Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 309, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 March 1936 — Page 17

It Seems to Me UEYMD BROUN /''VN A TRAIN FROM MILWAUKEE TO NEW YORK, March sComing: out hpre to study economic and political conditions in the Middle ■West, I marie some report on the personality and the policies of Col. Frank Knox. I made his acquaintance through a clip sheet issued by some of his supporters. Heading home from my seeing America trip I heard Alfred M. Landon for the first time. There was a radio in the club car and the Governor of

Kansas came in very well. Still I feel that I must suspend judgment in regard to Mr. Landon as a man, as a devoted husband and father, as a presidential candidate and as a broadcaster. The fault belongs to me, the climate of Milwaukee and a restaurant called Old Heidelberg. And Mayor Dan Hoan should not wholly escape censure, since he sent his secretary to act as official greeter. Hoan has been Mayor of Milwaukee for 20 years and now is engaged in a primary fight, battling to run again. There are no

Hrywood Broun

party designations in a Milwaukee primary. The top two candidates run it ofT. The slogan of the opposition this year more or less inevitably takes the form “Twenty years is enough.” tt tt tt Utilizing the Newspapers HOAN is not of that mind, and Milwaukee newspaper men think that he will be returned easily enough in spite of a fiercer campaign *han usual. Aside from the Socialist Party organ, the Leader, all the newspapers of the city are in very active opposition to the Mayor. However. Hoan is far from helpless since he heads an efficient political machine, and he is able to capitalize the very solidarity of the newspaper opposition. It is strange that Hoan has stuck so sedulously to his own backyard. He is among the most skillful of campaigners and he is one of the few men in public life who actually seems to enjoy the business of going out to halls and street corners. If there were a greater logic in American politics Dan Hoan would have been drafted long ago as a Farmer-Labor candidate for Congress or the Senate. Os course, he is a Socialist, but he does not fit into the picture drawn by the red-baiters. It is irue that on Lincoln's Birthday he made a speech in which he argued that Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx were, really after the same objective. “The immortal message of Karl Marx,” said Dan Hoan. “is being reiterated throughout the length and breadth of the land—'Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! You have a world to gain!’ Let us cease to lend our ears to false prophets and unite under this slogan to achieve the goal set for us by Abraham Lincoln— It is a worthy object of any good government to see that every laborer receives the full product of his toil.’ ’’ a u u How to Shock Him BUT Hoan to the contrary, I doubt very much whether Lincoln was a radical. I doubt if Dan is. The Mayor of Milwaukee never makes me think of Karl Marx. His type is pure Middle West after the manner of James Whitcomb Riley. Eugene V. Debs and Earl Browder. Asa matter of fact, Hoan and the Communist leader look very much alike. This may not be pleasing to either of them. Indeed. Hoan was shocked when a Communist leader came to Milwaukee on Saturday and announced that the party would indorse him for Mayor. Dan immediately issued a statement asserting that this was a plot to embarrass him and that he wouldn't accept Communist support. If Hoan can stand at the ballot box and toss out all the votes for himself by people he doesn’t like, it will be a neat trick. That was a pretty silly political pose. Ot course, Hoan ought to he re-elect-ed A man who has been Mayor for 20 years without being accused of any sort of graft is unusual in the American scheme. Milwaukee is so honest that the cops pay for their own beer. That, reminds me of why I must suspend judgment on Land'.n. He began his radio address by saying, ‘ Asa Kansan it is a real pleasure to be here tonight among you Nebraska neighbors.” When I woke up he was finishing with a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt about the necessity of the pioneer virtues. I winder did I miss much? (Copyright, lfl.tfii

