Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 184, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 October 1935 — Page 26

PAGE 26

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FRIDAY. OCTOBER 11. 133

CENSORSHIP, YOU—AND US wn PI war and sanctions now well under way and with hostile alignments crystallizing throughout the world, we want to talk frankly with you about censorship and how it mat - affect the war news you read in your paper. "We were fooled once, aplenty," one reader writes. "Early in the World War. for example. England shut off the cables to Germany and from then on all we got was through allied channels. What about it now 0 What reason have we to believe what we are reading today from abroad?" The answer is that you are right to be suspicious. By no means should you put complete confidence in foreign dispatches. Use salt whenever you feel it is needed We will do the best we can to spot the lies, and so will our correspondents abroad, but we can’t guarantee accuracy when censorship is in the saddle. So we want to ask your help in a problem that must necessarily be yours as well as ours. All we can guarantee is plenty of diligence, over (here and here—diligence reinforced by considerable experience with the tricks of censorship learned from the World War. We are more sophisticated now than we were then. War was anew and fresh thing to us in those days and we were pretty green. A good deal of credulity was squeezed out in that affair. So we hope to guard against many of the things we fell for once. But don’t expect too much. Be ready to make your ovfn discounts and your own deductions. Censorship and w'ar go together just as censorships and dictatorships do. A correspondent working in a zone of censorship is not like a correspondent working in a free country. He is under wraps, and can’t defy the government, including the military forces, ol the, country where he is stationed. He just has to make the best he can of a bad journalistic situation. By exercising wisdom born from training, by checking his sources, by being on the watch for propaganda "plants," bv writing objectively, he can minimize the danger of being “used.” But what he writes must be filed through the censor. Propaganda is as much a part of war as are machine guns and airplanes. In many respects it is the most important part. By it nations in conflict seek to build up sentiment at home and support around the world. The Belgian baby story was more of an asset to the allies than a score of regiments. “All is fair in war," and, as someone has said, the first casualty in every war is truth. So you may expect propaganda from many sources. Even on this side, in a neutral country trying its best to “keep out of it,” there will be carefully hidden propaganda agencies, working for this side and that, putting forth stories plausible enough on the surface, but loaded with the dynamite just the same, designed to dislodge your neutrality, and to deliver you over into one camp or another. Accordingly, the best we can do is to ask you to join us in being wary, and to assure you that you can depend upon us to be just as cautious as it is possible for us to be. This is no time for artlessness either on the part of newspapers or newspaper readers. We wish we were all-seeing, but we must agree with Mr. Dooley, who said: “Newspapers are not perfect, and neither is the human race.” WANTED: A NEW GAME TT seems that nothing will be done about the . traffic death and accident problem until something is done to make safety popular. The impetus which builds up in back of fads and national sports such as baseball and football in the United States demonstrates what could be accomplished if safe driving became faddish. The fatalistic viewpoint now prevalent is the big stumbling block in front of traffic safety campaigns. Reporters who have attended the scene of many accidents are struck with the remarks of survivors, which are usually on the order of: -Well. I guess it was not mv time." And this in the face of the maimed, dead and dying. So will someone please invent a game of safety to be played by American motorists as they roll along the highways. THE ARMY TO THE RESCUE TN an effort so strengthen the work relief program and stimulate projects of a more lasting nature than "boondoggling." President Roosevelt has called in a group of Army engineers to act as consultants to Harry L. Hopkins, works progress administrator. The engineers, under Col. F. E. Harrington, will be stationed in centers of unemployment throughout the country where they can judge at first hand the need for jobs, and the types of available projects. Col. Harrington and a small staff will remain in Washington, attached to Hopkins' office. The President's move indicates his dissatisfaction will the quality of WPA projects submitted to date. Although the President has approved WPA state programs totaling 5909.077.211. warrants issued for the disbursement of Federal funds total only $586.889.956. Controller General McCarl is holding up much of the remainder because of faulty presentation. technical infraction of the work relief act, or inadvisability of the projects. The President himself has rescinded state WPA projects totaling $142,000,000 for much the same reasons This is the second time Mr. Roosevelt has called on the Army to iron out work relief. In the last days of CWA, when he decided to end this billion-dollar work program, he assigned Army engineers to each state to select only those CWA projects for completion which tlie engineers felt would be valuable to the communities concerned. Projects not coming up to Army construction standards were abandoned The Army s re-entrance now, we believe, will discourage the spr -ad of "boondoggling" and "leafraking" projects. SUGGESTION I) ECOMMENDED autumn reading for the President s sons, two of whom have just had another automobile accident: S “—And Sudden Death," by J. S. Furnas.

