Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 196, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 October 1935 — Page 20

PAGE 20

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPT*-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROT W. HOWARD p r *M#nt I,TTPWF!T,T, DENNY Kdtfnr EARIj p. RAKEU Rtmine* Mananpr

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FRIDAY. OCTOBER JS 19.1!)

l-'NCLE GEORGE’S BUSINESS of our friends have asked us to )oin in drmanding that, George W. Norris change his mind about withdrawing from the United States Rena to next year. But we refuse to do so. If Senator Norris at 75. after 24 years in the Senate, 10 vears in he House and several years as district judge and prosecuting attorney bark home in Nebraska—in short, more than half a century of hard and useful public service - decides to retire, who are we to stand on the sidelines and shout, ‘ Get in there and fight!" In any* rase, we know better than to "demand” that Uncle George do something he doesn't, want to do, least of all that he might, change his mind, after he has made it up in accordance with his judgment and conscience. If he should deride to retire next, year surely nobody will blame him for doing so. At 75 men do get tired, even of well-doing, and they are entitled to ask that younger men take up the burden. All this, of course, doesn’t prevent our hoping that the reports of the Senator’s derision are wholly premature. We hope to find him responding to the roll-call for another six years in the Senate and still another six years after that. The country will need him there. It will need his shrewd judgment, his parliamentary skill and his unbreakable courage. Nebraska is a great state, to be sure, but Nebraska is not likely to produce the equivalent of Norris in another six or 12 years. Every time Nebraska drafts George Norris for the public service it drafts an army. Which reminds us that the Senator twice before has failed to obstruct this draft and there's hope in that fact. It’s a funny situation, isn't it? Take a look at some of the other states, see the little men thumping their tubs in the daylight and pulling their wires in the dark, all to achieve thp honor that Uncle George wants to relinquish -wanks to relinquish because he thinks somebody else can do the job better than himself! However, as w r e said in the beginning, this is Uncle George’s own business and we’ll have no part in the effort to change his mind. But—there’s nothing to prevent our hoping that he does. LET THE AUDIENCE DECIDE "IT PITH characteristic irreverence, Minnesota’s * * young farmer-laborite Governor. Floyd B. Olson. challenges any reputable lawyer in the country —preferably .John W. Davis—to meet him in debate on the question: Resolved. That throughout American history the only danger to our Constitution came from and still comes from the judiciary branch of government which has constantly usurped its authority.” Gov. Olson w'ill fake the affirmative, contending that the Supreme Coiiu arbitrarily assumed the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Many constitutional students agree with the Governor that the document itself neither grants nor implies that power. But, assumed or not, the exercise of that power for more than a century has made it a fact, not an arademic question. However, we trust Mr. Davis or some otner wellknown American Liberty League lawyer will accept the Governor’s challenge. Debate on the subject should prove educational. It might help ihe Ameriran people decide the changes they want to make from time to time in what the Supreme Court interprets to be the organic law'. By letting the audience decide, the debaters could arrange to take turns winning, appearing onp day bpfore a Union League club and another day before a farmers' union. AN ABORTIVE PRICE? A DMIRAL WILLIAM H. STANDLEY. chief of 1 v naval operations, complained to Washington Rotarians that, radical interests working through churches, schools, the Y. M. C. A., and women's elubs, have "aborted” the Navy’s building program for 15 years. Thp admiral followed pood navy tradition in maintaining a respectful silence on subjects he should know most about, such, for instance, as why the Navy is now paving sl4lO a ton for warships that cost $950 in 192,1. Some taxpayers might consider that an extreme increase, particularly in a depression, but we warn them not to protest lest they he branded as one of the . certain influences .. . whose common aim is to weaken the military preparedness of the United States . . .” DEATH’S HANDY MAN impending execution of Richard Bruno Hauptmann brings to our mind once more a Hi ught that comes to us frequently when a man is abo.’t to rke as Hauptmann must die. The thought is not of the victim, but of the man who throws the switch. n n ts e | ■'HE death march starts. Other prisoners shout their good-bys. The little party enters the deathhouse. The condemned man takes his seat in the chair. There is a hurried yet careful adjustment of straps. A man behind a screen awaits a signal. It comes. He throws the switch. There is a flash of fire. A convulsion causes the body of the victim to tug against its bindings. Soon it is over. And when night comes, not one who witnessed the scene will sleep soundly. ana mpHE man who threw the switch steps from beA hind the screen. His day’s work is done. We wonder where he goes when he leaves the prison. Perhaps a wife who loves him and a little girl who awaits his coming will greet him in his homo, somewhere. And perhaps he will take the little girl on his knee and perhaps she will say to him: "Daddy, you are late. What have you been doing?” And when he doesn't answer, perhaps she will put a soft arm around his neck and press her pretty cheek against his, and persist: “Daddy, have you been working hard?” And perhaps there will flash into his mind a memory of how the switch hissed as he threw it into

