Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 306, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 March 1936 — Page 9

1/ Seems to Me HEVWOOD BROUN GENE TALMADGE, the “gas root” Governor of Georgia, has gone out and saved the Constitution all over again. It seems there was a Yankee plot to get the unemployed to read. Indeed, it has been definitely established that a Federal project for emergency education of workers" had been set tip. But by the grace of Gene it so happened that

two patriots were on the board—a Mr. Barrett and a Mr. White, loth of whom were literate. After several months Mr. White happened to read some of the books which had been assigned to workers. To his horror he found that they dealt with the subject of labor. He immediately called all the teachers of Georgia together and said, “I’m a member of the American Lfgion and a patriotic American. We will throw this stuff out.” They proceeded to do that so

• '

Heywood Broun

successfully that Mr. White is able to announce to Frank C. Waldrop of the Hearst service, who is making an educational survey in Georgia, “Since Christmas, 1935, we have completed our independent program, and we are going to maintain it.” a a a It's Different Now A ND now the unemployed in Georgia are not al•Lm. lowed to read anything about a labor movement or organized labor. “Emergency education for workers” has taken quite a different tack. ’ “The Georgia educators are teaching workers to appreciate native authors,” writes Mr. Waldrop. “The poetry of Sidney Lanier, beloved writer of Macon, Ga., and the world famous ‘Uncle Remus’ stories of Joel Chandler Harris, Atlanta editor, have been given a fresh and deeply appreciative group of readers.” And I guess that’s pretty sound psychology, after all. Here’s a woman who works, when there is work, In a Georgia cotton mill. Wages are low and hours are long. Gene believes in giving a business a chance. Even when she isn't working, this woman of Georgia can’t seem to get her strength back. She isn’t on relief, you understand, because Gene thinks that it pauperizes people. Ntow suppose somebody read to her out of a book which said that sometimes workers got together and organized for shorter "hours and higher wages. Wouldn t that be a bad thing? Wouldn't that make her discontended and ready to listen to any union organizer who managed to slip into Georgia? Os course it would. Genial Gene knows that people like that need to be cheered up. Give ’em Uncle Remus. tt tt tt This Is Teacher Talking "VX7’ORKERS and farmers of Georgia, give teacher a great big smile this evenig. Oh, you can do better than that. Lucrece, I'm ashamed of you. You’re crying. Well, what if your feet do hurt? That’s no reason why you shouldn’t join the other workers in giving teacher a great big smile. If you keep on like that I’ll send you home to bed without your loyalty oath. I guess you wouldn’t like that very much. And, what’s more, I won't permit you to be 'if in the tag game for at least a week. “What’s that, you’re crying because the poetry of Sidney Lanier, the beloved poet who lived in Macon, XJa., is so sad? Yes, the one about the beautiful ydung girl in the silk nightdress w T ho drowned herself for love in the cypress swamp. Yes, that is sad. “And you’re crying, too, Lindy Lee, about the death of the beautiful young lady. What have you got to cry about? You’ve got a nice husband who’s sharecropping and eight children and a promise of a job in the laundry as soon as you can get on your feet again. What’s the death of the beautiful young lady to you? What’s that? You don't give a damn about her being drowned, but you’re crying because she had a silk nightdress? Lindy, take that Moscow gold out of your pocket this instant. “Get ready with those big smiles, workers of Georgia. I'm going to read you about ol’ Br’er Rabbit. Now, you mustn’t laugh so loud or teacher can’t go on.” (Copyright, 1936)

