Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 295, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 February 1936 — Page 11

It Seems to Me HEVWOI) BROUN T INCOLN’S BIRTHDAY ought to mark the real beginning of the presidential campaign of 1936. For the first time there was a true clarification of the Issues. In all fairness to the extreme conservatives of the Republican Party It should be admitted that Hoover, Vandenberg and Col. Knox did their

part in defining the nature of the struggle. George W. Norris, the traditional leader of American progressivism, did more. In November the voter ought to have a chance to express his judgment as to whether necessary remedies for our vital economic problems can be found under the legal philosophy of the majority group in our present Supreme Court. And so the issue should be put up squarely to the voter—Do you think this government can function better under the Constitution of Cardozo or the Constitu-

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Hcywood Broun

tion of Pierce Butler? If we assume that both learned gentlemen are utterly sincere the problem still remains. Each one can take the same document and the same set of facts and render diametrically opposite decisions. tt tt tt Issue Is Clear Cut T BELIEVE there is very little doubt now that the Guffey Act will be invalidated and also the Wag-ner-Connery Act. And despite the favorable ruling on TVA, the odds are heavily against the SEC. In any case the leading Republican candidates stand committed to the platform that the Supreme Court can do no wrong. Os course, there is rather grudging admission of the people’s right to amend the document under the process set c.own in the document. The standpat Republicans are playing on the popular psychology that the Constitution is too sacred and too subtle to be properly a matter of discussion by the masses. Many newspapers are supporting this campaign by suggesting that any talk of change is subversive. The time for pussyfooting is past. Norris has offered a bold leadership, and he should immediately go further. He should at once issue a call for a conference of farm leaders, labor leaders, progressives in the House and .Senate and liberal lawyers. a tt a New Party Is Urged THE national conference on the general welfare should be followed by a series of regional conferences. I talked to Senator Norris in Washington, and he was in favor of some such plan, but he said he was too old to lead it. The Senator’s age is stuff and nonsense. He has at least another quarter of a century to give to the fight for American progressivism. A dozen liberals in the House and Senate have indicated their willingness to follow the leadership of Norris. William Green was out of Washington, but his recent utterances make it plain that he is on the same side. The speech of Senator Norris in itself constitutes a call. Now is the time to organize the voters of America from all parties so the millions of labor and the millions of agriculture need not sit supinely and allow themselves to be deprived of their natural rights by a vote of 5 to 4. (Copyright, 1936)

TVA Ruling Hailed as Broad Victory BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON. Feb. 18.—Some 20,000 words contained in the three Supreme Court opinions on the TVA boil down to about this: A minority group of preferred stockholders, owning about one three-hundred-fortieth of the Alabama Power Co.’s preferred stock, went into court to protest the sale to TVA of some of the company’s transmission lines around Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee River. Four justices—Brandeis, Stone, Cardozo and

Roberts—held that these stockholders had suffered no damages and had no case in court. But the five other justices decided they did have a right to sue. Beaten on this point, the four dissenters joined with four of the others in rendering a majority opinion. Mcßeynolds, although agreeing that the court should hear the case, disagreed with the conclusions of the eight other justices. a v Those bri lging the suit sought