place. A memory, too. of that thing writing in the chair. God. what a chore is his! 808 HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE years after Christ and the best that civilization can do is to take human life as a means of convincing all men that it is wrong to take human life! “Well." you say. “the only way to protect us from a mad dog is by killing the mad dog. isn’t it? The oniy way to protect us from murderers is by taking the lives of murderers, isn’t it?” We do not know. We do not know. Wc only know that not for all the gold in all the ages that have been would we be the man who throws the switch. SIMPLE ARITHMETIC SUGGESTING that rax problems might be used to humanize arithmetic studies, a Connecticut high school principal illustrates with the following: A man drives into a filling station, asks for 10 gallons of gasoline and a quart of oil, and purchases a paek of cigarets while waiting for the attendant to put air in the tires. The gasoline costs $1.57, the oil 25 cents and the cigarets 18 cents. Taxes on those purchases are 40 cents on the gas, 1 cent on the oil and 8 cpnts on the cigarets. What will be his total bill? How' much and what proportion will be for taxes. Answers easily computed: Total bill, $2. of which 49 cents will be for taxes—a levy of almost 25 per cent. But that is not all. “Even the air would not be free,” the principal says. "The tax origin! lly paid when the air compressor was bought and the tax on the electricity operating it would be passed on to the consumer in additional costs for the goods sold to him.” He neglects to mention real estate taxes, also passed on. An excellent arithmetic problem. The educational program might well be enlarged by having the civic classes in high school study how such taxes are spent, and the psychology classes in college study why the average adult pays such taxes meekly, but kicks like a steer when roped for an income tax. ANOTHER HOUSING START '-p'HE New Deal is considering one more attempt at, solving the low-cost housing problem. Tentative plans for the winter’s legislative program include a move to encourage private investment in homes for persons of small income. A revolving fund is proposed from which builders would borrow at low interest to construct inexpensive apartments. - The cost of apartments built so far by limiteddividend corporations and other private concerns has not been cut far enough to bring monthly rents below sll a room. Officials who have studied the problem believe rents must be as low as $5.50 a room. PWA’s Housing Division has brought room costs down to $4.50 on some of its projects where it got land through condemnation, borrowed cheaply, and received 30 per cent of the cost as an outright gift from PWA. Rough plans made so far for the revolving fund propose a sliding scale of interest rates, ranging from 1 to 3 per cent. With this assistance, cost of a project might be reduced by 3 to 5 per cent. The Housing Division’s low-cost projects, 4fi of which are under way, may serve as yardsticks for this proposed new venture in slum clearance with private capital. Most of the large cities in the country are to have at least one of these new apartment houses, designed to give a maximum to renters in the way of sun, air, convenient arrangement, and modern household apparatus. Before it goes to Congress, the new housing legislation should be scrutinized carefully by the Administration's central housing committee, to prevent overlapping of functions of nine government agencies dealing with different phases of housing.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

