Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 272, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 January 1936 — Page 12

PAGE 12

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WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 22. 1936 PAYING FOR THE BONUS T>Y its pell-mell vote for everything the veterans’ lobby demanded, Congress demonstrated just how useless it is to waste more time arguing the merits of the bonus. Congress even went so far as to write into the language of the bill elaborate “whereases" to the effect that all of the veterans’ organizations wanted the measure passed: “Therefore, be it enacted • . President Roosevelt probably will veto it. He could hardly do otherwise, .n vietv of what he said on the subject last year—all of which is applicable this year. But that also is unimportant. For it will become law, whether he vetoes it or not, for just the same reason of political pressure that the original bonus measure became law over President Coolidge's veto and the bonus loan was authorized over President Hoovers veto. So the important issue now becomes not whether the bonus bonds should have been voted, but when and how to pay the bill. The bonus adds two billion dollars to the red ink column of the current year's already unbalanced budget, bringing the total year's deficit to more than five billions. This vast increase over budgeted expenditures, together with several hundred millions decrease In budgeted receipts, by reason of the Supreme Court's invalidation of AAA processing taxes, puts up to Congress a problem which it can ill afford to postpone, election year or not. It is never good statesmanship, though sometimes It is considered smart politics, to pay out such benefits as the. bonus an crop checks to special classes of voters, and pass the bill on to future generations, rather than levy against constituents alive and voting. We believe that this is one of those times when it is not even smart politics to delay. With the public growing increasingly conscious of the dangers and burdens of a mounting public debt, congressmen who seek to postpone the reckoning will deserve—and may get—repudiation at the polls. It is not a question of whether these repeated deficits are to be taken out of the hides of the taxpayers, but of when and how. We think the taxes should be levied now. Future generations will have their own wars and their own depressions to pay for. And. we believe, the taxes should be direct, and in proportion to ability to pay, rather than hidden sales levies which penalize the poor. EDWARD VIII nnWO pictures: The first on board H. M. S. Repulse, a British cruiser carrying the Prince of Wales to South America to act as “Britain’s Royal Drummer." The vyarship is crossing the equator. The traditional hazing is in full swing. King Neptune is making “shellbacks" out of the minnows who never before had “crossed the line." Wales is haled before Neptune—a gob in makelip—flowing hair, whiskers, trident and all. As Wales approaches the throne, Neptune shoved forward his hideously ugly “daughter"—another common sailor dressed in outlandish garb. Neptune (to the Prince): “As you’ve no princess, Don't you think you oughter Take home as bride this gal of the sea, My daughter?" Wales: “Now. sire, thanks for your suggestion About your beautiful prin-cess. But may I ask you a question: Where the hell did she get that dress? But, alas, I'm forced to spurn her, Though your offer makes me proud; Yes, my King, I must return her— Pets on board are not allowed.” Here was Britain’s human Prince at his best—playing well his part in creating a warm spot in the hearts of regular folk throughout the empire. 000 THE second scene is a few months later. The Prince is touring the soul-sickening "black spots” of England—the ccal districts. Some 300.000 miners and their families, in all more than a million people, are on the verge of hunger, while the ultra-conserva-tive London press doesn't seem any too concerned about it. With grave face the Prince visits mine after mine and hovel after hovel, his face smudged with grime. “What a ghastly mess it all is," he exclaims, as he moves among his ragged, pallid subjects. “It makes me positively sick. What's the cause of all this?" he bluntly asks a miner. "Bad manageim at," comes the just as blunt reply. “This," the Prince says grimly, “can't go on. It’s a blot on England." And it didn't go on: It began to be remedied. ana WE recall these scenes because they seem to us to present two very significant phases of the life of the empire's new monarch. At 41, he knows life as have few rulers of Britain. When responsibility rested on other shoulders, he lived, as far as he could, the normal life of an average subject. No cloistered, padded existence was his. But when he came to face the real job which one day was to be his, he went about it with a thoroughness, sincerity and comprehension which would have been impossible had he not played with the same zest. We predict for him a useful reign. WORTH MORE THAN TWO BITS THE findings of the Senate Munitions Committee Senator Carter Glass said in a burst of anger, “are not worth 25 cents." Perhaps not—not to Carter Glass. The investigation doubtless has not revealed a thing which the Senator didn’t already know about how and why we got into the World War. He lived through that period. He was part of it. Asa leader in Congress through the war, he saw what happened there. As Secretary of Treasury, beginning right after the war, he saw what happened there. Carter Glass has a good memory and sound judgment. There is not the slightest chance that he will ever be stampeded into another war by the same circumstances which stampeded us into the last one. So it may well be true that the committee’s findings are not worth 25 cents to Carter Glass. But to those of us who were not mature citizens at the time, and who did not witness that ftftly from

