Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 June 1936 — Page 11
by WM PHILIP SIMMS
Batting for Heywood Broun
VV ASHINGTON, June 2.—While the
world struggies vainly to prevent Y%aly’'s annexation of the savage Ethiopian molehill. Nippon is quietly absorbing the Chinese mountain, most ancient of civilizations. Having swallowed the three eastern provinces known as Manchuria, despite treaties, pacts and League covenants, Japan's militarists are now closing ‘in on five more almost as
big, south of the great wall, while the great Western powers
and Geneva pretend not to see. | Bewildered "and helpless, the |
Chinese are afraid to make an
outery as Nipponese troops pour into North China and take over key positions. Nanking is afraid to lift a finger lest the. gesture be used as a pretext for a puni‘tive war followed by annexation. Dismemberment . of China— which the United States preZA 77 vented in 1900 by insisting upon the “open door” and giving the Wit ohlllp world the impression it would fight, if necessary, to maintain it—is now in full swing and the “open door” is closing. Bigger than the United States by 50 per cent in 1900, China today stands shorn of two-thirds of her territory. Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and North China are dominated by Japan, Outer Mongolia by Russia and Tibet by Britain. Chinese Turkestan—Sinkiang—is the scene’ of Soviet-British-Japanese intrigue, and half of what is left of China proper is threatened by native rebels said to be Reds.
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Britain’s Hands Tied APAN, however, has the upper hand. Russia is too occupied watching Hitler's next move to concern herself actively with the. Orient. Britain's hands are tied by Italy and Germany, and France is immersed in her own domestic difficulties and too afraid of what may happen at any moment in the
Rhineland to watch events in the Far East. So the tentacles of Nippon, the modern world's greatest opportunist, are slowly reaching out, tightening about Peiping, Tientsin and Shantung, while Nanking, the Chinese capital, looks on speechless and helpless like one in the grip of a nightmare. The streets of old Peiping echo to the tramp of what amounts to an incoming army of occupation. Other Japanese forces are landing from transports down the river from Tientsin and northward at Shanhaikuan. Sullenly the Chinese masses look on while heavily armed Chinese policemen stand by to prevent the educated few giving vent to ‘their indignation. A single overt move on the part of the natives, officials fear, may bring down Nippon's heavy hand upon hapless. Cathay.
” ” » Pitiful Page in History
N explosion near a railway bridge and an alleged attempt to wreck a Japanese troop train were quickly disavowed by the North China officials. Seldom has a more pitiful page of history been penned than that now being written by Japanese bayonets in China. More than 400,000,000 peace-loving people stand cowed by a handful of armed invaders, while a world pledged to go to their rescue stands by, its back turned, bewailing the fate of a comparatively few primitives in Africa. In 1931, at the time of the invasion of Manchuria, the Chinese protested to Geneva and the United States. She received no effective assistance. Today the picture has changed. Japan has warned China to make no outcry—to make no more protests to the League or to America if she kriows what's good for her. Thus a thoroughly frightened China is keeping mum while the burglar makes his way from room to room through her house. Japan is doing to North China what she did to Manchuria and Jehol: Only her tactics are different. She is avoiding the rough stuff as far as possible, but the result, apparently, is the same. China is being swallowed.
