Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 33, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 April 1935 — Page 17

It Seems to Me HEYWOOD BROUN lITHEN Alexander Graham Bell invented the trleVV phone I hone he paused a little while before he dropped ?he fir'* nickel in the slot and a-ked for Meridian 1212. If he were a man of imagination he must have been tempted to throw the whole thing bark into the creek again. And maybe it would have been better. If the decision had been left to me I would have said. "Whoa. Betsy; Jet s go back to the old North Church.” The telephone and my liver are the accessories

which are driving me prematurely into rural retirement. Usually..there are two people who answer the incoming call under instructions to report that lam dead or fast asleep. But sometimes they are both away and I have to face the music without aid. It is an unlisted number which means that everybody knows it except the Emperor of Abyssinia; who has other worries. The transcript which I am to submit will not be accepted as literally true but I am willing to swear to it on a stack of Bibles. "Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!” "This is Heywood Broun speak-

Heywood Broun

illS. "You don’t know me. but we ought to have something in common because I'm a wmiter. Maybe you can help me.” ’ I'd be vert’ glad to if I can." ‘ Well, this is my trouble. Mr. Broun. I know the technique of writing, but I haven't anything to write about. What would you advise me to do?” ‘‘l'd advise you not to wake me up at 11 o'clock in the morning. What do you suppose I've been suffering from for the last 15 years?” ana His Contributions to Literature THE telephone has made a mockery of the constitutional guaranty that every man's home Is castle. What's the use of a moat, a couple of beefeaters at the door and a secretary, if anybody can jingle in your ear and say, “How would you like to peak before the Flatbush Elks on April 29 at 9 oelnek? Pick any subject you like?” Now when people aie as generous as that there is no possible excuse for saying “No.” It is my custom invariably to say. “I'd be delighted.” I write the date down on a .slip of paper and put it in my pocket. In a day or so it gets mixed up with my money and drops out, or is last in some way or other. Or even when I dimly remember, the twenty-ninth rolls around, as i had not anticipated, and I say, "Oh, io hell with the Flatbush Elks. They're not missing very much anyway.” But .somehow or other it runs into ill feeling in the long run. You might think that an audience would be delighted when a poor speaker failed to show up. it gives everybody a chance to get to bed at a reasonable hour wuth a good book. I've done an enormous amount for American literature by failing to appear at banquets, luncheons and symposiums. But I get no credit for it. a a a No Longer a Sucker? PEOPLE think I'm high hat and mercenary. That isn't true. I haven't had any money for speaking for years and years. Somehow' or other lecture managers don't trust me. They refuse to book me. I don’t blame them. I don't even blame myself. The fault lies with Alexander Graham Bell who just had to go and invent the telephone. If the Flatbush Elks wrote me a polite little letter asking me to come and speak the twenty-ninth of April everybody would be satisfied all around. I'd just stick the note into the EifTel Tower of manuscripts labeled, "Tilings that must be answered tomorrow,” and there would be no commitment to embarrass anybody. I must clean up that pile sometime. Somewhere near the bottom I expect to find that invitation from Gen. Grant asking me to drop over to Appomatox and catch Gen. Lee's surrender. Fortunately that occurred before Mr. Bell and his telephone and there was no hard feeling on the part of either general. That will be the chief solace when I quit city life nlmast any day now'. It was a little too cold yesterday. When I get to Arcadia there won t be a phone In any wing of the rambling farmhouse. Never again will the familiar phrase appear, “Among the other ■speakers was Heywood Broun.” . Alexander Graham Bell made a sucker of me long enough. (Convrieht. 1335)

