Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 46, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 May 1935 — Page 21

It Seems to Me MW BROUN IF the awarding of the decoration lay with me, I would be inclined forthwith to award the 1935 bad taste medal to the owner and editor of the American Mercury. When a strike was called by the office force of the publication the proprietor and the editor united in a statement to the press which began, “The world revolution struck the offices of the American Mercury at high noon today. After a brief and polite skirmish, however, the embattled editors

managed to hold the fort.” And in an effort to make the fun still more furious the official statement wound up with the following paragraph: “Oddly enough, the American Mercury still holds to the oldfashioned idea that a law-abiding citizen may manage his own business. This doctrine, anathema to Moscow and 14th-st. is at present in effect at the publication's offices. All manuscripts, however, are being carefully searched for bombs.” One reader, at least, feels that a little more dynamite and quite a bit less sawdust might improve the

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Heywood Broun

Mercury manuscripts. But that is perhaps irrelevant. What I am complaining of is that there is no escaping the Babbitt point of view by merely burlesquing it. When a group of office workers ask for a minimum wage of s2l a week, I hardly think that such a demand is one to be turned aside by pretending that the whole thing is awfully, awfully funny. The tradition of the Mercury is one of what used to be called "sophistication.” That word has fallen into disrepute since it seems to mean no more than a complete adoption of Main Street philosophy dished up in hi-saluting language. BUB ' Don't Kid the Man on the Story ’ LAWRENCE E. SPIVAK and Paul Palmer would hardly have the audacity to shout "Moscow Gold” in all seriousness when challenged to maintain a s2l minimum. But they seek to achieve the same effect by using the back door. “Isn't it just too amusing?" they ask in cultured tones. But the reply ought to be a resounding, “Where's the joke?” I submit further as an example of what ought not to be done in a statement for the press the following paragraph from the Mercury’s attempt to meet a labor situation with sheer whimsy-me: "Yesterday afternoon a soviet of three clerks, two stenographers, one switchboard operator and one bookkeeper presented Lawrence E. Spivak, publisher, with a series of demands. Mr. Spivak, after due cogitation, decided that a shop committee was inadequately equipped to run his business for him. Paul Palmer, editor, after pacing the floor in deep thought throughout the night also came to the conclusion that such an arrangement would interfere deleteriously with the editorial conduct of a great moral magazine.” Paul Palmer used to be a newspaper man and he should know better than that. When a story requires the light and antic touch there are rewrite men and reporters in every office competent to supply it. "Don’t try to kid the man on the story,” is an excellent rule for all private citizens who find themselves, for their sins or virtues, a temporary news source. a a a Babbiltry With a Waxed Mustache BUT the final and all-compelling touch of Babbittry in the Mercury statement is contained in the paragraph which reads: "The ultimatum was consequently rejected, and the employes walked out on strike. All their demands save one—that the American Mercury be run by a shop committee—have been granted to their successors and are now in effect.” There it is, spoken in the spirit and pretty nearly the language of the head of the Chamber of Commerce of Zenith. It is a curious reaffirmation of that strange doctrine that although employes in a concern may be worthy of a higher wage they must never on any account ask for it. This is the sin of Oliver. It is met, in many cases, not only with instant dismissal, but in the immediate hiring of somebody else at the increased rate. This is supposed to indicate that the benevolent employer had the announcement of the raise right on the tip of his tongue just at the moment he was rudely interrupted by some sweaty worker bawling for better treatment. Possibly there is reason not to bear too harshly on the dwindling ranks of smart aleck magazine men. The world is not much with them. The twilight of Mencken and his imitators is upon us. People are beginning to recognize Babbittry even w’hen it waxes its mustache. Posterity has held that Nero was a fool to fiddle while Rome burned and a newer generation has even less patience witty those who perform on penny whistles and play them out of tune. (CODfrlsht. 1935)

