Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 60, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 May 1936 — Page 14

PAGE 14

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Ch'e Light and the People Will find Their oten Wap

WBDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1938,

SPOILS SYSTEM 'npHERE is a deep belief that the duties of gov- •*- ernment employes are, as Jackson said, "so plain and simple that men of intelligence can readily qualify themselves for their performance.” This is one of the hurdles in the way of qualified governmental personnel. Some others are the ideas that the spoils system is the price of democratic government, that public service is always less efficient than private business, that public pay rolls should support those in need of charity, that specific jaws will cure abuses in public office. Today, the Indiana League of Women Voters challenged the Democratic and Republican parties to face these hurdles at their state conventions next month. The league, battling for the merit system, will ask both parties for platform pledges of immediate abolition of the patronage.system. Already, 35,000 signatures have been gathered by the league in Indiana petitioning the political parties to establish the merit system of appointment. To the national party conventions the National League of Women Voters expects to present 500,000 signed cards with this plea. The proposed plank would commit the parties to specific legislation. The parties are asked to get rid of the patronage system because It is "a party liability and weakens the faith In government.” a a a TJOLITICIANS who run the state and national * conventions are not likely to grab at this proposal. They’ll tell you it’s bad politics. But they can not fail to see the power of a growing movement. The National Civil Service Reform League also is challenging the two national conventions to adopt planks to end the spoils system. The Public Affairs Committee is urging anew drive to place government service on a career basis. The depression and emergency activities of the Federal government have tightened the hold of the spoils system. The civil service has lost ground in state and local governments. Pay rolls are found shot with politics, favoritism and inefficiency. Only nine of the 48 states have civil service regulations since Kansas and Connecticut abandoned the merit system. The Public Affairs Committee found fewer civil service commissions created in the last decade than in any previous 10-year period since 1883. Only 14 per rent of county, township and district governments operate under the merit system. About 59 per cent of the jobs in cities are under civil service, leaving 41 per cent to the disposal of "the victors.” The Federal government is equally culpable. Despite its vaunted civil service, serious inroads have been made into the merit system by politics, congressional interference in placement and a general letting down of the bars. Government has expanded until nearly 3,300,000 Americans today are working for the taxpayers in 175,418 separate political jurisdictions. The annual bill is almost 4'a billions. Reforms do not come quickly or easily. The drive for better personnel in government is gaining wide support. When that support is crystallized into action, the spoils system will be on its way out. CAN THEY TAKE IT? VX7'E don’t know how the Republican leadership ’ ’ will take it but there comes from their new super publicity man the soundest advice that has been spoken in lo! these many moons. Said Bruce Barton speaking before the Illinois Manufacturers Association: "We are thinking too much of next November and hoping that somehow a change in administration will dissolve our cares. It will not. The masses of American people have discovered their power and will continue to exercise it, no matter who sits in the White House. We need to plan how we shall conduct ourselves, in view of this stubborn fact, not for the next six months, but for the next 25 years. We need to take a longer look.” FINISH THE JOB! TiJ-AJOR T TY LEADER ROBINSON'S hurry-up call for adjournment of Congress by June 6 may draw cheers from the politicians anxious to attend their party conventions or make for home to begin campaigning. It will find few echoes of approval out in fae country if it means a half-finished job of legislating. And, apparently, it means that. The Robinson "must" program contains only four major measures—taxes, relief, the omnibus flood control and commodity exchange bills. The President Insists only on taxes and relief. Left out of the reckoning are at least four pending matters of the greatest importance. In what we consider the order of their need these are: The Wagner-Ellenbogen slum-abatement bill, to finance through grants and loans a nation-wide program for low-rent dwellings to house workingmen's families; The La FoUett? resolution, just reported, calling for a thorough senatorial investigation of labor espionage and civil rights violations; The Kerr-Coolidge-King deportation bill; The Guffey bill to reform the present method of gubsidizing the merchant marine. Organized labor, social workers, economists and many other groups are urging the Seventy-fourth Congress to pass the Wagner-Ellenbogen rehousing bill. The Administration is behind it. Its relatively small subsidies would be spread over four years. Its boost to the construction industry probably would prove the needed impetus to launch a real housing boom and prime the laggard heavy industries’ pump. man rpHE need for the proposed La Follette investiga- ■*- tlon can not be overstressed. Covertly working to destroy orderly relations between labor and management and to weaken the democratic processes of free speech, press, assemblage and teaching are a few Fascist-minded groups whose power rests on fear, class hate, race prejudice and other emotions of the ignorant. How far have they gone in their dangerous work? Who are they? Who Is profiting from their doings? All these things we should know. The deportation issue should be settled and settled now. Passage of the Administration program before adjournment not only would save some 2800

