Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 263, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 January 1936 — Page 10

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The Indianapolis Times (A scnirrs-nowAKn newspai*ek> ROY W. HOWARD I’rfMdent LUDWKLL PENNY Editor EARL D. RAKER . ........ Business Manager

t*cnipp^^fowAj*D One lAi/ht an'l the People Will Find Their Own Way

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SATURDAY. JANUARY 11. 1936. PENDLETON’S LOSS THE sympathy of the whole state goes out to the town of Pendleton, which has suffered what would be a major disaster in any community. For Pendleton the explosion means just what an explosion in the City Hall of Indianapolis would mean. The ascribed cause is unique. If it is true that it was the accidental lighting of sewer gas it should have the attention of fire authorities throughout Indiana. The Times hopes that the town, either through its own resources or by Federal aid, will be able to replace its center of civic activities at once. THE CONVENTION CITY THE National Geographical Society could not have made a better choice of a national convention city for the Democrats than their national committee made. In 1934 the party captured Pennsylvania for the first time In 40 years, electing socialite, wealthy but humane George H. Earle Governor. It defeated the Vare, Grundy, Mellon political machine, which was something, considering the Republicans had the money, a majority of the newspapers and were able to buy more time on the radio. • To hold the convention in the state standing next to the top in electoral votes is to gain the maximum of favorable publicity in the citadel of Toryism. It must not be forgotten that Philadelphia, while Washington’s men were starving and freezing in Valley Forge, only a few miles distant, was distinctly British. The tory sentiment lingers on. The sum to be paid by Philadelphia business men for the convention is a trifle. Perhaps the national committee believed that if liberalism is to survive its impact should be made in the home of Philip Gadsden, who has been on the air and in the public prints as the public utility voice against the New Deal. For Roosevelt to be re-nominated in Philadelphia is smart psychology. THE RAILROAD RECORD THIRTY-SIX thousand four hundred persons killed in motor vehicle accidents in 1935 and not one railroad passenger killed. That is an impressive record for the railroads. From Harry Guy Taylor, chairman of the Western Association of Railway Executives in Chicago, comes the word that 1935 was the first year in railroad history in which no passenger had been killed. One of the remarkable accomplishments of railroading during the depression has been the maintenance of way and equipment and the morale of the trainmen, yardmen and shop workers. Observant persons who have traveled much by rail must have been surprised that there was no noticeable let down in performance among the workers. Service was curtailed here and there but the orderly routine of safety was followed almost automatically. It is fair to the trainmen and executives to point out that while the country took to repeal with a zest that produced an intolerable number of drunken drivers it did not affect safe railroading. How many passengers have detected signs of liauor on a trainman Since repeal? very few, we believe. The record of 1935 is a credit to the men who operate the American railrjads.

THE PRESIDENTIAL BALL FOR the third time people throughout the nation will dance at the President's birthday ball, proceeds of which will go to the aid of victims of infantile paralysis. Seventy per cent of the profits will be used in the states from which they come. That means that the Indianapolis ball will make money for combating the disease in this city. The remainder will go to the national fund, which furnishes direct aid and supports research. Reginald H. Sullivan is heading a Chamber of Commerce committee to prepare for the ball. The objective of this unique fund-raising makes it nonpartisan. There can be no politics when the relief of crippled children is concerned. We hope all Indianapolis citizens feeling compassion for children who need financial help in preparing for the battle of life will support this ball on Jan. 30, making it the most successful so far. Certainly if the people can spend as much as has been estimated on New Year's celebrations they can do well by balls having one of the highest altruistic reasons for being. JUST PLAYING SAFE WITH the disclosure that the du Ponts are principal investors in the American Liberty League, there occurs to us another possible reason for A1 Smith refusing to hang his Brown Derby in the White House over night. Maybe that invitation from Mrs. Roosevelt wasn’t cellophane-wrapped. ANSWERING AN ARGUMENT npHE Supreme Court, in saving an Oklahoma gas company from rate reductions, has put a crimp in one of the stock arguments agaisnt New Deal utility measures. The industry has spent much time in the last year praising state regulation as an all-wise, allpowerful protector of consumer and investor. “The tragedy of this is that none of it is necessaiy,” said Philip Gadsden, chairman of the Committee of Public Utility Executives, in opposing the Federal Holding Company Act. “All of the 48 states have the power to regulate operating companies . . . Regulation is not what the sponsors of this bill desire.” In a hundred different keys this theme song has been sung in the last year. The Administration answer is summed up in a Federal Trade Commission report to Congress: “Comparatively few states have adopted any thor-ough-going policy or system of utility regulation. Those which have done so have encountered insuperable difficulties growing out of constitutional limitations, economic developments, and the attitude of the industry and the courts.” And now the Supreme Court has supplied a little more evidence to bear out this statement. The Oklahoma utilities commission ordered the Consolidated Gas Service Cos. to reduce its ra*es from 25 to 18 cents a thousand cubic feet. The company

