Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 27, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 April 1935 — Page 18

PAGE 18

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THURSDAY APRIL 11. 1835 SAFE STREETS THE Indianapolis Police Department and judges of the municipal courts deserve this city's commendation for their unrelenting crusade on traffic law violators. rh wanton waste of life in Indianapolis automobile accidents seems to have been checked and the credit in no small measure properly rests with the police and court drive for safer streets. Chief Mike Morrissey’s police force has never performed a more meritorious service than its current drive on all traffic law violators. If wholesale arrests are the only way our streets can be made safe for our children, then Chief Morrissey must continue the arresting of scores of drivers each day. No thinking citizen can have anything but praise for the actions of the Police Department and the Municipal Courts. The crusade must continue until every motorist in Indianapolis knows how to obey the law. TAX-EXEMPT I OOPHOLE r r , HE Treasury’ deserves praise for cutting down the government's debt-carrying charges at a time when tne debt is mounting to a record peak. But in substituting lower interest bonds for more costly obligations, the Tr. asury is short-sightedly perpetuating a fundamental weakness in our government’s finance methods. We refer to the tax-exemption guaranty written on the face of new’ as well as old issues. The government is selling its new bonds at interest rates exceedingly low even for the present favorable market. The tax-exemption doubtless makes the government bonds more attractive than they would be otherwise. And perhaps the government is saving as much or more in interest charges, because of the taxexemption feature, than it could hope to collect by applying the present tax rates to incomes from tax-free securities. But there are other and, we believe, more compelling reasons why tax-exempt clauses should be deleted from the face of future government issues, just as the payable-in-gold clause already has been discontinued. Tax-free bonds make mockery of our Federal income tax rate schedule. A man. for example, who has an earned income of $50,000 has to pay a Federal tax of almost S9OOO. Another man, with the same income—but with a large share of it coming from tax-exempt sources, can get off with a tax of, say, S3OOO. Thus is our ability-to-pay yardstick reduced to absurdity. One man earns his income or gets it by risking his capital in private investments. and pays a just tax. Another man neither works nor takes risks, but gets his income by investing in tax-free bonds, and thereby escapes the tax collector. From a long-range viewpoint, a perhaps even more cogent argument against tax-free financing is the need of removing government temptation to spend beyond Its means. A favorable bond market is not an unmixed blessing. A surplus of cheap money tempts the government to follow the borrow-and-spend course of least political resistance, rather than the sounder pa.v-as-you-spend policy. Tax exemption artificially and dangerously inflates the government's credit. The same is true of debt-burdened state and local governments. Legally, the government can not erase the tax-exemption clauses on its securities now outstanding. But it can eliminate the clause from future issues of state and local government bonds. But Congress can propose a constitutional amendment, and should do so without delay. To encourage ratification, the Treasun,’ could continue to exempt Federal bonds from state and local taxation, until the subordinate units reciprocate.

SMALL BUSINESS MEN 'T'HE new NRA bill hangs fire in Congress while the lawmakers try to figure out the best way of taking the brakes off of business recovery without putting any further obstacles in the way of the small business man. And while their arguments fill the air. it is interesting to get the point of view of one of these mu:h-discussed small business men. What is his slant on recovery, anyhow? There came to an editor the other day a letter from the owner of a modest shoe repair shop in Horne.l. N. Y. He raised a point which illustrates one of the most difficult angles of the whole tangle. “In 1926 —my peak year,” he writes. “I had a gross sales volume of *5913.60. In 1934—the same number of sales through the cash register —and a gross volume of business of $1668.60: the outcome of trying to meet the chain shops’ price dictation. No profit, and in the red. “Naturally. I can not buy as heavily or for future needs. I can not make the necessary improvements in my home or new additions to the shop. Why? Because a chain grocery advertised soles and heels at 8 cents a pair. To meet that form of competition I would have to work a man for nothing, give my savings to the wholesaler and donate my services free of charge. Then they wonder why we have hard times and a depression!” (It should be understood, of course, that the chain store was selling merely the soles and heels, and was not attaching them to the customer's shoes for that price.) In trying to think your way out of a dilemma like this, you come up against one of the most vexing contradictions of the day: the conflict between the consumer's desire for cheap retail prices which the economies of big business units make possible, on the one hand, and the necessity for preserving one of the fundamental features of the American landscape —the small shop In which the *

