Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 June 1936 — Page 16

The Indianapolis Times (A BCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROY W. HOWARD . « oo soe oss sso + President

LUDWELL DENNY . . cco sss . . Editor EARL D.BAKER . ... s+ +o +. Business Manager

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TUESDAY. JUNE 16, 1936.

‘ve Light and the People Will Find

Their Own Way Phone RI ley 5551

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; DROUGHT IN INDIANA r HE current drought in Indiana emphasizes the need for soil conservation which President ~ Roosevelt pointed out Sunday in his speech dedicating the $2,500,000 George Rogers Clark Memorial at - Vincennes. Crops are suffering. Rivers and streams are jow. Counties in the northwest, southeast and along the Ohio River need rain. The old policy of cutting the forests and depleting the soil is taking its toll. * Rainfall doesn't stay where it is needed. It runs off down the rivers, carrying away rich topsoil, aggravating the flood problem. » . The President, fresh from a trip through the ‘Midwest and Southwest, tried to visualize for his 5,000 listeners the richness of this vast area during the time of Clark and his men, Plainly, the pioneers. and farmers of that time did not see the dangers ahead. ” » » “W HO, even among the second and third generation of the settlers of this virgin land gave heed to the future results that attended the cutting of the timber which denuded the greater part of the watersheds?” the President asked. “Who among them gave thought to the tragic extermination of the wild life which formed the principal article of food of the pioneers? “Who among them had ever heard the term ‘submarginal land’ or worried about what would happen when the original soil played out or ran off to the ocean? “Who among them visualized the day when the sun would be darkened as far east as the waters of the Atlantic by great clouds of top soil borne by the wind from what has been grassy and apparently imperishable prairies? “Because man did not have our knowledge in those older days, we have wounded nature and nature has taken offense. It is the task of the living to restore to nature many of the riches we have taken from her. “George Rogers Clark did battle against the tomahawk and the rifle, He saved for us the fair

land that lay between the mountains and the. Father

of Waters. His task is not done. ‘ “May the Americans who, a century and ‘a half from now, celebrate at this spot the three hundredth anniversary of the heroism of Clark and his men,

think kindly of us for the part we are taking today in

preserving the nation.”

8 ” " HE knowledge of which President Roosevelt . speaks now is being used in Indiaria. Owners of nearly 600 Hoosier farms, with a total of 82,000 acres, are participating in proper land use methods,

according to W. L. Baynes, acting co-ordinator of id. (4

the Soil Conservation Service.

Fifty farms are demonstrating soil saving and ,

building practice on the Leatherwood Creek project. Another 545 farmers are co-operating with the Indiana soil conservation CCC camps to control erosion on their land. Strip-cropping, contour cultivation, correct crop rotation, timber improvement and other approved ‘methods are being used. The 1936

- plans call for planting of six million trees in the :

Leatherwood Creek area.

Frederick McCormick, a Hoosier, returned to In- -

dianapolis recently after 30 years in. China and the Far East to find “my Indiana dreamland in a state of demolition.” Ini one generation, he said, Indiana has depleted its natural resources faster than China did in cen-

turies. He warned of famine and floods in future

years if deforestation and erosion are not halted. The loss already is tremendous, but the knowledge is ours to check the sacking of the natural resources of America and to avoid conditions experienced in Asia. That knowledge must be used. :

PLAYGROUNDS OPEN UPERVISED playgrouhds, opened this week throughout the city, will give Indianapolis children some of the best and safest play facilities they've ever had.

Thirty-eight city-supervised play centers will

be kept open through the summer under the direction of H. W. Middlesworth, city recreational director. A new playground has been added in Little Eagle Creck Park on the West Side. Thirty-two ad- _ ditional play sites in the city and 12 in the county ~ will be supervised by the recreation department of ‘she Marioh County Works Progress Administration, supplementing the regular facilities. : If parents co-operate in getting children to and from these sites, there should be less dangerous * playing in the streets this summer and more whole“some fun for all under proper supervision.

