Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 31, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1935 — Page 13

It Seems to Me nmoDMJN HARVARD should take something for it* sense of humor. Indeed it would not be too drastic if some of the undergraduates were to lose their kiddie-kar privileges for at least a month. According to the news reports the peace demonstration at Cambridge was pretty much broken up by more than 2000 members of the Michael Mullins Chowder and Marching Club. •The Mullins group." says the Herald-Tribune story —‘ paraded the yard and the purlieus of Cam- ' bridge in true imperial German

st y 1 e—goosestepplng. Giving the straight-arm salute made popular by Adolf Hitler, and singing war songs . . . All shouted 'Heil! Down with peace! We want cannon!' and other slogans until the university and Cambridge police put an end to the festivities. "John Roosevelt, youngest son of the President, was among the supporters of the jokesters. He appeared amused at the vain efforts of the anti-war strikers to keep their meeting going in the face of such hilarious opposition.” I gather therefore that the ob-

Ifeywnod Broun

Ject of the Mullins march was one of mockery and that the cry of "Down with peace! We want cannon,” was intended to be awfully, awfully funny. But I would not call it hilarious. Rather here was horror heaped on horror. It was as if the hangman s son were playing with a noose of thread. Not hilarity but hysteria was the note which was sounded by those voices. 000 Mr. Mors, What Hare You? TWO thousand strong they cried aloud. ‘‘lt isn't true It can't be so that any one would mark and number our young bodies for the burning. That is the monstrous dream of an idiot and fair meat for a hasty pudding charade." Heil!” shouted the members of the- Mullins Chowder and Marching Club and there was, I suspect., almost a treble note of terror in the cry of, *'We want cannon!" They scoff at guns who never felt the earth tremble under the drum of a barrage. "How heavy your guns are tonight Mr. Mars? For what do you make preparation?" "Thp better to bayonet you, my dears.” ''You'll have to put your foot upon his chest before you draw that blade out right. That man behind vou moans. He's still alive. Mop up. you fools and leave not one behind you who in his last agony might toss a grenade." Once I saw' a soldier do a tap dance in front of his own wire until the machine gunners cut him down. He had mixed fear and brandy and when he laughed it was not amusing. Tnere is. of course, the urge in all of us to delay the facing of reality. In we cling to myths and legends in which the giants and the dragons of the world are pictured as pushovers for all little folk who live in the shadow' of the beanstalk. And as we outgrow this fear we nut on other armor of lighter metal and raise up to protect our hearts a certain shield called ‘‘the humorous approach.” The device is a cap and bells set upon a field of motley. And you will find followers of this strange device even in the trenches of (he front line. We who are about to die salute the zero hour with verse and chorus of "Hinkey Dinkey Parlez Vous.” If a man must tremble in the early dawn let him pretend that he is rocked with laughter. nan Voices of the Dead BUT it is well that the quality and inspiration for this mirth should always be sharply understood by all who hear its fearful cackle. I would have the men of the Mullins Marching Club take thought now that their panicky jubilation has subsided. Eighteen years ago other undergraduates paraded through the Harvard yard gripped in the fervor of the coming war. They were perhaps a shade less larky than the present generation. To them there had been sold a last crusade which was to make all future conflict impossible. Nor did they cry "We want cannon!” They knew hill well that the munitions makers of the world strove night and day to fulfill all the requirements In this respect. The goosestep of today under the elms was an echo of the tramping feet of 18 years ago. And each humorist set his boot down where one had marched before. The rains and snows have obliterated the marks of Harvard 1917. And of that band many have not and will not walk again past the entries of Hollis and Holworthy. And so the Mullins march wasn’t really very funny after all. Even through the din there must have been some whisper of compelling voices from far off saying: "Weep for us. We are your comrades. We are the Harvard dead who died for a lost illusion.”