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ MEDICAL science, already in possession of a treatment for pernicious anemia, may before long find itself also with a complete cure. This is the hopeful view taken by Prof. Cyrus C. Sturgis, director of the Simpson Memorial Institute for Medical Research of the University of Michigan. As is well known, liver extract is a treatment for pernicious anemia. Minot, Murphy and Whipple received the Nobel prize for their work in this field. But like the use of insulin for diabetes, it is a treatment and not a cure. The patient must continue to use liver extract. Recent studies, Dr. Sturgis says, by showing the connection between the stomach and pernicious anemia, "have provided additional information of prime importance which may eventually lead to a complete cure by the elimination of the fundamental cause of the condition.’’ U tt U TJERNICIOUS anemia, a disease of the blood, is I marked by a reduction of the red blood cells. But .here is always associated with it an absence of hydroch.’oric acid in the secretions of the stomach. It was this fact which led experimenters to seek a connection between the stomach and the disease. Furthermore, it was found that in conditions, such as cancer, where complete removal of the stomach was necessary, the patient developed symptoms akin to those of pernicious anemia. The connection was demonstrated by Dr. William B Castle and his associates at Harvard when gastric juice from normal human beings is incubated with uncooked hamburg steak, a substance is formed tvhich is as effective as liver in controlling pernicious a: nia. mam THESE experiments, which have been repeated and tested in various ways by others, indicate clearly, according to Dr. Sturgis, that some unidentified substance, known as the "intrinsic factor of Castle. - ' is normally present in the gastric secretions and is closely related to the normal mechanism for the formation of red blood cells. This intrinsic factor, it is believed, reacts with an "extrinsic factor" in the blood—Dr. Castle thinks it may be Vitamin B—to form a substance which is stored in the liver and released as needed from the liver to control the formation of the red blood cells in the bone marrow. Recent experiments at the Simpson Institute indicate that the intrinsic factor of Castle is present only in very reduced amounts in the stomachs of patients suffering from pernicious anemia. Dr. Sturgis says.

Questions and Answers

Q—How old must a man be to enlist In the Marine Corps Line Reserves, and what is the term of enlistment? A—The applicant must be between the ages of 17 and 35, and if under 21 he must obtain the written consent of his parents. The term of enlistment is four years.

ill Leased Wire Service of the United Prese Association

THE REIGN OF ‘GEORGE THE WISE’

King Was Frequent Visitor in Front Lines During World War

"Geore the Wise” he * tailed because, more than any ruler who preceded him. the present King of England has elected to stay discreetly within the hounds of a constitutional monarchy. Milton Bronner has written three articles (this is the last i reviewing the eventful reign of the sovereign whose S3 rears on the throne will be celebrated throughout Great Britain in Silver Jubilee- demonstrations beginning May fi BY MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Staff Correspondent (Copyright. 1935. NEA Service. Inc.) LONDON, May 3.—When the robes of the King of England were draped about the shoulders of George V, an outwardly tranquil world already was beginning to build its machinery of death for the greatest war of all time. And the storm, breaking in full fury in 1914, caught up the royal family of Great Britain just as it did the homes of lesser folk throughout the empire. King George, denied the role of ancient monarchs who led their troops in action, nevertheless braved the perils of the English Channel to be nearer the scenes of fighting in France and Flanders. And soldiers in their camps and trenches, and wounded in the hospitals near the front, were heartened at seeing this little, grave-faced, bearded man in plain khaki uniform—a conspicuous contrast to the German kaiser, who was given to gorgeous uniforms rattling with medals. King George was not without his own family anxieties. The Prince of Wales was with the troops and another son, the Duke of York, was with the fleet. The king also spent many hours with the navy, which appealed to the sailor in him. Then there was that time when a flotilla under Admiral Hugh Rodman had joined the British grand fleet. The Kentuckian remembered that, in his younger years, the future king had taken a hand in firing their ship’s furnaces. I* spoke of it to the king, who took the hint. Accordingly, British royalty went down into the stokehold of the admiral’s ship and shoveled some coal into the furnace. The American Navy is, therefore, the only one extant in which a British king acted as stoker. a a a TEN days after the armistice, the king dismissed Parliament w’ith a happy announcement that the long war was now triumphantly ended. The peace treaty of Versailles was finally signed on June 28 and the overjoyed people of London spontaneously gathered in front of Buckingham Palace to greet their sovereign and sing in mighty chorus: “God Save the King!” The tumult and the shouting over the winning of the World War had hardly died away, when the age-old Irish problem cropped up again. In the elections of December, 1919, the Sinn Fein forces captured all the parliamentary seats in southern Ireland. But they did not go to London. Instead, they remained In Dublin and set up their own parliament, the Dail Eirann. Now began what was really a war between Sinn Fein and the British government. On the one side was the Irish republican army. Lloyd George rushed through

