Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 265, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 January 1936 — Page 11
It Seems to Me HEM BUKIN "XT ARIETY, usually the most veracious of journals, * tends to mislead the public mind In its current Issue. I was shocked to read under a Knoxville dateline a dispatch which said, "Sally Rand and Heywood Broun played separate spots here last night (Monday)—Miss Rand at the Lyric and Broun at the Labor Temple. Miss Rand played ,o 1000 people— Broun had around 100 listeners." And upon this the weekly has set the caption "Heywood, Get a Fan!" Factually Variety’s story is
accurate enough, but it is spiritually erroneous. I did not “play a spot” in Knoxville. I appeared before the Central Trades and Labor Council, and besides, the room will hold only 100. Moreover —and this, I think, is a serious omission—the Knoxville correspondent suppresses the fact that Miss Rand and I appeared jointly in a radio interview just half an hour before her performance began. No wonder she had 1000 people. We were co-operating and not competing artists. Whatever is newspaper work coming to? This is not digression
Heywood Broun
but a pertinent inquiry. The News-Sentinel, which was my host and counselor and haven in Knoxville, has just bought a broadcasting station, and so a reporter, even a visiting one may suddenly find himself switched from rewrite to radio and back again. Perhaps I was not wholly adjusted to thus new dispensation, for I was a little startled after a hard day at Norris Dam to find in my letter box at the hotel a note from my local chief reading, “Please report at the station at 6:30 and interview Miss Sally Rand." a a a Good Old Tradition MY first thought was to beg off on the ground that I had an engagement to appear at the Labor Temple. Indeed, I tried, but my chief said, “You will have at least ten minutes to get there at the end of the interview. And, besides, you seem to forget that this is for the paper.” Naturally, I blushed. For a passing moment I had forgotten that fine old journalistic adage by which newspaper men have lived and died —“The broadcast must go on!” The deadline was only half an hour distant, and so I seized a pencil and some copy paper and rushed to the suite of Sally Rand. And even as I rushed I wrote down pertinent and original queries, such as, “Would you mind telling us, Miss Rand, how you first got your start?” Although the minute hand went round and round (ooh-hoo) on feathery feet, Sally Rand seemed not at all disturbed by the fact that we lacked both rehearsal and material. At least, as she pointed out, we had each other. * n a Beauty to the Rescue IN another 10 minutes the station announcer was putting us on the air. My voice trembled as I began, “Miss Sally Rand, you and I are visitors in Knoxville, and I suppose we have both come here because we are interested in the conservation of natural resources." “Why, Mr. Broun,” said Sally Rand, “whatever do you mean?” Suddenly I was afflicted with the worst case of mike fright I have ever had in my life. The trouble was that I had my Sally Rand questionnaire all mixed up with my Labor Temple speech. She sensed the fact that I had gone dry and quickly came to my rescue. “You were about to ask me how I got my start, and lam going to tell you.” And she did. No wonder she had 1000 people at her theater. (Copyright, 1938) Citizens Puzzled by Actions of Court BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, Jan. 14. When Congress is was made to look foolish by its rules, as during a Senate filibuster, for instance, people say that was to have been expected and why don’t they change their silly rules. But when the creaking judicial machinery stalls in the middle or the road, we are supposed to look the other way and trust that Divine Providence will quickly get everything working again.