to invalidate the entire TVA. However, the court narrowed the question down to one ooint—the legality of the specific sale of the transmission lines at Wilson Dam. Chief Justice Hughes, in the majority opinion, stated that the court was not passing on the constitutionality of TVA. or the legality of any other dans or activities in the Tennessee Valley. A reasonable surmise is that by thus narrowing the question and excluding the issue of TVA’s constitutionality, Chief Justice Hughes was able to win Justices VanDevanter, Sutherland and Butler over to upholding the specific contract made by TVA for these particular power lines. At the same time Justice Hughes, by siding with them in deciding to hear the case at all, opened the way whereby other stockholders of other companies may come into court with other test suits. a a a I 'OR practical purposes, however, New Dealers see a broad victory in the decision, because, while the court technically narrowed the case and did not pass on the constitutionality of TVA as a whole, or its other dams, it does appear to them that the court has laid the foundation for directly upholding TVA. Possibly the court may have to make two bites of the cherry if power companies are hardy enough to bring in another case, in face of the strong general declarations as to the government’s power to dispose of its property and by-products to the greatest public advantage. a a a All nine justices agreed that the government can dispose of waterpower or electricity produced as a by-product of lawful activities. Even Justice McReynolds, in his lone dissent, agreed to that, provided the electricity was "honestly developed” in connection with permissible improvement of navigable waters. He dissented because he thought the government had "seized upon” Wilson Dam—which was begun during the war to produce nitrates—and was using it to "gain control of the electrical business in a large area and to dictate sale prices.” He thinks the whole scheme is not to develop navigation but to set up an electric power yardstick and he quotes liberally from TVA and other New Deal officials to support his contention. a a a BUT the eight other justices agree that the Wilson Dam was built not only within national defense powers but within the powers of the Federal government over navigation. Chief Justice Hughes devoted much space in his opinion to emphasizing that for years navigation on the Tennessee River had been a m"' of national concern. Therefore, New DeaV '.guo, if Wilson Dam is a legitimate navigg' project, other dams being erected by TVA on the river also must be legitimate. a a a One other significant point is that while the court didn’t rule on the whole TVA, it would not have upheld a contract between the Alabama Power Cos. and TVA if TVA had been considered an unconstitutional agency. • mm or course, amid the rejoicing over the new tolerance of the court to a New Deal enterprise, no one would suggest that the court has taken notice of what Senators and Representatives have been, saying about it in the Congressional Record.

Hercwith is the fourth of a series of articles on the administration of relief in Indiana, by Arch Steinel, Times staff .writer, who has made a broad study of the relief setup in the state. BY ARCH STEINEL H E was the tallest and neatest man in the line of persons receiving grocery orders before an alphabetical wicket of a room at the Center Township trustee’s office, 214 N. Senate-av. lie aired a has-been prosperity. His size sent you to him and in the singlingoutyoustruckpay-dirt on the question of “Why the unemployable is on direct relief and why, in the main, he may be expected to stay there.” Shifting his sharp eyes around the room, with almost each shift of his shuffling feet in the line of relief clients, he towered and talked.“I wouldn’t take a job if they gave it to me now. What’s the use ? These socks I got hanging on my arm I sell to make my room rent. I ‘bach’—alone. I get $1.15 worth