THE COURT WILL DECIDE THE new labor board has chosen wisely in bringing its first test cfise against the Greyhound Bus Line, a subsidiary of the powerful, anti-union Pennsylvania Railroad. The defendant corporation can well afford the expanse of appealing to the Supreme Court if it considers that the Wagner Labor Relations Act invades its constitutional rights. There being little question of the interstate character of the transportation business, an appeal in this case probably would turn on the high court's interpretation of the ‘due process" clause of the fifth amendment. After this vital legal point is settled, later cases doubtless will be brought in order to determine whether in producing as well as in transporting industries—notably mining and manufacturing—the Federal brird can protect collective baigaining rights as a Federal regulation of “commerce." NEW POTATO PLAN TF we are to attempt, nation-wide control of potato production, the substitute program mapped out by the AAA potato growers’ committee would seem to have much better prospects than the palpably unenforceable statute now on the books. The last, hastily improvised by Congress, requires policing of every patch producing five bushels or more, forcing the law upon all potato-growing farmers whether they like it or not. legalizing only those potatoes in packages bearing government stamps, double-checking all channels of marketing from the field to the market basket and snooping on customers as well as growers and dealers. The substitute plan would affect only growers who market 50 bushels or more, require two-thirds vote of the growers to keep the law operative from year to year, eliminate consumer liability, and remove stamp tax restrictions on farm-to-consumer transactions. Even if the whole army of unemployed were put to work as potato policemen, we doubt if the present law could be enforced. The substitute plan, if approved by Congress and given the overwhelming and continued support of potato growers, might possibly be made effective. ALLEGIANCE TO WHAT? QTATE LEGISLATOR DORGAN says that in the next session of the Massachusetts Assembly he will put “teeth” in his teachers’ oath of allegiance law. He may intend merely to provide hefty jail sentences for pedagogs who refuse to raise their right hands at the proper angle. Or he may contemplate procedure to chastise any teacher who hints to a class of students that the Federal Constitution in its present form might be slightly less than perfect or that Massachusetts under existing machine rule conceivably might not be the best of all possible com- | monwealths. In which event a Harvard Ph. D. might well consider it indiscreet to explain to a political science class the mechanics of voting a split ticket. For like | as not he would find himself haled before a ward politician justice of peace who would be sure that the Constitution says “vote ’er straight”—or at least means that. DOES THE BISHOP WANT WAR? ■QISHOP WILLIAM T. MANNING of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New York took the United States sharply to task for its present neutrality policy end accused it of shirking its “rightful share of world responsibility." [ “We must not talk as though the use of force is always immoral.” he said, “or as though there is no difference between those who engage in police action for the preservation of peace and those who wage deliberate and aggressive war." The bishop remains undeviatingly loyal to the church militant. He was preaching substantially the same doctrine to a conference of mayors in March, 1916. when he told them. “Preparedness, adequate preparedness, will command peace,” and. “there are worse things than war.” Walter Millis in his “Road to War” quotes the bishop as saying a few months later, “Our moral sense as a nation is dulled” due “in j part to a ‘".st amount of well-meant, but mistaken and misleading and really unchristian teaching about peace.” The American public is in a particularly favorable position today to judge such remarks. There are millions of adults who preserve a vivid memory of our last venture into “police action for the preservation of peace" and who have arrived at independent convictions as to that “really unchristian teaching about | peace.” These experienced observers will honor the cloth Bishop Manning wears as the badge of a professional man of peace. They will listen respectfully whenever he chooses to speak a kind word for peace. But when he insists that “we can not separate ourselves from the issues and the consequences of the situation in Ethiopia” we suspect they will note the same flaw in his logic that is so apparent in looking backi ward toward 1916.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“T'M having a dreadful time with my daughter,” is the plaint of Mrs. H. L. O. “Our income is now sufficient for her to go with the best crowd in town and naturally I am anxious to have her do so. I consider a good social position an important asset to any woman, and it breaks my heart to find her so unconcerned over what her father and I have worked for years to give her." We can agree that a social position is an asset, but there's no denying it can also be an awful bore for the person who doesn't like that sort of thing. The struggle over what is known as "getting into society" is always going on between mothers and their recalcitrant daughters. I should like, here and now, to break a lance in the latter's favor. No plight is more tragic than that of the girl who is pushed and shoved or literally dragged into society by an ambitious mother. Many a fine homebody has been ruined in this fashion. Every city and town is full of these drooping, dispirited, disillusioned debutantes, who are forced to attend endless rounds ot teas and tournaments, of dinners and dances, against their will. The ancient mother who cast her child into Moloch's fiery arms was hardiy more cruel—she was actuated by religious frenzy, whereas the modern mamma is moved solely by material motives. No social prestige is worth the loss of one's personality. Therefore girls who like the excitement of work or study, who are interested in people for their own sake, and who long for new faces and new experiences will always be miserable if their activities are confined to one small group, no matter hew prominent that group may be. Then, we have the domestic girl—the one who likes housework and kittens, and puppies and babies—will she ever be truly content going to stiff social functions or sloppy drinking parties? I think not Life in the best social set is often over-rated anyway. Yet how much feminine energy is wasted trying to break in there— and once in. how arid, how dull, how unspeakably stupid it can be:

