Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 248, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 February 1935 — Page 8

PAGE 8

The Indianapolis Times (.% HowARD >r.spaper *<Mr W. HOWARD Fre*ll*nt TALCOTT POWELL Editor XARL D. RAKER Bn*ln** Manager Phone Rl!r W 1

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MOSDAY FEBRUARY 2S *.815

A PROBLEM IN ETHICS as a matter of law. but just as an interesting little studv in ethics—why should the invalidation of the private gold clause be so generally and readnv accepted a* all right, and so much moral heat be engendered at the same time over the so-called repudiation of the government's own gold clause? The private bond contracts specified payment in gold just as did the governments.” Now. as a pure matter of ethics, is it any more of a sin for a government to repudiate <and we assume, only for the sane of argument. that repudiation uas occurred) than for •n individual? Government, after all, is only the sum total of individuals which make up government. We merely ask—and would be interested in answers from those who enjo v philosophizing on abstract problems in good and evil. CONGRESSIONAL SUI( IDE IF democracy is actually on trial for its life. as many people believe, then the behavior of Congress n recent weeks has added to its perils. It is hard to defend a legislative body in which votes are cast to obstruct and embarrass without regard to conviction; which persistently stands in the way of legislation for which there is general public demand and need. The Senate touched anew low in popular esteem when it voted on the prevailing wage question last Thursday. Many of those who voted with organized labor did so as a matter of long-standing personal conviction, and with them there can be no quarrel. But others, who have never before voted with labor and who probably never will again, did so on that roll rail because they wanted to kill the great public works bill without going on record against it. At the same time, both houses arc delaying, out of all reason, enactment of social security legislation. The President's program to prevent and relieve unemployment is overwhelmingly popular. If it isn't translated into law the people of the country are going to know the reason why. Long accumulated impatience with Conuicss is apt to overrun all bounds. The Supreme Court, in its gold decision, acknowledged the practical realities of democracy. Congress, at the moment, is not demonstrating equal wisdom. INDEPENDENCE Federal district judge william i. GRUBB of Birmingham. £la.. who held that the Tennessee Valley Authority has no right to sell power to municipalities, is a descendant of Benjamin Harrison. Harrison was chairman of the committee of the Continental Congress which reports out The Declaration of Independence and was one of its signers. The fact offers an interesting contrast. The TV A and its power activities are to a large degree the nation's •‘declaration of independence” from power interests which have inflated values, built indefensible financial structures and gouged electric rate powers. The people of the United States, through the TV A act. decided to determine for themselves whether private operators, enjoying monopolies. were guilty of oppressive ‘ taxation” through too high rates. * Judge Grubbs decision will he promptly appealed. It is inconceivable that higher courts will hold that the people of .he nation lack the independence and power to use their own rivers as the TV A ‘ as planned—and was instructed —to use then.. FRIEND IN NEED IN naming Mrs. Emily Newell Blair to the cnairmanship of the Consumers’ Advisory Baird. President Roosevelt has followed his own recommendation for .mprovement in the personnel of the National Recovery Administration. Like her predecessor, the late Mrs. Mary HatTiman Rumsey. Mrs Blair is intelligent, energetic and public-spirited. In national club work and in Missouri politics she has proved herself a fearless and devoted liberal. The business of curbing profiteers, monopolists and other public enemies in behalf of 125 OPO.OOO more or less inarticulate consumers Is almost as staggering as the 12 tasks of Hercules. Mrs Blair will not succeed to her own satisfaction. She will, we are certain, help to lighten the burdens of her fellow-housewives in these tunes of rising prices. TOWARD STABLE MONEY THE Administration now has an opportunity to move forward from its Supreme Court gold victory toward permanent monetary stability. But this opportunity may be lost if the Administration fails to move promptly. Already inflationists in Congress are hatching new and grander schemes. Their ideas for “consolidating monetary gains” include more ailver and currency expansion and more gold devaluation. At the end of that road is monetary and business chaos. To travel that road also might ultimately cost the taxpayer a pretty penny. In the Liberty Bond case. Just.ce Stone, alone, ruled that Congress had the power to invalidate the gold clause in government bonds. Taxpayers were saved from paving government bondholders a 69 per cent premium only by a collateral ruling of the court majority that the bondholder must first orove damages. Under present conditions, a bondholder can not prove damages because the purchasing power of the dollar today is no less than it was at the time ha purchased the bond. But that would not

