Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 51, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 May 1936 — Page 9

It Seems to Me HEYWOOD BROUN YORK, May 9.—When Mussolini had finished his broadcast of victory to the fascinated millions I wish some still small voice had piped up, “So what?” Indeed, the Duce will have to answer that question whether it has been propounded or not. Tho horsemen and the footmen are streaming into Addis Ababa, and the Roman Eagles wave in

triumph over the mud huts of the city, but 10 years from now some Pcterkin will find a skull in the dust and try in vain to ascertain what good came of the famous victory. The momentary psychological effect of the successful campaign is great. Its force is felt well beyond the borders of Italy. Edwin C. Hill all but did a Fascist salute to the dictator over a national network the other night. In Joe's Tavern, the nearest approach of civilization to my farm in Stamford. the chianti flowed in freshets all through the night. I doubt

Ileywood Brcun

'hat Mussolini’s hold cn Addis Ababa will cut an hour frcm or add a dollar to anybody's work week in Stamford. I even doubt that it will have that effect in Rome, Milan or Venice. So what? Ethiopia may be rich in natural resources or a barren land, but in no case will its fruits flew in any equal proportion to the working masses of Italy. a a a M hat About the Bread? has given the people of Italy a supci b circus. The Italian army has shown military genius in its handling of motorized transport. The airplane has been used for aggression in country far more rough than bombers have ever tackled before. So what? When does the bread begin to flow? For a little while the Duce has diverted the attention of his people from the powerful foes which Italy must beat back if Fascism is to continue. Selassie was only a little bit of fellow compared to Unemployment. which still threatens Italy as well as the rest of the world. And I am puzzled, too, at the fierce glee with which many American commentators hail the present low estate of the League of Nations. I do not deny that the league is /ck unto death. Its structure seemed faulty to mu from the beginning. And et I see no reason for joy at its demise. If it is utterly obliterated little will be left but the old plan of balance of power and secret treaties and alliances. And the league at its worst caused no more havoc than that system. American critics assert that the league was timid in dealing with the Duce and that it should have called Mussolini’s bluff when he defied the world to interfere with his campaign against Ethiopia. But these are the same critics, or their heirs, who opposed our participation at Geneva on the ground that the league had teeth which would make for constant conflict. nun It Might Have lieen Different IT has been asserted definitely that Borah and Lodge and the rest who shattered Woodrow Wilson’s dream now stand revealed as patriots and men of vision. It is not proved. Nobody knows what the life of the league might have been had America gone in. Ido not want to make gny guess that in such a rase everything would have been hotsy totsy, but, at any rate, it wmuld have been different. T certainly am for a league and for it here and now. Os course, it must be a league which draws its instructions not from a little group of backroom diplomats but from the masses of the world. If the League of Nations is dead this is the very hour to create a League of Peoples.. i Copyright,. 193 fit Landon Lays Down Platform Clearly BY RAYMOND CLAPPER May 9—Those persons who * * want a real inside tip as to what kind of presidential campaign Gov. Landon will conduct if nominated missed the whole point of his radio interview this week if they stopped when they read the headlines, ‘ Landon Attacks F. D.” and skipped the rest. The news in this interview was not in the headlines. Here are the tips in his broadcast that forecast his campaign stand: ‘Moderates will decide the election —our high national ideals, the call for social justice, our goal of maximum opportunity for every man, woman and child are being betrayed by a wasteful, slipshod, incompetent, happy-go-lucky administration . . . progressive government deserves something better than casual experiment ... it can succeed only when accompanied by careful preparation, competent administration and sound fiscal policies. . . . The Republican Party must go forward along sound and progressive lines. No other course will do. . . . ’’Where humanitarian legislation is needed, we must provide it. . . . Including improved social security legislation. Where labor and agriculture are under disadvantages, they must b° removed . . . where business is hamstrung so that it can not furnish jobs, we must free it. . . Certain administration objectives have been good, but its methods have been mostly bad. . . There should be regulation of business wherever regulation keeps open opportunity and protects, not hampers, the people as a whole in exercising their rights, suer as protection of children and women in industry, workmen's compensation, enforcement of sanitary provision, safety, reasonable working hours . . . and on the subject of monopoly —commercial liberty for the common man.’’ a a a LANDON S discussion of monopoly is especially significant: "Monopoly is bad for every one including business . . . profits are not fairly passed on to labor and consumer ... all other groups are put at a disadvantage . . . opportunity is closed to the small man ... we have to attack the evils of monopoly frankly and resolutely and require the government to keep the competitive system in force at all times. It will not do to think we can put monopoly on its good behavior and forget about it.” And so on. Actually, Landon’s broadcast probably is one of the most significant utterances that has come from the Republican side since the party began pulling itself together after the 1932 cyclone. It is significant because, with the nomination almost in his grasp, he chose to ignore the risk of laying himself open to attack from inside the party and boldly stepp<d feewird to deci-re himself so that if he is nominated, there can be no misunderstanding afterward. He delioerately served notice that he is intent upon offering a constructive program, not upon limiting himself to a 100 per cent damnation of Roosevelt. He did not get down to specific suggestions. but was concerned with spreading on the records his political and social philosophy and the general outlines of the policy which would guide him. * * * CHIEF JUSTICE HUGHES, before the American Law Institute, justifying divided opinions by the Supreme Court, explained that everywhere in the highest ranges of thought we find differences of view and that likewise in the law, “v e do not suddenly rise to a stratosphere of icy eerieinty.” That is exactly the complaint of critics of the court. In the AAA decision, the majority did go up into an atmosphere of icy certainty whereas the three dissenting Justices felt that the functions of government could be congealed inside nett molds set ! 150 years aco, 1