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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Forum of The Times 1 wholly disapprove of what you say and ivill defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.

/Times renders arc invited to express their views in these columns, reunions controversies excluded. Make pour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 2':o icords or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld on reouest.l ana IT S WAR. NOT A SPORT, SAYS A LOCAL BOY By R. Johnson Perhaps the best thing the people of the United States can do in connection with the Italian-Ethi-opian war would be to make a firm resolution not to let the tragic affair get a grip on their emotions. At least, that’s my view on the subject. Like all wars, this one is starting out with a lot of episodes that stir the emotions and get the sideline boys in a lather. Mussolini’s big bombing planes roar over little towns filled with women and children and drop death-dealing weapons. Maybe a Red Cross hospital is bombed and maybe it isn't, but the boys on the sidelines get all worked up anyway. The thing is bad enough from any point of view, but the way I see it there is absolutely no sense in letting the thing get hold of our emotions and then twist our brains all out of proportion. For, after all, this bombing business is not just the big shot in Rome showing his stuff, but just plain war. A lot of folks right here in Indianapolis seem to have the impression that war is a sport, where you have to keep in bounds. Neither the allies nor the Germans kept in bounds when the World War was on and you can’t expect Mussolini to follow any rules where there simply aren't rules. This thing is bound to get worse and there’s no use in people getting steamed up about them. They might as well tag it as war and remember that if Ethiopia had bombing planes they’d be doing just what Mussolini is doing. a a a A BLACK EYE FOR OCR AUTO LAWS By T. K. “The nation reckoned its highway dead at more than 100 in partial reports from 30 states during the last week-end.” So read my Monday newspaper. It was a perfectly ordinary familiar little story, duplicated almost every other Monday through the year, testifying to the insane folly with which we permit our auto traffic situation to go uncorrected. You would think that any thing which struck down our citizens at ‘OF THEE’ i A Praveri BY ROBERT O. LEVELL Our Father and Our God, I am thai>kful to Thee. I appreciate every good Thou hast done for me. The days* I have lived, and enjoyed with You. With your help for things I’ve learned to do. For achievement made in some good way. In work to afford me happiness, day by day, Where Thou hast given me the joy of friends. For my great cheer again and again, I am grateful to Thee. Lord, for every good thing, I know Thou hast the power to bring. Wilt Thou guide me. dear Master of might. In the end. grant me Eternal Light.

