Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 207, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 November 1935 — Page 14

PAGE 14

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THURSDAY NOVEMBER 7. 1035. TEMPTING OPPORTUNITIES XPERIENCE of the United States In the World •*“' War amply supports President Roosevelt's observation that “tempting trade opportunities'’ are offered neutrals when hostilities begin. The President, in his repeated warnings against trading with belligerent nations, may have had in mind a cable sent by Ambassador Page from London on March 5, 1917, which said: “Perhaps our going to war is the only way in which our present pre-eminent trade position can be maintained and a panic averted." A month later we entered the war. It is admitted generally that from our enormous war trade sprang one of the powerful influences that eventually dragged us on to the battlefield. When the World War started. United States foreign trade was in a slump. For the year ending June 30, 1914, the excess of domestic merchandise exports over imports amounted to $435,758,308. Within a year this excess jumped to $1,042,008,725, and in another year it reached $2,074,294,069. 000 A 8 raidy as September, 1915, it was realized in offlcial circles in Washington that this enormous excess of exports over Imports was dangerous. On Sept. 6, Robert Lansing, Secretary of State, said in a letter to President Wilson: "... We are face to face with what appears ix> be a critical economic situation, which can only be relieved apparently by the investment of American capital in foreign loans to be used in liquidating the enormous balance of trade in favor of the United States.” Instead of seeking to discourage this trade, as Mr. Roosevelt is doing, the Wilson Administration encouraged it. The trade in explosives alone rose from $10,000,000 in the year ending June 30, 1914, to $180,000,000 the next year and $715,000,000 in the year after that. That this trade was “tempting” to industry is indicated by the investigators of the Federal Trade Commission after the war. It was found, for instance, that the United States Steel Corp. earned a 35 per cent return on its enormous capital in 1917 and declared dividends of 18 per cent. nan 'T'HE copper companies showed even higher earnings, one of them harvesting a 200 per cent return on its capital in 1917 while another showed an 800 per cent return on sales of copper, largely for the munitions trade. One of the big four meat packers netted 263 per cent on its common stock in a single year. The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp. showed returns of 85 per cent on its capital stock in 1917. The American Brass Cos. made 52 per cent in 1916 and 24 per cent in 1917. As for individuals, there were 69 Americans with net taxable incomes in excess of a million dollars a year in 1915, 107 in 1916 and 130 in 1917. In 1917, these 130 individuals had an aggregate net taxable income of approximately $228,000,000, an average of more than $2,000,000 each. One man reported a net taxable income of $34,037,000 in 1917. SPEAKING OF CONSTITUTIONS OTEADY work at no pay is offered the high-priced lawyers of the American Liberty League by the American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter from Arthur Garfield Hays to James M. Beck, former United States solicitor general. Mr. Hays, general counsel for the ACLU, recalls Mr. 3eck's recent assertion that the Liberty League lawyers stood ready to defend without fee any impecunious citizen threatened with loss of his constitutional rights. He reminds Mr. Beck of six types of cases in which he says the constitutional rights of “humble persons” are in constant Jeopardy. These cases, Mr. Hays writes, often concern dissenters from established institutions, and rarely involve property questions. But he adds: “I have no doubt that you as a lawyer and lover of the Constitution are quite as much exercised about violations of the Bill of Rights, so far as they apply to personal liberty, as by violations when they concern property in general.” He lists the six types of cases as follows: “1. Question of fair trial before an impartial Judge and Jury. Often these cases arise in the South where a Negro is the defendant and Negroes are barred from Juries. “2. Questions arise under the interpretation of the so-called criminal syndicalist, sedition and insurrection laws, where such laws are misused to ‘get' people whose opinions are unpopular or who belong to minority races or groups. I have in mind the Angelo Herndon case in Georgia. “3. Questions arise concerning the reading of the Bible in the public schools, where, contrary to the Constitution as it seems to us, either a Catholic or Protestant Bible is the one used, thus establishing religious preference. ”4. We have cases of unreasonable searches and seizures where the authorities, in order to seize allege obscene or seditious literature, violate the Constitution. “5. In connection with labor disputes where continually cases arise that involve the rights of peaceful assemblage and of picketing. “6. The rights of free speech and assemblage are generally violated as applied to radicals and other unpopular groups through discrimination in the deniat of permits for public meetings and parades.” IS IT TOO LATE? AMERICA'S two outstanding exponents of free-flowing commerce are sitting across the table from each other in Washington this week. They may see eye to eye on certain economic principles. They will understand each other's political problems. And they will try between them to unshuffle the cards that have been stacked against resumption of healthy United States-Canadian trade. But they will try with manat led hands. The two men are Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Canada's new Liberal Premier, Mackenzie King. If they could shut out political considerations, we have no doubt these two men would gladly raze the tariff wall which has been erected between the dominion and the republic. But they will be retrained

