Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 11, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 March 1936 — Page 11

It Seems to Me HEIWOD BROUN MIAMI, Fla., March 24.—When we speak of "acts of God - ’ we often furnish the Creator with ample grounds to sue for libel. The floods which toss so many towns about just now are not inevitable natural forces over which man has no control. To be surp, the present spring, which ha.s fostered such freshets of violence, has been unusual.

and melting snow has added its bit to torrential downpour. But if we had an efficient national program of soil conservation, reforestation and the building of dams we could at the very least limit the devastation. A humorous paragrapher in a New York paper was twitting the social engineers the other day as mere boondogglers. He objected to the use of "meaningless and fancy words,” such as "erosion.” But it isn’t a particularly fancyword, and anybody who lives near enough to a brook or creek to hear the roaring waters should

Ileywood Broun

understand today its meaning. As a matter of fact, you can look out of your train window and see the gashes in the hillsides where topsoil has been washed away and trenchlines are provided for the torrents. a u n Glass-Topped Tables IN many parts of the country the earth has been stripped down to such a poverty and weakness that it can not hold water. It is a little as if somebody spilled a drink upon a glass-topped table. Neither the table nor the stricken field has any power of absorption. These things are familiar enough. They have been Ihe subject of study by engineers for many years. Flood losses, which will be ever so much higher this year, run about $35,000,000 annually. Erosion is a greater luxury. That amounts to about $400,000,000 every year. The problem of a watershed can not be handled by local authorities. The various and diverse factors concerned in flood control can only be met by some sort ox national planning. But here, again, most of our legal precedent and much of our political philosophy wars against the rule of reason. Mr. Justice Roberts read a very emphatic decision not so many months ago in which it was set forth that agriculture is not a national problem. It follows that erosion isn’t. Any comprehensive Federal plan would be "communistic.’’ It would destroy initiative and keep rowboats out of the streets of our principal cities. Millions for the Red Cross, but slender nickels for prevention. tt tt tt We Knew They Were Coming IT can hardly be said tb.3t very much was done by anybody in anticipation of the present floods. Yet they did not come as any great surprise. Casual passengers on a train to Chicago about three weeks ago were swapping stories about the snow in their home town and village and making predictions about what would happen when the thaw came. I guess old man Noah was the first red menace. He had a plan, and, naturally, his ruggedly individualistic neighbors laughed at him. I imagine that they also got pretty good and sore at him. Moreover, I am very much afraid that there is something inaccurate in the report that they were all drowned in the flood. It seems evident that certain of the strict constitutionalists cheated the disaster by perching themselves on housetops. Some may even have ridden the rods of the Ark itself. At any rate, there has persisted a tribe of human beings who insist that it is not going to rain any more and that co-operative efforts to control rampant waters are slurs on the memory of William McKinley and Herbert Hoover. As Aif M. Landon has so sagely said in recent Interviews, the really vital problems of the country must be solved by the genius of private industry. G. O. P. Strategy May Aid Roosevelt BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, March 24—On Feb. 12 this writer said: "Senator Borah is moving gradually forward to occupy a balance-of-power spot in the presidential situation. ... He is in a less compromising mood than he was earlier in his career. . . . The possibility of a Borah bolt exists. - ’ That statement evoked a sharp challenge from one of Senator Borah's most influential advisers. He said Bo: an never had bolted and never would.

Statements to the contrary were inspired by opponents. It is not always possible for a political writer to state the source of his information. In this instance, however, it is suffident to quote Senator Borah himself, speaking: at Chicago, almost six weeks later: “If monopoly is going to name the candidate and write the platform for the Cleveland convention, I reserve my rights. . . . I have no purpose, I have no plan to bolt. But I am going t-> reserve absolute freedom to

