Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 1, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1935 — Page 10

PAGE 10

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TtTKSDAY. MARCH 11. ISS CURTAILING THE DEBT T TSE of some of its gold devaluation profits to curtail the public debt by $675,000,000 mill save the government $13,500,000 annually In interest charges. Retirement of the 2 per cent consols and Panama Canal bonds also will help to simplify our currency system. About a half billion dollars in national bank notes issued against th'-se bonds will be withdrawn from circulation. The remainmg narional bank notes, those issued against Home Loan Bank bonds, will be withdrawn in July. Federal Rcserye Bank notes, issued as emergency currency following the pa me of March, 1933. are being rapidly retired. Thus in a few months. Federal reserve nores, silver certificates and United States notes will be the only types of currency in permanent circulation. Such a simplification was Intended under the original Federal reserve act. and should make our currency system more efficient. Apparently the Administration’s monetary policy is veering away from the expansionist theory. The pleasure which prominent inflationists express at this latest treasury' move seems to indicate that their differences with monetary conservatives extend more to methods than to objectives. For the natural result to be expected from centralizing the currency is ue power under the government and the Federal reserve is a currency responsive to the needs of trade. While, theoretically, Federal reserve notes 60 per cent greater in volume than the National Bank notes retired can be issued, such an expansion is not apt to occur. Yesterday's decline in commodity markets Indicates that speculators interpreted the move a> anti-inflationary. To the average man. it means little except that his tax burdens are to be slightly less because of the saving on debt interest. For an individual or a government. it is both sound and thrifty to use a profit to reduce a debt. PRO PATRIA Characteristic of his fighting faith in democracy was the will of the late Justice Holmes. To the United States of America he gave, devised, and bequeathed more than half his estate. The $250,000 bequest, equal to hall as much as he had drawn in salary since he went to the Supreme bench in 1902. will repose m the Treasury until Congress votes it for an appropriate purpose. Congress will be hard put to purchase with this patriotic gift anything adequately expressing a nature so spacious as the giver’s. How the bequest is spent, if at all, is less important than that this noble American was willing to invest his wealth, as he had his life, in his country. The legatee will be worthy the gift to the extent that it strives toward the things Justice Holmes loved—and served so well—freedom, tolerance, justice and peace.

WHO'S SURPRISED? ¥ IQUOR smuggling along the coast, says rotary of the Treasury Morgenthau, has increased to alarming proportions. He predicts the government may lose 30 million dollars in import revenue. He asks for more stringent anti-smuggling laws. The cargo of most smugglers, he says, consists of alcohol. We wonder why. Our tariff on spirits is $5 for each proof gallon. The domestic Federal tax. which is added to the tariff, is $2 on each gallon. Various state taxes also are added. But the tariff plus the Federal tax is $7 a gallon of 100 proof spirits. Alcohol runs about 190 proof. So the tariff plus domestic tax on alcohol is about $13.30 a vine gallon. That is quit a margin of profit, is It not. for shipping a gallon can of alcohol across ♦he border? The profit motive Is a very vita! force in the smuggling and bootlegging business. Why not eliminate she bootlegger's profit ard give the legitimate dealer a chance —by cutting tariff and tax? REDUCING WORRIES A PPARENTLY one of the reforms we need down in Washington is a measure that would save politicians from themselves. One of the commonest complaints of the hard-worked Congressman —and most of them, by the way. do work very hard—is that greedy job-hunters take up so much of his time that he is hard put to do the work for which he was elected. That being true, you’d suppose that when Congressmen had a chance to redi:ce the number of posts open to spoilsmen they'd jump at It. It is obvious that no one could pester a Congressman for jobs that were completely out of the Congressmans control. lore the present session is over, it looks the lawmakers would get a chance to tiroteet themselves in this matter. Senator Ceorge W. Norns of Nebraska has introduced a bill to take the Po6tofflee Department completely out of politics, and he intends to have It voted cn before adjournment. Senator Norris’ hill is one of those proposals which are so clearly and unmistakably In the public interest that it is hard for the Innocent citizen to understand why they aren't passed with a rush and a whoop. Under it, all postmasters would be put under strict civil sendee rules. They would be appointed by a postmaster general whose term of office would be 10 years Instead of four, and who would be barred from all political activity. Their appointments would not be subject to senatorial confirmation, and the Jobs would be permanent. All appointments would be made on merit, gnd a system of transfers would b set up so

