Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 35, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 April 1935 — Page 8

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The Indianapolis Times <a urmrrs-HOWARD xewspate*) HOT HOWARD Prel<l*nt TAI.COTT POWELL Editor KARL D. BAKER Basin'** Manager Pbon RUr t SCSI

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SATURDAY APRIL 20 193* ______ THE SECURITY BILL oT'HE modified social security bill passed by * the House yesterday is inferior to the original Roosevelt plan. But it is much better than Utopian schemes of the Townsend type, or such present makeshifts as poorhouses and doles. As revised, the bill provides Federal subsidies up to sls monthly for each needy person past 65 or 70. to be matched by the states. This ia a tremendous forward step for individualistic America. It offers smaller subsidies for dependent and crippled children, maternal and infant care, public health. Industry is to care for its temporary unemployed, and for its veterans, through Federally collected pay roll taxes. Doubtless the Senate will try to improve the House measure. It is urged that the board to administer old-age subsidies, annuities and Jobless insurance be returned to the Department of Labor as in the original Administration bill; that the huge contributory old-age annuity fund be supplemented by government contributions to lighten the burden on younger wage-earners; that the Federal government be empowered to impose stricter personnel, administrative and nodal standards on the states. Most of these changes should be made. At the same time reactionary Senators propose to emasculate the measure. This “must” legislation of the Administration should not be blocked—either by the perfectionists or the reactionaries. The United States is 50 years behind some European countries in establishing a social security system. This reform should be passed quickly. There will be plenty of time next year, and then next, to improve it.

WAR TALK T'vURING the last three or four years, the average American came to recognize the word Japan as a synonym for trouble. Japan was doing this, that, or the other thing in China and Manchuria; Japan was refusing to abide by the Washington treaty; Japan was fortifying mandated islands in the Pacific; some day Japan and the United States would get together and fight it all out. That was the burden of most public references to Japan in this country. And since cultivation of an attitude like that is a necessary prelude to war, it all had a pretty ominous sound But of late the keynote seems to have changed. We are beginning to hear talk about co-operation instead of talk about rivalry. Someone seems to have remembered that Japan is one of our best customers in the matter of foreign trade, and that fixing to fight your best customer is about the poorest known way of promoting a trade revival. The recent argument over Japanese exports of textiles lends point to this matter. Japanese textile mills have been working overtime. They have sent finished goods in such traditionally English markets as India and China. They have sent them to South America, where both British and American mills have done business; of late they have even begun to send them into the United States itself. This has led to protests and the protests have led to a re-examination of our trade relations with the Mikado's empire. Now the Japanese foreign office points out that whatever the Japanese mills may do with their finished product, they at least buy most of their raw material from American producers. During recent years, for instance, America has sold approximately $100,000,000 worth of raw cotton to Japan annually. These sales constitute the largest single item in Americas agricultural export trade. Last year the United States’ sales of cotton to Japan outvalued the total of all Japanese exports to the United States. In this connection it is worth remembering that Secretary of State Hull and Foreign Minister Hlrota last year exchanged letters agreeing that there is no good cause for friction between the nations; and it is also noteworthy that the Japanese are anxious to conclude anew treaty with the United States working out a non-competitive basis for the foreign commerce of the two countries. All this is worth remembering, for the simple reason that it points in the direction of peace instead of war. Our navy may feel justified in holding its maneuvers in the Pacific; these figures indicate that the danger of war is only superficial, and that underneath there are most joiid and substantial reasons for keeping the two nations at peace.