appealed to the Federal courts. The courts, including the Supreme Court, sustained the company. In the interests of state regulation the Johnson act was adopted several years ago, attempting to ond the power of Federal courts to set aside state rpte rulings. But this law, like many a one before it, proves to have loopholes. The people of Oklahoma, as they continue to pay gas bills their state officials say are unreasonable, will hardly believe that state regulation is all the protection they need. In maffiy other states consumers have similar evidence to ponder. LET’S NOT MISS THE POINT YI7E believe a misconception has grown up as to * * what the Senate Munitions Committee investigation of J. P. Morgan & Cos. is all about. It is looked upon too much as a head-hunting expedition; as another one of those public displays in which high finance is put on the pan, with proof of wrongdoing as the objective and sensation as the result. Actually the real purpose is, or should be, to show what part if any trade and finance played in getting us eventually into the World War, to review the experiences of 1914 to 1917, and if possible to benefit from those experiences in writing legislation that will keep us out of the next one. The fact that J. P. Morgan & Cos. happens to be the subject of the investigation is, after all, incidental. It might be any other company. The good or the bad account of the company's affairs is likewise incidental. Nothing yet has been developed to show that Morgan & Cos. did anything more than act the part of shrewd and capable financiers who, according to the code of those days, were legitimately entitled to drum up all the trade they could get. tt u tt BY 1914 to 1917 standards their activities were “good business.” If they hadn't got the business somebody else would have. And let us in our hindsight not delude ourselves now; the nation as a whole wanted the business. It was somebody else's war. Times were hard here. Export and import trade had been paralyzed. America was fiat. “Buy a bale of cotton” and all the kindred symptoms of economic distress had appeared. Then the orders started coming from abroad. First a few; growing rapidly to an avalanche; billions of them! Mars wore the clothes of Santa Claus. A boom was on, thanks to a conflict way across the seas into which we would never permit ourselves to be drawn. And so on to the time when those who were fighting ran into the problem of “What do we use for money?” Cash was getting low. Credit came next. If we were going to keep our customers and prevent a collapse we had to make loans to them. Hence such language as this from a secretary of state, writing to the President of a nation that had solemnly declared neutrality and placed a ban on loans: “We are face to face with what appears to 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. Can we afford to let a declaration as to our conception of ‘the true spirit of neutrality’ made in the first days of the war stand in the way of our naational interests, which seem to be seriously threatened?” * America wanted to have her war cake and eat it. u tt a 'T'HUS the structure was built up. Thus we got -1- into the game. And thus the force of war trade contributed to the sudden changing of our slogans from “He kept us out of war” to “Over there”; from “I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier” to “Ships and more ships.” It isn’t necessary to tell the rest of the tale—the story of death and disease, of the armless and the legless and the gassed and the blinded on the human side, and the billions in unpaid war debts and bonuses on the economic side. Never in all history was there such a ghastly self-deception as that thing which we thought was war prosperity. In the financial part of that tragic drama J. P. Morgan & Cos. played an important role. But to view this investigation merely as an inquiry into the methods of Morgan is to miss the larger lesson. And if that lesson is not learned and is not applied, now, in this Congress which is meeting while another world conflict is again in the making, we as a nation will have only ourselves to blame if we once again, and soon, find ourselves on that same old road to war.

