Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 238, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 February 1935 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times It ( Rlrr-HOn.tKD XEtSPATER) RDT W. HOWARD Pre?<t*et TAI.COTT TOW ELL Editor KARL It. BAKER ........ Butinni Mtoagtr Rl!y .V.-> 1

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WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 13. 1935

“PURELY PRECAUTIONARY” A SSURANCES from Rome that Mussolini C* dors not expect war with Abyssinia leave much to be desired. Mobilization of 250 000 troop* and dispatch of 50 additional war planes to the front, whether described as ‘•purely precautionary ’ or something else, is serious enough. Declarations of war have gone out of fashion. In thce times nations merely begm bombing each other without the formality of a declaration. In this case Mussolini seems to be in an especially swaggering mood because of hi' recent understandings with France and Great Britain. Apparently par? of the price of peace in Europe was a bareain giving II Duce a freer hand ui Colonial Africa in return for his rs; il to tie up with Herr Hitler, his German imitator in dictatorship and terror. Looking at it realistically, perhaps such a bar; am would be better than the alternative If it were necessary. But just why an Italian imperialistic war ■gainst Abv inia should be necessary is still not clear. France already’ has made territorial conces ons to Italy in Africa. The remainder of the dispute with the black kingdom certainly could be handled by the League of Nations if France and Great Britain were determined. Italy, with Great Eritain in control of the Mediterranean, can not afford to make any maior move without London's tacit con ent. Mussolini, who likes to be considered all-powerful, would not admit this but it is true. Os course the main weakness in the peace machinery is the wreck left by Japan when she crashed through treaties and resigned from the League—and rot away with it. Thus Mu ohm today is able to talk about “a police exp. dition” in Abyssinia. The Chinese could tell the Abyssinian* a lot about what happens to a weak country when a strong military power lets loose a police expedition. A DOZEN MORE NEEDED ACTION bv the Indiana Legislature in ratifying the Child Labor Amendment gives hope to what once seemed a waning cause. It ts the fourth state to ratify this year—following Wyoming. Utah and Idaho—and the first industrial state. Os the 36 states needed to amend the Constitution. 21 now have agreed. Legislatures of 16 that have not acted still are In session. They are Alabama, Connecticut. Delaware, Fionda. Georgii. Maryland, Mas.sachusetts. Missouri. Nebraska, New Mexico. New York, the Carolina*. Rhode Island. South Dakota and Vermont. Os these, 12 must ratify to bring victory. Credit for Indiana’s action goes to a devoted group of public spirited citizens, headed by Gov. McNutt and including the American Legion. American Federation of Labor, women's clubs, church leaders and educators. In this New* Deal era. opposition to ratification appears a strange anachronism. The amendment was submitted to the states by a Congress which voted four to one in the House and three to one in the Senate. Indu>try through codes outlawed the toil of mo : children under 16—only 13 of t’ a codes lack some provision against child expL .ion. NR A has moved at least 100.000 childrn >m mills, mines and factories and barred i X) more from dangerous occupations. The entire weight of the Roosevelt Aa mini, ’ration, from the President down, is behind ratification. Every fantastic and legalistic argument has been ably met and refuted. As the late Senator Tom Walsh said, discussion of the wisdom and necessity of this legislation seems idle, "it is justified by the enlightened opinion of the world, however it be a reproach to recreant parenthood or heartless greed." If the legislatures which hold the fate of the Child Labor Amendment are guided by reasonableness and compassion, instead of prejudice or greed, it will be ratified this >ear. needs of orphans THE orphaned child, like the poor, is always with us: and in these times when demands on the public purse are almost innumerable. we do fairly well when we provide such children with board and lodging. But to go that far is only to scratch the surface of the problem. The orphan eventually will become an adult and take his place in the complex human society that has supported him: and if he is to be as useful a social unit as we want him to be. we must give him a great deal more than food and shelter while he is ya our care. All this was brought out not long ago. when members of the Welfare Council of New York City gathered for a conference on the care of dependent children. And these people agreed that society is only doing part of its job when it removes the orphan from the fear of hunger and cold. Now this is an important thing to remember. because we tend to get a warped idea of the kind of training a child should receive in the institution which is caring for him. The natural tendency is to establish a routine which will train him to get along in the institution: to give him such discipline and teaching, in other words, as will lead him to abide by the rules, to get along with the other children, and to refrain from those pranks and misdemeanors which put gray hairs on the heads of orphanage staffs. Yet we can do all this and still fail in our mam Job— which is to prepare the youngster far adult life. The child may learn how to adjust itself to life in the institution, as speakers at the New York conference pointed out, and still be unable to adjust himself to the life he will enter when he grows up. And this. In turn, means that the in tang}-