look over the candidate and the platform of the Cleveland convention. ’’ non A NUMBER of political observers here are becoming more and more convinced that thanks partly to Republican strategy. President Roosevelt is likely to be re-elected. A bolt by Borah probably would drive the last nail in the Republican coffin this year. Furthermore the situation has even more significant long-range possibilities. Borah knows he has it within his power now to exert considerable influence upon the realignment of the two parties which began four years ago. Roughly, until 1932, the Republican Party was a coalition of Eastern industrialists and Western agrarians. In many respects, their interests clashed, which explains the continuous insurgency which laged within the Republican Party almost from its beginning, led in our time by men like Theodore Roosevelt and the elder La Follette. The Democratic Party was a coalition between the South and a group of Northern machine bosses like Pcndergast in Missouri, the late George Brennan in Illinois, Taggart in Indiana, and several lesser ones, all running little Tammany Halls. These local politicians, pursuing the more abundant life, were more interested in holding their municipal and county patronage than in winning national elections. Sometimes you had what are facetiously called gentlemen's agreements, by which city machine Democrats took the local elections and the Republicans were given enough help to carry the national ticket', a division of territory which left everybody happy. ana BY the end of the 1932 campaign this picture had somewhat changed, chiefly with respect to the Republican setup. Western Republicans like Norris, Hiram Johnson, the La Follettes and Wallace and Ickes who were subsequently rewarded with Cabinet jobs, were found in the Democratic Party. They had taken over thousands of Republicans, putting everything west of the Mississippi in the Democratic column. The agrarian wing of the Republican Party had deserted almost bodily to the Democratic Party. After 1932 the question was whether it would stay bolted, or snap back to the Republican side Roosevelt’s main political job is to hold this wandering left wing of the Republican Party. A bolt by Borah now would exert tremendous influence toward permanent amalgamation, since he is one of the few great agrarian leaders still holding out against Roosevelt. Roosevelt is playing for a gigantic stake. He sees an opportunity to do for the Democratic Party now what Jackson did for it a hundred yters ago—make it again the dominant party.

THE QUINS-TODAY, TOMORROW * * * * ° Special Fence to Hide Crowds as They View Babies

Hr. Allan R. Dafn* Is (hr only man who ran (ell (he real s(ory of (he developmenl and training of the Dionne quintuplets. This he does in an exclusive six-part series, of which this is the reeond story, detailing (he physical and mental progress of (he famous babies, their preschool education, the protection of (heir health, and what his been learned about babies in the 22 months of their care. BY ALLAN R. DAFOE, O. B. E„ M. D. (Copyright, 1936. bv NEA Service. Inc.l TF plans now being worked out by the guardians go through, it will be possible this summer for a half million friends and admirers of the Dionne quintuplets to see the children without the little girls themselves knowing that they are being observed. There never has been any thought of “exhibiting'’ the babies. But when you know that people have driven thousands of miles for a glimpse of them, it is hard to

see the visitors go away disappointed. Here in Ontario we like to think of such people as guests, deserving of a chance to see what they have come so far to see, but we never “exhibit’’ the children for pay. That is why we have felt, it necessary to acquire land to enlarge the hospital grounds. That is why we are planning to surround the grounds with anew type of wire screening which will permit persons outside to see thrpugh it, yet make it impossible for the babies to see outside. If this plan works out, it will be possible to see the children as they will not be conscious of being observed. Thus there will develop none of the self-consciousness that might appear if they came :o feel that they were in some way “attractions.” Even during the making of the recent moving picture, "The Country Doctor,” the children were handled in such way that they did not know they were the center of attention. New lamps were developed which gave ample light without a suggestion of strain. And the brief sequences in which the children appeared were so arranged that they never suspected that anything unusual was going on. a tt tt IT was all a game to the babies. There was no attempt to .iirect them or indicate what they should do. no special deference to them. They simpiy played, and it was photographed. Nobody is going to get self-conscious or artificial that way. There has been considerable understanding about the guardians’ recent acquisition of land adjoining the hospital. This land includes between 100 or 200 feet on either side of the hospital, running back perhaps an eighth mile into the “bush” behind the building. The strip on one side was expropriated from the Dionne farm, and that on the other was bought from the neighbor, Alex Legros. There being no road behind the hospital, this will give us complete privacy for the playground space that will soon be needed. Further, the land includes a jutting pile of rock which overhung the hospital on one side, and which might have been used for some undesirable purpose. On the other side is a meadow, and here it is planned to establish a well-drained playground,

WASHINGTON, March 24. The National Surety Cos. of New York, one of the leading bonding companies of the country, has refused to bond the Townsend old-age pension organization any longer. It has canceled its entire bond issue with the Townsendites, including national, regional, stale and local officers. Next to the investigation recently voted by the Hou'e of Representatives, this is the most severe blow the Townsend movement has had. Virtually all political parties and organizations are bonded against loss, in the same way that corporations bond their officials. The contract between the Townsend organization and the National Surety Cos. was signed in July, 1935, and on several occasions the company withdrew its coverage from certain individual Townsend officials, who, in turn, w'ere dismissed by national headquarters. Now, however, the entire contract has been canceled. n tt tt NO public explanation of this has been made either by Townsend officials or by the company. However, notice of the cancellation was sent by national headquarters to the "Legionnaires,” a select order of Townsendites who pay $1 dues monthly, plus an initiation fee of one year's dues in advance. The notice, entitled "Official Bulletin 77.” bearing the caption "Can We Take It?” admits that the bonding company "is perfectly within its rights from a legal

