Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 185, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 October 1935 — Page 6

PAGE 6

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1935. PROPAGANDA’S SUBTLE WAYS QIR JOSIAH 3TAMP, British economist, declares America today faces the biggest moral issue in her history in view of the grave turn of international events. America, he said, could only be cynically indifferent at the price of Europe in ruins. America's moral issue, therefore, is between actively helping try to save the world and letting things slide. A cartoon from a leading London daily depicts John Bull standing up manfully to a gigantic Mussolini, while Uncle Sam, from the sidelines, is asking John why he doesn’t stay out, too. The subtle propaganda already making its appearar in Europe has an all too familiar ring. For we belong to the generation that lived through the World War. At the outset of that war the head of a great American news-gathering organization called on the premier of an allied country’. "The American public," he explained, “is pretty hazs on w’hat the w’ar’s all about. So I have come her e. Just as I shall do In Berlin, to offer to you our facilities if you care to state your case. Ours is not a propaganda agency. But we do feel our public is entitled to hear both sides. Hence our desire to co-operat°.” Co-operate?” in effect replied the apparently amazed vatesmon. "I see no call for co-operation. 1 his is our war, not America’s. Good morning.” That was at the beginning of Europe's war. Germany would soon be licked. We had nothing to do w ith it. If would soon be over and the spoils divided. The less America meddled, the better, a a a the war was half-way over, however, picture had entirely changed. In speech, press and cartoon, American was being lambasted for staying out. It was a war for civilization. A war to end war. In fact, it was America’s war. And an unsportsmanlike people were holding aloof, letting others fight and die for them while they coined dollars out of Europe's blood. We are not concerned here with the rightness or the wrongness of all that. The point is w’e were shamed and bullied by propaganda into lending a hand in a fight wdilch, at first, admittedly was none of our business. Today Europe is inclined to insist that her quarrels, dating back two millenniums, are really our quarrels. When a European power which did not get its share of the spoils of the last war tries to grab a colony somewhere in Africa, the other and more fortunate powers cry out that America's duty is to st,'p in and help stop it. The propaganda barrage begins. " hereupon our war-time memories again come to life. When President Wilson suggested an end of the war on a basis of "peace without victory,” he was jeered When later, at the peace conference. he fought against the spoils of war, he w r as almost leaped upon, Todays war in Africa is, and tomorrow’s wars in Europe will be. largely because his advice was not taken. Yet when the new wars come, we will be swamped again by shaming, bullying and cajoling propaganda to make us feel that it is "our war.” Unquestionably the world is growing smaller. Certainly it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to stay out of anew major war, if it lasts long enough. Nevertheless it is our duty to try. And one way is for us to keep our heads—not to permit our emotions to run away with our reason. W e must learn, among other things, not to allow’ propaganda, whether originating at home or abroad, to blind us to fundamental truth. Which is, that Americas first duty to the world is to be loyal to herself. ANOTHER GAS BATTLE fik BIIIER undercover fight that has raged in recent years between the gas industry and the U. S Bureau of Standards, with $490,000,000 of the American people’s annual fuel bill at stake, was brought into the open by the Federal Trade Commission. Some ten years ago, gas companies in all parts of the country were planning to reduce the number of British thermal units—in other words the heating value—in the gas they sold. The American Gas Association. according to Trade Commission records, was supplying the companies with material from w hich to argue that consumers were not hurt by such a reduction, even though it was not accompanied by rate cuts. E. R. Weaver, chief gas chemist of the Bureau of Standards, didn't believe this was so. He fought for three years to get his views before state regulating commissions, charging that the proposed BTU reduction meant as much as a 60 per cent increase in the price of gas and, if adopted, generally meant a $190,000,000 addition to the nation's annual bill for cooking and heating. The battle ended only when some of the most brilliant companies concerned started to sell natural gas. with high heating value, and did a right-about-face on the BTU question, arguing that they should be allowed higher rates to compensate for the higher heating value of their gas. Weaver's story of his fight has just been put in the Trade Commission record, ‘ogether with a score or more of exhibits showing efforts made by gas men to have his views suppressed. a u a TN 1924 Weaver wrote Technical be said the amount of gas consumed increases inversely as the number of BT'Js in a cubic foot is reduced. The consternation caused by his paper is indicated in letters m the record. Henry L. Doherty of Cities Service Cos. called to remonstrate. The gas companies continued their campaign, arguing that the Public Service Cos. of Colorado, a Donerty company, had reduced the heating value of Its gas from 525 to 400 BTUs and that “it is doubtful if any of our customers know ihat a reduction in heating value has occurred." In 1926 Weaver determined to write another paper on the Denver situation, indicating consumers had been paying 19 per cent more for their gas since the reduction in healing value. He was told by George K. Burgess, director of the Bureau of Standards, that protests against publication of such & document had been raad£ to Secre-