17 Pamphlets Show Farley's Versatility BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, March s.—ln the rarefied intellectual labyrinths of the New Deal, the Hon. James Aloysius Farley has been tolerated with ill-concealed condescension. He never was a college professor nor an economist. He never drafted a recovery plan, never thought much about the relief problem except that he didn't think the Democrats were being taken care of sufficiently. He never sat up

after midnight figuring out how to prime the industrial pump. Jim just wont around trying to get jobs for Democrats and to have the right, people fixed up so that the Administration could come back for another four years. Jim attended to the humble grubbing by which the New Dealers hope to remain poised on their prominent pedestals. And they, in turn, have looked upon him with the superior tolerance with which a sanitation engineer must look upon the humble white wings

plodding behind his broom. It is work that somebody has to do. tt a a BUT the proof is now at hand to rescue Jim from this inferior intellectual status. This office has received 17 brightly colored pamphlets, reprinting the more notable addresses made by Gen. Farley since he became a national figure. They show the versatile learning o’ the man. as broad in range of knowledge as the wisdom of his first postoffice predecessor. Benjamin Franklin, who is sometimes called our first civilized American.. The titles reveal the encyclopedic range of Lord Jim's addresses: "The Case for Franklin D. Roosevelt"—"A Challenge to America"—"The New Deal and 'Old Hickory' "Tne Irish Influence in American History"— "Education and Its Responsibility"—“The Problem of Agriculture"—"lreland, the Nationless Nation Maker" —"Haverstraw, My Home Town”—"The Opportunity of Education" —"The Spirit of the New Deal"—"Dictatorship. a Myth"—"A Covenant With the People” "Building Citizens' —"1... -lew Era' —"John Marshall"—"History and Func ns of the National Committee-" It has been a general assumption around Washington that Charlie Miehelson wrote Jim Farley's speeches. Even Michelson's erudition is not equal to this output. People here are beginning to wonder who Mionelson's ghost is. a u u NUMEROUS persons are being given credit for having inspired the new Roosevelt corporation tax plan. But the theory of it is explained in sprightly layman's language in a little 25-cent booklet. "Brass Tacks," by David Cushman Coyle, pub\ished last year by the National Home Library. And Svle, consulting engineer, designer of numerous /ell-known public buildings, and consultant for PWA, says many of his ideas are century-old stuff dressed up from Malthus and other old-timers. And what he doesn't put into his book is found at great statistical length in the price and income studies of Bookings Institution here. The idea has been chewed over a long time and is just now, thoroughly Fletchenzed, reaching the horrified politicians.

Through Breakers

Dail* Hurinr the ntnrm h*T* romr report* of thf heroism of thr Coast Guard. Thr organization's duties, howrrer. last all year and wide Indeed is its territory. This is the last of two stories telling more of it* adventuresome tasks. BY WILLIAM ENGLE Times Special Writer YORK, March 5 The night was wild and the glass was falling as the steamer Robert E. Ler, with 150 passengers, came down th rt coast through snow and sleet from Boston , to her fate. Storm signals were flying from Maine to Hatteras. The sea was running high. In the Coast Guard station at Manomet Point, Boatswain’s Mate William 11. Cashman, commanding, knocked out his pipe on the potbellied stove and sent out his beach patrol with the admonition to have the Coston signal light ready and to keep an eye on the reefs. It happened within the hour. Through a rift in the blinding storm, the men of the beach patrol saw dimly the dark blob of a ship wavering through the blizzard, as they said later, “straight into black hell.” The reefs were ahead of the ship and the ship was heading into them. They were startled. She was so close in. They raced to the watch tower. a a tt r | 'HE blob of darkness, silhouetted against the gray-black of the evening, came on, pinpointed now by lights, they saw, and wandering, wallowing, blundering toward the reefs, while they drew out the Coston light to the beach. As the warning flare from the gun reddened the sky, the Robert E. Lee suddenly ceased moving. She had struck. For a little while her pin-points were teetering fireflies in the murk and they could see her lurching terribly, jammed on Mary Ann rocks, and then there were no more fireflies. Only the rocking bolt on the dim horizon. Bill Cashman, big and burly, slow-spoken day in and day out, and a man who cared for his men, speke sharly and quickly then. He said to the eight in the Coast Guard station: "Man the surf boat!” It. was a rough order, because the sea was rough, and it was dark and snow was needling down, and to find a path out through Mary Ann rocks was something not easy for a man to do even under a blue sky with the sun high. But no one moved slowly then. They had the launching carriage ready in three minutes. a a a AT the same time the ship’s wireless was cracking out the call help. “S. O. S. Aground Mary Ann rocks. Pounding badly. Taking water fast. Need immediate assistance; 150 passengers aboard, but no batteries.” Thereafter, through the night, while three Coast Guardsmen gave their lives to the Robert E. Lee, the ship’s radio log ran: “8 P. M. —Everything about the same. Engine room flooded. Pounding hard here. Can't keep key tight. I can stay here, yes.” “8:12 P. M. —Engine. Not able to reach.” “8:25 P. M.—We need boats to take off passengers and crew.” “8:39 P. M.—Ship struck half an hour ago.” “8:44 P. M.—Six feet of water in engine room. Using gas engines. Running radios on batteries. Power is running off.” “8:45 P. M. —Hope we can get off here. Still pounding badly and listing. Getting worse.” “8:47 P. M. (Warning to rescue craft). Beware of reefs under water nearby.” “8:50 P. M. —No one in sight yet. Getting worse. We are worrying. Come, please.” “8:52 P. M.—No one in sight and getting worse all the time.” “8:58 P. M.—Getting breeches buoy ready as we can’t launch boats on account of reefs and water too shallow'.” tt u NOW. from the U. S. S. Bushnell. arriving in response to the SOS: “10:20 P. M. Standing by until morning and will make no attempt to take off passengers except in extreme emergency. Seas too heavy for us to approach closer.” The seas were not too heavy for the bfg laconic man in the Coast Guard station. The glass kept on falling rapidly and at midnight one could hardly stand against the wind on the beach. But he said, "Man the surfboat,” and he did not mean that he would not go along. They trundled it on the launch-

