Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 24, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 April 1936 — Page 13

Liberal Side by HARRY ELMER BARNES (Hrywood Braun's column will be resumed tomorrow) JT is far too early for any sensible man to possess any dogmatic certainty with respect to either the guilt or innocence of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Conviction by a jury trial may settle the matter of his formal guilt, but no realistic student of criminology would admit for a moment that this has anything particular to do with his actual guilt. Nor will the realist be especially impressed by Hauptmann's own protestations of innocence or the lastminute confessions of dubious characters. But there is one thing about which one can be very safely aogmatic at the present moment. This is the fact that the Hauptmann case presents an unusually convincing demonstration of the utter folly of capital punishment. n tt tt Time for Investigation IF Hauptmann had been sentenced to life imprison- ■*- ment, all of the recent unseemly row and apparent hasty action to beat the electrocutioner would have been entirely unnecessary. There would have been plenty of time to have undertaken a very careful investigation of the case, as well as to have awaited new evidence voluntarily brought forward as the result of any guilty consciences. Even if we assume for the moment that Hauptmann was not guilty of murdering the baby, it seems as certain as any human matter can be that he was sufficiently involved in the case to warrant his imprisonment for as long a period as* any reasonable investigation would require. If Hauptmann were actually guilty of both murder and extortion, life imprisonment would, none the less, be suitable and adequate punishment. Not even the prosecution contended that the murder was premeditated. Life imprisonment is more of a punishment than speedy electrocution. It also furnishes society with complete protection against any kind of criminal, kidnaper or otherwise. J tt tt tt There's Still a Doubt A S far as I have any personal prejudices in the case, they arc all against Hauptmann. But after very careful study of the case, I am unable to convince myself that his guilt was established at the trial beyond the reasonable shadow of doubt. If overwhelming factual evidence existed against him, it should not have been necessary for the prosecutor to appeal to passion and prejudice. It should not have been necessary to produce some .almost incredible identification witnesses, especially if the ladder evidence and testimony were genuine. Republicans Got AAA Checks, Too BY RAYMOND CLAPPER 117 ASHINGTON, April 8. There’s a carefully ’ guarded reason why Secretary of Agriculture Wallace is no longer apprehensive and nervous over the Senate demand for the names of those who have received AAA benefit checks. He has familiarized himself with the records and is quite certain that when the names come out some other faces besides his own will be very red. , Wallace’s only regret now that the fat is in the 1 fire is that the Senate is asking only for those who received benefit checks of SIO,OOO

or more. That will pass over some interesting instances. Wouldn't it be odd, for instance, if the son of a former Republican President turned up as receiver of modest AAA benefit checks? The Republican national chairman, Henry P. Fletcher, says that Wallace doesn't want to produce the names because they might show that some of the AAA money went back into the Democratic National Committee campaign chest. Possibly so. But it seems there are also