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ

ORION, the mighty hunter who dominated the skies all winter, says good-by to earthly stargazers this month. Even now he shines so low in the Western sky that you can not see him unless you have an unobstructed view of the horizon. The bright star. Kipel, which marks the foot of the piant. almost touches the horizon while Betelpeuse, the fiery star in his shoulder, is not much hipher. Bv 9 o'clock the whole constellation has sunk out of view. Equally low in the sky are Taurus, the celestial bull, and Canis Major, one of the hunter's dogs. Only a little hipher in the sky is his other dog, Cams Minor. By 9 p. m. Taurus has disappeared, taking aonp the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the bright star Aldebaran. Sirius, brightest star of the heavens —in the constellation of Canis Major, likewise disappears. So now it is time to forget the constellations of winter and learn the constellations of spring and summer. Look to the nortlfeast at 8 p. m. There, so low that it almost toujhes the horizon, is Vega, beautiful bright white star of the constellation of Lyra. a a a DUE east and higher in the sky than Bega. shines Arcturus. part of the constellation of Bootes. In the southeast, and a little lower than Arcturus is Spica. the beautiful clear white star of the constellation of Virgo, the virgin. Many star gazers consider Spica the queen star of the spring sky because of the exceptional purity of her light. It is interesting to compare these three stars—Vega. Arcturus and Spica. To choose between them is as difficult a task as that of Paris who had to decide between the beauty of the three goddesses, Juno. Minerva and Venus. As the night progresses and the starry skies revolve about the North Pole, the three mount higher and higher into the sky. The planets present an interesting view this month. Beautiful Venus is low in the western sky, in the constellation of Taurus, not far from the Pleiades. She is sinking lower to the west each night and so sets a little earlier each night. By the end of the month, she will disappear by 8. Mars, beautiful red in color, is near Spica. Jupiter, white in color, rises in the East about 9 and remains in view throughout the rest of the night. a a a MEANWHILE, professional astronomers continue to be most interested in Nova Herculis, the new star that flashed into view last December. Nova Herculis is to be found in the northeast between the .onstellation of Hercules and the head of Draco. This puts it only a little above the bright star Vega. This star, readers will recall, suddentlv flashed into great brilliance early last December. A star which undergoes so great an increase is known to astronomers as a nova, which is the Latin word for * new." Ordinarily such a star, shortly after its new brilliance, begins to decline and continues to do so until it has again faded from view. But Nova Herculis has refused to run true to form. First it declined, then it grew bright again. It continued for several months to fluctuate back and forth to the great amazement of astronomers. Now the increase in brilliance is occasioned bv a great outburst of gaseous material and energy. It is a great explosion, the magnitude of which defies the imagination. Q—ls the use of gold coins in the United States legal? A—Their possession, except in numismatic collections, and their use as money is illegal at the present time. Q —What was "The Scarlet Pimpernel?" A—lt is the name of a novel by Baroness Orczy. The title is taken from the name of a

Full Leased Wire Ferric* of the T nited Press Association

TVA—THE TEST TUBE OF SOCIETY

River Transportation to Play Vital Part in Rebuilding, of South

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BY TALCOTT POWELL Editor of The Times • Copyrieht, 1935. by The Indianapolis Times) 'J'HE Tennessee Valley Authority will become as important a measuring stick for transportation costs as it now is for power rates. In attempting to set up an economy of abundance in the Tennessee Valley, TVA fully realizes that transportation is an extremely vital element. The old saw about the world beating a path to the door of the man who makes the best mousetrap may be quite true, but unless the man has a way to ship his mousetraps, he gets little benefit out of his invention. It does no good for TVA to develop new industries in the Valley. to rehabilitate the soil, and to bring about a companionship of agriculture and industry unless there can be a free and inexpensive movement of goods within the Valley itself and between the Valley and the outside world. At present, great chunks of the 40.000 square miles that make up the TVA social test tube are almost entirely without any transportation facility except the übiquitous mule. The railroads east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio run almost entirely north and south. There are great gaps between them where only muddy and rutted highways provide the means for moving goods. a a a THERE is a reason for this north -and - south directional trend of the railroads. The Soutlj, has always been primarily an agricultural section. It has been merely a raw material reservoir for the industrial North and East. Its transportation was originally laid out to feed these raw materials into the North as rapidly as possible. These railroads are comparable to a few large arteries running between centers of population. If the artery is not kept pumped full of pulsing lifeblood, its efficiency is impaired and the effects are immediately felt by both investors and the nation as a whole. Railroad rates are a serious problem to the new South and its industries. The old rate system which is still in force is based upon the theory that the South is strictly agricultural. a a a PRODUCTS of the soil carry cheap rates. Manufactured goods have high rates. This places a penalty upon the manufacOfrer