that a career service similar to that In the Stxte Department could be worked out. Merits of such plan need no argument. The Postoflce Department Is really a gigantic business organization; this scheme would simply have it run in a business-like manner, with a complete divorce from politics. And it ought to be a great relief for the Congressman. No longer would he have to spend a couple of hours a day talking to candidates for the postmastership at Leaking Creek. One of his major worries would be removed. His life would be smoother and easier. All these things considered, the bill ought to pass In Jig time, if it ever comes to a vote. Senator Norris insists that he will get action on it before the session ends. It will be enlightening to see what the Congressmen do when this proposal comes before them. WHERE AID IS NEEDED XTOW far down the ladder of industrial workers, employes of textile mills are preparing to seek better wages and hours at a special National Industrial Recovery Board inquiry. Few, if any, groups of workers need improved conditions more than textile workers. Tens of thousands are unemployed. Other tens of thousands are forced by meager wages to live in squalid homes, easy prey to pellagra and tuberculosis. Most of them are strangers to such luxuries as electric lights, ruining water and adequate sanitation. The Federal Trade Commission has just completed a study of the financial condition of textile mills and probable cost of decreasing textile workers’ hours without decreasing their pay. It shows generally steady but not excessive profits during the depression period between Jan. 1, 1933, and July 1, 1934. Losses appeared for the two months of July and August. 1934. The study also shows that the lot of this great mass of workers can be Improved 20 per cent by increasing the producers’ costs 5 or 6 cents on the dollar. These costs in many cases would have to be passed along to the consumer. Without price fixing, the enforcement of better wage and hour provisions either by a government agency or by strong union organization would in itself bring necessary* price adjustments. Contrary to fears expressed by some, the American consumer probably will be willing to pay an extra nickel or dime for a shirt or a house dress if he or she knows that it is going directly to underpaid labor. BASEBALL IN RUSSIA NOT the least interesting of recent dispatches from Russia is the announcement that the great American game of baseball is beginning to take hold in the land of the Soviets. Already a national baseball league has been founded. Nine provincial cities have organized teams, and eight more are being organized in Moscow. A -baseball department” has been established in the supreme physical culture department, and the game is being introduced into the Red army. It would be instructive to learn just why baseball catches on in some countries and not in others. It has swept Japan like wildfire, for instance; it is as popular in Cuba as in the United States and Canada, and it is making headway in other Latin-American lands. But Russia is the only European country, to date, to go for it. Why should this be? Certainly such countries as Japan, America, Cuba, and Russia have little in common. How come they all share a fondness for baseball?