by the handcuffs with which special interests have bound their wrists. Sharing a common heritage of race and tradition, the peoples of Canada and the United States dwell side by side on a continent of boundless wealth. Theirs is a common destiny. A single geographic unit, this continent is naturally a single economic unit. But in recent years politicians serving special interests have been building an economic barrier along the political border, choking off the natural streams of trade and causing economic distress to both sides. Six years ago, despite tariffs that had already become indefensibly high, the United States was selling Canada about a billion dollars worth of goods a year. Canada was selling half that amount In this country. Special United States interests, in an effort to take this business away from the Canadians, put over the Smoot-Hawley rates creating a veritable economic Chinese wall along the border. Canada retaliated with four swift tariff raises against us. and with preferential rates to other divisions of the British empire. We stopped exporting goods to Canada, and started deporting our own factories. By 1932, our trade with Canada had shrunk to one-fourth, and American branch factories had mushroomed up all over Canada, employing Canadian workmen and supplying Canadian markets with goods which heretofore had been produced by American workmen. Those who invested their money and those who found Jobs in those branch factories have Joined Canada’s protectionist legions and exert their political pressure against any tariff concessions which Mackenzie King may wish to grant. At the same timo others with similar special interests in this country stand as a unit against concessions which Cordell Hull may think wise to grant. So, as these men meet they may speak with mutual disapproval of the economic sin which has been committed against their respective peoples. They may pledge that their governments will sin no more. They will try to salvage something, making a few trades here and trades there, where political pressure is not too strong to resist. But they will, we fear, speak of their problem more in sorrow than in hope. ANOTHER ROOSEVELT SINCE the spirit of the Immortal Teddy is being invoked by Old Dealers in their attacks on reform, it might be well to recall what he thought of the courts and their function. Speaking in Chicago in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt said: “The American people, and not the courts, are to determine their own fundamental policies. Our prime concern is that in dealing with the fundamental law of the land, in assuming finally to interpret it, and. therefore, to make it, the acts of the court should be subject to, and not above, the final control of the people as a whole. “I deny that the American people have surrendered to any set of men, no matter what their position, or their character, the final right to determine those fundamental questions upon which free government ultimately depends.” Which is the stronger utterance on the judiciary’s place in the American scheme of things, this or the rather mild strictures of Franklin Roosevelt on the court's attempts to restrict us to the “horse and buggy era”? CHINA OFF SILVER A COUPLE of years ago the United States went off the gold standard, nationalized the yellow metal and reduced the gold content of the dollar. We did it to raise prices, enable debtors to pay what they owe, and put people back to work. China has now taken, a leaf cut of Uncle Sam’s notebook. She has gone off the silver standard, nationalized the white metal and decreed that hereafter paper money—to be issued from a central government bank—will be legal tender. Her motives also are almost identical. While the rest of the world was bumping along on the bottom of the great depression, the ancient land of Cathay was fairly prosperous. Silver was cheap. That meant high domestic prices but cheap exchange which made for a bountiful export business. Then the United States adopted anew silver policy. Its silver purchases began steadily to boost the price of China's monetary base. And it did to China precisely what steadily mounting gold prices had previously done to the United States. It brought on severe internal deflation, bankruptcies, unemployment, adverse trade balances, dwindling government revenue and all the phenomena we have come to associate with “hard times.” For months the government at Nanking has been debating the present step. Asa result Chinese exchange of late has been steadily falling and .domestic prices just as steadily rising. A month ago an American dollar would buy less than $2.60 Chinese. Yesterday it was quoted at $3.20. That is about where it should be and apparently where Nanking hopes to peg it.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT "■ By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