Clapper

BENNY

ATTORNEY AT LAW

The Indianapolis Times

li

ing carriage into the surf between two great boulders at the foot of the cliff below the watch tower. The surf hurled it back. The surf hurled the men back, too. Four times they tried to put out through the breakers and each time the sea flung them back. Cashman finally gave in. “I guess there's no use now'. The storm’s worse than it was at midnight.” tt tt tt ''"T'HEY plodded to the station, waiting for the dawn, and in the first streaks of light through the abating snowdall saw the Robert E. Lee rocking on the reef —drawing 16 feet forward and 24 feet aft. The wind hauled then into the northeast and there was no more snow', although a heavy surf was running when Cashman, in the forenoon, said: “We’ll try it.” He sent Guardsman William T. Wood back to the station and one of the hundreds of fishermen and landsmen who had gathered from miles of countryside. Ernest Douglas, volunteered to take the unmanned oar. “Here,” Cashman said. He took his watch and w'allet from his

WASHINGTON, March 5. There is one government policy on which both Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt see eye to eye. Asa result of this apparent freak of politics, the nation is in a better position to resist the rampages of Mississippi Valley floods this spring. Both have been ardent advocates of flood control, both have pushed the flood control program. Hoover started the 10-year flood control program along the Mississippi and its tributaries. Roosevelt continued it so vigorously that it will be completed in eight instead of 10 years. Despite these preparations, the terrific volume of water expected to hurtle down the Mississippi with the melting of this year's record snows undoubtedly will wreak terrific damage in the South. Liberty Hushed A PALL of silence suddenly has settled upon the American Liberty League. “Freedom does not ring” any more. It is one of the most interesting developments of the presidential campaign. Until recently the publicity office of the Liberty League was turning out press statements as fast as its mimeograph machine could operate. For intemperate criticism of the New' Deal, these blasts almost rivaled the vitriol of Huey Long. But now the firing has ceased. Orders were passed down to Liberty publicity sharks to lay off the heavy artillery and stick to an “educational” campaign against Roosevelt. This about-face is highly significant. It indicates the everpresent. political risk of overplaying a. hand. There is no doubt that the Liberty League overplayed theirs. For the inside explanation of this lightning switch is the fact that Liberty blasts were beginning to react in Roosevelt's favor. This reaction partly was the work of Charlie Michelson, astute Democratic press chieftain. He started a campaign to show that the chief opposition to Roosevelt was entrenched wealth. The League was an easy target. Every time it issued a statement, Charlie pointed an accusing finger at the millionaire du Ponts, chief enthusiasts for Liberty. To have entrenched wealth against you is a political asset, and the Republicans were the first to see this, some of them actually complained to Democratic coleagues in Congress that Micheson was unfair in linking them with the Liberty League. The League, they said, was conceived by wealthy Democrats. The Re-

