Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 29, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1936 — Page 13

It Seems to Me HEVMBCQUN YORK, April 14.—1 saw Robert E. Sherwood’s “Idiot’s Delight” yesterday, and it seemed to me one of the most brilliant plays of a fine season. But it let me down a good deal at the end. The mood was one of despair. Here is a savage attack upon the cruelty and stupidity of war. It is doubly effective because Sherwood has managed to make his polemic an ex-

cellent entertainment. The fact that there are many lines and scenes which command laughter takes nothing away from the driving force. And yet the end is blank wall The dramatist careens furiously into a blind alley. If I understand the play truly, Bob Sherwood says that in the end nationalism makes imbeciles of us all and when the pinch comes each returns to his own colors. It would be stupid indeed not to admit this tendency on the part of human beings. It is easy to remember men who said,

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Heywood Broun

"Never under any circumstances,” and then consented. Indeed, a great many of us know from our own experience how much more difficult it is to hold any peace when war has actually been declared. It is even tragically possible that those who realize thoroughly by now that they were fooled once could, by a little shuffling of the circumstances, be fooled again. But it is not inevitable. a a a Traffic Faithfulness THE hero of "Idiot’s Delight” had spent his life in bamboozling the public, and yet he retained a belief in mankind because the gullibility of the herd convinced him that mankind has a capacity for faith. Obviously in many situations this is a weakness. In 1917 we had faith in leaders, in a cause and in a slogan. It was a tragic faith. And yet it is faith that must make us free. We must cling, I think, to the belief that man is a reasoning animal and that it is possible for him to develop through the process of trial and error. It is maddening, to be sure, that we must be taught the same thing so many times before we can grasp it. And yet the very fact that we still survive upon the face of the earth is proof that the coming of wisdom will not forever be denied us. It may even be that in spite of man’s antiquity he is only a week-end guest, but the fact remains that he has multiplied and widened the borders of his kingdom on the earth. In spite of vast difficulties war can be abolished. That end will not be achieved by pious’Resolutions, though even the feeblest strivings for peace may have their usefulness if only they are recognized as stumbling steps. What man can do man will do. Nor am I at all convinced that the procrastination of the past means that ages must still be consumed before we are rid of the plague of conflict. The world is an armed camp. There is war. There are rumors of war. The nations of the world hate and distrust one another. Fascism not only lives on war, but is even frank enough to proclaim that fact. But when folly has been heaped up on folly the very time comes when the structure can be tumbled to earth and plowed under. a a a Antibodies in the Bloodstream IT is well to remember that the development of aggressive nationalism under Fascism has not gone ahead as a single factor in a fevered world. Other forces are at work. The very violence of Fascism serves to produce them. Antibodies gather in the bloodstream. I firmly believe that here in the United States there is a far more intelligent body of public opinion than obtained in 1917. Those forces of propaganda which swung us into line at that time still exist. It would be folly to minimize their importance and effectiveness. Indeed, weapons for the dissemination of patriotic fcivor have been improved. It would be easier now to broadcast drumbeats and bugle calls. But there exists a body of testimony which can not readily be shoved aside. Even the most adroit propagandists can not write with the fire of a Barbusse. Among those opposed to war there has been a growing recognition of the weakness of some of the old slogans. "I won’t fight, and they can send me to jail” wasn't good enough. There has come to be a body prepared to say, “I won't fight, and they won’t send me to jail.” Man ought to be as good as the worm. The very moment has arrived. (Copyright, 19361 F.D.R. Emphasizes 3 Things in Talk BY RAYMOND CLAPPER WASHINGTON, April 14.—Three things stand out in President Roosevelt's address to the young Democrats at Baltimore. First: He emphasizes re-employment as the most pressing domestic problem, in much the same terms as it has been discussed in this column repeatedly. Then—without referring at all to the Supreme Court's NRA decision, he adds that the government ‘‘must give and will give” consideration to such subjects as the length of the working week, the stability of employment on an annual basis, and the payment of at least adequate minimum wages. As has been repeatedly said in this place, President Roosevelt is determined to make another attempt to deal with this question in spite of the failure of NRA. Second: He appears to be endeavoring to heal the breach with the business world, instead of widening it as he did in his last annual message and his Jackson Day address. He says at Baltimore that most business mm believe with the Administration in a greater purchasing power on the part of more people, and that one form of attacking the problem is “to work in .inity” toward this end. Again, discussing the conflict between those who say the government should do nothing and those who say it should do everything. Mr. Roosevelt says: “Common sense dictates an avoidance of both extremes.” Lastly. he puts it in his ideal political creed that ‘‘class hatreds can be done away with.” Third: There is the appeal to the spirit.of youth, to keep on dreaming the vision of a greater and finer America, to believe that poverty can be lessened, that the disgrace of involuntary unemployment can be wiped out, that peace at home and abroad can be maintained—"and that one day a generation may possess thus land, blessed beyond anything we know, with those things—material and spiritual—that make man's life abundant.” No doubt that sounds like hokum to the hardbitten business man who wants to know how the corporation tax is going to hit him. Maybe so. But does a nation live by bread alone, even if it gets the bread? a a a ONE of the great qualities about Roosevelt—which offsets some of the sorry misfortunes of Administration that the New Deal has seen—is his ab‘ ty to stir and invigorate the spirit of the nation. Th.- gift was effective in the early period of the Administra' on, when he pulled the country out of shell-shock and helped it regain its nerve. This is the same quality that makes a great industrial leader, or a great soldier—the power to put courage into his people and to arouse in them the vision of large achievement. • * * THAT is the secret of the rebirth of Russia, Germany and Italy under the dictators. Os course Roosevelt has no dictatorship and no censorship. He must make terms with Congress, with the Supreme Court, and above all with the voters on election day. And there’s a place on the ballot to vote no He doesn’t have it as easy as a dictator. Yet. like every figure who has vitally influencec the course of a nation, he is able to inspire a sense pf public welfare about the business af government, taiaking it something more than an haggle w ‘ u ‘ u ““~’