some Republicans among the contract signers. However, one Republican Senator, a bitter critic of AAA, doesn’t have to worry, because AAA payments went direct to his tenants. On the other hand, Republicans who are criticising the large sums that went to Hawaiian sugar interests may be surprised when they discover that one of the larger beneficiaries there is a Republican power in the islands. tt n TV/TANY signed AAA benefit contracts but few re- **■ turned the money. One of the few checks to come back was from the Standard Oil Cos. of California, which had signed contracts covering some of its land. Later the company returned its share of the benefit payments (the remainder being the share which went to the tenants) with the explanation that the company didn't believe in AAA. Another equally outstanding instance of living up to conviction concerns a member of the United States Supreme Court. A relative, since deceased, had been a contract signer on some wheat land in Montana. The Supreme Court justice inherited the land. He was among those joining with the majority in declaring AAA invalid. Promptly after the adverse decision was rendered, he returned uncashed two AAA benefit payment checks. 000 THE worst blow AAA had to take in connection with disclosure n f AAA benefit payments was the fact that Oscar Johnston, cotton expert for AAA, leceived one of the largest, cotton payments. Or rather the corporation for which he is manager did. And the corporation is backed by British capital. But seeing that the Senate was about to call for the names. Wallace promptly took the initiative and disclosed this and other large payments. In so far as was possible he got the story out first, in his own way, and thus took some of the edge off the Senate’s action, retiring as they say to a previously prepared position. u tt u SENATOR VANDENBERG of Michigan, who forced the current disclosures, voted against AAA. but for the Jones-Costigan Sugar Act under which the sugar payments—the largest paid on any commodity —were made. He's been against publicity up to now. He opposed the famous pink slip measure for income tax publicity, voted for its repeal, and voted against publication of RFC loans. 000 POSSIBLY it’s coincidence. Some think it is more than that. Anyway the Supreme Court, in its last three big New Deal eases, has avoided the issue of constitutionality. Cases involving TVA, the Utilities Act and the Securities and Exchange Act have been disposed of without talcing a position one way or the other on the lundamental validity of these measures. Next on the list in the Guffey Coal Act—the little NRA of the bituminous industry. While thus giving the nation a breathing spell in the slaughter of New D*al legislation, the court has had opportunity, in several decisions, to put in a strong word for liberty, upholding the freedom of the press in throwing out Huev Long's Louisiana newspaper tax, rebuking a Mississippi court for tolerating the third degree, and denouncing infringement of personal rights by administrative officials in the SEC case. All of which, whether by design or by accident, resulted in a quieting down of popular criticism of the court. However, the sharp minority opinions incucate that during this reprieve which the New Deal is enjoying the judicial temperament still rages furiously inside the court.

CO-OPS—CONSUMERS IN BUSINESS * * * tt a tt a tt tt a a tt a it tt Real Profit Comes From Owning Sources of Supply, Units Find

Growth of eo-opr.rativef in the United States has been at an amazing rate in the last six years, the number of con sumer groups now being more than 6000, doing annual business totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. An intensive study of the movement has been made by Bertram B. Fowler, magazine writer, and in a series of six stories, of which this is the third, he teUs of the great progress made by these groups. . tt u a BY BERTRAM B. FOWLER (Copyright, 1936, NEA Service, Inc.) American farmers start to co-operate in business, they have a habit of following through rapidly to the source of their supply. They started in the oil business with a few gas stations. Their steps toward the source of supply were speedy, along the route of tank trucks, bulk tanks, to oil blending plants and their own co-op railroad tank cars. They started in fertilizer and feed at about the same time, and their steps have been even more rapid and direct

there. They now, in many cases, have gone straight back to production. They started, as in the oil business, to save money by pooling purchasing power. They found that they could save more and more by going further and further, so they kept on. The result is anotner major change in the economic set-up of the Eastern and Western farmer. Strangely enough, these farmers have found that it doesn’t take much money to build a big business, especially when there are no profits going to outside stockholders. The case of the Eastern States Farmers’ Exchange provides one of the most amazing records in the annals of American business. A group of men in Springfield, Mass., a few years ago decided to form a co-operative to save money on feed. They set up their organization on $30,000, which they borrowed on their personal notes. They have paid off the loan and built up an organization with assets of more than a million, doing a business of nearly two millions anriually and climbing monthly. tt tt tt THIS group started by pooling its purchases to buy feed in carload lots. Incidentally, the members bought fertilizer in the same way. Just recently they bought for cash a $300,000 mill in Buffalo, where they grind their own feeds according to formulas laid down by the experts they hire themselves.