Critics Still 'Kick' About Tax Problem BY RAYMOND CLAPPER iTTASHINGTON, March 2.—Critics of the AdVV ministration who are worried over the growing deficit have an opportunity now to do something more than talk about it. President Roosevelt Ls asking Congress for taxes. He wants taxes to pay the cost of the cash bonus voted by Congress—with the help of some of our most eminent budget balancers—over his veto. He also wants taxes to replace the AAA revenues which were thrown out by the Supreme Court in its all-

wise omnipotence. But are the Republican leaders, the budget balancers, the complniners about the deficit, rushing to support Roosevelt in this? Not noticeably. Instead they still are complaining. They say he is merely yielding to Republican criticism, as if that were something to be deplored. They complain that Roosevelt is not teliing them what kind of taxes to vote. His experts will give Congress all of the tax data they want, if their advice is askedw But because Roosevelt

doesn/t work out a tax bill down to the last comma, therejnre wails of complaint from those who recently were'protesting because Roosevelt did draft their legislation for them. Os course, if he had told them what kind of taxes he wanted, they would have said that was an executive interference with Congress. They complain furthermore that Roosevelt’is putting them on the spot in their re-election campaigns byasking for taxes, as if he wasn't facing a campaign himself. st o o THE real point now is just this: After being pounded for neglecting the deficit, Roosevelt is trying to do something about it. He is trying to move the government toward a pay-as-you-go basis. Congress .isn't anxious to vote these taxes. It will hunt for reasons why it shouldn't. Inflationists are warming up to help in the sabotage. Will business and critics of Administration deficits be a party to this sabotage? Or will they come to Roosevelt's support and give him the public sentiment he needs to put this bitter medicine down the Congressional gullet? man Many railroads are critical of the ICC's reduction to a 2-cent passenger fare. They were even less happy in the good old days of unregulated competition. Five trunk lines, competing for business, were at one time hauling passengers between New York and Chicago for a dollar. One short Western road carried freight and passengers free over a 44-mile stretch. In 1873 cattle were carried from Chicago to New York for one dollar a car. Those were the good old days—for the cattle. a a a ROBERT A. TAFT, son of the late President, who would be Ohio's stalking horse candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has a case against the New Deal. He is trying to collect $1.07 from the government. The case will be heard a week from today before the United States Court of Claims here. Taft, as president of the Dixie Terminal Cos. of Cincinnati, decided he didn't like abrogation of the gold clause in earlier government bonds. So he scrambled around and bought himself a SSO Liberty Bond. Taft appeared at the Treasury to collect in gold. The government offered to pay him the same kind of money every one else uses but he held out for gold—unsuoeessfullv. The government says it is a frivolous suit end that young men ought not be wasting the time of publip officials on such trivial matters. Taft says he's interested in the principle of the t-hipg,

BY LaSELLE GILMAN NEA Service Special Correspondent * JJEIPIXG, March 2.—ln the face of the revolt of Japanese army for a more aggressive foreign policy, Chinese students are fanning the flames of their countrymen’s patriotism. The 50,000 university students of this area have been staging a series of wild demonstrations and street riots in protest against what they consider weak-kneed policies of the Chinese government. They demand armed resistance against splitting off the northern provinces into “independent” states dominated by Japan. * These violent and often bloody student protests may stiffen Chinese policy and bring about a resistance to Japanese ambitions that was not expected a few months ago. Ten thousand Peiping students have fought with police and virtually seized their own school buildings in a determined “strike,” picketing the campuses, holding teachers as “hostages,” and conducting the schools under student government. They even have held up trains.

Scores have gone to prison and hundreds have felt police bludgeons, to attract attention to their demand that China fight back. Chinese officials are jittery as signs of support of the Peiping students are seen in the southern cities. Concessions may have to be made to their demands if these demands spread and gain strength. Ever since the republic was started 25 years ago, Chinese students have wielded an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. They feel, and rightly, that in a country where few people have any formal education, they are the only intellectual leaders the people have. a a tt “'T"'HIS is not revolution,” one L Chinese stud-nt explained the riots. “But the government must change its weak-kneed policy. We will not stand by and see our country gobbled up by the Japanese. “Study is all very well, but while we study the nation is disintegrating; the Chinese people are degraded by the invaders and by their own officials. We will oppose to the death the forces that are destroying us!” These were no idle words, for death is what it meant to one Peiping high school girl, who was killed by a blow from a heavy saber in the hands of a Chinese military policeman. Within a few days, recently, stu-