ROADS Far Above Blizzard and Storm, Transports Wing Way Along Well-Marked Courses of Federal Airways System. BY DAVID DIETZ Scripps-Howard Science Editor of the frozen plains of the Canadian Northwest sweeps the blizzard. Down goes the thermometer as the storm makes its icy way across the badlands of the West, the corn fields of Kansas, the btuad farms and the busy towns of the East. A gray sky turns black as an invisible sun sinks behind a snowbound horizon at the end of the day. The darkness of night broods over America, a cold and black night with a

howling wind to whirl the falling snow into spirals and pile the drifts around fence corners and trees. Country roads are deserted. Traffic on city streets falls to a minimum. People prefer to be indoors on nights like these. It’s a great night to sit close to the fire and turn on the radio. If you listen outdoors, you may hear the plaintive whistle of a locomotive in the distance. Piercing the swirling snow with its powerful headlight,

SECOND OF A SERIES

the railroad train is speeding along the gleaming rails. A marvelous and ingenious signal system of semaphores and lights keeps the railroads of the nation going in all sorts of weather. Only when great snowdrifts block the tracks is service disrupted. Listen outdoors again and perhaps you will hear, when the wind is quiet for a moment, the faint hum of an airplane far overhead.

For above the blizzard, above the storm-clouds, up where the sky is clear, the giant transports of the air service are winging their way. Across hills and rivers, cities and towns, the great planes keep going.

RADIO LOYAL ALLY

THOUGH the ground is hidden from view, they fly their courses straight as arrows, making for the airports which are their destination. Today the pilot can find an airport even when it is hidden in a dense fog. He can fly “blind” to his destination. At many airports he can land if the ceiling is not below the minimum allowed by the Bureau of Air Commerce, which varies with the location of the airport. And at this very moment, devices are being perfected and installed at some fields which will some day permit blind approaches with passengers. Radio has made these things possible. Radio has done for the airplane what the telegraph and its later extension into the various forms of semaphore and light signals did for the railroad. When Marconi sent his first wireless message across the Atlantic he was thinking of supplanting the transatlantic cables. Perhaps he was thinking also of communicating with ships at sea. Travel through the air was undoubtedly the farthest thing from his thoughts. Veteran radio fans will remember the mild excitement created in the days after the World War when the first radio broadcasts were staged from airplanes. Every one agreed that they were interesting. But even then, it is doubtful if many realized the full implications of radio for the art of flying.