Your Health -BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN-

EVER since women began to smoke to any great extent, one of the most controversial (questions has been whether smoking is harmful to expectant mothers, and whether it is likely to injure the prospective child. The problem is becoming of greater and greater Importance since smoking is definitely increasing among women, many smoking to overcome their nervous reactions. It occurred to some physicians to study the rate of heart beat of children before birth, to determine whether smoking by the mothers in any way affected the babies. Observations were made on five women who were rather heavy smokers. a a a THE average rate of heart beat of the babies before the mothers smoked was 144. From eight to 12 minutes after the mothers began smoking, the average rate of heart beat was 149. or an increase of five' beats a minute. Os the five women who were studied, four showed an increase in the rate of the babies’ heart beat after smoking, but the fifth showed a decrease. In the case of the four women whoso babies had an Increased heart rate after the mothers smoked, the mothers were habitual smokers who inhaled the fumes. In the fifth case, however, the woman had npver smoked and did not know how to inhale. She expelled the smoke quickly from her mouth after it was taken in. 000 FROM these studies it seems certain that there is a definite and real effect of smoking by mothers on the prospective child. Many additional studies are required, however, to determine whether the harm is sufficient to prevent smoking in moderation bv prospective mothers. Studies should be made particularlv on the children after they are bom. to find out if babies born from mothers who smoke vary in any way from those born from mothers who do not smoke. The evidence thus far available does not indicate that they do vary.

Questions and Answers

Q Is English money used in Ireland? A—Northern Ireland uses the coinage of Great Britain, but the Irish Free State has its own currency. the -Free State Pound", which, however, is linked to the British pound, and fluctuates with it.' Q—Where is the island of Capri? How large Is it? A—lt belongs to the province of Naples. Italy, and Is on the south side of the Bay of Naples; length 4 miles and 14 miles at the widest part, with a total Q —How are the holes in Swivt cheese produced? A—By the natural f the cheese. Q —What is the dir‘' < bef/een Sydney, Australia. and New York r y; A—lt is 11,160 oiatute miles. Q —Where is the island of Trinidad? A —ln the British West 2nd. as.

Eill Wlr* B*rrlr of the United Pres* Association

TVA—THE TEST TUBE OF SOCIETY

‘Mountain Men’ Form Chief Raw Material in Building New Life

gi- £ V They have no buying power and zS*:' * .... : iPIRIMHHPHKMRI ■W. ■' until TV A no hope of acquiring 4. : - * ~ '’Cl 'Ti X ■ X twill* Wmtm any. TVA feels that it is far 'JS&pW' VA ' .•* > more logical to pour money into fr*** JaBMI [ lands to develop new markets for

BY TALCOTT POWELL Editor of The Times O h God, send us some dynamite. You don’t have to hand it to us. Just leave it a-layin’ in a ditch where we can find it. These mine owners is sinners, God. Amen.” The tall mountain preacher rose with reverence from his knees. Next night one of the mine tipples blew up. A couple of days later the coal trestle exploded in debris. That was in the ill of 1933. The town of Wilder was being shaken with one of the periodic wars that have cursed the bituminous coal industry for years. Tennessee mountaineers are addicted to understatement. They speak of these conflicts as “labor trouble.” The law rarely enters Wilder unless it comes with the national guard in field equipment. Homicide is such a work-a-day happening that murder trials are spoken of merely as “law suits.” Before mining and lumbering came to the mountains the hill people lived to themselves, supporting their families by primitive farming and handicraft, speaking the language and living the life of colonial America. They lived and died among their crags which shouldered imperiously skyward. 000 THEY believed devoutly in the just and punishing Jehovah of the Old Testament. Fanatically patriotic, they left their mountain villages in droves to fight for the Union during the Civil War. All they asked after this was to be left in peace.

The -

DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND —By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen —

WASHINGTON. April 16.—More than 1000 persons have asked Seth Thomas, AAA solicitor, for a copy of the Myers report on the treatment of share-croppers by cotton plantation owners. To every request Thomas has said no. Official reason given for refusal is that the report deals with a legal case which is nobody's business while the AAA is preparing prosecution.