LIVING IN A HOUSE ON WHEELS

Trailer Manufacture May Be Next Venture of Big Business

Here is the sixth and last of a series of articles on the amaxinr popularity of the automobile trailer. BY GEORGE H. DENNY 'J'HE odds are even you will be living in a house trailer within 20 years, a famous economist has predicted. You may believe this statement ridiculous. You may argue that such a shift in living conditions by 60.000,000 persons would set up stresses that our present forms of society and government could not survive. This may be true. But as I suggested in an earlier article, you can cut the estimate in halves or quarters and still have something to ponder on when the dishes are washed and the children put to bed. Let’s explore a few possibilities. It will be pure speculation, but we have the history of the automobile industry as a guide and the trailer industry should follow as truly as my trailer follows my auto today. Rejnember the first years of the horseless carriage? There were scores of factories struggling for the market. Three concerns dominate today. Trailer Travel, the magazine of this new industry, said in the first issue that there are more than 250 factories building house trailers in the United States. a a a ONLY a few are factories as we think of the word in connection with the auto industry; with assembly lines, large daily output, engineering and research departments, a national sales organization and time-payment plans. More than 90 per cent are small shops that turn out a trailer or two a week, often as a sideline to some related activity. The same is true of the factories, large and small, that build parts and accessories for the persons who assemble their own auto coaches. If we give credence to sources that predict millions of house trailers in a few years, we admit the field is worth the notice of big business. How long will the little trailer builders last in that event? For six months there have been rumors that the largest auto manufacturer in the world was investigating the future of house trailers. Two small trailer manufacturers told me last winter they expected the announcements at the 1937 auto show, if not before. They admit they can not survive such competition; that they are just trying to make a little hay before the storm breaks. As long as we are speculating we might as well guess what a house trailer will be like five years from now. We are pretty sure the best engineers of the country are bending over their drafting boards; figuring weights, balance, space, safety factors. They are studying all the best points of today’s models; discarding, adapting and improving the trailer you will buy tomorrow. a a a ALREADY we have trailers with hot water, baths, airconditioning and electric generating plants for cooking, heating and refrigeration. But the cost is prohibitive. The problem is to include as many of these comforts as possible. plus improvements we can’t imagine now. and keep the whole in reach of the average purse. There will be trailers selling for S4OO that are better than today's SISOO model, if the history of the auto industry tells us anything. Trailer hitches must be standardized. Few models use the same hitch now and it would be a nuisance on a trade-in. Auto designs may be changed to meet the trend. A thousand problems will be met and overcome. What about trailer camps? Trailers, of course, are made to be perfect, complete little houses; independent of utilities. But we are gregarious. We like to bunch

THIS CURIOUS WORLD + By William Ferquscn

-'• '.*.1,.., OP toe. fi .IYSSSuIi 100 FEET IN DIAMETER., \ Vl FORMED IN A WHIRLPOOL \\\ * OF A, CONNECTICUT \ \\ RIVER TRIBUTARY, AND \ \\ CONSTANTLY TURNED \ \\ J AND ROL/A/D./ \ \\ ' „ATUCE pflm, I BUILDS ITS COCOON \ ARE WITH A uo, THROUGH DEAD WHICH IT MAV ESCAPE. ORGANISMS. €tM y we* seavtce. twc. $-t mm

