Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 42, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 April 1935 — Page 10

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times (A srnirrs-HowARD NEwsrArF.it> ROT W. HOWARD Preuldent TALCOTT POWELL Editor EARL D. RAKER Cosines* Manager Phone Riley 5V.1

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Give JAght and the people Will find Thrir Oicn Way

MONDAY. APRIL 29. 1935 SOUTHPORT AND BASKETBALL IS Southport High School moving toward the sacrifice of educational excellence at the feet of Indiana's great god, Basketball! Trustee Leonard A. Hohlt has Informed patents of Southport High School pupils that he has signed Glenn Curtis, principal of the Martinsville High School, to be the new Southport principal, and that Janis P. Francis, recently resigned coach of the Jeffersonville High School basketball team, has been added to the Southport faculty as basketball coach. R. A. Addington, who undoubtedly is one of the greatest of this state’s high school educators, is to be deposed from principal to head of the history department under Trustee Hohlt's unusual scheme. And it is unusual for few sports followers In Indiana realize that Glenn Curtis is the extremely able principal of Martinsville High School. They know Mr. Curtis simply as the famous coach of Martinsville's great basketball teams, which, under his tutelage, have won any number of state championships. And although Martinsville’s basketball-coaching principal is a gentleman of exceptionally high standards as an educator, it is a moot question as to whether he is the peer of Principal Addington. R. A. Addington is a modest and retiring individual, a man who served with the United States Artillery during ihe World War, was decorated for bravery, and who. Trustee Hohlt condescends tc admit, is probably the finest teacher of history in all Indiana. Janis P. Francis is a young man singularly adept at turning out splendid basketball teams. He left Jeffersonville after the 1935 state championship games, following charges that his conduct during the tournament was not all that could be desired from a high school coach. The charges, by the way, were not worded so broadly. Why. we wonder, is it necessary for Trustee Hohlt, himself no educator, to scurry arrund, employing basketball coaches by the pair? Educational excellence means a lot more to Southport parents than basketball championships and we wonder if it is possible that Trustee Hohlt can be casting an eye on championships as a good means of winning elections. For too many years, in too many Indiana schools, basketball has ranked above scholarship. It is high time we ended this nonsense. One good way would be to keep top-notch educators in the posts they have earned and pay less attention to basketball and basketball •coaching. How Indiana’s No. 1 sport has dwarfed education is well portrayed by Glenn Curtis’ reign at Martinsville. Martinsville, of course, knows his talents as an educator, but the state, as a whole, knows him only as a basketball coach. Which is the more important? THIS IS NOT SHOCKING AFTER reporting a gain of 12.4 per cent in advertising for 1934 as against a loss of 9 4 per cent for 1933. the Bureau of Advertising division of the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association ends its annual session with a big dinner at which its chief speaker, Bainbridge Colby, riddles the New New Deal. This is not surprising. Instead, it is typical of that school of business thought which, emulating the more famous of the “Two Black Crows,” declares that "Even if it is good I don’t like it.” The American reading public, however, should remember that the Bureau of Advertising in particular and the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association in general represent the business and not the editorial side of newspaper publishing, and that the business office is never satisfied. Editors who stay home and get out the paper during the annual week of A. N. P. A. lunching, banqueting, etc., will not be shocked by the apparent paradox. NOT DIXIE’S VOICE \ SMALL group of Southern Senators threaten to filibuster the Costigan-Wag-ner anti-lynching bill just as a similar group killed the Dyer bill twelve years ago. They may succeed. But if they do the country should know that their specious pleas in behalf of states’ rights or chivalry do not echo the sentiments of the whole South. Organizations representing some 42,000.000 Americans urge passage of this bill. How much of this support comes from south of the Mason-Dixie line may be judged from its approval by many of Dixie's ’eadmg papers. “Its (the Costigan-Wagner bill’s) invasion of states' rights should cause no Southern heartburning,” says the Norfolk (Va.) Pilot. “There is no such thing, morally speaking, as a reserved right to deal in our own way with a form of collective murder which our own way has uniformly failed to punish.” “It may be,” says the Newport News (Va.) Press, “that the anti-lynching bill will not be adopted by the Congress now In session. But if it is not. and lynchings do not step, it will be adopted by some other Congress; in fact, must be adopted if the machinery of justice is to function.” “Apparently,” says the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, “the mere threat of the Federal anti-lynching bill has a wholesome effect, and the time has come when even the South would vote for such a bill.” Southern women, too, have been quick to resent Senator Smith’s quaint argument that “lynchings are necessary for womanhood's protection.” Scores of letters, telegrams and resolutions from southern women’s religious, welfare and club organizations have repudiated the preposterous claim that the South's law is helpless to protect the South’s women. Proponents of this measure claim 59 Senate votes from all over the country and a