Actually the report deals with much more. It covers particularly the growth of unionism and communism among agricultural workers. Meanwhile, the plight of the Southern share-crajper continues to be severe. It has become a problem not only for the Department of Agriculture, but also for the Federal Relief Administration. They find their relief rolls mounting in Southern states, and want to know whether this results from cotton tenants being dispossessed. Harry Hopkins has sent a specialist into the field to make an intensive study of the whole farm tenant situation. He is careful to avoid saying that the cotton reduction program under the direction of his good friend Chester Davis has aggravated his relief problem. He is making no charges. But he wants the facts. a a a WAVING his arms wildly, a man rose from his seat in the waiting room of FKRA offices recently and declared he had cooled his heels long enough. "I want to see Mr. Roosevelt!” he demanded. The secretary tried again to persuade him that his project for -constructing a second line of military defense" wv.s something for the War Department to review. not the Relief Administration. "But I propose to give employment.” he declared, “to 2000 persons!" This was a signal for the other heel-coolers to flock around him. The office was full of Job-appli-cants. They pushed up to the man with an idea and offered their services. "Sure*. IH givs you jobs.” he cried. -11 l give you all jobs. You come with me. If the relief people don't want this idea, well go

The Indianapolis Times

1— Entrance to a typical Tennessee coal mine is shown here. Mine workers mast go a half-mile or mile back into the ground, bent double due to the height of the entrance way. 2 Here is the typical industry that was found in the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is a grist mill, 100 years old. .i—This aged woman demonstrates, with her antique spinning wheel, the manner in which the mountain folk have made their cloth for years. She has seen the Valley decline in her later years. 4 Here is a gully formed by erosion by rain. The cluster in the rear center of the picture is composed of people, showing the great depth of the gully. 5 The home of a white share-eropper in the TVA area and fi—the home of a Negro share-cropper. Occupants of both houses represent the highest of their types in the vicinity.

The discovery of coal and iron overtook them. They were unused to a money economy. They sold their land, permitted themselves to be herded into “company towns” made up of unspeakable hovels. They learned about buying on credit at “company stores.” Before they realized it their simple existence was done. They were peons of the industrial era. Although oppression and starvation have run up the mortality rate these people are not tamed. No matter how eaten by poverty, each man has his high-powered rifle and knows how to use it. His eye is keen from hunting small game to vary a diet made up almost entirely of corn bread spread with lard and salt pork. “We are not hill billies,” explained one native. “We are moi itain men.” 000 THOSE mountains are full of ghosts today—skeletons of towns left to rot with their inhabitants when depression closed the mines, spectres of crumbling communities abandoned by the lumber industry after the mountains had been ruthlessly stripped of timber and their sides laid naked to the destruction of the spring rains. The Tennessee Valley Authority has set itself the task of bringing a more abundant life to the mountains. It is seeking to readjust the conditions which brought about that waste. It hopes to find new markets for soft coal, s o reforest

over to the War Department. I’m going to give employment to 2000 men.” Whereupon, after taking the names and addresses of his new recruits, he turned and, like another Pied Piper, led them out of the building. The FERA offices have not seen them since. # a a a ABSENCE from the House this session is especially noticeable on the part of Tammany Congressmen. The Democratic majority is large enough to be safe, and there is less demand by floor leaders for regular attendance. Dickstein of New York w r as absent for two weeks recently. Many of the Tammany group spend as much time in New York as they do m Washington. . . . The latest clash between Administration officials and ControllerGeneral McCarl has been kept out of the news. Jim Moffett's Housing Administration sent a group of men into the field equipped with new’ brief cases. The cases were part of their equipment, to be paid by the FHA. But when the bill came to McCarl’s desk, he ruled it otherwise. . . . When more than 100 members are present on the floor of the House. Speaker Joe Byrns spends most of his energy pounding the gavel to keep order. . . . Crossing the street between the House Office Building and the Capitol the other day, Texas' war-bitten Congressman Maury Maverick barely escaped being hit by a tourist driving a car from Pennsylvania. With a wry smile. Maverick called after him. “You almost killed a Congressman then!” . , . The public gallenes of the Senate begin to fill up at 10:30 every morning. Session begins at 12. Gallery attendance is considerably heavier this session than last. lOopyrieht, 1935. bv United reature Syndic* is. Ittu