Straw Votes Need Careful Scrutiny
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER ASHINGTON, June 2—From now until election day you will see a good many straw votes which will show Roosevelt winning or losing. Such figures should be swallowed only after careful examination. By all means keep them out of the hands -of children. A straw vote, provided its biased source can be concealed, is regarded as one of the most effective types of propaganda. Some of the polls you will see in the next six months will be of mysterious origin. Certain groups here have had propositions made to them whereby polls, favorable to their views, could be undertaken. Unless you know the sponsorship of a poll and have confidence in its honesty, the figures might as well be ignored. Even honest polls are not necessarily reliable guides. In 1932, the Hoover people took a poll of persons listed in “Who's Who,” Of course, it showed a preponderance for Hoover, But nobody who knows anything about . politics regarded the poll as indicative. The reason was obvious. “Who's Who” did not in any sense represent a cross-section of American voters. The first question to ask about any poll is—does it represent an accurate cross-section? Whenever you receive a straw ballot, you find a place in one corner to note how you voted in 1932. The purpose of that is to check up on the cross-section. ‘ In 1932, Roosevelt received 59.1 per cent of the vote. Unless a poll shows that 59.1 per cent of those participating voted for Roosevelt four years ago, it is not an accurate cross-section and the gross results must be adjusted to that margin of difference. 2 = ” ECENTLY a private poll was taken, undoubtedly with impartial intentions. The results have been circulated among prominent Republicans and business men. The figures carried considerable comfort to these groups. ;
They showed Roosevelt with a preference of
46.40 per cent, the Republicans with 51.13 per cent and the remainder scattered. The result showed a shift from Roosevelt of 5.8 per cent since 1932. This shift was calculated from the fact that of those voting in the poll, 52.26 per cent voted for Roose_velt in 1932, whereas he received a vote of only 46.40 per cent: in the straw vote. But the catch in the figures lies in the cross section. Roosevelt in 1932 received 59.1 per cent of the vote. But only 52.26 per cent of this turned up in the cross-section. So that the shift of 5.8 per cent away from Roosevelt should be applied to the 59.1 per cent vote he received in 1932. This leaves him now with a strength of 53.3 per cent. Sooner or later somebody will leak on the results of this private poll and the headlines will say Roosevelt polls only 46.40 per cent, which will be true but misleading. They didn’t get the relief workers and the underdog vote into the canvass for their proportionate weight. The appalling thing about the record of the Supreme Court in the past term is not merely that it [has crushed numerous attempts to improve economic and social conditions but that in doing aw al ine of precedents which will uture. Each of these A precedents now These Supreme Court laws can not be
by ‘majority vote constitutional t—requiring a
amendmen vote three-fourths of the states.
of
fa Pumibosks sy ve ive under Wajority
vote. They:can only be repealed by |
¢
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1936
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SMOKING OUT THE CANDIDATES Composite Candidate’ Supplies Timber Jor: Republican Planks
In this, eighth of a series, “Smoking Out the Candidates,” written by Frazier Hunt, famous reporter, for NEA Service and The Indianapolis Times, Mr. Hunt sums up the views of the Composite Republican candidate as indicated by seven candidates’ replies to 10 questions
on vital issues.
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BY FRAZIER HUNT
«Copyright,
1936, NEA Service,
Inc.)
OW about the Composite Republican candidate for
the presidency?
Roll Landon, Vandenberg, Dickinson, Borah, Steiwer, Wadsworth and Knox thto one heroic mass and then recast into a single human figure and what sort of a man do we
have? tall.
To start with, he’s a trifle over five feet 10 inches He weighs 158 pounds, and he is
58 years old. That last conclusion takes into account the fact that Landon is 48, Vandenberg and Keynoter Steiwer 52, Dark Horse wadsworth 58, Knox and Dickinson 62, and Borah, the Old Lion of the Senate, a ripe and
wise 172.
With Dickinson's great shock of snow white hair making up for Wadsworth’s partial baldness, our Composite Candidate has a fair stand of
greyirg hair. He is
three-sevenths lawyer,
two-sevenths
newspaper publisher, one-seventh oil man, and
one-seventh farmer. candidate hails from somewhere around the
Nebraska country.