The august processes of the law are surrounded with so much •numbo - jumbo that the modern citizen, like the primitive worshipper of the witch-doctor, is unable to look at them with the cold, practical eye which he turns on other affairs of his government. So he can only stand bewildered and wondering at the sad predicament into which the doomed Bankhead compulsory cotton control act has fallen. The noose slipped. The culprit is left
dangling, actually ha If-dead but officially still alive, to wriggle until they finally cut him down. A week ago, In vetoing AAA, the Supreme Court indicated that It thought the Bankhead Act was even worse than the late AAA. But the Bankhead Act was not involved in that case so the court could not pass directly upon it. tt tt THIS week, however, the Bankhead Act did come up. Some time ago the court issued a writ of certiorari, agreeing to hear the case. Arguments were made. But after due deliberation the court announced yesterday that the plaintiff had failed to make a case for equitable relief and should be left to his legal remedy. In view of this, the court said it had issued its writ of certiorari “improvidently.” and dismissed the case without passing upon the constitutionality of the law. Now the court must wait until someone else comes in and shows that he has been irreparably injured and has no other recourse. When that is done, the court will be able to say whether it thinks the Bankhead Act is unconstitutional. One other case is pending in the court involving the Bankhead Act. It was brought by Gov. Talmadge of Georgia, who protested against applying the compulsory cotton act to cotton grown on the state prison farm. The prison farm refused to apply for the government tax-exemption tags which must be affixed to all cotton which is transported in interstate commerce, and the railroad wouldn’t haul the cotton. If by any chance the court does not regard that case as bringing up legitimately the issue of constitutionality, then it will have to hold its tongue awhile longer until some case does present the question. Eventually it is probable that a case carrying the proper legal technicalities will come up so that the court will be able finally to say whether the language of the Bankhead Act, which is nearly two years old, squares with the Constitution. ma v T‘HIS is only one of the many instances recently which point to the practical need of simplifying judicial procedure so that if the Supreme Court is to continue to exercise vet..! power over legislation, the veto can be obtained within a reasonable time and not two or three years after the law in question has gone into operation. There are many illogical and foolish practices in our government and none more so than the procedure which now requires the secretary of agriculture to go on functioning, fixing cotton quotas, preparing for another cotton crop year in comformity to a law of the land which he has good* reason to suspect will at some later date be vetoed by the Supreme Court But we still go on complacently requiring that a man violate the law, or suffer irreparable damage from it before we can find out whether It is a law or only another mistake by Congress.
BY ARCH STEINEL TTHE dream-book is thumbed with alacrity on Indiana-av. A In homes, East Side, West Side, and all around the town they’re discussing one subject, “ —when we get the bonus!” Mental radios with the dialing efficiency to pick up the strains of a “uke” on a Hawaiian beach or a German band in Berlin, are purchased. Automobiles, as swift as ma-chine-gun bullets, are parked in thought in garages to take the place of the old model “bus.” —And all of this happens in Indianapolis and Indiana under the one focal point of discussion, “When we get the bonus,” as conned fore and aft by World War veterans and their families.
The $6,597,000 due Marion County World War veterans already is spent—at least in dreams and on paper— although the United States Senate has not passed the bonus measure and despite the fact that both houses of Congress may be compelled to rush the measure through a second time over a possible presidential veto. Stop the first five war veterans you meet and put the question to them, “What are you going to do with your bonus money?” and you’ll find four out of five of them have the money spent even if it’s only to pay off bills that have accumulated. n u it AS for the fifth man he may be C. O. Harrison, 1210 W. 18thst, a barber at 28 Kentucky-av, who still believes in the old adage “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” “My bonus will probably go like the first half I received in ‘dribs’ and ‘dribs’ to pay bills,” says Mr. Harrison as he bore down on his razor in a broad sweeping of lather from the face of a customer. The canny Mr. Harrison is rivalled by William Strang, 35, 510 E. Ohio-st, who, admitting to Hoosier nativity, declares that the bonus money will cause him to shake the clay of White River from his shoes and find him using his overseas bounty of slßl to purchase an acre of land in the hills of Arkansas. it it a TUST a fuzzy-faced boy of 18 ** when he entered the Army, “Bill” Strang served his six months “hitch” overseas, as he says, “just long enough to say hello and good-by to the mademoiselles of France.” Married, he’s fought the Battle of Depression, first as a primber and steam-fitter, and now as :< checker on a Works Progress Administration project on White River. Plumbing went to “pot” and Strang’s job did, too. He tied on to the relief rolls and now has a $13.75 weekly job which he says “just about keeps a man starving for a living.” Bonus! When you say that smile—at Strang! For he smiles as he sees in the money he’ll get a way to