When a feather reaches maturity, the opening at the base of the quill closes and cuts ofT the flow of blood. Prom then on it is a dead organism, but it then begins its period of greatest usefulness. Until a feather is mature, it is of little .use to its owner except as a protection against weather. * - . . *i' i ‘ r * ‘f** 11 '-V / *'' ’ v . o ’,

The Indianapolis Times

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Pullman beds convert the trailer living room into a bedroom. The author and his family (above).

up. When we winter in Florida most of us want to be where we can take a turn at shuffleboard or talk about pensions with the family from the other end of the nation So the trailer camps, with their hot showers and tubs to wash your white ducks, and light sockets to save wear on the car battery, will blossom on every lake and beach and desert. There will be overnight camps on the arterial highways. There should be positions in the larger camps for men trained as city managers. The same problem of policing, health and sanitation will occur as in the home town. an a WE may see permanent camps where retired farmers and merchants will come to live for years. In one Florida camp are customers who have been in the same spot for two or more years, they have seen all the country, they like this place and they will stay as long as the tax assessor keeps his distance and the camp fees remain reasonable. But the instant levies are aimed at the trailers or the camps are not kept clear and comfortable, these customers will hitch and run. And how can you stop them? If you tax the camps or trailers in one state they will detour. If road regulations or mechanical requirements are made too severe it will be the same story. Federal regulations might drive them over a north or south border. Is it possible, in all decency, to levy a trailer tax that will compare to the levy on a house and lot or farm cr store? The value simply isn’t there. Maybe this quicksilver population of the future will be a blessing. A roving army of five or 10 million families, even if their income average were low, easily cculd boycott sections where politics are unsavory and taxes high and thereby bring pressure that might better the conditions. It is happening in a small way already. b b tt IT’S true, their needs might be modest; they would build not mansions and covet few polo pon-

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1936

ies, but they would eat and wear clothes and buy gasoline and fishing tackle. There are thousands of miles of beach and woodlands with sunshine and gentle climates where trailer cities might rise without offending sensitive souls who object to washing on a line or babies playing in sun suits. The investment for a trailer camp is small, much less than for a tourist camp of the same caliber. Florida camps were crowded this season but there will be many more next winter. The law of supply and demand will be obeyed. Trailer cities of the future may have a branch bank, a school, a postoffice and theater as well as the stores and other concessions already there. They may need a small police force. But if graft or politics appear in the form of any

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

WASHINGTON, May 9.—The Navy Department was so flabbagasted at Admiral Reeves’ order forbidding men and officers to carry cameras with the United States fleet that it telegraphed him asking if they had received the correct wording of his order. . . . Eddie Dowling, ace radio entertainer, is preparing some hot entertainment for the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia. Eddie is the discoverer of Kate Smith and Paul Robeson. . . . George Peek, onetime AAA boss and former head of the Export-Import Bank, will be in the Republican corner in this year’s campaign. He says he “expects” to advise the G. O. P. cn the farm issue, probably also will take the stump in the corn belt against the New Deal. , , . Federal Housing Administrator Stewart McDonald is rapidly winning fame as the Administration's boss poker and bridge player. In several recent sessions, McDonald took over RFC Chairman Jesse Jones, who had the reputation of being tops in these tv/o indoor sports. . . . Secretary Roper is proudly citing an item in a report by. Lloyd's, the great British insurance company, ranking United States shipping with Sweden in losing the least number of vessels at sea last year. The same report also shows that more passengers lost their lives on American ships last year than in any of the six previous years, but Uncle Dan is not mentioning that. ... So confident was Assistant Atty. Gen. John Dickinson that the Supeme Court would not hand down its decision in the Guffey Coal Act case last week that he did not even go to the court chamber. Dickinson argued the government's side in the controversy. * a 0 The frescoed face of Maury Maverick forever will look down on passersby in the Justice Department Building. Artist George Biddle is reproducing the lineaments of the scrappy Texan in one of the symbolic figures in the mural of social justice. Maverick says he will look like a bum loitering before a tenement. 0 m n A HOT scramble is on among state Democratic leaders for the privilege of seconding Roosevelt’s nomination at the Philadelphia convention. It has been decided to limit the number of seconders to 15, with a time allotment of 5 minutes for each speaker. . . . Vice President Jack Garner will bs placed in nominatio by a 'boy from home"— youthful Gov. James V. Allred of Texas. . . . Republican insiders are placing responsibility for the party's recently created “brain trust” on William B. Beil, president of the American Cyanamid Cos., and chairman of the G. O. P.’s fund-raising committee. Bell was strong for a staff of academic advisers, and backed it up with the argument that if he was to produce the campaign wherewithal he ought to say how the