LIQUOR legislation has always been up to its ears in partisan politics. The administration bill, now before the Legislature, is no exception. It will be severely attacked by three sorts of people. There will be ttose who will classify it with Kipling’s hero who was neither good enough to go to Heaven nor bad enough to go to hell. Then there will be the idealists, both wet and dry, who are naive enough to believe that new ideas can be forced into dull heads by a mere act of the Legislature. Last, there will be some bitterly disappointed gentlemen—if one may call them such —who had hoped for a bill that would entrench them in special privilege, give them a chance to make huge profits at the expense of everybody else. All of these will be upset about the present bill. We shall be hearing from every one of them in the next week. The regal?tion of liquor is a thorny problem. The tawdry experiment with constitutional prohibition proved that it is impossible to stop people who want to drink from drinking. Society has decided that beverages containing ethyl alcohol are a very special commodity which government must handle in a very special way. Thus, any one who draws a law on this subject has a hard row to hoe. In formulating a policy the McNutt administration apparently viewed the problem from both the social and political angles. From the standpoint of a piece of social legislation the present bill is sound in principle. It attempts to banish forever the old “saloon evil.” This evil was not due to the character of the place which sold drinks, but was directly caused by an unsavory alliance between distillers and distributors on the one hand and the retail liquor outlets on the other. b a a 'T'HE McNutt liquor legislation tries to make such alliances impossible in the future. In its present form, however, there is a bad omission m the bill. It does not prevent brewers, distillers and wholesalers from extending unlimited credit to the retailer. This would be as effective a means of controlling retailers as actually giving them cash or fixtures. Still another flaw in the bill is the failure long be true should the nation be propelled down the path of inflation toward cheaper and cheaper dollars. The Administration could checkmate the inflationists by announcing that there will be no further major devaluation or arbitrary currency expansion. But obviously, preliminary to such an announcement must come some kind of international monetary armistice. That is the Administration's cue. President Roosevelt's abrupt refusal to discuss monetary stability was largely responsible for the break-up of the World Economic Conference in 1933. That conference can be reconvened. And if the leading industrial powers can first agree to a permanent monetary truce, the conference can approach, with some hope of solution, .ne broader and related problems of world debts, tariffs and t^ade. There can be no nsura.,ce of lasting monetary stability at home without a mutual understanding among tne major powers that currency depreciation rivalry has ended. VALOR OF IGNORANCE CONGRESSMAN BLANTON, who talks overmuch while the day is long, told a House committee that Tom Mooney “should have been hanged.” “A man," said this Draco from Texan plains, “who will throw a bomb and kill 13 men. women and children, instead of putting him in the penitentiary you ought to hang him.” For once we can almost agree with Mr. Blanton. If Mooney did that he should, under California's laws, have been hanged. But, of course, he did not do it. The very fact that a former Governor commuted his death sentence, upon request of Woodrow Wilson, shows tAat California itself has doubt of his guilt. The judge and jury who tried Mooney, the state's chief witnesses, who admit they lied, the captain of detectives who worked up the case against Mooney, the present district attorney of San Francisco, members of the Wickersham commission and of the United States Supreme Court—these and scores of judicially minded students of the case question this man's guilt. Mr. Blanton is lucky to have a mind that is untroubled by doubts and unhampered by facts. YOUTH INSTRUCTS AGE ••nnHIS sort of thing can lead to a regime like Hitler's,” Vassar College girls said to New York law-makers when they descended on Albany to protest against legislation requiring every student at a university supported by public funds to swear allegiance to the Constitution. % Their judgment does credit to their school. “Suppression works just the opposite from what you gentlemen think.” said the leader of the group, and again she was right. No young people worth educating are going to agree, at the beginning of the period when their minds should be most open, to accept and support things as they are for the rest of their lives. If an arbitrary oath is forced upon them, suspicion and rebellion are the probable result. Curiosity is the essence of education, just as change and experiment are the essence of young people and young countries. If it were not so then we would indeed have cause for alarm about the future. Some people a’ways spoil things by trying to be different. A woman in Alabama is 106 years old and she didn't celebrate her birthday bv taking her first plane ride and she can't read fine print without glasses. Tennessee keeps on insisting by law that we can t be saecer.ded from monkeys, but some people in Louisiana are beginning to doubt this. Racial experts have discovered that the blond North-Germans are not long-headed, but short-headed—and short-sighted, they might have added.