families from cruel and stupid banishment, but would help cleanse the alien rolls of thousands of vicious criminals' now pemjjtted to remain and ply their underworld trades. An adequate ship subsidy law Is needed to rebuild our merchant marine along safe and decent lines. The reasons so far given for quick adjournment are frivolous compared with the need of passing such measures as these four. Congressmen who want to rush back home should consider what they will go home to if they leave essential laws unpassed. They will find that their best campaigning could have been done on Capitol Hill in behalf of their constituents. 'They should stay until their work is done, if it takes all summer, PUBLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE A TTENTTON of officials chosen to administer the new social security and unemployment relief legislation will be turned to Atlantic City, N. J., Friday and Saturday, as the annual conference of the American Public Welfare Association takes up current developments in this new legislation. The meeting precedes the opening there Sunday of the National Conference of Social Work, In which Hoosiers will figure prominently. Stressing the Importance of the public welfare meeting, Fred K. Hoehler, association director, said: “It will give an early opportunity for local and state public welfare administrators to exchange ideas on the many new problems raised for them by the national and state social security acts, and at the same time to secure advice and counsel from those at the national administrative level.” Frank Bane, executive director of the National Social Security Board, who will be at the conference, recently pointed out there is little essentially new in the social security program, "Welfare,” he said, "is one of the oldest functions of government, and we have exercised this function since the days of the colonies. Insurance against death, against old age, and against mishap in a wellestablished and generally approved way of doing things in our American mind. The Social Security Act is an outgrowth of the two.” As Indiana completes the establishment of county welfare boards, it becomes increasingly apparent the big task is still ahead —the practical working out of the social security idea. Much of the success of the program now depends upon wise administration and competent personnel in the state and local organizations. ANOTHER MAKESHIFT ■pEDERAL relief again has run itself into a tanglefoot of dispute and indecision in Washington. Between the President and Senate groups and Messrs. Hopkins, Ickes and Tugwell, the $1,425,000,000 relief appropriation for the fiscal year 1937 is being pulled and mauled about as though relief were something new for the government. One Senate bloc, led by Senator Hayden of Arizona, wants PWA given $700,000,000, so that states and cities can build needed, enduring works under a loan-grant system. Another bloc of eight Senators w’ants to give the Resettlement Administration some $200,000,000 to carry on the rural relief program. Senator Vandenberg and other Republicans demand that relief administration be turned back to the states, while Administration leaders point to the sad mess some of the states made of relief before Roosevelt and again during FERA. The President wants a blank check which he and Mr. Hopkins would allocate to PWA and RA and WPA as they see fit. The unwept 'Quoddy tide-water tapping and Florida ship canal projects, which Congress thought it had recently buried, are waking again, with Administration leaders urging that they now be investigated by a presidential committee of engineers. Instead of an orderly routine that should have been evolved through these three years of federal relief we have confusion worse confounded than ever. What will happen doubtless will be another makeshift of the sort we have had from the beginning. Congress will dispute awhile and then probably will turn over everything to the President and go home. Mr. Ickes and Mr. Tugwell will be given something, but whether too little or too much nobody will know Having no exact idea how many jobless needy there are, Congress will not even be sure its appropriation will last through the year. Once again we will plunge into the semi-darkness to feel our way through to something er other. Most of this confusion and compromise can be cleaned up in the future, if the President does what so many have urged—asks Congress to authorize the appointment of a non-partisan, expert, relief policy board to get the facts and outline a long-range policy. He is mistaken if he thinks the creating of such a board would reflect on his Administration. He and Mr. Hopkins, busy with thousands of details, could not avoid mistakes. Relief is such a tremendously complex problem that no one man can solve it. Witness the confusion among the Republican opposition over the problem. But if the President refuses to call in the country’s best minds to help him he must take the blame for further mistakes. Let us forget personal pride and politics and make this relief business something more than a series of experiments. A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson VTO use to run away from the commonplace. Another couple tried it and failed. The newlyweds from Michigan who left last summer for the South Sea Islands, where they expected to find a second Garden of Eden, are back home again. I hope they stayed long enough to learn that even with cash and long lazy days and warm breezes and ardent love they couldn’t be completely happy. The serpent in the first garden was wise indeed. He timed his visit well, appearing only after Adam and Eve were a little fed up with Paradise and one another. It was not hard then to sell them on the idea of taking a nibble at the apple. All our personal Edens are subject to the same invasions unless we accept the fact that honeymoons are not meant to last forever. After a certain period of billing and cooing the most romantic man feels a hankering to return to the everyday grind and, though she may not confess it, his lady also longs for feminine gossip over the teacups. Men can not live happily without their kind, and women are miserable when separated from other women. Oh, I know there will be <i chorus of protests over this statement, since it is our pet illusion that we dislike one another. Women take great pride in their preference for men; they are forever running themselves down and making nasty comparison. But don’t be fooled. Follow these broadcasters around for a while and you will find they have a yen for their girl friends, too. They like to let down their hair and exchange compliments. Which only proves one thing; we are less truthful than men, who seem to have an instinctive wisdom about life which girl children are born without. We fyt the biggest snag in the matrimonial stream when we believe what the poet wrote; "Love is of man’s life a thing apart; ’tis woman’s whole existence.” Well, it isn’t. And there will be less misery in married life when women let go their strangle-hold on the romantic traditions.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Our Town By J ANTON SCHERRER

