Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 301, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 February 1936 — Page 11

It Seems to Me HEIMBKOIIN T M surprised at Rep. Sol Bloom. I did not expect ■*- to find him in the business of belittling. This is not his usual reputation. Asa rule, Sol is the great celebrator. Hp is forever getting empowered to put up models of colonial landmarks in spots where the passerby will stub his toe and be reminded

of history. Sol is the greatest defender of tradition the House has known since Ham Fish turned liberal. That’s why it annoys me to see him trying to rob an American hero of his reputation. Walter Johnson isn’t the man he used to be. but he still is good enough to throw a dollar across the Rappahannock. He was with the Senators when they really had a team and couldn’t call those Senators a rubber met. Twice they crashed through to win a pennant, and once they captured a world’s championship.

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Heywood Broun

Though his arm may have gone off the gold standard and become devaluated, it was Walter Johnson who ended that old canard, “First in war, first in peace and last in the American League.’’ n m m Sol Is Forgetful WALTER JOHNSON made Washington mean something. If Sol Bloom doesn’t like the heroes of the nation’s capital let him go back to the Yankee Stadium, where he came frrtm. And though it was not Walter himself, it was his battery mate. Gabby Street, who brought still further honor to the founding fathers by catching first a turnip and then a baseball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument. Sol Bloom professes to love his country well, but what did he ever catch and from what towering public structure was it dropped? Sol has caught only the can’t-do-it habit which prevails upon the Hill. He has listened too long to the current slogan of the nine whose home grounds he only a couple of blocks away from the Congress. As Meßeynolds winds up yott can catch on a clear day the voices of his teammates crying, “‘Ata workin’, Mack. He can't do it. Don’t let ’im get a piece ot it.” Meßeynolds has chucked out plenty of stuff, but what did he ever catch? Asa. matter of fact, Walter Johnson shouldn't have been asked to throw a dollar across the Rappahannock. The Supreme Court may call it back on the ground that he didn’t really do it in order to improve navigation. Id just like to see how far Mr. Justice Pierce Butlpr can throw a dollar. Sol 8100 n made it extra difficult for Walter. He had the river measured not as it is today but according to the banks which prevailed in the days of George Washington. That makes the river more than 1300 feet wide. Sol is inflating the river instead of the dollar. But anyway, Walter fooled him. u u n Here's n New Idea MAYBE the answer is that George Washington used Moscow gold. But, in any case, I think a good showman like Sol 31oom ought to see the possibility of saving the Washington Birthday celebration, even at this late date, by a few minor changes. Next time let Waiter Johnson attempt to throw Van Devanter across the Rappahannock. If he succeeds. well and good. If he doesn’t, it can still be scored as a good try. Leaving Fredericksburg and Mr. Justice Van Devanter. the celebrants will take fast cars and proceed directly to the foot of the Washington Monument. Pierce Butler will be taken to the top and induced to jump, on the theory that his eight associates are prepared to catch him in a net. The instant Mr. Justice Butler jumps it will be held by a unanimous decision of tho court that the net is a. piece of loose construction, and it will be invalidated. I really don't see how anything could keep a party like that from being very successful, except bad weather. And it would have to be very bad.” (Copyrißht. 1936) Old and New Deal Pay Rates Differ BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, Feb. 25.—Among the numerous sidelines into which the New Deal ventured during its more evangelical days was that of discouraging salary racketeering among executives of large private corporations. The country has been revolted by the spectacle of big shot executives raising their SIOO,OOO salaries during the depression when they were firing clerks

and stenographers, or cutting their pay, to save money. m* * a ASM ALL crusade developed. Private salary figures were gleefully dug up and published by numerous government agencies and by congressional committees. Congress voted the “pink slip" provision for publishing all income tax figures, later repealing it. Salary publicity, it was discovered, is fun only when restricted to the big fish. Later,