WASHINGTON, March 2. Behind Secretary Roper’s dismissal of two experts on steamship inspection last week is a long and secret story of intrigue which goes to the roots of the Morro Castle and other tragedies of the sea. Commander H. McCoy Jones and Frederick L. Adams, both of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, had fought a hard-fisted, sometimes ruthless battle, against the big shipping companies to prevent further tragedies. And they were supported by J. B. Weaver, bureau head. Both, young, both ex-naval officers, both with t independent means, they had joined Mr. Roper’s Commerce Department for the sole purpose of preventing sea tragedies, did not care whether they retained their jobs or not. Politics was the last thing they worried about. Shortly after they joined Mr. Roper’s organization however, they found that politics mattered a great deal. Also they began to uncover what every sea tragedy has pointed to, inexcusable inefficiency and graft in the steamboat inspection service. a a a Something Seemed Wrong r T''HE navigation laws, for in- -*• stance, require that every lifeboat shall be inspected before a vessel departs. A proper inspection requires that it be swung out on its davits and lowered in the water to test the leaks. But almost never is a full inspection made. Bureau inspectors are content to swing out one boat and let the rest go. Other inspection is on the same level. Probing into this, Jones and Adams suspected that gratuities were being given to some of their inspectors. It was difficult to prove this, but they found inspectors living beyond their income, also receiving various intangible benefits from steamship owners. Even more important, they found that when honest inspectors did insist on a thorough fulfillment of their duties, the steamship owners—who maintain one of the most efficient lobbies in Washington—immediately went over

Clapper

STUDENTS STIFFEN CHINA’S SPINE B tt tt tt tt tt X tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt Fan Flames of Patriotism Against Japanese Invasion

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

BENNY

] ‘ 'attorney' AT LAW / f Urt* |jljf /, kMfjkA fkj Up f Ajprf -4* *

The Indianapolis Times

dents held two huge demonstrations, clashing violently with police both times. The first was finally broken up with fire hose. In the second, 10,000 students streamed through the streets shouting their defiance of the Japanese invaders and of the Chinese government which has failed to oppose them. a tt a A T the city gates, the paraders fought savagely with the police, hurling paving blocks and firecrackers into their ranks. One of the student leaders is a wisp of a girl,-not five feet tall, who climbed a 40-foot wall surrounding the city and opened a gate to her comrades. Immediately arrested, she launched such a tongue-lashing against her captors that they, ashamed, left her free. Another girl climbed a wall and, dodging stones thrown to dislodge her, shouted, “Why do you close the gates to us as if we were foreign invaders? Why do you not close the gates to the Japanese? Turtles!” That last word is the final insult to a Chinese. The guards left the gate open to the students. ALL this agitation gradually is beginning to arouse the ordinary Chinese people, who usually are slow to get excited about politics, wishing nothing more than to be let alone to go about their business in peace. But they are beginning to listen to the shrill students; and it is possible that a spark is being kindled that will in the end ignite

their heads to the higher-ups in the Commerce Department. The Young Bloods in the Navigation Bureau immediately started a reform. One of these reforms was to pay inspectors more money, eliminate graft temptation. a a a Floating Firetraps ANOTHER condition, pregnant with tragedy, that the Young Bloods unearthed was the state of American coastwise and inner waterway vessels. Many of these, including the ships used on some of the most popular excursions to New England and the South, were characterized by McCoy and Adams as "floating firetraps” which would sink “if one hole was poked in them.” Referring to excursion steamers, they reported: “It is felt that sooner or later we may look for a recurrence of the Slocum disaster in which 800 lives were lost.” Os the 944 vessels plying on the rivers, harbors, and sounds of the United States, the Young Bloods reported, 591 are 20 years old or over and for the most part should be scrapped. They also reported that "many of the ferries throughout the country are old vessels and of an inflammable construction.” a a a Reports Kept Secret ALL of these reports were kept secret. It was a dispute over making them public that got Mr. LAKE COUNTY PLANSTO RECLAIM ROADS Nearly 25 3liles Are Included in Large WPA Project. Times Special HAMMOND. Ind., March 2.—Almost 25 miles ol farm-to-market roadway is to be reclaimed in Lake County when the largest single WPA project in this district gets under way Wednesday, according to J. A. Gavit, district director. Expected to require four months to complete, it includes only gravel roads which have been impassable during severe cold weather. Lake County is to bear $54,563 of the total cost of $226,411 estimated for the job.