the inside, the investigation may well be worth more than 25 cents. More than the $125,000 the committee has already spent. More than the estimated S9OOO additional that is needed to complete the investigation. And is much as we who need enlightenment regret the tactlessness of the committee chairman, which sidetracked the investigation into channels of controversy, we should like to have that picture completed—to see as clearly as possible by what combination of circumstance', we drifted into that war. We know the general history, but we need the details of how we built up a false prosperity on war trade, how we lent money to sustain that false prosperity, how our hearts followed our purses into the carnage, how permitting Americans to trade and travel in war zones reaped a whirlwind of hysteria when a belligerent's torpedoes sank those lives and goods, and how the loss of lives and money and economic equilibrium was the price we had to pay for that hysteria. We need to know because we need to erect safeguards against repetition of a similarly preventable combination of circumstances. EVERY MAN A SUPREME COURT! 'T'HE late Huey Long's slogan “Every Man a King,” A seems now to have given way to an Americanized version: “Every Man the Supreme Court!” First came the Liberty League, with its kangaroo court of corporation lawyers offering ex parte “decisions" against the Wagner Labor Act and other laws and telling their clients to pay no heed to these laws. Then came a rash of injunctions against the government issued by inferior Federal courts, many of them out-heroding Herod in their thunders against this and that law. Now, it seems, the business of deciding the constitutionality of duly passed laws has spread beyond the legal profession. Governor Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey has just handed down an opinion declaring the unemployment insurance title of the new Social Security Act “unconstitutional," and advising the Legislature not to co-operate in the national plan. Maj. Hoffman is down in “Who's Who" as soldier, politician and realtor, but he is sure that Federal taxes for job security will be “unconstitutionally levied and collected." Soon we may see every man making his own decisions, enabling the Supreme Court justices to retire and live happily ever after. THE FARMER’S WIFE 'T'HE other day Chairman A. W. Robertson of Westinghouse spoke at the golden jubilee of his company. He spoke about his mother. “She cleaned her floors with a broom,’’, he recalled. “She pumped water from a well and carried it into the kitchen. She had no bathroom, no refrigerator. Her fuel was wood. Hot water was a luxury.” Now in that same house in upstate New York electricity does all that. Os the many events occurring in half century of electricity three are particularly significant. One was electrification of the first railroad, tin New York, New Haven & Hartford; another was the first radio broadcast in Pittsburgh; the third, we believe, was when the government decided to aid “coops” and private companies in the electrification of rural homes. In this program the Rural Electrification Administration now reports substantial progress. REA Administrator Morris L. Cooke has just announced that 83,000 farms were electrified in 1935, compared with 30.000 in 1934. This year REA expects a 50 per cent increase in rural line extensions, with 157,000 new rural and small-town customers. Today, however, only 827,000 farms out of the total 6,800,000 are equipped with central station electric service. Much of last year's rural electrification was accomplished by private power companies without the aid of the REA. But fear of competition financed by REA was no small stimulus.