ADVICE UNHEEDED EP. ROBERT F. RICH of Pennsylvania, who protested at the opening of Congress that the President should be heard only in broad daylight, apparently was untouched by an unkind thrust from Rep. John O’Connor last session. Mr. Rich had just given another demonstration of obstructionism when Mr. O'Connor rose to quote from Jefferson’s Manual the following passage on “Parliamentary Method of Silencing a Tedious Member”: “If a member finds that it is not the inclination of the House to hear him ... it is his most prudent way to . . . sit down; for it scarcely ever happens that they are guilty of . . . inattention to a member who says anything worth their hearing.” A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson WITH the wildfire of the Townsend Pension Plan licking at the country's grassroots, the battle between youth and age is emphasized. It is a battle which has been raging, off and on, since time began. This may not be ominous but it is certainly an unhappy condition, and its cause goes directly back to bad domestic environment and evil social standards. Hence, the old can scarcely be excused from blame in the matter. For a good many years, exponents of anew liberalism have advocated the rebellion of youth. Thousands of books were written arguing that children need feel no responsibility for the welfare or happiness of parents. There has been a steady stream of propaganda designed to incite the young to scorn their elders. The flapper age, we called it, and with its dawn good manners in juvenile circles disappeared. Only one result was possible. Where you have no manners you have no consideration for the feelings of others. There grew up a raucous, ruthless generation crying for the cutting of all apron-strings. Mothers were told to keep their noses out of their children's business. It was anew barbarism, growing out of the dark age of parental tyranny. In trying to overcome ancient evils and strike some kind of balance, America as usual rushed to the opposite extreme. Youth took a flier, and now it looks as if it might take a flop. Statisticians tell us old people are already numerically stronger. If war comes again, their ranks will be further increased, for in wars it is the young who perish. Wholesale Bohemianism, with its consequent destruction of the old-fashioned home, may have more dreadful consequences than we think. Without some such center as the home, where all ages learn tolerance and understanding of the other, there will escape from us that which makes life bearable. Neither youth nor age can dominate the world; they must work together.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Squaring The Circle With McCREADY HUSTON

T HAVE been reading in the Toledo News-Bee about Joe Collier, one! of our star reporters on The Indianapolis Times, it seems that when Joe was on the News-Bee he; wrote a New Year’s eve radio column that became a sort of news- j paper classic. It was almost a New j Year’s column to end New Year's! columns. This New Year’s the column written by Ben Mendoza of the News-Bee memorialized Joe’s achievement with an imitation of it, with due credit. It is too long to reprint here and it does not lend itself to cutting. But the idea is for a radio editor to imagine himself before his own set listening to the new year come in around the world. He has made his resolutions, among them to drink nothing but beer. While he listens he is writing his next day’s column. a tt a AS he goes on, he thinks of the many New Year's gift of fine brandies, whiskies, rums, cordials : wines and other potables that have arrived and begins sampling them. He has heard an old German saying that beer after hard liquor is bad but not before. The upshot of it is that he gets so he can not hit the typewriter keys, calls up President Roosevelt to wish him a happy New Year, and wakes up next morning under the radio set. The feature of the column is that it tails off with incoherent printed lines just as they would appear if a New Year’s ceiebrant * had written them. It is a good piece of humor, and all the better because the fellow who inspired it and the one who paraphrased it are gentle and temperate souls. a a a T ET’S get one thing settled. I made a reference to my schooling in Ann Arbor and right away I get a letter from the secretary of the University of Michigan Club, Frank H. Davis, inquiring if I arn an alumnus and inviting me to qualify and join in the club’s activities. Unfortunately I have to write Mr. Davis to say that I am not an alumnus. What happened was this, and it is typical of many persons of my time. Some years ago—l shrink from saying how many—almost any person who could read and write and had the necessary political influence, could get a common school teaching license in Pennsylvania. I was tirecl of working in the local railroad ticket office and so I went to the county superintendent, who knew my father, and asked him for a license. He gave it to me without any examination and then my father caused the school board to give me a job. a tt A LL this sounds fantastic now, but it is true. I had the ninth grade, one page ahead of the pupils all winter. When summer came my conscience suggested that I get some education to give me a semblance of teaching equipment, so I went to the University of Michigan summer school. For the information of Michigan alumni I lived at Mrs. Summers’ boarding house on State-st. This I repeated for four years. I do not recall passing any courses except one or two in English. Too much time in a canoe on the Huron; too much time on the tennis courts; two much time on the porches of the co-eds’ rooming houses. Ann Arbor was a grand summer resort. a tt t* TT'INALLY it was apparent that the Pennsylvania authorities were going to clamp down on the unprepared teachers and require some stiff formal qualifications, so I took a bow and joined the county seat newspaper as a reporter. SUCH things are impossible today and for the sake of my children I rejoice that are. a a tt BUT one thing about my education, limited though it was, has no superior today. It was Reed & Kellogg’s little yellow grammar that taught parsing and diagraming. After a fellow had been through Reed & Kellogg he at least could write a grammatical sentence. I wonder how many remember those school books?

