Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 249, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 February 1935 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times (i st Rirrs-iiowARD newspaper* ROT W. HOWARD rr?Mnt TALCOTT POWELL ! : r EAKL D. BAKER ........ Business Mar.ajer Phone Riley S.VU

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TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 3, 1535. WORTH FIGHTING FOR T TNLESS the Administration is* careful it will be tripped up oy its own strategy in handling the all-important works-relief bill. Last week, after a one-vote defeat in the Senate on the prevailing wage clause, the Administration had the bill recommuted to committee. Senator Byrnes explained that as between payment of the prevailing wage and no works-relief measure the President w*s taking the latter alternative. Asked why the Administration did not eliminate the prevailing wage clause by having the House-Senate conferees report back the House bill, Byrnes replied that there would be no conference because the issue was dead and dropped. If this is an accurate statement of Adtr.ini. tration strategy, we believe it is likely to prove self-defeating. You don’t start a fight and then run before the battle is well under way. You don’t give up merely because in the fif'st skirmish you lose by one vote in 96. Even if the works-relief program in itself were not important, ♦he Administration can not afford to accept defeat now. The entire legislative program is at stake, including the social security bill. Since the Administration appeared to give up the fight on the works relief bill, the opposition to other measures has grown and the Administration forces have been demoralized. Retreat is contagious. If the President expects to win on any other of the large number of controversial issues at this session of Congress, he and his leaders on the Hill must first win this fight. Moreover, apart from its effect on other legislative battles ahead, this works-relief bill Is vital in itself—indeed it is the most important emergency legislation zo far presented by the President. Any one doubting its importance has only to turn back and read the President’s vigorous message to Congress on the subject to understand that it is the key to other recovery efforts. We believe public opinion should and will support the President—if he will give it a chance to do so. But public support can not be rallied on the basis of Senator Byrnes’ statement that the Administration has dropped the measure. Before the opposition grows stronger, there should be a clear statement from the White House that the President has not dropped his $4,880,000,000 works-relief program and has not cut it down to a small dole.

PINK SLIP PUBLICITY 'T'HE growth of sentiment against income -*• tax publicity is not surprising. Even some of the proponents of publicity, who sought to accomplish a definite reform through the La Follette amendment last year, have little good to say for the compromise pink slip procedure. Under the original Follette plan. Federal income tax returns were to be treated as public records as state Income tax returns are treated in Wisconsin, and left open for inspection just as property tax records are in local assessors' and collectors'offices throughout the country. Adopted in a wave of indignation which followed disclosure that J. P. Morgan and other wealthy men had not been paying income taxes, the purpose of th s amendment was to provide an automatic check against tax evasions and avoidances. But the publicity clause which finally became law will not accomplish this. The taxpayer's return is not made a public record. Instead. the only thing made public is a little pink slip of paper, on which the taxpayer lists five things: Gross Income, total deductions, net income, total credits jjains t net income and tax payable. There is nothing on the pink slip to explain the sources of income or the nature of deductions and credits claimed. Obviously any conclusions which the public might form from such incomplete information are apt to prove erroneous, and may unjustly damage the reputation of many conscientious taxpayers. Certainly the items listed will not reveal a tax evasion, if there is one, out will only provide undependable hints. It is hard to see how this pink slip publicity will serve any purpose except to encourage idle or unhealthy snooping. NEW GERMAN JOB PLAN NOT the least valuable way of sizing up our own re-employment program is to have an occasional look at the things other nations are doing to solve the same problen One of the most instructive eontr sts is to be found in Germany. On April 1. the Nazi government begins a new assault on unemployment which will have the result of making every person under 25 a unit in a rigidly state-controlled labor scheme. All jobs for persons under 25 will be at the disposal of the state. A young person holding a job will be required to place his services at the disposal of the state-labor service. This organization wall have the power to send him to work on a farm, to toil on a construction project, or to enroll in a labor camp. Thus the young worker is to pass under the sway of a centralized, disciplined authority quite as rigid and strvft as that of military conscription. He will not try to start his career as soon as he gets out of school; Instead. he must work at jobs someone else picks for him until he is halfway through his 20 s, and not until then can he chocee his own employment. jfow the reason for examining that scheme in such detail here is not to find anew basis for criticism of Herr Hitler, but simply to point out that control of this kind is the logical result of any nation-wide, authoritarian control of the labor market by the central government. Once you depart from a free, fluid labor market you are headed, ultimately, toward Ihic or something like it. r (fur own re-employment program has man-

