Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 13, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 March 1935 — Page 12

PAGE 12

The Indianapolis Times a ftcmrri.HonAßD >r.wru EB) ■or w. Howard fmMml TALCOTT POWELL Editor BAKL D. BAKER BnilsMi Mistier Phoo Riley MSI

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Ol r lAQht nnt ffc* PeopU ITi It Pin* Th'ir Own Way

TUESDAY. MARCH 3. I3J. THE ANTI LYNCH LAW F'REDERICK VANNUYS. senior United States Senator from Indiana, deserves the praise of every thinking American for his determined efforts in behalf of the Federal Anti-Lvnching Bill. Senator VanKuys .has forced before the upper House of Congress his law to do away with the appalling number of lynchings which take place in the United States every year. Senator VanNuys to putting every ounce of power he can muster behind the measure. He pointed out to the Senate Judiciary’ Committee the simple fact that last year when the measure was pending m the Senate, there were no lynchings during that period. Senator VanNuys is convinced that mob rule can exist only when officers of the law lend tacit encouragement and his law would hold responsible the men in charge of the prisoner when a lynching occurs. There is little doubt but that with the Federal Anti-Lynch law on the books, the number of lynchings in the United States would decrease to almost none. It is high time that peace officers learned that they can not shut their eyes to the law and cater to the mob. MOB SPIRIT THE human race has to cope with many enemies in its long struggle to work out a scheme for peaceful living, but the greatest enemy of all is the mob. For a perfect picture of the way the mob acts, consider the riot that swept up and down the streets of New Yorks Harlem the other day. A Negro boy tried to pinch a 10-cent knife from a store counter. A floor-walker collared him and the boy. naturally enough, set up a holler. An excitable woman saw and heard just enough to touch off her motor reactions. and she ran out Into the street yelling that the boy had been killed. Up and down the streets went the cry. Out of poolrooms, lunchrooms and workshops came angry men, milling in the streets, yelling, looking for someone to flght. afraid suspicious and angry. A crowd of 1000 men and women swept into the store, turning things upside down, breaking things, yelling, hitting, fighting. Police reserves came, by the hundreds. There were dozens of fights. Scores of men were cut, beaten, or slugged. More than a hundred were arrested. Thousands of dollars’ damage was done to property. And the juvenile knife-stealer who unintentional!' started It all managed to Jerk away fro n his captors during the melee and vanished, utterly unharmed. You could search the word over without finding better example than this of the blind, panick- insanity of the mob spirit. Here was a riot of major proportions, an ugly welter of fights that spread all across a populous section of a great city—and all for what? Not one of the rioters knew. They could not possibly have hoped to know. It started, literally, from nothing at all; and because men and women were jittery', and gave way to the combined emotions of anger and fear, there was merry Ned to pay. Now you don’t need to think very’ hard to draw the needed moral from all this. The mob spirit that can 6eize a few thousand people in one city is the same spirit that can and frequently does seize whole nations, when hatred and panic get together. It sweeps dictators into power, causes mass executions, concentration camps, sluggmgsand clubbings; it fills the air with bombing planes and the fields with infantrymen and sets cruisers loose on the sea lanes; it ir.flicts more misery and destruction on the earth than a generation can repair. And all in Harlem—for what?

WHITE COLLARS MORE than 500.000 jobless white collar workers on relief will be cheered by the news that 5300.000.000 of the big works program is embarked for them. In the depression's sad annals are no more distressing stones of broken pride and lost morale than those of clerks, salesmen, professional men and others of the so-called middle-class. This group has multiplied amazingly. A recent Labor Department survey showed that in 1870 there were only o .- 000 white-collar workers, or 25 per cent, out of 10 million persons then gainfully employed, but by 1930 this group had grown to eight million, or 16 3 per cent out of 49 million gainfully employed workers. Even before the depression a great surplus of trained and professional men and women was creating a problem In security. Unorganized and voiceless they bore their burdens silently. When the depression came they were the last to be considered. They were the most forgotten of all the forgotten millions that the New Deal inherited. The Roosevelt Administration has tried to help the dependent white-collar classes. In its public works of art experiment, its social surveys, its census and other projects, it has given the country obstructive improvements and provided special Jobs. Obviously, however, many of the white collar workers will have to readjust their lives to farm, handicraft and other types of labor. It is to be hoped that in spending the new money the government can aid them to find permanent careers as well as temporary relief. UNITE AGAINST CRIME A PROMISING beginning is being made in the task of providing the United States with a unified police system which can cope with modern criminals. Fourteen states and some 150 cities are expected to get together n the near future in a scheme of co-operatior by which information can be exchanged pro nptiy and co-operation