THE RELIEF PROBLEM T>Y contract with the frantic jam of the thousands who wont to Alaska during the great gold rush days, the present migration of some few hundreds of people who are to be established on farms in the Matanuska Valley looks rather pallid. But there is something intensely interesting about it. nevertheless. It brings to 20th eentury etja a last faint echo of the old homesteading days, and it also hints that the great territory of Alaska has a future other than that which relates to gold mines, fur-bearing animals and scenery. In the old days the family that ran into bad luck in a settled community could always head for the frontier and make anew start. That Is precisely what is being attempted in this case. The 200-odd farm families from Michigan. Ml nesots and Wisconsin who are going to settle in Alaska are now on relief. Their situation is hopeless if they stay where they are. So, with Uncle Bam s help, they are going to the northland to try again. g Ws think of Alaska as a desolate polar out-

post. Asa matter of fact, It has vast stretches of fertile soil, many lakes) and rivers and forests. and the section to which these families are going gets less cold In winter than does northern Michigan. The summer is short, but much sunlight and plenty of moisture bring abundant crops. To be sure, it is no pic lie that these 1935 pioneers are beginning. Going to anew country is always hard. There will be isolation, a sense of being Liffnitely removed from familiar scenes and piace.% the necessity to work hard for a small reward. But all that is better than staying on relief, hoping fruitlessly that something will happen somehow to cancel old debts and put anew light of hope in the sky. Staying on relief for a long time does something to people. It removes that sense of selfreliant independence wh‘ch is the Americans most priceless traditional possession. So it is a wise thing that the government is doing, in promoting the settlement of Alaska. Not only does It begin to tap the great resources of that territory in anew way; it also enables at least a few of our citizens to get away from the numbing charity of public relief and regain their old independence. By itself it is a good thing; as a sample of anew way of meeting the relief problem it is even better.

RELIEF POLITICS CHARGES of politics in relief are piling up. They will multiply in bitterness as the 1936 election nears. Whether these charges prove effective weapons in the hands of Administration opponents will depend on how the Administration meets them. Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins, sincere and efficient, has been doing a good job. There is little likelihood that he will come off second best in his current tilts with the Governors of Georgia and Louisiana. Georgia's Legislature, dominated by the reactionary Gov. Talmadge,.adjourned without making a relief appropriation. Since the Federal government has to carry the whole burden, Mr. Hopkins appropriately took the management of relief funds away from the Talmadge machine. For somewhat similar good reasons, Mr. Hopkins has placed Louisiana relief in the hands of a Federal official who will not be answerable to the Huey Long machine. But the argument is not all on one side in Mr. Hopkins’ controversies with Illinois and Pennsylvania authorities. In those states and in others, he is dealing with a problem brought on by the Administration's lack of a definite relief yardstick. Illinois and Pennsylvania are rich states, capable of shouldering their share of the relief burden. Mr. Hopkins’ demand that they do so is justified. But they have the ready argument that other states, especially in the South-—which talk more of state rights than of state responsibility—are permitted to unload practically ail relief upon the Federal government. It is true that some Southern states are poor. But it is also true that the Federal government can not successfully do business with 48 states under 48 separate sets of rules. Some standard must e fixed and adhered to, even to the point ot stopping Federal assistance to those states wliich refuse to co-operate. Perhaps when the Federal government shows it means business, the people will take care of their own state officials. The people may make life uncomfortable for the dictatorial Talmadgas and Longs, lnd they may uphold such Governors as Earie of Pennsylvania and Marland of Oklahoma, who are trying to co-operate, but are blocked by their Legislatures. With the Federal government now assuming most of the jpint relief burden, certainly the states —all of the states —should welcome the opportunity to co-operate to the fullest.

