Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 297, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 February 1936 — Page 13

It Seems to Me HEM BROUN POLICE COMMISSIONER VALENTINE put Representative Vito Marcantonio into ‘protective custody.'’ Whether it was the commissioner's idea to protect Vito from the cops or the cops from Vito was not made clear. Certainly the city official was ill-advised in announcing to the press that he was net going to "make martyrs’’ or r and in attempts to "gain cheap publicity.” I nave heard no foe of Marcantonio’s ever accuse him of insincerity. He is, by virtue of his own per-

sonality and his particular spot in Washington, legitimately a public figure. The House has a very large contingent of forgotten men. But Marcantonio happens to be the only radical Representative in Washington. He was elected as a Republican, and he will run again this fall under thgt label, but, for all that, Vito Marcantonio is well to the left of Meyer London and Victor Berger, the two lone Socialists ever to reach the House. The G. O. P. is probably pictured as an elephant because it covers so much ground. Surely a

Heywood Broun

party which includes within its ranks both Marcantonio and Fish must follow a philosophy of loose construction in its tests of membership. Here within an organization the observer finds an extreme right winger and an advanced leftist sitting on the same side o* the House. nan He's a Hard Worker AS a matter of fact, they have something in common in addition to a party name. Both belong to the energetic faction in Congress. On the whole, I think that Vito Marcantonio is the hardest-work-ing legislator in Washington. His leadership of an unemployment demonstration in Madison Square Park was wholly logical. Marcantonio feels that the maintenance of adequate relief is the most important issue before America today. He thinks that it has been meager at best, and that right now a concerted drive is on to make slashes all along the line. Both the contending major parties are talking their heads off about economy, and when politicians speak of curtailment they invariably refer to cuts in the bread and not in the circuses. There are so many self-appointed watchdogs of the Treasury that it is vitally necessary to have somebody in Washington ready to raise his voice against that form of budget-balancing which is based upon the theory that there should be a grouse in every pot of the favored few. When a man is making the fight of his life for oppressed groups I think it is very small potatoes to accuse him of playing politics. Marcantonio must run again this fall, and in a difficult district. He was elected by a narrow vote two years ago, but his record of achievement has been so good that he might have walked in,a winner this fall if he had chosen to play politics.^ a a a A Finish Fighter HE needed to incline his head only ever so slightly in the House of Rimmon to make all things easy. He could have chosen the course which La Guardia took when he went to Madison Square Gt rden and paid ta it tribute to Mussolini. Marcantonio did not attend that Italian Red Cross demonstration nor did he avail himself of any such simple device as a heavy cold or the press of official duties in Washington. He came to New York on the night of the meeting and dined publicly in an Italian restaurant in his district. That required a great deal of courage on the part of a man whose district is heavy Italian, and Marcantonio is as brave a fighter as Washington has known. Commissioner Valentine and his men are making the mistake of their lives if they think that little Vito can be shoved aside as a poser and publicity hfiund. Marcantonio is no six-round boxer. When he squares off he means to fight out the issue to a finish. (Copyright. 1936)

Recovery Is Here; Schwab Proves It BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.—N0 one can doubt now that happy days are here again. Charlie Michelson can rest his ghostly typewriter and stop writing those hurrah speeches for Administration spokesmen. Besides he's got into a habit of putting in long words that they can’t pronounce. New Dealers who are trying to convince the country that recovery is here can throw away their tiresome statistics. Nobody believes them anyway. The real

proof of recovery is now at hand Charles M. Schwab, himself. has said it. The nation's authority on optimism has. after a long hard winter, returned to his accustomed limb ahead of the first fobin. Listen: "Everything,” says the chairman of Bethlehem Steel, "seems to be looking better. I am able to say that I am an optimist with more conviction than has been possible in the past several years.” Answer that, you Liberty