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1936

g.. Jggg&m :x ;. ; s „,, v , * : ;■>:< " v v is&SSsF

Detachments of white-turbaned Sikh police patrol Nanking road, Shanghai business district, after a demonstration of several thousand students. The ground is still littered with handbills passed out by the students.

a fiery barrier against further Japanese expansion into China. The students may be expressing more accurately the feeling of the common people of China than are either their military leaders or governing classes. In that case they may become a rallying point for a native movement to stop Japan's encroachments. tt a it SHOULD the present Chinese government fail to respond to this sort of pressure, there is always the chance that strikes and riots might force it out of power. The ensuing chaos probably would be the signal for Japan to move in definitely. But if the rising gained national proportions, it would mean that Japan would have to move into northern China, not with a small expeditionary force on the Shanhaikwan scale, but with a huge army of occupation. Japan has always counted on Chinese indifference, disorganization, and general supineness. The students are playing with matches about a fuse that might light a really formidable giantcracker.

Jones and Mr. Adams Into their final and fatal clash. The clash of politics and seaefficiency had caused constant friction between the Young Bloods and the group of politicos who surround Daniel Calhoun Roper. One day recently, two department sleuths confronted Mr. Adams and asked him if he ever talked with anybody about the bureau’s service. He replied: "Yes, of course, I’ve talked with everybody about it.” "Have you ever said anything that would cast reflections on the service?” “How could I say anything that wouldn’t cast reflections? The service is rotten!” When Mr. Jones’ turn came, he declared he owed nothing to a pair of sleuths he never had seen before, and started to walk out. "Wait a minute, you can’t leave this room!” shouted the investigator. “Watch me, brother!” replied Mr. Jones, and he departed. The two men subsequently were discharged for insubordination based on their refusal to answer these questions. a a a Symbolic Officer TJEHIND the assassination of Col. Francis Riggs, chief of Puerto Rican police, was the growing unpopularity of the United States in the island, and the growing demand for independence, rather than hatred for him personally. Contrary to advance expectations, Col. Riggs was an efficient police officer. Last line of an aristocratic Maryland family, he led a vivid life in Puerto Rico. In front of his palace by the sea he set his own lobster traps, swam, once was attacked by barracuda. He served his guests with savory sea dishes, cooked with his own hand. He was one of those few men who look dignified in shorts, wore a ragged blue shirt and a big gold badge. Col. Riggs was extremely popular in Puerto Rico. But he w 7 as the symbol of alleged American oppression and he was shot. (Copyright, 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

| jl

Kneeling in cold, rainy weather on the pavement of the Civic Center, girl students wait for assurance from Shanghai’s mayor that he will stop the Japanese invasion and the splitting-off of Chinese territory in the north.

Despite WPA Jobs, Relief Demands Still Are Heavy

BY GILBERT LOVE Times Special Writer "PITTSBURGH, March 2. The Simpsons have been “on relief” for three years. The younger Simpsons can’t remember the time when Pa used to get up early in the morning and go out, a lunch pail under his arm, to labor for the family’s living. To them, being "on relief” is the natural thing. Nearly every one in their neighborhood lives on the checks that the postman brings once a week. Pa Simpson can’t get used to it, though. Up until 1931 he worked every day. He didn’t make much, but it was enough to feed his wife and six children, to pay the rent on their modest living quarters, and to buy a few pieces of clothing occasionally. Then came the depression, and work became so scarce that he was forced to apply for relief or see his family starve. He hated to go down to the relief office and ask for aid. He wouldn’t have done it if he had been single. At first the relief grants were scarcely enough to keep body and soul together. There were orders for food and coal that was all. a a a THE landlord kept asking for the rent. He was a patient man, but eventually he asked the Simpsons to move. A private relief agency set the family up in another house—a dilapidated building. They had no money to pay rent there, either, but they had to go somewhere. One of the children was sick in DAVIESS COUNTY SEED POOR, TESTS SHOW Low Germination •of Corn Brings Warning to Farmers. Times Special WASHINGTON, Ind., March 2. Low germination tests on Daviess County seed corn today resulted in warnings to farmers against delay in making their own tests. County Agent A. M. Bishea said the seed corn prospects were far from good for the county, showing many tests as low as st> per cent. Analysis of the entire-county was not attempted. The warning was based on tests on 2000 cars. Farmers also were advised not to depend on seed corn from other localities without proper testing.

