Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 291, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 February 1936 — Page 15

ft Seems to Me IMMI Feb. 13,-Sunday Is dry In * Washington. In addition we had a little more of the blizzard and I found myself snowbound In a lonely hotel room with a heavy cold, a Gideon Bible and a back copy of the Congressional Record. And yet the day passed pleasantly, because I found that the Record is a much maligned publica-

tion. It contains a good deal of lively and interesting reading. I will admit that, most of the jokes are not so good. Thumb down a page to identify the lines preceding (laughter) and you can not escape the conclusion that Congress is the easiest audience in the world. It is a gag man's paradise. Where but in the House of Representatives would there be roars of merriment for such a quip as "The Democrats have taken the ‘Jack’ out of Jackson”? “Stop me if you've heard it,” is never uttered in the House. It

lleywood Broun

would certainly play havoc with freedom of debate. n tt Pat and Mike Overworked NO matter what the subject may be, most of the members are invariably being reminded of what Pat said to Mike or of the side-splitting remark of the old Negro. I have Mr. Gifford of Massachusetts particularly in mind. Each one of his fingers must have a string around it. He can not proceed for 50 words without being reminded of something. The Congressional Record shows that in a 700-word speech he crowded no less than eight funny stories. Not that Mr. Gifford hasn't his serious and reverential side as well. His apology to the du Ponts indicates that he is keenly conscious of the fact that certain thfiigs are sacred. Let’s look: “Mr. Gifford: ‘Some of you had better look into this dr. Pont matter a little. I would like to have some of you go up into Delaware and make those speeches against the du Ponts, where thousands of men are employed; where their scientists, because of sufficient funds, have discovered hundreds of useful things for our people, and as a result have hired thousands and thousands of people in manufacturing them thereafter. They take great risks, and they are entitled, if they succeed, to great profits.’ ” Until I read Mr. Gifford’s tribute I had not been aware of the fact that the du Ponts go personally to the powder mill. u tt tt Mr. Scott Does Better ON the whole, I much preferred a speech by Scott of California. He was attacking loyalty oaths for teachers and coercive patriotism in general. “Mr. Scott: ‘Do you think you can make a man a patriot by forcing him to sign an oath? Do you think you can assuage the pains of an empty stomach by making the sufferer salute the flag? Do you think you can make a school child understand why he did not have any breakfast, why he has to be hungry, why he has not decent clothes, why his father does not have a job, why his mother cries continually, why he is cold, by making him salute and pledge allegiance to a flag? But children have been expelled from their schools because they have refused to do that very thing.’” Speaking of members of the teaching profession in general, Scott said, “This woefully underpaid, overworked, much-maligned group of men and women that has suffered so much from the malicious attacks of William Randolph Hearst and his silly sycophants, both paid and unpaid, has done more, to my way of thinking, to build up the proper concepts of citizenship than the pseudo-patriots will ever be able to tear down.” (Copyright, 1936) Pittman Talk Laid to General Unrest WASHINGTON, Feb. 13—Great Britain’s cabinet sits down to consider a $1,500,000,000 defense program. One of her goals is reported to be 5600 planes in the next year. Germany and France are in a break-neck arms race. Russia has the largest standing army in the world with nobody knows how many reserves. Our own immediate goal is 4000 planes by 1938 and an increase in the battle power of 14 of our 15 battleships. Japan isn't contenting herself with merely preparing. She is pushing out against the Russian

frontier and south in China. The chairman of our Senate Foreign Relatioas Committee says Japan will go to war to drive us and any one else out of China. Mussolini sends his troops to Ethiopia and immediately dangers spring up all around which concern us. Within 24 hours after his troops start, Japan, under cover of the excitement in Europe, resumes her drive to dominate all Asia. Second, Italy's action creates

