Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 236, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 February 1935 — Page 8

PAGE 8

The Indianapolis Times ( A *f Rim-HOH ARD >EPAPFR| HOT W. HOWARD Fr**ilri< TALCOTT POWELL Editor KARL D. BAKER ........ Butin*** Manager t‘hoa# Rllor MBI

of T'nif*'! Pr***, Sfrtpp* - Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information ami Audit Bur*a<i of Orrnlatlon*. Own*d and published daily <oi<-pt Sunday! bv Th Ind'*napn]i Titr.os Publishing Cos. 211-238 W. Marvlandrr. Indianapolta. Ind. Prir* In Marlon County. 3 rent* a ropr; d*|n*r*d hr .-arri*r. 12 rants a Mai! snb=rriptlon ratrs m Indiana, 13 a year; ontaid* of Indiana. A.3 rents a month.

* ■ fit r* <i<f lk P*opU Will ftn 4 Th'lr Otrit Wnp

MOKDAY. FEBRUARY U. 19JS HOUSING IN THE COURTS THE Supreme Court is asked to decide whether the Public Works Administration has the power to condemn land for slum clearance and low-cost housing construction. A Cleveland Judge ruled that the PWA has the power of condemnation, and as a result low-cost housing construction in that city is proceeding apace. But a Louisville judge decreed that the PWA has no power of condemnation. and as a result the low-cost housing program for workers in that city and in many other cities has reached a stalemate. Nothing more can be done until the nine justices on the highest bench detei mine whether the Cleveland judge or the Louisville judge ruled correctly. PWA officials have worked many months on plans ior low-cost apartment dwellings. But to date they have acquired sites for only five projects. Owners of eye-sore, disease-ridden slum areas assert their vested rights. They refuse to sell at what the government thinks is a fair price, and resist attempts to submit the question of value to condemnation juries. Meanwhile, the money which Congress appropriated for this purpose remains idle, tenement landlords levy on the unfortunate who can not afford to live in decent quarters, and unemployed building trades workers subsist on doles.

WHY NOT TELL ALL? r-r he Big Three" snipbuilders are said to feel that they are being persecuted by the Senate Munitions Committee. Their representatives have been testifying Air three meek* as to the wavs and means employed in obtaining naval construction contracts. Many of the ways have been shown to be most devious and ihe means questionable. The committee is convinced that not enough witnesses have told the truth. Perjury prosecutions are expected. Already one has been started. Yet Clinton L. Barrio, president of New York Shipbuilding Corp. until last October, said that he wanted "to tell the whole story" of bidding and building. Clh°rs have said substantially the same. Once on the stand, however, some of them seem disposed to tell less than the w hole story 7 . Mr. Bardo had difficulty recalling the Rio de Janeiro incident in which his representative got ugly with the United States ambassador who declined to cable home for a warship to help the company's selling campaign. Mr. Bardo indicated he regarded that as only a detail, anyhow. The investigation would be greatly expedited were these men to "tell all.” as they claim they wish to do. If their business practices. their dealings with the government, politicians and the Navy Department, are above reproach as they assert, the truth would be the best possible antidote to the poison which they charge is oeing spread concerning the shipbuilding industry by the committee. SERVING THE CONSUMER T7OR many years, the chief criticism of the * Bureau of Standards, that great Federal testing laboratory on the outskirts of Washington. has been that it served business directly. and the people only indirectly. That is the results of its tests and experiments were usually made available to manufacturing companies, with benefits to the people only filtering down m the form of improved products. Perhaps all the recent consumer agitation has had an effect after all. For as a result of years of experiments on silk stockings, the bureau has learned a great deal about them, and offers the information difectly to consumers in a pamphlet which may be had from the Government Printing Office a‘, 5 cents. For instance, two teaspoonfuls of aluminum sulphate dissolved in half a pint of hot water has been found good for new stockings. Soak, dry and then wash gently. Washing new stockings before wearing usually adds to the wear. And so on. All of which is just an indication of how valuable the Bureau of Standards could be to the people as consumers if it were used more generally in that direct service, and its information made more easily available to those of us who buy and use things. HELP FOR HISTORY 'T'HE new National Archives Building in A Washington is going to be the last word in preserving the records of the republic. 1 will even include eight fireproof vaults for storing motion picture films, sound recordings of news events, and speeches by high officials. Things are being made easier for the future historians all the time. What would we not give today for a sound film of Patrick Henry's great ••Treason" speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses? Or of Washingtons first inaugural address? Or of gaunt Lincoln speaking those few immortal lines on the field of Gettysburg? Future historians will have such records, and they should help greatly to hold more accurate the story history, which cynical Napoleon once called, with all too much truth. *'a fabie agreed upon." BACHELORS BEWARE SHADES of Joseph Smith. Brigham Young and the other much-married founding fathers of Utah! Word comes from Salt Lake City that State Senator Alonzo Hopkins. Utah's only unmarried legislator, has introduced a bill impeding a $6 annual fax on mil unwed males bet i.tn 21 and 50, widowers excepted. The