Leaguers. Long ago the star of Bethlehem rose to the rank of a national oracle. It is not for ordinary men to question or reason why. However, Mr. Schwab has suggested one of the contributing causes behind his rejuvenated optimism. It is the recent master's report to a Federal Court in Philadelphia finding that instead of Schwab's Bethlehem owing the government $19,000,000 plus for alleged profiteering in war-time shipbuilding, nearly 20 years ago, the government owes Schwab's Bethlehem $5,000,000. Furthermore, the master finds that Schwab, who stepped out of Bethlehem temporarily to take charge of government war-time shipbuilding. didn't let his company profiteer. “This all goes to show,” Mr. Schwab concludes, "that if you play the game squarely the public will recognize it in the long run.” That's why these New Dealers needn't expect the public to give them $5,000,000 awards. They've been trying to fox us. a a a POLITICAL Parade: A non-partisan nation-wide poll soon to be published shows Gov. Alf M. Landon well ahead of the field of Republican presidential aspirants. . . . Old guard Republicans in New York, under the leadership of Charles D. Hilles. have taken control of the New York Republican delegation, flattening out Senator Borah's supporters. But Mr. Borah has enough friends in the state to make trouble for the organization from here out. . . . One reason for the high cost of government: In a certain Middlewestern city, one of the civic leaders who had been complaining about government expenses was iound negotiating for the government to spend S3OOO an acre for land assessed at S2OO an acre. Gravel costing 12H cents at the pit was sold to the government for $1.13. Ohio paid $30,000 rent in three years for a building that has stood vacant. A state bureau moved oyt, but they forgot—or did they?—to stop the sent. . . . Californias Republican Gov. Mermrn has just made a speech saying Roosevelt was ‘raised up by God to meet this crisis.” In extenuation of Gov. MerrUvm it is explained that he is hedging himself against a movement to recall him. Another plausible explanation is that the government, having reached the age of indiscretion, recently took a bride. . . . 9mm THOSE who insist that the Supreme Court is a jewel of consistency will have to explain why it seized upon the Brooklyn Schechter case to throw out the whole NR A, and the Hoosac Mills tax protest to throw out the whole AAA. but found that in the Wilson Dam contract the whole TVA idea was not involved, , •A

This Is th last of a scrips of articles on the administration of relief in Indiana. The author is a veteran Times staff reporter. BY ARCH STEINEL .$26,000,000 spring tonic in money boils in Indiana and the spigots, two of them, may be opened between March 15 and April 1 to aid industry in furthering its pay roll and profit gains and to slice the work and direct relief rolls. The first spigot to flow wages into a state’s industry is to be the Public Works Administration and its expenditure of $15,000,000 on school buildings, courthouses, hospitals, and waterworks systems. Forest M. Logan, state PWA director, estimates 7000 workers will be needed at a peak load to complete the projects if officials at Washington, D. C., give -the "go” sign. The workers W’ill receive the prevailing wage with skilled workmen hired at the union scale. Ninety per cent of the workers are to be taken from Works Progress Administration rolls. The second spigot to be opened is the expenditure of $11,000,000 by the Indiana State Highway Commission in the construction of roads and bridges. Highway department engineers estimate that 7000 more will be needed at peak loads to complete the projects. Thse workers also are to be taken from WPA rolls. a a a r T~'HE climb of PWA into the construction picture, if Washington does not change its mind, and the St°4e Highway Commission’s road-building may whittle WPA workers in Indiana from 82,000 to 65,000, relief observers believe. A slight business setback was suffered by private industry in Indiana during January, but the setback was seasonal and officials of the Indiana Employment Service forecast that industry is primed for more employment this spring than in the past two years. Private industry, with seasonal jobs, is further expected to decrease the direct and work relief rolls and aid in mitigating want in Indiana. Wayne Coy, Indiana WPA administrator, warns, however, that since PWA money comes from the same Federal fund as WPA that WPA employment wall be reduced as PWA, state road jobs, and private industry take men from his pay roll. Reduction in direct relief during the spring months due to seasonal employment is a “sure thing,” township trustees say, with decreases estimated from 10 to 25 per cent of the caseload. a a a EXPERIENCE of state employment officials is that industry absorbs pay roll increases by taking on old employes released during slack times and younger men and that a doubling of placements in private industry by the state employment bureau during 1935 over 1934 did not sponge up the unemployed on direct relief rolls or the>.work relief man or woman. “Our company pay roll accounts are higher and in our own bank we have expanded. Our expansion in the bank as well as other financial institutions has been due to an increased need for the men and women whom we kept on our pay roll in depression times rather than throw them on relief. We're taking up that slack now as business improves and that is what is happening in private industry and the reason why, despite increased pay rolls the relief rolls have not dwindled,” said one Indianapolis banker in discussing industry’s viewpoint. "Bankers can’t be quoted, but I believe relief is as necessary today as three years ago and that we can not expect to take many persons from relief rolls when we consider that we dropped from boom employment years to an alltime low in unemployment,” he added. ana PLACEMENT records of the state employment bureau show that although 3286 persons received jobs in private industry in December. 1935, against 1486 in government and WPA jobs that the chances of the WPA worker obtaining a job in industry is not more than an estimated l-to-10 shoot. Skilled workers in varied lines are needed more frequently than the unskilled laborer and it is the unskilled workmen who forms the bulk of the 82.000 employes under WPA in Indiana. General statements that the labor mart is in dire need of skilled workmen is denied by employment officials. The metal trades class of workers are the only skilled persons said to be in demand today. An example is cited by an Arsenal Technical High School official who points to one Indianapolis firm that has taken shoptrained youths for apprenticeship in its plant in order to teach them