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1936

Ml.

pockets. “Keep these for me. Douglas has four children.” It was a brave and sorry move. As they had done the night before, they pushed the surf boat

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

publicans had nothing to do with it. Finally even the Liberty boys woke up. Hence the surcease of handouts. a a a Too Frank UNCLE ANDY MELLON got a lucky break with the resignation of Charles Trammell from the Board of Tax Appeals in the Mellon $3,000,000 income tax suit. But he did not fare so w r ell w’hen he applied pressure to influence newspaper accounts of his tax trial. Best reports on the Pittsburgh trial came from F. Raymond Daniell. ace reporter of The New York Times. His stories were frank, full and forthright. One day Frank Hogan, attorney for Harry Sinclair, Doheny and olher millionaire clients, including Mellon, told Daniell that the exSecretary of the Treasury w'ould like to meet him. Daniell replied that he would be glad to see Mr. Mellon after writing his story. Finally Daniell had a brief talk with Mr. Mellon in the courtroom during a recess in the hearing and the conversation drifted round to The New York Times’ accounts of the tax trial. Mellon said he thought Daniell was giving the w'rong impression although admitting that his accounts W'ere factually correct. “I'm not giving any impression,”

Anti-Chain Store Bill Is Center of Vigorous Battle in Congress

Firing a Coston Signal Light

WASHINGTON, March 5. The bill to amend the Clayton Anti-Trust Act by curbing quantity discounts, pseudoadvertising allowances and brokerage, knowm variously as the “anti-chain store” and the “fair trade” bill, today became a burning issue in Congress. A torrent of mail and telegrams on both sides, plus interview's being held with Congressmen today by about 1500 independent retailers and wholesalers who support the bill, emphasized the importance of the measure to business and political worlds. "The “Little Fellows,” whose mass meeting here was inaugurated by the U. S. Wholesale Grocers Association and supported by retail and brokers trade associations, put up the plea that mass-buying is shoving them to the wall. tt a tt SUPPORTING this, they produced figures which they said show': Multiple-unit stores, which had

into the breakers, and, as on the night before, the sea flung it back. Time and again—until, in a lull, doing the impossible, they rode

retorted Daniell, “I'm waiting news.” Mr. Mellon then suggested that he thought too much space w'as being given to the trial. To this Daniel replied: “I am sure The New York Times will be delighted to give equal space to any statement you may care to maks. And we will give it equal prominence in the paper.” A day or two later, the wash sales between Mr. Melson and his daughter w'ere disclosed, the government charging income tax evasion. Daniell opened his story of these transactions with the following lead: “When Andrew W. Mellon and his daughter. Ailsa Bellon Bruce, negotiated a business deal, one or another some times profited, but Uncle Sam always lost . . .” NOTE:—Frank Hogan, Mellon's attorney, several times protested against the frankness of Daniell’s reporting, but The New York Times congratulated him on his w'ork. a tt tt Senator William Edgar Borah takes a stroll each noonday on the greensw'ard near the Capitol, winders solitary and alone among the scrub trees. The other day he picked up some handfuls of snow' and playfully threw snow balls, first with his right, and then with his left hand. His aim W'as bad with both. (Copyright, 1536. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

29 per cent of all retail food business in 1929, had 44 per cent in 1933. In 1929. 218,000 independent stores did a business of less than SIO,OOO a year each, and in 1933 such stores increased to 294,000. Among the drug stores, the independents in these same four depression years lost 43 per cent in sales, the chain stores only 15 per cent. a a r T"'HE independents blame these conditions on the discounts and allowances which the chain systems obtain from manufacturers. They advance the Robin-son-Patman bill, now pending before the Senate, to stop such practices when found discriminatory or monopolistic by the Federal Trade Commission. Senator Robinson of Arkansas, Democratic leader, told the independents’ mass meeting yesterday that the bill would be passed by the Senate in a few weeks. It still is in committee in the House.