'T'HE Marott Hotel people, ap- -*■ parently pleased with the way this department handled their i "Peach Melba” problem, now want to know how to differentiate between the various forms of Crepes Suzette. They couldn’t have come to a better place. There are only two kinds of Crepes Suzette—the good and the bad—and the difference lies largely in the cook’s willingness to co-op-erate with the hen. After that, it is a matter of the treatment accorded the frying pan. The frying pan used for Crepes Suzette should never be washed. Neither should the frying pan used for making omelets. To do so invites failure at the very start. In the end, it wrecks the cook’s reputation and insults the-hen. man npHAT is why Madame Poulard had the reputation she had and why the French hens held her in such high esteem. Madame Poulard ran the famous William the Conqueror Restaurant at St Michel, Normandy, and everything modern cooks know about Crepes Suzette dates back to what she found out about them. . Madame mixed her eggs in a wooden bowl and finished her Crepes Suzette in long-handled pans over an open wood fire. The pans, over 25 years old, had never been washed. She said that the tiniest bit of water spoiled any egg mixture, no matter how beautifully mixed. And so, not to risk even a trace of water that might be absorbed into the pores of the pans, she just wiped them clean with a cloth. After you know about the frying pan there is nothing hard about Crepes Suzette. You simply make them the way Lillian Russell liked them which is the way George Rector liked them which is the way Madame Poulard made them. a a x A LL it takes is four eggs, two cups of flour, two cups of milk, one and one-quarter teaspoons of salt, some grated orange rind, some smooth red currant jelly and, of course, the conditioned frying pan this department describes. Whatever you do, stay away from running water. Put the flour in a wooden bowl and add the salt, break the eggs lovingly Into the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the milk adagio tempo, stirring - constantly. Strain the mixture and flavor with the grated orange rind. Pour a little—ever so little—of tne batter into a small greased pan and spread it out very thin. Brown the cakes on both sides—some cooks are careless about this—and spread with currant jelly. After which, roll and sprinkle with powdered sugar, ana A FINAL word about the frying pan: Under no condition should it exceed seven inches in diameter. Fifteen centimeters was the size Mme. Poulard used. Anything bigger may turn out to be a German pancake.