A CLEVELAND judge has just granted a divorce to a man whose wife refused to live with him in that city. She was the victim of that peculiar ailment known as California fever and resisted all efforts to get her away from the coast. Well, she's living there now, but minus a husband. That gentleman is occupied with the affairs of his business, which happens to be situated in Ohio. The judicial opinion, in the above instance, will probably not be resented by many women, for most of us believe the person who provides the income should be allowed to select the place of residence for the family. Besides, we are so used to the custom. Woman's fate has been to follow man wheresoever his fancy might lead, and in this respect we seem to have no more freedom than our foremothers who, at the order of the tribal patriarch, packed their belongings to depart forever from their homelands. The truth is—if a woman wants to be wholly free she'd better give up the idea of marriage altogether; unless she can be satisfied with one of those modern arrangements when husband and wife see each other over occasional week-ends. Personally, I think they’re terrible. They are but pale imitations of marriage and pale imitations of illicit love affairs. The Twentieth Century has given many privileges to women but it has not yet offered us the two great boons—liberty and a husband—together. No amount of argument and no pretense of freedom can disguise the fetters which bind both men and women once the vows are spoken. If those fetters hang a little heavier on the wife, there is nothing we can do about it. Anyway, in the mutual partnership we call marriage, the first vc’untar.v sacrifice is always made by the womanwho follows her husband to the home he selects. No man can really earn $50,000 a year salary. Nor do I think that congressmen are worth anything like SIO,OOO a vear either.—Rep. R. D. Buckler. Minnesota. Personal liberties? . . . Lord bless you. you can't even sing in the bathtub in an apartment house without running the risk of a jail sentence. There is nor much in our lives but what is bound by law Louis McHenry Howe. President's secretary. I did not write a book about Russia because I was there for three months. One has to be in Russia only two weeks to write a bock about the country —J. C. Furnas, author of And Sudden Death.” In all ait there must be restraint, and so. too. in the art of dressing, women should remember that something should be lef r to the imagination.—Rev. Fr. Walter Croarkin, Chicago. Unless sanctions march with sanity it means conflict and chaos and with them the zero hour of civilization.—lsaac Marcosson, writer. When the British Empire puts 150 war vessels into the Mediterranean there's something more than a rehearsal of Gilbert and Sullivan in prospect.—Dr. William Y. Elliott of Harvard.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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

(Time* reader* are incited to express their dews in these columns, reliflious controversies excluded. Make vour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to Z.'iO 1 cords or less. Your letter must he sinned, but names Will be withheld on rc.auestj nun LIGHT CONTRACT DELAY IRKS A TAXPAYER By a Taxpayer Each day gives the citizens of Indianapolis new cause to admire the | marvelous power of procrastination j by our city administration, i Today w r e learn that Mayor Kern has asked the Works Board to secure another extension from the! Indianapolis Power and Light Cos. j of the contract for lighting the | city's streets and public buildings. The present contract, ■which has ! been in effect for about 10 years, \ calls for a rate that I have heard is ; considered exceptionally high by j many public utility experts. The contract was to have expired April 1, but as the renewal j date approached the city was not ] prepared to demand new and more favorable terms. Consequently it asked and received an extension until Nov. 7. Reason given in the papers for the extension was that | the city did not wish to agree to a | new rate until an appraisal of the | company’s properties could be made by the Indiana Public Service i Commission. Now another extension is sought | and the same reason given by the : papers. Is it possible that the com- ! mission is as efficient at the pleasant art of murmuring “manana” as j our city officials? n n n TROLLEY BISSES TARGET OF THIS BLAST By a Times Admirer I have before me Mr. Berg's antiauto horn cartoons of Oct. 8 and Oct. 21. which are very good and to the point, but I can not imagine why our new trolley busses are not included in this anti-noise campaign, for as a noise-maker and a nerve-frazzler they have no equal i unless it is Sheriff Otto Ray’s official car). The trolley busses, the first few weeks on our streets, had a sweet, melodious, penetrating, far-reaching I sound, which was not at all objectionable and at that time seemed wholly adequate for meeting traffic j requirements and was really pleasi ant to the ear. But for some reason this has : changed and they race up and down the avenues blasting with i their horns, the other traffic out of the way or playing horn tag with the autos they race. Now. East-st. at Massachusettsav. is a stop street, but these trolley busses seldom fail to start blasting their horns half a block either way. shattering nerves and almost making the buildings quiver. I use this cross street as an example that I'm fully acquainted with, and any business place along this section, I am sure, will verify mv statements, for this letter is the result of our daily cussing the trolley bus horns for many weeks. There are many of us who earnestly wish that the Indianapolis Railways would investigate and quickly correct this condition, before we go completely mad.