independence in having his own acre of ground in the Arkansas hills to raise chickens and “things." it a a “'T'HE next time I use a pick and shovel I’m going to do it raising something for myself. The first half of my bonus money kept us in groceries for a year,” he said. Nor has his “back-to-the-farm” movement embittered him against the present Washington Administration. “You don’t bite the hand that’s feeding you,” he said. Trucks, laden with river silt trundled noisily past him, and his “so-long” was a “see me in Arkansas.” Two miles away in a whitepainted room at 730 E. Washing-ton-st a doctor tapped the chest of Clem Hott, Atlanta, Ind., prospective Navy recruit, and took his blood pressure. it a THE doctor’s own blood pressure has risen with each successive headline in newspapers telling of the bonus action in Congress. “No fur coats, automobile or radio—that’s out when I get my bonus,” says the doctor, Lieut. H. D. Templeton, medical officer of the Indianapolis Navy recruiting station. “Os course,” hedged Lieut. Templeton, “the will is strong but the flesh is weak.” . But with this admission he was quick to say that his bonus is a “little nest-egg that my wife and I have been loooking forward to as aiding in the education of our boy, McCormack, 12, and our girl, Cynthia Jane, 9. * 9 “IIIE haven’t gotten to the VV point where we’ve studied all my bonus papers and figured
Clapper
Fall Leased Wire Service of the United Press Association
BONUS ALL SPENT FOR HOOSIERS
New Cars, Rose-Covered Bungalows Among Things ‘Purchased *
BENNY
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The Indianapolis Times
out the exact amount I’m to get. My original bonus was $1554,” he explained. Dr. Templeton deserted his World War love, the Army, to serve in the Navy. During the World War he served with Base Hospital 53 in France. “We’re planning on sending the boy away to prep school next year and the bonus will help do that,” he said. He denied suffering insomnia because of the black headlines that relate each victory of the bonus forces. “I feel sure the bonus ■will be paid—and it’ll be this year,” he asserted. tt u OUT on Cold Spring-rd in the U. S. Veterans’ Hospital, a nurse moves among her patients and sees a home in California among the orange blossoms and perennial sunshine which should be called “Bonus Lodge.” Miss Edith Baldwin, former Army nurse, who served overseas in such war-torn sectors as the Marne, is eligible for a S7OO bonus. To her this spells nothing less than a rose-bowered bungalow. “ —and as I’ve got the car to travel in, I’ll be out nothing for transportation,” she adds. Miss Baldwin, with of contact with war veterans and soldiers in veterans’ hospitals, is confident that the bonus money will not be wasted. tt it it “npHEY won’t gamble it away. It’ll do a lot for them. It’s a debt that should have been paid a long time ago and now is the time they can use it,” she says. “Os course, my California bungalow isn’t in the near future and then spring will soon be here and they do say the stores will show some nice dresses in the spring. So—,” and the “so” means only that the payment of her bonus might boost the sales of some clerk in a “ready-to-wear” department of a downtown store. Lift the roofs from hundreds of homes in Indianapolis tonight, slice a building—any building—and eavesdrop on the occupants, play mouse and sneak into clubrooms and lodges—the conversation invariably will be on that enticing subject, “When we getwthe bonus!” j WOMAN ASSUMES DUTY AS LODGE PRESIDENT Mrs. Ella Almond New Head of Catherine Merrill Tent No. 9. Mrs. Ella Almond today assumed her duties as president of Catherine Merrill Tent No. 9, following installation services last night. Other officers are Mrs. Mary Alice Short and Mrs. Lula Hendrickson, vice presidents; Mrs. Henry E. Neal, secretary; Mrs. Anna Davis, treasurer; Mrs. Pearl Hasman, patriotic instructor; Mrs. Florence B. Roberts, chaplain; Mrs. Bertha Didway, musician; Mrs. Jessie Rogers, press correspondent, and Mrs. Jelma Niles, Mrs. Emma Akers and Mrs. Pearl Keaton, council members. INDIANA U. GRADUATE JOINS FEDERAL BUREAU Frank Salzarulo, Richmond, on Publicity Staff of R. R. A. Timet Special BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Jan. 14. Frank Salzarulo, Richmond, a 1935 Indiana University graduate, has been named to the publicity staff of the Rural Resettlement Administration, according to word received here from Washington. Formerly a member of the editorial staff of the Indiana Daily Student, Salzarulo had held a position with the Department of Justice since his graduation last June. BUREAU REPORTS 45 AIRPORTS IN STATE 18 Fields in Indiana Are Partially or Fully Lighted The United States Bureau of Air Commerce reported today that there at 45 airports and landing fields in Indiana, as of Jan. 1, and of these 18 are partially or fully lighted. Breaking up the figures, the bureau found 13 municipal airports and landing fields, 16 commercial, eight intermediate, four auxiliary, two army and two miscellaneous government, private and state.
INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1936
lyflr
C. O. Harrison, barber (upper left) may have his customer in a lather, but he’s not working himself into one over the bonus question. William Strang, WPA checker (upper right), counts the trucks on a White River levee project, but between times takes mental hand-springs counting what he’s going to do with his World War bonus. Lieut. H. D. Templeton, 3518 Evergreen (lower), Navy medical officer, is obtaining the blood pressure of a prospective "gob,” but his own blood pressure soars at thought of what his bonus for army service during the war will do for his two children.