however, Congress provided for publication of corporation salaries in excess of $15,000. All of this goldfish publicity was intended to shame corporation executives into being less greedy. But rightly suspecting that shame wouldn't have much effect, the Administration went still further. Railroad Co-ordinator Eastman forced railroad presidents down to a $60,000 wage scale. Congress forbade air-mail contract holders from paying salaries of more than $17,500. The Merchant Marine subsidy bill, which pissed the House last year, fixed a limit of $25,000 on salaries of companies drawing government subsidies. Chairman Jesse Jones of the RFC was especially hardboiled. Being in the business of lending to large corporations he was in a position to crack the whip. The RFC Act was amended under the New Deal to prohibit loans to any applicant paying unreasonably excessive salaries. One railroad obtained an RFC loan only on condition that it cut its executives to a SIO,OOO limit. Another railroad's RFC loan was conditioned upon a 60 per cent cut of all salaries above SIOO,OOO and of not less than 10 per cent on salaries of S4BOO to SIO,OOO. All of which gives some idea of what the Administration regarded as reasonable salaries—for old dealers. mm* THAT is why it was considerable of a shock in Washington to discover that Walter Cummings, treasurer of the Democratic national committee, who was put into the Continental Illinois Bank and Trust Cos. at Chicago by the RFC was drawing $75,000 a ~t*ar; that, the RFC had got him a side job as trustee of the Chicago, Milwaukee. St. Paul Pacific railroad at $15,000 a year and a directorship on the Maryland Casualty at an undisclosed salary under President Sillim: * Evans, an old Texas friend of Chairman Jones, wno put Evans and $37,500,000 of RFC money into this insurance company to prop it up. So you can see that the New Deal salary is much higher. The trouble with those Tory salary grabbers is that thev Uisist upon hanging on to the old order, instead of joining up and embracing the more abundant life. m m a If the Administration can get rid of Peter Grimm, former New York real estate broker and now the Treasury’s housing expert, it probably will be able to proceed with the new Wagner housing bill which will be ready within a few days. Certain high officials charge Grimm with sabotaging the Administration program. The internal fight is extremely bitter and somebody is apt to be scalped. Grimm got into the picture through Secretary Morgenthau aad the back door oi l he White House.

WHAT’S WRONG IN OUR SCHOOLS? \ * * * n m nun m m m m m m Portable Buildings Both Hot and Cold — Pupils’ Health Endangered

H*re M th*> grond of a series of articles by Arch Steinel. Times ataff writer, following a comprehensiTe survey oi t’je Indianapolis schools system. BY ARCH STEINEL J7XCERPT from newspaper files of Sept. 19, 1902: “The sanitary conditions of most buildings and outbuildings in the county is bad—very bad. They have four walls, some windows that cast light in the shape of a letter X, and have unshielded receptacles for wood and coal in the center of the room,” says W. F. Lander, Marion County school superintendent. Excerpt from the Indianapolis School Board Committee report, January, 1936: “The committee goes on record as condemning the continued use of those frame buildings, commonly called portables, which are poorly lighted and ventilated, are insanitary, and are, in all respects, unfit for school purposes.” Both reports, instead of being,34 years apart, might

have been made in Indianapolis today with automobiles on the streets instead of one-horse “shays.” Today 1600 children in city grade schools, one out of every 28 boys and girls, attend classes in temporary frame buildings. The structures are poorly lighted. Ventilation ranges from frigidity to boiling heat. Temperatures range from 55 to 65 on the windward sides of rooms to around 80 degrees near the barrel-like stoves. n m m JOHNNY, who comes from a home where clean white porcelain bathrooms are the mode, goes to school to find himself shoved into the days when outbuildings were the rule and plumbing was unknown. With freezing winds whipping around the protable school building he is forced to bundle up in an overcoat and run, in some instances, 75 to 100 feet to outhouses —oftentimes to zero weather. Johnny’s age is not respected. The “kindergartener” accepts the poor sanitary facilities as does the 10-year-old Thirty-nine classrooms in 13 portable school buildings force children to go to outside toilet facilities or take long walks to main school buildings. Wooden floors at some of the portables are “draughty” in wintry weather. Game hours for those in their first school years are necessary on cold days to prevent chilled legs, hands and feet. n m u I VISITED School No. 68 at 4417 E. 21st-st, and found children, first-graders who could not tell you their home addresses without prodding, compelled to use an out-