of groceries and three loaves of bread a week. That isn’t living,” and he shook his head. His story: He was a pipe-organ salesman during boom yearss . . got S6OOO a year . . . sold hundreds of pipe organs . . . market slumped . . . churches and movies quit buying pipe organs . . . lost job . . . diabetes caught him . . . settled in his feet . . . industry passed him by . . . work relief passes him by ... a political job turned him down because he was the wrong kind of a Democrat . . . the grocery relief line does not pass him by . . . ambition went with the first grocery order. Touching shoulders with the expipe organ salesman in another grocery order line was L. C. He is a direct relief novice. Three weeks ago he began his first “hitch.” He heard of the money manna of work-relief. He hopes the restrictions may be lifted to include him, although the Works Progress Administration does not take men who went on the relief rolls after November, 1935. “Money ran out. I couldn’t borrow any more from my relatives and friends. My wife and I and the baby had to go on relief. We put our pride in our pocket. Is the relief enough? It’s got to be.” a a a A laconic comment, “T. B.” was the reason given by his lean neighbor for servitude of three years on township relief—and the next man to him in the line was a high school janitor, 58 years old, and a Republican. He was sore—Roosevelt pains. A school board change wheedled his job away. That was five years ago and then six months ago odd jobs and funds went to ( “pot” and he became a direct relief client. Daily, men and women flood the township trustee’s office. Some don’t know why they can’t have work-relief jobs. They do not know that depression psychosis instability is carried on their case records by social workers along with illness. A few complain because John Doe got a work-relief job and they did not. Many are dulled, ambitionless, and without a life chart-line except a few green and pink slips granting them grocery relief weekly, several workers say. Expenditure of WPA work-relief money caused a rush to direct relief lines to obtain certification for work relief. They wanted work. They didn’t get it. They hope for it. a a 'TPHE influx of new relief cases began sharply as WPA’s pay roll ballast increased in October, 1935, and through the last three months. A month-by-month review of the new cases applying to the township trustee for relief is as follows—October, 612; November, 758; December, 861, and January, 958 cases. Leo X. Smith, Center Township attorney, and social workers declare the unemployable caseload can be divided into the following age groups—so per cent, 35 to 55 years old; 25 per cent over 55 years of age, and 25 per cent under 35 years of age. “Young married couples are being thrown on relief. Only a few weeks ago we had four couples in one week’s time seeking grocery relief. They had not been married for more than 10 days,' explained Mr. Smith. “It doesn’t hurt their pride to ask for relief as it did in other years. We’re burdened now by hundreds of non-resident families attempting to secure relief. They come from Kentucky, Tennessee and other nearby states because relief benefits are higher here,” said Mr. Smith. a tt tt OUICK to learn their relief application may result in their being sent home by the trustee or private relief agencies the aliens seek to establish a one-year residence qualification before applying for aid. “They would refuse food relief rather than chance being sent home,” Mr. Smith says. The desire to take private employment of a WPA job and still retain their place in the direct relief line is another vexing prob-

Clapper

Full Leased Wire Service of the United Press Association.

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The Indianapolis Times

lem confronting Mss Hannah Noone, trustee, and Mr. Smith. “One iellow lived in Johnson County and then moved here. He got on direct relief in Marion County but commuted to and from this county to Johnson County to a WPA job. His legal residence is in Johnson, but he was receiving a grocery order from us and a regular wage from the work-relief authorities in Johnson County,” Mr. Smith related. Burrowing into law books the township attorney resurrected a bewhiskered statute which he says will end this Dr. Jekyll-Hyde act. “I’m going to deport them back to Johnson County or whatever county they come from,” he says. a tt HE then explains that intrastate deportation proceedings of poor relief clients can be instituted by the filing of suits in justice of peace courts requiring the relief client to show cause why he should not be moved to his legal residence. “It may cost us transportation, but it’ll stop them pulling fast ones,” Mr. Smith says. The extremes to which nonresidents go to obtain the Indianapolis brand of direct relief sometimes adds to the population. One woman, Mr. Smith reveals, was sent from the hills of Kentucky to the Indianapolis City Hospital to await a call of the stork and at the same time place the new member for the cradle roll as -well as herself on the township relief rolls. He blames the government’s establishment of the Federal Transient Bureau, now abolished, for bringing non-residents to Marion County. “The transient fared better here than in his home community. He got jobs at times, in addition to direct relief, and so he called in his cousins and his aunts and they moved in on us,” avers Mr. Smith.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18.—The President’s closest advisers are hammering hardest now on the idea that he must eliminate bickering within his own official family. Repeatedly they have told him that he “can’t ‘regiment’ a nation when he can’t ‘regiment’ his own Cabinet.” The advice comes from his very best friends. They have pointed out that a radical speech by Tugwell one day and a conservative speech by Roper the next left a bad taste in the mouth of the public. Even Ickes and Wallace, two of the closest friends in the Cabinet, sometimes take public digs at each other. The chief difficulty is that the President himself is too much a “good fellow.” He won’t crack down on his quarreling associates, and no one else in the Cabinet is strong enough to do so. Another basic difficulty lies right in the White House. The President is surrounded by two secretaries; one of whom is accused of hostility to basic New Deal policies, while the over is overworked. Secretary Marvin Mclntyre has been the cause of a lot of bickering by callers subscribing to New Deal ideas who frequently find it next to impossible to get by him to see the President—even when Roosevelt requests them to call. There have been increasing intimations recently that the President is aware that Mac, acting as a buffer, buffs out the wrong people. The other day, when Roosevelt decided to invite Senator Borah to the widely publicized luncheon conference, he called in Mclntyre and told him to issue the invitation. “And,” he added, “I want you to be sure w see to it that the Senator gets the invitation.” Early Too Busy STEVE EARLY, secretary of press relations, has been loaded down with Louie Howe’s duties since Howe's illness. Steve is a conscientious, faithful work-