revenue will be applied to an old-age pension fund, ostensibly against the time these slackers reach their riper years without children to take care of them. Even Utah seems to be suffering from too much single blessedness. Since bachelorhood is about the only American institution still untaxed, the Utah Senator's plan is perhaps explicable. If his idea is punitive it hardly fits the crime. Sparta used to make it really unhealthy for bachelors by denying them right to witness girls’ games and making the more unregenerate walk through the streets in winter minus togas, singing original ditties on their own disgraceful conduct. Rome passed the Lex Julia, laying heavy taxes on unmarried men and lighter ones on those who did their duty by way of wives and offspring. In England under William 111 they staggered under special taxes to pay for the war with France. Os course coy or stubborn celibates may consider $6 a year cheap in the long run. Utah ana the rest of the states may have to think up something harsher to persuade their young men that double blessedness is better than single cussedness. FARTHER FROM THE PEOPLE LONGER terms in office, with less frequent elections, would add to the physical and mental comfort of Congressmen. But there is little else to commend the idea behind the three resolutions which have been introduced providing a constitutional amendment to lengthen the terms of members of the House of Representatives from two to four years. True, under the present system, some Congressmen are so busy campaigning for reelection that they neglect their duties. If they had longer terms they probably would devote more time to legislation ar.d De less susceptible to pressure from minority groups. But our government would become even less representative and democratic. Much of the trouble which now besets the average Congressman arises from the petty patronage power to which he so tenaciously clings. A sane merit system for appointments and promotions in the government service would relieve Congressmen from the harassment of job-hunting constituents, and provide our law-makers with more time and peace of mind to do their work. Our government is too rigid and unrepresentative in its present form. Senators serve six years, and there are two from each state, regardless of population. The lower house is more representative, but longer terms would make it less so. The Hoover landslide in 1928 gave both houses a r'odgy Republican majority. A few months after they took over, our economic system cracked wide open, and the conditions to which they owed their election vanished. In 1930, the electorate o\erturned the Republican majority in the House but had no chance to do the same in the Senate. Not until 1932 did the people have an opportunity to repudiate completely the old regime, and not until March, -1933. did the new representatives of the people take over the government. By that time the panic was full-blown. - Under a parliamentary 1 system such as exists in England and France, the change in administrations could have been brought about peaceably two years earlier. And there probably never would have been the hunger marches, bonus demonstrations, bank moratoria and despair which dramatized dangerously the public's lack of confidence in the old rulers. It may be inconvenient for a Congressman to go back before his constituents every two years. But it is healthy for the country. James Madison's reports of the Constitutional Convention reveal that the founding ing fathers considered frequency of elections essential to representative government. Many favored a one-year term, but heeded the argument that “one year will be almost consumed in preparing for and traveling to and from the seat of national business.” Today, a Congressman from the remotest district can travel to Washington in a day or tw'o.

