Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 292, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 February 1936 — Page 21

It Seems to Me HEViWOD BROUN WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—As you face the Court they sit liue this: Roberts, Butler, Brandeis, Van Devanter, Hughes, Mcßeynolds, Sutherland, Stone, Cardozo. But before they sit the crier enters precisely on the stroke of 12 and he calls out, “The honorable the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.” During that

brief introduction the nine stand in a row. “Oyez, oyez. oyez,” continues the crier, “all persons having business before the honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable Court!” And when the crier was done Mr. Justice Roberts began to read the majority opinion in the Borden milk case. He reads more clearly and with greater volume

Mr

Heywood Broun

than any of the rest, with the possible exception of Stone. It is a good radio voice, and possibly Mr. Justice Roberts might solve the Republican political problem, which seems to be to find a safe man who can also broadcast. aaa Nation’s Press Is Saved YET though the Supreme Court is housed now in a brand new palace, Cass Gilbert has succeeded in meeting the required mood and there is nothing in the room to suggest modern times. You could drive a horse and buggy into it. Indeed, the entire edifice has been a matter of strict construction. Not that it is a gloomy concept. There are pinkish marble columns and brilliant scarlet curtains, of plush or velvet. The wintry light filters through long white shutters. Possibly I call my architectural shots wrong, but to me the room suggests a French chateau. The filibuster of the high bench against a TVA decision continues unbroken. Nor did I feel brought up to modern times and thought by the fact that the court rendered a vigorous verdict in favor of the freedom of the press. Some of the edge of the decision was lost ip transmission. Mr. Justice Sutherland is not a good reader. Still, it is not to be denied that Justice Sutherland saved the freedom of the press, and those penalties which Huey put upon newspapers which opposed him are swept away. Curiously enough, while Sutherland droned on Mrs. Long was being sworn in as Senator in a building not more than two blocks away. They say she made a very pretty appearance. aaa Tate of the Semicolon HOWEVER, one should not carp. Sut ei nd did in all conscience discourse at length. ..nd 3 also think the ventilation has something to do with it. There is little new air in the courtroom. I could not keep from counting justices jumping fences in order to keep awake. Stone wouldn’t jump, and that saved me. The Supreme Court is a body of great and very subtle tradition. A hair divides the false and true These men in black bend down to pin points in order to watch the angels dance. Only the other day I heard Dr. Beard tell the tale of the semicolon and the comma. It was a semicolon in the first printing of the Constitution, but through mischance it slipped back into a comma. I am told it really makes a vital difference in the interpretation of the “general welfare” clause, and I am wondering just how long workers will remain content to be crucified upon a typographical error. (Copyright, 1938) Hoover's Appeal to Nation Is Changed BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—When Herbert Hoover was President some years ago, during the depression you remember, he thought it extremely unpatriotic and harmful to the country for any one to try to undermine confidence in his efforts to check the depression. Although the facts were going against him, he wore out any number of White House mimeograph machines issuing press state-

ments intended to inspire confidence. Conditions were fundamentally sound. Prosperity was only 60 days away. He asked newspaper editors to look on the sunny side of life. He wanted them to emphasize favorable developments, and in the interest of the country do everything possible to allay public anxiety. He sang about prosperity being just around the corner until, with the facts so glaringly to the contrary, fcq phrase became