MILLIONS FOR RELIEF AT the height of the Civil War, northern citizens learned with a shock of dismay that their government was spending $2,000,000 a day to carry on the fight. Such expenditures. in that period, seemed astronomical—too big for the mind to grasp. One wonders what those startled citizens would have though if they had been told that eventually their government would spend two and one-half times that much merely to take care of the victims of unemployment. They would have looked, probably, for the speedy end of the world. * , Yet that is just what is happening. Relief Administrator Hopkins reveals that Federal relief rolls are now carrying 22.000,000 persons, with daily expenditures for food and clothing of $5,000,000. It is a tremendous, unheard-of load, this relief bill. It has to be carried—but it is terribly obvious that it can’t be carried forever. ENCOURAGING REPORT TIMID Americans who fear that their country is in a very bad way might be comforted by hearing the words of Nicholai Osinsky. head of the statistics bureau of the Soviet government. Returning from a tour of America. Os nskv declares that “the most powerful capitalist system in the world is still standing on its feet” in spite of the terrible losses of the depression. Now it is worth remembering that if there is one man on earth who would have shouted the news from the housetops if he had seen signs of approaching collapse in the United States, it is this same Osinsky. But he didn't see any such sign. Much as he hated to admit it, he had to report that things were going along pretty robustly. Those of us who tend to get the jitters over the seeming slowness of our recovery program might well take heart from that report. Jimmy Walker, former mayor of New York, denies he plans to run for the New York Senate. He has enough on his hands running away from his creditors. When Huey Long threatened to “rock the Capital from end to end,” does he mean with laughter? To Germany, in 1914. European peace pacts were scraps of paper. To Europe they’ve been scraps of paper ever since. Poland's master spy escaped being beheaded m Germany because he’s the kind of spy who never loses his head in an emergency. A Kansas City business man bequeathed part of his fortune to his farm horses, leaving only a horse laugh for his relatives. Farm income has gone up, the government reports. Some farmers will add, “Yes, up in smoke.” m

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES IT is probably no exaggeration to say that the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was accorded a degree of respect and veneration during his lifetime not bestowed upon any other American since Gecrge Washington. At the time ri: his assassination, Abraham Lincoln commanded no such popular esteem. The Lincoln legend has been created since 1865. Holmes has received his appropriate and just public appraisal here and now. I would be the Last person to attempt to take away an iota of the lustre which attaches to Justice Holmes’ personality and reputation. But I do believe that h *. deserves the admiration and affection of his countrymen for reasons somewhat different than those usually advanced. In the minds of most of those who have given the matter specific attention, Justice Holmes was revered primarily on the ground that he was a uniquely great, original and liberal jurist. He was believed to be the father of the social point of view in law, of sociological jurisprudence, of law as the instrument of social progress. He was thought of as a professional dissenter on our highest tribunal, a rebel in the court, w*ho is close to being a legal revolutionist. These estimates do not stand up so well under careful analysis. Adam Ferguson, who published his historical contribution to jurisprudence and social evolution 169 years ago, had as broad and precise as social point of view in law as Justice Holmes. The Austrian jurist and sociologist, Ludwig Gumplowiez, went far deeper into the sociological foundations and premises of law forty years ago. a a JUSTICE HOLMES recoiled at such Bourbon - ism and insane individualism as that illustrated by the Lochner case (on bakery labor conditions) in New York state and recognized that the days of Jeffersonian laissez faire had pa cc ed away in an era of machines, factories and. industrial cities. But Jeremy Bentham, who died in 1832, went far beyond Holmes in his notions of legislation as an emergency of social progress, while the socialistic jurists of eminence who followed Marx made Holmes seem a ‘Tugged individualist’’ by comparison. Justice Holmes possessed a social—in other words a civliized—outlook in the legal world, but he never went very deeply into the matter of linking up law with sociology and the social sciences after the fashion of Judge Cardozo, Dean Pound or the Johns Hopkins Institute of L a w. It was mainly the fact that Justice Holmes expounded urbane and modern notions of law from the Supreme Court bench which caused the excitement and consternation. The contrast between such cultivated views and those of the ex-corporation attorneys who constituted most of his colleagues was striking and dramatic tnd<? Likewise, in the guise of a dissenter, the facts belie the popular conception of Justice Holmes. He was so often in agreement with his colleagues that his dissent was the exception rather than For one time when he disagreed with his colleagues he was in harmony with them at least ten times. Only once in his long career on the bench did he stand alone in a dissent, a record already attained by Justice Cardozo in his brie, tenure. n n JUSTICE HOLMES was a gentleman, a scholar and a humanitarian. Such a man was bound to dissent occasionally in a sharp and dramatic manner when elementary justice was being manhandled in too notorious a fashion through the malign instrumentality of “due process.” Even justice Holmes’ usual liberalism did not fare too well, however, in cases which ran counter to his own prejudices. He fell down very badly in the free speech cases during war time. ~ „ Justice Holmes once reminded his that the Fourteenth Amendment did not read Herbert Spencer’s “Social Statics” into the Constitution, but during the World War he failed on his own part to reflect that neither did it read into the Constitution the “not to reason why” sentiments cf Sparta or Prussia. In short, Justice Holmes deserves *il the respect and admiration which his fellow-citizens have showered upon him, but he deserves these things more as a great character, a mature scholar and an urbane gentleman than he does as a uniquely original progressive or daring jurist. Justice Holmes’ father was a great doctor, but he is recalled today mainly as a cultivated gentleman of great charm and wit. Justice Holmes was a great judge, but it is not unlikely that he will be remembered for much the same traits as those which are today attributed to his equally illustrious father.