WHO WON THE WAR? 'ORLD WAR veterans see better times, and ¥ business expects a mild boom as a result of the payment today of $50,730,624 in bonus bonds to $3,780 Indiana veterans, ro The 13,385. Marion County veterans receive $6,957,505 of this total, or about one-third more than any other Indiana county. The next largest amount, $4,301,423, goes to Lake County veterans, according to the Indiana Department of the American Legion, : Veterans of six other counties—Allen, Delaware, ;, Madison, St. Joseph and Vigo—receive more

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‘benefit of statute.

WHEN INCOME VANISHES you buy property, real or intangible, and sell it years later for more than you paid for it, our government. considers that gain as part of your income in the year the sale is made, and taxes you accordingly. !

In ‘Great Britain such a capital gain is not con

sidered as income, and is not taxable, : In the boom twenties, we Americans on the whole

were rather confident that ours was the better sys

tem. Taxable net gains reported in individual income tax returns mounted from a total of 178 millions in 1926 to a total of more than 2300 millions in 1929. It was a lot of taxable income. But beginning with the depression thirties, we began to see something of the other side of the "picture. Capital gains shrank from 2300 millions in 1929 to 50 millions in 1932. Meanwhile, capital losses, deducted from taxable income, rgse from 171 millions in 1928 to 1160 mililons in 1931. Thus, roughly speaking, taxable income shrank 3000 millions, due to the combination of the depression and the capital gains and loss provisions of our tax laws. Small wonder the government’s revenue from individual income taxes dropped off from 1000 millions in .1929 to 246 millions in 1931 and 329 millions in 1932. To check revenue shrinkage and to encourage a healthy turnover of investments, which the old gains and loss provision had discouraged, Congress modified the law extensively in 1934. But the modification was a compromise, and some tax authorities contend the law still induces investors to hold on while the market is rising and to unload when the market is falling. Others say it is a subsidy to speculation, Stability of government revenue, stability of investments, and taxation based on ability to pay are All desirable ends. The question of capital gains and loss taxation is one which should be. studied through, with the view of formulating a policy that will promote those ends. Like the question of taxexempt securities, this, too, is a complex problem, the solution for which. can not be pulled out of a hat. Congress can not know what to do about these or many other seeming tax anachronisms until it fortifies itself with a study of facts concerning our whole Federal tax structure. The logical way to do this is through the creation of a joint "SenateHouse tax revision committee, to begi® work on the adjournment of this session, to keep working through the recess months, and to report. to the next Congress.

IS LIBERTY SO CHEAP?

HE long-awaited La Follette plan for a Senate investigation into free speech violations and “undue irferference with the rights of labor to organize and bargain collectively” has come into being considerably handicapped. The sum of $15,000 authorized for expenses is pitifully inadequate. Personal liberties of free Americans, as spelled out in the Bill of Rights and subsequent laws, are being trampled by patrioteering groups, terrorists gangs and suppressionists of industry to an alarming degree. Teachers’ oaths; red-baiting snoopery in the schools and colleges; racial and labor persecutions; such shameful doings as the Black Legion ritual beatings and killings—these and other manifestations indicate the need for a thorough airing of incipient fascism in this country. America has nothing so precious to guard and cherish as its traditions of civic liberties. These rights were bought with blood and treasure through years of struggle. Why does Congress spend millions to protect American soil and property and vote only $15,000 to protect that without which America would not be America? Do we hold liberty that cheap? ; : In spite of this handicap the Senate Lakor and Education Committee can do a great and serviceable work, provided Senator La Follette heads the investigation. “Young Bob,” like his father before him, has a way of overcoming difficulties.

GASOLINE AND RUM!