Clapper

Washington Merry-Go-Round

BENNY

Mf\tTCR?^V ! \Ov DON'T LOOK. VE.RY ) . , s \ GooO Today y f '-It - f)\ A AL

The Indianapolis Times

with swings and other similar apparatus. Perhaps eventually we will be able to have an outdoor pool. I hope so, for the little girls have shown such a liking for the water that I have no doubt they will be strong swimmers. In fact, a couple of them can almost swim in the bathtubs right now, if you hold their chins up a little. In the winter this pool might be turned into a skating rink. tt a tt WITHIN the inclosure there will be trees to climb (when that becomes safe to try), nature objects to meet and learn about, shade and sun, and plenty of grass and solid earth. The present fences are so close

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“Ah-h-h, it’s great to stretch out after all this play,” Cecile seems to say.

to the hospital that guests often wave or shout at the children. That is bad, as we don’t want their attention distracted at all by people outside. With the new arrangement, if we are able to complete it, there will be no chance of any such distractions. Ever since the children have been in the present hospital, the practice of carrying off stones from the hospital yard as a charm against childlessness has been growing. Jean Hersholt, the leading actor in the moving picture made here, took back to Hollywood a whole boxful of such stones. He said he was going to give them to childless couples he knew in Hollywood. Many people have written and asked that they be sent stones from the hospital yard to use as charms. Now of course I don’t put any faith in charms myself, but the fact remains that several couples

Y DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN

standpoint,” but ascribes the move to general persecution of the Townsendites. "We believe,” Bulle’tin 77 continues, "we can find a bonding company which believes that America is still the 'land of the brave’ although it may have dropped the freedom. The battle is on, . . . Some weak members may drop from your clubs. . . Stand fast. . . . The hope of millions, young and old, is in your hands and to the strong will go the battle. O. K„ fellow members, we can take it. Can you?” Note —Active management of the Townsend organization, including its finances, is in the hands of R. E. Clements, one-time realtor and co-founder of the Townsend plan. Dr. Townsend, retired lowa physician, is largely a figurehead. # tt WHEN little, red-necktie-wear-ing Bilbo was elected to the Senate, he promised the stace of Mississippi he would “out-Huey Huey Long.” But only last week, after an 18 months wait, did he make his first speech. At once the Senate chamber idled up. Word went around that the famed Bilbo was speaking. Members of the House came over to listen. Newsmen packed the press gallery. But it was a flop. Bilbo spoke for four hours. People yawned, drifted off. Vice President Garner was among the first. He turned over the gavel to Senator Moore of New Jersey. Moore also yawned, began to amuse himself drawing pictures.

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1936

Ipfyp&Xv •, J llissrejlpglffc visit : :

Absorbed in their toys, the quintuplets—left to right, Annette, Marie. Yvonne, Cecile, and Enulie—pay scant heed as they are photographed, their complete naturalness as revealed in this and many other scenes showing the result of painstaking, scientific care with that idea in view.

who carried away such stones the first year came back recently and showed me their first babies. Some of them said they had been childless as long as 13 or 14 years. tt tt tt WHETHER it’s just coincidence, or whether some psychological principle explains it, or faith, or suggestion, I don’t pretend to know. Perhaps a change in food, thought, and the leading of a more normal fife while touring in the north country might have something to do with it. Anyway, such incidents have happened tt tt tt Returning to the proposed outdoor playground facilities, they will also enable the children to take the fullest advantage of the sun during the short summer months. You see, we don’t get any really warm weather up here until after June 1, and cold, dark weather closes down on us early in the

Bilbo was denouncing Judge Holmes of Mississippi, who once had jailed him for. contempt of court. For every phrase of his denunciation. Senator Moore added a stroke to his picture. It showed Judge Holmes behind the bench, a little Bilbo standing before him, pleading. Underneath was written: Said Holmes to Bilbo, “I'll send you to jail.” Said Bilbo to Holmes, "I'll pull your tan.” In sentencing Bilbos, let judges beware, They’ll come to the Senate and get in your hair. And Bilbo kept on ranting. tt t* tt HOW tightly big, bellicose Joe Robinson holds the state of Arkansas in his grasp as far as the New Deal is concerned, has been amply demonstrated of late. Various high officials are increasingly worried about the condition of Arkansas tenant farmers, evicted from their homes, rapidly being organized both white and black—into a bitter agricultural union. These officials, including WPA Administrator Harry Hopkins and Resettlement Administrator Rex Tugwell, have decreed that the landless tenants should receive Federal relief. However, they have been unable to get their own subordinates in Arkansas to extend this relief. Written orders that the sharecroppers should receive aid were sent to WPA and RRA agents in Arkansas. No result. (Copyright. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Tnc.)