WE HAVE NO COMPLAINT 'T'HE fact that the British government is going to be able to reduce income taxes next year in spite of increased military expenditures, as evidenced by Neville Chamberlain’s outline of the new budget in the House of Commons, may make American taxpayers wish enviously that our government could discover some way of doing likewise. 's However, before we grow too envious, it is well to compare existing American income tax rates with those in England. The American income tax, for a married man without dependents, begins at an earned income level of S3OOO a year, on which a man pays SB. In England, it begins with SIOOO incomes. The rate there is $5.63; for S3OOO it is $272.81; for SSOOO, on jvhich the American pays SBO. the Britisher must pay $632.81. t The British government may be about to reduce income taxes—but it will have to reduce them more drastically than any one dreams of doing before the British taxpayer will get off as lightly as does the American. THE FIRST CALL / r 'VUT of the big works relief fund voted by Congress to save the morale of jobless Americans. Secretary of Labor Perkins is asking $96,000,000 to help educate some of the depression’s victims among the young. Following a youth survey, requested by Congress and conducted by the Children’s Bureau, the Secretary would allot $8,100,000 tc the Office of Education for scholarships, books and incidentals for 100.000 needy boys and girls of 16 and 17. She would spend $84,370,000 in training 800.000 youths between 18 and 24 in their own communities under the public works authority. Another $1,000,000 would go to training camps for 1000 transient youths and $2,500,000 would be spent by the U. 8. Employment Service in special placement services for juniors. Continuation of aid to college students and expanded educational services under the CCC are also urged. The Children's Bureau estimates that there are 2,000,000 to 3,000.000 young people between 18 and 24 out of school and job. Secretary Perkins’ program, of course, will not rescue all of them, but It can give many discouraged > mng people anew grip upon life. Gen. Pershing advises war veterans to “keep their feet on the ground and stick by the government." With Congress continually going up In the air about something, that's quite a trick. A woman who goes in heavy for cosmetics to make her given age sound plausible is just making up for lost time.

Liberal Viewpoint BY DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THERE is a real educational crisis in the United States today. Perhgos never before in our history were our educators so sharply separated into two divergent camps. On the one side we have the timid and docile goose-steppers who, consciously or unconsciously, would prevent education from coming to grips with the realities of our present age. They thus make revolution the only available and practical mode of achieving social advance. In the other camp, led by men like Counts. Beard,. Rugg, Dewey, Kilpatrick and others, we find those who are working for a better day through enlightened progress. They would avert revolution through making it unnecessary as a means of achieving a civilized social order. An intelligent perspective for viewing and assessing the present educational crisis can be obtained only by a proper acquaintance with the social ideals of the great American educators of the past. This information has Just been made available in an admirable book by Professor Merle E. Curti of Smith College, entitled ‘The Social Ideas of American Educators” • Scribner’s). Professor Curti surveys the American educational scene from Horace Mann to John Dewey and indicates the dominant notions which influenced the outstanding American educators. HORACE MANN, in the first half of the nineteenth century, was deeply affected by the democratic ideals and optimism of Jacksonian democracy. He desired to open up educational opportunities to all and so to direct educational procedure as to eliminate the evils of the growing industrialism. Even more strenuously and consistently devoted to universal education was his contemporary, Henry Barnard. The responsibility of education in training for adequate citizenship under democracy was later aggressively urged by Francis Wayland Parker. Parker also attempted to regenerate and invigorate the whole spirit of American education. In adapting mass education to the urban and industrial age and the ethics of capitalism, the leading role was played by William T. Harris, who was as profoundly influenced by Hegel as he was by the facts of the machine age and the profit system. He exerted a dominant influence over the structure and organization of mass education in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The leavening and dynamic spirit of evolution was brought into American education by G. Stanley Hajl of Clark University It is indicative of educational progress in the last 75 years that Hall, when a student at Williams College about the time of the American Civil War, had to sneak off the college campus and read Darwin by a barn lantern in the cow stable of a friendly farmer. Hall laid emphasis upon the fact that the mind as well as the body must be studied in the light of evolution He thus founded scientific child study in this country. More than any one else in his generation, he linked up education and scientific psychology. 0 0 0 WILLIAM JAMES was the first American to systematize existing psychological knowledge. but his educational theory was mainly a dignified rationalization of the American individualism and competitive spirit of the close of the nineteenth century. This rationalization was carried on in much more technical and sophisticated form by Edward Lee Thorndike of Columbia University.' Thorndike, in particular, indicated the value of psychology and education to American business enterprise. But his emphasis upon the importance of educational measurements and upon differences in mental capacity in relation to education was of real and lasting value. Most influential of all personalities on American educational reform of the twentieth century is John Dewey, who gathered up the best in the democratic educational tradition in the past and restated it in the light of modern psychology and educational science. To him we owe special emphasis upon the notion of education as a literal preparation for life and upon the value of daring experimentation in educational procedure. Other current works of value in the field of education are: ‘Young Ward's Diary,” edited by Bernhard J. Stern (Putnam), the personal record of Lester F. Ward, who might well have been treated by Professor Curti, since he emphasized more than any other man of his period the' possibilities of progress through education; ‘Guiding Your Child through the Formative Years,” by Winifred de Koh (Emerson Books); “Psychoanalysis for Teachers and Parents,” by Anna Freud (Emerson Books), and “New Minds for Old,” by Esme Wingfield-Stratford (MacMillan).