—Acme Photo. The Robert E. Lee. fast on Mary Ann rocks, photographed from an airplane,after the storm had subsided.

through and w'ere pulling hard, straight into the crests, Cashman in the stern sheets steering with an oar. a a FROM the shore a cheer from the hundreds gave them grace. But it did not help much when they drew' near the foundering steamer. There, in the brightness of sudden, cold sunshine, they found vast green and w'hite sheets rising and sinking around the stricken vessel and their own small craft rose *and dipped like a hobbyhorse. It rose once on a roller—while passengers above them, as though under some dark enchantment and as those ashore peered with silent, terrified intensity—and as a second comber caught its stern it flipped upside down. Eight men w'ere out in a heavysea. Four got hold of the capsized boat and hung fast. Another caught the painter. Two moreclung to oars. The other floundered feebly in his oilskins and sea boots. Far out where rescue ships that morning hove to, staying a safe distance from the heaving w’reck, a dory then set out, then a power boat, and along the cliff ashore hundreds raced toward Stage Point, which jutted out 100 yards into the foaming surf. Past that point the lost crew floated, not 50 yards offshore, but with none able to give them aid; past it and on along the coast, as two airplanes began to swoop dowrn and circle over them—swoop dow-n within five feet of the blanched, distorted faces, but w-ithout avail. t* a tt THEY drifted past Stage Point and into the fight w-hich lies between Stage Point and Indian Hill, four now clinging to the boat, the others floundering grotesquely. One let go of the floating oar to which he had clung and disappeared. Another began to slump face down in the water. Ashore the crow-d rushed out an old dory. The power boat, too, w-ent to the rescue. Seven of the eight they got, four from the capsized boat and three from the water—while other coast Guardsmen w-ere beginning the rescue w'ork on the Robert E. Lee. Cashman was brought through the surf and placed on a stretcher. Men made a human chain along the icy, winding stairw-ay of the cliff and handed the stretcher upward. Six steps up the railing broke and heavy, helpless Cashman fell into a snowdrift. They tried again. They got him up. But when Dr. Walter Shurtleff saw him a little later he said, “I’m afraid we can’t save him.” a a MEANWHILE, as the sea grew calmer, Coast Guard vessels rush the work of rescue on the Robert E. Lee. The steamer obviously w'as doomed, the emergency growing more acute every moment. But every man, woman and child on the ship was saved that March 11, 1928, 20 miles south of Boston. The Coast Guard patrol boat Bonham brought in 96 passengers. The patrol boat Active brought in 64. The Bonham went back and brought in the remainder. Presumably, in the storm, one flash buoy off Manomet Point had been mistaken for another, and the ship had piled in directly upon Mary Ann rocks. Chief Mate R. R. McDonough would not commit himself. “We drove ashore in a snowstorm,” he said. “That’s all there is to say.” Dr. Shurtleff, caring for Bill Cashman, who had taken the first mighty chances, had something to say. though, later. While the rescued passengers were speaking happily, in the loud and jovial voices of relief after stress, the doctor came into the Coast Guard office, and said: "Cashman has just died, boys.” It w-as quiet after that. No one even reached for a telephone. TOMORROW—Alberta’s 525-a----month dream, by Forrest Davis.

By 1 Carver Pusey

Second Section

Ent< , r*‘d as Matter at PoetolTire, Tn'llanap'>li. Ina.

Fair En ough ISIMPEBIB ■\7TENNA, March s.—There is a dictator in this ’ country, just as there is in Germany and Italy, but the Austrians are not cradle robbers, like Hitler and Mussolini, and the country is not infested with a bunch o i nasty little brats shouting "Heil!" and “Doochay!” who are spoiling for a good slap in the mush. There is no possible doubt that Hitler's bloodthirsty Nazis, who now* go storming through the streets bawling about the beautiful German blade w-hich w-ill never know honor

until it has split the throat of a Jew. are alive today only because certain American Jews showered down their money for relief funds in the early days of the last decade. When the Nazis declared their slow- massacre they made no distinction or exception for age. character or anything else, and the death of a Jewish child from malnutrition or the lack of surgical aid through the operation of the economic program, reflects as much glory on their arms as the death of an enemy soldier in a