WASHINGTON, April B.—All Pan-America recognizes that there are two great prima donnas of peace in the Western Hemisphere. One is Cordell Hull, Secretary of State of the United States, the other Saavedra Lamas, Secretary of State of Argentina. Both desire to lead, the Western Hemisphere toward permanent peace at the coming Pan-Amer-ican Conference. Simultaneously, both have other conferences important to their political and personal future. In Geneva, Saavedra Lamas desires to attend the League Assembly in early September, has been promised the exalted position of League president. In Philadelphia, Cordell HulL has been drafted by Roosevelt to put important party principles before the Democratic Convention in June, keep in line conservative Southern Democrats. In order that he may get away to Geneva, Saavedra Lamas wants to hold the Pan-American Conference early. But in order that he may remain in Philadelphia, Cordell Hull wants to hold the Pan-American Conference late. Result has been a polite tug-of-war between the prima donnas of peace. 000 SO far, a provisional date has been set for July 15 in Buenos Aires. Mr. Hull thinks that by June 27 he can finish holding the Democratic Party together in Philadelphia and set sail. Only trouble is that the ship sailing on June 27 flies the British flag. An American ship sails on July 4. but this is too late to get to Buenos Aires. Fo Mr. Hull is in a predicament. He can ask Controller General McCarl for a special ruling permitting him to use a British ship, but McCarl is likely to reply that the Democratic National Convention is not government business and no excuse for Mr. Hull’s dilly-dallying in the United States. So it looks as if Mr. Hull has three choices: 1. Dig down in his jeans and pay his own passage on an English boat. 2. Forego the duty of holding the Democratic Party together at Philadelphia. 3. Persuade Saavedra Lamas to forego the honor of being president of the League Assembly, thus hold the PanAmerican Confidence at a later date. Several weeks of secret cabling to Buenos Aires so far have failed to dispel the quandary.

Iplx;: *

Clapper

The Indianapolis Times

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

BENNY

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From the Southern ports, this Eastern States Farmers’ Exchange group brings its fertilizer ~"lnto Boston by the shipload, ages and mixes the product in its own plant, for distribution to its members. The amazing thing about the whole organization is that it has never sold a share of stock. It has never raised another loan since that original $30,000. There are no mortgages on its properties. Everything belongs to the farmer members, who get feed and fertilizer they can depend on, and a nice fat patronage dividend at the end of the year. And the farmers like it so well that they are widening their field of operations and branching into new lines. In Indiana and Ohio, fertilizer was the big bugaboo after the war. When grain prices went tumbling, fertilizer prices failed to follow. it a tt THE farmers got together to do something more than talk. Perhaps 20 years ago they would have made appeals and looked for political action. But these farmers began to look about them for a source of supply, and formed co-operatives to buy. After a few heart-breaking experiences. they were about ready to quit. No one would sell them fertilizer. One representative of the fertilizer interests, however, made a costly mistake. Approached by a

ROOSEVELT has just had proof bi the old adage that no man is a hero to his valet. Only in this case, the valet is a woman, in fact a “goody." “Goodies” are a classic stratum of humanity about one notch above a charwoman, who make up the beds of Harvard students. Their sobriquet is officially recognized by the university, and they have been immortalized both in fact and in fiction by a strike they staged against the university for higher wages, and by a book written by Travis Ingham (who, incidentally, is a Yale man) about a goody who for several years had been making the bed of her longlost son. Anyway, a former goody who took care of the room used by Franklin D- Roosevelt Sr. while at Harvard is 'violently anti-New Deal. And as her little contribution to the Republican cause she has been spreading the word that the President, because of his capricious, superficial nature while a student, was nicknamed by all the goodies, “Feather-Duster.” 000 'T'HE expose of the Townsend movement has almost dried up the once lush flow of money into national headquarters—recently as much as SIOO,OOO a month. Townsendites lay the drastic loss of revenue to two causes: 1. The oldsters already enrolled have stopped coming across with their nickels and dimes; 2. Few, if any. new members are being acquired. In New York, where the movement was spreading like wildfire, recent weeks have seen no new clubs. Similar tidings have come from other areas. And this is not all. In a number of states there are rumblings of revolt, and open threats to quit the organization. The national generalissimos are greatly alarmed over the situation. They have been in almost continuous secret conference since Dr. Francis E. Townsend’s arrival in Washington 10 days ago. 000 TREASURY chiefs have received confidential word that certain corporation lawyers along Wall-st have jimmied a legal loop to circumvent the Administration's tax program.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8,1936