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The Legislature and Business BY TALCOTT POWELL

TNDIANA legislators, along with the lawmakers of 29 other states, are wrestling with a law permitting state authority certain regulatory powers over business. Bitter opposition has developed to this proposed enactment which has been nicknamed the "State NRA Bill." There is no reason why any one should be surprised at this legislation. Although it Is faulty in many respects it is merely one more step in a long process of evolution dating back for nearly 30 years. Ever since the definite passing of the frontier both political parties have insisted on some sort of curb on business. President Theodore Roosevelt, in his congressional messages, repeatedly asked for the national licensing of corporations operating in interstate commerce. President Woodrow Wilson, in his special message to Congress on Aug. 8, 1919, and in his two succeeding annual messages, urged a similar measure "to secure competitive selling and prevent unconscionable profits in the method of marketing.” Early in 1928 Senator Royal Copeland wanted a law’ “to set up legal machinery for restricting the overproduction of soft coal." At the same session our own Senator Watson wanted Congress to “require the licensing of corporations producing and shipping coal in interstate commerce.” Through the years both state and Federal governments passed numerous law’s intended to regulate business. Finally, on June 16, 1933, came the National Industrial Recovery Act, which was an effort to wTap all previous efforts at regulation up in one neat bundle. After more than a year and a half it has become obvious that NRA enforcement could not be handled by remote control in Washington. So Mr. Roosevelt urged the states to pass their own NRA bilks to conform with the national pattern. Hence the problem before Indiana today. Only a few da vs ago a published statement appeared in Indianapolis saying that the national Administration did not want this local legislation. This statement was. of course, a falsehood. It was a particularly contemptible lie because it was a willful attempt to make opponents of the state NRA believe that the President agreed with them and to lead its proponents to think that Mr. Roosevelt was opposed to their efforts. Official denials from Washington promptly branded this report as a cheap and silly deception. The millions of words opposing the principle of a state NRA may be summed up in the simple sentence: “Let us alone.” Those who are fighting it in principle are the same people who cried out that the national NRA was an invasion of state's rights. So far as the theory of a state NRA is concerned, we think it is idle to attempt to block it. If the present Legislature fails to act, the next session will. Government has been placing growing regulations on basiness for three decades. It will continue tp do so. To ask to be let alone is merely a waste of time, like yelling into a rain barrel. So much for the theory of state regulation —now for the actual bill Itself: It has many crudities, it is merely a rough blocking in of the problem. Only experienced business men can make the state NRA bill effective. Instead of squaring off like bantam roosters, business and the Legislature should get together and make this legislation a model. Government can not exist without business. Business is dependent upon government. Since business must accept the principle of official regulation it should co-operate with government NOW to make certain that the basic law dealing with this problem is sound. The people elected Mr. Roosevelt by an enormous majority. They indorsed him sweepingly at the polls last fall. He wants the states to enact their own NRA laws. If the states, including Indiana, fail tc do so, they will undoubtedly be placed under far more stringent, and certainly less desirable, regulation by the Federal government. Co-operation and not conflict is what is needed. a a a CERTAIN legislators are also tinkering with one particular business: Chain stores. A bill has been introduced which would tax every bles are of paramount importance in this situation. We owe the child not merely a place to eat and sleep, but the best possible substitute we can devise for the kind of social training which luckier children get in their own homes. The present moment is a good one for cons.dering that point. It is harder than ever before to find money for these institutions; the simplest way is to eliminate the “frills" and concentrate on food, clothing and buildings. But to do that is to defeat our own purpose. These children in orphanages are going to be grown men and women in a few years. The kind of men and women they will be will depend in large part on the wisdom and generosity with which we approach the matter of their training now. DECLINE OF COFFEE IF you happen to be the average American coffe drinker you drank less coffee last year than in the year before —some 16 cups less, to be exact. This is on the word of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, which has just finished a survey showing that the consumption of coffee in the United States fell off during 1934—which, by the way, was the first full year of repeal. Now there are two possible explanations of this fact, neither of them, to our notion, worth a great deal. Y'ou might say that a lot of people who used to drink coffee are now drinking alcoholic beverages, and that that is why coffee consumption has dropped. Or—remeihbermg the desperate way in which a man gropes for lots of black coffee on the morning after a thorough bender—you could argue that the decline in coffee consumption last year reflects a similar decline in the drinking of hard liquor. As we say, we don't think much of either explanation. , RICHER CITIES ANOTHER sign of better days ahead is the marked improvement in municipal solvency in many pens of the United States. There is a decided let-up of the dangerous tendency toward city bond defaults. A num-