fair fight. But they are a practical people, famous the world over for their methodical persistence. a tt Obscure Dictatorship 'T'HERE seems to be some obscurity about the dictatorship in Austria. The chancellor is Kurt von Schuschnigg, an intellectual and leader of the Catholic party, but the vice chancellor is more spectacular and a more active force. He is Prince Ernst Rudiger Von Starhemberg, a young fellow of about 38. whose family is older than that of the Hapsburgs. He is the leader of the Fatherland's front, which is the name of the local Ku-Klux, and he's quite a bit of a fellow in his way. It must be remembered that Austria is now a bush league country, with fewer inhabitants than metropolitan New York, and her dictatorship is a lower-case reproduction of the great European tyrannies of the present time, lacking the childishness of the German and Italian regimes. There is no effort to put over either Schuschnigg or Starhemberg a? a god. a demigod or a great national spirit speaking from the skies. They are just Austrians—and tough guys—trying to run things w-ith a firm hand but without a complete sacrifice of ordinary sense. Young Starhemberg someiimes appears in uniform for public occasions, to jab his thumbs in his belt, throw out his chest and put on an act somewhat similar to that of Benito Mussolini. But, as a rule, he prefers to go around in civilian clothes, and he has not cut himself off from social diversions to withdraw into a cloud. He may drop into the Imperial Hotel of an afternoon for a cocktail and a word with the boys and girls, and he seems more comparable to the new King of England or Carol of Rumania than either of the grini supermen who have been trying to bull their way into the respective gayeties of Germany and Italy these last few years. o a Looking for a Laugh T 7 DWARD of England is a man who has always liked his grog and a word with the blond at the corner table, and Carol is, after all, just another young fellow who lives by the way as he travels through life. One of these days he will get around to the admission that one of the reasons why the new King of England is so popular in the United States is the fact that he always has evinced what the Old Soak called a fellow feeling for liquor and fun. And then we may withdraw certain priggish objections to Carol's private conduct and judge him on his performance in his job. Everything in this dictatorship is on a reduced scale, and that applies to the ferocity of the strongarm authority as well as to the dimensions of the country. When Hitler goes out a thousand guards go with him and cow the populace into a state of cringing adulation. When Mussolini has a date the tough guys go ahead to clear the path and line the streets with troops and jabbering subjects. But young Starhemberg often goes about Vienna in a very informal manner—pretty much in the character of one of the lively young men about a lively old town. They haven't much of a country any more, and they are trying to keep w'hat little they have from* Mussolini on one side, Hitler on another and Stalin still another. I don’t think they are very anxious to kill other people or one another. All they want, as it seems to me, is to have a little fun once again. They haven’t had a laugh in this country since the summer of 1914, and that was 22 years ago. The Thirty Years' War was not much longer.

Gen. Johnson Says—

"'f T7ASHINGTON, March s.—Vast spending to re- ’ lieve unemployment and destitution is indispensable. But resources are so sharply limited that economy is also a necessity, if we are to support life for millions of the destitute —that is, the fundamentals of economy, rather than cheese-paring. Geniu* couldn’t invest an insurance of extravagance to equal the WPA fundamental of parceling Federal funds out to states. First: Although the people of the states pay for Federal disbursements, this system induces state spending by making it appear to be a gift and not a burden. It is sugar-coated poison. Second: All states contribute in revenue to the Federal government. When that government spends the common fund for state purposes, any state which does not demand its share, whether necessary or not, would be a sucker. It would be contributing to other states at the expense of its own taxpayers and destitute. This urge to spend to the limit is sharpened by the inducement to state officials to improve state property ar._, welfare, while at the same time escaping the responsibility for increased state taxes and budgets. On that deception one Governor wants to be made President. a TO enjoy the illusion of ' a goW-Drick grist—to shift state burdens to the Federal to balance state budgets at Federal expense to spend as much (rather than as little) Federal money as you can in order (a) to get back what your state contributes in taxes to the nation and prevent other states from getting it; and <b) to better your state's condition without taking responsibility for visible and painful state taxes—these are not merely invitations to extravagance. They are compulsions. These compulsions are multiplying the cost of relief. The Democratic platform “covenanted" for "extension of Federal credit . . . where the diminishing resources of the states make it impossible for them to provide for the needy.” The breach of that covenant was a destructive error. No magic of ingenuity can find- one excuse for it or one single shadowy justification for WPA. t.CooyrigM. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)-

Westbrook Fegler