Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 200, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 October 1935 — Page 14

PAGE 14

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1335.

JOHNSON ON ICKES A S head of the NRA, it was Gen. Hugh S. John.son's frank ambition to administer not only Title 1 of NIRA, but Title 2—the big public works spending Job. He ciidn t get the job. Harold Ickes did. On another page you’ll find what the General thinks of Mr. Ickes. Remind us some day to ask Mr. Ickes what he thinks of Gen. Johnson. OIL FOR THE LAMPS OF MARS ' I TOMORROW the League of Nations meets to crack down on Italy with economic embargoes and boycotts. Every day, however, Roman legions are battering their way deeper into the kingdom of Haile Selassie. Will the one stop the other? Will the League's economic sanctions defeat the territorial ambitions of Mussolini? Former Premier David Lloyd George, of Great Britain, says no. ' The League has failed,” he charges, ‘‘because it has not been given a fair chance. Present sanctions will not hinder Mussolini’s advance one hour or save the life of a single Ethiopian.” It must not be forgotten that the lighting Welshman is an ‘’out” who wants to be ‘'in.’ His Liberals almost have suffered annihilation at the hands of Conservatives and Laborites. And these are election times in Britain. But there is much in what he says, and friends of the League should not dismiss his remarks as mere oratory. The League’s life as the world's major peace agency is at stake. The next few weeks or months may tell the tale. And yet, says Lloyd George: "We are supplying Italy with oil through the Anglo-Persian Oil Cos., in which the British gi.- eminent are shareholders. The Anglo-Persian company says: ‘lf we do not sell to Italy, the United States will!’” Which may be very true. Perhaps Standard Oil would be glad to get the contracts. But at this crucial hour, that is hardly the point. Great Britain right now is inviting the United States, Germany and Japan, as non-members, to support League sanctions. She should take extra care, therefore, to see that her own hands do not smell of oil or other profits. It is not merely non-member states which today threaten to nullify the effect of sanctions. Each member of the League is watching all the others. Failure of any important membei likely will be the signal for the others to say: ”If we don’t sell to Italy, somebody else will.” The Soviet Union, a League member, through its foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinoff, already has gone on record intimating that such will be its policy. Russia, warned Litvinoff, will watch what happens. For his country will be a big loser if it severs trade relations with Italy. The peril to the League is very clear. HOLDING COMPANIES TF the Holding Company Act is not constitutional -*■ then "political power is not co-extensive with economic power and the nation is helpless before the depredations of powerful and lawless economic power," the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice argue in a brief just filed in the American States Public Service Cos. case in Baltimore. Trustees and creditors of the company, assisted by the Edison Electric Institute, are trying to get a decision on the act's constitutionality before the deadline for registration of holding companies. The government, though not a party to the suit, and ‘hough it is on record as believing the case is not a proper test, has filed one brief on the specific issues raised by the suit, and a second one on constitutionality of the act. The second brief points out that Congress has made the holding company illegal in the District of Columbia. It adds: “Certainly Congress may provide that some of the considerations underlying the policy it prescribes for the District of Columbia should be followed when the corporate form is used for the conduct of business activities through the Federal channels of communication and intercourse by companies whose subsidiary operations, because of their legalized monopoly, are not subject to the normal restraints of competition. “The dangers of the holding company form and a persistent and recurring evidence of abuses of the holding company form in the utility field are such as to justify the exercise by Congress of virtually the same power over utility holding companies in interstate commerce or using the mails as it has over situations involving fraud, deceit, or monopoly as to which Congress has exercised and the Supreme Court has sustained the widest measure of prohibition and control.” a a a nrilE 'oriel' points out that one of the provisions in the act violently objected to by John W. Davis, counsel for Edison Electric Institute and for Dr. Lautenbach, the Baltimore dentist who didn’t know he was suing or that Mr. Davis was his attorney until he learned it in court, was actually inserted in the Holding Company Act at the request of power companies. The provision has to do with house-to-house peddling of holding company securities. “This very provision whose purpose counsel for peti ioner Lautenbach ridicules and whose constitutionality he attacks,” says the brief, "was not in the original bill as introduced in Congress. It was inserted as a result of suggestions formally made to Congress by highly responsible executives of utility companies which are members of counsel’s client, the Edison Electric Institute.” The brief emphasizes that the act "does not strike at ’bigness in business' where bigness can be economically justified.” It adds: “The criterion of size under the act is its relation and contribution to the efficiency of operation of an integrated utility system. The proper criterion of size is, however, a matter for legislative, not Judicial, determination.” HELP FOR MOONEY / "l''H* comfortably financed American Liberty League having failed to respond to our recent appeal in behalf of Tom Mooney as a humble citizen needing help in a fight for constitutional