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1935

the hillsides, to move families, who now have no way to eat except by the relief baske., and restore them to self support. These “mountain men” are one of the chief raw materials with which the TVA is dealing. But if there is misery in the hills it is worse down in the cotton lands. Here live the "sharecroppers,” the tenant farmers. Hopeless and helpless they barely exist. They never have any money. Many of them can not even afford a hog. They are at the mercy of the land owner, who. in turn, is crucified by the world cotton market. 0 0 0 npHEY live in shacks that are not even stopped against the weather. The land they farm is ravaged by over-cultivation of one crop and by water erosion. If a tenant is lucky enough to raise a decent crop he owes his entire share—and sometimes more —to the landowner for seed, rent of mule and the inevitable com meal, sorghum and salt pork which make up his family’s diet. “Why don’t you raise a little garden? ’ one of them was asked. “Tried to last year,” replied the share cropper, “but the landowner made me plow it under for cotton.” One who travels through the Tennessee Valley is inevitably forced to the conclusion that the only change wrought by the Civil War in agriculture is that both white and black slaves are now used. Small wonder that pellagra arid rickets are commonplace. It is not .surprising that the “sharecropper,” who can not even get the money to move away, is so hopeless that he works just enough to support bare life. 000 YET it is former share-crop-pers and mountaineers who are doing most of the labor on the huge dams which the TVA is building on the Tennessee River. Working a five-and-a-half-nour-day. six days a week at from 45 cents to sl.lO an hour, these men

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

fiiwt gr no T.w utouig. ptr.^of f

“Go on* jriva him 4 a peanut. Don’t be afraid— daddy isn't afraid^*

have put the vast construction program far ahead of schedule. “You folk up North think we're lazy down here.” a former sharecropper, now a carpenter foreman, told me. “I know you call us white trash. Well, tell me how you can expect a man who's been half starved all his life to show any pep? “For the first couple of weeks on this job they didn't work me—just fed me up like a hog. Take a look at the dam. Think we're lazy now? All us folk wanted was a break, and we're getting it.” A former mountaineer-miner, now a quarryman at Norris Dam, was pointed out as a murderer. TVA was cautioned against employing him; told he was one of the most dangerous mountain gunmen in the state. I saw a little man in middle life with a gentle voice and courteous manner. He bowed graciously as he was introduced. “No use to try to do right up in the mining camps.” he said. “If you don’t do nothing wrong they hang somethin’ on you, anyhow. I like it down here.” He went back to his compressed air drill which his hands seemed to find as interesting as a Winchester rifle. 000 THUS the TVA is driving ahead with its laboratory work in human problems. What it is doing there today may be applied in coming years to the whole economic structure of America. The Roosevelt Administration could not have picked a better test tube than those 40,000 square miles and 2.000,000 people that are the Tennessee Valley. The climate ranges all the way from that of the Great Lakes to sub-tropical. Under proper cultivation and care the soil will raise anything. It is rich in coal. iron, aluminum, water power, zinc, stones for building and paving, salt, ceramic clays, copper, mineral fertilizers—to mention some of it’s known resources. It has been mercilessly exploited yet it is still undeveloped. For instance, although limestone, iron and coal lie close together for steel making there is no great steel industry. Although the finest clays lie ready there is no extensive potterv manufacturing. By various predatory devices, such as freight rates, established industry of the North has sucked such raw materials as it needs from the Va’ley and tossed the rest aside. 000 OF the 2.000.000 people living there nearly a half live about on the level of a Chinese coolie.