IF WINTER COMES

Thinks Farmers Are to Blame

By Times Reader. Bloomington When would there be a more opportune moment than the present to discuss a situation which day by day has a distinct bearing upon the mind of the great working fraternity of our country? Personally, the writer sees nothing criminal in such a discussion, or at least nothing to incur the wrath of the powers that be. Since the discussion covers a multitude of sins, it would probably be best to call it constructive criticism. The subject is not war, nor the current outbreak of kidnaping, nor the attitude of the calloused murderer swaggering to the “hot seat.” It is just a little situation over which we daily knit our brows, namely, “The Farmer Comes to Town and Works.” Where does he work? In our factories, on public roads, railroad yard and shops, and it is generally believed that some of them are smuggled in biannually to vie for the city public offices. The discussion briefly outlined is this: If the farmer was banned from working in town, exiled to his farm to plow oats and shuck pumpkins in season, would it be possible for every able-bodied city dweller to have a job in our shops and factories and also be possible for said farmer to grub a living from the soil and earn wages therefrom on a par with his city brother? Needless to say, there is a certain amount of bitterness in the heart of the unemployed city man, as daily he observes hundreds of rural folk, lunch pail in hand, go-

Questions and Answers

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Information Burcan. 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_What is the source of agaragar, and what are its curative properties? A—lt is a gelatinous substance, obtained chiefly as translucent strips or a white powder from certain seaweeds <red algae), especially the Ceylon moss and Oriental species of Gelidium; called also Chinese isinglass or Japanese agar. It is a complex mixture, including carbohydrate and a little protein, and is used chiefly as a solidifying agent in culture media for bacteria and fungi, as a laxative, and in the Orient for soups and jellies. Q —Where are the Slieve Mish Mountains? A—Kerry County, Irish Free The Hermit BY JAMES D. ROTH Cares not for time of day. For glory, pomp or state. Sweet peace, he hath his way, And time to meditate. And of the future careth not. He heedeth not the day or date, Has satisfaction with his lot. Some day, perhaps he’ll lie in state.

ing to a job that would mean a livelihood for himself and for his family. There is a little need to state his situation. When he has no job he has nothing on which to fall back; his house rent goes on just the same and his appetite is no less keen; his family must eat. When his credit is exhausted, what then happens? The inevitable! He becomes a burden on the community and the taxpayer must pay for his idleness. A situation, such as this, every honest citizen highly resents. The writer may be wrong, but as he sees it, any farmer worthy of the cognomen has quite the advantage of his city brother. Even in the toughest of depressions he can at least raise food for his own use, and if he Is unable to scrape enough over and above that to pay the landlord, then he is not a party to this discussion. As things now stand, Silas and Timothy, the two boys, generally manage the acreage and “Pop” drives the old bus to the city to work in Kelley’s machine shop, while your friend Bill Brown who has been out of a job for six months, ijas four kids, and lives in a little house down the street, has worn out his only pair of boots in a vain search for employment. The writer wonders just what statistics would disclose if a census were taken in our shops and factories showing where each and every worker lives. No doubt information thus furnished would

State, near the head of Dingle Bay. Q —What was the real name of Anatole France? A—His full name was Jacques Anatole France Thibault. Q —What is the religious affiliations of Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State? A—Protestant Episcopal. Q—ls Castilian the native speech of Spain? A—lt is the native speech of Castile and is pure Spanish. In other parts of Spain and in the Spanish-speaking countries many different Spanish dialects are spoken. Q —Where was the first patent for a typewriter issued? A—The inventor was an Englishman who took out a patent in the London patent office in 1714. The first workable model was made by an American about 1867. Q—Give the correct pronunciation of chassis. A—lt is pronounced chas'-is or sha’-see. Q—What is the home run record for a single player in one season in the National League? A—Fifty-six home runs, made by Lewis R. <Hacki Wilson of the Chicago Cubs in 1930. Q_What is the speed record for automobiles? A—lt is 301.1292 miles per hour, made by sir Malcolm Campbell, driving his -‘Bluebird'' racer over the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, on Sept. 3, 1935,