TODAY’S SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

T'VETROIT, May 20. must provide the solution of the farm problem. A wider use of farm products in the factory, the invention of new industrial processes to utilize the output of the farm and the development of new crops to meet industrial needs, hold the key to rural prosperity. The white-jacketed scientist bending over his test-tubes and retorts, not the frock-coated orator holding forth in the legislative hall, will bring good times to the farmer. This was the keynote of the second Dearborn Conference on Agriculture, Industry and Science, held under the auspices of the Farm Chemurgic Council and the Chemical Foundation. Leaders of these organizations believe that the food problem will solve itself if a firm basis of stable prosperity is worked out by industry and agriculture. The development of rayon, cellophane, various cellulose products and plastics of all ~,orts, is held up as one example of how the progress of industrial science brings new demands for the raw materials of the farm. Some of the ways in which new chemical advances were absorbing farm materials were pointed out by Dr. Charles M. A. Stine, vice president in charge of research of E. L du Pont de Nemours & Cos. The coated textile industry uses, in the production of rubber-coated and pyroxylin-coated textiles, approximately 110,000,000 yards of cotton cloth annually, Dr. Stine said. “The viscose rayon industry, for a production of 200,000,000 pounds of rayon in 1935, consumed about 73,000,000 pounds of cotton linters. “The acetate rayon industry in 1935, based on a production of 56,000,000 pounds, probably consumed about 54,000,000 pounds of linters. Therefore, it is estimated that in 1935 the rayon industry consumed somewhere in the neighborhood of 64,000 tons of raw linters.” Dr. Stine gave additional figures to show the consumption of cotton linters in the production of pyroxylin plastics, acetate plastics, pyroxylin film, dopes and lacquers. The total acreage, he said, needed to provide linters for all the uses cited, both these and the foregoing, amounts to 9,000,000 acres. Linters are the short fibers cut | from the cotton seeds. They are; not the total long staple cotton j suitable for weaving into cotton! cloth, etc. |

V. . • • ■ . • feel • ' *& ' w igu. -

The Hoosier Forum 7 disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less. Your letter must be signed, but names will be withheld on reaucst.) a a a TELLS WHY RICH OPPOSE OARP By Mrs. James E. McDonald Recently a question was asked in one of our daily papers. It was something like this: "If the Townsend Plan has merits why have not groups of big business men and economists approved it?” My opinion is: The big business men and the moneyed men prefer* poverty for the masses so they can control the money of the United States. Also, they want cheap labor. With the Townsend Plan a law they would have to pay decent wages because labor would be scarce. And last, but not least, the rich never have wanted to pay their share of taxes. They prefer to buy untaxable bonds and let them lie idle in the vaults. We have been in the depression for six long years. No group of economists has solved the problems

Watch Your Health

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN A NEW-BORN baby should be cleaned, during the first few days of his life, with oil and cotton, and should not be given a full bath until the cord has separated. During the first few months, the bath should be given a warm room at a temperature of 98 degrees, Fahrenheit, which is about the temperature of the body. The bath should not last long, and the baby should be dried quickly by application of an absorbent towel, without vigorous rubbing. If the child's skin is exceptionally delicate, a handful of table salt to a gallon of water will make the water less irritating to the skin. At 6 months of age, the temperature of the bath is lowered to 95 degrees, and, at the end of the first year, it may be 90 degrees. Some doctors suggest that healthy children. after reaching the age of 6 months, may be sponged with water at a temperature of 65 or 70 degrees, for a second or two at the end of the bath, presumably with the idea of accustoming the child somewhat to cold. a a a AS the child grows older, he should 1-e given a warm bath, preferably at night, which will assure pleasant and restful sleep. The cooler bath is taken in the morning before breakfast. Ordinarily the bath should be a pleasant performance for both baby and mother. Everything for the bath should be prepared before the baby is taken up. The child should be handled as little as possible. There are two ways of bathing very young babies; one, in the mother’s lap; the other, on an especially prepared table or tray, covered with padding. It is important to remember that the baby must be kept warm and comfortable during the bathing period. The head and the neck should be supported as long as