They have no buying power and until TVA no hope of acquiring any. TVA feels that it Is far more logical to pour money into this section of the United States to create this buying power than to fling billions in loans into foreign lands to develop new markets for American goods. Rehabilitation of the soft coal industry is one of TVA’s chief problems. This business, always the problem child of the economic system, has grown up during the depression into an adult institutional case. The mines have developed a capacity annually of 700.000.000 tons to meet a demand of less than 500,000,000 tons. The demand continues to decline due to oil burners, improved combustion methods by railroads and electrical industries, improved efficiency in smelting and coking. It is possible that soft coal as a fuel is on the way out. The whaling industry disappeared as a fuel supply. TVA feels that the answer lies in the use of coal as a raw material to substitute for the waning fuel market. TVA Chairman Morgan told the Appalachian Coal Association that he wished to co-’ operate in developing this new market and that TVA money would be spent in research along this line. tt tt tt “'T'HE coal industry is deterX mined to destroy the Tennessee Valley Authority,” came the official answer. “It will destroy it by political means, by financial means, or by any means in its power.” The TVA is untroubled by the coal industry’s attitude. It believes that an electro-chemical industry can be built in the Valley. For every kilowatt hour of hydro-elec-tric energy used in such an industry it has been calculated that .37 pounds of soft coal will be needed as a raw material. “The Tennessee Valley Authority will not fight the coal industry,” declared TVA Director David E. Lilienthal. “No amount of goading will change our course. This is an economic problem, not a debate or a duel.” . The cotton industry is an equally knotty problem. In’order to operate profitably it must have not merely cheap labor, but really peon labor, particularly during the picking season. This labor must merely subsist during the year and take the lowest wages during the harvest. ■ • tt a a BUT coolie labor that can not buy goods is helpless to bring about an economy of abundance. The question confronting the TVA is whether Southern cotton can compete with the native labor in the growing fields that Britain, France and Russia are establishing in Asia and Africa. And if it can compete is it sound policy to have hundreds of thousands of semi-starved peons existing in the United States? The cotton economy is breaking down in the lowlands just as the coal economy is wrecked in the mountains. It is TVA’s job to pick up the pieces and put them together again for a permanent economy of a different sort. Tomorrow—The TVA and the Soil. (Copyright, 1935, by The Indianapolis Times) BRANCH RICKEY TO BE GUEST AT LUNCHEON Baseball Leader Will Be Lauded at Terre Haute Session. By Timet Special TERRE HAUTE, April 16. Branch Rickey, vice-president of the St. Louis Cardinals and a famous figure in the national baseball spotlight, will be a guest of honor here Thursday noon at a luncheon in the Deming Hotel. Ross Harriott, president of the Terre Haute Baseball Association, will be in charge. Representatives of service clubs, city officials, business leaders and prominent citizens will be present to greet Mr. Rickey. DISPLAY SOAP CARVINGS Work of Art Students Is Exhibited in Main Building. Soap carvings of animals made by beginning art students in Miss Ruth Dunwoodv’s Art I class at Technical High School are on display in the Main building of the school. Work done by the following students is being exhibited: Juanita Brown, Dorothy Clements. Dorothy Cook, Ray Foster, Betty Jane Gregory, Jack Kuhlman, Max Morris, Eleanor Morris. Jo Ann Pierpont. Eva Penn. Norris Starkey. Paul Sharkey. Betty Jane Williams and Esther Louise Wood.

Second Section

Entered m Secnpd-n*!> Matter at rnstoffiee. Indianapolis, Ind.

Fair Enough nolm 'T'HE Florida State Hotel Commission estimates that the sun-chasers who visited the peninsula this winter spent *625.000.000. The commission exaggerates. but business undoubtedly was much Improved and. moreover, the people who have a stake in the state ha”e definitely ceased to regard Florida as a fly-by-night carnival and their customers as suckers. In Miami been a sincere attempt to break the political power of a sort of minor league Tammany organization and scatter a settlement of

gamblers and thieves from the underworld of the northern cities who have been making their winter quarters there for several years. But Florida is still pretty much of a rich mans country and the Governor. Dave Scholtz, who is out of Brooklyn, N. Y„ went so far last fall as to announce that persons without visible means of support would be turned back. He was referring to people without money. With millions of acres of land which could be used for farming, they still regard a man with a roll of vacation money in the pocket of his white pants or a racketeer from