shock the public. Why? It would clearly show that our factory officials are making a practice of hiring farmers in preference to city men. Why, the writer wonders? Can it be that such procedure is “an old Spanish custom” to keep wages at a minimum? Well, dear readers (if any) you will notice that this little treatise is a bit prejudiced and partial (the writer works in a factory employing 1200 men, about half of which men are farmers), but discussion is cordially invited. Our forefathers said this was a free country. Truer words were never spoken. And yet, when such freedom takes the course of parties in more advantageous position securing jobs which to others mean meat and food on the table, is it not possible that such freedom should be restricted? The writer sincerely believes that if our factory officials could be persuaded vO hire city dwellers, and if farmers could be encouraged to do a little farming, there would be no under-consumption (overproduction to college professors) and that the entire nation would take gigantic strides in the direction of prosperity. Daily Thought For the Lord will judge His people. and He will repent Himself concerning His servants. Psalm 135:14. WHEN the soul has laid down its faults at the feet of God. it feels as though it had wings.— E. Guerin.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

i" !' * G v * 'V:„A Nfi,

“Come on, let’s get this corn in. You can recite poetry while you’re doin’ the milkin'.”

OCT. 25,1935

Washington 9 Merry-Go-Round

BY DREW PF.ARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN. C CHARLESTON, S C. Oct. 25 - * There are a lot of people n this town who did not thrill wrh ecstasy when they heard that Prest- . dent Roosevplt intended to visit • their historic city. You don’t have to walk very far. | under the palms and the gray tr- a moss, before you encounter ant:New Deal sentiment as bitter as can be found in the hot spots of New England. Charleston can not be considered typical of the South. It stands aloof in opinion, as it does gro- : graphically, separated from the rest of South Carolina by a vast encirof j mg marsh. Even its Negroes are different. In i speech and in appearance, the blacks of Porgy’s famous "Cats; > Row’’ are more like West India * 1 than like the average Southern coi- ! ored man. Yet the feeling harbored by Charleston’s people is important Roosevelt and to the whole Democratic. Party. It is the feeling the ■ rest of the South will have if they j get jolted strongly enough. I It is the feeling that Roosevelt !s leading the party away from the good old Jeffersonian doctrines and ; throwing states’ rights into the 1 ash-can. nan THERE are two reasons why Charleston stands out as * rebel city: 1. It has a tradition of aristocratic independence, cherished ever since it seized Fort Sumter from the Yankees 75 years ago. 2. Not being an agricultural cenI ter, its critical sense has not been dulled by AAA benefit payments. Elsewhere through tlie state there is little revolt. Every road carries its farm wagons, loaded with a huffy cargo of loose cotton, just picked from the fields. Any qualms ihe driver of that wagon may have about, the faie of the Democratic Party are stilled by the thought that the cotton he ii carrying will bring 10 or 11 cents a pound. If you had asked that same farmer five years ago what chance thrro was of a government agent coming on his place and telling him how much cotton he could grow and how much he couldn’t, he would have laughed at the idea. Theoretically he still scorns reg-/ ulation. But he began by agreeing that it tvas an "emergency" and he is willing to stretch that word, for the present. nan lEADERS of Anti-New Deal sentl--4 ment are W. N. Ball, editor of j the News and Courier, and Thomas I P. Stoney, ex-Mayor of the city and | candidate-to-be for the United j States Senate in the seat of Jim I Byrnes of Spartanburg. Stoney spends his mornings around City Hall handing out such choice morsels as: “Roosevelt has no more fulfilled ! his campaign promises than if he’d | declared he was going to the South Pole, and headed for the North Pole instead.” Privately, Stoney admits he can not beat Byrnes, especially if the Santee-Cooper power project goes through. This project is to South Carolina | what Passamaquoddy is to Maine. It ! would require $37,000,000, and might mean the dawning of anew industrial day for this quaint city. Even anti-New Dealers are for it—in a cynical way. What they say is: “I don’t know as we need the a thing much, but if Tennessee and \ i Maine and all these states are getj ting their grab out of the bag, w'hy | should South Carolina stand on her i dignity?” o tt a WASHINGTON.— Gonial Irish Minister Michael Mac White writes to his wife regularly. So he wondered why she. on vacation in New Mexico, complained of not hearing from him. Mrs. Mac White was in Taos, N. M., had rented a post box, paid the fee of 15 cents. After further waiting she demanded that the postmaster look more carefully. A search revealed an air mail letter sent from Washington 10 days before. “Why. this is disgraceful,” she complained. "Tins should have been delivered a week ago.’*"Well, madam.” was the answer, i “if you don’t like the service, you can take back your 15 cents.” j (Copyright. 1935 hv United Featur* Syndicate. Inc i