Frazier Hunt
Geographically this mythical
Only the part represented
by Knox, Vandenberg and Wadsworth come from east of the Missis-
sippi—and Knox some 200 miles.
and Vandenberg only miss the Father of Waters by Ordinarily this would indicate that our Composite
Candidate’s running-mate would be an Eastern man. Of the seven component parts of our historic figure, only four are
out-and-out candidates. is a formal candidate, but none of the three would dodge if the nomination were td¥sed in his lap. Now as to the political beliefs of this imaginary standard bearer of the Republican forces. In a broad way they probably anticipate more or less accurately the outlines of the party platform that will be adopted at Cleveland next week. It is this that gives them a double importance. The ten questions that each of these leaders has answered cover rather thoroughly the important political issues that will be presented during this campaign. And while none of these men will actually be on the platform committee, their views certainly represent the Republican attitude toward the various aspects of the New Deal and the Roosevelt administration. Here, then, in black type, are the composite views of the Composite Republican Candidate, as nearly as the answers can be reduced to one or two sentences. Following the composite replies, which are numbered to conform with my now familiar questions, I have, in some instances, explained in a little more detail the percentage of divergent views making up the composite answer. “Here is what the ‘Composite Candidate says: : n n ”
BALANCE the budget as soon as possible by reducing expenses, including relief expendi-
tures. 3 RELIEF should be administered by the states and local communities, but should be paid for partly by the Federal government. The form of relief is uncertain. The Composite Candidate is a little undecided as to the exact form this relief should take—direct cash payment, or by distribution of goods or by wages. The one-seventh of this mythical candidate that is the flesh and. blood of Senator Borah, would leave this problem to the various needs and demands of local communities. Col. Knox and Dark ‘Horse Wadsworth would in one stroke do
” u a
Neither Vandenberg, Steiwer nor Wadsworth
away with everything but direct cash payments. Senator Dickinson’s idea, however, is for relief “in the form of the proper necessities of life to provide sustenance.”
2 " ”
THERE should be old age pensions administered by the state, but paid for partly by the Federal government. Our Composite Candidate is a little hazy on solving the problem of permanent unemployment, but he comes out strongly for old age pensions, administered by the states and paid for jointly by the states and the Federal government—although. Wadsworth believes that it is exclusively a state affair. ” 8 ” THERE should be no inflation of any kind. The dollar should be stabilized as quickly as possible—probably at the present gold content. There is unanimity in the opposition to inflation of any kind. Broadly speaking, this imaginative figure of ours believes in stabilizing the dollar as .quickly as it is possible—and there is some demand that it be done at the present gold content. = 8 8 = THERE should be no program to control or fix wages, but working hours and the work week may be regulated. The important question involving these issues left our Composite Candidate slightly dizzy and bewildered. Borah’s share in this figure of uncertain destiny demands only a shorter work week. Vandenberg and Landon, for their part, come out for minimum wage laws, child protection and collective bargaining.
2 2 2
THERE should be no amendment to the Constitution, nor should the rights of the courts to pass on laws be changed.
On the proposition of amending the Constitution to give Congress the right to deal with national economic and social problems there is a hurried thumbs-
LET'S EXPLORE
BY DR.
ALBERT ' EDWARD WIGGAM
YOUR MIND
00 WOMEN WANE NORE
THAN MEN? NES ORNO cee 2
wi”
opi
ION AND EDUCATION?
ochre 2 5
GENUINELY cultivated people are not; uncultivated people are. The thing that interests one in his fellow men is the badge of his
real culture—his urbanity, gentility and tolerance, his mental and emo-
oil gi 1ER 10 BUILD (ne
oy WEHN INTELLIGENT OR IN THOSE OF AVERASE OR NTELIGENCED YOUR ANSWER
all rules were “busted.” Women wear clothes—or don’t wear them — in public that would shame a man into suicide. Far more women than men are willing to bear the public criticism of getting a divorce. :
WHAT IS A man of fine chdr-
THE COMPOSITE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE...
as the camera-
man produces his likeness by photographing, on a single negative, portraits of Vandenberg, Borah, Knox, Steiwer, Landon, Wadsworth and
Dickinson.
retary of Agriculture Wallace.
down all the way around. Likewise there is no opposition to protecting the Supreme Court against any or all attacks. In fact, it might be said that the theme song of our Composite Republican Candidate is “The Supreme Court Forever!” ” ” ” THE ANTI - TRUST laws should be strengthened. There is some sentiment to per-
mit business men to get together on trade practices and labor relations.