tary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, in whose department the bureau was. Eventually Cities Service blocked publication of the report, Weaver says, by withdrawing permission for use of confidential data on the Denver situation. Mr. Weaver, however, obtained other less detailed data which had been published at various times, revised his paper, and sent mimeographed copies to the state commissions. The Colorado commission reversed its earlier stand and ruled that any reduction of BTUs must be accompanied by a rate reduction. DO YOU STILL BEAT YOUR WIFE? 'T'HE United States Chamber of Commerce has just sent out to its 1509 member organizations 'our questions constituting its referendum on the New Deal. To make it easier, the answers are supplied in advance by a special committee of the Chamber appointed to study trends in Federal legislation. The members are supposed to answer yes or no to the soundness of the committee's findings. Looking over the questions, we wonder whether the Chamber isn't in the position of a judge who furnished a jury with ballots ah marked “guilty.” 1. Should there be an extension of Federal jurisdiction into matters of state and iocal concern? 2. Should tne Federal government at the present time exercise Federal spending power without relation to revenue? 3. Should there be government competition with private enterprise for regulatory or other purposes? 4. Should all grants of authority by Congress to the executive department of the Federal government be within clearly defined limits? Remember, yes or no! IS HISTORY REPEATING? A UG. 5. 1914: The British navy dredged up and cut the German cables, and thereafter most of the foreign news served up to neutral America was cleared through Entente channels. Oct. 10. 1935: The British postoffice refused to relay through a British short-wave station a scheduled broadcast from Geneva, in which Baron Aloisi, the Italian delegate to the League, was to present Italy's case to neutral America s radio audience. Thus the first "sanction” seems to be against information. Bitter though we feel against Mussolini and all of his spokesmen for their war of invasion, we believe we are entitled to hear what Italy has to say and that it is not Britain's business or any other nation's business to turn the dials. BENITO VS. BENITO npHE New Leader, Socialist journal published in A New York, appeals from Mussolini drunk with power to Mussolini sober in the fresh morning of his life. The New Leader quotes an editorial written by Mussolini Jan. 1, 1912, when he was the young editor of the Socialist daily Avanti. Attacking Italy’s war in Libya, North Africa, Mussolini said 23 years ago: "The nationalist, conservative and clerical Italy of today wants to make the sword her law and the army the school of the nation. We foresaw this moral degeneration and therefore are not surprised by it. But those who believe that this dominance of militarism is a sign of strength are mistaken. Strong peoples have no need to suffer such rubbish as the Italian press indulges in with foolish delight. Strong peoples have themselves in check. Nationalist and militarist Italy shows that she has herself not in check. A little war of conquest is celebrated as a Roman triumph.” STRENGTHENING WPA TT is perhaps too late to come close to fulfilling the A bright promises of the work-relief undertaking, but those who fear the consequences of this major failure of the Roosevelt Administration will welcome news that Army engineers have been called into the WPA operation. The WPA staff consists principally of political appointees and social service workers. Admitting that many of them are men and women of ability and sincerity, they are still political appointees and social service workers, and, for the most part, not chosen for their experience in handling works projects. On the other hand, the Corps of Army Engineers has a long and honorable record in planning and directing useful and wealth-creating public improvements. Wasteful projects of the leaf-raking type should have hard sledding with these Army engineers sitting at the elbows of Mr. Hopkins and his subadministrators.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