can be achieved. State bureaus of identification are being established to co-operate with the federal bureau at Washington. Legislatures are considering schemes to have state police forces supplement the work of sheriffs and country police. The result of all this should be to make the path of men of the Dillinger and Floyd ilk infinitely more rocky. The kind of co-opera-ticn that will enable the law’ to strike promptly across state and city lines is precisely the kind of thing that the criminal can not cope with. It is encouraging to see that we are going to get of it. OLD DEALS FOR NEW WHEN Indian Commissioner John Collier announced his plan to restore self-de-termination and self-respect to the exploited fi-st Americans, Congress co-operated. It passed the Wheeler-Howard Indian reform act. Then a great majority of the tribes eagerly accepted their New Deal by popular vote. Today reaction in and out of Congress threatens to nullify this progressive measure. The law authorized appropriations of $12,500.000 for purchase of land for landless Indians, creation of a revolving loan fund, educational loans and tribal organization expenses. But the budget bureau this year cut this to $6,425,000. Then a House subcommittee sheared that down to $3,275,000. Here was a total cut of nearly 75 per cent of the authorization of last year. In addition enemies of the measure have launched personal attacks against Commissioner Collier. One critic demanded his impeachment on the ground that he was a member of the Civil Liberties Union. In the Inuian country certain cattlemen, lumbermen and others are still trying to persuade the tribes to reject the measure. They have not succeeded, how-ever. Apart from the Oklahoma Indians, who were not covered by the law, only one important reservation, that of Fort Peck, Mont., has rejected it. The Senate should undo the effects of the ill-considered House attack. The white man has established a pretty consistent record for double-dealing with his redskin brother, a record that the Wheeler-Howard act sought to redeem. Is this, too, going to turn out another broken treaty? A POLITICIAN IS HURT “xite now know that it has become sinful YV for party organizations to accept contributions. We know' that it is especially sinful to accept contributions when the parties who give them do or hope to do business with the administration.” With such lofty sarcasm does Francis Pculson, state Democratic chairman for Ohio, reply to Federal Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins’ revelation that the Ohio Democratic machine has been collecting “campaign fund contributions” from firms which sell supplies to the state relief administration. You coilld not get a better sample of the blind insolence of the politician. Such elegant sarcasm about it being “especirlly sinful” to shake down people who hope to do business with you! Why, of course It is especially sinful and any one but a politician can see it at a glance. How’ can we hope to make our democracy work smoothly, when party leaders show such an arrogant obtuseness to the ethics of decent government?