Individual worker or retailer can And Independence. As consumers we look for the lowest price levels available. If a big corporation offers us commodities at a price which the individual merchant can not meet, we rush to the bargain counter and snap them up. Yet few of us care to picture an America in which the industrious and ambitious man can no longer branch out for himself and establish a little business of his own. That freedom of opportunity is one of our most prized national assets. Somehow we have got to find a way to harmonize thLs difficulty. A return to prosperity which squeezed out the small business man would cost more than it was worth. Whatever the answer may be—and it must be admitted that it isn’t in sight, just offhand—the pressure on units like thi3 Hornell shoe repair shop must be lessened. TINKERING WITH PATRONAGE OELATEDLY the House Civil Service Committee has started work on various bills purporting to take the Postofflce Department out of the patronage business. Even the skeptical will cheer the effort and hope for results. Unfortunately, postal reform movements in Congress usually turn out like rumors of Postmaster Gen. Farley’s resignation. They command attention a few davs, and then nothing happens. Best of all postal reform bills is the one introduced by Senator Norris of Nebraska. It would start at the top, making the Postmaster General a non-political appointee with a long term of office and directing him to appoint, transfer and promote subordinates solely on merit. It would create a career service and enable employes in the ranks to work up into better-paid positions of responsibility. Such a reform would be really worth while. But the same can not be said of various other proposals designed primarily to give life-jobs to politically appointed pcstmasters. HARDSHIP LAND C|OON another Mayflower will sail—this time from Seattle. It will carry 200 picked relief families to the American government’s first colonization project outside the states. They are bound for Mantahuska Valleji, in the heart of Alaska, 125 miles north of Seward. A second ship will carry 400 saw-and-hammer men, selected from transient camps. Carefully and without benefit of ballyhoo FERA has undertaken this adventure. The heads of families w’ere selected from among young farmers of cold-climated northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. These plucky folk court hardships. All this they know’, for the government has sent out word: "Tell them of the hardships.” It is an answer to the libel that “relief is pauperizing Americans” that many times the number selected applied for passage. One whole drought-stricken county in Texas wanted to join the migration. This experiment in government-fostered migration is interesting. It can help a few. But colonization in Alaska is not the answer to America's maladjustments. England tried to colonize her surplus coal miners in Canada with little success. Our last land frontier in Alaska is too distant, too forbidding. Our salvation rather is in opening our domestic frontiers through land and industrial planning, civilizing inventions and electrification, a fairer distribution of income, adventures in beautification and culture, a creation of an economy of plenty in a plentiful land. PITY THE POOR CONGRESSMAN WASHINGTON dispatches say that a move is on foot among certain Congressmen to cut short the work of the present session. One Congressman is quoted as saying that Congress should adjourn after passing the NRA and social security bills and voting the regular appropriation measures. "If Mr. Roosevelt insists upon Congress enacting all the legislation he has proposed at this session,” complained this Congressman, "we will be in session until August.” This may be a potent argument with Congressmen, but it will hardly impress the rest of the country so heavily. After all, there are some pretty important measures on the calendar—the banking bill, for instance, the drug bill, the utilities bill, the Wagoner labor bill, and some others. Win or lose, these measures need final action at an early date. If Congressmen have to stick around in Washington until August to do it—well, that’s what they wer? elected for. isn’t it?

PROGRESS IN 75 YEARS 'T'HE day of the famous pony express across the western plains seems as far away from us as the day of the Roman emperors. But time somehow gets telescoped, in America. The 75th anniversary of the first trip of the pony express the other day was a surprising reminder that there are living men who can actually remember back to that distant, legendary period. What a contrast between the old and the new this celebration displayed! The pony express riders strained every nerve and sinew to make the trip from St. Joseph, Mo. to the west coast in a matter of weeks. Today airplanes cover the distance in less than a day. The laziest auto tourist can do the trip in a third of the time the hard-riding oldtimers required. That conti ast is a measure of the almost unbelievable physical progress that the country has made in the last three-quarters of a century. Administration Frowns as Cotton Goes Down—Headline. It can't be as bad as spinach. Temperature on the Abyssinian desert is 160 degrees, and water is scarce. So if Emperor Haile Selassie tells Mussolini to go to Hades, it's really an invitation. Dancer Ted Shawn is trying to evolve a typical American dance by studying the movements of athletes. For ideas on a tango, we'd suggest he watch a heavyweight fight. It would be too bad for real estate agents if they acquired titles as carelessly as an Amercan heiress does. Tennessee doctor says Increase in headaches is due to keeping up with the Joneses, pressure of modern living, and lack of rest How about taxes and repeal* \