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Striking examples of the swift rise of co-operatives to big business standing are given by these pictures. Above is the mammoth fertilizer plant of the Tennessee Corporation at Lockland, 0., outgrowth of a venture started by a small farmer group with limited capital, its output now being 110,000 tons annually. At right is the $300,000 feed mill at Buffalo, N. Y., of the Eastern States Farmers’ Exchange, bought for cash by a group that started with borrowed capital of $30,000. deputation of farmers, who asked for a better price deal, he said that the fertilizer companies did not intend to upset their selling organizations for a “bunch of scab farmers ’’ That got under the farmers’ skins. They began to look in earnest then, and found that tfie Tennessee Copper Mining Cos. had on hand a surplus of bi-product sulphuric acid, the base off most fertilizers. So the farmers and the copper company made a deal. The result was formation of the Tennessee Corporation, a subsidiary to manufacture fertilizer. The farmers, through their organization, agreed to take the entire output of the factory. tt tt tt npODAY the factory is turning out 110,000 tons of fertilizer annually. There has been drawn up the first reciprocal contract in America whereby the Tennessee Corporation, freed of the necessity of maintaining a sales force, agreed to split the manufacturer’s profit 50-59 with the co-ops. Prices tumbled. But, more im-

The purpose of the tax planaside from revenue—is to force corporations to distribute idle surpluses to their stockholders. Spending of these huge funds is expected to spur recovery. The scheme of the Wall Street sharpshooters is directed at this basic object. They consider the heavy tax on undistributed profits sure of pass'cge. So they have turned their talents to devising a method by which the corporations could retain actual possession of the surpluses, after paying the new taxes, instead of distributing the surplus to' shareholders. This is their formula: All future stock certificates are to contain a clause designating an official of the corporation as. the agent of the stock purchaser. This agent is empowered to pay taxes, then “reinvest” the surplus after taxes are paid. Under this innocent phraseology, in other words, the corporation would be empowered to pay the tax, retain in its possession the balance of the surplus profits. To the stockholder this would mean that he would be paying the tax out of his dividends and get none of the surplus funds. Also, the government would be blocked from interfering with the artifice. As long as the taxes were paid, it would have no grounds for proceeding against the corporation. 0 0 # T>ALMER LONG, son of the late Huey, has been transferred from a day school in Washington to a boarding school, because his mother, the Louisiana Senator, is often away from home. . . . Histrionic Senator Ashhurst of Arizona invited to act in a Washington film, declared he would be glad to do so, and would contribute his services free. The manager did not tell him that he had no intention of paying him anyway. . . Dr. Enrique Finot, scholarly minister to the United States from belligerent Bolivia, has just completed a book on “Bolivar, the Pacifist.” ... Latest TVA puzzler is how to establish boat-ride sightseeing on Lake Morris as a Federal business. In private hands, commercialism is feared. The Agriculture Department has received a letter: “I would like to obtain any booklets that you have about termites, or any other breeds of Indians.” (Copyright. 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

portant, the farmer now gets fertilizer made according to the formulas which he lays down himself. As he has pushed forward in fertilizer, so he has pushed forward in feeds. In Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan are hundreds of little hammer mills operated by local co-ops. The farmer sells his corn and oats to his own co-op. The co-op imports the necessary concentrates, makes up the feed, and sells it back to the farmer. There is no lost motion, no leak of profits. What makes it of national significance is that these co-op groups are spreading. Volume of business is growing. Most of them now consist of a small elevator and feed mill, a warehouse selling feed, fertilizer and farm materials, a gas station selling gas, oil, spray materials, kerosene and distillates. tt s THESE co-ops are rapidly becoming the shopping centers of the counties in which they are set up. From Massachusetts to California an increasing number of farmers are becoming co-op minded. As they think in terms of co-operation, they are building a business that must be reckoned with in the coming years. The fertilizer plant at Lockland, 0., is a monument to a changing outlook on the part of the farmer.