LAW ENFORCEMENT FROM all the reports coming from the boys around town who are in the "know” on underworld activities, the closing of the "bookie” shops is a purely political move and is a lefthanded manner of putting the freeze on the bookmakers who do not stand in with the administration. If that is true, the Indianapolis police department is making one of the greatest mistakes of its career. The responsibility rests flatly with Chief Morrissey and his aids and it will be well for them to explain how 21 gambling places in the city can be closed for two weeks but not permanently. Surely if the department, with its threats of jerking out phones and equipment can put the chill on the bookmakers for two weeks, the police should be able to stop the racket entirely. Further, if it is true that some of the places will be allowed to resume operation after the others are squeezed out of business, then the police department is lending itself to tactics that were the target of criticism throughout the prohibition era. If the law is to be enforced in this city, let it be done thoroughly. Members of the police department, paid oy the taxpayers of this city, should be able to And duties other than rearranging the horse betting setup into a closed syndicate that will be phoney. WAY TO STOP BILLBOARDS 'TT V HE fight against the billboard nuisance A usually hampered by the fact that the billboard is erected on private property and is therefore held to be very nearly outside the scope of regulatory laws. However, Nature Magazine points out that the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently handed down a decision ruling that a society which has the power to regulate against offenses to the nose and the ear has also the power to regulate against offenses to the eye. The court is explicit in holding that the billboard industry does not possess an inalienable right "to use private land as a vantage ground from which to obtrude upon all the public traveling upon highways, whether indifferent, reluctant, hostile or interested, an unescapable propaganda.” Those are welcome words, indeed. The decision is a landmark in the long fight to rid our countryside of its distressing eyesores. Veterans are still wondering why they were called doughboys during the war, unless it anticipated their demand for the bonus. Fifteen million dollars will be spent on beer advertising, making competition not so soft for the soft drink dealers. Sidney Franklin, the American toreador, won his suit against a film company for calling him a "bull thrower," throwing the company for a loss of S7OOO. Toledo policemen are being taught politeness. Perhaps then the bandits wouldn't mind getting taught. f

Looking at America BY GEN. HUGH S. JOHNSON

'T'ULSA, Okla., March 26.—The doctors are In Washington, the patient's in the sticks. It is an eye-opener to look at him. His present trouble is neither the old disease nor the new medicine. Too many prescriptions and too much noise in the sick room have added anew ailment of national jitters. We used to take a patient to the market place and let anybody prescribe who wanted to. Savage medicine men competing at a sick bed beat tom-toms, bum witch-fires, scream incantations and try such magic tricks as the dried head of a d**ad baby, a serpent's fangs, and the fresh liver of a white goat. A combination of these methods is being practiced now. There can't be any cure in this boilershop. If only the din would die down I believe that the patient would get up and walk away. Most people do not understand the hifaluting language of the economic part of the debate and they are not such suckers as to be taken in by the emotional appeal of the other part. Between mummery one one side and ballyhoo on the other, they are badly confused. They understood that, with millions out of work, and those with jobs laboring long hours at starvation wages, if you reduced hours and maintained wages, it might do some good. They know that we tried it and that it made three million jobs. They do not understand the abracadabra of magic words that killed it—something about “national recuperative resultant of unlimited competition restoring free flux of economic forces operating at or near the norm in secular or cyclical recurrence.” n n a FEED some of that to a man out of a job and see what he does. Os course the pills are sugar-coated with “oppression of the little fellow. anti-trust, and mother, home and heaven.” The blue-goggled boys who sell the patent pain killers don't make the mistake of using either sesquipedalian words or meaningless hokum. They offer “every’ man a king—divide our wealth, and social justice” mixed in appeals to greed, envy, prejudice, malice and even religion. Both sides are tearing NR A to pieces. When that is done we are going to hear from some hitherto silent millions. They don’t understand the abracadabra, but they know what NRA meant to them. The burden of what people say to me everywhere is “It helped to get me a day off or a job or enough to keep my family. Does this mean they are going to take that away?” In all this confusion there is one thought in common—why can't they let things alone? This country didn’t elect the Democratic party or any of these new medicine men and radio spielers. It elected a proposition in 1932, and indorsed its changes in 1934. It elected unity. Why can't elected unity and its indorsement have a chance till the due date? If it fails, the country can change it. But until thp country does change it, let it stand. The only alternative is the present bedlam, and no patient can recover under that. (Copyright. 1935. by United Feature Syndicate Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in. part forbidden.)