the gag line In smoking-room jokes. On the eve of the bank closing, he even asked President-elect Roosevelt to join him in a statement that would inspire public confidence that everything was all right. That’s how much importance Mr. Hoover attached to the need of maintaining public morale when he was President. a a a BUT now that he is not President, it is different. Speaking as ex-President, it is perfectly all right to instill fear and panicky feeling in the public mind. Much of Mr. Hoover's Lincoln Day speech at Portland, Ore., was devoted to suggesting such a state of national fear. Stocks are booming, not because of confidence, but partly because of fear of Inflation. . . . Unemployment continues in heavy industries because of fear that the New Deal is going to wreck the currency. . . . New Deal currency and credit policies have "driven men all over the nation into a scramble of buying equities to protect themselves." That is. you and ail of your friends are rushing into the stock market because you think the country is about to collapse. Mr. Hoover once complained that somebody was playing politics with human misery. Now it looks as if somebody is trying to play politics with recovery. a a a IN the same newspapers which carry Mr. Hoover's hair-raising alarms the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, Harper Sibley, says the economic condition of the country is at the highest level in five years. He says more shoes were turned out last year than in any earlier year. Are men and women being driven by fear of the New Deal into a scramble of buying equities in' shoes to protect themselves? Mr. Sibley says more wool went into manufacture in 1935 than any other peacetime year. This scramble to buy equities must have even gone into red-flannel underwear. Mr. Sibley must be mistaken. We can’t be economically sound until we have 15,000,000 unemployed men back in rags shivering with their shoes worn through. a a a SECRETARY ICKES, who has pursued a relatively conservative policy in PWA projects, finds that voters have assessed themselves, as local taxpayers in 2166 out of 2613 elections, for local contribution of the greater part of the founds required to secure the benefits of PWA offers. In 447 elections voters disapproved the projects which PWA subsequently abandoned. PWA officials says these local bond elections, in which 10,000.000 votes were cast, show the willingness of communities to shuck out their own cash for PWA projects. a a a Mr. Hoover must wonder sometimes about the alleged power of £he presidency to influence the stock market. Every time he, while President, issued a statement that prosperity was just around the comer, the stock market tobk another nose dive. Now exPresident. he passes out the tip that the best way to beat Inflation is to buy stocks, and the market shoots up to a new five-year high.

BY ARCH STEINEL jyjORE than 475,000 Hoosiers today are dependent on Federal and state relief. Indiana’s relief load is heavier than two years ago, ana almost equal to January, 1935, because $26,000,000 in Federal and state money - bags have been dumped in the past six months to care more amply for the indigent. One out of almost every seven persons in the state is dependent upon Federal or state taxpayers. One out of every 38 persons receives bi-monthly checks from the Federal government for groceries and coal. One out of every 10 persons in Indiana is supported by the thir-ty-eighth person who receives a check from the govern ment through Indiana’s Works Progress Administration. One out of every 18 persons is fed, clothed and housed through the generosity of state taxpayers. a a a 'T'HESE facts are revealed in a •*- survey of relief conditions made by The Indianapolis Times. The result of priming Indiana’s economic pump by work relief wages was a six-month high in January of $4,650,000 in Federal funds spent by the state’s WPA organization. The survey shows that by March 15 a total of $35,000,000 will have been spent in an effort to give jobs and direct relief “jowl” —food—to stimulate industry and slice unemployment. The survey further shows that another giant boost is to be given industry between March 15 and April 1 when the expenditure of $26,000,000 more on road building and schools is to be inaugurated under the State Highway Commission and the state’s division of the Federal PWA. This $26,000,000 expenditure, the survey shows, coupled with seasonal employment, may make 1936 one of the best industrial and business years since the boom period of 1928. Fifteen thousand workers will be taken from WPA work relief rolls to man the jobs. a a a THE sharp decline of direct relief and the lessening of the local tax . urden is shown in the survey as due wholly to work relief and the outpouring of money on WPA projects sponsored by cities, towns, school cities, and other governmental units. The survey reveals that where $25,000,000 was spent in 17 months prior to November, 1934, with the exception of CWA funds, to care for unemployment relief, $1,000,000 more than that amount has gone into the cash registers and account books of grocers, landlords, and merchants in the last six months. The Times survey shows how the burden of the unemployable has been returned to the taxpayers in the state’e townships and private charity. It discloses how the abolishment of the Federal Transient Bureau has increased the costs of Community Fund welfare and relief agencies. a a a WHO is the “unemployable?” The Times survey reveals that they are persons from 35 to 55 years of age who have reached .the end of their economic rope and have been forced on charity after WPA’s inception or are the sick, the lame, the young, the widowed, or deserted. Wayne Coy, Indiana WPA administrator, estimates that not more than 3000 family heads of the unemployables now on direct relief can be put to work on state cons.truction jobs. He sees, however, work salvage possible for other thousands in propects that would dequire the minimum of physical labor. Tracing wage averages under WPA in Indiana The Times study show's that the heads of families employed on the projects received an average wage of $44 a month over a six-month period with this average reaching S4B a month in December. Administration costs under WPA are shown to have decreased over administration costs when the Governor’s Unemployment Relief Commission, in 1934, directed the FERA work rolls. The relief canvas in Marion County shows that almost one out of every five persons depends on Federal or state funds for their existence. It reveals that the county’s total population on work and direct relief is almost equal to the highest relief figures for all depression years. The dwindling cost to county and Center Township taxpayers, with the reduction of direct relief and absorption of relief rolls by WPA, is shown, while in the same