THE CITY’S AIRPORT 'p'HE active support of every citizen interested in the future of Indianapolis as an aviation center should be placed behind efforts of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and Airport Superintendent Charles E. Cox Jr., in their efforts to have Municipal Airport made a Department of Commerce “blind" flying experimental field. Indianapolis Municipal Airport already holds the highest Department of Commerce airport rating—AlA—and is recognized generally as one of the model fields of the country. However, if Mr. Cox and the Chamber are successful in having the Department of Commerce select the local airport for the experimental work, it is probable that many improvements to the field will be made with Federal funds. It is expected the Department of Commerce will lengthen and enlarge concrete runways and install special radio and other equipment at the fields selected for experimental work. Indianapolis’ airport is composed of nearly 1000 acres, but only a portion of the acreage actually Is used for airport purposes. With larger and larger transport plat , being built, it soon will be necessary to utilize all of the airport to increase the safety factor for the larger ships. Aside from giving this city an airport excelled by few anywhere, these improvement* would provide needed employment for a number of the city’s jobless. Altogether, the decision of the Chamber to co-operate in the plan is thoroughly commendable and is worthy of support by every one interested in the future of Indianapolis and the community. MORE MEN ON THE JOB TT is encouraging to learn that the bulk of -*■ the $4,880,000,000 recently voted for workrelief will be put to work quickly on projects creating the greatest number of jobs. One of the first things to get under way, for instance, will be the grade crossing elimination program. Another will be a project for checking soil erosion in the western states. Still another will be expansion of the Civilian Conservation Corps by 300,000 new enrollments. All these undertakings are of a kind in which the bulk of the expenditure goes for jobs rather than for materials. It is hoped that they will put 3.500,000 men to work. If they do. a big bite will have been taken out of the unemployment problem—and we shall be able to take a little more time at the next task of importance, stimulation of the heavy goods industries. The latest farm movement seems to be in an upward direction.

TOE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

LOOK OUT FOR PURSE SNATCHERS, FRANKLIN!

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 be signed, but names will be withheld at request oj the letter writer.) mam SEEKS “REAL” MEANING OF ROOSEVELT EDITORIAL By Howard Taine, In your editorial, ‘The President Must Lead.” First, who are the calamity howlers and chiselers? Are they the group suffering on relief (due to frozen industry and finance) or the next strata, the small business men and farmers or the next strata, the professional men? A portion of your editorial would indicate the President is losing prestige. Is that a fact or fancy? Your editorial also indicates in the next breath that we are now under Fascism when you state the fate of more than one hundred million people or individuals is almost completely in the hands of Franklin D. Roosevelt. How true? To what “labor’s rights" and Social Security Bill for unemployment insurance and old-age pensions do you have reference? May I answer the Lewis Wagner bill. How much security does it offer? None. In closing, I am open to teachings based on facts with open debate and no gag rule. How about a portion of Jeffersonian Democracy again? I am anticipating a reply enlightening enough and educational enough that I may continue as a subscriber to The Indianapolis Times. nan DR. BARNES AID TO HUMANITY IS LAUDED By H. L. To E. O. Harrold. Thank you for your efforts to protect the public against dishonesty and greed. Welcome into our ranks! But, we will have to insist that you fire your “shots” at our enemies and not at our wise and courageous general, Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes. It is a joy to answer your question relative to the motives and interests of this just man. He is controlled by “the interests” that hold the stars in their courses. A man acts according to that which he believes. Dr. Barnes believes that we are created by a God of truth who demands justice of His children. He lives in that thrilling conception that he is a part of this great plan of creation whose loving purpose is to give a full, abundant and radiant life of happiness to the children of creation. He has found life by forgetting himself and giving himself to the emancipation of his fellow men. This he does by seeking current and historical facts and eternal truths that will stir the conscience and direct the thinking of men and women into channels that are pleasing to a God of truth, goodness and loving tenderness. Read his column every day. Note well how he throws his power on the side of the weak and oppressed —those who are least able to return his favors. Study his efforts to be fair and truthful. Live in his moods of righteous indignation, sincerity and greatness. m m m OBJECTS TO POLICE TRAFFIC DRIVE By Paul Christy Os the 34 arrests for traffic violations the other day, 29 were for failing to stop at preferential streets. What a racket! Our motorcycle cops will let the killer, the really reckles driver, and the driver who actually a stop street get away and continue his ruthles destruction; but that same cop will snoop around and arrest some careful driver whom he says, did not actually come to a dead stop, but just slowed down at