A MOVIE critic explains the extravagant use of military propaganda in today’s films in this fashion: “The men of the cinema deal in commerce as well as art. Hence, the commercial theory behind these pictures seems to be that people with war hysteria hot in their nostrils like to have their emotions scraped the right way.” We could accept this explanation if the major part of the output were destined for Europe. But certainly the nostrils of our people are not yet entirely distended by the snortings of war—although they may be soon if the moving picture people continue their present schedules. Only one hopeful sign I can see. It is probable that we shall become so bored with fighting scenes that we can give no response when the real thing comes along. Such a reaction is possible in our age. Joyce Kilmer’s lovely poem about trees became a laughing stock with its repetition by dullards and amateurs. There is no honorable sentiment which can not be made farcical with too much use. So continued picturization of war business could, I believe, become so wearisome that men might grow to think of it as a nuisance instead of the high and holy crusade it is now called. At any rate, if the commercial minded cinema men kept a finger on the American pulse they would discover that our hearts still beat for peace. To find this out, they need only listen to the sighs, even the audible groans of a middle-class audience when the one thousandth picture of H Duce in military pose flashes upon the screen, or we are regaled again with a view of tanks blundering over grass lands, or of massed men stepping about with automaton precision. It is possible to grow very tired of seeing one’s government always represented by a big gun. And when the flag is used a background for a battleship, as it was in all the Navy Day programs, there comes a suspicion to the common man’s mind that perhaps the flag has been maligned. I never saw a crook yet who did not point an accusing finger at somebody else and say he himself was small fry or a virtuous busings man.—Thomas E. Dwey, New York "racket" prosecutor. V'.,-. s

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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Forum of The Times I icholly disapprove of ivhat 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, reunions controversies excluded. Make vour letters short, so all con have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld on reouest.) 808 THE AAA BRINGS NO CHEERS HERE From P. F. Well, I see that the farmers have again taken the pauper’s oath. All they have to do now is do nothing; the poor consumer will raise the money with which to pay them for doing nothing and in addition will pay higher prices for the food he eats. The AAA officials, headed by Roosevelt himself, say that the scarcity was caused by the drought, not the slaughter of pigs and the plowing under of grain. I had SIOO dollars. I spent SOO in riotous living; then a thief stole $5 of the $lO I had left. Then my creditors came and demanded their money and I told them that I could not pay them because a thief had robbed me. Just as much sense to this as in saying that the drought, not the slaughter and plowing under, has caused the scarcity of pork and grain. If the farmer is getting a raw deal from the tariff, why don’t they change it? Why should or.e class of citizens be doubly taxed to help the farmer or ny other class of citizens? Don’t talx about the morale of the men on relief; the farmer’s morale also is shot when he demands from the government something for which he did not work. Let’s all take the pauper's oath now. YES, THE BA STILE CAN CURE SOME SINS By H. T. K. Can driving be made safer by good policing? Some seem to despair of improvement. Yet when the police of Pittsburgh received orders to take drunken offenders to the station and lock them up, regardless of their social or political connections, there was a sharp drop in accidents. Two socialites got a taste of prison, one a man, the other a woman. Formerly, a summons to appear was considered sufficient. Now, when offenders know they will be locked up, pending release on bail, they are more careful. Every city has a group of people j who carry sheriffs or police chief's | “courtesy" cards and feel they thus j gain immunity. By treating all alike i and with enough severity, police can make the streets safer. 000 AN ANSWER FOR OUR “ANTI-BROUN” FRIEND By What’i of a Liberal “Anti-Broun" in the Nov. 1 Forum indicates his disagreement with “Liberal" and the writer, in regard to the Broun column. Were it not for the fact that "Anti-Broun" bases his conclusions Oldest Thing BY M. The oldest thing is named a tree. But I believe it is my love for thee, Because my heart for you did ever bleed Long, long before there even grew a seed.