Just like any other child, Annette left, finds a little box an intri suing plaything and Marie, right, shows a baby’s natural bent foi music.”

fall. So it is well to provide all the outdoor play space we can. Sun is a great tonic except for those few people who find they can’t stand it, or who try to get too much of it too quickly. The quintuplets love the sun and have never felt any ill effects from being in it. Os course, we are careful to see

GAMBLES TO SET HAND

Today’s Contract Problem The contract is four spades ( by East. What card should North play on South’s opening lead? Can you look ahead, in the play of the hand, ano. see how the contract can be defeated? AA S 7 VA 6 5 ♦QB 7 G 4 A 7 2 AQJS —AK 10 9 4 VKJ 7 N 2 ♦ 2 W £ VQIOS 4 AAKQ 9 e 2 5 4 n , 4J 10 L__J A J A 6 3 V 9 3 ♦AK 9 5 3 A 10 S 6 3 All vul. Opener— 4 K. Solution in next issue. 17 Solution to Previous Contract Problem BY W. E. M’KENNEY Secretary American Bridee League IF you are afraid to take a chance occasionally, you will never be a good bridge player. One thing to remember is that there are no rules in bridge that will work every time. For example, in today's hand, North has a doubleton of the suit opened by his partner. Ordinarily, it is proper to play high-low, so that your partner will give you a ruff, when you have such a holding, but you can see that this play is too dangerous. Now, let us take South's hand. He has made an opening bid; his partner has passed. He has doubled the four spade contract, figuring that he can make two clubs, a spade and two diamonds, five probable tricks, to justify his double. But when he opens the king of

that they don't get too much of it, and that they “break in” gradually. They have every reason to look forward to a jolly summer. Next: The pre-school education of the quins is already well started. Music, languages and religion arc being implanted in their developing minds.

A 3 VDB 5 3 496543 AQS AAIO 7 m lAQ J 9 8 VQJ'4 2 w r 5 2 ♦ 87 w V A K 6 Ajs32 S 4 K 2 Dealer alO 7 A K 4 V 10 7 4 A Q J Ift AAK 9 6 4 Duplicate—All vul. South West North Earn 1A Pass Pass Double Pass 1 V Pass 2 A Pass 3 A Pass 4 A Double Pass Pass Pass Opening lead—A K- 17 clubs and the dummy goes down, he can see that it is going to be very difficult to defeat the contract, as East’s optimistic bidding places most of the high cards in his hand. North also can see the possibility of the contract being made. He has only one high card and certainly should not waste it, but should play a small club on his partner’s opening lead. Now, if South is not afraid to take a chance, he will lead a small club, realizing that, unless North holds the queen of clubs, the contract can not be defeated. Os course, North wins the second trick with the queen and now shifts to a diamond, as directed by his partner's play of a small club. This gives South two diamond tricks, and the contract is defeated one trick. If South had continued with the ace of clubs, instead of playing a small club, the contract would have been made, as East would have discarded one of his losing diamonds on the long heart. (Copyright, 1936, by NEA Service, Inc.)

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered as Second-Cla Matter at i'ostoffic*. Indianapolis, Ind.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER ¥)ARIS. March 24.—Perhaps someone at home can enlighten the Rev. P. C. Matthews of Trent College. Long Eaton. Nottingham. England, who has written an appeal for information to the editor of the London Post under the heading. How Deep Do Worms Burrow?” -, Sir.” he says, "While the boys here were digging sand to be put on a field they were leveling, it was noticed that worms had made their way through tha earth to a depth of five feet. Discussion then arosa as to how deep worms do go, why they go so far down and how long the average worm lives. I wonder if ar.y of your readers could enlighten us.” This communication to the press came a few

days after another Englishman of serious mind had reported his experiences in trying to trace the flight of a flock of starlings. He took up his position in his automobile in a certain spot in the country, and when the starlings came by in the evening, apparently on their way back to London, he set out to follow them in. tt tt tt That Bulldog Spirit AFTER much twisting and turning through country lanes he lost them, but he wasn’t downhearted, and with true bull-