nnHE other side of the earth presents a picture which would be funny if it were not filled with such tragic possibilities. Watch the newsreels any day. anywhere, and you'll know what we're talking about. There is a dreadful sameness about these scenes. Men massed and marching for battle; men saluting; men with guns—everywhere. Overshadowing and dominating them are one or two individuals: the pathetic Haile Selassie, playing at being an emperor; Mussolini posing pompously before Caesar's statue; Hitler, declaring himself The State in front of 300,000 of his subjects; English warships speeding to Suez; the streets of Paris filled with soldiers. The world is insane again, insane with listening to a few men who are drunk with the thought of power. And so we read in our papers that war w’ill be aged because these men must “save their faces.’’ And they will save them, mind you, at the expense of millions of lives, of untold destruction and of irreparable waste. These pigmy mortals strut—exactly as their prototypes have always done. Like small boys showing off, they mass their troops and think because the cheers are loud and the drums beat at their coming that war will make them mighty. Neither forethought. intelligence, logic nor common sense dictates their actions. They are funny, these dictators—but not half so funny as the millions of creatures calling themselves men who follow their bidding like slaves. So that Mussolini may “save his face” a world can be destroyed, a civilization wrecked and thousands of happy homes ruined forever. Does it not seem chocking, incredible, frightening, that for such paltry reasons these things can occur? The United States faces a tremendous responsibility, the responsibility of keeping freedom alive upon the earth. Long ago our forefathers dedicated themselves to this cause; to it we must now dedicate ourselves anew, never forgetting that freedom can be preserved only where people are permitted to govern themselves and dictators are unknown, and where peace, not war. is the chief objective of all citizens. The cause of peace is the cause of free speech, of a free press, of human liberty, of constitutional government.—Senator Borah. Preaching is doomed. In five years people will sit in their homes and have their choice of listen- | ing to, and looking at, any one of perhaps six of the j finest preachers in the country.— Dr. B. C. Clausen, i Pittsburgh.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, relir/ious controversies excluded. Hake your letters short so all can have a chance. Limit them to 2/0 words or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld on reaucst.) a tt a SEES FREEZING MACHINE AS UNEMPLOYMENT CURE By a Reader That scientist who wants to freeze some human specimens is just a bit | behind the times. Our economic : machine froze out twelve million in--1 dustrial workers, and has made semi-stiffs cut of another ten million farm workers. They might have been better off if the scientist had put them all through his | freezer. He claims he can revive them j when he takes a notion to thaw them out. There is more promise to this process performing as expected, than there is of expecting our economic machine to restore the twen-ty-two million as effective consumers and producers of wealth. They j have been handed the key to the relief vault to hang on in the borderland between life and death. The I scientist ought to add a lethal ! chamber to his freezer so that those who prefer a quick solution of relief could press the lethal gas bki ton. This process would not take quite as long as killing off the sources of | food supply. Why has not the relief adminis- ! tration worked this out with the AAA? j With the new T scientific processes of producing food synthetically, ready to discard 83 per cent of our i cultivated land, and that many farm tellers, the scientist's machine is just the thing to solve the problem of what to do with these workers. The Legion might work the machine, instead of leaving the job to nature, or the militia. It would I also make the jobs of those not on relief more secure from competition. And war costs $25,000 per killing. a tt o NOT A PAT—A THUMP ON THE BACK By Times Reader My hat is off again to The Times. Having just finished Walter Millis’ “Read to War,” and. not yet having recovered from the thrills of that amazing series of articles, I found THE FORUM BY BERTRAM DAY To see the Roman Forum go alone: Stupendous are the thoughts that come to one. For here the soul of Rome lives but in stone, Her flesh and blood have left the skeleton. The form of Julius Caesar now appears. Who on the fatal Ides of March had died. When murdered by a mob with poisoned spears, "Tire noblest Roman of them all,” men cried! For centuries the Forum was a shrine, Within its walls Marc Anthony was heard The brave Aurelius and Catiline Were seen, and Paul proclaimed the Master's word. i What visions of the past are lingerj ing; I Was it a dream the dead were offer - ing?