The President Moves Ahead An Editorial

THE New Deal is going forward. That is the clear meaning of the President’s message to the citizens. It had the ring of leadership. He is not weary. He is not compromising with reaction. He is not content to rest on past gains. He is going on fighting, not only for recovery, but also for economic and social reform. That Is what the people wanted to know. They will follow. They will help him with new enthusiasm. The President must have surprised his enemies. They had inspired stories that he was weakening. He was “on the run.” He was “swinging to the right.” So. at least, we were told. The big special interests applied pressure on the White House and Congress until they were convinced they had blocked reform. The grapevine gossip whispered that the economic legislative program would have the heart cut out of it. It may—yet. But not if the President can prevent it. On the four test issues he declared himself with new vigor last night. And on every one he called for action in line with the New Deal program. After his reassuring report on the policies and organization which are to turn the great four-billion-dollar emergency appropriation into work for the unemployed, he said flatly that works-relief was not enough. We must build for the future. We must enact reforms now before this Congress goes home. a a a AMONG all the necessary reforms listed. he stressed those four which have been most endangered by lobbies. Those are the social security, NRA, utility holding company, and banking bills. To those who would cut down old-age pensions and throw out unemployment insurance, he replied: “The program for social security now pending before the Congress is a necessary part of the future unemployment policy of the government. ... It proposes, by means of old-age pensions, to help those who have reached the age of retirement to give up their jobs and thus give to the younger generation greater opportunities for work and to give to all a feeling of security as they look toward old age. The unemployment insurance part of the legislation will not only help to guard the individual in

big majority in the House. Only 20 Senators are called irreconcilables. It is neither just nor gallant of them to filibuster against this popular national movement. REGIMENTED EXPORTS QCANT attention should be paid to Chester C. Davis’ naive suggestion that the government might regiment exports. The Agricultural Adjustment Administrator would, for example, have the government say to Great Britain: “No, vve won’t sell you the automobiles you want to buy, but you can purchase another million bales of American cotton.” This idea is on all fours with Foreign Trade Adviser Peek's oft-repeated proposal for direct barter and rigid trade quotas. And both ideas belong to the middle ages. Former President Hoover, whose tariff deeds unfortunately did not reflect his understanding, once wisely observed that “trade is polyangular.” So it is. And it also is affected by competitive prices. Our foreign trade is by no means as large as it should be. But substantial gains have been made in the last year under Secretary Hull’s policy of equal treatment for all commodities and all customer nations. Mr. Davis’ suggestion might sound good in the cotton belt, but seem rank discrimination in Detroit. It was no accident that America’s more efficient automobile industry last year increased its exports 120 per cent, while America's cotton exports dropped 30 per cent. Our domestic cotton prices have been maintained at an artifically high level. While this, on the whole, may have benefited cotton farmers, it inevitably cost them a portion of their foreign market. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN WE have been watching so long for that famous “corner” which must be turned before we pass from depression to prosperity, that our eyes may be getting a little glassy. It is entirely possible that we may get ’way past it before we even see it. All of which is just another way of saying that a business revival could easily steal upon us unawares. It can not come overnight; there will be no abrupt transition from depression to boom. Instead, the pick-up must begin a little bit here and a little bit there. Then, one day, we might look around and make the pleasing discovery that things were a lot better than we had thought. Bearing all that in mind, it is worth glancing at a size-up of the situation just made by the National Industrial Conference Board. This presents a picture which, while somewhat spotty, is preponderantly bright. The auto industry, for instance, continues to expand. Auto production for the first quarter of 1935 reached a higher level than any in the last eight years with the exception of 1929. Steel production, on the other hand, slipped nearly 5 per cent from February to March, although it remained 6.5 per cent above the 1934 level. Booking of fabricated structural steel, meanwhile, rose 34 per cent from February to March, and machine tool orders jumped sharply, giving the first quarter an average 18 per cent above that for 1934. Another encouraging factor is to be found in the fact that building and engineering contract awards rose in March by more than the usual seasonal amount. Residential contracts, in particular, made a gratifying gain. Electric power production in March declined slightly from February, but the decline was somewhat less than seasonal and the March output remained 4 per cent above that for March, 1934. Bituminous coal production was up in March—possibly because of fear cf a strike—and department store sales rose. On the other hand, textile production in March fell off by more than the usual seasonal amount, security prices sagged, and wholesale commodity prices dropped slightly—although these latter remained 7.<F per cent above the level recorded a year ago. It is hard to add all this together and get anything very definite. In the main, how-