Washington Merry-Go-Round BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14.—The AAA decision blotted from sight a signal court victory won by the New Deal in its fierce struggle with utilities over enforcement of the Holding Company Act. Several hours after the Supreme Court had blasted the farm act, Justice Jennings Bailey of the District of Columbia Supreme Court handed down a decision granting the government’s plea to bar utilities from bringing suits against the Holding Company Act in Washington. The effect of this ruling is to give the government the full right of way to push before the Supreme Court the case it has selected to test the constitutionality of the law. This is a suit brought in New York by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Electric Bond and Share. Seven suits filed by utilities were directly affected by Justice Bailey’s decision, and more than 50 others were waiting to be filed had he held against the government. So important was the action considered by the Administration that Atty. Gen. Cummings personally argued the government’s case. On any other day but the fateful one for the AAA, Justice Bailey’s decision would have been front-page news. But the scuttling of the farm act blanketed it from view—much to the anguish of jubilant New Dealers. Complained Mr. Cummings: “If only the decision had come down
a day or two later, then we could have got the right publicity for it.” tt tt tt F. D. R. Orders Humor AUTHOR of the President’s Jackson Day dinner speech was Steve Early, White House secretary for press relations. Steve brought the speech in to the President at about 3 o’clock of the day it was to be delivered. Mr. Roosevelt read it over carefully, commented: “Pretty good, Steve, but it’s too dry. Take it out and put some humor in it.” u tt u Snub by Shah T3ROBABLY the most unusual orders ever sent a diplomatic representative to a friendly government have just been received by Ghaffar Khan Djalal, Iranian (Persian) Minister, recalled after being handcuffed on a traffic charge by Elkton (Md.) police. Because the Shah of Persia was displeased at Secretary Cordell Hull’s lukewarm apologies, he first ordered his minister home. But now the shah has sent a second older. Until he actually leaves Washington, Minister Djalal shall attend no function at the White House. The shah will have nothing to do with a President who does not respect the diplomatic sanctity of his minister. Under international law, a minister represents his president or sovereign personally, and the shah has taken the arrest of Djalal as an insult to his own person.
Grandpa Roosevelt 'T'HE President is about to increase his claim on the title of “grandfather.” Sarah Roosevelt, 3-year-old daughter of James, the President's eldest son, will soon have a baby brother or sister—she hopes the former. nun Fires on New Deal MISS CORA RUBIN, able, handsome secretary to William E. Borah, does not like New Dealers and makes no bones about it. A reporter, knowing her antipathy, asked her “how come” she permitted the name of “Mike Straus” to remain scratched on the door of Borah's office. “Oh,” said Miss Rubin, unconcerned. “he is a newspaper man who did that several years ago. Pools must . . .” “Bui he isn’t a newspaper man any more. Hasn’t been roi a long time. He is now publicity man for the Public Works Administration.” “What?” shouted Miss Rubin. “The PWA, a New Dealer? Why, the idea of having his name on our door!” With that she leaped up, dashed to the door, vigorously scribbled over the name with a heavy, black pencil until it was completely obliterated. ‘ There,” she remarked decisively, “at least no one will be able to read it any more. (Copyright. 193. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.).
By J. Carver Pusey
Second Section
Entered ax Seeond-Clasx Matter at Postofflce, Indianapolis. Ind.
Fair Enough WESnMH OARIS, Jan. 14.—The criminality of “those incorrigible Americans" continues to fascinate our friends the English and French, who often marvel at the audacity of people who calmly walk American streets at night, with machine guns popping at every corner, and raise children subject to risks of kidnaping. The flight of E. L. C'ird and the Lindberghs, followed now by that of Miss Marlene Dietrich, German moving picture actress, have stirred their imagination.