Although, broadly speaking, the Composite: Candidate is opposed to the modification or suspension of the anti-trust laws—except to make them stronger and more effective, Keynoter Steiwer favors sufficient modification to permit
‘business men to get together on i control of trade practices and
labor relations—subject to ample Federal regulation to protect the public interests. = = ” - THERE should be ne reduction of production. The farmers should be helped, but there is vagueness on just how this can be done. - Up to this point, our Composite Candidate suffered little from the divergent forces struggling to master his soul. But when he gets to a remedy for the farmer his head begins to ache and suddenly the world becomes gray and uphappy. The two-sevenths of his cor-
. porate body represented by Lan-
don and Knox, turn to the Lowden theory of farm help. Each of the other five-sevenths has more or less divergent views —but generally follows the belief that the ultimate solution does not follow reduction of production and the idea of an economy of scarcity.
J ” ” ” THE RIGHT to make trade treaties and agreements should be returned to Congress. Happy though our straw figure is over the absence of dispute an the question of returning all trade treaty powers to the Congress, there is a serious internal struggle over the problem of a reduction in tariffs and the present technique of making reciprocal trade treaties.
n on ” 1 THE GOVERNMENT should : mix a§ little as possible in public power development, but should have some control over the operation and management of public utilities. To our Composite Candidate, the—question of public power development, extension of TVA and the control of public utilities is
decidedly a hot potato. Probably -
Col. Knox contributed what might be taken as a generally accepted middle-of-the-road solution—one that may become a Cleveland compromise—when he said, “I -do not believe in a policy of public power development, save, only, in the case where that is incident to the promotion of navigation In navigable streams.” Next week at Cleveland our Composite. Candidate beconies a man of reality. There and then, he will plead his own case and unfurl his own banners.
Norman Thomas, answers the
Tomorrow: Socialist nominee, same ten questions.
Washington Merry-Go-Round
BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN
ASHINGTON, June 2. — Chester Davis, : diminutive, nervous, cigaret-smoking -admin-
re I. the Anis £ =
cultural picture. 0 He is accepting $50,000 a ‘year with Sears, Roebuck, chief sellers of mail order goods to farmers. Davis’ knowledge of farm problems and his prestige with: the farmers, Sears, Roebuck thinks, is worth that salary. Behind all this is ‘one of the most paradoxical hidden by-plays in the New Deal. Chester Davis, when he joined the AAA, was not an imposing figure. He was an assistant to George Peek, then chief administrator. But Gen. William I. Westervelt,
‘ex-Army officer, soon cropped up
as the real executive. He pretty much ran Peek and the whole show. Davis was very much on the side-lines. 2 nn BOUT that time, Jerome Frank, AAA legal counsel, Gardner Jackson of the Consumers Division, and other liberals put their heads together to help
Davis. They felt that Gen. West-
ervelt was easing him ‘completely out of the picture. But Westervelt soon joined Sears, Roebuck; George Peek resigned, and little Chester Davis
proved capable of taking care of
himself. He Stephed up and up, finally became No. 1 man in the AAA. And the minute he stepped into real power, Chester fired Jerome Frank, Gardner Jackson, and other liberals who had once tried to help him. This purge of
"AAA was the first incident to get
Chester Davis in wrong with Sec-
Wallace remarked to close friends at the time: “Davis and Tugwell don’t mix. They can’t get along together permanently. All I want to do is to keep them both working together long enough to tide things over.” = ” ” HE end of that. period came last winter, upon passage of the new AAA bill. After that,
Wallace went to the White House
and asked for ® Chester Davis’ scalp. . He argued that Davis was too close to the meat -packers, flour millers and other big Processors. Chester was sent abroad to give him a breathing spell. Simul-
taneously, Gen. Westervelt, once
considered the enemy of Davis, came to his rescue. He offered a $50,000 salary with Sears, Roebuck. Mrs. Davis fell all over herself
Supreme Court is going to throw it out as unconstitutional.” “Some parts of it, yes, Landon, “hut other “I“stitutionat-a and must ke kept.” They argued, but got nowhere.. " “The system of Federal grants to co-operating states is sound,” Landon insisted, “and we might as well come out for it openly.” He showed a surprising acquaintance with the details of the Social Security Act, also a genuine interest in the head of the Social Security Board, John G. Winant, former Republican Governor of New Hampshire. “What do you think Winant will do in this campaign?” Landon asked.