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25. Thero was a long undercover scrap behind the “kick in the pants” with which Rep. Johi| O'Connor threatened Father Coughlin. It involves two committees of the House. Last spring the House Agriculture Committee reported favorably the Frazier-Lemke bill for refinancing $3,000,000,000 of farm mortgages through greenbacks. This is one of the chief legislative proposals advocated by the Detroit priest. But Administration leaders promptly shunted the bill to the House Rules Committee, headed by O’Connor. Ordinarily, a bill indorsed by so important a body as the agriculture committee is quickly given the right-of-way for floor consideration. But Rep. O'Connor and the other Administration leaders are opposed to Frazier-Lemke inflation. So, despite much heat and clamor, the bill has languished ever since. O’Connor was hotly denounced for suppressing the measure, hit back with a counter charge impugning the sincerity of the agriculture committee’s action. n n 8 Buck Passing HE claims that th* committee was merely “passing a hot potato” to his group, and that Chairman Marvin Jones and the other Democratic members of the agriculture committee privately intimated to him that they wanted no action. O'Connor's accusation of “buck passing" is given considerable color by the wide variance of accounts within the agriculture committee of its vote on the embattled Frazier-Lemke bill. Its backers claim that the count for a favorable report was 18 to 5. This was stated over the air # by Coughlin. Foes of the bill contend the tally was 13 to 12. A record of the proceedings shows 8 committee members absent, 15 voting for and 5 against. nun EMIL HURJA. chief political aid to Jim Farley, called up an official of the Securities Exchange Commission the other day and suggested that the SEC not be too exacting about the stock registration of a certain large watch company. “The company,” explained Emil, “operates some radio stations and

Clapper

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

BENNY

The Indianapolis Times

side toilet yards away from the portable structure. “One side of the room is cold and over in the corner near the stove it is warm,” said Mrs. Cora Rentschler, principal. “That means,” she added, “that we have to have game hours for little ones when the temperature drops.” The photographer wished to take a photo of the children in her classroom. “Children,” and Mrs. Rentschler, “he’s going to take your picture around the stove. You know how you stand around the stove on cold mornings.” Near-zero winds whistled around the thin walls, as the children gathered near the warmth of the stove. Hands were raised to be warmed from its comforting glow with little need of cajoling. MM COAL-GAS pervades the four rooms of the two portables at School 68. When it becomes troublesome the rooms are aired and draughts prevail. “Almost all we see from the time we come in until the time we leave are walls,” said Mrs. Rentschler, pointing to the windows high above the children’s heads. The lighting in Mrs. Rentschler’s room for the most part comes from the south and when clouds hide the south light the rooms become dark and gloomy. Cleanliness may be next to godliness, but it’s country-style at School 68 and they believe they are “lucky” to have a pan and water to wash their hands. In some Indianapolis portables outside fountains serve as washrooms. “We teachers often si# by the stoves to grade class papers after school in order to keep warm,”