PREPARE FOR PEACE

Wanted: Air Crash Investigation

By Air Traveler If the air transport people are wise they will see to it that there is the most searching kind of investigation into the Wyoming plane crash which took 12 lives — and that the facts brought out are given full publicity. On the face of the information I have read in the papers this accident was a most perplexing affair. The night was clear, the motors seem to have been operating well, and barely two minutes the rate of 100 every week-end would stir our officials to action. But you’d be wrong. Our officials do next to nothing to get the traffic situation in hand. Only a few states have a decent system of driver’s license and inspection laws. In most places, including our dear old Indiana, any fool can buy and operate a car, perfectly safe from interference—until at last he kills somebody. And so little stories like the one quoted above continue to be regular features of the Monday papers. a b tt WAR WILL HURT OUR RECOVERY, HE SAYS By J. C. It is small wonder that the stock market has been depressed by the fear of war. If economic sanctions are imposed, and it seems likely, the result will be to remove a large European nation from the market for the world’s goods. No one needs to think twice about the matter to see that that could not fail to have a very oad effect

Questions and Answers

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Information Bureau. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extended research be undertaken. Be sure ali mail is addressed U The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau. Frederick M. Kerby, Director. 1013 Thirteenth-st, N. W.. Washington. D. C. THE EDITOR. Q--How early do box tortoises breed and in what months? A—They breed in warm weather; usually in July, August and September. The earliest breeding age is probably 12 to 15 years. Q—How did the Creek and Seminole Indians of norida bury their dead? A—ln a circular pit about 4 feet deep; the corpse, with a blanket or cloth wrapped about it. was placed in a sitting posture, the legs bent under and tied together. Q —Give the text of the second amendment to the United States Constitution. A—"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Q—Do all modem ocean-going vessels burn oil? A—All the larger anc* most modern ocean vessels burn oil instead of coal. Q—What is the approximate number of black sheep in a flock? A—ln the range states, where sheep are under the constant care of herders, black sheep axe placed

before the tragedy the pilot had radioed an “all’s well.” And then the plane cracked up. The way to reassure the traveling public as to the safety of air travel is to find out exactly what went wrong, show how it can be avoided in the future —and let every one know about it. • Otherwise, people are apt to get the notion that air travel contains dangers which can not be guarded against Here is a case where utter frankness is essential. on world trade and our own American and Indiana trade. Trade is a matter of complexity and delicate adjustments anyway. You can not take out of it a large and flourishing market without throwing it into confusion all along the line. It is probable that our recovery from the great depression will be delayed by the war in Ethiopia. And although we are a long way from Africa and have no concern in the fighting there, our own economy will feel the effects of an unmistakable manner. B tt tt MR. WATT SEEMS TO BE AGAINST WAR By TJno Watt Bill Borah, Idaho’s rambunctious Senator, may not always be in the right but it strikes me he hit the nail on the head when, according to your newspaper, he made th£ following remark: “I am not in favor of sacrificing the life of a single American boy to settle all the boundary lines in Europe." That strikes me as being a classic

in the flocks about one to every hundred sheep. When a herder has a thousand or more to watch, it is comparatively easy for him to count quickly over the black sheep. If he finds all the black ones accounted for. it is unlikely that many have strayed. Q—How many people are killed by lightning and what is the property damage from lightning in the United States each year? A—Loss due to lightning in the United States is estimated to be at least 820,000,000 a year on farm property alone. About 1500 persons are struck, one-third of whom are killed. Nine-tenths of these accidents occur in rural localities. Q —How long is the term of enlistment in the United States Army? A—Three years. Q —What is the origin of the expression “Even the worm will turn?” A—The proverb. “Tread on a worm and it will turn" is from the Greek. tak°n over b TT a numoer of Latin writers. A similar Greek proverb reads; “Even the ant and the worm have their wrath." This has given us the phrase, “the worm turns.” meaning that oppressed people will rebel at some time if pressed too far. Q—What part of the population of Germany is Jewish? A—According to a census of June 16, 1933. Germany, including the Saar, had a tqjt&l population of 66,044,161, of whom 2,646,614 were Jews.

