it some likely Irish lad in homespun will fetch him a clout on the shoulder and cry. "push over George and make way for a real reformer.” Puritanism is not mocked. •Ccprricht. 1935)

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ

NOVA HERCULIS. the new Star that flared forth In the sky shortly before Christmas, continues to baffle and amaze the astronomers. Usually a '■nova” flashes forth with sudden and great brilliance. Then it begins to fade. Its fling is over and gradually it goes back to obscurity. But Nova Herculis continues to break all the rules for novae. It fluctuates back and forth, now growing dimmer, now brighter. The Harvard astronomers report that it has fluctuated as much as an entire magnitude in 24 hours. The nova was at its brightest on £>ec. 19 when !t reached a magnitude of 1.9. At present, according to Prof. J. J. Nassau, director of the Warner & Betsey Observatory of Case School of Applied Science, it has a magnitude of ibout 3.5. The theory is that a nova flares up in the sky because of some internal explosion or heating within the star which causes the outer region of the star to expand. m m m NIGHT skies are particularly interesting this month because four planets can be seen in them although all four can not be seen at one and the same time. Perhaps I should remind you first how to And Nova Herculis. At sunset, low in the northwest, you will find the bright star Vega. Draw a line from it to the group of small stars which form the head of Draco or the Dragon. Nova Herculis is on the line about two-thirds of the way to Draco. Brightest planet in the February sky is Venus. Tt is now 100 times brighter than a first magnitude star. For the next four or five days only. Mercury will be found near Venus. It is as bright as a first magnitude star. Near Venus and Mercury is a small star, one belonging to the constellation of Aquarius. The two planets and the little star, seen in the early twilight of a clear evening make a particularly beautiful sight. Mars rises in the East about Bp. m. Its color, of tourse, is red. contrasting with the clear white of Venus. Later, about 11 p. m., Jupiter, whose color Is white but whose brilliance is less than that of Venus, comes over the eastern horizon. The amateur who wishes to learn the planets and their mot ions will find It particularly interesting to begin now and follow these planets through the rest of the year. mm m THE return of these planets to the night sky reawakens interest in theiA and the recent discoveries concerning their characteristics. These may be summarized briefly as follows: Mercury—No atmosphere. Probably keeps the same face always turned toward the sun. A temperature on this face equal to that of melted lead. Venus—Surrounded by dense heavy white clouds which the telescope can not penetrate. Investigations of Dr. Walter S. Adams at Mt. Wilson indicate much carbon dioxide, but no oxygen or water vapor above the cloud level. Temperature perhaps a little warmer than our own earth. Extremely doubtful that life might exist on the planet. Mars—Numerous markings visible including white polar caps. Dr. Adams’ investigations reveal little water vapor In the atmosphere, and almost a complete lack of oxygen. Martian nights are extremely cold and it la doubtful if life could withstand the possibility of an oxygen shortage and the extreme cold. Jupiter—A heavily clouded atmosphere. Dr. Adams' Investigations indicate the presence of ammonia and methane in it. Not the kind of an atmosphere to support life as we know it. At# Tigers native in Africa? * A mm.

Foil Leaned Wire Service of the United Press Association

" "" ** m^^*K Hoover and Cannon, inclosing a note in green ink asking for a contri- of an • fe* ■ - llWillMlllW converged upon her. . .. - ti r i ounce. She camp Ollt nf the hark- rtnnr

o N the breakfast table in a sunny old mansion in Concord, N. C., the butler placed an envelope addressed in green ink to the millionaire textile maker, Joseph F. Cannon, inclosing a note in green ink asking for a contribution of $20,000. It was signed “The Four Musketeers.” Mr. Cannon, opening it, was annoyed. Fanatics asking

for charity again. Then, as he read on, he grew a little scared. For the musketeers wrote that if he did not pay they would steal his 2-year-old granddaughter, Ann Reynolds, daughter of the late Smith Reynolds, whose second wife was Broadway’s Libby Holman. Between Nov. 1. 1932, and Jan. 5, 1933, 13 similar letters were received. and meanwhile Mr. Cannon decided that this was a menace calling for the talents of J. Edgar Hoover’s men in the division of investigation of the Department of Justice. They looked into the matter, devised one of the most elaborately scientific traps ever laid by defectives anywhere—and Odell C. Boyles today is doing a 15-year stretch in a Federal prison for writing in green ink. The letters, after the first few, were routed by the postoffice directly to the North Carolina office