such store, if there are more than 20 in any one chain. SIOOO. The tax is already $l5O. This, we think, is a thoroughly vicious and discriminatory proposition The bill is sponsored by an individual who has a personal grudge against chain stores and who wished to use his official position to get revenge. That is unworthy in a public official. The Indianapolis Times makes every human effort to stand against injustice, no matter at what class injustice may strike. We are well aware that chain stores have been the object of all sorts of attacks in recent years. Regardless of the merits of these attacks there are one or two facts that stand out. Chain stores have developed an economical and efficient method of distribution. Their competition has forced independent retailers to modernize their merchandising methods, reduce overhead and revise their procedure to permit lowering of prices. More than 90.000 independent stores nave joined in 900 voluntary grocery chains to fight the chain stores. The appearance of cnain stores has revolutionized food merchandising in the United States—and the revolution has been in favor of the average citizen. We like that kind of revolution. No matter what criticism is levelled at the chain store never forget that it HAS lowered prices, that it HAS increased the quality of both goods and service to the householder. It has accomplished this, however, by bringing its distributing system to such a fine point of perfection that it can not further reduce overhead. Chain stores do business on such a narrow margin of profit that any extra burden would have to be immediately passed along to the consumer in increased prices. The Indianapolis Times believes that food prices in these times should certainly be kept at the lowest possible level. Every legislator who votes to increase the tax on chain stores to SIOOO, which is utterly exorbitant, will be merely voting to increase the price of food to his colleagues. He will also be voting to satisfy a few purely personal petty grudges of one or two of his contemporaries. Sincere people, fear that the chain store may eventually develop into a vast monopoly of food. We certainly would be the first to fight such a thing. But the so-called chain store problem is solving itself in the natural course of events. Reports of the proportion of business they have absorbed are grossly exaggerated. In the boom year of 1929 the national and sectional chains had altogether 92,141 stores which in that year made total net sales of $6,151,337,000. That was a lot of money, but it was only 12.52 per cent of total retail sales. There has been a steady decrease in profits since 1925 and 1926, the peak years for chain operation. At the same time there has since those years been a steady increase of the net fixed investment in individual shops. The chains, while still extremely profitable, are finding their normal level in our economic life. We can not see much reason to fear a trust when the chain stores did only 13 per cent of the retail business in a boom year. On the contrary, the chains, we think, have been a wholesome influence in modem society. Perhaps the government itself, fumbling with a six-year depression, could learn a great deal from the chain store technique of quality, efficiency and service delivered at a small unit profit, n n n 'T'HE Legislature is thus confronted with two major problems regarding private business: What shall it do about a state NRA and shall it further burden the chain store? The answer to the first question is that both the legislators and business should dismount from their high horses and get together to formulate a wise program which will benefit ALL the people of the state. As for the second question the chain stores will come under the same general regulation as all business. They should be treated just as all business is treated. They should not be victimized by the crackpot prejudices of a few members of the Legislature. ber of cities, including Detroit, have undertaken debt settlement programs that shortly should take them out of the red. Municipal bond sales for November exceeded 91 millions, or more tnan double that in any of the three preceding months. More significant was the low interest rate in most of the offerings. Os the five states and 132 municipalities that sold bonds of 10 or more years maturity, all the states and 88 local units paid less than 4 per cent. Reflecting better treasuries also are paycv.t restorations announced by 51 leading cities. A survey by the American Municipal Association shows that 12 cities of more than 50.000 population have fully restored depression salary cuts, others are planning total or partial restorations. TELEPHONE INQUIRY fT'INCE its creation last summer, the Federal Communications Commission has been without funds to conduct the investigation which Congress ordered it to make into the affairs of the telephone monopoly. Meanwhile, the American Telephone & Telgraph Company officials repeatedly have offered to furnish the com mission with any information it .may seek. While this enlightened self-interest of the A. T. & T. officials is commendable, the commission properly has preferred to employ its own accountants and investigators. The commission can start its telephone work when Congress acts on the WheelerRavburn resolution authorizing $750,000 for the inquiry. Commissioner Walerk, chairman of the telephone division, said that amount was not enough for a complete audit of the telephone system’s books, but should prove sufficient to unearth most of the basic facts needed to guide Congress in future telephone control legislation. No member of Congress who really wants the commission to do a good job will oppose the resolution. . It may be a good idea to put all the country’s transportation facilities under control of i.he L C. C., but how will that stop the truck drivers from hogging the roads?.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TINES

WASHINGTON HAS A PARKING PROBLEM!