a situation which threatens a general European war. Third, because of the general uncertainty thus provoked, nations become hesitant about going forward in cur program of reciprocal trade agreements. This program offers the only practical alternative thus far devised to shift the struggle for trade from the field of armed force into the field of bargaining for an exchange of advantages. Lastly, in spite of this government’s warning to American missionaries to get out of Ethiopia, they insist upon staying. And now our minister at Addis Ababa must chase around trying to pull them out of trouble. 9 a u ALL of this in the face of a pledge by practically all nations, through the Kellogg pact, that they will not resort to war as an instrument of national poiicy. No wonder all of us are bewildered. It was out of this bewilderment, probably, that Senator Pittman let loose his sharp blast at Japan. His speech has been widely deplored. Secretary of State Hull said he had not seen it before it was delivered. Pittman, the general impression is, spoke on his own. Yet ff would be a mistake to say that he did not at all reflect the attitude of this government, some would question the wisdom of his having said what he did, and particularly the tone in which it was said. In the present disturbed world situation two fundamentals guide the policy of our government. 1. We look with great disapproval on the violation of treaty pledges by nations —particularly of Italy and Japan. It is our purpose to continue at every opportunity to call the world’s attention to violations of treaty pledges We feel, that if the sanctity of treaties is not respected, then the world reverts to intcrnitional barbarism. 2. We insist upon maintaining our rights and maintaining sufficient armed force to make ourselves respected in a world which places military might above treaty pledges. We are redefining our rights. Abandon the alleged right of a citizen to run wild in a war zone at the risk of dragging the whole nation into war. a a a BUT that is different from saying that we do not expect our nation, its citizens and its interests, to be respected throughout the world. And in the present state of the world, it is our conviction that we can best preserve that respect by being strong enough to defend ourselves against any who may violate it. It is grim business. But in almost 20 years since the last catastrophe efforts to settle differences with less folly have met with discouraging failure. In New York, Dr. Einstein visits Radio City. Suddenly the room is flooded with light. It has been turned on by someone lighting a candle in London. Yet a race which can perform such a miracle can’t solve its family quarrels by any better method than ina&s murder* - - ■ ■.- -

With an opportunity (hen no other news or ramera man to observe the quintuplets’ daily life, Fred Davis, their photographer, has jotted do vn many interesting lacts about the babies. In a series of three stories, of which this is the last, Davis tells hitherto unrevealed incidents in the Dionne babies’ lives. BY FRED DAVIS NEA Service Staff Photographer 'JMIE greatest scare I have had was the day, more than a year ago, while the Dionne babies were still in the parents’ house, when Madame de Kiriline came rushing from the house, crying, “Quick, Marie is dying! Get the doctor!” No telephone in those days. I drove the two miles to Callander.

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That is a nice road now. I know all the trees along it by name. But last winter I was driving along it very casually in a snowstorm. Suddenly I hit a soft spot, and before I knew what had happened, I was off the road, into the ditch, up to my windows in a snowbank. As far as I could see, nobody was on that lonely road. Looked like a cold tramp to the nearest help. Suddenly I saw a car coming. It was Dr. Dafoe’s car, glory be! I signaled frantically in the snowstorm. But the car went right by. Judge Battle was in the car with the doctor. “That looked like Davis,” exclaimed Judge Battle, as they sifted past me, sunk in the ditch. “Psst,” said Dr. Dafoe, “Davis wouldn’t be in a ditch!” And so I was left. a a a IT is against the etiquette of the game to quote nurses. The American newspapers, the fifth day, quoted Nurse Leroux as saying she “had faith the babies will live.” She has had that faith from the start. She was the six-month graduate nurse, called to her first case, who came, that May morning, to try to save five tiny premature nestlings from a universally predicted death. She has been with them ever since. There is not the slightest doubt that a large number of visitors to Callander really believe they are being shown the same baby fivr times instead of the five babies one after another. I have heard dozens of people insist this is so. They think it is done with mirrors. It’s a fake, they say. The crowds are sometimes per-

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TI7 AoHINGTON, Feb. 13. * ’ There are a lot of highly interesting factors behind these constantly recurring rumors that Henry Morgenthau will resign as Secretary of the Treasury. One significant sign is the consistency with which the rumors crop up. First, Henry is scheduled to go to Spain as ambassador, then to Paris, then to some other place. There is anew batch of rumors almost every month. This is shopworn but sometimes effective strategy. In the game of politics, such a rumor may “get” a man in the end. And because ol the consistency of these reports, some quiet but efficient sleuthing was done to track them down. The trail led to the door of one Boston banker, one Wall Street banker and two officials in the Treasury. There seemed to be reasonably good evidence that these sources were waging a definite campaign to discredit and oust Morgenthau. At the height of this campaign, Morgenthau received a little scratch-pad sheet of paper such as that on which the President scribbles memos. It bore the single word "UNPACK” and it was initialed “F. D. R.” Puzzled as to what this was, Morgenthau called up secretary Marvin Mclntyre, asked him for an explanation. “Oh, don’t you know that famous phrase?” joshed Mclntyre. "That was the message A2 Smith was supposed to have cabled the Pope after his defeat in 1928: •UNPACK.’ ”

Clapper

" " II — ' '■ *J - ■"— ■■ ■ " I•[ 1 /WELL, BENMY OUGHT Tb bZ '--v I BACK SooM ALL FULL OF HEALTH, \ . k I VIM AND VIGOR, AFTER HIS WEEK \ \ N JL) VOF WIMTER. THAT'S 1 VV \l\/// KE£P IM ConOiTlOM-y I//

The Indianapolis Times

Full Teased Wire Service of the United Press Association.