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

T‘ HE great social movements of today are devoted to one of two purposes: (1) Saving the capitalistic system by some means of combating the old ruthless individualism and financial looting which have brought it close to ruin; and (2) the overthrow of capitalism and the substitution of a planned economy based on collective ownership of the means of producing and distributing goods. There are two methods now being followed to promote the first of these attempts: (1) the forceful defense of capitalism, involving the surrender of democratic institutions and exemplified by Fascism and Nazism in Italy and Germany; and (2) less rigorous regimentation in deference to democratic traditions, best illustrated by the New Deal in the United States’ under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The one working enterprise in collective control of economic life is that of Soviet Russia, conventionally known as Communism. It is highly desirable that all thinking citizens of the United States should possess at least a passable knowledge of these major social and economical movements of the second third of the twentieth century. Dr. Ethan Colton has provided a very serviceable book for this purpose of introducing readers to Fascism, Nazism, the New Deal and Communism. (“Four Patterns of Revolution,” Associated Press. $2.50.) While not rigorously analytical or critical, it shows a reasonable grasp of facts and principles and is both informing and easy to read. Dr. polton believes that Fascism in Italy Is dominated by Nationalism more directly than by the effort to save capitalism by force. a a a “TT has not been conceived and set up to perX petuate the exploitation of the common man by privilege; nor has it been suffered to become the tool of oppressive wealth. Though widely propagated, such accounts sound more like angry' accusations of other schools of revolution which Fascism has balked by its strategy and program. It is not Capitalism but Nationalism that has marked this child as unmistakably its own.” Some unkindly critics will observe that Mussolini has been clever enough in this regard to deceive Dr. Colton as well as the Italian people. The degree to which Fascism is really interested in protecting its working people is to be seen in the fact that while the government has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on armaments, it contributes 0.2 per cent to the cost of Italian social insurance. Dr. Colton distinguishes between Italian Fascism and German Nazism by describing the former as "One-Man Government,” and the latter as "One-Party Government.” There are those who would allege that if Dr. Colton had gone back of Hitler to find the real ruler of Nazi Germany he would have discovered that one man rules Germany about as decisively as Mussolini rules Italy, namely, the great steel baron, Herr von Thyssen. a a a NO one can claim that Dr. Colton has not been fair to Hitler. He almost goes to the point of accepting his campaign propaganda as his real social and economic program. He even makes the astonishing statement that "Neither Hitler’s words nor official acts have proved anything other than genuine consideration of the workers’ true interests.” One may legitimately wonder if Dr. Colton has heard anything about the upheaval of last July and what it was all about. The analysis of the New Deal is after the fashion of friendly exposition, with none of Stolberg and Vinton's relentless analysis of contradictions. But some apprehension is implied in the account of the "Retreat to Nationalism.” With the exception of the handling of religion under the USSR, the survey of communistic Russia is fair. At least, the latter is getting things done, as the following table of industrial production in the modern world will indicate: INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION (Per Cent of Pre-War Level) 1913 1929 1933 SSR 100 194.3 391.9 USA 100 170.2 110.2 England 100 99.1 85.2 Germany 100 113.1 75.4 France 100 139.0 107.5 { Those who wish to pursue further the study of these vital movements of our day will find very helpful the following recent books: Everett Dean Martin. "Farewell to Revolution,” Norton, $3; Gerhart Seger, "A Nation Terrorized,” Reilly and Lee, $1.50; Prince Hubertus Lowenstein, "After Hitler's Fall,” Faber and Faber, $2; A. N Holcome, “Government in a Planned Democracy,” Norton, $2, and John Strachey, "The Na;ure of the Capitalist Crisis,” Covici, Friede, $3,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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their views in these columns. Make pour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld at request of the letter icritet.) a a a OWNER OF 81 DOGS IS DEFENDED BY READER By Dos: Lover If I were an artist and could paint my conception of Jesus Christ, one picture would give His likeness with His hand on the head of a dog, for was He not pleased that a woman said her children fed the dogs under the table from the scraps of food? Wilhelmina Adams is a martyr to her love of dumb animals. She has been persecuted by her neighbors who could not sleep for the barking dogs. May they never be able to sleep again until they have given restitution for the terrible grief they have caused this girl. a a a SEES WEALTH SHARING AS CURE FOR WORLD S ILLS By Ed Andrews Our Neros at Washington are fiddling while Rome is burning. If any of you old birds want pensions you will have to wait until 1936, when the old-age pension will be the main issue. The.* we will have leaders like Senator Norris, Father Coughlin, Upton Sinclair or Huey Long. As long as the government allows such institutions as the Ford Motor Cos. and the International Harvester Cos., the utility companies and other corporations of like character to exploit and commercialize 90 per cent of the people in order to make millionaires and billionaires out of 10 per cent of the people, then it becomes necessary to tax those enormous and useless fortunes in order that the 90 per cent may live. Fate has decreed that we must have money or starve. I understand the three Mellon brothers have five billion dollars and there is a per capita of S3O or $32 for every man, woman and child in the United States, so those boys must have a good many children’s money. If I were king I would skim the top off some of those large fortunes and give it back to my subjects. That is the only thing that will cure this depression. Machinery has displaced 15 per cent of the workers who never will have jobs again. No use putting them out on subsistence homesteads and expecting them to live on their own. They would not know how, for people who have spent their lives on a farm barely get by, though I think that is the best place for them as they could help themselves a little. In my skimming operations, I would take the thickest cream off the largest fortunes, off the smaller fortunes I would take only a thin layer. Off a SIO,OOO estate I would take nothing at all. Then everybody would have plenty and nobody would be hurt. Under any other system someone would be hurt. Another curse to the country is the spoils system which follows partyism. It would be a good thing If both those old parties could be irretrievably lost. Then there would be no such thing as born Republicans or born Democrats. What is such people’s opinion worth? New parties should be formed every four years. However, I think there is anew party in the offing. I would call it the tax party, or would that get,