Liquor Control BY TALCOTT TOWELI

to provide wide enough competition. Consumers in this state have suffered from exorbitant prices since repeal. This has been caused because the importers had a monopoly on beer and wholesale druggists on whisky. The retail druggist has not made tremendous profits out of hard liquor, but the markup of the wholesalers has been too high and the consumer has paid the bill. There is only one way to stop this monopoly. That is to widen the market by permitting reputable grocers and department stores to sell at retail. With such a competitive situation prices will tend to maintain a normal level. B B B . 'T'HE machinery set up for granting permits is excellent. A local board sits in each county on the qualifications of applicants. Members of this board will be in a splendid position tc know the character of persons desiring to sell liquor The provision for the abolition of roadhouses is, we think, a w.se one. These establishments are always the gathering place for undesirable persons. They are located in the country where there is no adequate police force to keep an eye on them. Irresponsible persons operate them. Equally irresponsible patrons drive their cars to them, get full of whisky and then drive oack to town menacing every’ other motorist on the highway. No one is going to miss the roadhouses. Viewed purely as a piece of social legislation. a valid charge against the legislation is that it is much too verbose. It attempts to regulate drinking down to the most minute details. It tries to prescribe just how a man should take a glass of beer. From the political standpoint this surplusage may be necessary’. Indiana has always been filled with dry sentiment. No doubt these provisions were placed in the bill to satisfy this dry element, which must be reassured if the state is to remain in the wet column The bill is far from perfect. Yet, by and large, we think, it is a worthy piece of legislation Certainly it is a 'ast improvement on our present law. Liquet control is still in an experimental stage. Jt must be approached one step at a time. The McNutt bill is a long step in the right direction. MR. FRANK RETURNS ORE than one good New Deal experiment has been damaged by the incompetency of officials and employes. Various predatory interests, from which the Administration is trying to protect the public, employ the best brains money can buy. It is therefore essential to the general welfare that the government use the best brains it can command. Jerome Frank is one of the most brilliant and courageous government lawyers. A fortnight ago he was ousted from his post as General Counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, a victim of internal politics and the pressure of food processors. Now the Administration has recognized its mistake and has persuaded him to return to important government service with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The President is fortunate in having aids of the type of Mr. Frarik.

'T'HE world surplus of wheat has been lowered by one grain since Mme. Ziva Djalal, charming blond wife of Minister Djalal of Persia, has entered the international wheat market in a starting manner. Despite the enormous surplus of wheat in the world and the fact that the United States is so glutted with that product it now has about 250,000.000 bushels to dispose of, there didn’t seem to be a single grain around Washington. "Why not try the Argentine embassy?” some one suggested to Mme. Djalal. “Argentina is a great wheat producing country.” “Maybe the Canadian legation could do something for you,” suggested someone else. Finally. Mme. Djalal called up a Brazilian diplomat (because Brazilians always have quantities of wheat or coffee) and put the query to him. Her intuition proved correct. “I think I can find a grain of raw wheat for you. madame,” he said. "Our doorman suffers from sinus and he uses the same remedy.” a a a MINISTER BORDENAVE of Paraguay was informed that a Washington theater was showing picture of the Paraguayan-Bolivian war in the Chaco. “I must find it,” he declared. After trying many theaters, he finally came to a little Negro showhouse. He entered and discovered the long-sought news reel of the Chaco being shown. Interested in the war scenes, he remained during the entire performance and saw the news reel a second time. a a a Ambassador augusto rosso of Italy is a traveler who is apt to be in New York one day, in Florida two days later, and out West by the end of the week. Apropos of his travels, the story of his recent visit to Denver, Colo., is causing some amusement in diplomatic circles. It seems that newsmen in Denver hastened to ask cagey Signor Rosso to comment on Mussolini, Fascism and kindred topics. His excellency declined. He treads lightly on such debatable political grounds. “Why don’t you give me some question I can answer?” he asked, anxious to be agreeable. “Well, what is your particular hobby?" queried a reporter. “Oh.” said Rosso, smiling. “Dogs are my hobby.” Rcsso’s pronunciation caused news men to suppose he had said “ducks.” 'Have you any ducks of your own?” said the reporter. “Certainly, I have a very fine dog named Tobias.” smiled his excellency. Whereupon newspapers announced that the Italian ambassador s chief hobby was ducks and that his favorite duck was named Tobias. Embassy attaches are now teaching Tobias, the Italian envoys beautiful Springar Spaniel, to swim more frequently in the patio fountain. They feel this will be more in keeping with his new character as a duck. It seems that almost all the naval authorities, who will never have to ride in a dirigible, are certain that dirigibles are safe. Babe Ruth is delaying his contract signing, but he'll probably be ready as soon as he decides who'll be author of the new travel book he threatens to write. Indiana has almost decided to award a medal to a jailer in one of its cities. He checked over his prisoners the other morning and found that none of them had walked out during the night. V