unreasonable expense the exodus will start. The wheels on the houses will insure a square deal. We could speculate and dream for hours. It is clean fun and doesn't cost a cent. Mrs. D. has been looking longingly over my shoulder. “Do you call yourself a reporter?” she sniffs. “You have been painting nothing but bright pictures. Your job is to present both sides of the question. How about the disadvantages of trailing?” a a a YOU are right,” I admit. “In my enthusiasm I have mentioned only the beer and skittles. I will enumerate the sorrows of this loose living.” So now I am thinking of the dark side. There is the time when the water tank is empty on a rainy morning and buckets must

money would be spent. So without consulting other party leaders, National Chairman Fletcher went out and organized the faculty of professors. ... In an effort to strengthen the party’s position in Michigan, the Democratic high command has persuaded Frank Murphy, high commissioner of the Philippine Islands, to return and run for Governor. A former mayor of Detroit, Murphy has the reputation of being a potent vote-getter. Despite the national New Deal landslide, the Democrats lost Michigan in 1934 and the defeat has rankled. 808 jvlinaky of Oregon is in for a unique primary election honor. Because his job of Republican floor leader prevents a personal campaign for renomination, he will mak e a special radio broadcast from Washington to the state. Oregon friends have organized a nonpartisan committee which is financing the hook-up, and even the Democratic press is for him. Real hero of the siege of the American Legation in Addis Ababa was Will Cramp, young vice consul. After the staff had evacuated to the British legation, he returned to U. S. quarters, found everything intact and be-

GRIN AND BEAR IT + + by Lichty

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“ —And so I can’t marry Wtifyur, because I’d have to give the other boys back their presents”

be toted; there was the loose connection in the roof ventilator that leaked until found and tightened; there is the food bill, keeping pace with five booming, outdoor appetites; there is—there is— I turned to Mrs. D. “I have run out of objections,” I confessed. “You are the hard worker in this outfit. You cook and wash and sew while I fish. Name your poisons.” “Well,” she reflected, “there was the time when we forgot to lock the cupboard and the dishes fell out and broke on a turn. And the kids are a nuisance in these small quarters on a rainy day. And I have to boil every drop of their drinking water. And—and—- “ Yes?” I prodded. “Oh, the worst thing of all,” she said. “We never have been in. a town at the same time with that movie on the quintuplets.” THE END

gan sending reports to the State Department. . . . Congressman Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan never fumbles in his pockets for notes while making a speech. Reason: He has no pockets. The 60-year-old rookie wears specially tailored pocketless suits. . . . Sitting on the sidelines of the Senate Commerce Committee hearings on aeronautics was a hawk-eyed old man with a Windsor tie, eagerly waiting to be called. He wanted to tell the committee about his invention, the “All-American Rigid Dirigible,” with propellers and rudders at the bow of the ship. His name is Walter Link. Day af er day he sat, but the hearings adjourned and he was not called. Henry Wallace sings the praise of the soy bean, points out it can be used in making macaroni. linoleum, breakfast foods, fertilizer, salad oil and paint. a a a Henry Wallace has received a letter saying, “My husband and mother-in-law say that a rat and a mouse are two different species of rodents. I say the mouse is the offspring of a rat, as a kitten is of a cat. Please settle the argument for us.”

Second Section

Entire*! as .Seronfi-CUss Matter at Post office. Indianapolis. Ind.

/ Cmvr the hdrld WMHUP SIMMS I Batting for Westbrook I’egler.l jDERLIN, May 9.—Nazi Germany plans to isolate France by walling her up in western Europe with Rhineland fortifications, regardless of the risks involved. That done, her next step will be to expand eastward—not to attack the French—to incorporate more Germans in the Reich and acquire

land for settlement and raw materials. Her route of expansion will be via Austria and western Czechoslovakia—regions already wholly or largely Germanic—into the Ukraine, the most disaffected. if not pro-German, region cf the Soviet Union. There is little difference of opinion here, among the informed with regard to the above program. The Nazis, Hitler first of all. of late have said or intimated as much again and again. It has become largely a question of timing. And when it comes to that, Hitler is a master.