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Full Treated Wire Service of the United Press Association.

HOW RELIEF WORKS IN INDIANA

More Than 475,000 Dependent on Federal and State Taxpayers

BENNY

The Indianapolis Times

Indiana’s relief chart as shown above is confined wholly to direct relief and does not include total percentages of those persons on both direct and Works Progress Administration wage relief. The percentage in population of persons on direct relief—food orders—is 5.6 per cent while Marion County’s total in January was 6.4 per cent. The December percentage for Marion County was 7.2 per cent and for the state 5.6 per cent. The 1930 United states census is used as basis for figuring the percentages.

picture is revealed that the taxpayers are concerned primarily with the total national spending policy and its reaction in future Federal taxes. Marion County, as the sixth district in the WPA setup in Indiana, has a relief dollar consisting of 79 cencs for wages, 18 cents for materials, and 3 cents for salaries and administrative costs. aaa THE monthly county wage average on WPA works projects for relief employes is $55 with an $Bl average for January for non-relief employes. Non-relief employes are placed in the same category with relief workers as to need, for it is said by social workers and WPA officials that they are persons in need of work to support those dependant upon them. The saving of money to county taxpayers, through a WPA works project that made 9000 garments and dresses for children of the indigent on direct relief, is related. Women are shown plying needles as men wield shovels in earning a regular twice-monthly wage under WPA in the county as well as in the state. a a a ISOLATED cases of employes being hired as non-relief workers while other members of their families are working Tn private employment is cited by some. Politics is disclosed to be playing no part on whether one is on work or direct relief. The fitness of the man for the job or his relief need are prime requisites to qualify for either work or grocery order relief. Deserving Democrats, if competent, are given the “edge” in landing administrative jobs, it is contended, but Administration adherents point out that Adminis-

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 34, 1936

trator Coy is a Republican turned Democrat. aaa THE township trustee as the arbiter and sole dispenser of direct or grocery relief is shown in the survey to be confronted wuth problems ranging from families moving in on his relief rolls from outside the township and even in instances from outside the state. One trustee coped w’ith the problem by resurrecting an antiquated law similar to intra-state deportation in an effort to halt the influx of newcomers.

Washington Merry-Go-Round

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.—The biggest government booty since the days of lush war contracts is making the mouths of the legal profession water all over the country. It is the one billion dollars in AAA taxes which the meat packers, the textile manufacturers, and other big processors paid into the Treasury and which now may be subject to refund. Ever since the Supreme Court’s Louisiana rice millers’ decision restoring processing taxes, this billion dollars has become the pot of gold at the end of the treasure hunt for hundreds of lawyers. It is the topic of daily whispers in the lobby of the Mayflower. It is the subject of separate deals between processors and retailers to whom the tax was passed. Textile manufacturers actually have started advertising for interested third parties to join them in the suits. Meanwhile the Administration has been equally busy. Every conceivable brand of le-

HOPE that old age pension legislation to conform with the S3O maximum pension of the Federal government may oe passed at a special session of the General Assembly is seen by some social workers as a means of cutting off a small portion of the relief load. Increase in retail business through WPA pay rolls w'ith generally improved employment conditions is placed alongside a word photo of increased gross income tax collections as barometer showing the effect of Federal money in Indiana.