A stitch in time. ... For the woman who sews in the above photo would be on the direct relief lines of Marion County today if work-relief in the form of Indi-

TNDEX of whether those on direct relief would take jobs, even temporary ones, if offered to them is told in an incident, today by Miss Noone, trustee. It runs thus: Subzero weather stormed the city. The Indianapolis Union Railways Cos. wanted 20 men, at forty and one-half cents an hour, to

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

er, not overly imbued with the President’s own philosophy, but an asset to his staff. Os late, however, Steve has left many of his press contacts to a corps of Snippy young stenographers, with the result that White House press relations have suffeued. Steve is now serving as a clearing house for all Administration speeches, especially those touching upon the Supreme Court and the Constitution. The order has gone out that Cabinet members must cease firing on these issues at cross purposes with one another. Shortly after this order was issued one Cabinet member completely ignored the edict and fired a blast about “class pitted against class,” which kicked up considerable furore. Apparently the President will have to resort to Army discipline to get unity of policy in his heterogeneous family of prima donnas. a a a Boss THERE was no question who was boss at the recent convention of the United Mine Workers Union. During one exciting session a delegate leaped to his feet and in a loud voice demanded recognition. “For what purpose does the delegate rise?” asked President John L. Lewis. ”1 want to,go on record—” “If the delegate wants to go on record,” broke in Lewis, “let him write it on a piece of paper and hand it to the secretary. Next business!” The 1700 delegates roared with laughter. a a a Dubious Windfall Refund of the $1,000,000,000 in AAA taxes, which the meat packers and other big processors who paid them are preparing to demand, may not be the unmixed blessing it would be. There is an embarrassing catch to it. To obtain repayment of the taxes the processors must file a sworn declaration that they did not pass the charge on to con-

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1936

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ana’s Works Progress Administration had not supplanted the weekly grocery order with a bimonthly pay-check of $27.50 to care for her and her dependents.

clear their tracks. The work could not cancel relief. Miss Noone marshalled the 20 men in a group and explained the job to them. She phoned the company that she had the 20 men and “I’ll send them right away.” She returned to her group of workers and found seven of the 20 men awaiting work. “Oh! the others have just gone,

sumers. Under Sec. 21D of the AAA amendments, which the Supreme Court did not disturb in its Hoosac Mills decision, only that portion of the tax which the proessors bore themselves may be reclaimed. Further, the law gives the government power to examine the books of the processors to verify their claims. Right there is the rub. The big processors, and particularly the meat packers, have violently fought proposals giving the government authority to go into their accounts. Such a provision was included in the AAA amendments as originally drawn, but under the pressure of the processors was stricken out on Capitol Hill. Secretary Wallace and AAA chiefs have long wanted to get a peek at the meat packers’ .books, in the belief that such a scrutiny would disclose an exorbitant spread between the price paid the cattle raiser and that charged the consumer. A claim for a tax refund would give them this longsought chance. It is fear of this audit that is behind the wariness of the processors in proceeding to make claims to the $1,000,000,000 melon. They are maneuvering behind the scenes in the hope of sealing up this gaping loop-hole before they stretch out their hands. Their eagerness for the lush refunds is great, but their dread of an official examination of their cost and profit accounts is ever greater. (Copyright, 1936. bv United Feature Syndicate. Inc.) Townsend Club No. 14 to Meet Emerson Townsend Club No. 14 is to meet at 7:30 tonight in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 3872!i E. Washington-st. Officers are Mrs. Dolly Durant, president; A. L. Runske, vice president; Thomas j. Dobson Jr., secretary, and William Durant, treasurer. Two Rob Dry Goods Store Two Negroes robbed the Taylor .Try Goods Store, 4202 College-av, cf women's hose valued at $41.50 yesterday and escaped.