Clapper

SALVAGING 475,000 HOOSIERS

PWA School Aid and Road Building Soon to Ease Relief Burden

BENNY

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The Indianapolis Times

“ —the cow jumped over the moor.. The little dog laughed to see such sport and the dish ran away with the spoon.” For the cow does jump over the moon and the dog chortles while the dish does its turn at eloping for the benefit of crippled children at James Whitcomb Riley Hospital as they float back to health in the therapeutic pool of the hospital. Looking toward the pool’s ceiling they see the nursery doggeral in painted caricatures made possible by WPA workmen as shown in the photo.

the operation of a punch press. A shortage of punch press operators is reported. Index of how the millions of dollars spent by WPA in Indiana filters back to the state’s manufacturers is seen in the employment bureau’s January report. "Indiana manufacturers paid more to their employes during January. with he exception of December, 1935, than in any month since December, 1931. a a a r I 'HE business barometer further reveals, in the bureau’s .report, that state manufacturers in a survey were reported within 93 per cent of normal employment bases on the normal years of 1923-1925. November, 1932, was ebb-tide in employment for the manufacturing group with an index average of 56 per cent of the 1923-1925 period of normal business operations. Gross income tax collections serve as another reliable meter for gauging industry’s clearer tone with a range of between 16 and 17 per cent more tax collections during 1935 than in 1934. Marion County is to be benefitted to the extent of $1,192,757 by PWA work projects beginning in March. Criticism of state WPA and the 11 district administrative offices as well as control of projects has been frequent. a a a THE “squawks” and their relation to facts are summed up as follows: 1. The charge that employes in state administrative offices stumble over themselves in trying to find something to occupy their mind. Answer: The Times finds some justice in this charge. In one case two doormen barricade the way at state WPA headquarters, 217 N. Senate-av, and one may find his proffered card to see “Mr So-and-So” tossed in a forward pass from one doorkeeper to the other. Before WPA took charge one “lookout” sufficed to keep reporters, peddlers and business men from interfering with the busy executives. But The Times found the genial

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

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20—Was Secretary I?an Roper’s face red! At recent conferences, the President repeatedly has expressed skepticism of estimates placing the number of jobless above 10,000,000. Therefore his interest was greatly aroused at the last meeting of the National Emergency Council when he noted an item “10,650,000 unemployed” in a WPA report submitted by Harry Hopkins. Questioned about the source of this figure. Hopkins said it had been compiled by Robert Nathan, a member of the committee of experts that had drafted the original Social Security Act. Hopkins added that Nathan had made the estimate public. "What agency is Nathan connected with now?” asked the President. None of the many New Deal