A SUNSHINE ART

UNTIL radio came to the aid of aviation, the art of flying was a sunshine art. Given a nice, clear sunny day and things were easy for the pilot. Night flying was a risky business but possible if the weather stayed clear. Changes in the weather were the things which the pilots feared most. Leaving an airport where the weather was nice and clear, the pilot found himself running into clouds, rain, fog. Sometimes he turned

THIS CURIOUS WORLD + By William Ferguson

HVOfS^GEN WILL CHANGE A eAss voice to a tenor/ J& THE VIBRATION yf OF SOUND IS 4i GREATER. IN gi|y IN THE UNIV/ERSTTV LIGHTER GASES. y OF" PENNSYLVANIA, .jrTLjm. l/ there is a pressed wr Jr SPECIMEN OF • A PEA M \ PLAA/T GROWN BV WL & GREGOR. MEN DEL, WSy x-J. FAMOUS AUSTRIAN BOTANIST," AND USED BV HIM IN /-5T\ THE OISCOVERV OF VVVO "MENDEL'S LAW," a PRINCIPLE GOVERNING // /O / Y \\ THE INHERITANCE OF (S\X\ y CHARACTERS IN l VJW y-r| ANIMALS AND PLANTS. By breeding pea plants, Mendel discovered that certain characters depend on the presence of determining factors, and that the second and later generations of. crosslwfeeds exhibit these characters in definite proportions. .

The Indianapolis Times

back. Sometimes when he got ready to turn back, the fog was so thick that he didn’t know where to turn. Today, fog has no terror for the transport pilot. His weather reports by radio tell him when to expect it and what co do. His directional radio equipment enable him to fly right through it. The atmosphere is a great ocean of air. It is that and nothing more to the layman. But for the pilot, radio has marked off definite lanes in that ocean, veritable roads as definite as any road of concrete running across the countryside. We must understand these roads of the air, both to understand the psesent status of aviation and .to visualize the future.

AIDS ARE LISTED

THE official name of these roads is “The Federal Airways System.” It embraces 22,000 miles of lighted and radio-equipped air routes. They make things easier for the pilots even when the suh is shining. Their help is even more welcome at night. And day or night, when fog or mist or rain or snow create poor visibility, they arc indispensable. They make it possible for planes to reach air-

■fI7ASHINGTON, April 14.—A fellow newspaper publisher, who has known Col. Frank Knox for many years, recently remarked: “I wonder if Frank hasn’t scooped himself on the Republican nomination?” The probabilities are that he has. As far back as April last year, “Knox headquarters” were in evidence at the American Newspaper Publishers’ Convention. As far back as July, long before Gov. Landon or Senator Borah had tossed their hats in the ring, Col. Knox was storming at Roosevelt: “Upon what does this our Caesar feed? What madness has seized upon him? Does he not see how dangerously close this comes to conspiracy to break

TUESDAY, APRIL 14,1936

ports or landing fields under conditions which otherwise would spell tragedy. The Federal Airways System provides the following aids for the pilot who flies along them: Rotating beacon lights at approximately 15-mile intervals. Intermediate landing fields so located, relative to airports, that landing areas are available at intervals of approximately 50 miles. Radio communications stations for weather broadcasts and emergency messages to aircraft. Radio range beacons for directional guidance. Radio marker beacons for assistance in locating strategic points, such as intermediate landing fields.

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

down our institutions of government?” It is the Colonel’s proud boast that of all G. O. P. aspirants he is anti-New Deal Enemy No. 1. But, having beaten the war drums and sounded the call to arms, Knox now finds himself like so many other leaders in battle, elbowed out of the limelight. Even a victory in today’s Illinois primary will make no real change in the situation. The trouble with Col. Knox is that he has gone about building himself up as a candidate as he had gone about building himself up as a newspaper executive. And the two fields are entirely different. u n n 'T'HE Colonel is one of the shrewdest and most successful newspaper publishers in the country. His progress up to the ownership of The Chicago Daily News was no accident. He built up the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Herald, then bought the Manchester (N. H.) Leader, became an important executive in the Hearst organization, and during this time, dabbled a bit in Republican politics. Meanwhile Walter Strong, publisher of The Chicago Daily News, died, specifying in his will that the employes of the paper be given the first opportunity to buy it. Senator George Moses, G. O. P. mogul, also a New Hampshire publisher, recommended Knox, and after consultation between Dawes and Hoover, Knox got the job—and the paper. nun KNOX has been as big a success with The Chicago Daily News as he was with everything in life—except politics. He has won the respect of his men, but not their love. They talk glowingly about their paper, but not about their publisher. During the Hoover Administration, one idea was uppermost in Knox’ mind: friendship for the man in the White House. There was nothing he would not do for Herbert Hoover. This has continued since Hoover left office. In fact, when Negley Farson, one of the most brilliant members of The Daily Nqws’ foreign staff, wrote a critical review of Hoover's book in a London paper, Knox discharged him by cable—which may have been a blessing to Farson, Lor he promptly sat down and wrote anew bestseller, “The Way of a Transgressor.” nun THERE are two big reasons why Knox will get nowhere politically: * 1. He lacks popular appeal. I 2. He lacks organized political harking,

jgi|v/ \ M In

Like the railroad train below, the pilot follows a protected path.