The money she receives on the sewing project pays the butcher, baker and candlestick maker’s relative—the electric light bill collector.

Miss Noone,” the seven job-hun-ters chorused. A second recruiting expedition proved fruitful the railways company got their men. The natal days of WFA workrelief worked a hardship on the trustees. a a a A FEW imbibing WPA workers went on long “toots” that ended up with pay checks spent and irate wives wondering how they would feed their broods. The wives descended on WPA offiicals. “We do not censor the morals of your husband or what he does with his money after we pay him,” was the substance of the. reply the wives received. The wives about-faced and tearfully swooped on Mr. Smith, Miss Noone, and other township relief workers. “What’ll I do for food? He drank it al up,” was the universal complaint with “gambling” variations. Attorney Smith pulled a “foxy,” he said, “We’ll put you on relief providing you go to municipal court and swear out a warrant charging your husband with drunkenness or to the Marion County Juvenile Court to obtain a child neglect affidavit. Bring back a note from offiicals saying you have complied with this request and we’ll give you a grocery order.” Result! Drunkenness drooped off on WPA rolls and the giving of supplemental grocery relief in WPA families declined. Child welfare is foremost in the care of direct relief cases. Children under 6 receive a quart of milk daily in addition to the family’s food order. a a a /CLOTHING needs, aside from V_>< garments provided from WPA works projects, are paid for by the trustee and the clothing allotted according to need by the social service division of the Indianapolis public schools. The city school system pays all administrative costs for social workers visiting the schools and homes while the township trustee foots the clothing bill. A comparison of the clothing gifts in the fall semester of the 1934 school year and up to January, 1935, shows 4562 families aided by 31,900 clothing orders with last fall, (1935) a decrease to 3714 families and an increase in the clothing recipients to 33,044. Clothing needs tr "e increased sharply. In the booo year of 1929 only 1548 families or 11.7C3 orders were granted while today 22,000 more clothing orders are issued in a fall term than in the days of fluctuating stock markets. NEXT—The WPA Workei and Transient Relief.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered ns Seeond-Cla Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough nWEGIffi ARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Feb. 18.—Everything is said to happen for the best, and whatever any one may think of the propriety of our taking part in the political, military and sporting activities here in Garmisch, Thursday’s experience should show a net profit to the United States. Such shoving around as the populace received at the hands of the young strong-armed squad of Hitler bodyguards appropriately, though ingenuously, named Black Guards, was never seen in th®

United States, even in the heydey of Jimmy Walker or Huey P. Long. American athletes and casual correspondents saw a perfect demonstration of military dictatorship, and there were those among the throng w’ho agreed that if this is what Huey was promoting in Louisiana they’ll be glad to have none of the same. The dictator held 10,000 people in the grandstand of the rink where the figure skating took place, although he was ready to take his leave, and before the event they paved his way with such idolatrous care that it made