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20,1936

doorkeepers might be on relief roles if they were not “doorkeeping” just as is the case in other administrative departments that could be culled by private industry managing the organization. The “white-collar” administrative worker needs a job as badly as the WPA non-relief worker or the pick-and-shovel employe. The job kept him off relief and for the salary he receives he gives comparative full value. The stalling on the job is a degree greater than in private industry due to the higher pressure of industry in competing with other industries. WPA has no competitor. 2. Charges are made that politics are rife and key positions are are held by Democrats. There are also allegations of nepotism and the hiring of workers who do not need jobs. a a a ANSWER— The state administration of WPA operates under a benign Democratic administration with Republicans on the pay roll to a far greater degree than in any other department in the state or county governments of Indiana. Wayne Coy, state administrator, is a converted Democrat, who took the job of a Republican . director of the Governor’s Unemployment Relief Commission—William H. Bodk, man-ager-director of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. He is “boss” and indications are that Gov. McNutt does not permit political patronage to cause him to interfere with Mr. Coy’s nonpartisan administration of WPA. The state district supervisors show a high percentage of Democrats in the eleven districts although state officials declare they do not know the politics of their district supervisors. Dr. Carlton B. McCulloch, Marion County WPA director, is a prominent Democrat. Incidents have been reported to The Times of workers employed in administrative divisions as well as in non-relief work who did not need jobs. One man is employed by a district office, The Times finds, who has a wife working at a good salary. “It saves his face

chiefs present knew, including Secretary of Commerce Roper. In the general discussion of unemployment statistics which followed, Secretary Roper was particularly critical of the Nathan estimate. He characterized it as “guess work,” declared that its publication was “unfortunate.” At this point, a White House clerk tip-toed to the President and handed him a slip of paper. He glanced at it, then burst out laughing. “I’ve located Mr. Nathan,” he said. “And it’s a good joke on you, Dan. He is on the staff of your Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.” NOTE: Nathan's unemployment estimate was based on a private, personal study, and in making it public he stated specifically that it was an individual view with no official connection. How it got into the WPA report was not explained. .

for he’s been unemployed,” an informant says. 3. The charge is made of negligence in keeping time on work projects, of favoritism, and that workers are placed on “backbreaking” projects when they protest their rights. a a a ANSWER— The Times finds the charges a question of viewpoint and sometimes misunderstandings. Workers who fail on pi ejects in pleasant surroundings and where work is lighter are transferred to shovel jobs along river levees and streets. The White River levee project in Marion County is termed by some foremen as the “last place we can put a man when he doesn’t fit in.” The transfers cause hard feelings among workers, whether just or un'jst. Protest was threatened this week by a group of truck drivers, contract labor not WPA employes, because subzero weather had resulted in their earning but $8 to $lO a week when WPA truck drivers obtained the security wage on Marion County work projects. J. H. Crawley, county assistant director of WPA, admitted that the wage of the contract truck driver would be less than that of the WPA truck driver in severe weather. He pointed out, however, that contract workmen are procured through the United States Treasury and are not hired by WPA. They receive a $1.50 hourly rate, he says. “We’ve been working as much as private contractors, if not more, during the cold spell,” he said. The contract truck drivers say they will protest to Indiana's congressional Representatives. A special session of the Indiana General Assembly is to meet in March to consider raising the state pension maximum to S3O and thereby fulfill Federal requirements to participate in the national security program. The state has an estimated 28,000 old-age pensioners receiving benefits from $5 to sls monthly. The average pension in Marion County with 2974 pensioners is sl2, a a a ONE-HALF the county pensioners, investigators say, are taken from the relief, rolls. Relief ends with pension payment. It is estimated that reduction of the age limit from 70 to 65 years will within a year’s time hike the pension rolls to 40,000 persons in Indiana and that one-half of the increased load, 6000 persons, will be taken from direct relief. This estimate is challenged by more conservative welfare workers, while others say the high mortality of pensioners will serve to prevent as high a load of old age clients and as a consequence nullify the effect on the direct relief lines. How does the public feel about the expenditure of all this money? Here are some representative opinions: GAVIN L. PAYNE, investment broker, Republican and tax expert: “We should sweep it all out and start over again. The New Deal is a horrible menace. Three