A GREAT WOMAN A YEAR ago Mrs. Irene Davis was know 7 n to her neighbors in Greenville, Ala., as a poor widow with three children and plenty of debts. She was faced with the choice of joining the long line of 20 million Americans on relief, or fending for herself and family. She took the harder way. Like a pioneer mother of earlier days she settled herself on an abandoned eight-acre farm 10 miles from town. She borrowed a mule from a neighbor, and for every day the mule plowed for her she hoed for the mule's owner. She accepted seed, groceries and fertilizer from the state relief administration only as loans. In her tiny world she and nature achieved a tiny triumph. Last autumn she was able to pay off her loans and set a little aside for spring planting. The State of Alabama has just awarded a silver cup to Mrs. Davis as one of its "greatest women." "I didn't do anything much,” she said. OF ALL PLACES TF he is still working at it, the ghost of ■* Diogenes can hang up his lantern and go back to his tub. An honest man has been found—and in the heart of New Yorks financial district. Frank Geges, 75-year-old sandwich-sign-board man, was trudging in the snow earning $5 a week when he found a wallet on the sidewalk containing $45,000 in bonds. He promptly returned them to their owners at No. 1 Wall Street. Naturally the financial district went wild. The surety company called a meeting of its directors and voted Geges a S2O weekly pension for the rest of the winter and then promised him a life job. A banker admirer gave him a $25 check. Crowds cheered as he posed for the sound movie men. Someone asked him what he was going to do with the rewards of honesty. "First I'm going to buy a pair of shoes," he said, glancmg down at his feet incased in rags and leaky galoshes. Wall Street's new hero is sticking to his sandwich job. He is convinced that he will not be offered a seat on the Stock Exchange. Among all the concessions the movie actors appear to gain, there's not one limiting the working hours or output of their press agents. While Japan fears war will come with Russia, the munitions makers still fear it won’t.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

A READER of my column has written in to ask me what I regard as the half-dozen outstanding dates or events in modern history which helped to explain how we come to be what we are today. It may not be a bad thing for me to turn away for a day from my customary discussion of current problems and flirt a bit with the intriguing subject of the historical basis of the present age. Any selection of outstanding dates and achievements is bound to be arbitrary' and hardly likely to please any considerable number of readers. But here is my list for what it is worth: , 1295. Marco Polo returns from his visit to the ‘ golden court” of the Chinese emperor. He proves the correctness of the tales of the wealth of the Far Orient. He shows the practicability of overland travel to this fairy realm. From this time on, the West attempts to tap this source of untold fortunes in trade. The Italian city-states first monopolize this rich commerce. But the new cities of western Europe soon grow jealous of this Italian corner on world trade. This envy provides the motive pow-er for the search for the sea route to the East and soon produced Columbus, Vasco de Gama and the conquest of the ocean route to the “Indies.” ana 1620. The publication of Francis Bacon’s “Novum Organon.” This work sounds the note ol rebellion against the intellectual life of the medieval age. It denounces the theological and metaphysical appioach to knowledge, repudiating Aristotle as well as Augustine. It holds that “nature is more subtle than any argument,” and thus blasts the hope of ascertaining truth by means of deductive logic. Bacon thus establishes himself as the “herald” of the new scientific age, and his essays remain the best literary statement of the case for science and the experimental method. 1690. John Locke publishes his “Second Treatise of Government.” This is the embodiment of and inspiration for the revolutionary political philosophy which defends the right of rebellion and the triumph of representative government. It not only justifies the British revolutions of 1649 and 1639, but inspires Jefferson and Rousseau. Locke’s doctrines thus furnish the basis of the “Declaration of Independence” and “The Declaration of the Rights of Man.” They symbolize man’s triumph over arbitrary political authority as decisively as Bacon's exemplify the victory over intellectual tyranny. 1729. Voltaire returns from England and circulates his “Letters on the English.” These forecast the career of the most representative and famous intellects of the eighteenth century. He took over the British scientific thought, revolutionary doctrines and rationalistic religion and made them common intellectual property of educated continentals. He worked valiantly against oppression and bigotry, his versatility and energy enabling his to carry on a many-sided battle. Far better than any one else in his age he stands out as the supreme figure in the battle of reason against intolerance and cruelty in the eighteenth century. He is the supreme rationalist. n a tt 1789. The establishment of the Federal government of the United States. This marks the fusion of the most significant political innovations of the preceding centuries—revolution, federalism, constitutionalism and republicanism. It constitutes the summation and vindication of those political aspirations which pushed forward from Magna Charta to Yorktown. It sets the pace for the political evolution of the nineteenth century, which everywhere seeks to establish federalism and republicanism on a constitutional basis, paying when necessary the price of revolution. 1848. The publication of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This is as much of a challenge to the established economic order as the writings of Bacon, Locke and others had been to the medieval regime and the rise of political absolutism. It frankly espouses the doctrines of philosophic determinism, economic materialism and the ultimate supremacy of the working proletariat. Whether one agrees with the doctrine or not, this work occupies the same place in proletarian democratic strivings as that of Locke did in the rise of bourgeois politics and economics. This tract, rather than the revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, lies at the basis of the present Russian experiment. *