THE DODGER

Here's a Plan to Reduce Accidents

By F. G. Leach. Frankfort I am only a working man, and two years ago I bought an auto and learned to drive it. Last May my age compelled me to retire from work. This gave me ample time and opportunity to read of the auto accidents, the fatalities, and the regulations that control auto traffic, and to study them from every angle. When I see the death rate increasing, the number of drunken drivers gaining, and death and suffering growing more terrible, my interest becomes intense. I can not resist the call made for suggestions to help stop this slaughter. I beg to submit the following. These auto accidents are almost all avoidable. The signing of pledges will not help. We must force all motorists to drive carefully all the time. This can btdone only in one way. You may at first think it absurd, but if you study it thoroughly I think it will stand the test. My plan is to revoke all rights on all thoroughfares, highways and on all cross-roads of every kind, and at all intersections except those supplied with electric

on two widely divergent premises, ths writer would certainly not consider the matter of sufficient general interest to make reply. Certainly Broun nor any other writer is going to please the entire reading public. Undoubtedly Broun does have a sense of humor, I am rather surprised, however, that “Anti-Broun”

Questions and Answers

Inclose a S-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 bo 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 —Who wrote the theme song of the motion picture, “Bird of Paradise’’? A—“ Out of the Blue,” composed by Max Steiner. The lyric was by Edward Eliscu. Q —What is the maximum weight of catfish? A—A fish weighing 150 pounds was caught at St. Louis, Mo., ifi 1878. Others have been reported to weigh 180 to 200 pounds. Q —Where was the first silk mill established in the United States? A—The Mansfield Silk Cos., at Mansfield, Conn., erected by Rodney and Horatio Hanks in 1810, was the first. It was a building 12 feet by 12 feet, to make sewing silk and twist by machinery they had invented. Q —What is the Aquarian Gospel? A—One of the many apocryphal gospels which came down from the early Christian centuries. Q —How old is W. C. Fields, the actor? A—He was born in 1879. Q —Was Thomas Jefferson wealthy at the time of his death? A— His debts amounted to $20,000, when he retired as President, contracted in an over-generous maintenance of his position. After the destruction of the Library of Congress by the British in 1814, he

stop-and-go signs or where traffic officers are stationed. This will force all drivers to realize that they are compelled to depend entirely on their own careful driving for their own personal safety, that all have equal rights and an equal chance, one with the other. Then all will drive carefully. Then punish all who drive while intoxicated, by revoking their driving license for one year for the first offense, and lor the remainder of their lives for the second offense. It also will help limit speed on all state and government roads to 45 miles an hour and on county roads to 30 miles an hour. Large signs should be placed at all cross-roads, high enough to be seen at a distance of 1200 feet. These suggestions, if put in effect, will reduce traffic accidents 75 per cent and fatalities to a minimum. As one who loves his country and fellowmen, let me beg you not to throw this in the basket, but to lend your best efforts and your greatest energy to getting this enacted into law and in force as quickly as possible to relieve suffering humanity.

would ask that he, Broun, classify himself ?, 100 per cent humorist or stand to face the charge of being cockeyed and a radical. I am not so sure, but I am rather of the opinion that I have, from time to time, met some plain and garden varieties of radicals. Speaking generally, I would not say that

sold to the nation for $23,950 about 13,000 volumes of his own collection. Later he was threatened with bankruptcy, and a national subscription of $16,500 was raised in 1826, but a few months after his death, his furniture, silver, pictures, and home “Monticello,” were sold to pay his debts. Q —Who is the American Consul General at Havana, Cuba? A—Charles R. Cameron of New York. Q—What is steam? A—The invisible gas or vapor into which water is converted when heated to the boiling point. Q—How many stars can be seen with the naked eye? A —The number visible to the average unaided eyes is between 5000 and 6000. Q--How large is Cayuga Lake in New York State? A—Thirty-eight miles long and the average width is two miles, and four miles is the maximum; the greatest ascertained depth is 390 feet. Q—Does human slavery exist in Ethiopia? A—Yes. Q —Give the address of the National Council for the Prevention of War. A—532 17th-st, N. W„ Washington, D. C. Q—Was Primo Camera held responsible for the death of Ernie Schaaf after their fight at Madison Square Garden in February, 1933? A—Schaaf died in a New York hospital after collapsing in the thirteenth round. Cagnera was absolved of any bkune.