* said
Easterner replied. “I don’t,” said Landon. “I think he’ll be out in the field and batting strong.” The G. O. P. group came away feeling Landon, if nominated, might favor Winant as a vice presidential running mate. Note—Chief weakness of such a team is that neither is an effective public speaker.
” » 2 : T= Merry-Go-Round recently published an account of the social and economic views of ‘Prof. Thomas Nixon Carver, oldest member of the Republican Brain
‘artificial control of population and a semi-Fascist program for the United States. Some readers have inferred that
r parts are con--
“1 think hell go fishing,” the :
Trust, in which he favored the.
Prof. Carver's program had been or was to be definitely adopted by the Republican National Committee. . This is not the case. : ressed in
Prof, Carvi IS, the ALLE W ublished more than a year before he came into political prominence, also are held in part by some other members of the Republican Brain Trust, but they ‘have not been adopted by the Republican Party. The Merry-Go-Round is glad to correct any misleading inference which might have been drawn from its previous account: 1 ” ” : ” « . HERE is no love lost between Chairman. John G. Winant: and another member of the Social Security Board, Vincent M. Miles. A politically minded Democrat, Miles complains against the - “jdealism” and the “high-handed methods” of Republican Winant. . Lefty Champ Clark, 14-year-old pitcher and son of Senator Bennett Champ Clark of Missouri, pitched his school team to victory in the final game of the season, scoge 11 to 7. ... The hat of Congressman Fred Cummings of Colorado, resting in the rack in the House lobby, has a toothpick stuck in the hat band to warn other members it is not theirs. . . . Washington Weather Bureau gets dispatches from the field in a code that reads like gibberish. Here's one indicating disturbances in southern waters: “Miami annoy gullish fenowed moral catsup.”
(Copyright, 1936, by _ United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
THIS CORIOLIS
EXPORTS ABOUT S500,000 SNAKE Bins ANNUALLY, OR. MAKING LADIES’
HAS A . EINGER” ON THE END OF HIS TRUNK.
WORLD + + Ta William Ferguson!
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.
Fair Lough] WESTBROGK PEGLER
VV ASHINGTON, June 2.—] have been - yy oe around Washington for the better part of a week trying to jimmy my way into Alcatraz Prison, but I am leaving without waiting to see how the dice fall, because I am sure I felt an ace-deuce when I flung them against the board. It was my argue
ment that they ought to ballyhoo. the punishment
as well as the crimes and the capture of famous tough guys, and I pointed out that the Army and the Navy both make use of the papers, the radio and the movies to exploit the attractions of the armed services. But they had heard that one before, and Henry Suydam, the press agent of the Department of Justice, gave me a peculiar look and said, “I don’t suppose you are thinking of cutting yourself a slice of cake, are you?” Then he pointed to a stack of letters as tall as a fireman's boot over in the corner of the room and said my application would be placed on the file. I am a rotten salesman anyway. The first time I applied for a job I said to the druggist, “You don't happen to want an errand boy, do you?” and he said, “No.” Henry said he would talk it over with Homer Cummings and Sanford Bates, the head man of the prison department, and let me know in the morning, but I have heard that one before mysclf. I think Bates is afraid that if the public ever learns how hard he makes it for Al Capone, Bailey, Kelly, Karpis and the rest of the boys on the island off San Francisco, there will be a howl from the let-’em-eat-cake division of the prison reform element about unnecessary brutality, tending to crush the finer instincts of the inmates and sending them .out into the world embittered against society.