rights, other friends of liberty apparently will have to provide help—if any is to be provided. The Mooney defense is in desperate straits. Justice and freedom are almost in .sight at last. The San Francisco bearings on Mooney's application for a habeas corpus writ are developing new facts to bulwark the charge that this labor leader was denied due Drocess under the Constitution, that he was jailed on perjured evidence, that the prosecution knew its witnesses were liars, that it suppressed material evidence in its possession. But the sinews of battle are lacking. The California Supreme Court refuses to furnish Mooney's counsel free copies of the transcript and expenses for Mooney’s witnesses. Mooney’s lawyers are giving their own time and paying their own expenses. The defense organization is penniless “The best chance we ever had for our freedom is now completely in jeopardy because of lack of funds to carry on the fight,” Mooney appeals from his jail cell. “This is truly a crisis in our struggle.” This case must be won. Let Mooney remain in jail on the testimony of proved perjurers coached oy the state and no one is safe in America. There behind the bars, but for the grace of God, stands any one of us. STOCKYARDS RATES npHE Supreme Court this term will take up again the venerable but still fiery issue of valuation. This has been the central point in 50 years of litigation over utility rates, involving nearly every community in the land. The rate of return, the basis upon which it should be computed, the rate of depreciation to be allowed, and many other factors are involved. The court has just agreed to hear arguments, probably in January, on an appeal by the St. Joseph Stock Yards Cos., attacking the validity of an order by the Secretary of Agriculture substantially reducing the rates it charges farmers and stockmen for services. This order, issued in May, 1934, under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, was based on a finding of valuation which the company challenges. The company brought an injunction suit, but a thiee-judge Federal court dismissed it last June at Kansas City. The Agriculture Department's jurisdiction over stockyards rates is practically parallel with that of the Interstate Commerce Commission over railroad valuations and rates—which were at issue in the O’Fallon billion-dollar valuation case of a few years ago, and many other utility cases involving the power of state bod.es to fix “reasonable” rates. These “due process” cases in the past have provided ‘he principal index to liberal-conservative sentiment among the nine justices. In all of them the legal basis of complaint by the company was that the regulating body exceeded the bounds of “reasonableness”—the yardstick specified in most utility regulatory laws—thereby resulting or threatening to icsult in confiscation of the utility property without the "due process of law” prescribed by the fifth and fourteenth amendments. The conservative bloc has won most of these cases in the last two decades, each major engagement being marked by dissents from Brandeis, Stone and other liberal justices. One of the most notable of these was the Baltimore street railway case, in which the court majority upheld a rate designed to yield a return of 7.44 per cent on the value of the property. ONE POINT OF VIEW On New Deal Spending JpilE present national debt, though iar greater than it should be, as a result of recent deficits, is not yet unbearable. But can further deficits, which may prove disastrous, now be avoided? Government spending always creates vested interests which benefit from such spending. Will the millions of people now receiving government largesse be willing to have the government cease such spending? Will retail merchants whose business has been helped by the government’s distribution of enormous sums be willing to see a cessation of such spending? Will bureaucracy itself, created by government spending, permit itself to be dismembered? How many municipalities will be willing to shoulder again the burdens that they have turned over to the Federal government? . . . Moreover, no Administration that has openly espoused government spending as an instrument of recovery can be expected to cease such spending. For, ihe minute it does, the illusion of recovery that has been created immediately fades. This reveals the basic fallacy of the entire program, which is that the benefits of such spending last only as long as the spending continues. Ihese obstacles to a cessation of government spending seem almost insurmountable. Yet they must be overcome, for the value of our savings are at stake. (Lewis W. Douglas, former United States Budget Director, in Atlantic Monthly.)