future periods of lay-off against dependence upon relief, but it will by sustaining purchasing power cushion the shock of economic distress.” To those who would prevent strengthening of NRA, he answered: “We have found from time to time more and more useful ways of promoting its purposes. No reasonable person wants to abandon our present gains—we must continue to protect children, to enforce minimum wages, to prevent excessive hours, to safeguard, define and enforce collective bargaining, and, while retaining fair competition, to eliminate so far as humanly possible the kinds of unfair practices by selfish minorities which unfortunately did more than anything else to bring about the recent collapse of industries.’’ Opponents should mark well his determination to safeguard collective bargaining. Replying to the giant power lobby against the utilities bill, he blasted the so-called widows-and-orphans-investment propaganda by showing that: ‘’This legislation will not only in the long run result in providing lower electric and gas rates to the consumer but it will protect the actual value and earning power of properties now owned by thousands of investors who have little protection under the old laws against what used to be called frenzied finance.” Far from bowing to the banks opposing the Eccles bill, he desciibed its provisions as “a minimum of wise readjustment of our Federal Reserve System.” ana TTAVING given the go ahead signal, it might A ■*- seem that the President could now leave it to Congress to carry on. Unfortunately, he can’t. Despite the large Democratic majority, elected on New Deal pledges, the conservative leaders of the President’s party show little sympathy or skill in enacting this program. In four months of maneuvering they have finally passed the works-relief bill under public pressure, but not one of these four reform measures or any other. The President with his program of leadership is holding public confidence. He is fighting off the open enemies of that program. But can he survive the reactionary and partisan politicians inside his Administration? We believe he can—if he sees the danger.

ever, it may be said that the picture is encouraging. A slow current of business expansion seems to be at work. How far it will carry us may be another question; but for the moment, at least, we seem to have genuine grounds for optimism.