THE CAMERAMAN AND THE QUINS

Working With Babies Provides Thrills Galore, Davis Admits

It was an awful road then. A nightmare road. I do not even remember driving it. I only remember floating over it in a sort of frantic dream. It was just another of the bad spells Marie used to take in the early days. She turned blue. The doctor came. All was well.

Fred Davis

Washington Merry-Go-Round BY DREW PEARSON and ROBFRT S. ALLEN

BENNY

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Six movie stars twinkle in the Callander heavens! Five new ones, the Dionne quintuplets. And one seasoned one, Jean Hersholt, in his makeup as the leading character in “The Country Doctor,” in which th e Dionne babies appear. Not one of the little ladies is the least fussed by her movie debut, as you can see. Matter of fact, it w r as the veteran actors who were nervous as the film was made!

fectly quiet. They just stand and stare. Usually they clap and laugh. Often they become very noisy, cheering and calling to the babies. There was quite a row from the local merchants when Dr. Dafoe decreed, half way through the summer, that instead of four shows a day, there would be only two. The local merchants set up a great howl. But the crowds came as usual. Nobody was ruined. The babies were better off. tt tt THE second Christmas celebration was more elaborate than the first, of course. Members of the Dionne family arrived at the hospital from their home across the road about 2 p. m, bringing with them their maid. Then everybody sat down to a big turkey dinner, the two nurses superintending its preparation and serving. Os course the usual Christmas tree stood in a corner. There was a huge box of presents for the mother, the father, and their five older chlidren. Mother and Father Dionne went into the nursery and showed the babies to the other children through the window. Dr. Dafoe took no chances of infection, and would not permit the older children to mingle with the quins for fear some outside germ might thus stray into the nursery. The party lasted until about 5 p. m., when the Dionnes went trooping back to their own house across the road. DR. DAFOE’S calm has set an example which seems to be reflecting itself in the children. For instance, when the movie company came to town to make scenes for “The Country Doctor,” there was naturally considerable hustling and bustling about. Movie

Fair-Haired. Roy TJ EAL fact is that there is about as much chance of Morgenthau resigning as there is of Roosevelt himself. No on* stands stronger at the White House. No Cabinet member confers oftener with the President. Henry is one of the few still privileged to attend early morning bedside conferences. As Secretary of the Treasury, young Henry has been as efficient an executive as he has been hated by Wall Street. Rumors about his resignation probably will continue. But they will not be fulfilled. Periodic resignations of his undersecretaries also will contmue. Reason—lt is impossible to find an undersecretary who has the support of the bankers and at the same time believes in Roosevelt’s monetary policy. In the long run, young Henry is going to have to be his own undersecretary. 9 9 9 Repartee Senator (Cotton Ed) Smith, chairman of the agriculture committee, was making a warm defense of the new farm relief bill. ’We must not lose sight of the fact,” he orated, “that this is a soil-erosion and soil-conservation bill.” “Will the distinguished Senator from South Carolina,” broke in Senator Charley McNary, keenwitted Republican floor leader, "please look serious the next time he makes that statement?” “I must admit,” replied Smith as he joined in the laughter,

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13,1936

troupes aren’t exactly a regular feature of life in Callander, or even in North Bay. But it is a fact that during the taking of the scenes at the hospital in which the babies appeared, the quins themselves were far less nervous than the veteran actors and actresses who appeared with them. I hope I’m not giving away a secret when I say that the first day’s shots had to be taken over again, due to the nervousness of Jean Hersholt and Dorothy Peterson, while the babies were quite unruffled. On the second day the actors felt better acquainted with the babies, and everything turned out fine. It was on this day that the pictures were taken which I thought best, and on this day, again Yvonne was the star. She took very kindly to the new “nurse,” Dorothy Peterson, tried to stroke her hair, pat her cheeks, and then suddenly turned around and kissed her sister, Annette. a a tt DURING the last day of the movie-making, there was a dinner scene, supposedly set in the old Dionne home. The babies were seated in a row, each with a spoon. And, believe me, it took some fine manipulating to quiet the sound of the five spoons, as all five babies immediately began hammering on table or chair with them. In the more than two years I have been photographing the Dionne babies, you might think I would get a little tired of them, impatient with them from time to time. But I never have. It is trying work. Just like everybody else who has had anything to do with the quins, I’ve “gone overboard” completely for the five most utterly charming young ladies in the world! THE END