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

SENATOR COPELAND is denouncing the selfish and vicious interests which he alleges are delaying or blocking the passage of his new pure food and drugs bill. Simultaneously, Howard W. Ambruster of Westfield, N. J.. issues a pamphlet packed full of information and accusations, entitled "Why Not Enforce the Laws We Already Have?” This purports to explain "how and why industry's outlaws are crucifying Harvey Wiley's pure food and drug law.” It is Mr. Ambruster’s thesis, buttressed by an impressive array of excerpts from the record, that Dr. Wiley's original pure food and drugs act is fully adequate to protect the public if it were efficiently and honestly enforced. Moreover, he asserts that the new laws which are now being proposed are not brought forth in good faith, but really contain jokers which would give dishonest and fraudulent advertisers more and larger loopholes than they now enjoy under the Wiley act. Mr. Ambruster is well known for his vigorous efforts to expose and suppress the manufacture and sale of adulterated drugs, notably impure ergot, digitalis, Jamaica ginger, aspirin, and the like. So aggressive has he been that many'view him as a sort of zealot. Further, he has been so exasperated at the alleged lack of co-opera-tion of government officials and the doublecrossing of prominent medical experts and editors, that he has developed something close to a persecution complex. But no honest man can well question his unselfish devotion to the protection of the American public from dangerous and fraudulent drugs. And it would be quite evident to any thoughtful commentator that the charges he presents here must be dealt with on the basis of their relation to fact. They can not be laughed off simply by ridiculing Mr. Ambruster. tt B tt MR. AMBRUSTER clearly states the purpose of his elaborate pamphlet: “Its object is to place before the public and the Congress a few of the many available but generally unknown facts relating to the present and past lax enforcement of the Federal Food and Drugs Act, commonly known as the late Dr. Harvey W. Wiley’s pure food and drug law; and to uncover how the officials supposedly enforcing this statute have secretly nullified it for the benefit of powerful offenders, whose huge subsidies in national advertising of bad foodstuffs and worse medicines are meanwhile utilized to seduce the press, thus to prevent the latter from revealing such deplorable conditions to the public. “It is intended also to reveal the specific intent of Dr. Wiley’s law. requiring criminal prosecution of every offender when evidence is available, as compared with the equally intentional omission of such mandatory prosecution requirements in any of the proposed new food and drug bills which have been presented in this and the last Congress, from the original Tugwell bill to the most recent Copeland bill.” It Is Mr. Ambruster’s contention that the officials responsible for the enforcement of the punitive provisions of the Wiley act have been either grossly negligent in executing their duties or have willfully connived in permitting the evasion of the law by powerful manufacturers of filthy foods and dangerous drugs. He charges, moreover, that the criminal prosecutions alleged by the chief of the Food and Drugs Administration do not square with the actual facts as revealed in the court records. Mr. Ambruster asserts that from 1929 to 1934 the reported court actions show only 790 criminal prosecutions out of 5375 cases, namely, some 14.6 per cent. But Mr. Campbell, chief of the Food and Drug Administration, claims in his reports 3007 criminal prosecutions for these years—l3o7 for the year 1932 alone. According to Mr. Ambruster, “It is thus apparent that Mr. Campbell claimed for these three years more than 2200 more criminal prosecutions, and for the one year, 1932, more than 500 more criminal prosecutions, than have actually been instituted under the Food and Drugs law for the entire four-and-a-half-year period from September, 1929, to April, 1€<34.” tt tt tt MR. AMBRUSTER maintains further that such criminal prosecutions as have been instituted and carried through have been highly selective. Small concerns lacking economic resources and political influence have been convicted while large producers charged with identical offenses have been unrestrained. It is a major contention of those supporting the new Food and Drugs Act that we are helpless at present against fraudulent advertisers. Mr. Ambruster maintains that the Federal Trade Commission has all the power necessary, but he alleges from the record that, for example, it waited four years after it possessed the cogent information before it acted against one of the most powerful drug manufacturers in the country. Mr. Ambruster advances particularly grave charges against the man who is perhaps the best knpwn medical editor in the country and against the most active Senator supporting the proposed food and drug legislation. This column is not the place to pass any verdict upon the charges preferred by Mr. Ambruster. but it is evident that they can not be overlooked, either he should be prosecuted for criminal libel, or those whom he denounces should be relentlessly exposed and properly punished.