I Cover the World BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS

TTTASHINGTON, April 29.—The depression's ’ ’ crepe-hangers were given a jolt today when the United States Chamber of Commerce revealed that in export gains during the last year the United States led all the great powers by a handsome margin. Canada, Japan and Great Britain all showed smaller percentages than this country, while the gold bloc nations suffered set backs. Switzerland lost 1 per cent, Holland 2 per cent, France 3, Belgium 5, Italy 13 and Germany 15. Countries showing increases, according to a detailed study by the foreign to nmerce department of the chamber, were listed in the following order: Colombia, 83 per cent; Guatemala, 55; Chhe, 40; Argentine, 28; United States, 27; Czechoslovakia, 25; Brazil, 23; Canada, 23; Japan, 21; Sweden, 20; Peru, 19; Finland, 17; New Zealand, 16; Yugoslavia, 15; Austria, 11; Egypt, 10; Great Britain, 8; Greece, 6; Norway, 4; India, 3; Poland, 2, and Denmark, 1. First in the list among the great powers, the United States thus ranks fifth in the general catalog, Canada eighth, Japan ninth and Great Britain seventeenth. ✓GERMANY headed the list showing export losses, with 15 per cent. Italy lost 13; China, 13; Australia, 11; Belgium, 5; Rumania, 4; France, 3; Irish Free State, 3; Holland, 2, and Switzerland, 1. The United States also showed a gain of 14 per cent in its imports. As with her exports, little Colombia increased her purchases by 77 per cent. Peru, Guatemala, Chile and Canada—all on the American continent— followed with the next greatest import gains. Among the leading trading nations only Poland, Switzerland, Holland, France and China bought less abroad than the year before. China showed a 24 per cent decrease, being at the very bottom of the list in this respect just as she was near the bottom with her exports. Washington’s silver policy is blamed for this by the Chinese. The silver bloc in Congress held that for every cent the price of silver went up, China's purchasing power would rise. The above figures indicate the fallacy of this argument. * n n n THESE trade figures admittedly reveal a heartening improvement in world commerce. The United States and the Western hemisphere are seen as especially fortunate. Observers here who do not W'ish to be regarded as playing politics nevertheless assert that conditions around the globe indicate recovery if people would boost instead of knock, and push instead of hold back. Trade between the United States and the British Empire likewise displayed a significant trend, according to the chamber’s analysis. Exports to the British Empire for 1934 amounted to $862,700,000, a 36 per cent gain over 1933, intraEmpire trade agreements notwithstanding. The British Empire bought 40.4 per cent of our exports during 1934 as against 37.9 per cent in 1933 and 40 per cent in 1932, before the Imperial trade conference at Ottawa. Great Britain and Canada remain, as before, our best customers. Exports to other members of the Empire gained from 106 per cent, as was the case with South Africa, to 65 per cent with Australia. Japan, our third leading customer, increased her purchases in this country by 47 per cent. And while China’s imports slumped disastrously she bought 32 per cent more from the United States in 1934 than in 1933. In his drive for larger families, Mussolini could do worse than point to North Bay, Ontario, as an example of enterprise in other fields. The boy who shouted defiance at other lads from his own front porch grew up to invoke senatorial immunity. A Ft. Madison (la.) man, who owns his own business, was chosen as the “average American.” Something wrong here. If he were average, the bank would own the business Science reveals that a person’s age can be determined by the hardness of his eyes. The theory, of course, does not apply to bankers.

.THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

r T' v l~ /= . \ 1 wholly disapprove of what you say and will l 1 V><Vx!l Id defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire. J

(Times readers are invited to express their vieics in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can hare a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must he sinned, but names will he withheld at request of the letter writer.) tt a it WE’RE 10 YEARS BEHIND TIMES, WE RE TOLD By Robert Younc. You are indebted to your editorial on “The Bonus” for this outburst from an irate reader. For 24 hours I have been trying to make myself believe that you are sincere, that you really have the best interest of your country and mine at heart. But it just won’t stick. A smell keeps hovring around my nostrils. An odor of the National Economy League and the self-righteous hypocrites who disguise their reluctance to let loose of a share of their ill-gotten profits through the income tax, by calling it patriotism! The little that I can do is to hope that you are just a weak sister, just putting into your editorials the desires of the '.aaster minds behind you—your owners who control the felony of your stuff. Would a peek at the subscription list of this NEL show a substantial sum donated to your paper? No doubt if we could ferret it out. You are 10 years behind the times. Congress openly confessed 10 years ago the United States owed this debt to the veterans. Passage of the bill closes all argument as to its justness. The only point remaining is— Would it be to the best interests of the largest number of people to pay at this time? The answer can only be yes. You know as well as I that too much inflation, exploitation of credit, has ruined the financial structure of this capitalistic country. The immediate crying need is an influx of money, paper money, the kind a few' still carry in their pockets, to bring this ratio of cash to credit back to normal. The smoothest method by which a watchful government can oil up normal activity evenly through the whole vast area is to pay this bonus NOW. Not by issuing bonds and selling these through our banks. That wouldn’t increase the currency in operation one bit. What they should do is to issue right from the presses crisp new bills to the tune of enough millions to redeem every bonus certificate at its full value! Let that happen and inside a week I’ll show you a pulse of activity through this entire nation which will be felt in every nook and cranny. Those are my patriotic views. My personal views are opposite, for right now the payment of my certificate (yes, I volunteered) would only mean that I must sacrifice that sum for bread and butter, shoes, coal and shelter. This depression has taken my job, my home, my insurances, all my financial resources SAVE my BONUS. Now’ society must feed us or let my wife and two children starve. I know we shall eat after a fashion, so therefore I say that, selfishly, I had rather keep that tidy bonus sum ahead of me in the future. But, patriotically, I know it would be better for all this country, did I take it out and spend it now. I say you are 10 years behind the age, which is very true. Who are you to question the justness of this bonus in the face of a whole country which settled all that 10 years ago? I wonder what part you played in the war? Have YOU changed any of your opinions during these 15 years, or still think along the same lines. I volunteered in 1917. But in 1917 I was a boy not yet 18. Now in 1935