OTHER OPINION Literature to Join Dodo ICrawfordsville Journal and Review] Booth Tarkington, who is entitled to have ideas about literature, believes that both the novel and j the poem will become extinct in a century or so. Literature, he tells an interviewer in Indianapolis, is being muscled in on by radio, and the talkies; people are going to read less and less, and the creative artist of the future is apt to write scenarios instead of books. This is an interesting forecast, and it is a reminder that what we look on as natural art forms are really of comparatively recent growth. The stage itself was a mere infant in Shakespeare’s time; the novel is of even more recent growth. There have always been poems, of course, since the days cf David and Homer; but their form and their manner of presentation have changed, and further changes are not at all impossible. i

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The Hoosier Forum 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, religious controversies excluded. Make uour lettert short, so all can hare a chance. Limit them to 2i>o ivords or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld on reauest. I tt tt tt THE TIMES WINS PRAISE OF J. EDGAR HOOVER ' By J. Edgar Hoover I have just had the pleasure of reading your editorial entitled “Light on Minneapolis." I wish to express my sincere appreciation for your kindness in publishing this editorial and assure you it is a pleasure to know of your friendly attitude toward this Bureau of the Department of Justice. Permit me to thank you for your expressions of confidence in the ability of this bureau successfully to handle violations of Federal law which come within its jurisdiction. tt tt tt LIBRARY MARRIAGE BAN’ UNFAIR, SAYS PATRON By a Library Patron I wish to comment on the unfairness and stupidity of a “marriage ban” enforced against our city librarians. No doubt this rule does not apply to library employes of the male sex. Why there should be such discrimination according to sex I fail to understand. It is my opinion that this policy is economically unsound, as it requires considerable training and experience to produce a good librarian, which is lost to society in case of marriage. I agree with other writers to The Times that librarians should have a right to a normal life. tt tt a EVIDENTLY ENJOYS PLEAS’ OUSTING By Mrs. \X. A. Collins So Pleas Greenlee walked the plank. Do you remember. Pleas, when a desperate woman asked you for a job for her husband? Or what you said? “We have no place in our organization for Democrats like you.” I retaliated, “I’ll be a good Democrat when you are forgotten.” I was desperate for work and possibly did say too much but did you ever listen to anyone? You didn’t know that Republican Warren Township went Democratic for Charles Walker because I held the club over Trustee Cooper, or because I gave of my time, energy and car without pay. Nor that I worked day and night for three months for Roosevelt or carried my precinct flve-to-one wet