they are for Roosevelt’s re-elec-tion.” n n Incurable ON the last day of the Senate Munitions Committee hearings, two gun dealers stepped outside the committee room and held a private conversation in the hall. One was J. Cuneil de Figuerola. Spanish-born American, who has supplied guns and ammunition for many a revolution. The other was Jacob Paley, who had turned from the millinery trade to salvaging machine guns junked by the U. S. Army. Each had listened to the other’s testimony, each had been castigated by the committee for unscrupulous trade in lethal weapons. Outside the door, Paley buttonholed Figuerola. “Say, do you want to make a deal?” “Sure, what is it?” said Figuerola. “I’ve got some machine guns I think you could use.” “All right. I’ll come up and see you some time.” nun Left Attack GOV. ALF LANDON of Kansas has hit upon the scheme of . attacking the New Deal from the left as well as from the right. He has hired a prominent newspaper man of radical leanings to direct his campaign on the left front. u n & Monroe Doctrine THE Monroe Doctrine is dead. Probably no one in the State Department would admit this, but it is the report quietly being made by Latin American diplomats to their governments. Whac they say killed the Monroe Doctrine >s a provision in the amended neutrality bill recently passed by the House and Senate. The bill specifies that in case of war between a Latin American country and a European enemy, the United States may sell arms to the American country but not to the European. This, according to Latin American diplomats, presupposes that the United States would permit a European country to invade an American country and, aside from selling arms, would do nothing about it. (Copyright. 1938. bv United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936

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said Mrs. Rentschler. “Sometimes we move the classes to vantage points around the stoves on cold days.” —And yet she and her two companion teachers say that conditions at School 68 are improved, as compared to former years, and that plenty of coal is kept near the stove’s firebox and that they keep as warm as possible in the cardboard-like buildings. The would like to have inside toilet facilities and better heating. nun THE building committee of the Board of School Commissioners says of School 68: “The school was opened in 1925. Toilet facilities are located outside, but as sanitary as it is possible to make them, the committee feels that the conditions under which these children are attending school are extremely unsatisfactory and should be remedied—the committee recommends steam heat and inside toilets be installed and that other repairs be made to make these buildings more acceptable.” School 68 is third on the list of three grade schools to be modernized under a $210,000 program for seven elementary schools of the city. * N Modernization work may begin after the close of this school year. An estimated expenditure of $lO,000 will send 68s children to a well-ventilated building. There are to be no draughts and there are to be inside toilet and washroom facilities. n n n SCHOOL NO. 83 at 1501 Kappes-st, and School No. 64 at 3000 Cottage-av, Negro educational institutions, are two other portable units scheduled to be modernized at estimated expenditures of SIO,OOO for each school. The two buildings also have outside toilets as well as poor ventilation. Elimination of outside lavatories at Schools 68, 83 and 64 would leave but two schools in the city with outside toilets—Schools 90 and 79, Pupils in eight portable structures here are forced to go from the frame structures to main buildings to use the washrooms. New additions at a total cost of SIBO,OOO are proposed at , Schools 44, 21, 47 and 35 to do away with portable structures which have resulted in harming the health of children through improper heating, poor ventilation, and causing them to go to main buildings at recess periods for washroom facilities. If this schedule is carried out the Indianapolis school system will bave but four portable units where it Is necessary to use main building washrooms. The schools are numbers 20, , it and 91. Possible population shifts and the inability to determine future needs, as well as the fact that the four schools are not in as unfortunate circumstances as those included in the modernization program, hold action on them in abeyance, school commissioners say. n n n A RESUME of the needs and the construction planned under the modernization plan for Schools 44, 21, 47 and 35 follows: School 44, at 2!01 Sugar Groveav, erected in 1907, 20 rooms; two portables with -four classrooms. Portables poorly ventilated and rooms become overheated. Windows opened to ventilate rooms. Addition of two classrooms and combined auditorium and gym-

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Hands up! You’d raise your hands, too. if you attended School No. 68 as do the children (upper photo) in one of the portable rooms to warm themselves during zero temperatures.