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

“TS it wrong lor a married woman to flirt?” asks a young wife. Wrong, I should say, and decidedly dangerous, even though it seems to be a popular diversion these days. But then, so is divorce a popular diversion. Let's look first at the arguments against it. To be exact, flirting is a form of disloyalty and is therefore a precarious occupation for the woman who wants her marriage to succeed. Also it’s a bad habit, which like other bad habits can take hold upon the individual with tentacles strong as those of an octopus. What’s more, it is a sin against love—a grievous sin So long as complete trust is the first principle of happy marriage—which can hardly be denied—then flirtations must come under the head of dangerous pastimes because they are destroyers of trust. The small thrills, the occasional excitements you may get from them will never compensate for the loss of your husband’s faith in you, nor for the greater ill—the destruction of your own integrity. The flirt may be the breaker of other people’s hearts, if you wish to count that an honorable occupation, but she is frequently the breaker of her own life, pulling her house down upon her own foolish head. From a supposedly harmless person who enjoys playing around with one man after another, she generally becomes a vacillating, unstable, discontented middle-aged woman whom no one trusts, and who trusts no one. The first time a man’s word was thought not to be so good as his bond, something tainted and evil crept into our world. A broken promise here, an unkept vow there, a little deceit or two, what do they matter, we say. Well, they matter so much that all together they can destroy our ambition, our faith in men, our hope in the future and the possibility for a decent social order for our children. It is dreadful not to be able to trust others, but it is even more dreadful not to be able to trust oneself, as no flirt ever can. I am for a compulsory oath, an oath to require every teacher every day to swear at the societies who brought about this oath. —William McAndrew, New York, attacking new law requiring oath of allegiance from teachers.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

- R-o.sewi-

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

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, relipious controversies excluded. Make vour letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 2bo words or less. Your letter must be shined, but names will be withheld on renuest.) a a a “DOCTOR” GETS A ROASTING IN THIS LETTER B* 1 a Reader The party who signs himself “Doctor” in The Times of Oct. 26 is ail wrong and he knows it China did not belong to the League of Nations, and Japan had left the League when they took Manchuria; therefore, the League of Nations was to leave China and Japan alone and mind its own business, which is to look out for the interest of those nations belonging to the League. Get that? He says the United States made a forceful protest, with soldiers, sailors and marines. I say they did not, and the altruistic English, as he calls them, knew how to mind their own business. Honor is a virtue of the English. With honor they put their “contemptible little army” in Belgium when the Germans invaded Belgium. England and Ethiopia each belong to the League; therefore, English honor and English justice will defend a fellow member. That’s England’s business and she will take care of that. Had the French acted as England did at the beginning of the ItalianEthiopian trouble, the Italians never w r ould have started it. Doctor, we don’t need your advice, as it is misleading. You are either a German or Italian. How would you like to have some of that honorable English blood in your veins like the writer? an a CO-OPERATION LAUDED BY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION By Thomas A. Hendricks, Executive Secretary, Indiana State Medical Association. Although it is a bit late, I want to thank you for the fine help and cooperation we received from you, both before and during the recent meeting of the Indiana State Medical Association at Gary. The co-operation of your paper was a material aid in making our meeting one of the best in the history of the Indiana State Medical Association. Daily Thought Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.—St. John 17:17. TRUTH is established by investigation and delay; falsehood prospers by precipitancy.—Tacitus. What Need? BY POLLY LOIS NORTON ; What need to guard, when with a i single start— A bound, an untoward leap—a cloistered heart | Can burst its bounds and in one second’s time ; Soar up, explode, and fall from heavenly clime? ; Perhaps they’re wise who let their hearts most freely roam; Knowing the wandering paths, ‘ they’ll know the long way home.