IF YOU CAN’T ANSWER, ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a S-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or in* formation to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau. 1013 13thst. N. W., Washington. D. C. Legal and medical advice ran not he given, nor can extended research bo undertaken. Q —What is the state flower of Ohio? A—Scarlet carnation. Q —When, where and from what cause did Marcella Sem'orich die? A—At her home. 151 Central Park West, New York City, Jan. 11, 1935, as a result of emphysema and heart complications. Q—When passing the plate for a second should one retain,

WHEE!

of unemployment and distribution; so Townsenriites think nothing of such people as the professors in the Chicago University who say the plan can not work. I should like to add that Congressman Bell did not ask for an investigation until he learned ihere was a Townsend candidate running against him. a a a DEMOCRATIC WRITINGS TERMED BLUNDERS By Hugh S. Johnson. New York The Democratic high command says the Constitution is not an issue in this campaign. But the official party publication comes out with an article by Prof. Beard on the Constitution. It presents anew view of the obligations of the President and Congress to be bound by what the court says the Constitution means. It is embellished by quotations from four Presidents on the Constitution. They are plucked from their context and, in some cases, make the speaker seem to say something quite different from what he meant. Shortly, also, that great authority on agriculture, religion, state-craft and law —Henry Wallace—is coming

the baby’s muscles are unable to do this. It is not necessary to wash the baby’s mouth, or to use stiff instruments in cleaning the ears. The ears may be wiped with swabs of cotton clipped in mineral oil. 1 Any discharge from the ears or the eyes should be called imediately to attention of the doctor. a a a IF the scalp is not properly cleansed, the child may develop a slight irritation, due to oversecretion of the sweat and oil glands. The fat and the oil mix with dirt and form a crust. This crust may be removed with oil. If the head is kept clean, the trouble ends promptly. Special pains should be taken In drying the skin thoroughly where there are folds or creases. Oil may be used on the parts of the body where there may be irritations, and powder may be applied to keep the areas dry. Following are some simple instructions: 1. In washing the baby, pay special attention to creases in the neck, under the arms, at the elbows, between the toes and in the groin. 2. Put the baby in the tub, supporting his head with the left hand, spreading the fingers to support the shoulders. 3. With the baby sitting on the right hand, slide him into the tub gently, feet first. Plunging the baby suddenly into the water will frighten him. 4. Hold the baby so that his head and ears are out of the water. 5. Allow the baby to remain in the tub for two or three minutes after completely rinsing off the soap mixture. 6. Remove the baby from the tub, holding him as you did when immersing him. 7. Wrap in a bath towel and pat thoroughly dry. 8. Oil irritations or creases, and remove excess oil with a soft towel. 9. Powder as desired.

, the knife and fork or leave them on | the plate? A—They should be placed side by j side across the plate. Q—When was the present chief of | staff of the United States Army ap- | {jointed? A—Gen. Malin Craig was appointed chief of staff Oct. 2, 1935. Q—What was the religion of President Woodrow Wilson, and was he a Mason? A—He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was not a Mason. Q —What is the meaning of “consilio et animis*’? A—“By counsel and courage." i