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DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND

lly Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

WASHINGTON, May 3.—State Department reports on behind-the-scenes developments in Europe indicate that Great Britain may at last do the impossible and desert her age-old policy of preserving the balance of power in Europe. It looks as though she might throw in her lot with France. This may sound like a trite and technical development, but if it

happens, it will be comparable to the United States entering the League of Nations. For months, despite Nazi disregard for the peace of Europe, Britain has flitted back and forth between France and Germany. First she flirted with one, then the other, playing them off against each other. This was especially true during French dickering for an alliance With Russia. Prior to this, the British were band-in-glove with the French. •Stanley Baldwin, speaking in Parliament, said that a German air raid on France meant a raid on Britain. To prevent this possibility France turned over special air bases on her own soil to the British. The old wartime alliance seemed virtually restored. a a a THEN suddenly France started talking alliance with Russia. Immediately Britain cooled. There were two big reasons for this. F’irst, Britain always has entertained an innate suspicion of Russia. (The Soviets are too close to India.) Second, an alliance with Russia would make France too strong, would upset the balance of power in Europe. So the British pretended to appear a bit more friendly to the Nazis. This was hard sledding, in view of Hitler’s sudden announcement cf rearmament. But Sir John Simon went through the motions by going to Berlin just the same. And on at least one point his strategy worked. It stopped, for the time being, an effective Franco-Russian alliance. A treaty between the two countries is being signed, but it is relatively innocuous. Reason for pulling the punch of the treaty was the British warning to the French that they might wake up to And the British fighting on the German side. London pointed out that under the Locarno Treaty Britain agreed to come to the defense of Germany if she was wantonly attacked.

The Indianapolis Times

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Parliament anew home rule bill, which set up two Irelands—the six Ulster counties, and the rest of Erin. Each was to have its own parliament and it was provided the two segments could combine at any time, if they so voted. Sinn Fein repudiated the bill entirely. Ulster accepted it and proceeded to work it. It was then that the king once more intervened on his own hook. He decided to go to Belfast to open the Ulster parliament. Moreover, the queen was going with him. a a a THERE were many misgivings, because all over Ireland the war was going on and guns were crackling. On June 22, 1921, the sovereign—with a moving speech —opened the Ulster parliament in Belfast. The king’s visit was not without an echo. On Oct. 11 Presi-

Furthermore, the British told the French that the Russians were getting hot under the collar and ready to provoke a preventive war with Germany before the Germans had a chance to carry out Hitler's rearmament plans. Whether this was true or not, the FYench listened, to the extent of signing only a milk-and-water treaty with Moscow. a a a AND right on the heels of this, the British found themselves back in the pro-French camp. They were sorer at the Nazis than ever before. Reason for this was submarines. There is nothing that makes the British see red quicker—not even Germany’s new air force (which is much more dangerous). Submarines give the average Briton a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach. He remembers the war days when his islands had only about three weeks’ food supply and German submarines were sending 5000 allied vessels to the bottom. The Germans not onlv have started a submarine program, but deliberately withheld this from Sir John Simon when he was in Berlin recently. One other factor has sent the British further toward the FYench than ever hefore. It is the new campaign for paganism in Germany—apparently with the blessing of the government. Remember that Ramsay MacDonjfld. Stanley Baldwin, and mast British statesmen, are devout. God-fearing men. And they are leaders, for the most part, of a religious people. No two things could contribute more to the alienation of Great Britain than Germany’s program for submarines and paganism. This, plus the Nazi air armada, mav at last turn the British from their policy of preserving the balance of power between France and Germany. (Copyright, 1955. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1935

dent De Valera of the Sinn Fein government sent delegates to London to attend a conference with the British. An agreement finally was signed where under the Irish Free State was to be given full dominion status, similar to that of Canada. Members of the Irish parliament were to swear allegiance only to the constitution of the Free State, adding, however, that they would be faithful to King George. But in 19321 Eamonn De Valera had the dail delete all reference to the king from the oath, and Ireland and Britain were soon involved in a tariff war which still remains unsettled. In the meantime, the bubble of British prosperity burst and unemployment had risen from 200,000 in 1920 to over 2,000.000 by June, 1921. Taxation remained high." In India, Mahatma Gandhi was leading a big movement which demanded home rule for this subcontinent. Round table conferences were held in London in a vain attempt to reach ‘a settlement. And at present parliament is still debating a bill which will give a measure of selfgovernment to all India. Trouble also broke out in Egypt where Zaghlul Pasha led a movement for the independence of his country, which had long been a British protectorate. There were murderious riots and much destruction of property. Finally, after many conferences, Egypt in 1922 was formally proclaimed an independent state with a constitution tl monarchy and parliamentary institutions.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

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“Now don’t ease up on your drives just because you’re f playing against a woman.”