“that lately I have reached a point where it is impossible to be serious.” 9 9 9 White House Mail TF Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt A writes a letter to her son in the White House, she takes the chance of having it stacked with the thousands of other letters in the morning mail and run through an electric cutting machine to have its edge chopped off. But there are two men in the White House offices who know her handwriting and try to deliver the letter to the President unopened. They are I. R. T. Smith and J. H. Sherrere, who look at every piece of first-class mail to ferret out letters from the President’s personal friends and save them from the knife. All others—no matter if marked Special, Personal or Private—go into the hopper and are dealt out to the 13 readers who make up the staff. The staff works in the basement room of the White House offices, and most of the President’s mail never gets any closer to him than that. A reader sees the phrase- “I want my boy to go to Annapolis”—and zip, the letter goes into the pouch marked U. S. N. Or he sees the phrase: “mortgage on my farm”—and the letter is tossed into the Farm Loan pouch. 9 9 9 Orphans Benefit THE speed of handling is interrupted only when a reader encounters such a phrase as: “I am coming to Washington and

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All animation and spirit and joy, Marie thrusts a thumb into her mouth as though to say, “Look at my fine new teeth!” Well she may be proud, for she has six uppers and six lowers. Always the tiniest of the Dionne quintuplets, Marie certainly looks in fine fettle here, doesn’t she?

RILEY WARD HEAD TO GO TO CONNERSVILLE Miss Josephine Do'up to Assume Post There March 1. Times Special CONNERSVILLE, Ind., Feb. 13. Miss Josephine Doup, orthopedic ward supervisor at Riley Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, is to become superintendent of Fayette Memorial Hospital here March 1, it was announced today. A graduate of Indiana University School of Nursing, Miss Doup was selected by hospital trustees to succeed Miss Ruth Wills, who resigned recently. get revenge for the way I have been treated.” That letter is laid carefully aside for the special attention of the Secret Service. White House mail today is not as heavy as in 1933, when the staff worked overtime every day for weeks to get clear of the deluge. Also, the Christmas mail was lighter this season. But not very light. The number of cards received by the President was too great for him to look through personally. They w T ere packed up and sent to an orphan asylum for the pleasure of the children. Mrs Roosevelt's mail is saved from the knife and shipped unopened to the fourth floor, where it is handled by a special staff. (Copyright, 1936. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

DEMOCRATIC CLUB TO MEET AT 8 TOMORROW New Officers of Sixteenth Ward Group Are to Be in Charge. The Sixteenth Ward Democratic Club is to meet at 8 p. m. tomorrow in clubrooms at State and Hoytavs. New officers are to be in charge. They are Ray Herner, president; Fred Snyder, vice president; Miss Helen Raftery, secretary; Herman Jansing, treasurer; Ernest Medcalfe, sentinel; James McCarthy, conductor, and Mrs. Elizabeth Wheatley, Mrs. Elizabeth Ward and Hugo Sommers, trustees. JACKSON TO BE SPEAKER Gross Tax Director to Address Men at Newcastle Monday. Times Special NEWCASTLE, Ind., Feb. 13. Clarence A. Jackson, state income tax director and a former Newcastle resident, is to speak to merchants and professional men Monday night. Plans for a dinner were announced today by Nathan Dann, Community Council president. Following the address the group is to elect anew merchants’ committee for 1936. Fraternity Arranges Dance Kappa Psi Fraternity is to hold a Valentine dance tomorrow at the Antlers. Bill Moon and his Musical Stars are to play.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Foatoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough HMPWR T ONDON, Feb. 13.—Some of the labor members of the British House of Commons have been giving serious consideration to the idea that a statesman wabbling to his feet in a plastered condition and sounding off on foreign relations like a Saturday night hero in a crowded saloon may be a greater menace to the welfare of his people than a drunken bus driver. This is not anew thought in the English parliament, for it has been customary for some years for some of the members to recognize

the risks of overspeaking and to pledge themselves to abstinence dufing parliamentary hours. I do not believe, however, that either the American Senate or House has ever acknowledged the need of a similar precaution, and I pass the idea along merely as a suggestion. Americans who lived on- this side of the water a few years ago still remember a warlike threat to a foreign nation which was uttered by a Washington statesman once upon a time and printed in the press of at least three continents.