Capital Capers BY GEORGE ABELL - THE red and gold embassy of the Soviets blazed with lights as Amoassador and Mme. Troyanovsky entertained at the reception for the’diplomatic, official and residential sets of the Capital. . .... * Efrem Zimbalist. the noted Russian violinist, olayed as exquisitely as every one expected him to play. Before entering the red-curtained ballroom. where little gilt chairs had been arranged in rows, the musician greeted Mrs. Tracy Dows. Georgetown poetess, and Mrs. Alice Longworth, who lounged on a sofa, gowned in rose satin. The Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Saito, clever, shrewd and affable, arrived with Mme. Saito, smiling, his eyes half closed and blinking at the glitter of lights and diamonds. His hair, incidentally has acquired a sort of pompadour effect. Possibly as a subtle compliment toward his Japanese Excellency, an improvisation of a Jappanese tune (one of the most applauded numbers'! by Zimbalist himself, was included in the program. As the maestro played, he soulfully closed his eyes, intriguing some of the guests wTio wondered how he could do it. At the conclusion of the concert. Rep. Sol Bloom of New York, who had been observing Efrem with interest, went up and said to him: “My boy. if you remain in Washington another 24 hours you won’t keep your eyes closed. They'll be wide open.” a a a UNITED STATE DISTRICT ATTORNEY MARTIN CONBOY of New York approached the long buffet gleaming with caviar, viands ana various dainties. With a par.g, he suddenly recalled that Lent has started. “Oh,” he groaned, gesturing toward the Scotch bottles and the caviar, “This—this is a real temptation!” a a a SOLICITOR GENERAL JAMES CRAWFORD BIGGS, pink-cheeked and radiant, stood near the iced caviar bowis, merrily chatting with friends. One of the group suddenly reached across, seized a plate piled high with caviar and began devouring it with a spoon. A shade of dismay passed over Mr. Biggs’ face. Wait! Wait!” he implored, and with Southern courtesy he picked up a cracker and placed it on his friend's plate. “Now,” he sighed with relief. “That looks better.” President Roosevelt has got the congressmen voting so often for relief funds, many will vote for the soldiers’ bonus just out of habit. A Texan of 75, pronounced dead for five minutes, came back to life* probably figuring that he might collect under the Townsend plan. Former President Hoover demands the return of the gold standard, although most of us would rather have the goose.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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The Message Center