A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson A KIND old lady and lifelong friend wants to know why I have not written my opinion of the Townsend Old-Age Pension Plan. On that score I feel virtuous. I have written nothing because I know nothing. The hundreds of printed charts, letters, editorials leave me ignorant on the subject. I do know something, however, about the kind lady who sent the inquiry. Between 65 and 70 years old, she has been a busy, reasonably happy person all her days. I am convinced that neither she nor her husband would be content to be idle for the remainder of their lives. If it were possible, then, to collect enough money to pay each man and woman past 60 a couple of hundred a month, would the Townsend Plan alleviate the discontent of age, since it particularly demands that benefactors give up all gainful work? On this point alone, the scheme is fantastic. Busy people can't suddenly cease working because some money has been flung in their laps. Human nature can't be changed overnight. All thinking citizens want security for those who are old and sick. But to build a social plan in which millions must endure enforced idleness is building for misery instead of happinp^s. Work is the boon of the old. They have lived through the excitement of childhood, the romance of adolescence, the dreams of youth, and the realities of middle age. After that, is there anything except occupation for hands or brain left them? Anything which actually satisfles, I mean. Most of us have been taught that Heaven will be an eternity of loafing. Unless we are completely changed, we know that would be hell instead to all of us. Overtired, underfed, scared individuals think longingly of rest and continued ease. But two or three days in bed can alter the viewpoint entirely. Spending money is not a great satisfaction for old people; being occupied is. And in these days, at least, persons of 60 are able to do their very finest work. Sometimes I wonder if half the enthusiasm for the Townsend Plan is not due to the fact that it is now giving so many old people something to work at. FROM THE RECORD n EPRESENTATIVE EATON (R., N. J.), discussing the budget: For those of us who, like myself, may not be mathematic'ans, a simple and more concrete illustration will serve. A lad in school was set a sum in arithmetic by his teacher: “A cat fell into a well. She crawled out one foot every day and fell back two feet every night. How long would it take her to get out?" Johnny figured for a while. He covered his own slate and one borrowed from his seat mate. The teacher, watching his efforts, asked. "How are you getting on?" Johnny answered, “Teacher, please don't bother me, just give me one more clean slate and another b.alf hour and I'll land that cat in hades.” You might a a well expect a rattlesnake not to bite as to expect a Communist to be good.—William D. Upshaw, dry leader.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Squaring The Circle With McCREADY HUSTON