Questions and Answers

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Home Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenthst, N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extend*..* research be undertaken. Q —Whr.t causes pimples on the face? A—They may result from a number of causes, especially too rich diet, including an excess of sugar and fats. They may be caused also by a skin irritation, stomach disorder, nervous disorder, or other ailments. Q —What is conglomerate rock? A—A plastic rock composed of rounded boulders in a cement of hardened clay, calcareous material, iron oxide, or silica. Q—At what hour should formal calls be made? What are the proper clothes to wear? A—Tlie hours for calling differ slightly according to localities, and it is better to be guided by the community custom. In most cities, the calling hours are from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. In some country communities formal calls are also paid in the morning from 10 to 1. The length of the call is from onequarter to three-quarters of an hour. The costume for calling need not be

INCENSE OF DEATH

for the Democrats. Still there was no place for a Democrat who stood in many defeats. They were forgotten in victory. Now, Pleas, how does it feel when there is no place for you? Also, I’d wager that neither of the three chosen can carry Indiana to a Democratic victory: Townsend, McKinney or the great Pleas, even in a national election. Honest men make clean politics. tt tt t> URGES CONTROLLED INFLATION FOR BETTER TIMES By H. L. Sceger Your editorial on the Supreme Court’s decision on the Agricultural Adjustment Act, stating that the farm problem is not essentially a political problem, is correct. The real cause of our economic crisis is the failure of our government to provide an adequate medium of exchange, to permit the transfer of goods and services from the producer to the consumer. Ask anybody why they do not buy the things they want and so badly need, and the answer is always the same, “I do not have the money.” Our commercial banks are the mints of our commercial currency, that is, “check book” money. They create and destroy this check book deposit money at will, without any control exercised by the government as to when this check book money shall be increased or diminished. Every bank loan is an inflation of the currency, and every call for payment of these loans is a deflation of the currency. Our banks have power to create 10 times the amount of “check book money,” as they have in real money. The reason we are not re-employ-ing the people on relief in private industry, and have underconsumption of farm products and manufacturers' goods, is that our commercial mints are not increasing the check book “deposit loan” currency. We are going around Robin Hood’s barn, looking for causes and cures for our failure to operate our highly efficient economic system, when the remedy is simple. When our commercial bank deposits were 27 billion in 1929, our national income was 81 billion, 3 times the bank deposits, in 1932 bank loan “check deposits” dropped to 16 billion, and our national income to 48 billion, the same ratio of 3 to 1. If the government refuses to face this basic fact, we shall sink deeper in the morass of our own creation. Our most dangerous inflation is that of “check book money.” It is totally iiTesponsible minting. So is the | calling of loans an irresponsible contraction cf the currency. All the

as informal as a severe street dress, but it is never elaborate. Q—How is Pineapple Ambrosia made? -> A—Shred one fresh pineapple with fork; cut one-half pound marshmallows into small pieces; mix pineapple and marshmallows and chill thoroughly. Before serving add one cup of heavy cream whipped with two tablespoons of sugar to pineapple mixture to which one and one-half tablespoons of lemon juice have been added. Serve at once in individual dishes. Q —ls it proper to include the name of a baby on Christmas greeting cards sent by a family? A—lt is not customary 7 , but there is no reason why the baby’s name should not be included if one wishes. Q—Has Switzerland a navy? A—No. Q—With what countries was Spain allied during the World War? A—Spain remained neutral. Q —How long are the terms of Governors of States? A—They vary from two to four years. The term of the Governor of New Jersey is three years, and in all other states it & either two or lour years.