‘-We Killed Her-’ BY TALCOTT POWELL

“lyj'Y daughter was a swimmer. She contraded an infectious disease in water polluted by my city, I and my neighbors—we killed her.” This was the tragic statement of a heartbroken father to The Indianapolis Times. He KNOWS about stream pollution. So do hundreds of other parents who have watched their children writhing in the agony of mastoid and sinus infections. So do the water companies who must process with expensive chemicals the water of the state to make it fit to drink. So does the farmer who watches his livestock die after drinking from poisoned streams. The destruction of a few’ cattle sounds trifling but it may mean the difference between poverty and comparative comfort to their owner. So do the sportsmen who have watched helplessly while greedy interests have killed off the fish and wild life of the state with poisoned water. A bill is now before the state Senate which would eliminate this disgrace. It has teeth. It can force short-sighted industry and myopic municipal bosses to clean up this mess. Both Democrats and Republicans pushed it through the House with a tremendous majority. Both parties viewed the measure for what it is—an essential law for the health of our children. Some opposition is developing in the Senate. Special privilege has had a chance to get in its sinister work. a tt tt SENATOR RALPH JERNIGAN (R), whose home county of St. Joseph has 20 miles of unspeakably filthy streams, w’ants to emasculate the anti-pollution bill with two amendments: ifold imperfections, certainly. Some of these are inherent in any attempt to put people back to work before the slow processes of recovery can get uncoiled, and others arise from the fact that we are seeking to do the job through voluntary means. But it is worth remembering that to give up this voluntary system m favor of something quicker and more efficient is a first step on the road to a despotic regime like this one in Germany. A certain amount of inefficiency is the price of democratic government. By trying to build re-employment around our existing industrial framework, we are preserving our political freedom. • If the job seems to be moving slowly, it is helpful to remember the alternatives. THE JUST WAY TO PAY CONGRESSIONAL leaders appear to have made up their minds that new taxes can not be avoided much longer. Washington dispatches say that Congress is beginning to agree that all expenditures above budget estimates will have to be matched with new’ revenues, and re-enactment of a number of "nuisance taxes” is expected before the winter ends. A nation which is already groaning under a heavy tax load can hardly be expected to throw its hat in the air over this news. Nevertheless, it is the only sensible attitude to take. We are piling up our national debt at a prodigious rate these days. It can not be helped, and there is nothing to do but make the best of it. But we are under the obligation to pay as we go, as far as we possibly can. Debt increases can not be avoided, but they should not be resorted to as long as existing sources of revenue remain untapped. NEW DEFINITION NEEDED THE "insanity defense” in murder cases generaly arouses a cynical smile, these days. Aside from the fact that unscrupulous lawyers have too often perverted it to improper ends, one big trouble with it is that our legal definiton of insanity is faulty. In most states a man is legaly sane, and lesponsib’e for his acts, if he can distinguish right from wrong. What we need to realize is that emotional instability can be worse than intellectual instability. A man perfectly able to tell right from wrong can nevertheless be swept of! his feet by an emotional storm he can not control. A Los Angeles youth awaits trial for beating his half-sister almost to death—for the amazing reason that if she were out of the way he would be allowed to buy a dog he wanted. He seems mentally normal: and his trouble, one would guess. Is an emotional quirk which takes him entirely out of the class of normal folk, but which, nevertheless, may leave him perfectly "sane” by the rigid legal definition.

EVERY ONE ALIKE AS 'the Senate ir-ves closer to passage of a law limiting war-time profits in the munitions trade. Senators who have investigated that traffic are reported to be preparing anew blast at the way it was handled in the last war. Members of the Nye committee, it is said, will seek to prove that there was something very like a strike of capital in the most crucial moments of our wr-r with Germany. Big munitions makers, th.*y charge, delayed production to quibble over profits at a time of national crisis. Senator Nye says bluntly that they “forgot patriotism for personal gain.” It is impossible to forecast just what sort of law will come out of all this. But whatever is done, it will simply be a reflection of the great change which has come over war-making in the last generation. Nowadays, when a nation goes to war, it must go as a unit. The soldier is only the spearhead of its effort. Behind him all the wealth and industry of the nation must be united. The amount of wheat a fanner may raise, the amount of money a mechanic may demand for his work, the extent to which a maker of 10-cent store novelties may buy rubber for his needs, the proportion of steel production which can be allotted to the railroads, the interest a banker may charge for loans —all these things, and a myriad more, must be controlled by the government as strictly as the movements of the army itself are controlled. This v ' cause the scope of modem war