Westbrook Pegler
\ 2 s ” Monotony of Prison Life
HERE may be something to that, but 1 still think it would be a helpiul thing to let the bad kids of the country know all about the monotony and rigid discipline, the lonesomeness and the smells which constitute the life of the captured hoodlums, year after deadly year. And, as Henry suggests, it would be a good piece for the papers. Before I left the department I called at Edgar Hoover’s office and was shown through his big plant
—a tour obviously formulated to impress people with the all-seeing quality of the eye that never sleeps,
which put me in mind of a visit to a model dairy. or a Ford plant. They have a museum of captured guns of many kinds, and the clear-eyed, clean-limbed, lean-jawed Young King Brady who took me around amused me with some tricks of fingerprint transference and identification. They dust the fingerprint with some sort of powder, then press down with a strip of adhesive, like court-plaster, which transfers the print to the sticky surface. Then they press that upon sensitized paper, which they smear with some goo, and this gives them an indelible print to go by. It is a good show that they put on, though slightly World’s Fair, and I came away impressed by their record in catching kidnapers or blowing them
. through, but wondering how long it will be before
Hoover succumbs to the temptation to quit his $10,000-a-year government job to go out to get his.
lu Mr. Hoover “All Showman” 3
E is all showman and apparently quite vain, for he is always appearing in public places to take his bows, and he can’t pass a pine table and a water pitcher without jamming one hand into the breast of his coat, clearing his throat and beginning, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today ‘t0 consider the growing menace of crime, which is -a festering vulture on the sacred well springs of
our great democracy.”
I am calling the other young man Young King Brady because I didn’t catch nis name and because I gather that Mr. Hoover doesn’t like his men to receive any publicity. He thinks it is bad for them but .good for him, and only recently he left a fight in the Washington ball park on a sudden call to fly down to New Orleans for ths Karpis arrest, thus smothering the field agents on the job who probably didn’t need any master mind to assist them in the dramatic completion of a task which they had care ried up to the climax on their own. They made a mystery of the retirement from the service of Melvin Purvis, of the Chicago bureau, the man who surrounded Dillinger, and shelled him to death that night, but .the presumption here is that he broke into print too often and too large: So that is the story of how I didn’t go to Alcatraz. It was only a long shot, anyway.
New Books
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—
HE STARS LOOK DOWN (Little, Brown & Co.; $2.50), by A. J. Cronin, is not a pleasant 000K, for the story it has to tell is not a happy one. . It begins in 1903, in the coal mining country of north England. David Fenwick, a young miner, and Arthur Barras, son of the owner, are both profoundly affected by the misery of an unsuccessful strike and the tragedy of a subsequent mine disaster. Both set out to improve the lot of the miners. At the end, 30 years later, the stars look down upon the same grim scene of want and insecurity. Arthur's idealistic schemes have failed, the Labor Party has come into power only to betray the miners, David has won and lost a seat in Parliament andds returning to the pits, and Joe Gowlan, the pit-boy, has raised himself by other people's bootstraps to a position of power and affluence. This is not, however. solely a story “of the mines. Dr. Cronin writes of human relations made difficult by pride and ambition, greed and tyranny.
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ORN the son of a freedman and apprenticed to a blacksmith, he lived to become at the age of 70 the first president of the Czechoslovakian republic. This is not a belated tale from the pen of Horatio Alger, but the story of Thomas G. Masaryk as told by Emil Ludwig in DEFENDER OF DEMOCRACY (McBride; $3)... Mr. Ludwig spent many hours in _ conversation with this ve ble statesman, and nov “he reports the conversa to us. At ho.ae both in the world of action and t of ideas, Mararyk talka of Goethe. will and providence, sucide, r<volution, liberty and religion, with the mind of a philosopher and the stout common sense of a peasant. * From. these pages e the unpretentious, sturdy figure of a man of in ty, an anti-revolu-tionary who from a sense of duty became the leader of a revolution, a pacifist who organized an army of the Czech prisoners of war in Siberia.
RH Ld =
MERICA wities Frank K. Kent in WITHOUT