a sense of humor is a distinguishing characteristic, it is just natural, I suppose, for any one with a mid-dle-of-the-road viewpoint to consider a radical or a liberal cockeyed. We are cockeyed because we don’t agree with them and humorists because we criticise the present economic setup. A share-cropper, in his last ragged suit, consisting of cotton shirt and pants, plows under cotton. A packing house laborer renders pigs into fertilizer, goes hungry because he can't afford pork. Children suffer because of malnutrition, yet we are told we have an overproduction of wheat. Cast a few verbal brickbats at such .’diocy and ons is cockeyed. Hint that there is jus*'the bare possibility of something being awry: “Impossible! They must be joking.” By this time, if “Anti-Broun” has read this far he will be saying to himself, “Just another radical.” Personally, I am not interested in labels, Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Communist or 100 per centism. While my forefathers sittled in Indiana when their neighbors were the first and only 100 per cent Americans, I have no chest-ex-panding pride in that particular fact. We have some “Mayflower” families, but very little of the “Mayflower” brand of intestinal fortitude. Daily Thought Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall :n no wise enter therein—St. Luke 18:17. THE clew of our destiny, wander where we will, lies at the foot of the cradle.—Richter.

SIDE GLANCES

-j - : *5,-’ fHT liu.fr “Don’t worry, he’s not to fire me. He knows half his customers would follow me over to Kelly’s Coffee Pot.”

NOV. 7, 1935-

Washington Merrv-Go- * Round

BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN. WASHINGTON. Nov. 7. For more than a month political Washington has been agitated by insistent predictions of a sensational Cabinet shakeup. Some reports have It that the President plans a drastic revamping of his official family that will eliminate most of its members. Other reports number the casualties af cniy two or three—which is muc& more likely. Reported Cabinet changes are an old Washington phenomenon. Some* times they occur, most often the/ don’t. However, there is more be* hind the present report than mer• wish-thinking. The fact is that live President would like to clean house in his Cabinet. Despite his conviction that this “tightening" is necesssary, the Presi ident has not as yet made up h# mind when to do so. Within the inner circle there is • a sharp difference of opinion. One side wants “The Skipper” to wield the ax without delay. They argus that lack of administrative effecr tiveness and efficiency is one of the major weaknesses of the New Deal and the sooner it is strengthened the better. Cleaning house beforft the campaign would rob the Repub* licans of a telling argument. 0 0n HERE is the line-up of individual members of the Cabinet an<| how they stand with their chief: ~ SECRETARY" OF STATE COR* DELL HULL—Satisfactory to tit* President, who regards him with genuine affection. There is no thought in the President’s mind of his elimination. A whispered story that Hull is planning to retire anj attempt a return to the Senate next year is without foundation. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY HENRY MORGENTHAU The one man in the Cabinet who is sure to stay when changes, if any, are made. Morgenthau, more than any other, is the President’s per* sonal choice. Reports that he wilt be “kicked upstairs” to a diplomatic post are silly. SECRETARY OF WAR GEORGE DERN—Practically all Secretaries of War are mere figureheads and Dern is r j exception. He fills his role quietly and amiably and there is no rrason for his ouster—unless he himself desires to quit. ATTORNEY GENERAL HOMER CUMMINGS—One of the glaring weak spots of the Cabinet, a fact fully known to the President. His replacement is certain sooner or later, with practically all of the President’s advisers hoping it will lie sooner. Latest report is that Senator Barkley will step into Cummings’ shoes. 000 POSTMASTER GENERAL JAMES FARLEY—His impending retirement is a settled matter. Jim is not, however, departing as soon as is generally believed. The plan is for him to carry on until early next spring, just before the national convention gets under way. Farley’s most likely successor is Frank Walker, head of the National Emergency Council. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY CLAUDE SWANSON—’The admirals run the Navy, which is entirely satisfactory to Swanson and the President. Swanson will stav. SECRETARY OF INTERIOR HAROLD ICKES—The member most rumored to be headed for the ax. There is anew crop of reports of his forthcoming decapitation practically every week. The latest story is that he will step out in January on the excuse of ill health and be replaced by Undersecretary Charles West. There is no more foundation to this story than any of the manv others regarding Ickes. SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE HENRY WALLACE—Stands ace high with the President. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE DANIEL ROPER—Runs neck and neck with Cummings for honors as the least desirable man in the Cabinet. However, Roper, a conservative, smooth glad-hander, and wily politico, has his definite uses, SECRETARY OF LABOR CES PERKINS—Has created a soitf taste throughout the Administration. Her department is efficiently and ably operated—thanks to Assistant Secretary Edward McGrad/, who handles all labor problems, an£ Dr. Isador Lubin, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Her d<> parture at an early date is likel/. i Copyright. 1935. by United Featuas i Syndicate. Inc.)

By George Clark