However, a conscientious inquiry by a good English or French journalist stationed in the United States might have suggested auxiliary’ reasons why Mr. Cord, the rutomobile and stock promoter and aviation magnate, found it preferable to spend some time in Europe. True, he left at a time when kidnaping was more or less of a household word, and it was possible that he did receive threats. But Mr. Cord had business interests at home which impinged on certain matters which came within the purview of Mr. Roose-
velt's reforms. He remained abroad for the safety of his children during a period when other financiers were sitting in the hot seat in Washington. Now he returns at a time when the heat has been turned off and Big Business is enjoying a breathing spell, although it can hardly be claimed, in view of Miss Dietrich’s alarm, that the peril of kidnaping finally has been allayed. a tt There May Be Other Reasons THE tragedy of the Lindbergh child can not be denied, but we get all sorts of Germans in the United States. We get an occasional German actress with a preference for pants and a full desire for cheap publicity and an occasional German murderer with a record of two convictions in the Fatherland, one of them for robbing a woman who was pushing a baby carriage. The aesthetic gain from Miss Dietrich s art, including the spectacle which she created in her pants, has been fully compensated, if not a trifle more so, by the American career of that other German who stole a baby out of its bed and killed it. If Miss Dietrich is returning to Germany to escape from crime, she should find contentment there. Crime is not extinct in either Germany or Italy, but it is a state monopoly in both countries. Thus, when a man is taken from his home at night in the Fatherland or in Italy and shot by persons unknown, that is an act of patriotism. The kidnaping of children of tender years, however, is unthinkable on various grounds, including patriotism. If Miss Dietrich has a boy, Adolf Hitler will wish to raise him strong and healthy to be called m a war. If she has a girl, the Fatherland will want her to run a lathe in a munitions factory. I am not losing sight of the fact, either, that Miss Dietrich has been around for quite a few years now and is growing no younger. She might be near the time when it would be necessary for her to retire from the scene, anyway. a a Where Is Their Gratitude? T NOTE that the French exploitation of the AmeriA can problem of lawnessness differs in tone from tne constant English discussion of the subject French courts, being dominated by their politicians! are no mere independent than ours, and the quality of their judges is much inferior, because a French ls the ro° st disreputable politician of them aIJL The French, therefore, read of and discuss Amerlcan crime strictly for enjoyment, whereas I am afra'd I detect in British comment a strong note of hypocrisy and envy. nroTw En ! p „ apers with the greatest circulation whirS tw a u empt t 0 imitate the sensationalism press 1 th y SlmU taneously de P lor e in the American Having no decent crime stories of their own thev ours 11 secms * Wile unlractoS of the beys to repay these favors with perpetual 31 a nati ° n which gives them such treasures Flr?r! mUrders and the works of “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Bonnie Parker.
Gen. Johnson Says—
YORK, Jan. 14.—The essence of the AAA opinion was that the Federal government ran't regulate farm production-either by fiat or by buying compliance with Federal regulation. That was about the only unmistakable decision in the whole opinion. The rest of it not only left a way open to other kinds of farm relief but pointed out the way. This week is critical because continued relief for agriculture is a national necessity. Why does the Administration again have to go as straight as a hiving bee to anew collision with the Court? Instead of takmg some of the obvious constitutional paths, why does it immediately advance the subterfuge of soil conservation,” basing anew plan to do the forb dden thmg-regulate production-on a scheme to purchase compliance with an invalid Federal rule’ It is bad for farmers because it imperils their interest. It is bad for the Administration because it confirms the charge of its enemies that it is unconstitutional at heart. A DIRECT subsidy of farm prices not for export , t ? ut for domestic consumption is readily poshefe' That would do nothing to encourage us dissipate our fertility” on European markets I invented that “nifty” fifteen years ago. If farmers over-produce for the non-subsidized export market they get less for their crop. Price is the only successful production control. Mr. Wallace seems determined still to seize the arbitrary power to dictate the croppage of 6 000 000 farms. That is wrong, first, because it is impracticable, and second, because it has just been declared unconstitutional. The recent decisions of the Court show how the principles of the New Deal can be constitutionally applied. Mr. Roosevelt’s high purpose is being frustrated by the incompetence of his legal advisers and his administrators. (Copyright. 1938, by Onlted Feature Syndicate. Inc.).
Times Books
“TpLAMETHROWERS,” by Gordon Friesen, is a first novel which is well worth reading. It is overlong and confused, but it is passionate and real, and it has some passages of genuine beauty; and that, after all, is a good deal mere than you can say for most novels these days. <Caxton Printers, $3.50), Mr. Friesen tells about a German family from the Russian Ukraine, which fled from the capricious despotism of the czar, back around 1900, to find happiness in America. Tragedy dogs the family’s footsteps from the start. A child is killed as they flee across the Russian border. Then, settling in the great American wheat belt, they make the disheartening but natural discovery that Kansas is not Russia. The homely amenities of the village life they had known are gone; in their place is the rawness and crudity natural to a frontier community. They feel isolated and alone; they withdraw from one another and grope for some escape from life’s cruelties. • Mr. Friessen not only presents a fine picture of a bewildered immigrant family trying fruitlessly to adjust itself to American life; he goes beyond that to discuss the heartaches which any sensitive human being must suffer in oming to terms with life anywher > . (By Bruce Cat ton).
Westbrook Pegler