WAIT UNTIL IT CHANGES

‘Sold Doivn the River / His View

By a Reader Bruce Catton’s review of Sinclair Lewis’ new book, “It Can’t Happen Here,” should arouse your readers’ interest in the potentialities existing that may produce an American dictatorship. Politically speaking, this country is a republic, not a democracy, for in a democracy each individual possesses equal opportunity. Our country has been dominated by special privilege classes for decades. Even thought the Constitution recites the noble words of “no discrimination because of race, color or previous condition of servitude,” we nevertheless have all that in many varieties and degrees. We are unconsciously drifting toward dictatorship. A 10-year plan to make the American people a slave race is now in consummation; starting in 1928 with luring the people into the Wall Street spider web, to fleece the dupes who borrowed on the real estate and other valuables to buy “insecurities” worth 10 per cent of what they sold for. Second came the wave of wage reductions, which will continue until American labor will be on a WONDERS IF CONSTITUTION IS NEW BIBLE By W. L. Ballard There “almost” are now 67 books in the Bible, instead of only 66. For the Federal Constitution has tentatively been added, after Revelation. Or has the Constitution been substituted for the first 66 books, “in so far as they conflict with its

Questions and Answers

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question ot fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washinpton Information Bureau. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extended research be undertaken. Be sure all mall is addressed to The Indianapolis Times Washington Bureau, Frederick M. Kerby. Director, 1013 Thirteenth-st, N. W., Washington. D. C. THE EDJTOB. Q —What finally becomes of smoke in the air? A—Smoke is a cloud of fine, unburned soot, charcoal, or carbon particles, carried up with the hot air, together with a small amount of mineral ash. All these become laden with moisture in a humid atmosphere, such as commonly precedes to general rain, and slowly descend. If the air is dry, little or no moisture is condensed on smoke particles, which remain light and soon become so scattered through the atmosphere as to be no longer perceptible. If the wind is strong, smoke is soon widely scattered and lost, whatever the humidity. Q—What is mo id? A—A superficial growth, often woolly, produced on various forms of organic matter, especially when damp or decaying, and on living organisms. It is produced by saphrophytic fungi. Q —Where was the- motion picture, ‘'Hell’s Angels,” produced? A—ln California. Many of the scenes were filmed at Oakland

level with coolie labor in buying power. Third came the gold revaluation scheme, to make debts harder to pay, and to make the absorption of the foreclosed property easier for the money trust. Fourth will be the denial of the right to vote, already accomplished in many Southern states under various devices such as tax receipts as a qualification. Fifth, the public debt will be reared to such a degree that the public credit will fail and all property will go into receivership to satisfy the demands of the holders of public obligations which represent nothing more than the folly of a mis-led and bewildered people, who have surrendered their highest sovereign power to create their currency and credit to a private corporation. Jeremiah foretold the captivity of Israel, as a consequence of public indifference to justice. We, too, are heading for the precipice and decay, because we have failed to guard our most important sovereign right of creating our currency as we create our postage stamps, through a publicly owned agency. But we kill the prophets and chase the profits till doomsday. provision”? Much depends upon whether the intent was to really repossess the Constitution, or merely to embalm it. Suppose, when the churches have been jockeyed into accepting the new addition to Holy Writ they assert the old and exclusive right to interpret it? Suppose they decide, to begin with, that the mak-

and Van Nuys flying fields. Some of the scenes were produced in miniature. Q—ls Paisley, Scotland, still an important manufacturing center? Are Paisley shawls still made there? A—lt has been an important manufacturing center since the beginning of the eighteenth century, but the linen, lawn and silkgauze industries that used to be located there are extinct, and the production of the famous Paisley shawls has almost ceased. Paisley is now one of the chief world centers of thread manufacture. Q—Why does a tree girdled with a tight wire die? A—Because the wire cuts through the cambium as the tree grows, thereby severing the vital connection between the roots, which take up water and raw food, and the leaves which transform water and raw material into elaborated plant food. Q—When and where did Jimmy Rogers die? A—He died on May 26, 1933, in New York. Q—What is the value of merchandise that an American traveler may bring in from abroad without payment of duty? A—One hundred dollars. Q —What is the home address of Mae West? A—Ravens wood Apartments, 570 N. Rossmore-st, Hollywood, Cal.