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

WASHINGTON. Feb. 7.—Though the furor created by the World Court defeat has subsided, there is one lesson which left a profound impression on several of those around the White House. It was the quickness with which the country—or at least the most vocal part of the country—can be aroused by a concentrated appeal from a handful of powerfully placed people. The President was genuinely disappointed to lose ratification of the W r or]d Court. But those

close to him say he much preferred to learn the lesson on what he regarded as comparatively innocuous issue rather than on a domestic issue essential to his program. What several advisers are wondering is what might happen to an Administration measure should the full power of Father Coughlin's radio appeal, plus Huey Long's filibustering antics, plus the pressure of certain newspapers. be turned against it. What might happen, for instance, on the bonus? On inflation? And how deeply have beet} sown in the United States the seeds of mass psychology- similar to those which have grown into the dictatorships of Europe? These are thoughts which are troubling a good many Administration advisers perhaps more ftian the mere fact that, we did not enter the World Court. nun HOW close the World Court came to .going through despite the last-minute power of its opponents is a secret carefully guarded in Senate cloakrooms. The little band which led the opposition had counted on the fence seven votes which would determine the issue. These seven Senators, they figured, would vote for the Court if the Norris Amendment to the Thomas Reservation was passed. These two safeguards made the Court as innocuous as skimmed milk. Norris, himself, was expected to vote for the Court if his amendment passed. He was wavering. Therefore, the little bank of court fighters determined to kill the Norris amendment, if possible to get Administration Leader Joe Robinson to reject it. To that end Wheeler of Montana summoned Huey Long.

The Indianapolis Times

of the Division of Investigation. A typical one said— Don’t be a damn fool with too much confidence in the law, for they are only trouble makers. How long would a car full of law last with two Thompsons spraying them in the face? I am giving you this last chance because I love kids. THE FOUR MUSKETEERS. a a a r T~'HE “G” men wondered about A the conspirators who cared for children, and then they received still another puzzling communication. It came just before Christmas and told Mr. Cannon not to bother about any plan to pay the sum until after the holidays. He was instructed to reply by insercing an advertisement in an Atlanta paper. He did. And the conspirators acknowledged this by sending a clipping describing the torture and robbery of a Georgia farmer. The letter also gave detailed instructions as to how the ransom

“Huey.” he said, “we’ve got a tough job to be done and you’re the man to do it. You’ve got to take the floor and make Joe Robinson so sore that he will turn down the Norris Amendment.” Huey obeyed orders. He heckled' Robinson constantly. Whether for this or other reasons, Robinson vetoed the Norris amendment, the seven shaky Senators were alienated, the World Court was defeated. nun T_T ORNY-HANDED Henry Wallace was testifying before the Senate Agricultural Committee on world cotton acreage restriction. He made a remark to the effect that the Administration's monetary policy was a mere “stop-gap.” Senator Bailey, standpat Democrat from North Carolina, caught him up immediately. *Do you advise an abandonment of our present monetary policy, Mr. Secretary-?” he asked. The Secretary of Agriculture paused, flushed, shifted in his seat. His Cabinet colleagues, the Secretary- of State and the Secretary* of Commerce, were sitting in a corner listening intently. Finally, he replied: “Senator, it seems to me that the purpose of your question is to place me in a false and embarrassing position.” Bailey grinned. “Is there anything I can do to get you out of it. Mr. Secretary?” Note—When the hearing was over Bailey came up to Wallace and said: “I'm afraid Senators sometimes ask foolish questions.” Undersecretary Tugwell, who stood nearby, interjected: “Right. I know by experience.” (Copyright, 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. lac 4

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1935

should be paid, and the Federal men tightened their net. The money was to he put on the top of a built-in china closet in a vacant house in Hapeville, Ga., the letter advised. Then, it went on, a white cloth was to be attached to the screen door of the house to show that these instructions had been carried out. “We hope,” the communication brashly ended, “you had a nice Christmas, and wish you many returns of the new year.—Four M.” By this time Federal men were out-thinking the musketeers. A previous letter had mentioned the vacant house. Two days before the final instructions were received two Federal agents went to it. They drove to the town on the night of Jan. 2, and at 3 a. m., Jan. 3, they w r ere two shadows creeping past a dim street lamp into the house. Inside, for three hours, with a tiny beam of light, they went about their esoteric, efficacious ways. tt tt tt 'T'HEY so electrified the place that it might have been one of the magnetic fields Einstein studies. They made it a scientific curse. Who entered there and went to that china closet went to certain doom. They set electric springs which, if touched, would signal special agents. They hid a dictograph to record every word uttered near the china closet. They installed floodlights outside, so that if the extortionist should try to flee at night the area would be illuminated. They arranged hiding places for groups of agents and a cache for a small, high-powered automobile. They spotted vantage points where men might be stationed