AT home, the coalition government, headed by Llcyd George, was broken in 1922 by the reyolt of the Tories, who now took the helm. They went in for tranquillity and satisfied nobody. In the 1923 elections it became apparent that labor would probably tome into power for the first time in English history. Lady Astor Virginia’s Nancy Langhorne— saw what was coming. British governments had always been conducted in the main by men from the wealthier classes. But now the government was likely to be drawn from a different class entirely—Ramsay MacDonald, the Scotch peasant farmer’s son; Arthur Henderson, the onetime iron molder; Jimmy Thomas, the former railway engineer, and other trades unionists. These men had never come into contact with the king. Lady Astor brought them together at a big dinner. She afterward told me she never had seen the king .laugh so much. These men, sprung from the people, with no snobbish bend in their backs, talked to the king as man to man, told him stories racy of the soil, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. In January, 1924, they formed the government. King George smoothed the way for his new ministers and got along famously with them. ’ But the MacDonald government fell in an election in which the Russian bogey was held up to the people, and the Tories came back under Stanley Baldwin stronger than ever. King George, with the new Tory government in charge of affairs, beginning in November, 1924, thought he could tow look ahead to a period of

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Above —A war-time photo of King George (second from foreground) on a tour of British trenches in France. Left—King George and Queen Mary, regally robed, at the beginning of their eventful reign.

tranquillity. But fate ordained otherwise. tt tt tt IN the spring of 1926 a triangular dispute between coal miners, mine owners and the government over incomes and working hours resulted in a decision by the Trades Union Congress to declare a sympathetic strike in certain vital industries including the transport and printing trades. The government proclaimed a state of emergency. On May 4 British life seemed paralyzed. There were no trains, no taxis, no busses, no newspapers. At the first sign of serious trouble, King George acted unlike many of his monarchical confreres on the continent. In times of serious troubles, they usually ran away from their capitals. King George hastened to his. Surrounded by his sons, he took up his quarters in Buckingham Palace. The government took good care of the food supplies for the big cities, enrolled volunteers to run trains and busses, got out its own newspaper and used the broadcasting machinery to spread its version of the strike and its progress. The strike collapsed on May 12. The government had won. The strike out of the way, there followed for king and country a brief but tranquil time in his reign. Then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, the people learned their sovereign was seriously, even critically, ill. In November, 1928, he neglected a chill caught at his Sandringham home and continued to work at state papers. tt tt ARRIVED at Buckingham Palace, he suddenly became worse and it was announced he was suff prlr, g from pleurisy and complications. He was not young. He was not considered strong. And he had the ominous number of 13 doctors and surgeons in attendance. In the first two weeks of December there was never a day or night when great crow'ds did not gather in the neighborhood of the palace, anxiously inquiring as to the new's. The illness brought both king and people to a full realization of the affection that exists between them. When the sovereign was convalescent. a day of thanksgiving-deep-seated and genuine was declared. And throughout the following trouble-fraught years of worldwide business depression—when the king more than once has forsaken the role of a mere figurehead and intervened in political and economic crises that menaced the empire’s welfare —the sovereign’s personal popularity never has lessened. The spectacular two-month Silver Jubilee demonstrations will be a spontaneous tribute to "George the Wise."

The End. LENA DRONBERGER DIES, LAST RITES TOMORROW City Woman Is Claimed After Ten Weeks’ Illness. Funeral services for Mrs. Lena Lenora Dronberger, 1022 N. Ala-bama-tt, who died Wednesday at Methodist Hospital after a 10 weeks’ illness, will be held at 2 this afternoon in Shirley Brothers Chapel, 946 N. Illinois-st. Burial will be in Crown Hill. • Mrs. Dronberger was 45. She had been an Indianapolis resident 17 vears and was a member of the Progressive Spiritualist Church. Surviving are four daughters, Mrs. Carlos Robbins. Misses Charlotte, Margaret and Evelyn Dronberger, and a son, Clarence Dronberger, all of Indianapolis, and two sisters, Mrs. Grace Cummings, Gosport, Miss., and Mrs. Mauds Floyd. Chicago.

Seco na Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postnfflee. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough WESIBROOK PffiLtß OF course, a free press is desirable, but there should be certain limitations and it seems hardly right that such a man as Walter Millis. the book writer, should be allowed to go on attacking the most beautiful patriotic illusions of the American nation and mocking the sacrifices of the citizens. Mr. Millis wrote a book a few years ago called “The Martial Spirit," in which he represented that the United States in the war with Spain was not so much the altruist as a bully with a Sunday punch

looking for a chump to lick and not so much the conquering hero as a smart matchmaker and a lucky stiff. Examining the causes of the war. he found them pretty much localized in a circulation fight in New York City. Examining the conduct of the high command of the Army and Navy he found more incompetence and stupidity than glory. The book was the more offensive because it was so convincing but, fortunately, Mr. Millis is neither a homespun philosopher nor a columnist. His audience is comparatively small and his attack is limited to those who always did