no difference whether any one else reached the scene or not. Thousands were herded this way and that in the snow who had bought tickets or were trying to buy tickets to see the sport and thousands were shunted off and away from the inclosure by long cordons of officious, beefy young Nazis in various kinds of uniforms whose only duty was to flatter and accommodate the house painter who became the head man of the Third Reich. a u u Troops Are Everywhere r pHE road approaching the stadium was held clear by a double cordon of troops in brown uniforms. The Olympics were of secondary importance, if any. This was the dictator’s day, and it's a good thing for the Americans present that this was so, because they have nothing important to learn from the athletes, but much to learn about absolute authority in government. You must picture this town. Ten thousand swastikas stir faintly in the light winter wind along the streets. Soldiers are everywhere. There are soldiers in the old German gray, soldiers of the labor corps m brown and special soldiers of the bodyguard in olack and silver. All w’ear the swastika, and it’® seen again from the red postoffice trucks and the army transports, which go tearing through the streets. tt tt Games Are Still Young npHIS motor transport gives a strange suggestion of war. When the United States held winter Olympics at Lake Placid the only armed force in sight was a small detachment of New York State Police to regulate traffic. 1 do not know why there are so many troops and I hesitate to inquire. I know the Olympic ideal by heart, having heard it many times in speeches and read it in statements by Avery Brundage, president of the American Athletic Union, who brought American teams over to this armed camp, and by other idealists in the Olympic organization. Up to this time no artillery has been seen. I take it that the brotherhood games of the winter Olympics run under the auspices of Nazi sportsmanship are only infantry action up to this writing. But they may be saving their heavy stuff, tanks and bombers, for the summer program. Gen. Johnson Says— EORGETOWN, S. C., Feb. 18.—I have just been shooting at the place of my close friend, Bernard M. Baruch—a hunter’s paradise. He let me bring to Hobcaw another close friend who likes to shoot quail—Col. William Keller, one of the w’orld’s greatest surgeons. Col. Keller, who know\s little about political Washington, told as a great joke how a simple but irate anti-New Deal patient had blustered: “I’ll tell you who is to blame for this whole New Deal. It’s Mr. McGoosh. The President does whatever McGoosh advises. Why don’t McGoosh go down and tell him to stop this nonsense?” The mystery solved—the sinister influence disclosed—the insidious Mr. McGoosh who w-orks behind the veil! Col. Keller’s joke was that by “McGoosh” was meant Bernie Baruch, whose name is popularly mispronounced “Barooch.” BUT that wasn’t the joke at which everybody else around the fire laughed. The real joke was the casual conviction of the indignant patient, of Col. Keller, so obviously and earnestly, and of a good many other people in this country, that the White House pays the slightest attention to any counsels of this veteran Democratic wheel-horse, who has been called upon by several Presidents but who has never volunteered advice to any man. As Arthur Krock remarked concerning them; “Either his advice is lousy or it isn’t followed.” His advice isn’t lousy. If it had been taken, at least three major mistakes would have been avoided —for example, the “horse and buggy” press conference following the NRA decision, and the silver purchase policy.

Times Books

TO say that John Erskine's latest book will prove highly unpopular in certain feminine circles is probably a masterpiece of understatement. Prof. Erskine brings forth a sweeping indictment of women's organizations in “The Influence of Women and and Its Cure” (Bobbs, Merrill, Indianapolis; $1.50). The Columbia University educator, rather in earnest, draws a sharp line between women as individuals and women in the mass. It is the latter at whom he directs his fire; not always with telling effect. It is Prof. Erskine's contention that the pressure exerted by women’s organizations is unintelligent and damaging. His chief complaint is that the “woman of influence ... must be a woman of leisure.” a a a THE distinguished author finds most fault with the American educational system, charging women’s organizations with altering a fundamentally sound set-up. “There ought to be a first-rate overhauling of a system,” writes Prof. Erskine, “which keeps boys in their early years largely under sh e domination of a woman. . . . Male teachers, outnumbered, succumb to the fussy and enervating pedagogies which are as the breath of life to women teachers; theory is the thing, not the student, not the subject. In genuine education a real man would look at a real boy, see what he had yet to learn, and teach it to him. Only a few women would consent to be so practical or so simple.” The women’s organizations put on trial (and convicted) in Mr. Erskine’s book undoubtedly will make scornful retort. But even though the good professor hasn't proved every point, he has produced a thought-provoking essay and one to which many women probably will reply without thinking. (By N. E.^saac&),

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Westbrook Pcglet