dog spirit was determined to chase them again and again until he learned whether starling flocks ara distinct units or interchangeable groups, like crowds of people in a city, and whether they roost in the same place every night and go to the same feeding grounds every day. I mention these grave matters by way of indicating something about our friends Me English, although I do not know exactly what. These communications to the papers appeared at a time when all hell was fixing to pop. The Germans had moved their Olympic army up to the Rhine, th* French were yelling blue murder and the conspirators were conferring in London. The English reveal themselves best in items of a kind which naturally do not qualify for cabling to the United States at great expense. Not by either naval statistics nor their white papers nor their drawing-room actors shall you know them as they really are, but rather by their students of the intimate life of the angleworm and starling and the confidences of the agony column. The celebrated reticence is one of their proudest boasts, so it is strange to find English people, obviously of the upper classes, sending communications to the souls of departed relatives through the medium of the London Times. tt tt a Turning an Honest Shilling couise this sort of thing is to be expected In the rural districts of the United States, where people are admittedly sentimental, but it conflicts with the traditional picture of the Englishman, who considers any public display of private emotions to be in exceedingly bad taste. It is interesting also to read a little ad in which a lady of title, presumably short of money, offers to arrange parties for Americans or others wishing to meet people or extend their acquaintance. Would an English lady of quality do that, do you suppose, and is admission to the better homes for sale like tickets to the waxworks? The answer is that they do not raise many foolish children in England and that few opportunities to earn an honest shilling are overlooked, even though the traditional dignity of breed be compromised. These are familiar matters to the English on their own home grounds, but in America the news and interpretations of events in England is limited to the big essentials. Consequently we never know that they regard their London Times as the favorite newspaper of Englishmen who have gone to Heaven. We never would suspect that a clergyman was sufficiently wrought up to write a letter to the Morning Post inquiring how deep angleworms burrow in the earth and why.

Gen. Johnson Says—

PITTSBURGH, March 24. —As this is written, the -i flood at Pittsburgh has greatly subsided. There are still no trains or airplanes to where I want to go, not very much telephone service, no light except candles, no radio to help kill time that must be kilied, no power, and most people have sore legs from climbing scores of flights evert' day. Worst of ail, there is no water in high hotel rooms and so you have to climb. But this town has handled itself excellently in its catastrophe. The Red Cross got to work at once taking care of all extreme distress. The National Guard was immediately on the street, acting as special police. There were several small fires that were handled efficiently. The whole mechanism of government worked smoothly. A thing worth remarking is the quick and cheerful way in which people adapt themselves to sudden inconvenience, annoyance and even suffering. We never appreciate the variety and number of little sendees that many of us do for the rest of us until some upheaval takes them all away. tt B tt HERE are people carrying baggage up 10 flights, bathing in toilet-water, bearing candles like Diogenes even around the streets, waiting around an airport, on no schedule, but on some faint hope that a chance ship may fly their way. On the rougher side, there were thousands who had lost homes and dozens who had suffered great damage, and a few —not many—who were hungry and cold and with no place to go. Yet, with all this, I never heard more joking and laughter, except at a picnic, and I heard no complaints. The old candle and flashlight vender got his, all right. Clothing dummies floating out of a department store created both consternation and merriment, and are much more convincing than the real thing. The main burden of this kind of thing Is on telephone and telegraph operators, and they never seem to fall down or lose their patience. (Copyright. 1936. by Uni'ed Feature ftyndicat*. Inr )

Times Books

REBECCA WESTS new novel, ‘’The Thinking Reed.” (Viking; $2.50>, has fallen into the spring literary pool with such a stupendous splash that it would take a rash man indeed to look at it and say, “Phooey.” Yet there is something exceedingly depiessing about this book. That, probably, is simply because Miss West has done so superlatively well what she set out to do, viz: Dissect the moneyed leisure class which perched atop European civilization during those dizzy years between 1918 and 1929. Reading it, you feel that you are reading a study in futility; and that feeling is apt to become so complete that what happens to any of the people in the book ceases to be of any importance. It is a bit hard to become engrossed in the troubles of the ultrawealthy when these troubles are created by the very fact that the people are ultrawealthy. The only trouble is that your impatience with the book’s members is apt to slop over and include the book's high-souled heroine as well. Patient Griselda is hardly pitiable on $200,000 a year. tßy Bruce Catton.)

~.3i§

Westbrook Pegler