Weather reporting service, involving the use of teletypewriter circuits and point-to-point radio.

ROTATING BEACONS

npHE rotating beacon lights, useful only in clear weather or when the pilot is below the ceiling in bad weather, are familiar sights to all persons who have been up in planes at night or toured the country roads by auto. A steel skeleton tower, usually 51 feet high, holds the rotating searchlight unit upon its top. Two types

Os the other two leading candidates, Borah is weak in political organization but has strong popular support. Gov. Landon has public strength—though less of it than Borah—but makes up for it by powerful political underpinnings. Col. Knox, on the other hand, lacks both. He is direct, concise, efficient. He has charm and some sense of humor, but the man in the street does not warm up to him as they do to Borah, Landon or Roosevelt. There is a certain aloofness, an element of calculation which discourages personal enthusiasm. A food of canned publicity has been poured out by his campaign managers to humanize Knox. He has been painted as a happy-go-lucky Rough Rider, a debonair newspaper man and boon companion. But it has not worked. To the public at large, Knox has continued to be only a name. (Copyright. 1936. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

The regular Bridge Lesson will be found today on Page I Eleven. i I

GRIN AND BEAR IT + + by Lichty Icldt

“j he face is famUiar t im I don't recall the number."

of searchlight are in use, an older type employing a 500-watt lamp and anew one using a 1000-watt lamp and producing two beams of light 180 degrees apart. These beacons are so adjusted as to show six clear flashes per minute. The pilot does not see the beam as such until he is close to it; from a distance of 30 or 40 miles he sees only a flash of light when the beam swings directly at him. The beacons are so constructed that between the flashes of white light there are auxiliary flashes of red, green or yellow. These flashes are signals in the dot-dash telegraph code and serve to identify the beacon for the airplane pilot. The colors also have significance: Red means the beacon is near no landing field. Green signifies that a lighted landing field is nearby, yellow that an unlighted or emergency landing field is nearby. On the ground at each bedcon light is a concrete or metal directional arrow, approximately 70 feet in length, pointing in the direction of the next beacon light. Many of these beacon lights are located at spots where electric power is not available. In such cases, gasoline engine driven electric generating sets are installed in little houses near the towers. Most of the beacons are turned on at night and off in the morning through the control of electrically wound clocks of astronomical precision. A few installations are controlled by photo-electric cells or “electric eyes.” These switch the beacons on whenever the day grows dark or foggy. The intermediate landing fields, 50 miles apart, are all designated by markers of concrete or crushed stone and painted in accordance with an understood code. In addition, they are equipped with beacons and other lights necessary for night landing. These include boundary lights to mark the ends of the field, range lights to indicate the principal runways and best approaches to the field, and red lights on all obstructions. TOMORROW—FIying by radio.

Second Section

Entered ** Serond-Clas* Matter at Pestoffioe, Indianapolis, Ind.

Fair Enougli WKMOf PETO J DON’T know all the details of the attempt to seize and pore over the private and confidential correspondence of William Randolph Hearst, but just offhand I would be willing to join in deploring the outrage, not that it needs any help, what with his great staff of writers and cartoonists, his movie and radio interests and his own gift of vigorous protest in open letters to himself. When Mr. Hearst decide* to deplore something in earnest

that is a good time for timid souls to stand from under for he commands a formidable corps with a tremendous power of indignation and the motto on the house flag is “Whose Bread I Eat, His Song I Sing.” So I will just say in regard to Mr. Hearst's strident protest that I think so too. and go on to suggest that the freedom of the press which he is now defending also imposes certain heavy obligations on the owners of the press. The freedom of the press is more precious than people realize