(Times readers are incited to express their views in these columns, i'Jake your letters short, so nil can hare a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less, your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld at request of the letter writer.) ana URGES CONSIDERATION FOR WANDERING BOYS By M. D. I just don’t exactly know how to express myself, but I must say something. Last night my daughter, her husband and little girl came for a few minutes and left their car in the back yard. When they went to get in it there was a man already in. Beiixg in the dark and so many bad things being done, we all thought he was a thief. But when we got him into the house and X felt so bad, for he was a poor kid about 17 or 18 and was from Peru, hitch-hiking to his sisters in Lincoln, Ky., and he thought he would get in out of the rain and rest awhile. How easy to take him for a thug and have him arrested. Why isn't there some way made so that boys can safely stay; some place where boys like him can be safe. If we had been like lots of people v;e would have called the police and got him in a lot'of trouble. It isn’t just the old people that need looking after. a a a SUGGESTS FINE, JAIL FOR FORTUNE TELLERS By Arthur M. Bowman First, permit me to express my appreciation to you for the opportunity you give your readers in expressing their views on any subject. I am sure this section of your paper has done more good than the average man stops to think about. It is a great safety valve to let off a little excess steam that might otherwise be different if the people had no medium of expressing themselves. Some two years ago things became so rotten in Indianapolis with so-called readers that Mr. Overley of the Better Business Bureau, with the aid of the newspapers caused the arrest of a number of Gypsies, who were nothing but a lot of fortune tellers. True they were fined and left the city. Indianapolis has been rather unhealthy for them ever since. Today, instead of the Gypsies, we have a large number of these socalled Readers, who couldn't see a flock of elephants, let alone seeing into the past, present or future for their customers. These racketeers need the skids put under them the same as any other of their stripe. The laws of Indiana are very plain upon this subject. In regards to these readers, see statutes of 1917, Page 76. There is one clause I feel should be added to this law—that whomsoever shall read, or attempt to predict, the future by any means whatsoever without complying with this act shall be prima facie evidence of obtaining money or any other thing of value under false pretenses and shall be fined not less than SIOO and sentenced to 60 days in jail. The same shall be mandatory upon conviction. Every Spiritualist Association, Inc., under the laws of Indiana will commission any worthy and proven psychic after satisfying their respective official boards. The public in general is not acquainted with these facts. Thus the lawful reader must suffer for the acts of these racketeers. With the kid of your paper and

STEP RIGHT UP FOLKS!

Working Women and King fish

By Mrs. Colfax Dunreith. Thanks to The Times for placing the Huey Long radio speech in most conspicuous place in the edition of March 8. I understand that the Kingfish is a Democrat. I'm not, but will have to admit that if all of the Democrats were as sensible as his speech infers, and if they would all get graft out of their minds and work together for the good of the country, they would surely have my support, regardless of race, religion and politics. The Kingfish so properly states that the depression is caused by the mere few of the country having all the money in their hands, leaving insufficient funds for the many remaining paupers to properly exist. If his plan were used, we middle class folk could be a bit more at ease from taxes and many of us would, I am sure, do morp for those dependent upon us. There are three families depending upon us (my husband and I); we both have work and are grateful for it: we live very common, dress very cheaply, have a small house which we are buying, build our own fires, have no maids or housekeepers, and we

the public, this city can be rid of this form of robbery in 30 days; with the two honorable gentlemen we have on our Police Court benches to enforce the law, thousands of dollars every year will be saved the citizens of Indianapolis alone. If the readers of this article will send me the names and addresses of the various readers, I will personally see that they are investigated and if found violating the law will sign the affidavits for their arrest. Editor’s Note—>lr. Bowman's address may be obtained at The Times. a a a TRAFFIC COPS WHO SMELE ARE PRAISED By Jimmy Cafouras Blessed are our traffic officers with a sense of humor! Blessed are these gentlemen who midst gales of laughter and great gushes of wit spirit us off to the judge for important offenses and easily pass off the trivialities that lesser officers with a smaller cranial capacity make capital of. All motorists and pedestrians of every type and description know well, mark well and respect the smiling, affable, human gentlemen who grace many of our downtown corners. Every inch of them athletic with clean-cut, intelligent faces, always cheerful and brisk. Then again there are those that would be far better situated were they relegated to perdition where scowls, growls and frowns simmer and seethe to the delectation and edification of Old Nick. a a a RICH SHOULD BE SOAKED TO PAY SOLDIER BONUS By H. J. W. I see much in your paper in regard to soldier bonus. I have no bonus coming and I don't think I am entitled to any. The soldiers were yanked from their homes, homes that were sweeter to them than anything in the world. The Democratic party did not hesitate a second to take away a* soldier’s life