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r"TM TV /T ["/ wholly disapprove of what you say and will 1 X lie IVJ.eSS<I£LG center [defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire . J

(Times readers are invited to express their vieivs in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must be siyned, but names will be withheld at request o] the letter icriter.J a a a PEGLER’S SERIES DRAWS FIRE OF TIMES READER By R. E. Baur. On several occasions we have seen the editor’s notes appended to letters to the Message Center stating that Pegler’s column was an uncensored expression of his own opinion, in a recent column Pegler calls Mooney a labor slugger, which is a typical Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, or Hearst label for any labor organizer who effectively organizes labor. When Roy Howard was put on the spot in California by the financial interests during the Sinclair scare, it was Pegler for whom he wired. It was necessary that the ScrippsHoward newspaper join the braying press t;o stop Sinclair, “or else,” but Mr. Howard knew that his position was built upon liberal-minded readers so his contribution to the clamor would have to be more dignified than the blurbs in the Hearst papers. There followed the “Mahatma” series by Pegler. Then to appease the anger of the 900,000 California voters who supported Sinclair and were probably readers of ScrippsHoward papers, Pegler was given the cue to write an apologetic column to Upton Sinclair, and we were fed some of Pesler's graciousness in which he slings his barbs at the robot Governor of California and gives Sinclair the credit for having forced a political machine, Mr. Pegler's choice, into ways of righteousness. Pegler's outstanding characteristic is synicism; he gives way occasionally to pathos and weeps for the suffering poor. However, when the suffering poor organize to better their condition they will find no sympathy or support in Pegler’s column unless he is paid for his charms, when the notoriously overworked and underpaid newspaper writers organized their guild, Pegler joined because he lacked the “guts” to tell the boys to go to blazes with their union, but in his column he lined up with Hearst, where the big money is. a a tt EXPLANATION IS DEMANDED ON SEWER COSTS Bt Bert Wilhelm. The Property Owners’ Protective Association desires to correct the press statements regarding Senate Bill 76 which has been referred to by some as an attempt to "saddle on the taxpayers of Indianapolis” some $42,000 for the payment of assessments for the Bean Creek and Pleasant Run sewer. Isn’t it a fact that this sanitary sewer, built entirely inside the city, was “saddled” on the farmers? Farmers as far away as eight or 10 miles were assessed SI2OO and a few at SISOO, according to the acreage. But the sewer would not aid these fanners. Please say in your newspaper that the city has built other sanitary sewers under the sanitary district law and assessed the city at large including all propenv inside the city to pay for them, Why assess the city at large for sanitary main sewers under the sanitary district law on the theory that the public health is involved, then refuse to pay this comparatively small sum? i Farmers lining south and east of

New Deal Is Rapped

By 51. C. I have been reading so much about this so-called New Deal w’hich should have been called the “raw’ dealas that is just about all the laboring class has had in the last six years. We had w’onderful promises tw’o years ago, but they w r ere all forgotten. We heard so much about the forgotten man which we thought was the laboring class, but which has proved to be the big industries and the big farmer. All the laboring class has received has been wage cuts and thousands have been taken off the pay rolls. Then they expect you to be patriotic. You are too old to work after you reach 35 and you are too young under 18. They don’t want to give enough old-age pensions to live decently so I don’t know what they want to do with the people unless they knock the older people on the head. The big farmer has the cream of everything. If the money is to be spent, why not give the soldiers their bonus? They will never

the city can not understand why they should build a sanitary sewer on the South Side when the same sewer on the North Side was built by general taxation. Neither can residents of Beech Grove who were assessed for this sewer they did not want, which they objected to, and never will have extended so they can use. At the same time they were being assessed by the town of Beech Grove for their own sewer which they have and use. Sixty-one per cent of the property assessed for the Bean Creek sewer was unplatted and farm land, so it is the rural property that suffe. s. This year the sanitary district nas made a levy of .1345 cents against all property within the city for the same kind of sewers, and will have $733,208 to use and spend. Why should they not be fair about this? n n tt JUDGES COMMENDED FOR MOVES TO CLEAR COURTS Bv William M. McMaster. I was interested in your articles concerning the conditions around and about the Municipal Criminal Courts. These conditions are not new but have been known to the bar and the public generally for a long time. Some time ago when there was a vacancy in the criminal division -f the Municipal Court which, under the law, was to be filled by a Democrat I visited Gov. McNutt and recommended for the place a lawyer whom I knew not only to be well qualified but who had worked out a definite program to correct and avoid the conditions which are brought to public attention. I was sorry that the Governor could not find it expedient to follow my recommendation because it meant the loss to the community of a most admirable program for the correction of the many evil practices engaged in about the police court. I am glad that the judges of the Municipal Court, in response to an organized protest by lawyers, are now assuming a responsibility in the matter of the wrongful practices that have been so openly engaged in in the very corridors of their courts. They are to be commended for their recent order and it is to be hoped that this start will be the beginning of a definite and comprehensive program U correct the