Capital Capers .BY GEORGE ABELL

POSTMASTER GENERAL JIM FARLEY was broadcasting a radio eulogy of the mail carriers of the nation from a Washington studio. As Jim talked, his eyes occasionally wandered toward the pane of glass separating him from the observation room. In this room a large crow 7 d of listeners had gathered. Intent and eager, they seemed to be hearkening to every word. Then Jim looked more closely. Was it possible? This crowd of auditors had their backs turned. They w 7 ere facing the opposite w r ay, apparently following something in the adjoining room. A slight frown gathered on the Farley brow. A puzzled look darkened his mild blue eyes. Concluding his speech, Jim gathered up his notes and prepared to depart. "What's going on there?” he finally asked a studio official. "What are they listening to?” "Oh, they’re interested in a blackface comedian,” replied the smiling radio man.

THE PAGEANTRY of diplomatic Washington goes on as usual, through wind, rain or political turmoil. Yesterday, a limousine rolled through snowmantled White House gates, deposited at the door a short, upright gentleman with a dark complexion wearing an admiral’s plumed hat, an azure blue cloak, a gold-laced uniform, a court sword. “His Excellency, Senor Dr. Guillermo Patterson of Cuba,” announced a servant. Followed by a silk-hatted, morning-coated staff, escorted by meticulous Jimmy Dunn, Chief of Proctocol, the new envoy greeted President Roosevelt. “Mr. President,” he began in excellent English, “I have the honor to deliver into Your Excellency's hands the letters of credence of the honorable President of the Provisional Government of Cuba.” nun PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT bowrd, smiled. ‘‘l am a sincere admirer of this great nation,” continued Dr. Patterson. After many more flowery' phrases, the Cuban diplomat concluded with a paean of praises for Rooseveltian statesmanship. Courteously and in his fine, resonant voice, President Roosevelt replied: “The prime objective of the foreign policy of this Administration,” he declared, “is the forging of enduring bonds of friendship with all nations of the world.” Out into the pale winter sunlight, escorted by his silk-hatted staff, marched Ambassador Patterson. A breeze ruffled the white plume in his hat, as press photographers snapped him standing on the White House steps. A University of California scientist has developed a vaccine for prevention and cure of the common cold, leaving us little with which to dread the winter. Chicago has been rated the noisest city in the United States, with echoes of the World's Fair still resounding in our ears. According to latest reports, the government is encouraging some railroads to go into bankruptcy. That's strange. They needed no encouragement heretofore.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Hake your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must be signed, but names will be withheld at request 0/ the letter writer.J ana TIMES LAUDED FOR EDITORIAL ATTITUDE By a Reader. May oar "God of Things as They Are” bless The Times for giving its editorial page of Jan. 29 over so whole-heartedly to the cause of social justice through honest and clear thinking. I read every article on the page. If The Times can in some way receive the encouragement to maintain this high standard of stating significant facts as they exist in reality, we will have an Indianapolis newspaper which, if a man will read its illuminating editorials for a year, will inform him well. It is for the readers to give this inspiration. Our voice, time, thought, energy and money can be given to no finer, more fruitful service. I wish to thank The Times for the magnificent spirit in which it accepts criticism.. This greatness is the glory which lights our path to perfection.