Remember the Ludlow Strike

By S. A. Nelson. As I write this, I have before me a picture of Charles Costa, his wife and three small children, all of whom were assassinated by the United States militia, at the Rockefeller massacre at Ludlow, Colo. Saturday is the anniversary of that bloody day at Ludlow, when 23 persons were killed. And as an old coal miner, I shall never forget that day; the terrible crime committed, the awful cruelty toward the little children, mothers, fathers, and young men; two mothers and 11 small children burned to death in one cave. Any of our citizens who visited the United Mine Workers convention in Tomlinson Hall that year should well remember the scene at the stage, and the slogan, “Remember Ludlow.” Here let me tell, in part, testimoney given by Mrs. Pearl Jolly, wife of a miner in the Colorado strike, before the United States Commission on Industrial Relation. Mrs. Jolly testified; “The strike was called and It soon became evident that the mine guards intended to make trouble. Two shots were fired by the guards. Then we commenced to dig pits for the escape of the women and children. Soon the militia came; we went to the postofflee. we met militiamen; they said, ‘You go back.’ With much profanity the soldiers said they would shoot our heads off. “There was lots of snow and It was bitter cold. They ordered us out of our tents. One woman with a sick baby in her arms insisted upon returning to he r tent, when a militiaman put his revolver to her head, threatening to blow her

the preferential street. Most of the time the cop is not close enough to the intersection and can not be sure whether or not the wheels did stop turning. Furthermore if a motorist does slow down to a walk and then emerges safely on to a preferential street, that does not make him a criminal. A motorcycle cop who arrests a motorist for that has no principle at all, he Is a menace to society, is not worthy of a job, and sljpulcl be on a basket. This business is getting worse and is imposed by the vultuies of the law on to the very people who make their jobs possible. man BUSINESS SHOULD BE REWARDED FOR EMPLOYMENT By Warren A. Benedict Jr. Unemployment continues to be the country’s biggest problem, despite the government’s huge expenditures. Yet so far as I can find, little real encouragement Is given employers to increase their pay rolls. Why not consider a plan like this: Let the government, Federal and state, rebate to employers, large and small, a portion, possibly say from 10 to 40 per cent of taxes collected with the provision It be used solely for additional labor. This would enable employers, from the largest concern to the small farmer, to employ additional help at no extra Expense. Os course it would reduce revenue, but no more than it would reduce the need for it. Most of us still feel that the average business man, given some encouragement, can make the employment dollar go farther than can the politician. Try rewarding business for increasing employment, and you'll get results at a fraction of the cost we’re now paying. Maybe this plan has some valid objections, but I challenge any one to prove it has less merit than killing Pigs, plowing under crops, pay-

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

to pieces. There were 200 tents and 1000 people; there were so many mothers, and so many women expecting to become mothers. “I put on a white dress and placed red crosses over it and thought I might intercede in that way. I was rewarded by having one heel taken off my shoe by a bullet, and had to seek cover. “Our women and children had to lie down in the caves with all the horrors that naturally followed. Then between 5 and 6 p. m. they set fire to out tents; the screams from the caves were heartrending; three children were shot dead and the mother became insane. One man was struck on the head with a rifle and the heels of a militiaman crushed in his face. Ones man started for the depot with his dead boy over his shoulder and his baby in his arms. He was stopped by the militia; he asked them to help him to carry his boy. They told him to pass on. “The sight was awful. Eleven children and two women in one cave.” At that point of the testimony Commissioner Lennon began to wipe his tears away. This awful massacre and crime was committed years ago; yet today are we not committing crimes just as awful, when we withhold milk from babies and children and let them die from malnutrition, when we let them go naked and cold; while we at the same time destroy food, destroy milk, and destroy cotton? We as a nation lay claim to the highest of civilization, the highest of Chrisianity; how then can we as the highest and most intelgent of all God’s creation become such brutes, so inhuman?