POISONING THE WELL

A Huey Supporter Sounds War-Cry

By a Reader. Editor, wake up! You are not fooling all the people with your direct and indirect thrusts at Huey Long. Too many people have heard the other side of the story, which, of course, did not emanate from our “free press.” You do not seem to know how many of us have read the story of Huey Long’s service to the common people of Louisiana; in both his “Every Man a King,” and in the weekly "American Progress.” Forty thousand new “Share the Wealth Clubs” in a single week were organized in response to the

I’m wondering why ALL wealth shouldn’t have been drafted as HUMAN LIVES were drafted where they failed to enlist in sufficient numbers. ana RENT, INTEREST AND PROFIT DRAWS HIS WRATH By a Times Reader. The Republicans are singing the old song, “I want to be let alone” j again. They are going to put us out of our misery w ith political poison gas. If we had sense enough to realize it, all that ails the economic organization of the country is the use of this slow poison of i rent, interest and profit. If we could abolish this trinity of evil spirits and get our minds on the production of goods and services for social use instead of keeping a lot of social parasites who feed on the real producers through interest, rent and profit tribute, we could produce and distribute wealth in unheard of volume. We could do without these para- ; sites as easily as a dog can get; along without fleas. We do not need these parasites any more than a 1 horse needs a dog in the manger, who can not eat hay, but stops the horse from eating the hay. No workee, no eatee parasites. PUTTING IN*A PLUG FOR THE DRAFTED SOLDIER By John A. Friend. Why print such letters as our Regular of the Home Guards wrote? He’s just a sorehead of the first degree. I’m a regular and regard the Army’s drafted men with as much respect as the regular simply because I served with them and know. Thousands were drafted and could have claimed exemption, but didn't. They waited for this reason - “If *he government needs me they will call me, and I’ll gladly go,” for they held good jobs. I was with the 18th Infantry, Ist Division, and at first we were all regulars. I didn’t respect the National Army soldier then, but by midsummer of 1918 we were 80 per cent drafted men. Some of my best pals were drafted. I fought side by side with them and never saw one turn tail and run, but I did see four regulars who turned yellow, two were “cry babies,” two deserted their post, one by going A. W. O. L. at the front in the Argonne and one the morning of Oct. 9 when our squad was on patrol in No Man's Land. We were outnumbered by the enemy. Our squad consisted of two and four drafted babies, and here is how the squad responded in a crisis. The other regular besides myself ran back for help and never returned, two of the •‘drafted babies” were killed outright with never a murmur. Only i three of us were left. We were

Senator’s speech on the radio, and his expose of Roosevelt legislative follies and failures. Every dig at the one real representative of the common people in the United States Senate only fertilizes the growth of Huey Long and stigmatizes the digger as a partner of the gouging “interests” who have brought America to its ruin. Asa statesman Senator Long has no peer. He attacks only those who betray the people. Senator Long is the Jefferson of 1935. You can not fool us. We are for Long for President in 1935.