The author of these remarks was merely a politician on his own home grounds, where all his utterances were subject to a liberal discount, but in foreign lands he was regarded as a public officer of some responsibility, and the press accounts, unfortunately, carry no printer’s dingbat, star or other typographical symbol to indicate that the speaker was drunk at the time. The incident in question caused no serious results and was soon forgotten, but the temperance movement in the House of Commons plainly takes notice of a well-known reality. In the present House 73 of the 154 Labor members are total abstainers, and the leaders of tha movement are glad to accept part-time recruits, who will merely bind themselves to keep strictly sober during the debates. Cocktail Hour, as It Were sessions usually start late in the afternoon after the statesmen have completed their private business and catch them at a time of the day when a spot of something is just what a man thinks he needs. They have a species of keyhole and transom journalism in this country, but it is not as daring as the American type, and, consequently, nobody ever will know how drunk some of their fine old two-bottle statesmen were when they made some of their most daring orations. Nevertheless, that mahogany complexion which some of the veteran mane-shakers wear is not produced by ice v’ater or lemon squash, and I think it would be admitted confidentially that certain political gladiators do their best or worst when they are, as the saying goes, blind. Os course, they have a bar in the British parliament where a member may chin himself like a forgotten umbrella. His drinking will never be a handicap as long as there are quiet little committee rooms as broom closets where a member may squirrel away his quart. There is a bar in the lobby of the Palace of Peace of the League of Nations also, and it is possible that some of the ingredients of the next war will be poured out of the queer looking bottles on the back shelf, although I must admit that the most ferocious pacifist of them all, Mr. “Pretty Boy” Eden of Britain, appears to maintain his martial spirit on nothing stronger than oolong and crumpets. tt 9 tt Bottled in Bondage JT may seem an exaggeration to suggest that any of the eminent world statesmen of the League would pack himself full of Dutch courage at the League of Nations bar and enter the hall to holler some foreign equivalent of “nuts to the President of France!” but here we have these British representatives frankly admitting a statesman with a hideful has no business doing the public’s business and frankly accepting the fact that statesmen sometimes do get overcrowded with drams. It ar pears, however, that in our country only motorists and policemen are strictly required to prove themselves sober upon demand without notice. The statesman needn’t even demonstrate that he is of sound mind, and there are certainly some few in each membership who would have a hard time passing inspection by a board of alienists. That can’t be helped, I suppose, but it should be possible when a member sounds off with a speech which might cause war and the loss of a million lives to make him breathe in a bottle so that the speech when it comes out in print may be honestly rated according to his condition at the time.

Gen, Johnson Says—

ATTASHINGTON, Feb. 13.—1f real inflation comes, ’ what should be done to save his property by the man with a little savings, or the manager of a savings bank, insurance company, trust fund, endowment funds for a university or a hospital, or by any one interested in capital, large or small, or in fixed incomes derived from capital? For practical purposes there is no mystery about “inflation.” For the layman it means a crazy period during which the price of everything that moves in commerce sky-rockets to fantastic levels. Everything soars except salaries, pensions, wages, rates of service, and interest. These remain stationary or advance slowly because they are fixed by contract. All other prices which are made in auction or open markets go through the ceiling. This skyrocketing ruins all classes mentioned in the first paragraph, because the values of their bonds do not go up. They are fixed by contract, as are the incomes from them. But all other prices go so high that their dollars o? capital or income will buy little or nothing. What can they do? The classic answer is: “Buy things.” Sell mortgages, bonds, take all dollars and even go into debt to buy commodities, common stocks dependent on commodities (not on services), and real estate. Then you can sell out as prices near their peak, pay your debts, and save your present values. But anew element has changed this old rule. If prices go to fantastic heights, the government will take most of your “profit” by the income tax. mum nnHEREFORE, whatever you buy, you must be prepared to carry through the fantastic peak, and the subsequent crash till sanity returns, in the hope that the crash won’t ruin it and that prices after the boom and bust will be about what they are now. You may not be able to do that by just holding your dollars. Most commodities are not good because the cost of carrying them is too high. Few common stocks are safe because many companies can not withstand such explosions. Small houses for renting and A-l farm land seem the safest bet. Should one act now? That is the unknown quan-tity-unknown because price inflation is mass madness, or panic fear that bad government fiscal policy is going to make money worthless. Government fiscal policy is very bad, but at just what stage will public panic set in, if at all? Almost everybody is agreed that if there is no prompt change for the better in the fantastical accumulation of Federal deficits, price inflation is inevitable. < Copyright, 1836. by Catted Feature-Syndicate, Xnc-1 • ' ,

Westbrook Pegler