TT'S getting along toward Groundhog Day when, I suppose, some one in pretty nearly every newspaper office will have to sit down to write a story about the little animals and their young, which ought lo be named ground mice but aren't. The groundhog myth is one that persists most strongly, possibly because it's so easily understood, and possibly because it deals with weather. Almost every one is a weather witch at heart, and loves to scan the sky, spit on his finger and test the wind and announce that so and so is going to happen. J. H. Armington, senior meteorologist at the Indianapolis Weather Bureau, long has made a hobby of weather signs and he has a book which sets cut to prove that some of the old proverbs are based on facts and are more or less reliable. Running through any set of them you will find repeated and dire warnings about thunder in the winter months. Mr. Armington points ! out that thunder in winter months! indicates a thaw, which is bad for grasses and small grains. Indiana just had some winter thunder the other night, too. 000 TYTHICH brings us immediately * * to the problem of a couple of friends of mine who even now may j be writing to the United States Bureau of Standards in their hour of need. One of these friends is having a trailer built and intends in a very short while to set out with his family for an extended junket trip all over the country, mostly south until summer comes. The two had been to the factory inspecting the trailer and on the way back his friend made the bald statement that the trailer wasn't big : enough to swing a cat in. Now swinging a cat has been a good work-a-day unit of measurement for many many years, but it was only when the trailer owner immediately took issue with the statement that it was discovered to have some defects. After haggling off and on for several days now they still haven’t seen eye to eye on: Item: What kind of a cat; Item: How to hold cat; Item; Which way to swing cat. If I were a city editor I think I would have that argument covered! ana TF there's one thing Booth Tarkington wants it is Holbein’s “Catherine Howard.” But he can’t have it because it is in the permanent collection of the Toledo (O.) Museum of Art. Mr. Tarkington has one picture of Catherine, and it is a fine one, too. But the artist who painted it was quite stern, and Catherine looks frigidly out of the canvas and you wonder if she didn’t sit after and not before Henry reached his indulgent decision about the time and agency of her demise. Holbein painted Catherine after she was selected as a wife by Henry and before she was married, which, in all the life of the unfortunate lady, was probably the least confused period. OTHER OPINION On Living Standards [From (he speech by Aubrey Williams, assistant relief administrator, at Buffalo, Jan. 16.] I think I can be as lusty in my praise of America and the American form of government as any professional patriot who ever waved a flag or damned a Communist, but I can not bind myself to the abuses which have arisen about us. I can not condone the inequalities, the injustices or the mass social crimes which have been perpetrated under the guise of American freedom and liberty. I get small consolation in counting the digits of our national wealth or hearing described our celestial standards of living when I know that these blessings have clogged up at the top of the social, structure. New Low In Statesmanship I Marion (Ind.) Chronicle] Members of the United States Senate, a few visitors and the press gallery heard Senator Sherman R. Minton, junior Indiana Senator, make an attack on the United States Supreme Court the other day. In his address he characterized the Supreme Court decision outlawing the AAA as “the most highlyfavored political opinion to come from that court since the Dred Scoit decision." One of the younger members of the Senate, Minton placed himself definitely in the ranks of the New Dealers and brain trusters by his criticism of the court decision. Older members of Congress, including many Democrats, were not surprised at the court’s ruling, and! privately, many of these members! had predicted the act would be declared unconstitutional. This atti- ( tude on the part of some of his older colleagues did not deter the junior Indiana Senator and the newest New Dealer from making his attack from the safety of the Senate floor. His speech was interpreted in I many quarters as a bid for appointj ment to the Circuit Court of Appeals. It was not a masterpiece of oratory and fortunately not many newspapers saw fit to give it much space on the theory, perhaps, that Indiana statesmanship has reached a new low and nothing is to be by flaunting it before f heir

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The Hoosier Forum / 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 vour letteri short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to SSO words or less. Your letter must be sinned, but names will be withheld on reouest.l 000 SUGGESTS POPULATION FOLLOW EXPORTS By H. L. Seeger Here is another farm relief plan. Since the Supreme Court has denied the power of Congress to control the price of agricultural products, through crop reduction and benefit payments, within the national borders, it seems necessary to look beyond our borders for a solution. If the 45 million people now living on subsistence rations were permitted to eat three square meals a day, we would not ha T 'e a surplus of farm products, but a serious shortage. We have had the notion that the most important thing in our economy is to make price the center of production instead of service. Raising the prices through crop reduction did not add even one square meal to the diet of the 45 million, dependent upon the 11% million unemployed persons. The solution for farm surplus is greater consumption. Horses have been displaced on the farm as consumers of grains by tractors and trucks dependent upon oil wells. They will not again become “prospects” for the surplus. Our whole economy should be based on human service. How can we get these 45 million people to change their diet from one of extreme underconsumption to an adequate consumption basis? If we export the so-called surplus to realms beyond the sea, and pay bounties to get rid of it, it must be evident that these products ■Will not go into American underfed stomachs. But if that is the only power Congress now has to control, farm economy, it should also have the power to arrange for the 45 million to go where the so-called surplus is to go. That foreign location should be nearest to the point of surplus, be it Canada or Mexico. A treaty should be negotiated with Canada and with Mexico, to permit the emigration of those now living on the subsistence levels, to these countries, as the wards of the Federal government, much like we treat the-Indians from whom we took the farm land. Except that foreign