■BY DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN

gal formula that might protect the billion has been examined. One formula which looked good at first was to let the Federal tax collectors face the suits. They can be sued, whereas the government can not be sued without its consent. This idea actually got so far that the amount for which the tax collectors were bonded w r as looked up. It was only $17,000,000. But then it was discovered that the Federal government was bound by law to be responsible for its tax collectors. So this particular idea was abandoned. The Administration is still looking for another. aaa Cryptologist LYLE T. Alverson, new executive director of the National Emergency Council, started on his upward climb by “pounding” a telegraph key in his small hometown in Illinois. When the U. S. entered the World War he enlisted in the Navy, later was commissioned an ensign and assigned to

nPHE study brings out Mr. and "*• Mrs. X., the unknown quantity in the ranks of the unemployed, who are neither on direct or work relief but who need jobs. Retail merchants, bankers, taxpayers, and the man and woman affected by relief point out pet antidotes for curing unemployment and want, on which the Federal government and state relief authorities have spent $26,000,000 in the last six months. Tomorrow: State WPA and Direct Relief.

the naval communications staff in the Capital. There his skill as a code decipherer soon attracted official notice, and he joined Herbert O. Yardley, whose book, “The Black Chamber,” revealing sensational code detecting secrets, created such a stir throughout the world. When Wilson went to the Paris Peace Conference Alverson was a member -of his staff. Another young man on that voyage was Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In Paris Alverson got the unique privilege—not even enjoyed by Secretary of State Lansing—of knowing each day just what had happened in the secret sessions of the Big Three: Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Each night, in a locked room guarded by an armed Marine detail, Alverson transcribed a record of the day’s deliberations as taken down by Leland Harrison, official reporter of the history-making talks.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered ns Second-Ula*e Matter at Postoffice. Indlanapollj. Ind.

Fair Enough WESIMRPMQt GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN. Germany. Feb. 14.—This living human document may not amount to much if only because it is being composed in a slab-sided tower of Babel on a portable German typewriter. It is widely reported in Europe that the German factories which produce the typewriters also manufacture machine guns, and there is a popular story

of a stenographer who sat down to type some letters, but hit the trigger instead of the space bar and blew her employer full of holes. The press room is a reminder of the one of the League of Nations at Geneva, for there are journalists here of many nations —including, of course, the Scandinavians—and most of them are not sportswriters by trade, but heavy duty thinkers and political reporters from the regular bureaus of the world press sent to Garmisch from Berlin, Rome and Paris.