SIDE GLANCES

“Mr. Baxford is in a grand humor. Why wouldn’t this be a good time to approach him about that job 2"

with binoculars and field telephones. Other trickeries they thought of, too, and rejected as impractical. But finally they did arrange so ample a number that their liveliest hope was that the extortionist would grant them the favor of coming for the ransom. Then the extortionist, in the letter of Jan. 5, announced that he would be around. Following the orders, one of the Cannons, with four “G men,” left North Carolina, drove to Atlanta, and on the next day in nearby Hapeville, the chauffeur, as instructed, went past the vacant house, came back, parked across the road—and carried the ransom money inside. On top of the fateful china closet—he put it; on the door he tied the telltale white cloth. tt tt m THE Federals were in waiting. Possemen with sawed-off shotguns were in the offing. Others with binoculars, lying on the roof of a home in the neighborhood, scanned the sky for airplane numbers, and still others noted the numbers of passing automobiles. For three days the “G men” waited and nothing happened. Mrs. Jones and Mr. Brown came to the house, poked about, wondering whether they would rent it. Other potential tenants came. But no one touched the china cabinet; no one paid any attention to the package of banknotes. On the fourth day it happened. In the mid-afternoon a slender young woman walked jauntily to the house, tried to enter by the front door and, finding it locked, went around to the rear. Eyes that she could not, see saw her; voices that she could not hear spied the news of her arrival. When she opened the back door

By George Clark

the agents knew it. When she touched the china cabinet, they knew it. They knew that now approached the climactic minute. When she pulled open a drawer in the cabinet they heard her do it, and when she took down the package of bills the combined forces of the Departments of Justice and the Police Department of Atlanta, Hapeville and Charlotte converged upon her. She came out of the back door. She stopped, went white —and her hands trembled. Two men stood there, and one of them said to her: “Just a minute, madam.” To her the moment may have been a lifetime, for the men were special agents. Quickly they took her to a house down the road, and there they learned that she was Mrs. Sue Zachary Boyles, wife of Odell Carlyle Boyles, known also as Red Boyles. But about any . threatened kidnaping of a little girl she said she knew nothing at all. m tt m CHE had come to the electrified house, she said, because a letter had instructed her to get a package there. The agents did not care much about listening to that, but they did want to know more about Mr. Boyles, and within 33 minutes, as that young man walked up to his rooming house, a stranger placed a hand upon his shoulder. “Come along!” said the stranger. While Mr. Boyles was saying that he was innocent, agents were telephoning Washington. Promptly the experts replied that records disclosed he had been sent to the North Carolina State Penitentiary in 1926 to serve four years for larceny. Promptly after they received his fingerprints they reported one of them identical with a latent print on one of the extortion letters. His explanations were futile. “I’m the man,” he said. “I did it.” Asa parachute rigger at a North Carolina airport, he said, he had met Joseph F. Cannon, Jr., and had then conceived the scheme. Why he wrote so many letters, he could not tell, and at one time, in November, 1932, he was sorry, indeed, that he had begun the series. He saw, then, a policeman eyeing him—and in his pocket then was conclusive evidence of his guilt—the fountain pen containing the green ink in which the notes had been written. “I tossed the pen into the top of a combination popcorn machine and peanut parcher in the restaurant. He didn’t have anything on me then.” The agents found the restaurant * proprietor, learned he had dismantled the machine, scanned the debris and fished out the pen. It was empty. But the particles of green ink, chemically analyzed, were the same as the particles from the letters. Resenting this, Boyles cried: “I’m being railroaded to prison.” “Before you get back,” said United States District Judge Ackerman, “you will think it is a long, slow train.” Tomorrow The pluviometer does its work. EPWORTH LEAGUE TO HOLD DISTRICT PARLEY Mid-winter Institute to Open Here Monday. The thirteenth annua! mid-winter institute of the Indianapolis District Epworth League will begin Monday at the Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church. Vermont and Delaware-sts, and will continue jmtil through the following Saturday. Among the speakers who will address the assembly are Dr. G. Bromley Oxnam, De Pauw University president; Dr. Percy Julian, De Pauw University instructor, and Dr. W. C. Barclay, Chicago, secretary of the Joint Committee cm Religious Education.

Second Section

Entered at Second-Class Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough KWOK MB SENATOR Huey P. Long's recent hallucination in which he saw himself waylaid along a country road in the dark of the moon by a group of assassins in the employ of the Standard Oil Cos. is consistert with his belief that he was ganged by three hired sluggers the night he was popped in the eye in the celebrated battle of gents’ room at Sands Point, L. L Senator Long is uncommonly sensitive to such fears and his imagination plays tricks on him which

seem likely to lead to a major tragedy. Not only does Huey steadily augment the member? of his personal bodyguards but, much worse, he now calls out the young soldiers o* the Louisiana National Guard for military duty whenever a diseased flivver backfires anywhere in the state. The bodyguards are irresponsible. realizing that*no matter whom they may kill or maim in Louisiana, Huey will pardon them at once in the inconceivable event of their being tried and convicted. The troops are young boys who have been practising with rifles, bayonets