whether it is for domestic ccup-, d'etat or presenting foreign powers wth faits accompli. a a a Forcing His Hand pCONOMISTs acquainted with the situation here are convinced his hand will be forced by conditions at home if by nothing else. To create employment first, then to turn Germanv into an armed camp, he has borrowed and spent billions on top of billions. His credit abroad gone, and with little left within his own borders, he nevertheless can not stop spending. He must proceed full steam ahead. And he must use the structure he is creating before the whole house of cards collapses. Abroad, such is the confusion, he may be presented with the very opportunity which he is credited with seeking. Not since the talk of‘“encircling” Germany began has there been less unity of purpose among the surrounding links. Hitler’s hatred, or rather his contempt, for Russia is really profound. Moscow’s belief in an eventual blow, therefore, has foundation. He regards Russians as cattle monopolizing one-sixth of the land swftace of the globe—something diabolically outyßl all proportion. He holds that they never hsJfe been able to rule themselves and never will; th*K they always have been driven about by outside^—first by the Czarists frcm the Baltic provinces/and now by international Jew's. nun Crusade of Liberation Even in his most recent utterances. Hitler has made it evident that the extermination of those ’pestilential creatures’ who are usurping too much territory as their playground would not be a war of aggression but a crusade of liberation for the benefit of humanity. His reward would be a free hand to colonize the country and give it some semblance of civilization which, to his way of thinking, it has not yet enjoyed. To carry out this plan, however, Germany first must do three things: 1. Keep Britain and France apart. 2. Wall France up in western Europe by making the Rhineland impassable. 3. Obtain Japan’s co-operation in the Far East. Diplomatic and military observers are agreed that j all three considerations are already well on the road | to becoming accomplished facts.

Liberal Viewpoint BY HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE death of William Reuben George marks the passing of one of the major figures in the history of American humanitarianism, reformative methods and education. Out of his experiments at the George Junior Republic have grown a number of major advances both in the reformation of delinquents and in the character building of youth. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that his innovations will ultimately revolutionize the treatment of delinquents. They already have made much progress in this direction. Mr. George was born in 1886 near Frccville, in central New York state, where he ultimately constructed his famous educational institution. Going to New York as a young man he became interested in the problem of delinquency when Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner of New York City. Roosevelt made Mr. George a special policeman, and he carefully surveyed the condition of youth on the lower East Side of New York City in the early nineties. He was shocked by conditions he uncovered and tried to improve them by organizing boys’ clubs. But he found it difficult to make much progress with poverty and degradation on every side. oßu SO he decided to take youngsters from New York and give them a taste of country life during summer vacations. Results still were disappointing. Therefore, in 1835. he gathered together about 150 boys and girls from the slums of New York and took them to Freeville near his boyhood home. He started the experiment on a shoestring, and had to depend at first upon the aid of curious but amiable neighbors. He set up his school on an abandoned farm, and some of the original group remained with him throughout the winter. In the summer of 1896 matters really got under way and the George Junior Republic came into being. The term "Republic” was not a mere high-sound-ing front for autocratic reality. The boys and girla in the colony actually conducted their own government on representative and thoroughly democratic foundations. The success of the self-governing experiment was so impressive that it was widely adopted in reform schools, not on’y in this country but abroad.

Times Books

THAT trip to Mars you’ve heard so much about seems to be moving out of the Sunday supplement into the laboratory. “Rockets Thruogh Space,” by P. E. Cleator ‘Simon & Schuster; $2.50), examines the chances for interplanetary travel and concludes that they are excellent. Right now, says Mr. Cleator, the construction of a ship that could fly to the moon and back is theoretically possible. The principal drawbaci’ is that it would cost $100,000,000. But the point is that in theory, at least, the thing is perfectly possible. The space ship’s chief problem, he says, is to get up through the stratosphere into empty space. Todays research is devoted to solving that problem. Once the ship reaches that space it can go on and on with the expenditure of practically no fuel. Find a workable way of getting past the first 50 miles or so and the biggest part of the puzzle is solved. It is a strange, Jules Verne-ish picture Mr. Cleator paints. He suggests, in all seriousness, the establishment of fueling stations on the moon, and the construction of artificial satellites to revolve endlessly about the earth some 600 miles up. carrying supplies for itinerant star visitors. Sooner or later, he says, we shall fly to Mars, to Venus, to heaven-knows-where; and if you are inclined to scoff, he points out that less than 500 years ago the idea of an airplane that would carry passengers adft*s the Pacific looked equally fantastic and absurd. (B. C.) '‘ - * ‘ ’ . ‘ -'* :

VVm. Philip Simms