It was a surprise, therefore, to find sitting down at the end of the pine table a few minutes ago Paul Gallico, a professional sportswriter from New York. ana Flight Through Space MR. GALLICO recently took a course of instruction in an indoor school on a slide covered with epsom salts and when he arrived in Garmisch he elected the highest Alp in the neighborhood and slipped down hill. He dashed through the air with the greatest of ease and landed in a river in the valley, and if tnere had been timers present he undoubtedly would have established anew world record. Mr. Gallico’s daring jump has been the subject of much admiring comment by the hardy Norsemen, but our hero has confessed that he did not mean to come down the mountain. In fact, Mr. Gallico fell off the Alp and is one of the few men who have done this and survived. He was standing at the top, terrified by the view, when his skis slipped and he dashed away. Skis are not equipped with brakes, and being unable to arrest his descent, he spread his wings and took off into space. Like the humble South Bend (Ind.) street car motorman who tapped a drunken passenger over the head with his control handle and knocked him cold, to discover that he had knocked out John L. Sullivan, Mr. Gallico is now in a rather delicate situation. a a a WaFits His Varsity Letter THE unfortunate motorman was a quiet citizen who struck the bellicose stranger only in desperation, but now he was famous throughout South Bend, Ind., and all the tough guys began to look him up and swing punches at him so that they could have the honor of licking the man who knocked out John L. Sullivan. Soon he was forced to leave town, and that may be Mr. Gallico’s fate. Our hero, however, is standing on his one achievement and is cabling to Saks Fifth-av, where he studied skiing on Mount Epsom, the indoor Alp, to demand his varsity letter. His worst fear now is that the American coach will tap him on the shoulder and deliver the terrible news that he has made the team. The German typewriter is positively not a machine gun, alter all, but a very ingenious mechanism, nevertheless, for, behold, it has just laid an egg. A Liberal Viewpoint BY. DR. HARRY ELMER BARNES ONE of the major reasons why we have wars is that nations refuse to conform to the code of ethics which we have accepted as fundamental for individual human beings or for groups of men acting in a non-political capacity. The state assumes to be above private morals. This fact is well brought out in Prof. George M. Stratton’s “International Delusions.” (Houghton-Mifflin, $2.) As Prof. Stratton puts it: “We have two scales to weigh conduct. In one of these scales we weigh the conduct of men singly or weigh the conduct of men in a group within the nation acting, let us say, as an insurance company, bank, or labor union. But for weighing the conduct of men acting as a nation toward another nation, we use another scale.” Prof. Stratton illustrates this well by contrasting our attitude toward stealing, lying and killing when carried on by individuals and by nations: “When a man of honor wants land he buys it. If he can not buy it he goes without it. He would be ashamed to get it by deceit or violence. He and we would weigh his violence in a mental scale which would declare it plain theft or stealing.... aaa “T>UT when a nation wants land and has the power to take it, it may—if it does not care to buy it, or exchange for it—simply take it, and hold its head high. . . . “A nation’s deception may be viewed as diplomacy. Or if a nation promises to disarm, and does not disarm, it does not feel itself disgraced; it merely says that someone else is at fault, and it arms itself more heavily than before. . . . “A civilized man does not intentionally kill his neighbor's sons. Much less does he publicly glory in it and proclaim himself ready to do it to other neighbors. His killing would be called murder, and would blacken his character for-life. A manufacturing company or a steamship line would be subject to a like condemnation if it intentionally shot down men employed by a rival. “A nation, however, not only kills its neighbor’s sons, but builds monuments and appoints holidays the glory of the killing may not be forgotten. A nation is proud of its power to kill and of its will to kill its neighbor’s sons by thousands. Nor does it thereby lose its place of honor.”

Times Books

PEARL S. BUCK has stepped out of her role of novelist to give us “The Exile,” a vivid and remarkable story of her mother. (John Day, Reynal At Hitchcock; $2.50). While “The Exile” may not prove as widely popular as Mrs. Buck's novels, it will impress itself upon many as her finest work. It is a realistic and sincere study of a missionary’s wife, done with authority and feeling. Mrs. Buck has changed the names of her characters, but it is more a biography than a biographical novel. Carie, daughter of a stolid Dutchman and a gay French woman, possessed a quality of character that kept her forever at war with herself. American to to the core, she followed her missionary husband to the other side of the world, there to spend more than two-thirds of her life. mam NOT a simple book, “The Exile” frequently arouses pity. It is by no means, however, a tragedy, but rather the story of an intensely human personality, a woman whom many persons termed “the American of good works.” “I suppose,” writes Mrs. Buck, “she would have considered her life a failure if she had judged it by the measure of what she meant to be. . . . She was skeptic by nature, yet mystic, too—lover of beauty and dreamer of the unknown. . . . Young in spirit to the end. indomitable, swift in generosity, eager after the fine things in life and yet able to live ardently if necessary in poverty. . . . She was the very breath of America-made flesh and spirit.” “The Exile” is one of the best psychological studies ever written by an American. It needs no higher praise. (By N, E. Isaacs).

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Westbrook Pegler