the fall of 1933. By that time medical aid also was being given by the relief board, which was fortunate; because, of course, the Simpsons had no money for doctor bills. They were threatened with eviction from their second home in 1934, but just about that time the relief board was authorized to start paying minimum rentals, and they were saved. Shoes and clothing could be obtained, from time to time, from relief depots. The whole system was rather haphazard, however, and the Simpsons were in a constant state of anxiety. They were greatly relieved when cash relief was started in December, 1934. They got only about sls a week, but by buying the cheapest kinds of food and clothing Mrs. Simpson made it cover all the family’s needs. a a a IN the fall of 1935 WPA was started. Jobs were promised all, and Pa Simpson was cheerful for the first time in months. He was assigned to a road job in November, but when he discovered what he would earn he was glum again. His wages would be less than he was getting on direct relief. He was willing to work in fact he wanted to work —but he didn’t see how the family could get along on less money. He talked over the ifiatter with his foreman, and found that men in his predicament could remain on direct relief. It seemed the best thing to do, under the circumstances, so the Simpsons still are living on the checks that come in the mail. The Simpsons are fictitious, but their experience is typical. All of the 208.000 cases remaining on direct relief in Pennsylvania arp not there because "of large families, of course. In some cases the wage earners have lost their jobs recently. In others, WPA jobs have not yet become available. In some of the smaller, or more rural, counties, the WPA has just about wiped out relief rolls. But Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) still has 49,000 direct relief cases and Philadelphia 69.000. Providing the Simpsons and thousands of other families with relief that has been enlarged from time to time has been a severe drain on Federal, state and local treasuries. More than half a billion dollars thus has been spent in Pennsylvania since April, 1932. This includes funds spent for work relief.

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered x* Secr>nd-Cla* Matter at Postofflce, Indianapolis Ind.

Fair Enough isimkiw XJRAHA, Czechoslovakia, March 2.—M:st Englishmen who have had any experience in the matter declare that the only satisfactory way to deal with the German government—and that means any government of Germany—is to kick it right smack in the abdomen and then kick it again at the first sign of trouble. Otherwise the German is likely to mistake courtesy for fear, which is the ruling force in his own country, and try to impose on you. Our own Jimmy Gerard, strictly a rough and tumble American politician and

not trained for diplomacy, pursued somewhat the same policy in the war days up to 1917, but* his technique was slightly different. Mr. Gerard’s method was to belly up close to whoever it was that he was having words with, stomp on his toes real hard and jab the individual in the snoot with the hot end of his cigar. Mr. Gerard obtained excellent results, and, though the Germans developed an altogether handsome respect for a man who met them with their own manners and some robust innovations of his own.