That news item revealing that the last beard has disappeared and that every one in the Norwegian national assembly now is cleanshaven failed to include the name of the new woman member. Secretary of Labor Perkins is said to be on the way out. Before you start in a job like that, you’ve got a couple of strikes called on you. Princes Barbara Hutton is reported to have distributed about a third of her $40,000,000 inheritance. She seems to be way ahead of Huey Long. New radio compass enables a plane to fly straight to the station broadcasting. The device is probably put to a severe test, though, when a crooner comes on. An appropriation of SIO,OOO has been authorized for an investigation of the price of cotton. Flow about an investigation of the price of investigations. j Every star in the Pleiades group has its own independent motion, says a" science article. Must be a burlesque outfit. Revival of Fencing Noted in Paris—Headline. Yes. we’ve noticed how they’ve been parrying our debt queries. Radio comedians could teach a few things to that Parisian who has been discovered turning out antiques. Well, anyway, Japan seems to have what it takes. Those Dutch professors seeking absolute zero might try trumping their wives' aces. Political observers believe Huey Long will split the South in 1936. And there may be something to it. Some of his antics would cause anybody to spilt.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

/ T THB pA

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. Your letter must he sinned, hut names will he withheld at request of the letter writer.) tt tt a FATHER COUGHLIN AND HUEY LONG UPHELD By M. L. C. I want to thank the ones who have been defending Senator Huey P. Long and Father Coughlin in The Message Center. I think we working people should stand by those who are working to better our conditions. I have taken The Indianapolis Times whenever I had the money for the past seven years because it has always stood foe the old-age pension and for the working class. I like all the writers except Pegler and I have no use for any one who can make light of the starving people. I never believed in mud slinging and if I did I would not direct it at people who are starving. I have seen men cry like little children because they had no work and had to seek relief, yet he calls them the “wishing ring.” Why call Senator Long’s plan something new? God planned it in the days of Moses, the lawgiver. Lev. xxiv-xxvii, then again in Acts iv, 34-35. a tt st AMERICAN LEGION POLICY ASSAILED By H- E. Thixton. The American Legion is now staging another episode of its strategic errors relegating to their guileful commander the authority to promote legislation designed in the interests of bankers and contemptuously subordinating the position of the veteran. The inanimate forces of the American Legion including the Business Veterans Association are unable to offer evidence to sustain their ignominious policies and they resort to provocative measures to effectually restrain their many critics who would promulgate their damnable policies. In an effort to firmly establish their political significance they have the audacity to proclaim a membership of well above a million. The total membership figures can be attained by a reference to the Encyclopedia of Social Science. To illustrate more clearly the incompetencv of the Legion as an authority to propose sane legislation, I will for analysis recall a number of ill advised measures earmarked by their stamp of approval. First, we have the bonus which bears its generous indorsement of a marginal increase of 25 cents daily for combat service. How ridiculous. Next, we have the C. M. T. C. creating in absurdity a national defense by 30-day enlistments of school boy soldiers. Then we have the abnoxious World War Compensation Act providing for the compensating under a blanket form all veterans who wore the uniform alike, ignoring entirely the status of the combat veteran. Contained therein is a clear implication that the unpopularity of that legislation rests on the fact that it was designed more in the interest of the legion proper, and denotes a lack of respect for the combat veteran. All of that equivocal legislation was poineered to tty a corrupted or-

THE HATCHET MAN!

Decidedly Opposed to Gen. Johnson

By a Times Reader. I have been a reader of The Times for a great many years and have always felt a respect for it bscause of its fair-mindedness on all political issues, but of late, I am turning away in disgust, mainly for the reason of having to see the writing of that “cracker downer,” that “never fired a shot,” Gen. Johnson, in such a supposed-to-be liberal paper. I am thoroughly disgusted with the way he is trying to link the Catholic Church with Father Coughlin’s crusade. It makes one think that the public learned nothing from the campaign of 1928, but any one can see that this “peanut cracker” is trying to befuddle the minds of the people again.