the North as more desirable than a pioneer whose western farm has blown away on the wind. The moving picture magnates of Hollywood kidded Florida for several weeks during the winter, poking around on the edges of the jungles in a pietense of inspecting sites to which the movie industry might be transplanted in the event that the California Legislature didn't behave. naff The Movies Didn't More OF course, there was no intention to move the industry to Florida, but the idea was pretty anyway. Imagination drew a beautiful picture of lovely gents and women disporting their lithe, lean biscuit-brown bodies in swimming pools inlaid with emeralds the size of paving blocks and of Johnny Weismueller and Lupe Velez lovingly punching each other's ears off in the night clubs. This was supposed to terrify the California Legislature. I haven't heard whether it did but anyway, the moving picture industry is not moving to Florida. There is some talk in Florida now of inducing the Federal government to install a system by which the water level in the Everglades can be controlled and tremendous tracts opened up for homesteading or purchase on easy terms in tracts of 1(> acres or more by overall farmers from various parts of the CMintry who can't make a crop on their old land any more. This kind of pioneering will take a very game type of settler who is willing to do his farming in person, get his hands dirty and hold still in the presence of snakes, alligators and mosquitoes by the million. However, the returns should be big because in the land around Lake Okeechobee the present farmers sometimes have to put weights on their beans and other garden truck to keep the stuff from hopping out of the ground, roots and all. 000 That Terrible Publicity FLORIDA is really growing up now. There was a time a few’ years back w’hen you couldn’t buy space in a Florida paper to print a story about alligators or snakes. There were plenty of alligators and snakes but the Chamber of Commerce spirit forbade mention of them lest customers be scared off. One night a woman in West Palm Beach phoned the police to come and kill an eight-foot alligator which was eating her chickens in the yard. The police shelled it to death with a rifle and a young reporter from up North wrote a nice little piece for the local paper. He almost lost his job over that. Still, to be fair, the alligators and snakes do not run a very high score against people. In Miami, when they had their hurricane, a press association reporter was locked up in the jail overnight so he couldn't tell the story. The local interests were trying to hold the hurricane down to a light southerly breeze. When the reinforcements arrived and heard what had happened to their boy friend they sent out descriptions of one of the worst hurricanes the world has ever known. That taught the locals something about the handling of explosives. I don’t suppose they would mention mosquitoes even now but any Western farmer who might be thinking of having a look at the frontier which lies just a drive and pitch inside the coast line, a wilderness almost within sight of the tall buildings, should be advised to carry a few kegs of a mosquito lotion. And he can’t beat that farm land anvw’here. (Copyright. 1935, by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ

THE National Geographic Society's Yukon Expedition, under the leadership of Bradford Washburn, is now engaged in the mapping of an unexplored mountain region near the Alaskan border. During the next few weeks, the expedition will be out of touch with civilization. Word of Mr. Washburn’s plans was received at the society’s headquarters in Washington just before he left Carcross, Yukon Territory. At the same time, he notified the society that he had completed a 150-mile airplane survey in the course of which he photographed the Alsek River in southwestern Yukon Territory. The upper course of this river previously had been unknown. During his flight, Mr. Washburn discovered the existence of aTi unsuspected mountain range approximately 50 miles long with at least 20 peaks more than 10.000 feet high. He also found three huge unexplored glaciers and determined that the famous Hubbard Glacier, which pours Its ice into Kakutat Bay, is* nearly twice as long as it was supposed to be. Washburn found it necessary to fly at an altitude of more than 18.000 feet while the mercury registered 15 degrees below zero in order to obtain adequate photographs of some of the huge mountain peaks which he encountered. tt a THE base camp which Mr. Washburn and the five members of his party have established lies on the face of one of the newly discovered glaciers that flows from Mt. Hubbard. This will be the headquarters of the expedition until late in May. A thousand-foot ice-fall rises just above the tents of the expedition. It is planned to move everything up this frozen cascade to the final site of the base camp on the smoother slopes above. From this vantage point the party will survey and map the unknown tract at the head of Hubbard Glacier. nun HUBBARD GLACIER, formerly thought to be 30 miles long, Is at least 60 miles long. Mr. Washburn has reported. This glacier, formerly thought to end at the divide between Mt. Hubbard and Mt. Vancouver, actually extends another 30 miles into the very heart of the St. Elias Range and finally ends at the very base of Mt. Logan.. “Mt. Vancouver appears to be utterly impregnable.’’ Washburn telegraphed. “It is one of the most amazing mountain masses that I ever have seen, rising to an altitude of nearly 16.000 feet from the flat snow flields of the Hubbard Glacier in one gigantic cliff of ice and rock without a single climbable angle. “The number of unknown glaciers and peaks which we have seen and photographed is almost unbelievable. These mountains represent the last stronghold of the Great Ice Age on the North American continent and I believe that we are successfully obtaining a photographic record of peaks and glaciers whose immense size and number have never been dreamed of by the early explorers of tha Yukon.”

I,

Westbrook Prgler