ing for crops not planted, making boondoggles, or appropriating five billion for relief and refusing to specify more than 25 per cent of it be spent locally for employment. a a a TIMES NOT IN FAVOR OF JUSTICE, HE SAYS By An Ex-Times Booster. It took you a long time to declare yours on Father Coughlin and his program. If I read correctly, you are very much against it, according to your editorial of April 15. You can’t fool the people forever about your paper being In favor of justice. The way editors of such papers, the Gen. Johnsons and Baruchs get their jobs is this way: Draw a big picture of a horse, hang it on the w'all, give each applicant a pin and blindfold them. The one that get the closest to the rear wins—and I think all three of you did a lot of peeping. Thanks for cutting down on Johnson’s time. Next time cut it out completely. I don’t expect to see this in print, but I have the pleasure cf knowing you read it. m m m ‘FANATICISM’ CRY AGAINST TOWNSEND PLAN IS SCORED By F. L DtTldNn In reference your editorial in The Times April 17, you referred to the Townsend plan as being fanaticism. Now, Mr. Editor, I think you owe it to your supporters, many of whom are ardent supporters of the Townsend plan, to show them Just what you mean when you say fanaticism when referring to the plan. Thousands of people here are supporting the plan you owe it to them to show just where and how the plan is unsound and not workable. Why do you not print a copy oi: the Townsend bill and pick it to pieces, section by section, and

APRIL 20, 1935

show the people where they are being led astray? If you are not willing and able to do that you most certainly should refrain from referring to it as being fantastic. Thousands of people who called the ideas of Fulton, Morse, Bell. Edison, Westinghouse and many ethers fantastic lived to see the day when they were ashamed of their words. Most all newspaper editors who attack the Townsend plan employ the same methods that you do —cry “fantastic,” but do not proceed to show wherein it really is fantastic. Your newspaper has a mighty good record of championing the rights of the common people and you have never hesitated to step right up and go to the bat for them and now another golden opportunity presents itself to you to show them and prove to them that they are being “gulled” and led astray. Never, never will the opponents of the plan get any place by simply shouting “fanaticism.”

So They Say

We are facing, retrenchment and restriction during our college years. A year from now we may be in the trenches, or in Leavenworth.—Roger E. Chase, leader of Columbia U “anti-war” students. Cops? They're overgrown bullies. They are too lazy to work—that’s New York cops r m talking about Arthur <Dutch Schultz) Flegenhelmer. There seems to be something paralyzing in the effect of a long peace on the mentality of the average regular army officers.—Capt. Corley P. McDarment. You can’t do without politicians. They’re a necessary evil. The thing to do is to take the politician In He is a thief, so make him steal for the school children—Huey Long, If the bonus were paid now from funds desperately needed for relief and for the “forgotten woman,” it would go to thousands of healthy veterans in comfortable or even wealthy circumstances—Donald A. Hobart, American Veterans Association head. The trouble with our admiral* is that they forget they are merely policemen of the sea. Foreign relations and domestic policy are none of their business.—Rep. Maury Maverick of Texas.

Daily Thought

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel —St. Matthew, 23:24. , THE more gross the fraud, the more glibly will it go down and the more greedily will it be swallowed, since folly will always find faith wherever imposters will find impudence.—Bovee.

LESSON

BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK At last I know I can control My shining threads of destiny Up to a certain, silver goal. These many miles I am heart-free. I can choose paths ) reach my dream. I can fight on with bated breath. The only face I can not touch Concerns the wheezing cough of death.