until it is abolished suddenly as in Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria and other countries. We may find fault with t. professional ethics of some of our publishers from time to time and this.is not to deny that we have some local dictators in the newspaper business who have run things with a high and unscrupulous hand for a little while. But never in this country has any one paper or chain of papers been able to control the national government and the little Mussolinis and Hitlers either die or lose their power through the angry opposition of honest publishers whose zeal for reform redeems for the press the sin* of the erring brother. a an Good Overshadows Evil ON the whole, the newspapers of this country have exposed and corrected so many wrong* and wrought so many material and political improvements in their respective communities and in the nation at large that the score of the bad actors in the business is comparatively small. Still, I don’t believe there has ever been a time when the general public has kept such a close watch on the newspaper business as today and certainly never in my time have the people been so inquisitive regarding the reasons a publisher takes a certain attitude on a given proposition or candidate. It seems to me that nowadays the readers are inclined to scoff at the romance of journalism and to put a mental resistance against propaganda and news which has been colored for motives which only can be felt rather than sensed or seen. I believe Mr. Roosevelt started this skepticism early in hi3 reign when he reminded the press that the boon of freedom was accompanied by compensating duties and responsibilities toward the community which confers the privilege. The press is a trust which obviously calls for the highest character, and when an order comes down to silence a public character by excluding his name from the paper for selfish reasons for the purpose of doing him harm, that is an abuse of the trust. There are some newspaper employes, particularly in th® prize fight trade and in Hollywood, who have become petty tyrants and racketeers, practicing something which amounts to coercion on individuals whose living depends on publicity and who herefore are afraid to offend them. nan Boring From Within THERE are matters of common knowledge in cauliflower circles in New York and notorious in the movie industry and the freedom of the press thus is threatened more seriously from within than by any current action of the executive or legislative branch of the government. The percentage of these grafters is small, but the scandal is great and the reputation of the American press suffers disproportionately for the conduct of a few members who are not the type and never did belong. Our journalism is the'best In the world on the average. I don’t think there is any present danger that our press will be censored or licensed, but in view of the present hard-boiled attitude of the citizens, it behooves all of us to keep our motives reasonably clean.

Gen. Johnson Says—

WASHINGTON, April 14.—The Republicans have hired a lot of professors for the 1936 campaign —but you mustn’t call them a “brain trust.” Ther® is one academician for each phase of the New Deal. It’s a system. What it's really like is hiring expert witnesses in a murder trial. You can find some pundit to testify to either side of almost any technical question. It is a symptom of the increasing effect of private economic government on our daily lives and the resulting popular demand for the intervention of political government for public protection. There is an impression that economics is a science and a belief that its high priests can solve our problems. Economics is not yet a science. It bears about the same relation to a science as medieval alchemy and astrology bear to modern chemistry and astronomy. ana BUT the New Deal didn't invent brain trusts and . economic planning. Every Republican proposal since Harding’s “normalcy” has been nothing els® but. Listen to Senator Borah stumping for the Great Engineer in 1928: "Our economic problems have to be solved. . . . Hoover is the economic marvel of the century in his ability to deal with economic problems. If he were not the nominee, I would not be here.” The whole Hoover campaign was for a panacea. “Government,” said he, “is more than administration. . . . We must direct economic progress.” Th® most cock-eyed dream of the most visionary hotdog could not compete with the Hoover fantasy for dizziness. The worst disaster any Cassandra can imagine about the New Deal can’t touch what followed the Hoover cure-all. As the President is fond of saying, "History repeats itself!” (Copyright, 1938. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Times Books

THE trouble with Russian novels is that they all sound alike for the first six or eight chapters. They all seem to be about people named Alexis Petrovich, who are constantly drinking tea out of glasses and talking passionately about (a) thetf souls, (b) the Russian moujik, (c) his soul, or (and) the class war. '‘Darkness and Dawn,” by Alexia Tolstoi (Longmans, Green; $2.50), runs true to type. For the first 140 pages it sounds like all the other Russian novels you ever read. Then, suddenly, Mr. Tolstoi puts it into high, and the story starts going places. This novel tells of the war and the revolution as seen through upper-middle-class eyes. Its hero is a factory technician; its heroine, the daughter of a well-to-do doctor. And although the narrative covers only the years 1914-1918, it seems to describe a whole century of change. How the crust of society broke apart, with an infinity of confusion, cruelty and pain, is graphically described here. Once the introduction is over, ‘‘Darkness and Dawn” gives a stirring panorama of one of the most turbulent and significant events in all human history. (By Bruce Catton.),

Westbrook Pcgler