ing of the Constitution was only the first step out of monarchy, the beginning of democracy rather than the completion of it? That when the Constitution was written the words “republic” and “democracy” were being used interchangeably, without discriminating (as we do) between “democracy” as a family name of which “:he republic” is the first timid step away from monarchy? And that only this general character of democracy is guaranteed to every state, instead of the restricted, specific “republican” form, thus leaving an open door for future “isms” to “complete” our democracy? Suppose in future the churches decide that, once in Scripture, the Constitution must be modified and reinforced by the whole 66 books. For instance, that a “slave” means an employe as well as a chattel slave? That Congress shall have power and a mandatory duty to establish “post roads”—railroads? That in the “Jubilee Year” all debts and mortgages must be forgiven and forgotten? That all interest charges on loans is usury, forfeiting the principal? That an employe entering business mast succeed in doubling each “talent” placed in his service, or be capitally punished? And so on ad infinitum. We must use consummate wisdom. Enough may be too much. Once "The Church” is in the saddle again, no matter which church, or whose, we have not democracy any more, nor even monarchy, but theocracy, like Moses set up biblically and which Samuel, the “judge,” overthrew not less religiously when he substituted monarchy for it — thanks to the “democratic” demand from his erring but disillusioned people.

SIDE GLANCES By George Clark

11/#^ |:ite 1/ \i . c

“I figure so long as I make my own money it’s none of their business how I spend it.”

OCT. 30,1935

Washington Merry-Go-Round

BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN. 'STTASHINGTON. Oct. 30.—The * * picture of the international situation placed before the President immediately after his return to the White House was not as clear as it might have been. But out of the maze of reports cabled to the State Department or received verbally from diplomats returned from Europe, the following points stood out: 1. Italy is virtually 100 per cent behind Mussolini. The original, inertia of the working classes, the positive antipathy of the intellectuals, and the lukewarm enthusiasm of the general staff have been replaced by strong support. Some opposition may lurk beneath the surface, but it is negligible. And it will take either a major defeat or a protracted war to turn public sentiment against II Duce. 2. British public opinion has reached a pitch akin to religious fervor in its demand that the League prevent war. As one high British diplomat put it. the people of England have substituted love of peace for love of the church. Peace has become a religion. They are willing to go any lengths—even war—to back it up. liiis feeling probably represents 70 to 80 per cent of the country. The rest, chiefly Tories, are equally behind the League, though for an entirely different reason. They fear an Italian empire near the Red Sea life-line of the British empire. 3. France will NOT support the British if it conies to a showdown against Italy. According to the report given Roosevelt, France is as anxious to keep out of war as the United States. Every morning posters smeared over the walls of Paris proclaim: “No troops shall be moved to support the League.” For Premier Laval to take a strong stand against Italy would mean his immediate downfall. a a a '"pins dilemma was what galvanized Laval into action. Last week he did some extremely plain talking to both the Italian and British ambassadors. Both sides had maneuvered themselves into positions where they could not back down without loss of prestige. But if they kept making more moves it meant certain war. Both sides finally saw this, agreed to make conciliatory gestures, such as the withdrawal of Italian troops from the Egyptian border, and Sir Samuel Hoare’s speech in the House of Commons. a a a TN addition, Laval proposes to carve up Ethiopia. Italy would annex the north, take a protectorate over the central plateau, while Great Britain would acquire Lake Tana with its possibilities for irrigating the cotton fields of the British Sudan. The British have been hesitating. It is a question of sacrificing Ethiopia plus the ideals of Geneva, or else war. So it looks as if the death of Ethiopia and Geneva idealism would be cheaper. ana IY/fURPHY ROSEN, personal valet and bodyguard of ! Huey Long, has been telling colleagues of the late Senator the intimate details of the fatal shooting. Last year, it will be recalled, Senator Long offered to play a dictating machine record or. the floor of the Senate, exposing a plot against his life. The record had been obtained from a machine placed in the room of some conspirators in the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans. In the original record ihe name “Dr. Weiss” occurred three times. It carried no significance for the Kingfish, however, and the name was expunged and forgotten. Therefore when Dr. Weiss approached Long on the fatal night, none of the bodyguards knew him. Rosen says that he seized the assassin’s gun just as it was fired, and that Joe Messina, who fired the first shot at Weiss, broke Rosen's wrist watch with the passing bullet. (Copyright. :535. by United Featur# Syndicate. Inc.)