nasium proposed at estimated cost of $60,000. School 47. at 1240 W. Ray-st, main building erected in 1889; two rooms housed in frame structure. Rooms overheat easily and overhanging eaves make them dark. Pupils go to main building washrooms. Two-room addition to eradicate portables planned at estimated cost of $20,000. School 21, at 2815 English-av, erected in 1913, main building in good condition; two temporary protables used; two basement rooms also used as classrooms. Heat, lighting and ventilation very unsatisfactory. Six-room addition planned at estimated cost of $60,000. School 35, at 2201 Madison-rd, erected in 1898, main building condition “good"; two portable rooms use main building for washroom. Low eaves cause poor lighting. Heating and ventilation improper. Two classrooms and auditorium-g y m n a s i u m planned at estimated cost of $40,000. n n n SINCE 1930 the school board has reduced the classrooms provided in makeshift “portables” from 100 rooms housing 3275 pupils to 49 rooms housing 1660 pupils. Opening of the new Negro school, No. 87, at 2402 Paris-av, this fall with its 16-room structure, built through the aid of PWA funds at a cost of $202,000, is expected to reduce the pupils housed in temporary buildings to 1200 and the rooms to 39. A visit to School 87 in the recent zero temperatures provided a sharp contrast between conditions of today and whac will bp in the city s school system. While adjacent to the portables of No. 87 new brick is laid on the 16-room structure and the first floor rises to a promise of modern toilet and washroom

No! John Patton, 8, School 8* pupil, is not drinking from a frozen horse - trough lower), John’s just trying to get a sip of ice water from the school’s sole drinking fountain.

facilities the children of No. 87 drink water from an outdoor fountain that resembles a water-ing-trough for horses. Blizzards freeze the trough and children drink the water, chilled as it is, as they dash quickly—many times without wraps—from schoolroom to trough and then back to the uneven warmth of the portable building. Heavy enrollment has necessitated half-day sessions many times during the past two years. Eleven teachers have 470 pupils in the overcrowded portables and Mrs. Vivian Marbury, the principal, looks longingly out of the windows at workmen erecting the school's new home. n * n SHE sees in the new structure the end of the “watering trough,” of rooms overheated in one sector and cooled by breezes in other sections. She sees a washroom for the children for the trough is also the children’s place for ablutions—and she hopes that the frame “backhouse” will be just a lot of good kindling by next September. Her children want so little and are so content with what they get. It is told that at a school board meeting an aged Negro interrupted the commissioners as they approved anew composition playground to prevent children from injuring themselves in play. “We’uns have got a cinder playground The boys and girls fall down and scuff themselves. They don’t mind that so much—but—but could we have a few loads of cinders?” he concluded. School 87 is going to get its “cinders” —in anew building without a watering trough and with an indoor lavatory' for its children. Tomorrow—City High Schools Their Needs and Hopes.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Enter**! as Second-Clas* Matter at Pnstoffiee. Indianapolis Ind.

Fair Enough MUNICH. Feb. 25.—This money problem has become so complex that I don't, try to keep accounts any moie but just pay and pay. The immediate question is how to get rid of about 40 German marks before the train leaves for Prague. It is the first time I have found myself in the position of the hero of “Brewster's Millions.” and although my difficulty is smaller, the situation is much the same. On leaving London for Germany to observe the

great politico-military demonstration conducted by the Nazi state under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee, I bought certificates for a thousand registered marks at the rate of 25 cents a mark. The cost amounted to approximately $250, but the man explained that the dollars were worth only 60 cents nowadays, and that before I was receiving a thousand marks for $l5O. At this I started to draw back SIOO. but he beat me to the grab and entered into a long lecture on the anatomy of money.