*about U thT, a h, t ,! li ? k lam merely trying t 0 be about this but I assure you that the diplomatic people are fully aware of the British method. The GerS? so? a thA hi arned t 0 £how the greatest consideration for the blue passport. Whereas citizens of other countries are jailed for trivial causes, sometimes for long terms without trial or formal accusation or armv e of 1 N t a l 5? Ut slightest Provocation by Hitier’s army of Nazi racketeers. In and Out—-With an Apology Police made the mistake recently of eking up an English woman because she was peeved taking notes at a Nazi meeting. When the “ charge of the police station got a IoS o-it h nf th G pa s port he almost threw the good lady hands She J wi OUS6 1 * his haste to get hcr off hfe hands. She was in and out, and an apology was on thp'l a \ t 0 t i l6 British ambassador in Berlin before the ambassador even heard of her arrest convSST™ fran “s: statc ,heir Professional that ls you S lve the Germans the slightest sign that you intend to treat them with ordinarv urtesy they will think you are afraid. Therefore nowadays, when the American passport is onl? a issued fn t pape r ln Germany ’ the little blue folder the S’ * 3 rellabl ' on and start Germans' 1 ' wS instant a Briton falls into trouble, and to keep maul"t u S hey choke bulMozing 3 practlca Iy . Remanding the withdrawal of the Swiss lan? abollShmg the Nazi Political bureau in Switzerland'% little * a young Jew livin e in SwitzerWho wfio Gern ? an cons P ira tor named Gustloff, tho had been sent into the country by Hitler to g—4" NaZi agitaMon and churn up domestic and th'p m a f a lot of Ger m a ns in Switzerland, and the Nazis claim that a German is a German he is and that the ground which a Nazi stands on at any moment is German soil. You can’t conduct Nazi agitation in any civilized country with°pM au f ng . stn fe, and, of course, the Nazis don’t par "? lt; Americans to conduct a republican agitation Germany l^15 * 1 S^ a monar chist movement in .? When the young Jew shot the conspirator it was discovered that the local Sw’iss law provided life imprisonment instead of the death penalty for the crime. The Nazi government immediately howled outrage!” because the Swiss wouldn’t violate their own law to execute the assassin. The Swiss, through their pap ers, issued a gentle reminder that, after all their government hadn’t inspired the shooting, but the Nazis took this conciliatory tone for a sign of fear. & a a Official Murder in Austria /"AF course, they constantly are organizing treason V-/ and assassination in other countries. The assassination of Dollfuss in Vienna was an official murder of the head of a friendly state committed by the German government, formally decided upon at a meeting in Munich. Captain Von Papen, the dumbest diplomat that ever lived, is now the Nazi ambassador in Vienna. His sole job is to organize treason against the Austrian state. Here in the Praha they have a man named Henlein organizing into Nazi units the local Germans who were cut off from the Vaterland by the Treaty of Versailles, and they consider this country and Austria to be theirs, because there are Germans in both. They also consider Yorkville, New York, Hoboken and certain other American communities to be German soil, and there is no doubt that they ha\ e their official conspirator at work among them just as they did during the war. They broke their word of honor about the Olympic games, they pay no bills, they claim everything and concede nothing, they send official agents into more or less friendly nations to murder and agitate political troubles, their sworn policy is to cheat every creditor sufficiently credulous to trust them, and their war policy is to strike first and declare war afterward. They also are coming to the point where they will put it up to the humane nations of the world to rescue the Jews from Germany, leaving all their possessions behind unless they want to witness the spectacle of a slow massacre of 600,000 people.

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, March 2.—Gen. Hagood was right. The best project for unemployment relief was Army housing and equipment. The money w-ill have to be spent anyway, sooner or later. It gives more employment than any invented work. It leaves a permanent national asset. It is effective insurance against loss of life and limb. It makes for important reduction in the number of men who will have to be called to the colors in any emergency. As compared with building electrically lighted and heated monkey houses in obscure parks/ and others of the balmier boondoggles, it is perfection. Moreover, it was a purpose specified by Congress and this other shocking nonsense wasn’t. Gen. Hagood was right some time ago when he showed that Army expenditures could produce a lot more defense per dollar if the Army were concentrated, instead of being spread out over scores of politically located stations winch multiply its overheads and reduce its strength. In 1933, the Army could have rid itself of that ancient curse forever—and didn’t. Gen. Hagood was right when he outraged tradition by substituting for the usual and useless long annual report on the routine repetitions of a skeleton command: “Nothing to report.” a a a GEN. HAGOOD was right 30 years ago when, as a very young officer, he risked an earlier spanking by ripping into the Army pay system. Finally, it hurts to see a veteran of 40 years’ service, who has handled such unprecedented administration as the S. O. S. of the A. E. F., pilloried to protect the portentous piffiers of WPA. But Gen. Hagood is a soldier in active service. He violated essentials of the code of that ilk. The only excuse for not spanking him was fear of a political storm. Chief-of-Staff Craig took the braver and more soldierly course. . (Copyright, 1933. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.) m

Westbrook Peglcr