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

spare what funds we feel able to release for the comfort of others. We give and give and give, but not to organizations—we help those individuals who really would work and earn if they were able or if they could find work. We have always felt better in giving to those who would earn if they had a chance, than to those who “don’t care,” even though the latter need food and clothing much worse. Part of the explanation of what we do with our salaries is made for the purpose of disclosing to some folk that there is more than one side to the question of whether the married women should give up their jobs to the single. I think you will all' find that, as a rule, the money earned by the married woman is put to a much more intelligent use than if earned by the single girls who want it mostly for nice clothes and luxuries. However, here again, you can not know who deserves and who doesn't, so if the married woman has been fortunate to hold her job which she has worked hard for, please think of all sides before you ask that she give it up. Her husband may die some day, may be injured or may lose his job, then what?

to save the country. Why shouldn’t the Democratic party make those millionaires that made millions while the poor class lost their sons, who were worth more to them than alll the money, pay the debl? The poor class sacrificed sons; the rich class should be made to pay the bonus. During the war it was an emergency to save the nation from Germany; today it is an emergency to save the nation from ruin. a a a WISHES READERS’ VIEWS ON JOBS FOR WOMEN By Ada Douglas I am a lone woman and can not get work. I can do as much as a younger woman—must we just wait to die in this world of plenty? If Uncle Sam would just give us enough to live on. I would like to hear from other working women on this employment problem. TRIBUTE IS*PAID TO J. P. O MAHONY By Kevan o’Cot.nell. When J. P. O'Mahony went his heavenly way, there passed the man who in his 22 years of editorship of the Indiana Catholic, did, in my opinion, more good for the Catholics of Indiana than any member of the Catholic Church, lay or cleric. J. P. O’Mahony was of the stuff saints are made of and saints, if one reads the confessions of Augustine of Hippo, are not always holy men. In his ill health, old in body and weak in energy, close enough to hard times, the road was hard to Mr. O’Mahony, who was forgotten, Daily Thought He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.—Exodus 22-20. FIRST, worship God; he that forgets to pray, bids not himself good-tomorrow or good-day.— Thomas Randolph.

MARCH 12, 1935

even ignored, by members and clergymen of his church men powerful enough to have aided him, even as OMahony in years gone, had aided them—not by money, but in service, in co-operation and enthusiasm. That is perhaps the way human ingratitude works—perhaps it is the scheme. a a a SHE'LL BET ROOSEVELT WON’T BRING PROSPERITY By Carrie M. Smead. In answer to Mrs. James H. Morgan who says, “On to Prosperity With Roosevelt at the Helm,” I would like to say I will bet a dollar to a doughnut or something else and let you hold the stakes in your teeth, that we will never see prosperity with Roosevelt at the helm, and so you had better continue calculating your budget on the $6.50 a week plan. So They Say It takes only a single track mind to -be a Fundamentalist or a Communist in anything.—Pearl Buck, famous author. Currency inflation is a retreat from reality.—Donald A. Hobart, National Commander of American Veterans’ Association. There’s romance in everything if you look at it from that point of view.—John Boles, movie actor.

IF

BY AUSTIN JAMES If 1 in living hadn't made an error, Nor ever made a single bad mistake, If I had never fallen by the wayside, Then judging others I might undertake. If I from day to day had met clear sailing, And from the common faults had been exempt, Then I might have a right to censure others, And this perhaps would be what Id attempt. But I am neither pure nor chaste nor perfect, I'm just a very ordinary soul, And I've adopted this as one endeavor, To be included as my aim and goal. If I may see a person wayward turning, Who needs a friend to give a helping hand, Though small my aid might be I’d give it gladly, With free response—l’d try to understand. If I should see sone soul in mental anguish. Because past errors he can’t quite forget, My heart would bear a pain but yet in aching Would love where love was needed and abet. And my intent to stay from ever judging. I want to be forever true and strong, My debt to those who’ve had an understanding, When I have slipped a bit and done a wrong.