INVESTORS BEWARE

Censuring C. C. C. Activities

By a Nature Lover When the Civilian Conservation Corps was sent into the woods with its axes, its picks and shovels, and its educational pamphlets, lovers of the great outdoors sat back comfortably and concluded that America's wilderness areas were at last to be made safe for the bull moose, the red squirrel, and the future generation. But it develops that this sigh of relief was a little premature. Few organizations have a more alert interest in our wilderness heritage than the American Nature Association; and this group, speaking in the current issue of “National Magazine,” asserts that our primeval forests are actually endangered by activities of the outfit that was supposed to protect them—the CCC. This isn't the CCC's fault. The point is that one of the jobs given the CCC has been to build roads through the forests; and the "Nature Magazine” article protests that no one in Washington seems to realize that if you build enough roads into a wilderness, and dot it with hotels and camp sites, it very speedily ceases to be a wilerness. If The Times will permit me, I will quote a few lines. “The Cascade crest in Washington has been literally riddled by roads of the CCC,”’ says the article. "To the north and west of Mt. Adams truck trails have opened up an unsurpassable wilderness country; the headwaters cf the Selway are invaded by

myself intrigued again by your latest contribution on that most timely topic—War. "Black Shirt, Black Skin,” by that famed radio commentator, Boake Carter, gives every promise of being as thrilling a narrative as its immediate predecessor. That opening chapter, for instance, painting as it does in vivid fashion the dictator’s mental torture in those awful hours before the

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 all mail is addressed to The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau, Frederick M. Kerby, Director. 1013 Thirteenth-st. N. W.. Washington D. C. THE EDITOR. Q—Name the author of the proverb, “What you are speaks so loud I can not hear what you say.” A—lt is a paraphrase from Ralph Waldo Emersons “Letters and Social Aims:” “Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I can not hear what you say to the contrary.” Q—Why are dead birds seldom found on roads or in vyxids? A—Because they disintegrate rapidly, and are eaten by predatory animals and insects. Q—Do all elephants have tusks, and if a tusk is broken does it grow again?

CCC camps, and the Lolo Trail is only a memory. We have not only conquered the widerness; we have destroyed it.” All this is not merely a matter to be deplored by armchair philosopners or a few scattered outdoors enthusiasts, The frontier —not simply the new land that awaits settlement, but the wild tract that challenges an individual to make his way through it on his own power—has been a potent force in shaping American character. It has given us something extremely precious—some faint tinge of that self-reliant and imperturbable sense of kinship with nature which created what was best in the Indian race. We can not lightly give it up. We seem to be approaching a time in which the average man will have more leisure than he ever had before. In such a time it will be of the highest importance to have these wilderness areas available—not to auiomobile parties and hotel guests, but to venturers w’ho can plunge in on foot, carrying what they need on their own backs and finding in the depths of pathless forests a tranquillity, a spiritual orientation, that can be gained in no other way. In short, the best thing we can do with our remaining wilderness areas is to leave them alone. We can defeat our own ends by building too many trails and clearing away too much trash. Let Washington call a halt to these activities before it is too late.

die is cast and a nation is again led on the bloody path to war is, to my mind, a beautiful piece of literature. It gives us anew slant on what is going on and opens up a vista of still more tragic days to come. A warning, indeed, if America needed any to stay out. Here too, is an insight into something to which few of us have given much thought what with our natural sympathies for the underdog.

A—Tucks are merely elongated incisor teeth in the upper jaw. When broken or extracted they are never replaced. Tusks grow on both sexes of the African elephant, but seldom grow on the female of the Asiatic or Indian species. In Ceylon only about 1 per cent of either sex have tusks. Q —What is the maximum size of the barracuda in the southern waters of the United States? A—The maximum is about eight feet long and 40 pounds in weight. Q —Give the source of the quotation, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” A—“ What Rules the World,” a poem by William Ross Wallace, Daily Thought The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.—l Samuel ii, 7. THE bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to Heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.— Saadi.