remark of its kind and something that every American should paste in his hat for future guidance. It is not so long ago that we sent some two million of our young men over to straighten out boundary lines and such and it seems they haven’t got them straightened out yet. At the cost of thousands of lives and billions in our money it should seem that one experience of that kind should be enough. But apparently not. I notice that, true to your prophecy, some of these so-called exporters are already beginning to squawk about Mr. Roosevelt’s warning about doing business with the belligerent nations. Well, let them squawk, say we, and more power to the sentiment expressed by the much maligned Mr. Borah. Bill may not know his “potatoes,” as witnessed by the hullabaloo aroused over his maneuvering the potato control law into the AAA, but when it comes to echoing the popular reaction in this country to the latest fuss abroad it strikes me that he certainly knows his “onions.” More power to Borah and to The Times for combating the vaporing, s of those whose vain struttings might possibly involve us in “another war to end war.” Daily Thought Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.—St. John ii, 4. WOMAN is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.— Whately.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

anl *>* ****>* <*•< _ lafinT r wli * -*i

“I’d like to wear this pair, but I don’t know' how good a dancer he is.”

OCT. 11,1935

Washington Merry-Go-Round

Bv DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN TITASIfiNGTON. Or* ,11—ConW fiuential cable reports received here indicate that Mussolini was not bluffing when he snapped his fingers at the threat of an economic and financial boycott by the League. The real fact is that neither boycott is of any immediate threat to Italy. A financial boycott already has been in force again.-t Italy as far as London and New York money markets are concerned. To offset thus. Mussolini has a hoarded war chest of $500,000,000 in gold and about the same amount in foreurn securities. He figures this will be enough. And if the war is short it will be The economic bovcott is le.'S worrisome—for the simple reason that nations always are ready to sell but not buy Mussolini knew this when he snapped his fingers at the League. Austria and Hungary and Yugoslavia find Italy a lucrative market. In need of war supplies, Mussolini has reduced tariff barriers to Yugoslavia and is buying large quantities of wheat, pork, lumber. Probably these countries will accept the economic boycott in theory, but ignore it in fact. This is why the British idea of a naval blockade to enforce the boycott makes Mussolini see red. And that is why the French have been so loath to go alone with the British on a blockade, except at the price of aid against Germany. u tt a ITALY’S ambassador. Augusto Rosso, finally has laid at rest a long and poignant worry. Cause of concern was not the Ethiopian controversy, but a much more personal matter. He was fearful that when he went to Rome to confer with his chief, MusSolini would raise the question of Rosso’s unmarried status. II Duce’s dictum that Fascist officials must get married or get out long has disturbed him. Before the conference with Musso- : lini. Rosso asked counsel of a friend. ; "What shall I do if he raises the question? I would like to tell him j it is my private business." “No. no. do not say that." his I friend advised. “Simply say you are ' thinking about it." Rosso came out of the conference | smiling, and sailed back to Washi ington reassured. Mussolini did not even mention Mrs. Rosso. He was too busy with Ethiopia. tt tt tt EVEN hard-boiled diplomats, accustomed to an imperialistic i view 7 of the international horizon, ; are intensely bitter against Mussolini. Their attitude is not influenced by any sympathy for Ethiopia. They shrug their shoulders and point out that the law of conquest still rules, that weaker countries must fall to stronger ones. But what they can not forgive Mussolini is starting his conquest at this moment—when Europe is closer to the tinder-box than at any time since the World War. Should the rest of Europe be dragged in, as most diplomats think is inevitable, they believe that Mussolini’s name will be smeared with more anathema than that of the kaiser. tt tt tt WEIRDEST spot in Washington these days is the home of the agency supposed to provide pensions for the nation—the Social Security Board. An air of cloistered calm pervades its halls. A staff of four experts and 25 stenographers go through the motions of keeping busy. The three board members are on tour, conferring with state officials and addressing legislative groups. A long line of job-seekers waits patiently at the personnel officer’3 room. Few are hired. But all applicants are being examined in order to get under way speedily when the ultimate staff of 500 C are drafted. The Social Security Board is waiting for Congress to remedy >he filibustering of Huey Long—the lastminute midnight speech which adjourned Congress without passing the deficiency bill with funds for the new social security system, it a a A hot international race to get in on the ground floor with airmail routes to the Far East is under way. British postal authorities have notified the Postoffice Department that they are establishing a biweekly airmail service direct from London to Singapore. ■ Copyright. 1335. bv United Featur* 1 Syndicate, Inc.)