‘ISN’T IT TIME TO PASS THIS?’

‘ Tough ’ Bosses Rapped

By Bob McNally. During this siege of pleading for jnarried women to be “ousted” from their jobs, I want to thank Mrs. O. R. M. for her message of March 8 referring to our First Lady as an example. I also was glad to read a message signed by Mrs. Doolittle a few evenings ago, explaining the adverse conditions of this attempt. My wife works and it seems that she has to, for we can’t stretch the scanty salary I earn working half-time enough to be comfortable. I realize that there are some women who could easily give up their jobs to the single, but there are reverse cases—where married women need jobs far worse than the single, so why jabber away and attempt to get a law or order started in the wrong direction. If we could weed out the ones who really should work, that would be fine, but it can’t be done. I know that my own wife would not work if she could be comfortable without it; her place of employment is about like this, so judge for yourself- The boss struts about in the office boasting of Iris supremacy and authority, disclosing his greed to rise in society, to gi ve to some club or another where his name will be in print, to squeeze in a speech here and there, and to get the office force told that he is the big “I”; that they should be grateful for any kind of a job, even if it does take overtime and rush to keep the desks clear when he has

the money back fast enough? Better call it takes. We have always been “took,” you know. Any time you have bought anything from a toothpick to a threshing machine you’ve been "took,” and we have to devise a system of getting it back pretty fast, for some of us have cramps already. Just face the facts, you politicians! I defy you to present any other painless system. Money has no place In life only to keep people from haring what they want. Just put old Morgan out on a desert and see if he doesn’t raise the price of wheat and devalue some of that gold. Ho-hum. a a a QUESTIONS LEAVE NEW DEAL SUPPORTERS IN SWEAT By V. E. Mr. Keating, you remind me of the two Americans who visited the great American desert. One wrote home a glowing description of its beauty and of the useful products derived from it, while the other wrote glumly home, “Nothing to talk about—it's just another desert.” On the other hand, there is something constructive in Mr. Blume’s letter. It has a deeper meaning than one can imagine after given careful thought. I firmly believe that you, Mr. Keating, have missed its true beauty. Now, Mr. Blume’s questions are far from vague. They are cleverly put and it takes concentration to get what he is driving at. Here’s what I did! I took question No. 1: “Do you believe that this country needs one group of men to do the thinking for the individual business man and labor? Why?” The first part I answered to myself and then tried to explain it. I compared my answer with the New