New Deal economic controls are but child’s play until this cause of our unemployment and underconsumption is removed. We can set the rate of national income at any figure we desire for the United States, by fixing the amount of money in circulation through a Federal monetary commission. Our banks would act as warehouses for this money, storing it for customers, making a service charge for handling of these money credits as a warehouseman does for storing and handling goods, but no longer acting as mints in the creation of “check book money” and the destruction of this most important currency through the calling of loans. We now operate our economic system with “synthetic money,” not with real money which is only trivial in amount. There is no mysterious force defeating our efforts to exchange goods and services. We simply do not have the money or any substitute in circulation and that is the real story. If we do not remedy this condition our present civilization may collapse. We must act and very soon. FIRST LOVE BY HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK It was a dream of rapture and of flame; Os silver singing and of silent song. I drained each golden moment of its draught, For gold as dear as this can not shine long. You were a crystal goblet that I held Aloft to remote stars to catch your gleam. You were the wobbling crossing and the bridge, You were the mortal image of my dream. DAILY THOUGHTS He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me—St. Matthew 10:41. IF a man be gracious to strangers. it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them.— Bacon.

SIDE GLANCES

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“We’ll have to find a room pretty soon. It’s already past thelb bedtime.”

JJAN. 11, 1906

Your..: Health By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

FIRST of the vitamins is termed vitamin A. Follow a fairly good diet, and there’s no reason why you should suffer from lack of this element. Eat food that has no vitamin A and you may become subject to the condition called night blindness. Night blindness results from changes that take place in the eye. which suffers loss of a substance called visual purple. Vitamin a is found in large amounts in animal fats, butter, egg yolk, cod liver and halibut liver oil. It has been noticed in green leaves, in alfalfa, cabbage, spinach and young clover. The greener the leaves, the better they are as a source of vitamin A. Leaf lettuce is better than head lettuce, and spinach and carrot tops also are excellent sources ox vitamin A. Halibut liver oil is the natural substance with the highest concentrate of vitamin A. It is 60 times stronger than cod liver oil in its content of this vitamin. a a a ANIMALS get their vitamin A from plants or from other animals. The cow eats grass, and the milk of the cow contains vitamin A. Milk and butter made in summer are richer in vitamin A than milk and butter made in winter. In summer the cow has a richer diet of green grass. In Newfoundland and Labrador, where people live largely on white bread, dried peas, and salt meat, night blindness is exceedingly common. As the deficiency becomes greater, there develops an actual degeneration of the eye, called xerophthalmia. The same condition has been seen among coolies in India, China and Japan; in Russia, among the peasants. who undergo long periods of fasting; and in Brazil among Negro workers restricted in their diets to beans, pork fat and cornmeal. In the United States investigations have shown that there is some degree of night blindness among a considerable percentage of children who do not receive adequate amounts of vitamin A in their diet. The figures show around 25 per cent in rural areas and as much as 50 per cent in some large cities.

TODAY’S SCIENCE -BY SCIENCE SERVICE

THE beginning of 1936 sees mankind a little closer to the realization of the ancient dream of utilizire the sun’s energy as a source of power. The amount of energy received each second upon each square yard of the earth's surface exposed to the direct rays of the sun is calculated to be about one and a half horsepower. Inventors always have dreamed of harnessing the sun’s rays to some sort of engine. There are three approaches to the problem. One is mechanical. This depends upon some sort of arrangement which will concentrate the sun’s rays into a small area, utilizing the concentrated heat. The second approach is chemical. By learning how plants utilize sunlight to turn the carbon dioxide of the air and the water of the soil into sugars and starches, man may some day duplicate the process. The third approach is electrical. It is hoped to devise some means of turning sunlight into electricity. tt a u THE outstanding progress in the first class is the solar engine designed by Dr. C. G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. This employs a parabolic cylindrical mirror made of sheet aluminum, about two feet wide and six feet long. The curvature is such that it brings the sun’s rays to a focus along a line no wider than a lead pencil. At this focus is placed a pyrex glass tube within which is a second glass tube. Air is extracted from the first tube. The inner tube contains a black liquid called “arocler,” which boils at 662 degree Fahrenheit. This liquid absorbs the heat of the sun. The vacuum keeps it from escaping. The liquid is kept in motion, thus carrying its heat to a steam boiler, a heating coil, or other piece of apparatus. Experiments indicate that the device has a 15 per cent efficiency for the production of steam. The second method, artificial photosynthesis, still is a long ways off. Some progress was made in the third method during 1935.

By George Clark