years ago we wanted a change. Now we want one worse than ever. Mrs. Perkins, Secretary of Labor, says unemployment has decreased and William Green, American Federation of Labor president, says it has increased. Who are we to believe?” Adolph Fritz, Indiana State Federation of Labor secretary: “My private opinion is that labor wants WPA continued in preference to basket or grocery order relief. Labor in Indiana has been able to satisfactorily settle most differences over wages paid on WPA projects. Unfair contractors have taken advantage of the security wage but for the most part we have no complaint.” Roland Slagle, secretary-treas-urer Indiana Lumbermen's and Builders’ Association: ‘‘Men in our industry, I believe, feel WPA and work relief should be handled locally. The lumbermen have not benefited through contracts. Fifty per cent of the dealers refuse to bid on government WPA materials because the government in buying direct obtains materials cheaper by cutting out the reTheodore B. Griffith, L. S. Ayres & Cos., vice president: “Relief measures have given a more steady tone to retail business.” Frederick E. Schortemeier, attorney and former Republican Secretary of State: “First, every citizen should be provided for. Second, the Federal government must curtail expenditures if confidence is to be restored. Instead of spending money on WPA projects credit should be extended to industry. This will promote employment of a permanent nature and the Federal funds will have been loaned instead of being spent.” a tt tt INDIANAPOLIS banker, Democrat: “Work relief is the only way we can help the unemployed and business. I can see where in the years to come we are going to need unemployment relief in some form to aid the jobless, and work is infinitely better than a grocery dole.” Leonard A. Murchison, sales merchandising manager, H. P. Wasson & Cos.: “Indirectly our firm has been affpcted by WPA pay rolls. In general business conditions are better than they were.” Samuel B. Walker, controller, Wm. H. Block Cos.: “Our sales are appreciably over last year. We noticed at the beginning of WPA an increase in the sale of radios and other merchandise of similar caliber.” Meyer Efromyson, president, Star Store: “It is better to have persons on relief working than on grocery orders. Our business has been helped. December was better than one year ago. Severe cold weather has stopped shoppers to a certain extent.” Retail merchant, banker, broker, taxpayer, coincide in one view that “business” has improved since the beginning of WPA expenditure of work relief money. They place relief spending and its curtailment as' a question of national policy to be determined as soon as relief rolls can be cut without injury to the home life of relief clients. THE END.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered a Second-Class Matter at I’ostoffiee. Indianapolis Ind.

Fair Enough WESIMMPEGLER GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Feb. 20.—1 tis going to be pretty hard to do this, but right is right, as President Harding said, and I feel that I have done the Nazis a serious injustice. Two days ago these dispatches reported that the quaint little Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partcn-kirchen had the appearance of an army headquarters a few miles behind the Western Front. That was wrong, and I can only plead that I was honestly mistaken and the victim of my own ignorance.

Those weren’t troops at all but merely peace-loving German workmen in their native dress, and those weren't army lorries which went tearing through the streets squirting the slush onto the sidewalks but delivery wagons carrying beer and wieners and kraut to the humble homes of the mountaineers. It is a relief to know that the Germans did not conduct their winter Olympics in an atmosphere of war. My information comes from a kindly Bavarian cobbler in a long black overcoat who was standing in a cordon of cobblers along the