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELI

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1 ITO lvlessa.2o [ defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire. _

(Times renders are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can hare a chance. Limit them to words or less. Your letter must he sinned, hut names will be withheld at rryuest of the letter writer.) B B B COMMENTS ON DENTAL ADVERTISING BILL By Gummer The following is quoted from Dr. S. B. Friedland's advertisement: "House Bill 218 now before the Senate prohibits dentists from advertising prices or credit terms, using dental illustrations, giving descriptions of methods and displaying visible signs.” Advertising groups have told us that advertising is responsible for mass production and mass distribution which lowered costs to the consumer. It is only reasonable to assume that dentists are receiving advantages of mass production and distribution as they they belong to this consumer group. It is a known fact that the average dentist has a higher income than the average man and yet works only about 30 hours a week. If the dentists were ethical they would apply advertising and the resulting mass production to their business. The lower costs would then enable the other consumers to have the dental attention which they need. This is the economic answer. Unfortunately a humanitarian answer can not be applied to any part of the dental profession even though it was started for humanitarian reasons. For humanitarian and economic reasons The Times should devote an editorial toward defeating this bill. B B B HAS ADMINISTRATION FAILED? READER ASKS By the Rev. Daniel Carrick Asa preacher of the Gospel I have seen the whole city of Indianapolis, and I ask myself the question—is there any hell worse than this depression with millions on relief and thousands not getting relief, some freezing without coal, others without food, and millions in rags? Is Roosevelt sincere? Is he trying to help the American home to be happy or is his middle name •Wall Street?” This is Roosevelt’s Administration. He has it within his power to overthrow the capitalist system and free the American masses from the bondages of poverty. President Roosevelt wrote me months ago that he is determined that no one shall starve, but they are starving, and the starving are being robbed of what little they do get from relief by grocers who charge those on relief more for their groceries than they do the public. This Administration is to blame for all this suffering. If Mr. Roosevelt can not help us in two long years, he can not do it in 200 years. If he is trying and can not. he ought to resign. If he is sold out to Wall Street, he ought to be im-. peached. There are 36 families so rich they control $20,432,000,000, which leaves no money for public use. We are robbed. We are exploited. We are doomed. We are in a hell with no hope of ever getting out. We are worse off than the Negro slaves were, for the Negro once had home, medicine, food and clothing. Today whites and Negroes are out of homes, jobs, money and food. This is true of half the population. Is it Wall Street? How can the President expect the churches to support this Administration any longer since it is an Administration of torture and human suffering? Although I have

BACK IN THE OLD DAYS

Individualism Must Stay

By Charles L. Blume. Your paper and associated papers have created a great deal of comment on rugged individualism. Your paper has taken a definite stand against it, claiming that rugged individualism must go. Mr. Powell, the pilgrims settled in America because they were rugged individualists, the pioneers expanded this country because they were rugged individualists. We are an independent nation because our patriots were rugged individualists. Our foreiaihers were successful because, of necessity, they had to fight to live. You yourself would not be editor of your paper if you were not an individualist. Your paper says, “rugged individualism must go.” You then advocate anew and dangerous generation of thinkers, a generation of people who will not care to think for themselves but depend upon a group of men to do it for them. They will not care to be ambitious, for what would be the use, the government will take care of them? It takes suffering to make great men. You would take away the incentive to better themselves. The New Deal would regiment all workers and business men through codes. It makes initiative a forgotten thing. The average man today does not receive a liv- ! ing wage under the New Deal. supported the President in all his activities, it is impossible to excuse him when all this suffering of hunger and want goes on. Unless Mr. Roosevelt changes his schemes, the American people are doomed and the government shall fall, and the Armageddon spoken of in the Bible will come with blood up to the bits of the horses. Is there any use to go on with a system of government that fails? B B B • VETERANS SHOULD CONTINUE FIGHT FOR BONUS Bv B. H. Hatfield To Junior! Ynur remarks about veterans’ whining class you. We had some like you in France and they werp unable to take it, and when the armistice was signed they were the first ones to whine. I was in seven battles in France and Belgium and I would have liked to have had a buddy like you in 1917-18. Buddies, hold up for ydTlr rights. We want one bonus. We haven’t had a square deal since the war and we can not get one, so the bonus is coming to us and we need it. B B B BOOTLEGGING ENCOURAGED BY NEW TAX PROPOSAL Bv J. Ed Burk Why should we spend money to stamp out bootlegging while at the same time we encourage it by the state triple license law, as proposed by our Legislature? BBS DENTAL ADVERTISING BILL IS SUPPORTED Bv William A. Flemine I read where they are trying to pass a law concerning the dental profession. Some time ago I read a swap ad in a certain newspaper of this city which said: “Expert dental work in /tchange for chimney and roofing repairs." Being out of work and badly in need of a set of false teeth. I played the part of a big sap and answered S the ad. After doing the requested i work to the doctor's satisfaction, I