The Indianapolis Times

Upper, left—The huge lock at Wilson Dam, Muscle Shoals, through which the river freight will flow after the completion of the TVA's transportation program. Upper, right—An old-fashioned river boat hauling ore on the Tennessee River. If the TVA’s plans are consummated, many such boats may be plying along this waterway in the future. Lower, left—An artist's impression of the small, fast boats that may ply the Tennessee River in the future connecting up in the back country with trucks and acting as feeders for the arterial railroad system of the South. Lower, right—Here are the government's plans for improved waterways throughout the East and Middle West. The plan is to make them feeders to the railroads rather than competitors. The Tennessee River reaches down in a long elbow through Tennessee and Alabama in the center of the map.

in the Tennessee Valley who wishes to compete with the manufacturer in Ohio, Indiana, or any other Midwestern or Eastern state. For instance, a stove manufacturer in Chattanooga, Tcnn., must pay 54 cents a hundred pounds to ship the 594 miles to a customer in Chicago. His Northern competitor, however, pays only 43 cents to ship his stoves an equal number of miles. This is a typical case. Industry in the Tennessee Valley and the rest of the South starts off with a serious handicap which it must overcome if it wishes to exist. It is as though the railroads had erected a barricade at the Ohio River. The Southern shipper has to climb this obstacle before he can reach his market. On the other hand, the Northern shipper simply coasts down into the South because of this rate advantage. To stay in business, the Southern industrialist must find ways to offset this increased cost. The easiest way seems to have been by low' wages and sweating of labor. Hence, the South is filled with ‘‘mill villages” where lowwages are the rule and where company-owned houses and company stores make the feudal picture complete. a a a THUS freight rates have contributed their part to social maladjustment in the Tennessee Valley. This situation is neither the fault of the railroads nor of the industrialists. If the roads are to make money, the rates on finished product? can not be lowered without a corresponding rise in the freight rates on agricultural products. Such an increase would deal a death blow to the already staggering agriculture of the South. TVA is now engaged in a careful and detailed study of this whole problem. Its executives believe that a way can be found out of the impasse without ruining the railroads on the one hand or permitting the continued strangulation of industrial development in the South on the other. While it is too early as yet for TVA to have formulated a policy, one hears some very definite ideas, unofficial to be sure, about the solution. The Southern transportation pattern must be changed from an arterial system to a network which will reach into the isolated sections of the country and make possible their development.

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1935

IN such a network, the Tennessee River plays an extremely important part. If you will look at the map, you will find that through most of its course it runs east and west, thus forming a possible connecting link between the various railroads which run north and south. The river, however, has a rapid fall from its source in the Alleghenies to its mouth at Paducah, Ky. Rapid fall always means swift water and shoals, whieja in turn make water transportation not only difficult, but almost impossible. If the river is to be of any use for carrying freight, it must have a channel of between six and nine feet all the way to Knoxville. That