It didn't make much sense, for he insisted to the very end that $250 was only $l5O and refused to budge from his top price, although I offered to split the difference, or to match him all or nothing. MUM A Bargain’s a Bargain THEN he further explained that the German government was selling me these marks at a bargain price because they were actually worth 40 cents in the Reich. This sounded suspicious but the man said the German government offered this bargain price in order to obtain dollars. “So you see,” he said, “you are actually getting a little the best, of it because your dollar is off 40 per cent but your discount on the marks is a little over 44 per cent.” “I think you are crazy,” I said. Arriving in Germany I discovered that my 20-cent marks bought as much beer and sauerkraut as the 40 cent marks of the natives, but could not forget the strange phenomenon whereby $250 and $l5O became identical sums. Moreover, it seemed odd that if the dollar was so contemptible now, the German government was willing to take a 44 per cent discount on marks to obtain American money. It developed also that every mark bought outside Germany and brought into the country must be spent in Germany, but only for food, lodging, taxicabs and routine personal expenses. It may not be used to purchase articles of value to be taken out of the Reich. Moreover, any marks which are left over at the end of the visit must be surrendered at the border. tt M M It Grows Pretty Tiresome IHAD two checks left, each calling for a hundred marks, and these will be taken up and credited to my account at my bank in New York in the amount of about SSO, subject to certain discounts and the usual wear and tear. I hope they won’t forget the man at the desk in the hotel who explained, however, that if I have more than 10 marks in currency left on reaching the border the excess supply goes back to the city. I will have about 50 marks left and even when they allow me to keep 10, they will take the other 40 which totals about $lO in my book. I can’t eat $lO worth before reaching the border because that would be about sl6 worth of food according to the German way of reckoning, and if I tried to drink it up I would probably take the wrong train and come to in Bulgaria. I think I’ll telephone somebody in Paris with the rest. Just anybody in Paris. " I am getting pretty tired of the whole subject anyway. Last month in Paris, a young man at the French Line explained that the great gold movement from France to the United States was a fine thing for the steamship company because it costs about 1 per cent of the value of the gold to ship and insure it across the Atlantic. This gold had been over and back countless times. But though the freight and insurance have cost more than the gold is worth already, the gold is still worth 100 per cent of itself and they still hide it in the caves as deep as a coal mine underneath the Bank of France and the Bank of England. I don’t want to be harsh on the human race, but I can tell that down at our office if the general manager spent more money to guard the cash than the cash itself was worth they would can the general manager.

Gen. Johnson Says—

NEW YORK, Feb. 25.—The Munitions Committee’s disclosures of the effect of finance on war and its suggestion of economic sanctions to prevent war are not new. In “The Peace of Dives,” Rudyard Kipling, 40 years ago, imagined a money-lender as frustrating the Devil’s personal purpose to bring war to the world. Dives refused to lend money to finance war —the simplest of sanctions. Unfortunately the sanctions idea hasn’t worked well. The Confederacy was almost completely blockaded. But it fought for four years against overwhelming numbers. Germany was effectively isolated but stood off the combined strength of civilization. Because petroleum producers are not very popular, there is little protest of a proposal to cut off their business with belligerents. But cotton is an even more necessitous munition and wheat is at least as important. Imagine the howl that would go up if we tried to embargo farm exports. “Ruin of agriculture —subjugation of noncombatant women and child en by starvation!” VMM SANCTIONS are a slender reed both because they don’t work well, and because when we “come to the scratch,” we never will use them. The truth is that, in the unhappy hostility pervading the post-war world, ordinary international commercial relations have themselves become a sort of subliminal war—economic war with quotas, tariffs, cartels, devaluation of money, repudiation of debts substituted for armies, navies, mine-barrages, airraids, submarines as destroyers of an enemy. Peace is a belief in co-operation with economic relations prized as a mutual advantage. War is a conclusion that combat is better than co-operation. In that sense, the economic world already is at war and we had better take no offensive—whether by sanctions or otherwise. • Copyright. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Times Books

ROBERT CHAMBERS wus in a very light frame of mind when he wrjte ‘The Girl in Golden Rags,” an airy little romance. (D. Appleton-Cen-tury. New York; $2.) It is the story of Anne Ardres and her daughter, Jacqueline. They are left destitute by the death of Philip, the gay and irresponsible father and husband. Anne attempts to force a living from the soil and is practically at the end of her rope by the time Jacqueline is emerging from her carefree, hoydenish days. Their salvation comes in the form of “P. J.” Connor, a millionaire, a friend of his, and their youthful friend, J. West Halton who come to shoot on Anne’s land. The latter becomes the object of impulsive Jacqueline’s adoration ... to his extreme discomfiture. The streak of good fortune that befalls Ann* and the final outcome of Jacqueline s crush is engagingly told la the ensuing pages. (By Dorothy Hits.) *

Westbrook Peglet