need it worse than they do now. Why not use some of the money that is being spent for unnecessary work and start industries and put people to work? Wouldn’t it be much more sensible to have our industries running and let supply and demand take care of everything than waste the money on grubbing bushes for starvation wages? Times will get no better under such conditions. Labor made the wealth of the country. Nov labor is kicked out and called indigents. People have been very patient considering what they have gone through. I see in a Shelbyville paper where the new council is talking of passing an ordinance prohibiting house-to-house peddling. Why in the world don’t they stop the farmers and people from other towns coming in and taking the work while the home town people walk the streets and are expected to pay the taxes to keep up the town? Then they have the nerve to tell you to boost your home town. The next time you vote, stop, look, and listen.

many other reprehensible practices engaged in about the police court. a a a POOR WOULD BENEFIT UNDER EXEMPTION LAW Bv C. M. Scott. If I am not badly mistaken the first w’eek the state assembly convened, one of our Representatives indicated that he would put a law through to exempt home prpeerty under S3OOO. Why not put a lawthrough to exempt property SISOO or under and give the common working man a chance to save and get a home? Why can’t we have a law passed , now and then to help the little fellow who has to work every day for a small wage? Our Governor i sure helped us v'hen he gave us , another year to pay our taxes which ! are in arrears. I would like to; know why an exemption law of this j kind couldn’t be put through and give the hard-working people a new deal or chance to have a home? This kind of an exemption law would reduce house rent for the benefit of the poor. a a a U. S, SHOULD SIDESTEP TROUBLE IN MEXICO Bv E. K. Here is a riddle for us to solve. Father Coughlin and some of the Senate objected to us going into the World Court to keep out of foreign entanglements. We did and a few days later they start on Mexico’s \ religious questions. Is that our business? Senator Borah voted against going into the World Court, j Now he asked the Senate to lay aside j SIO,OOO to put into Mexico’s trouble, j Are w’e so thick-headed that we!

Daily Thought

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in.—St. Matthew, xxv, 35. IF a man be gracious to strangers. it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them.— Bacon. 1

FEB. 13, 1933

can't change our minds ad telegraph to President Roosev It that from now on we are going to stand by him and as Mexico and America are friendly nations let us stay that way and let Mexico settle its own religious questions. Almost every question that comes up in Europe, you see religions mixed up in it. Let’s not let religion spoil our country. Let this country have more Jane Jordan's and face facts and try to help people. tt tt a SOMETHING WRONG WITH TOWNSEND OPPOSITION Bv Aaron Aldridee. I have been on this earth 91 years and do not expect to be here many months longer. I have always kept up with the times. My grandson, who is about 50, is talking about the Townsend plan, but I can not hear as well as some young people. I can not make heads or tails of j it, from what the papers say. From * what they say, a little child would,t not believe in it, but from what 1 can hear a lot of our neighbor think it is a wonderful plan. Som a r y one is a liar and I am going to liv & long enough to find out who it is. 91

So They Say

I believe there never has been any other period in American history when American banking was on a firmer foundation than it 13 now.—J. F. T. O'Connor, controller of currency. Five bucks is nothing during these times. I wouldn't take less than ssoo.—Chicago bandit, walking away in disgust from Sam Ginsburg, victim with $5. Under the New Deal you pay taxes you did not authorize, for purposes you have not approved.— Rep. Louis T. McFadden, Pennsylvania. I still believe Lenin was one of the most masterful personalities of modern times.—Col. Raymond Robins, noted social economist. If the bootleggers lick me, I am willing to go home. It is a sorry mess if the United States can not enforce its laws.—Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., in charge of enforcement. The hair brush as a child corrector is a recognized institution in all well-regulated families. Supreme Court Justice W. F. Bieakley, New York.

SEARCH

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK I come with pleading, outstretched hands To grasp my share of beautv’i flower: The bright orange taper of a dream That guts to nothing in an hour. The sharp, swift agony of birds Against the flame of blue twilight. The breathless, gold rind of a moon Blown by the wind to sudden flight. I come with eagerness, and go With empty hands, bereft of words; But stored within my heart I hold A dream, a moon, the flight oi bird*!