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

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“Then I finally discovered why he brought me flowers so \ * often. He had a crush on the girl at the flower shop.” <6

is where the dams come into the picture. They are the only answer. Dredging would be expensive and only temporary. The Pickwick Landing, Wilson and Wheeler dams will flood out the most serious shallow's which are at Muscle Shoals. The big Norris dam at the headwaters of the river will store vast quantities of water which can be released during the dry season, thus keeping the channel of uniform depth throughout the year. a a a TVA will bring back the river boating days, but they will be totally unlike those of the last century when the cry of "Steamboat ’Round the Bend” brought a crowd to the river landing in every

small Southern tow’n. Nor will these new river boating days resemble those at present on the Mississippi, w'here huge tugboats drag six, nine and tw'elve barges up and down the Mississippi. The barge lines of the Mississippi merely run north and south, tending to duplicate the railroad facilities and merely forming one more traffic artery between cities. When TVA has completed its transportation plans, the Tennessee River will have a multitude of smaller, faster boats which can make two or three stops an hour at isolated landings along the river’s course. Water transportation is always thought of as slow. This is not necessarily true considering the tremendous improvements of recent years in marine engines and construction. There is no technical reason why the freight boats of the Tennessee Riyer can not ply up and down passing,-through the locks at the various dams, and averaging 20 to 25 miles an hour. a a tt THIS is off in the future now. but it is practical. Automobile trucks will co-operate with these small units of water transportation, meet the boats at the landings after the trucks have picked up the goods from the back country. The boats will then transfer the freight to one of the large cities on the river where the railroads will pick it up. As the Tennessee Valley develops by such a transportation network, the railroads will receive much larger tonnages than they now do. With a larger volume of freight moving on the railroads, it may then be possible to make readjustments in the rate schedules without loss to railroad investors. This. then, is the future transportation picture of the Tennessee Valley. It is an integral part of the whole TVA plan and the lessons learned there may be applied elsewhere in the United States in coming years. Tomorrow: TVA and Power. CLUB TO STAGE BALL Easter Fete to Be Held Saturday Night by Fifty Club. An Easter Ball for members and guests of the Fifty Club will be held Saturday night on the Severin roof. F. W. Spooner is chairman of the dance committee. Dan R. Anderson is vice chairman and 'V. v. DeWitt, secretary. Courtland C. Cohee is entertainment chairman and P. C. Beckner will act as master of ceremonies. Member Drive Is Launched The Sergt Harry Barker Post. Veterans of Foreign Wars, is conducting a drive for 100 new members. Meetings are held at 8 each Tuesday night in the pest hall, 1446 Olive-si.

Second Section

Entered SecondMiurer at Postoffiee. Indianapolia. Ind

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER THE citizens seem to think Gen. Hugh Johnson is having hysterics when he envisions a dictatorship in this country with Father Coughlin or Huey Long in control or, possibly, acting together as a team. Not much is known about Father Coughlin. He has no record of performance, having confined himself to oratory a.id organization up to now. But there is no need to speculate as to Huey. Huey has a record to support the general's forebodings. The

general's only problem is to make the people believe the record, and this is hard to do because it is such an astonishing record. Nevertheless. the dic atorship of Huey Long is now wr tten into the laws of an American state for any one to examine who will take the trouble to do so. And every good reporter who has gone into Louisiana has come away confirming the existence of a dictatorship which holds an entire state in the grip of one brutal, bullying, fear-ridden, vindictive individual who calls out the troops with rifles, bayonets, grenades, gas and machine-guns