1. He would allow abatement orders to be appealed in any competent court in the state rather than in the courts of Marion County. 2. He would require or permit referendum elections on bond issues for the erection of sewage disposal plants. This is simply a sly effort to throw a monkey wrench into the whole program. It allows tinkering by local political machines who are responsible for the election of judges and who must call such a referendum election. It would permit tampering by swinish industries with local influence. Make no mistake about it. Senator Jernigan is merely for the perpetuation of 20 miles of open sewer in his own county and 1,378 miles of streaming filth throughout the state. u a tt SOME opposition is also developing from the Senators who represent Sullivan and Lake Counties. Sullivan has 120 miles of foul streams! More than any other county. The coal companies are responsible and they don’t want to clean up. They have cracked the whip over the legislators. Lake is the second worse county with 65 miles of noisome streams. The steel companies are in a large part responsible. They do not want to clean up either. The Senators who oppose this bill should remember that they are representing all the people of the state—not a handful of Stone Age industrialists. The people WANT this nasty mess wiped out. They will deal harshly at the polls with legislators who vote for filth. Is it possible that any Senator can face his own conscience in the future and say calmly with some other bereaved father or mother—- " Yes, we killed her.” has broadened so tremendously. In the old days war was carried on chiefly by professional armies, augmented by volunteers. Except for raising prices and a shortage of manpower, a nation's daily life was not very greatly affected by the war. The British tried to follow that custom in 1914, with their slogan of "business as usual.” They soon found that such a slogan is as outof date in modern war as a Greek bireme. Business can't be conducted as usual; every citizen and every institution must be a cog in the war-making machine. It is for that reason that the old, individualistic method of creating and marketing war supplies is obsolete in war time. Individual rights must be over-ridden. Freedom, in the ordinary sense, is suspended for duration of the conflict. That is why some form of government control over the munitions trade is a wartime essential. It is also, when you stop to think about it, the greatest of all arguments against war itself. A MEMORY ENDANGERED OUT in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, 0., is a pleasant little island with a remarkable historic tradition—a tradition which the necessities of modem times may presently smash. The island is Johnson’s Island, and from 1861 to 1865 it was a famous prison for Confederate war prisoners. Several hundred Confederate soldiers are buried there; a local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy keeps their graves green and well-tended. Now it happens that Ohio needs anew state prison. Its existing prison at Columbus, is out-of-date and overcrowded. And it is proposed to build the new one on Johnson's Island. The Daughters of the Confederacy are protesting—and one can hardly blame them. This picturesque and lovely little island is at present an ideal memorial to the Southern lads who died far from their homes. Putting a penitentiary there v onld certainly provide an unpleasant break in the island's tradition.

INTELLIGENCE IN TESTS 'T'HE intelligence test is one of the great features of modern life. Sometimes, though, one wishes that those who use it could use a little more intelligence in propounding their questions. A psychiatrist “tested” a Buffalo boy recently. He asked him to tell the similarity between a snake, a cow and a sparrow; the boy replied that none of them could talk. Then he asked the boy what he should do when he found he was going to be late for school; the boy said, “Think up an excuse.” Now the funny part about it is that from the psychiatrist’s viewpoint both of these answers were wrong—although any ordinary mortal would find them pretty sensible answers to rather peculiar questions. Tests which give the subject zeros for answers as intelligent as these can not, properly, be called intelligence tests at all. A man in Chicago is supposed to have cured hangovers by means of hypnotism. The police will continue to let drunks sleep it off. Engineers report the sun's rays spoil radio reception. But it's no better at night, when the crooners go on the air. A scientist says mosquitoes can find food enough without having to bite human beings. Now, how can we tell this to the mosquitoes? If you are opposed to giving President Roosevelt the power of distributing the $4,800.000,000 relief fund, remember Huey Long is, too. By the way things look, some of our seni tors don't seem to realize that relief is not spelled P-O-R-K. Now that the Hauptmann case is ove, there's a chance that the war in the Gran Chaco will be finished, too. Mussolini insists he vants peace. In fact, he's prepared to fight to the last man to maintain peace. An unemployed actor went on a hunger strike in Hollywood. Yet there was a time when actors didn't have to strike to go hungry. Don't worry about the dollar, says Secretary Morgenthau. Just worry how to keep on making it.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