suspect as much. Now r he has written another book called “The Road to War. 1914-1917,” in which he expresses a feeling that this country need not have entered the fight. It seems hardly necessary to have brought that up at this late date and it is hard to see what good can come of it now. Is it Just to make the people think that they were suckers and finally were deluded by the clever ribbing of the British who kept on whispering, “You ought to hear what these Germans are planning to do to you”? a a a Real Poetry in an Execution ■pAIDN'T the United States know all along that the British controlled the news sources through their press bureau in the little round, grimy room in London and that they were never any great hands to give themselves the worst of it? If not, it was not for lack of telling because it was frankly told then that the news, by mail and cable both, was strictly censored on a frankly partisan basis and that London was the great clearing house. Then, too, the Germans were so clumsy and dumb. The British could tramp on American sea rights without drawing blood, but the Germans always left wounds. It is no good to try to tell a German why it was dumb of them to shoot Edith Cavell, even though she was a spy, because any one thick enough not to understand why without being told never could learn. The French shot Mata Kari, to be sure, but the French have a nice way about them and moreover, Mata Hari was a sort of underworld character, not the merciful figure of a nurse. It may have distressed Mata Hari just as much, but it made a beautiful execution, the dancer facing the firing squad at dawn with the whispering nuns attending her. The Germans couldn’t understand why their execution of Miss Cavell was a brutal and shocking act, whereas, that of Mata Hari was poetic. nan For Paris and for Logansport A T sea, where the American decision to enter the war was finally forced, the British were blockading American ships and violating American sea rights, but they were jaunty and civil about it. They just didn’t let tne snips go through if they thought they were carrying stuff to the Germans. The Germans had to hide in the sea and sink ships to accomplish the same purpose. It is impossible to torpedo a ship in a tactful manner. It seems that almost from the start the Americans were spoiling to get into the big war and had picked their side long before the decision finally was made. The French had a hand in this, too, for, though there were many Germans and few French or English in this country, the chivalrous sympathy had been with France from the day the first young Americans leaped into the French army. There was a popular saying in those days that every American had two home towns, his own and Paris. It remains to be seen whether, in a like crisis involving this country, any considerable element of French young men will declare that they have two home towns, their own and, say, Logansport, Ind. Examining the reasons why the U. S. A. entered that one is like trying to analyze love, for the Americans had a crush on France at the time and a cad had called her a vile name. They have fallen out, since, but you do a man no favor when you remind him how silly he was when he was packing the torch for a fast blond. (CoDvrlKht. 1935. bv United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

Your Health -BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN-

IT is generally believed that the occupation of a farmer is not very hazardous, and no doubt in the past that was true. There are certain benefits to health from living outdoors and away from contact with large numbers of persons. For example, farmers’ daughters have about one-half the amount of tuberculosis affecting young women of the same ages working in industries in the city. Nevertheless, the coming of motorized power, electricity, and use of medical products on the farm, introduction of insecticides and other poisons for preservation of agricultural products, have begun to affect the health and life of the fanner. Moreover, application of modern sanitary and hygienic methods has not reached rural populations to the extent that it has affected those living in cities. Recent investigation shows 20 per cent reduction of infectious diseases in the cities, with only 6 per cent reduction in those living on farms. m a a NOWADAYS farmers die from type of accidents associated with the work of farm machinery, such as tractors and motors. Only two other occupations had higher death rates from accidents associated with machines than did farmers. In Nebraska in 1929 accidental deaths on the farm were twice as numerous as those in most manufacturing industries. Another type of occupational disease which affects the farmer is hookworm, which appears particularly in sections where sanitation is lacking and field workers go barefoot. Farmers also suffer from irritation of the skin from undue exposure to the heat and light of the sun and, because of their contact with the pollens of various plants, they are beginning to suffer with an extraordinary incidence of hay fever and asthma. * a a a MANY other conditions which affect farmers come from the type of parasite associated with animals. Farmers have more tularemia, more sporotrichosis, more tic fever, and more glanders and anthrax than do city workers. The most recent type of condition to affect farmers particularly if poisoning by various types of chemicals and insecticides that have been introduced into farming. To protect himself against these Hazards, the farmer must wear proper clothing. His shoes must be of the right kind to protect his feet from infection, and he must wear gloves to protect h:s hands from the chemicals. Any one handling any cf the new tyes of chemicals and insecticides should be warned against their poisonous character, know how to prevent undue consumption of the poisons, and also the proper antidotes 90 use In case of accident.

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