TIMES PLAY FOR GAME

Today’s Contract Problem South is playing the contract at six hearts. While the play is not difficult, the contract can be set, if the trumps are not handled properly. * KQ 6 5 2 y J 10 7 3 *J 7 3 * 6 *JIO9 m |*A 8 7 4'3 VQ952 ih pVS ♦K S 5 w c ♦QIO 6 4 * 10 5 2 *> * 2 Dealer * 9 4 A Void yAK 6 4 4 A 9 *AKQ J 8 7 S None vul. Opener—* J. Solution in next issue. i

Solution to Previous Contract Problem BY W. E, M’KENNEY Secretary American Bridge League ONE of the greatest pleasures to be derived from the game of bridge is the playing of a hand that requires precise timing; it enables declarer to put either one or both defendants on the • spot from the very beginning of the Play. I saw Howard Gill of New York City play today’s hand recently in an open duplicate game. Gill was sitting in the South and you could hardly criticise him for bidding game with his holding. Against the four spade contract, West opened the king of diamonds. This was won by South’s ace. The king of spades was played and West showed out. A small diamond was played, West winning with the queen. The

The hundreds of elevators and hammer mills, the thousands of gas stations and supply stores add their testimony. The American farmer is rapidly growing up, becoming educated in economics, and writing economic history. From the Middlewest the co-op movement is spreading through the Rocky Mountain states. Some of the best co-op gas stations and farm supply stores are in Colorado and Montana. 000 Following collapse of Upton Sinclair’s EPIC movement, the people of California have been turning toward co-operation as a means of direct action. The movement is already strong in Washington and Oregon. California just now is holding the attention of co-operators throughout the country. Whether the native sons have grasped the fundamentals of true co-operation seems to be the question. If they have, the co-ops will spread in California. But if this fundamental understanding is lacking, the movement will collapse. For this reason California may well be watched as an index of just what co-operation can and will do on the Pacific slope. Next—How co-operative retail stores have mushroomed throughout the United States during the depression years and are multiplying rapidly today.

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queen of hearts was returned, and South won with the ace. The four of clubs was played and West won with the queen. West now was on the spot. No 7 matter which suit he returned, it would cost him a trick. He therefore decided to make the best of a bad situation by forcing declarer to use a trump; so he returned a diamond, on which declarer sluffed the eight of hearts from dummy, and trumped in his own hand. Declarer then cashed the king of hearts and tramped a small heart in dummy. The nine of spades was played. East covered with the ten, and South won with the jack. The ace of clubs was cashed, the nine of clubs was played, and West won. No matter what West returned. the play would have to be through East’s queen-five of spades into declarer’s ace-seven. By clever play and precise timing, declarer was able to limit his losses to two club tricks and one diamond trick, thus making his contract. (Copyright, 1936, NEA Service, Inc.)

By J. Carver Pusey

Second Section

Entered m Second-Class Matter at PnstofTiee. Indianapolis. Jnd.

JjJashington ROHNErmniaiEß Westbrook Peglcr is en route to the United States from Europe. His column will be resumed in a few days. 'Sffl ASHINGTON, April B.—Several developments on the labor front point to intensification of the long struggle between employers and employes in industry. These include unprecedented political activity by labor groups, evidence of repressive tactics of a sensational nature, the rise of labor organizations to demand a voice in new fields, and likelihood of a Senate investigation of indus-

trial practices inimical to labor organization. The old-fashioned conception of the employer as a benevolent personage with the welfare of his workers at heart, though it still must apply in many cases, has taken a severe jolt with the revelation reported to have been made in a Senate probe that major industries were secretly buying stores of machine guns, tear gas, revolvers, and ammunition, in anticipation of labor strikes. The evidence was found by the Senate Munitions Committee in the files of Federal Laboratories,