PRMP pgpfpff^igl I

The Message Center

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Tour letter must be signed, but names will be withheld at request of the letter writer J tt tt tt SALES TAX, PRIMARY MOVES ARE AGAINST THE PEOPLE Bv George Gould Hine. The independent Republican voters of Indiana, who have no private ax to grind and who have gone along with the Democrats because they believed the Democrats were more progressive than the Republicans, will be disappointed if Indiana adopts a sales tax, or if it abolishes the direct primary. The progressive element in both parties has the same general purpose—to preserve the middle class in this country. Three-fourths of the country’s newspapers are reactionary. Indiana Democrats should ask themselves if it would tend very much to keep them in power to trade their progressive principles for the support of these newspapers. They should ask themselves if this would be a wise political trade. Election returns generally show that ever since the Republican leadership demonstrated that it was going to let the country sink deeper and deeper toward total ruin and bankruptcy, it has become increasingly evident that whenever these newspapers head in one direction, the people immediately head in the opposite direction; that when they support a candidate, there is a landslide for his opponent and that when they declare something is black, the people say to themselves: “Glad to know it is white.” The people have thoroughly identified these newspapers. They know that when these newspapers advocate something, there are strong chances that it must be directly against the best interests of the middle class. It is in direct opposition to the interests of the middle class to further cripple the general purchasing power with a sales tax. A graduated net income tax would help to put purchasing power into circulation that would otherwise be withdrawn from spending and stored away. What change has there been in the essential truth of a statement by an Indianapolis newspaper in 1913 regarding the direct primary? That newspaper, once progressive, used these words: “Every agent of predatory wealth and corrupt politics hates the direct primary as a sitting hen hates a hound pup.” What has changed about this, except the newspaper itself, thereby including itself within the terms of its own definition. tt u a PROFITEERS OF WAR MIGHT PAY BONUS By Norman Glenn. Junior seems to have stirred up quite a commotion. Let us analyze some of the statements that have been printed. First, they spoke of our government (which is our people) being ungrateful to the soldiers. Mr. Reader, how many needy ex-soldiers do you personally know to be suffering from ailments acquired in service, that are being mistreated? Second, that $25 a day was received by workers during the war. Sounds great, but the average wage was a small fraction of that figure, and in addition a dollar had a buying power of about 47 cents. War has many evils and one of these was the war profiteer. These men would never pay the bonus bill; they are too smart for that. This expense would be just another load added to the burden of the masses tlu-ough indirect taxes, and they do not have the ability to carry it. Remember, that a large part of

THE ACT’S OVER

Suggests Debt Share Plan

By Frank Ballman. Whether we like it or not we must raise billions of dollars in taxes to finance the various economic problems to carry this United States through this depression. How can we do this and be fair to all? In answer to this question, allow me to submit this simple problem in mathematics. Recently published researches of a statistician of conservative views, have shown that as nearly as can be estimated the wealth of the United States was $268,800,000.000 in the year 1934. The gross debt of the United States government is at this date $28,000,000,000; The pro rata share of the 28 billions of the national debt owed by the wealth of this nation, is approximately 10 2-5 per cent, or in other words, for every dollar of wealth there is a debt of 10 2-5 cents. Tlie question is, what is wealth? Wealth is defined as a great abundance of anything desirable —a large aggregate of property. When a man owns a home, furniture and other belongings with a total valuation of SIO,OOO, we can not call ;hvs wealth, because this is not an abundance of anything. This amount will barely cover the necessities of life. Therefore, it would be proper to exempt every man—rich and poor alike—in the amount of SIO,OOO.

this will be paid by younger men i and women who received no war i profits, who had nothing to do with \ the war in anyway, and who now believe with many older people that our entry into this war was a huge mistake. They see, too, that if this i bonus drive is successful, that it j will be the beginning of a pension racket that will make that of Har- ; rison and Cleveland’s day seem triv- ! ial, and further that they will carry i most of this load in the future. Why not admit it, the bonus seekers are prominent marchers in that great parade of those trying to get something for nothing, a true American habit and nothing new. The writer apologizes to those who reaily j fought on the western front, our | hats are off to them. How we wish j there was a way to separate them from the other crowd. tt tt a DOG-POISONER SPOILED HOME OF FAMILY. By Mrs Charles IV. Reid. I wculd like to tell every one of a fiend who, without any provocation, poisoned my pet dog. It might have been just a dog to other people. but she was everything to us. We had her for eight years and we loved her like a child. If it is any satisfaction to the person who did it, he has killed all '.he joy in our home. it tt a ANOTHER FORGOTTEN MAN IDEA COMES ALONG Bv a Forgotten Man. Much is running in the press relative to what to do with, for and about the forgotten man. Up to the present time passing the buck has been the artful effort of the legislator and others that we have sent to our state and national halls of Congress. After striving to get along without asking the “alphabet” for a handout of a few cans of questionable embalmed food and misfit distressing looking rags to cover one’s nakedness to fight off the cold, I have come to the notion that the quickest solution will be to have the various states enact proper laws to enforce the turning of these worn-out useless bipeds into soap. This will accomplish two things—the making some slight use of these