flanked by a company of Germans, 65 or 70. It was surrender or die, with no gain to self or country to be shot down. I, a regular, surrendered first. I stood up and faced 70 armed Germans alone, all their guns were pointed at me. I didn’t cry. I was too scared to breathe, let alone cry. The two drafted men played dead, but we were all taken prisoner. We were prisoners from Oct. 9 to Dec. 9, 1918. Later we served seven months in the Army of Occupation, and two better pals I never had. They were brave, fearless, and, above all, gentlemen. They are still my pals, as are dozens if other drafted men. Lots of patriotic fellows wanted to get to the front, were crazy to go, but after their arrival and a shell or two struck near by, they were just as crazy to get away. I never, in all of my 220 days on the front with the First Division, saw or heard of either regular or National Army men refusing to leave the lines when their relief was sent up. a a a HEATED PROTEST COMES FROM A DEMOCRAT Bv M. Davis Great grief and lamentation is evidenced everywhere Democrats gather. As one of these Democrats, I know that cause for such manifestations are abundant. For two years, two or three shekel-mad politicians have waxed rich racketeering in the beer and liquor industries, in a manner so brazen that it has disgusted those of us in the party who have not lost our sense of common decency in everything relating to government. It is said that this group sought the reappointment of our police chief at the commencement of the present city administration. I hold ho brief for the “bookies," never having seen a horse race or had a desire to see one. Asa matter of fact, the term “bookmaker" was always associated in my mind with a branch of the printing and publishing industry'. It is no secret that 20 or more of these horse race emporiums were closed, only after a deluxe bookie establishment was opened to the public a few weeks ago. It is said that this place was established by beer and whisky barons who desired the elimination of all profitable competition in their venture. Here is a chief of police upon whom the destinies of our party rest, more or less, and it appears that it was four years before he ascertained that there were 20 odd racehorse betting places in his jurisdiction. It took him nearly the same i length of time to learn that a SIOO,000 lottery’ was being operated, near--Ily under his very nose. Your paper I is to be commended for it's expose ‘ of the policy racket operated by two

JAPPvfL 29, 1935

Negro Democratic politicians. Yet, after you called attention to this swindle, the police sledge hammer brigade has been unable to locate the headquarters of this swindle, despite the fact that you specifically pointed out that it was on Indianaav. Your latest story tells that these Negro bandits are now reaching out for the pennies of their siding brothers and sisters and it m a sad commentary upon the kind ofl government the people expected when they voted the Republicans out and the Democrats in. Maybe the police will learn about the policy racket about the year 1939. That appears to have been their speed.

So They Say

You know, I rather like Huey. He’s very amusing. He’s like a popular play, a good show that crowds the gallery. But ne ought to be tiring people by now, if he already hasn’t.—Frederick H. Prince, financier. Our nation is crying for leaders. It is satiated with numbers, but crying for intelligence.—Will Durant. Every new cradle means anew demand for goods and services, for work and production.—Mussolini. This country spent $30,000,000,000 during the World War for purposes of destruction. Why can’t it afford to spend $4,000,000,000 in peacetime for constructive purposes?—Josephus Daniels, Ambassador to Mexico. The Civilian Conservation Corps camps are becoming hotbeds of radicalism, and if these young men are not soon absorbed into legitimate industry, they will become a revolutionary army.—Roger Babson* People have supposed liberalism to be freedom to know and to say, not what is popular or convenient, or even patriotic, but what theyi held to be true.—Jane Addams. j If kisses were longer, divorces would be fewer. — Judge Joseph Sabath, veteran Chicago divorce court jurist. We are paying this United States government a compliment when we let it do business with us. We have a solvent state down here.—Huey Long. There will be no bitterness in the divorce proceedings, because we had no vitai differences.—Evelyn Mulhall, d.vorcing actor-husband.

Daily Thought

And he speaks a parable unto them. Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?—St. Luke vi, 39. THE advice of friends must b* received with a judicious re-' serve; we must not give ourselves up to it and follow It blindly, whether right or wrong.—Charron.

WORDS

BY’POLLY LOIS NORTON Words are wondrously powerful, Great battles they have won; And think, in the beginning, God spoke—and it was done!