main street Sunday afternoon during Adolf Hitler's visit to pronounce over the closing ceremonies the benison of a great protector of the world's peace. "Are you a soldier?” I inquired. "Why me?” he asked. "No. I’m a cobbler. All of us in the black costume are cobblers.” "Then why do you dress in military uniform?” I persisted. "That’s where you are wrong,” said my cobbler friend. "This isn’t a military uniform. It’s a shoemaker’s uniform, and this big clothes stabber in the scabbard at my side, which may look like a bayonet to you, is merely a little knife which we use when we cobble.” “But,” I asked, “why do you march in military formation?” a a a Cobbler Is Very Patient THE cobbler controlled his impatience and explained that for hundreds of years the cobblers of Bavaria had worn the same distinctive costume, which looks military to the uninitiated. And why, then, do they march like troops and form imposing cordons around the streets during the Olympic games? The answer is that they don’t really march at all. They just walk in step in columns of fours, because they like to walk that way. “But what about those other troops in the brown uniforms?” "Troops?” said my friend. “Those are not troops. Those are gardeners who have always worn brown suits, which seem to be military but aren’t. Those blades which you see hanging from their belts are not bayonets, but pruning knives. It is an old Bavarian tradition. "They, too, like to go for long walks in columns of fours and drill with spades, as soldiers sometimes drill with rifles, but they are not soldiers. They are just kind-hearted gardeners who wouldn’t hurt a potato bug.” a a a A Natural Mistake STILL, there were other men all dressed alike in blue gray, with wings embroidered on their clothing. Undoubtedly those would be soldiers of the aviation branch, wouldn't they? Blit my friend enjoyed another pleasant hysteric over that one, too. Those, he said, were poultry farmers, and the wings merely represented the harmless fowl in their barnyards. It is not easy to be proved wrong in a serious matter. I had seen as many as 5000 men in apparel which seemed to be that of soldiers, and had recklessly accused the peace-loving Nazi regime of converting the winter Olympics into a military demonstration and the marching had turned out to be nothing but an habitual method of going for nice long walks. A foreman of cobblers came by and my friend gestured which resembled a military salute. I asked him about this, but he said he was only shading his eyes. The Nazi press bureau released the other day a quotation from a dispatch to the New York Times insisting that any one reporting the presence of troops at the Olympic games was a liar. I guess that’s me, but the mistake was natural, as you can see.

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.—There have been three Democratic Presidents since the Civil War. Under two of them—Wilson and Roosevelt—the greatest expenditures of public money in the history of this country have been made. In both vast outpourings, there has not been even so much as a considerable charge of graft or speculation. There were scandals galore in Republican emergency expenditures in both the Civil and SpanishAmerican War. The post-war corruptions under Grant and Harding are notorious. Any incumbent Administration is accused of political job-mongering, but the last two Democratic Administrations appointed more men of the opposing political party than any in our experience. a a a TAFT, Hughes and Hoover held important posts under Wilson, and a majority of leaders of the war emergency organizations were Republicans. In his first glorious year the same disregard of politics was shown by Roosevelt appointments. Wallace, Ickes, Peek. Davis, Brand. Richberg. Hopkins and a majority of the Industrial Advisory Board, were Republicans. You can hurl at this Administration any epithet your fancy favors, but—like Cleveland's and Wilson s —it stands apart in freedom from corruption and political bigotry. (Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Times Books

LITERALLY born into the labor movement, Kenneth Patchen, son of a steel worker, has plunged into the front trench of America’s left-wing poets with his book "Before the Brave” (Random House), Unquestionably a poet of high merit, the 25-year-old Patchen is none the less sometimes almost impossible to understand. It is at times "puzzle poetry”—but extremely worth puzzling over. There is power and beauty to his work. Take the first poem in the book: Turn out the lights around the statues. Unlock the vaults of unhewn stone; put down An order for new men. Place high the value Os those others; Do not forget what they have done. Do not destroy. They built a world we could not use. They planned a course that ended in disaster. Their time is up. The curtain's down. We take power. We’re serry they left so little. We wonder If any will say of us: Do not forget. Do not destroy. We wonder if they will mean it as much as we do now. Turn out the lights around the statues. What do you think the dead will wear next year? Here are a few of his striking phrases: "The gaunt driven light of prophesy that dances on their graves” . . . "Answering the good bird in the bough of eternity” . . . “Like a wonderful lion in dream of redemption” . . . “We hear the dark curve of eternity go -coughing down the hills." Tha fcKjit poem in the book is v Joe Bill Listen* to (By Nqrman E. Isaacs.)

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Westbrook Pegler