The Times editorial writer whom I criticise most severely must be given credit for possessing remarkable stability of character. Ask a psychologist if you wish to know how greatly Americans are in need of this ability of the organism to remain integrated under stimulation. This may appear inconsistent with my love of fanaticism. It is not; we must also have action. At his best, this editor combines straight thinking with his beautiful style.

GOLD AND GREENBACKS COME UP FOR HEARING By Paul Syera. They say, Columbus stood an egg on end, greatly to the surprise of those looking on. Guess our Uncle Sam could pull a trick or two equally as clever in paying all obligations in gold to American citizens if specified in government contracts and demanded by the holders of these papers, and then end up by having all the gold returned to the Treasury. As is known, no citizen of our country is supposed to have any gold coin of the United States, other than a few souvenirs. All the gold moneys were turned in to the government in exchange for greenback paper dollars, dollar for dollar, just like the one or ones in your pocket. Certificates demanding payment in gold, yellow backs, were exchanged for greenbacks also, dollar for dollar, as there was to be no more gold coin circulated in our United States as money. However, contracts, bonds, certificates or what have you, that did not demand payment in gold dollars until after Uncle Sam took gold dollars out of circulation, seemed to have been forgotten at the time, and now there is the danger of everybody having their wages raised or something. Well, as our dear old Uncle Sam has all the gold coins that were once in circulation, he can say to his dear children, “'Sure, I’ll see you are paid in gold, just as promised. ’ Then, as he paid out the gold coins to the holders of gold-demand-ing contracts with one hand, he could grab ’em with the other ,and tell ’em all about it being against the law for any one to have any gold coin in his or her possession, and that he (Uncle Sami would now

A BANNER WITH A STRANGE DEVICE!

By Disgusted Taxpayer. Indiana politics always has been in a class by itself, but there is something particularly, and appallingly, atrocious in the passage by the General Assembly of the sheriff’s "feed” bill. First, there is the picture of the sheriffs’ lobby as it is displayed in the news stories of The Indianapolis Times. Elected to enforce the laws and to aid in the processes of the civil courts, the worthy sheriffs have abandoned their offices and their counties to cluster in the Statehouse like flies around the sugar bowl. Rural sections may go unprotected and summonses remain unserved, but the sheriffs must make sure of what The Times’ editor has so correctly designated as “legalized graft!” Nor, despite his plea that his office and jail is sorely understaffed, was Sheriff Otto Ray missing from this group. He was, reports have it, a leader in the lobbying. There have been ugly rumors among those “in the know” that there was some kind of an agreement between Mr. Ray and Pleas Greenlee, politician extraor-

exchange the gold coins, just paid to the dear citizens, for nice, new greenbacks, fresh off the press. This, you see, would be living up to the letter of the contracts and the law. As for our friends across the ocean. Well, Uncle could just give them credit on account for any gold due them and—and then could thumb his nose at them. a a a ARBOR DAY SHOULD BE OF REAL IMPORTANCE By a Treeman. The date for Arbor Day is not far off. In view cf the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps to rehabilitate our denuded forests, a great impetus could be given to tree planting through our schools, if every child in school should be given an “honor badge” for planting one tree a year, somewhere in the state In Europe nearly every country requires a permit to cut down a tree with a demand to replace that tree with another. Asa flood control measure, our Congress could provide for compulsory replanting of all trees cut down, require a permit to cut down any tree, and also require a “severance tax” of all timber operators. There is no sound reason for permitting the immoral waste of our natural resources. Arbor Day should be made of real importance as a national holiday of service. a a a TOO MANY SPINELESS MEN,’ MOTHER'S CHARGE By a Happy Toune Mother. I am all tor live and let live. It seems strange indeed there are such weak-kneed creatures called men who let the 7 r wives work. If these women would stay in their home they would have plenty to keep them busy. They are all too busy at offices to teach their children respect and decency. The result is pitiful. Then we wonder why we have so many criminals. The complaint that they can’t get by on the husband's pay is a selfish one. Their greed for money, for luxury, blinds them to the fact that they are keeping men out of work who have families to support. I remember Madam Schumann

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

That Sheriff's Bill!

dinary of the McNutt administration. Whether or not this last is true, it brings us to the second point: The actions of the Indiana's Senators and Representatives were utterly to their shame. The legislators can be divided into two groups: One is composed of those who voted for the bill without knowing what was in it; the second, of those who voted for the bill knowing full well what was in it. The first group should have known for what they were voting and it is disappointing to find the names of some otherwise bright and shining lawmakers among its members. The second group well, the laws of libel would prevent The Times from publishing what this writer thinks of that group! And, the fact that administration leaders in the Senate helped to jam the bill across after it had been exposed by The Times and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is not too reassuring. Now, our hope seems to lie in Gov. Paul McNutt and his veto power. May he not disappoint us.