Questions and Answers

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Borne Service Bureau, 1013 Thirteenthst, N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extended research be undertaken. Q—What was the gross public debt of the United States in July, 1914, and at the end of October, 1935? A—On July 31, 1914. it was $2.853.281,671.16; and on Oct. 31, 1935, it was $29,461,602,046.19 (preliminary ,gures). Q—Give t£e >• igin and meaning of the term, “ 'hen Greek meets Greek.” A—lt is from Nathaniel Lee’s “Alexander the Great,” and means when two strong forces oppose each other and the competition is keen. Q—What is the pay of privates in the United States Marine Corps? A—From s2l to $37.50 per month. Q —Was Senator Wagner of New York born in the United States? A—He was born in Nastatten* Province of Hessen, Germany. Q —Are fiance and fiancee pronounced the same? A—They are both pronounced fee-ahn’-say. Q—How fast do hurricanes move? A—Hurricanes are not winds that drive strait ahead, but are swirls

ON THE OHIO

loans should be arranged to permit the erection of model foreign communities with the proper new housing according to modern standards. These loans would be better than the last big loans we made to foreign countries for big fireworks and wrecking of homes. Since we can not find the export market for farm products and manufactured goods, to people now in foreign countries, we could ship them our own population to consume these products and also to permit the export of capital for their use. These countries may even get some use out of this increased population. They may be able to find a way to employ them to create new schools, homes, highways, bridges, utilities, factories and transport facilities. 0 0 0 POINTS TO HOLES IN TOWNSEND PLAN By Fred C. Clark, National Commander the Crusaders, New York City. Regardless of all arguments against the Townsend plan for oldage pensions, hitting it from different angles, the successful explosion of this whole Utopian theoi y boils down to the exposing of the fallacies of the two principal contentions of Dr. Townsend. No. 1 is that 24 billion dollars which Townsend acknowledges will be required to support the Townsend plan) can be extracted from the people of the United States, without putting any noticeable burden on them. He reasons that by placing a 2 per cent tax on all transactions, he can raise the required amount. It would not be simply a 2 per cent extra burden on the taxpayer —it would be 25 per cent of the total national income of 1929 of 80 billion dollars, and if business were not stimulated up to the 1929 level, but remained at the level of 1934, it would take 50 per cent of the total national income of 48 billion dollars. (This on top of our present staggering tax load.) All wages and salaries have always been figured in the national income. What difference would there be between a government check for S2OO paid to a person over 60 years old. and a government check for S2OO paid to a government employe, as far as income and transactions are considered? Answer this question fairly and you have exposed the fallacy of contention No. 1. Contention No. 2: Dr. Townsend claims that his plan in operation

of the cyclonic type. Those swirling storm centers move relatively slow across the sea and land, sometimes at no greater speed than eight or ten miles an hour, but they suck air toward them from all sides at terrific speeds, up to 100 miles or more an hour. Q —What is a joint resolution of a legislative body? A—lt is a form of expressing the legislative will which has the effect of law, but which does not require the approval of the President to make it effective. It is generally employed for temporary, local, or private matters in which Congress wishes to act. Some state Constitutions prohibit the enactment of laws, except by bill, and where such restrictions exist, the joint resolution may not be employed for purposes of legislation. Q—What parts of South America are unexplored? A—The chief unexplored regions are in central and northern Brazil, the far reaches of the Amazon, northwest Brazil, and the Selva& region; Venezuela and the source of the Orinoco; northwest Bolivia, Elbeni. Chaco; and in southern Colombia. There are' routes and trails across some of these areas, but the work of exploration has only begun. Q—Who wrote, “The Cricket on the Hearth”? A—lt is a Christmas story by Charles Dickens. * - " 1,11 1