Inc., of Pittsburgh, dealers in tear and nauseating gas, who handle pistols and machine guns on the side. Correspondence was reported to show that purchases had been made by employers with great secrecy. Among Federal’s customers, the committee evidence is said to reveal, have been the Weirton Steel Cos., Cudahy Packing Cos., H. C. Frick Coke Cos., Southern Natural Gas Cos. and Bethlehem Steel. tt a tt Lewis Uses Revelations THESE revelations are being used as a talking point by President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, head of the new industrial union movement, and will be followed up by the La Follette subcommittee in its preliminary hearings which will be used to base a request for full investigation of violations of civil rights. The National Labor Relations Board has a vast store of evidence as to industrial espionage which is being placed before the subcommittee and which has a direct bearing on enforcement of the Wagner Labor Disputes Act—probably the most commonly flouted law in the country today. It has been common practice, this evidence indicates, for large corporations to employ “stool pigeons” to join labor unions, make reports on the unions’ affairs and memberships, and to obstruct or nullify their work from the inside. Activities of labor spies would be first on the investigation’s agenda. It is also proposed that the committee cover the whole field of civil liberties violations. tt tt tt Move Will Aid F. D. R. OBVIOUSLY, the exposure and denunciation of these alleged tactics —with recommendation for legislation in some cases—would aid militant labor organizers. It would also accrue to the benefit of the Roosevelt Administration, which will have the support of organized labor and pose as its champion while its opposition has the support of the American Liberty League, chiefly representative of anti-union employers. Organization of Labor’s Non-Partisan League by George Berry of the pressmen, Lewis of the miners, and Sidney Hillman of the clothing workers is important because it will be difficult for the other A. F. of L. leaders to avoid playing along with them. With Berry as its head, the movement can’t be branded by Bill Green and conservative leaders as a mere offshoot of the Lewis-Hillman Committee for Industrial Organization. (Copyright, 1936, NEA Service, Inc.)

Gen, Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, April B.—ln the Sacco-Vanzetti case, our system of capital punishment dangled two convicted men back and forth between the teeth of death for months. The Hauptmann case repeated that most effective of all torture. The punishment of death lies altogether in its anticipation. “The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man dies but once.” Doctors say there is no pain in electrocution, but the mental agony of approaching it is almost insufferable. Bringing a man to within minutes of it and then snatching him away multiplies the law’s extreme punishment. Its tendency can not be otherwise than to disgust the public with that barbaric relic—capital punishment. It should be abandoned—not in the interest of criminals, but for the self-respect of civilzation. 000 THE so-called science of penology is a mess. If the penal colony system could be divorced of its past inhuman brutalities, it would be theoretically the best plan that men have tried. Convicts now deemed worthy of death, for the good of the race, could be scientifically sterilized. The certainty of that would be a greater deterrent to most criminals than the present relatively slight risk of execution. One reason that risk is slight is the reluctance of judges and executives to have any part—however justified and legalized—in the taking of human life. There are plenty of uninhabited areas on the earth’s surface where living can be sustained by hard labor. Here men who are proved to be unsafe for association in law-abiding communities can be put away without half so much degradation to themselves and future danger to others as in a penitentiary. (Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Times Books

A SWEEPING indictment of his home town is contained in "The Cherry Bed," a first-class satire by Karlton Kelm (Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis; $2.50). It is Mr. Kelm’s first novel and may be a best seller before long. If you have ever lived in a small town the size of Winnebago, the real or fancied Wisconsin town about which the story is written, you can appreciate Mr. Kelm’s skill in paintinng his characters. Although a certain scheme correlates the three parts into which the story is divided, the book is not so much concerned with plot but an unveiling of each character. And, as the author pokes fun at this one and jibes at another, you can readily sympathize with Grandma Corley, the elderly heroine. Upon the death of her husband and the subsequent failure of the town bank of which Grandma was a director, she is forced to give up her home and other possessions to heip the depositors, and it is decided that she will live with each of her married children, a few months at each place. Realizing that this may be the last time for her to really get acquainted with her children. Grandma acquiesces, albeit a bit hesitantly. She insists, however, on taking along her cherry bed which was handed down to her by her mother. All through the storm and turmoil which seem to beset every spot that Grandma is in, she keeps calm, a precious gem among so much chaff, her heart aching for some word from her youngest, her favorite, Roy, who has been bumming around the country for some time. Roy's reutm, not as the bum but as a respectable author, brings the story to a somewhat melodramatic ending but in no way impairs the plot of the story. It is an exceptionally well-written and interesting book.—(By Dorothy Ritz.)

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Rodney Dutcher