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

The operation of this plan should be as follows: The United States government should require every man to file a return before March 15 ci each year, disclosing his total wealth of stocks, bonds, real estate, personal property and all tangibles and intangibles, at their marketable .value. On this return he should be allowed an exemption of SIO,OOO. The aggregate amount of the wealth disclosed on these returns would constitute the national wealth of me United States. This total amount of wealth and the amount of national debt payable in that year would be the basis of determining the rate of taxation. The United States government should require every person who files a return disclosing wealth in excess of sio,ooo to make a preliminary payment of 2 per cent of this wealth at the time of filing his return. In the time intervening from March 15 to June 15, the United States government will be able to determine the correct per centum of taxation for the entire year. This per centum less the 2 per cent preliminary payment made at the time of filing the return, would be the amount of tax payable in three installments, namely, June 15, Sept. 15 and Dec. 15. This procedure will enable our government to balance the budget.

bothersome stumbling blocks to the political racket, welfare racket, etc., and thus starting the ball of business to move through the avenue of profits. Suggest you call the attention of the legislators at Indianapolis to this idea to the end they will have rest from poker and chicken chasing. a tt a HE SAYS IT’S THE YEAR’S BEST LAUGH By Charles P. Drake. I have read newspapers from all parts of the United States and the funniest thing I ever saw in a paper was where police arrested a brakeman for not having a light on the rear end of a train. a o a DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR VALUE IS URGED By P. S. Thomas. This is how I look at it. First the people of today, in regard to money, put me in mind of us boys when we used to play marbles. They will try every scheme known to man to get the best of the other fellow. We spent hours, both honest and dishonest, until we had so many marbles we didn’t know what to do with them. Then, when the season was over, we would shoot them all away in a rubber band slingshot. With our so-called money it seems to be the same old scramble. Do others or they will do you. I remember way back when I was a small boy, Dad gave me a lot of Confederate money. I was very much surprised that no one would take it. I think that is what Uncle Daily Thought When the poor and needy seek i water, and there is none, and their ; tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel j will not forsake them—lsaiah 42:17. WE trust as we love and where we love. If we love Christ much, surely we shall trust Him much.—T. Brooks. *

.FEB. 26, 1933

Sam will learn if he doesn’t look out.. It would make a fool laugh to see these shovel leaners or would-be laborers trying to work. I remember when I first came to Indianapolis 17 years ago and now I can hardly believe we are living in the same city. So boys get busy together and have the dollar at a dollar value, but not valued higher than wages and what wages will produce. tt tt tt FERA CHARGES ARE BEING INVESTIGATED By Geori”' Wright Or. Jan. 23, 1935, I wrote a letter to your paper about the drunken bo'.ses on FERA work. i am just wondering what is the matter it hasn’t been in print yet. I thought the Message Center was for readers to express their views. Maybe The Times can’t publish such articles. Editor’s Note—Your charges arc under investigation. So They Say Japan does not fear competition, since she is closer to the China market than are her competitors and her labor costs are less. —Chojiro Kuriyama, Osaka newspaper correspondent. After many, many years, accidents still happen on land and sea, but we do not quit because of that. —Dr. Hugo Eckener, commander of the Graf Zeppelin. What has struck me most since my return to France is the extraordinary spiritual collapse of the world and the decline in conscience and intelligence —Benjamin Ullmo, convict freed liom Devil’s Island, returning there in disgust. I never was happy with the Cudahy ransom money. Neither were the Lindbergh kidnapers.—Pat Crowe. For the most pait, all cost restrictions, if ei forced, constitute crude and absurd restraints on competitive industry. Q. Forrest Walker, New York economist. We can investigate Jim Farley for less money than was spent investigating me. We ought to pass these investigations around. I don’t think I ought to hog the whole show.— Huey Long. DOUBT BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK I do not know if this be love, For I have never loved before. I do not know if this be time ■ To show to love my secret door. 1 1 do not know save that I see The ocean’s surge within your eyes; The beat of ocean on a shore That never rests; that never dies. I do not know save that I hear The strength of tall hills in your voice; The strength of hills that plan, their feet In deep, rich earth, and bear their i choice. I do not know save that my heart Pounds with your heart in pulsing i beat. I do not know save that to give To you is triumph and a proud defeat. I do not know if this be love, But I am yours, as drifting tide Returns to ocean depths, and finds That it is fed and satisfied.