every time the opposition attempts to salvage a little citizenship. It is fair to asx W'hether these troops, being citizens of Louisiana, are loyal to Huey. The answer is that it makes no difference how they feel about him. They are subject to the call of the Governor who takes his orders from Huey the same as any flunkey takes orders from the boss. Troops must obey orders—or else. In Louisiana no man but Huey Long himself has °nv right to demand an accounting of the state’s money. The crizen pays his taxes and it is none of his business wh, t Huey does with the receipts. a a a The Pardon in Advance OL r of this money, Huey hires a mysterious secret police force known as the Bureau of Criminal Identification. This used to be a little fingerprint bureau emptying three or four hands, but Huey put a bill througn his Legislature in a special session last August empowering himself to increase the bureau without limit and changing it into a force available for espionage and terrorism. Nobody knows how many men are in this force now or who the members are. It corresponds to the Russian G. P. U.. or old Gerardo Machado's Cuban Porra. which used to throw prisoners to the sharks or kick them out of an automobile and shoot them in the back for attempting to escape. If a member of the secret police should shoot a citizen in the back for attempting to escape, Huey would have a law' to cover the situation. In Louisiana. Huey's Governor has authority to issue a form of amnesty known as a parole to any one he thinks ought to be turned loose. This was done in one conspicuous case of a Long man who slugged a member of the opposition with a pistol and broke his skull. The Long man was convicted in court, but pulled out of his pocket a parole signed in advance, handed it up to the judge and walked out of court free. This case demonstrated net. only the efficacy of the parole law% but Huey's willingness to make use of it. Just now. Huey is trying to talk down the dictatorship, realising that it might frighten off recruits u> his share-the-wealth movement. Share-the-wealth is the bait. Once the recruits are in and the dictatorship is extended to Mississippi or Georgia or Arkansas, Huey will take charge as he did in Louisiana, and nobody will be allowed to challenge or ask any questions. ana Not What He Sounds Like r | 'HE picture the country doesn't see is the swagA gering, cynical, leering Huey Long as he drives the Legislature through its antics. He doesn't even let the members read *the bills. He sends in wwd that they are to be at their seats and press the "aye” buttons and they do. In Washington and on the radio he puts on a different character. There he is the humble servant of the poor. In his Legislature in Baton Rouge, Huey is the boss. He isn't appealing to the people of Louisiana any more. He gives orders there. Huey overspoke himself last fall when he censored the Reieille, the student newspaper of his state university. The paper printed a letter criticising him and he not only destroyed all the copies except one which was smuggled out. but held several students in the plant until they could be searched. Then he said, "That’s my university and I will fire a thousand of the dirty little if they say anything against Huey Long.” He did fire half a dozen, and they went up to the University of Missouri. Now Huey is sending out literature attempting to explain that the incident was exaggerated. Nevertheless it did happen just that way. That is the dictator that Gen. Johnson envisions in Washington. That is Huey as he is in Louisiana, not as people hear him on the air. (Copyrijfht. 1935, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

Your Health -BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN-

WHEN you wear shoes that are too tight, and particularly shoes that are too short, the toes are likely to be forced back into that right angle position that is called “hammer toe.” Os course, some children are born with hammer toes. For either form—that is. whether the child is born with hammer toe or develops it lat?r as a. result of wearing the wrong kind of shoes—the treatment is essentially the same. One method of treatment of hammer toe is simply to amputate the whole toe. v/e really get along quite well with three or four toes, yet. of course, there are many people who do not like to lose any sections of the body unless absolutely necessary. For these persons there are available other operations which are a little more complicated. ,* a a IN one of the methods the toe is opened and the small bone in the toe nearest to the foot is removed. Asa result of this operation, the hammer toe disappears, but, of course, the joint becomes ineffective and the toe can be bent either upward or downward or to the side, becoming what is called a flail toe. This is not terv important to people who wear shoes most of the time. This operation, however, is not nearly as good as those which give the person a practically normal toe after the operation. In one of these the tendons are operated on and the toe is put in a splint, which holds it in proper position as it heals. BUB IN another, the joint involved is operated on. with the result that the toe appears normal and is able to grip the ground like a normal toe. although there may be some stiffness in the joint after the operation. • This type of operation is not exceedingly difficult. and any of the men who specialize in operations on bones and joints should be able to perform it satisfactorily in most instances. In developing these operations new instruments and splints have been invented, which aid the doctor in obtaining a more nearly perfect result. Q—ls gold mined in its pure state or alloyed with other metals? A —Gold is widely distributed in nature, and frequently is found in a pure state, although generally it is alloyed with silver, and contains small quantities of copper and iron. It is also associated with pallajpuxn. rhodium and bismuth.

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Westbrook Pcgler