ganization operating under a smoke screen of patriotism. Asa crowning climax to its political endeavors it staged for Marion county an unparalleled performance of campaign strategy. To the aversion of the public they established through the intrigant methods of exploiting Elmer the pig, anew precedent in 'the philosophy of political science. The social and political philosophy identified with the American Legion must give way to a sweeping reform. To regain its original prestige it must recover the control from those who have perverted the order and forcefully, if necessary, curtail the un-American activities of those political termites who were responsible for the delegation of unlimited powers to their despotic ruler and high prince of finance. it a a BEREAVED MOTHER LAUDS SAFETY DRIVE By Mrs. Fred Thias, Dayton, O. In this day of almost daily traffic fatalities it is pleasing to note the interest being taken by some persons to promote safety. I stopped for gasoline at a filling station at Rural-st and Road 29. The attendant waited on me very’ courteously and then proceeded to help about a dozen little tots across a very dangerous street. I suppose they must have been pupils from some private school or kindergarten. My husband and I are ■visiting here. We lost our own little girl two years ago in an accident in Day’ton and such attentions as this man gave are deserving oi mention. a a a JOHNSON’S ARTICLES RECEIVE PRAISE By L. L. I hope that you will continue Gen. Johnson's column. I see no reason why it should be stopped because a group of persons who call themselves liberals are too bigoted to read this column and therefore do not want others to read it. In my opinion, Gen. Johnson is a fairer man than the priest who can falsify or misconstrue anything from the Bible to a man’s name. Much fairer than a man who believes silver speculation and faith in our great nation are one and the same thing. A certain asinine element of our population believes that everything Mr. Baruch does is for the express purpose of cheating the American

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

Some days ago, The Times printed on its front page in big type an account of how Father Coughlin underpaid his workers. Father Coughlin denied this last Sunday and stated that he paid his workers more than the union scale and in some instances, more than the United States Government pays its workers. I had to look very carefully to find this in The Times and finally found it on the second page after looking through the paper twice. It was that small an item and I don't need glasses. I will not say that I will probably not see this in print, because I know that you will print it. So don't fool me like you do the others who say it will not appear.

people. No amount of evidence will change this single track viewpoint. For this element, an intelligent person can only pity and hope. In conclusion, Gen. Johnson makes his income by writing. How does the radio Moses make his? By faith in our great nation? a a a JOHNSON BERATED FOR STATEMENTS By S. H. Rice. I am very much surprised to see such statements in your paper about Father Coughlin as those made by Hugh S. Johnson. I heard him make these statements. He called our people cry babies and rats. He did say it. We need a man like Father Ooughlin in this country to tell people the truth. a a a CONDEMNS BANON BOOKIES By H. H. I think I have been done a great injustice by the person who closed the bookies in Indianapolis. I have made a study of the races for the last three years and was making a good living when somebody came along and broke up my playhouse and now I am back on charity. I have never yet seen a bookie go out on the street and drag a prospective player into his place of business. *They go in because they like the game and I think in this big. free country of ours, they should be left alone. a a a BILLY SUNDAY DECLARED IGNORANT OF SOCIALISM By a Times Reader. In his speech of April 7, Billy Sunday proved he is ignorant of the true facts of Socialism. He had much wind and thunder but no solution for our troubles. Socialism is constructive and not destructive, as he charges. Capitalism is the main cause of Daily Thought I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou. Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.—Psalms. 4:8. IF we have -not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.—Rochefoucauld.

.APRIL 11, 1935

our ills. In its greed for profits fend power it cares nothing for the worker who produces the wealth of the world. Capitalism looks nopef-ully among its members for one to (Iff. r something to brace its tottering less. But alas, they have nothing to offer but a weak hypodermic which gsves it a short spurt on life but leaves it weaker after each operation. It is up to the people to study Socialism and think for themselves. Socialism applied scientifically can ward off disaster. So They Say|~j Women’s intuition is needed, in government to help men accomplish the things they are unable to do.— Agnes MacPhail, only woman* in Canada's House of Commons. ; I like America and Americans better than ever before. Os course! no country is to be blamed for! its government.—Evelyn John Stracfiey, Communistic British lecturer, •on leaving the United States. Chicago is too provincial—June Grabiner, Chicago society girl .entering movies! J - - * The present might be called -the ‘ Muddle Ages,” for never was there such loose and dangerous thinking. —James M. Beck, former Congressman. 1 Men will not indefinitely tolerate the continuation, much less -the repetition of the hopeless mess -our earlier enomonic and political Systems have landed us in.—James Rowland Angell, president of Yale. I think another war would mean the collapse of the American standard; our standard of living would sink; our whole moral attitude would change.—Bernard Baruch. If the Republican party haslthe courage to turn to the humanity of Lincoln and away from the prop-erty-minded leadership which has dominated it most of the time. for 20 years, we can save America.— William Allen While.

HOUR

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK I must not forget how hushed was the day; I must not forget how high was the hill. I must not forget how blue was the sky; I must not forget the peace, cool and still. There was a slim path, that led to the stafu; Inclosed by frail lace of forsythla gold. A pool, cupped by rocks, that drank the blue air; A wind strong with promise of birth In the mold. I must not forget my friends of the hour; I must not forget how one bird did fly. Still -higher and higher, lifting my heart. Into the blue rapture of Apni-skyt