Apparently the only sufferers in this conflict are not to be a defenseless, helpless group of semi-barbarous men. women and children, protected chiefly by the rugged terrain of their native health, but people in high places as well. More power to The Times! If we did not already realize it you are, by means of these articles, vividly illustrating the utter futility of armed conflict. a a a MR. REES TAKES A SWING AT THE G. O. P. Br R. L. Rees The newspapers say that Hoover told the Democrats about their wild spending. But of all the reading, I see nothing about the Republican’s orgy. Under the 60 years of Republican rule, every farmer and laborer paid in direct and indirect taxes, $3 out of every $4 he earned. The tariff, a disguised subsidy to “pet” business, shamelessly robbed the wagemen of $3,000,000,000 annually, in Hoover’s time. That being a make-work fallacy, also. The national bank notes took a large sum. And it is poor business when Roosevelt retires them with the people's money. The Republicans kept our pet business and national bankers for 60 years in these disguised methods which would not cause the figures to be put down on the government book in either ordinary or extraordinary columns. But let the Democrats come out into the open and spend half the sum, why the country will go bankrupt. Well, the Republicans bankrupted us in 1873. 1893 and 1929; so let us feel how it is when the Democrats go busted.

SIDE GLANCES

. . '-L— i

“Oh, maybe the coach doesn’t want to put Wilburn in until our goal is in danger,’*’

OCT. 12, 1935

Washington Merry-Go-Round

Bv DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN Xl TASHINGTON, Oct. 12 —Sena- ’ ’ tor Borah is planning a speech which will take the hide off Herbert Hoover. He is convinced that Hoover Is one of the greatest obstacles to Progressivism within the Republican Party. . . . Father Coughlin has given definite assurances to Borah that he will support him for the presidency. . . . This, together with the recent flirtation between Borah and Townsend. makes the Idaho Senator the most potent contender the G. O. P. has. . . . President Roosevelt recently received an Indian luck charm from a British Army officer who wrote that its mate was in the possession of Queen Mary. The S;a:o Department, is returning the gift, said, in effect: "The President is not permitted by law to receive gifts from foreign sources, even if its counterpart does bring luck to Queen Mary.” a a a TIM FARLEY is in a unique posltion to gauge the reaction Jouett Shouse gets from his Liberty League radio broadcasts against the New Deal. He can simply count the mail Jouett receives. After one recent broadcast, Jouett got a mere handful of letters. . . . Nevertheless, general business of the Liberty League is booming. It has just added a now suite of rooms in the National Press Building. . . . Office space in Washington has become so scarce that the newly appointed Bituminous Coal Board had to set up temporary headquarters in a hotel. . , , The Navy Day stamp, due from the presses by Oct. 27. has Big Jim Farley on the horns of a dilemma. Irish partisans are urging that the picture of John Barn - be put on the special stamp as the Father of the United States Navy. Hotly opposed to this are Scotchmen who insist that the honor belongs to John Paul Jones. Jim has tried to pass the buck to the Navy Department. . . . The election of lowa's J. Raymond Murphy as National Commander of the American Legion means a big shake-up in personnel of headquarters staff at Indianapolis. nan ■A/TRS. ROOSEVELT has been **-”A counseling with close fncnd3 regarding the widespread criticism about her public activities. She is much concerned over the volume of the unfavorable comment and is asking her intimates what she should do—disregard it or retire from the limelight The razzing received by Rop. Wright Patman at the American Legion convention was the only mauling he was subjected to by the veterans. The day before, at the conclave of the 40 and 8. he was given the “silent treatment” when he rose to talk. . . . Although Congress is in adjournment, from dome to sub-basement, is being overhauled and refurnished. . . . The august Supreme Court is considering employing a press relations assistant. For the first time in history, the Court's new building has several press rooms, but the correspondents are urging a special attache to act as liaison man between them and the justices Among those who wrote to Miss Mary O'Reilly, assistant mint director, congratulating her on the President’s order extending her tenure of duty, w’as Ogden L. Mills, Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury. a a a ONE thing to be remembered about the Italian march into Ethiopia is that Aduwa is not in the mountains but at the foot of them. When the Italians really get in to the mountains their trouble begins. .... American military experts estimate that Mussolini may be able to take Addis Ababa in relatively short time, but it will take two or three years actually to subdue the country. The estimate is based on the French campaigns in Syria and the Riff and the Spanish campaigns in Morocco. . . . The State Department has been seriously' handicapped in getting accurate news from the Ethiopian front. News from the American Legation depends almost entirely upon Emperor Haile Selassie, and he in turn depends upon tom-toms and signal fires. There is no telegraph or radio connection with the Ethiopian armies. . . . News from the Italian front has been heavily censored. (Copyright, 1933, bv United Feature Syndicate ,

By George Clark