out with a book called, "Whose Constitution?” Regardless of the merit and text of these writings, here are two highly controversial assaults on what has been the common interpretation of the Constitution. They are being launched—one by the party itself, and one by one of its high commanders recently acquired by desertion from the enemy. Regardless of intention, they douse the issue of the Constitution into the campaign to its armpits. It may be said that this is wrong because the Democratic platform will avoid the constitutional issue carefully. That won’t make any difference because, unless it declares a purpose in line with Democratic performance, it will be hard to get anybody to believe the Democratic platform. It won't declare such a purpose. It might better not be written. If it is written, it ought to be a single slogan of high purpose, preferably expressed in Latin so that a few will understand it—like Fiat Luxor in Choctaw so that nobody will understand it. The real platform is, "We’ll do whatever we think is good for you.” These literary effusions were both big blunders. Unless the Old Guard is asleep they will serve to put the Administi ation exactly where it didn't "want to be. FIVE PAST TEN BY JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY On Pennsylvania at Maryland Street, A clock has stopped at five past ten, As if by some strange, mysterious feat All time had ceased to flow since then. Its poor old hands lift high up in the air, As though imploring some strong grace In constant, reverent, humble prayei To come down and adjust its face. I wonder just who its owner can be; Is he dead or did he forget That he owns a clock w r hich many can see Should be gone or else running yet.

SIDE GLANCES

ftiwttyxt* T. M. >t

“I’ve told you time and again not to hang our hotel towels put where all the neighbors can see them ”

MAY 20, 1936

Vagabond from Indiana ERNIE PYLE

EDITOR S NOTE—This roving reporter for The Times joes where he pleases, when he pleases, in search of odd atoriea shout this and that. F'L PASO, Tex., May 20.—The Rev. L. R. Millican wifi be 83 in August. He has been a preacher for 62 years. He is a relic of the wild and woolly West. He calls himself a missionary, but in the Midwest I guess he would be called a circuit rider. He believes he is the only old-time frontier-day circuit rider left. I went out and had a long talk with Mr. Millican. He hasn’t been feeling well lately, and he’s a little deaf. But he gets around. "No, I never had any trouble with anybody,” he says benignly. “Everybody always treated me fine. I never had any trouble with bad men, or Indians, or wild animals.” Mr. Millican is a Texan. He was born on the frontier, grew up as a cowboy, has never lived ar.ywnere but Texas. His grandfather came with Austin in 1821. His father killed Indians, and was himself gravely wounded by Indian arrows. a a a IVTILLICAN was converted at a 1 Methodist camp meeting before he was 21. He heard the call, and jumped on his horse and started liding the great open spaces. He stopped carrying a gun the day he was converted. He has never carried one since, except a few: times when he went with the officers riding into the hills after a bad man. But he has never taken part in a hanging. He has never smoked, or tasted liquor. Next to God and his wife, he loves horses more than anything else. He converted a saloon-keeper once because of their mutual love for horses. In frontier days he rode constantly, establishing churches, holding meetings. Indians stole his horses. He slept in the open. He always carried a hair rope which he circled around him at night, to keep snakes away. He wore out many horses, and many saddle-bags. His saddle-bags were always full of Bibles and religious tracts to give away. Twice he was nearly drowned fording swollen rivers. He wore out buckboards, and many buggies. When autos came, he got an auto, for he felt that the more distance he could cover the greater was his work for God. He has worn out six automobiles. He quit driving just a few years ago, because he couldn't hear cars coming from behind, and they scared him. a a a '■pHERE is a long scar on his A right cheek, a wild horse, rearing and striking in the corral, did that. Another wild horse crushed his chest and broke his ribs. He’s the only preacher who ever personally visited every saloon and gambling hell in El Paso. He went around one day, inviting the boozers and gamblers to come to church. Nobody was nasty to him, he said. And that night such a crowd came to meeting they had to hold it in the opera house. He doesn’t know how many thousands of people he has converted. He had it down in his records, but he lost them several years ago. He and his wife have been married 58 years. They have a nice bungalow here. Their four children are all dead, but they have many grandchildren and great-grandchil-dren. Mr. Millican is planning a trip to St. Louis to the North-South Baptist convention. He has accepted a few stationary church assignments, but most of his 62-year career he has been roamer on the Texas frontier. That’s why he went over to the Baptists; they let him do more as he pleased. Methodists are still his second choice, though, I asked him if he felt the world is more religious now than it used to be. He doesn’t think so. He says the good people are better than they used to be, and the bad people are worse, so that just about squares off. DAILY THOUGHT He that saith, I know Him, and kcepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. —John 1:4. SATAN was the first that practiced falsehood under saintly show.—Milton.

By George Clark