and machine guns but have never had a chance to shoot or skewer anybody, although they have been called out on many false alarms. Huey’s fear of personal violence increases day by day even though he insists when in Washington that there ain't no revolution and there ain't no trouble in Loozana. His apprehension reached a dangerous stage the other day when he posted a machine gun to cover his exit from his hotel in Baton Rouge. man Huey Moves Speedily THE day before, Joe Messina, a former house detective, the chief of his bodyguard, slugged a photographer in the mouth. Messina seemed to think this sufficient protection for the person of the Senator until Huey, in his excitement cried, “That’s right, Joe; do anything you want to him.” Thereup, Messina slugged the photographer on the head with a blackjack as he stooped to pick up his camera. n a tire had blown out as Huey left his hotel under cover of the machine gun manned by a group of inexperienced boys with an itchy finger at the trigger, a frightened cry of “Let ’em have it, boys." could have caused an action which would have added no glory to the colors of the Louisiana National Guard. A man as jumpy as Huey and so overanxious about his own safety seems hardly fit to be trusted with command over armed forces. In Baton Rouge, Huey brought in a witness who was kind enough to swear that there actually had been a plot to assassinate him. However, this was no trial but merely a broadcast conducted under the auspices of one of Huey’s judges so there was no chance to prove that the ambuscade existed only in Huey’s fears. In fact, if there had been any such plot, Huey would not have felt safe until he had made sure that all concerned were accounted for one way or another. Huey’s instinctive cry that he had been ganged in the battle of the gents’ room may have seemed to be merely the alibi of a man who had been licked in a fight and wished to save his prestige. But that department of his mind which has to do with these matters is such that he actually believed he had been ganged. The battle of the gents’ room was actually a casual and unimportant affray such as many a man might find himself involved in while in a plastered condition. u n m One Man Is a Gang AT the club Huey laid hands on a young woman in another party to whom he had not been introduced and dragged her out of her chair to make her dance with him. A few minutes later the lights went out except the stage illumination and the daughters of the members began a little show. At this point, Huey left the room, followed by the young man who was the escort of the young woman. Soon thereafter there followed the famous battle of the gents’ room. Gene Buck, the songwriter, and Jack Curley, the wrestling promoter, were quietly summoned and discovered Huey with a gory eye, the effect of a single, well-aimed pop or Sunday punch thrown by the young man, “I was ganged,” Huey roared. ‘•Come on back in here and I will stop the v.ound with collodion,” said Mr, Curley. “I am an old prizefight second and I know how.” “Not back in there,” Huey yelled.' “They have been after me for years and this is the first time I have been without my bodyguard.” “There is no gang in there,” said Mr. Buck. “There is a gang,” said Huey. Under adequate escort, Huey was induced to reenter the gents’ room where the attendant swore that only one other man, identity unknown, had been present and that this man, single-handed, constituted the gang which ganged Huey. The danger is that Huey actually believes he was ganged at Sands Point, believes he was waylaid on the country road in the dark of the moon and, one of these days will order his troops to fire into a crowd of unarmed citizens in panic because some one has had the ill manners to pop a wad of chewing gum. (Copyright. 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health —BY DR. MORRIS FISIIBEIN—

ONE in every three deaths of girls in this country is from tuberculosis. The rate for young women is nearly twice as high as for young men of the same age. Many causes have been assigned for this increase, including competition in the industrial and business world with men, the new flimsy type of dresses worn by women, the entrance of women into athletic sports, dieting to satisfy the craze for slenderization, and cigaret smoking. The National Tuberculosis Association decided to investigate the subject. It conducted a study of the life histories, habits, and surroundings of all girls between 15 and 25 years of age in Detroit and in New York who had died of tuberculosis during one year. n n n IN New York, about 4 per cent of the girls who died of tuberculosis were found to have dieted or used other methods of rapidly reducing their weight. Clothing did not seem to be a significant factor, because girls at universities who did not have tuberculosis wore about the same kind of clothing as the girls who died of tuberculosis. In her analysis of the problem, one investigator stated belief that the chief contributing factor was the extra strain placed on young women of these ages by the changes in their bodies, coupled with the necessity for making new adaptations to life. n n u MORE than half the girls who died had been in direct contact with other persons who had tuberculosis, without either taking proper preventive measures. It has become a slogan that every case comes from another. Because the tuberculosis in these cases was se rapidly fatal, special causes were sought in the social side of the situation. These indicate that the social pressure on girls of this age causes them to conceal their symptoms in the early stages. Moreover, there were many factors in their live* which tended to lower their resistance. Correlated with the idea that every case cornea from another are two questions which the doctor must ask today, whenever she is confronted by a case of tuberculosis. These are: From whom did the victim get it? To whom did he give It? Every person associated in any way with a person who has tuberculosis should keep these questions aonstantly in mind.

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