Heink once said, “There is no sympathy for the women who can not find enough to do at home.” The home life of this country is being wrecked by young married women who would rather pound a typewriter than bathe a baby. What the United States needs is “more papas at the head of the house.” We have too many spineless men. They can’t hold their own. Tfley had better take their pants off and put on petticoats. They are a disgrace to our few real men, spelled with a capital “M.” There are a few left. Thank goodness, I married one. a a a TIMES IS PRAISED FOR STAND AGAINST CHILD LABOR By James R. Furbay. On the question of the Child Labor Amendment you have spoken out, and you have unselfishly championed the cause of right and decency. At a time when so many newspapers have opposed it on the obvious grounds that it would force them to pay adult wages to all on their payrolls, and would force them to stop employing 10-year-old children at peddling newspapers beicre daylight and after dark, your stand for the amendment at this time can mean nothing else but a sincere humanitarian policy in this matter. Your stand is fair and right. For w r hy should the publishers, as The American Child has put it, “insist upon being the one privileged industry with the right to employ young children, and likewise want the privilege of not being responsible in case children are injured during the course of their employment?” This issue is not at all a question of the freedom of the press, as so many editors glibly insist, but is a matter of business—of manufac-

Daily Thought

For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord God.—Jeremiah 2:22. WELL does Heaven take care that no man secures happiness by crime.—Alfieri,

FEB. 11, 1935

turing and selling. It will cost more money for men to do this work, just as it costs more to hire men to do the work in mines and mills. It is clearly a test as to whether we will put profits first, or child welfare and decency^ Agate, I wish to warmly congratulate you for your recent editorial, "Child Labor Must Go.” a a a BELIEVES ROOSEVELT MISSED ON NRA INITIALS By L. E. Baxter. It is quite evident Mr. Roosevelt blundered by accepting the initials "NRA” with which to designate the National Industrial Recovery Act. His opposition undoubtedly will coin this slogan, “No Roosevelt’s Anymore,” in an endeavor to embarrass him during the campaign of 1936. To prove I am not to be included in the above category, permit me to suggest he retaliate by issuing this one, “The Vultures Attack” (TVAi.

So They Say

I can’t imagine wishing I were a Hitler, because I'd be ashamed to face myself—Prof. Thomas H. Reed of the University of Michigan. There are all kinds of professors. They go into politics, but so do farmers.—Prof. James T. Shot well of Columbia University. A child, like a savage, has a dim feeling that naming an object gives him some sort of power over it.— Prof. Douglas Guthrie of Edinburgh University. Historians of the future will select as the greatest event of the Twentieth Century not only of thi political upheavals which fill our newspapers, but the tremendous impact of western culture upon the East.— Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian. The threats overhanging industry have much to do with holding back progress and development.—Alvan Macauley, auto manufacturer. With proper treatment we can reach and surpass all former records of prosperity.—lrving Fisher, economist. Political life is an abnormal existence that goes on day and night. —Former Gov. Richard H. Ely of Masachusetts. Women of today stain their fingernails in such a manner that they resemble the claws of a tiger ripping up sheep.—Prof. Curt J. Ducasse of Brow r n University.

Explanation

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK I am composed of all that I have known; Warm, listless nights of summer when my breath Caught in my smothered lungs; when death Beat softly at my door, and then was flown, To leave to me this cell of flesh and bone. You say I have not changed; oh, you are wrong. As long as memory burns within my brain I shall remember agony and pain. He who has walked with death amid a throng Can not forget that cool touch very long.