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

worked merely two or three hours a day and made more money than they do in a month; that they should do as he has planned with their work even though it must be done over (and their way) later and even though it takes much longer to do it in his old-fashioned way. In other words, she works in a place where you would think no humanity existed, and that there was no equality among people, but that the world is made for only one side. The boss never divulges the fact that it is he who should be grateful for a living, made by the sweat of others’ brows; that the depression has been a blessing to him because his employes fear to quit and hunt for another job. He is never heard to utter appreciation of their long, steady hours of work by which they earn his dollars with which to do his “strutting,” pay his maids and to show off in society an education he has learned from books and not from good horse sense and common judgment. Never a day passes but that the office girls are “slammed” with nasty remarks that they are not on a level with the boss, even in view of the fact that they have no desire to act like they are anything but “toilers” at his command. I often wonder how such employers will feel when they leave this -world and meet their employes face to face at the boiling pot? They will be on the same level there.

Deal and was disagreeably surprised. I did the same with question two. As for question three—just try it yourself and then compare your answer with the way things are being carried on, then you get a funny feeling. And then question four. That is one that all New Dealers will skip. If you answer, you believe in less governmental interference, then you don’t believe in the New Deal. If you state that you do, then you find yourself stumbling in explaining why. Mr. Keating, you should be careful in condemning and calling things j vague. One doubts your powers of comprehension, and probably several; others do, too. a a a MONTCALM-ST RESIDENT CRITICISES CYCLE POLICE By Times Reader Every daf*there are from two to three motorcycle cops who hide i around the comer of 15th and Montcalm-sts waiting for speeders. It sounds like a bunch of threshing machines. If any one else was making that much noise they would be arrested for disturbing the peace. If Chief Morrissey doesn’t know how to stop speeders, I’ll tell him. Make the Daily Thought But take diligent heed ... to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.— Joshua, xxii, 5. THE Christian is the highest style of man.—Young. f ,

MARCH 26, 1935

speed cops ride the streets so the motorists can see them, instead of hiding around corners and buildings. Then you’ll find less speeding. Or are they afraid if the motorist sees them first they won’t be able to show the speed and roar of their cycles? Well, Chief Morrissey, if your men are too tired to ride the streets where they are supposed to be, tell them to race their motors some place besides Montcalm-st. a a a FAN PREFERS CROSSWORD PUZZLE IN NEW LOCATION By a Crossword Fan After reading a letter signed “A Reader” in the message center of March 13, I can appreciate why we are referred to as dumb Hoosiers. Personally I think you are to be commended for changing the two articles mentioned. If “A Reader” ever tried to work a crossword puzzle before you made the change ha would know it was next to impassible, however, he probably hasn’t brains enough to work one so why bother. I might add that the other papers carry their’s below the center. So They Say It is better for boys and girls to learn to entertain themselves than for them to be given so much money for movies and elaborate social affairs.—Dr. Thurman B. Rice, of Indiana University Medical School. There is no reason why opera should not give us all that the theater gives and in addition all that music gives.—Herbert Witherspoon, new general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Never was the screen’s misuse by reactionary, quasi-Fascist propaganda so widespread and menacing as today.—Dr. Francis D. Tyson of the University of Pittsburgh. If our resources had been mobilized in the interest of the entire nation, we would not have needed any credit inflation—Marriner S. Eccles, governor of the Federal Reserve Board. Dying Love BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK If love must die the usual death of things; Burn its last crimson flower; pale to white. If love must go as all bright blossomings; Curl petals dark beneath a freezing blight. If love must droop its head on slender stalk; Forget the stars careening in the sky. If love must lose its heart, and slowly walk With shackled, sober steps, to calmly die. If love must lose its pinnacle of height; If love must lose its raptured loveliness ; If love forgets the blue curve of its flight; If love must lose Its wanton, scarlet dress, I shall have none of it. I will let ga At April pitch before the dearth, and snow.