will increase purchasing power. It will do just the opposite, for it simply robs Peter to pay Paul. It takes away from Peter exactly the same purchasing power it gives to Paul. In order to pay Mrs. Smith an old-age pension of S2OO a month, it deducts exactly that same number of dollars from the purchasing power of Mrs. Green, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Jones. In other words, to increase the purchasing power of those over 60, it must first take away (by government taxation) exactly the same number of dollars from those who do not receive pensions. Furthermore, the placing of a 2 per cent tax on every transaction, from raw material to the finished product of any commodity, would cause a terrific rise in prices. Just stop and think of the number of transactions involved in any commodity—an overcoat, an automobile, or even a loaf of bread, and you will realize the staggering heights to which all these compounded 2 per cent taxes, piled cn top of each other, will raise prices to the final consumer. The final consumer, having no one to pass the tax on to, pays the entire bill. And that final consumer is each one of us. Therefore, the Townsend plan would not only fail to increase purchasing power, but the resulting high prices would make it impossible for people to purchase the necessaries of life, which they are able to buy today. Hence, real purchasing power would be very substantially decreased. SUMMER FESTOONS BY MARY WARD Their ethereal hues are a fresh surprise, Embellishing anew grove, hillside, lane, Interweaving festoons in summer’s train— Wild roses, pink and gold as sunset skies. DAILY THOUGHTS But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.—St. Luke 6:24. 000 TO whom can riches give repute, or trust, content, or pleasure, but the good and just.—Pope.

SIDE GLANCES

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“Gee, if this was only strawberry flavor.”

-JAN. 22, 1936

Your... Health By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

; TF all human beings were to cease ; taking vitamin E. there eventually would be no human beings. | Vitamin E is that important. But | don't be alarmed! This vital subj stance is so widely distributed in ! Nature that it is practically never absent in even an ordinary diet. Indeed, there is little evidence that any one ever suffered severely from shortage of this vitamin. For that reason, an American Medical Association committee has asked manufacturers not to mention the presence of vitamin E on labels of foods. The public might get the idea that this is an uncommon feature when, as a matter of fact, vitamin E is found in almost every kind of food, including such common substances as lettuce, wheat, beans, nuts and fruits of every variety, meats, egg yolk. milk, cocoa, cottonseed oil, beef fat, coconut oil, and green, leafy vegetables. Vitamin E is called the antisterility vitamin. Experiments made on animals have shown that it is indispensable for normal reproduction of any living animal species. If vitamin E is completely withheld. for any great length of time, from the diet of any animal, the creature will not be able to bear young. This explains why Mother Nature has been so lavish with vitamin E. A lack of this substance would certainly result in extinction of life through discontinuation of reproduction of the species. a a a IyiANY people have wondered why advantage should not be taken of this effect of vitamin E for the purpose of birth control. Unfortunately, the effects on general health are so bad when the diet is deficient in vitamins that, even if birth control resulted, the damage to the body would be so great as to make the experiment a menace. Moreover, studies show that vitamin E is stored in the body for long periods. Vitamin content in tluj diets of children must be watchea carefully. The git>wn-up is much more concerned with the relationship of the vitamin to ill health than with the problems of growth. But for the child, th# vitamin is in every sens? of the word really vital. Vitamins do not provide heat or energy or materials for building tissue, but they are the sparks which make the machine go. TODAY’S SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ TT is good news that Dr. William J. Humphreys is to maintain a connection, in an advisory capacity, with the United States Weather Bureau. Dr. Humphreys retired from his post of meteorological physicist in the bureau Dec. 31, 1935, after 30 years of active service. Under a special arrangement Dr. Humphreys, who plans to devote his time to research and writing, will study technical problems referred to him bv the bureau. Dr. Humphreys is well known in the world of science. His colleagues know- him as the author of the standard textbook on the physics of the air. They know also that the present excellence of the United States Weather Bureau is due in no small part to his researches and counsel. He has likewise been active in the affairs of the scientific world in general, serving at one time as president of the American Geophysical Union, and exerting a profound influence upon the direction of research in meteorological and allied problems. For the last four years he has edited the Monthly Weather Rpview. the only journal of its kind in the nation. Many of his researches had to do with the stratosphere, and he was one of the pioneer students in this field. There were many statesmen and politicians in Washington whose names broke into print more frequently in the last 30 years than did that of Dr. Humphreys. And among them were many whose names already have been forgotten. Meanwhile, the advances in meteorology which Dr. Humphreys made continue to sprve the nation and form a foundation for further advances. It is for such loyal servants as Dr. Humphreys that the nation should be most grateful.

By George Clark