The dreams of idealists are seldom practical. I, as a young man, am not afraid to fight for success nor are millions of others. We want the right to pit our strength and ability against defeat. We want to carve our own niche in the business, political, social and financial world. Some of us will fall, true, but since time only the stout-hearted have won. We need no group of men to do our thinking for us. We need only advice and not dictation. Our cry is, we want no infringement upon our hard-earned liberties. We want no laws foisted upon us without representation of the people who, by the way, just in case It has been forgotten, are the government who place men in office to execute their will. “This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” In closing I submit to you these questions: Do you believe that this country needs one group of men to do the thinking for the individual business man and laborer? Why? Would you hire a man to work for you who did not show initiative, who by his own individual struggle show his worthiness for the position? What is your definition of government? Do you believe that the government that governs the least governs the best? Why? told him that I did not think I had done enough work to earn a good set of false teeth, so the doctor agreed to find some more work to be done. After doing this additional work satisfactorily, the dentist claimed that I should pay him $5 for a set of teeth much against his original agreement. Being on relief I did not have the $5 to pay and I do not have it as yet. So I am still without teeth, or any remuneration whatsoever for my time and work. I 'urnished materials for the work. Therefore, I believe that there is some good and some bad advertising in the dental profession, for some dentists do not mean a thing they say in their advertisements. nan CARTOON ON BORAH APPROVED BY READER Bv H. S. Bonsib Allow me to congratulate you on your splendid cartoon —showing the inconsistency of Borah, wanting no foreign entanglements, but wants to investigate Mexico. We have nc business there. BBS LIGHT RATES IN OTHER CITIES ARE DETAILED By P. J. Minek I believe you will be interested in the fact that resident rates for Indianapolis are considerably higher than those paid in many other cities. Compare these rates with those paid by residents in Indianapolis for

Daily Thought

No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. —St. Luke 8:16. LIGHT is the symbol of tiuth. — James R. LowelL

FEB. 25, 1935

l the same consumption. I suggest you write the city clerk in the vari- : ous cities and verify. I For 50 * kilowatt-hours of elec--1 tricity, residents pay in: Indianapolis, $2.88; Cleveland, $1.60; Dunkirk. N. Y„ $1.62; Fort Morgan, Colo., $1.70; Holland, Mich., j $1.74; Kansas City, Kas., $1.80; j Owensboro, Ky., $1.90; Tacoma, Wash. $1.20, and Virginia, Minn., sl.

So They Say

There is no tension today between Catholics and Protestants, but only between them and heathenism. Cardinal Faulhaber, archbishop of Munich. The “pink slip” income tax provision in effect furnishes a who’s who list of prospects for every gangster, racketeer and kidnaper in the country.—Rep. Robert L. Bacon, New York. Ethiopia will never attack Italy, but will defend herself in case of attack. She can more than maintain her own. Negradas Yesus, Ethiopian charge d’affaires in Rome. I am convinced that, if we should have any trouble with Japan, there would spring up overnight on the Pacific coast an army of 25,000 trained Japanese reservists. Rep. John F. Dockweiler, California. Barnard students have gone domestic, as it is no longer fashionable to be an ardent feminist. Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Barnard College. No woman during my lifetime, however qualified, will be nominated, much less elected, President of the United States—Judge Florence Allen, United States Appellate Court. My wife wasn’t bawling me out for speeding, so I couldn’t have been going 48.—Nixon Lutz, fined Cincinnati autoist. Few major leaguers last over five years, while a good golfer lasts fifty. —Walter Hagen.

Tangled Roots

BY POLLY LOIS NORTON You'd think from years of digging in the bog I'd have my fill of tangled roots and mud And want the city pavements 1 once knew. But there are tangled roots and tangled roots — The roots that make the peat are beautiful, They show their souls to folks on wintry nights In colored flames and warmth for shivering knees; But tangled roots in cities, grown in filth. Are of the mind. Grasping, pushing, tangling, They strangle worthier thoughts until at last They snarl the lives of others (roots are the life> And beauty in the city comes to be Not kindness, love, and friendly harmony But only stone, rough stone, piled mountain high. Ready to fall and crush the ants beneath— No, give me swamps, clean dirt, and tangled roots.