T has often been remarked that gasoline and rum make a poor mixture, but until now the authorities have failed to prevent a deadly concocting of the two by drunken auto drivers. Several cities have hit upon the novel expedient of making it illegal for filling stations to sell gasoline to intoxicated drivers. Olympia, Wash. (the state

that sent Mr. Zioncheck to Congress), was the first

to pass an ordinance punishing any filling station attendant who sells gasoline to drunks. Canton, O., and Raleigh, N. C., have followed suit. This method puts responsibility on to filling station operatives instead of the police. In a Colorado city, the same ends are being accomplished without There, when a drunken driver pulls up to a station for gas the attendant, by agreement with the city officials, calls the police and the would-be joy rider takes a different kind of ride. This method may succeed where others have failed. A full autoist isn’t so dangerous when he has an empty gasoline tank.

A WOMAN'S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson HAT to do with the college graduate is only - half the problem confronting the family at this time of the year. There also'is the matter of keeping the under-graduate out of mischief for three months—no small job let me tell you.

Mr. and Mrs. Average American are on the verge

of desperation as they tackle it, and while vacations are contemplated with joy by the kids, the parents regard them with less enthusiasm. Most of us begin to wear a wild expression about the middle of May as we think about it. There's Jim, the high school half back, who probably will wreck the automobile tires and bust the bank account buying gasoline as he dashes over to Ed's and Bob's or takes Peggy out for a ride. What shall we do with Helen, the gay 18-year-old gadabout who will park herself half the afternoon in front of the drug store and drink enough cokes to ruin & cast iron digestion? How about Herbert, turned 8, who howls to spend

his afternoons at the movies because he's bored

with existence? The outlook is not pleasant for Dad and Mother,

who would like to maintain discipline of a sort, |

but know it will require ingenuity, pluck and dogged

| ever. .

‘slot rolled down the sloping tube

“addressing any question of fact er in-

. Our Town : By axFoN SCHERRER

GENTLEMAN, who probably has some money up on a bet, went to all the trouble the other day to write in and ask whether the mule cars ever got beyond State-av. Of course, they did. They got all the way to Irvington. I know because George 8. Cottman once wrote a piece entitled, “A Hoosier Arcadia,” nteaning Irvirgton, of course, and it was all about the mule cars out there. I don’t believe he missed a thing because what he forgot at the time of writing got in eventually by way of foot-notes, thus leaving nothing for anybody

else to say. Anyway, it would be;

foolish to carry owls into Athens,

Mr. Cottman’s story begins with Jacob Julian's now historical reference to Irvington’s “Singular accessibility.” Mr. Julian, with the help of Sylvester Johnson, laid out Irvington in 1868 and it was his literary way of saying that two railroads ran through the place.

The mule cars came with the coming of the college sometime around 1876. They began petering out sometime after Mayor Denny issued his famous proclamation in 1888 declaring the continuation of mule power “cruel and disgraceful.”

2 8 nN HE first way of getting to Irvington on a mule car was by way of English-av. The car, says Mr. Cottman, “sneaked through an cbscure section of the city until it found English-av. Along this roadway it took a straight shoot to a point on the eastern, horizon; thence three or four miles, more or less, to’ a point south of A Butler College, where it dodged around a corner of the campus to make its way slaunchwise through a weed-grown common till it found an Irvington street. It came back the same way. In the course of time, the “backdoor” route was changed to a more direct one by way of Washingtonst, crossing State-av, of course, and cutting off a lot of mileage. The fare remained the same, how-

The mules used in Indianapolis at the time were of one breed, even if they differed in temperaments. To hear Mr. Cottman tell it, they were “attenuated mules equipped with little whisk-broom tails and long waving ears.” Mr. Cottman can't account for the ears,” but he has a theory concerning their tails. He thinks they served the same purpose as a crank on an automobile, because they set up the same | rotary motion when it was time to go, “generating sundry groans and internal rumblings .as the little beasts strained at the collars.” Mr. Cottman leaves no doubt as. to where Mr. Ford got his idea for the model T. Indeed, he comes: righ out and says so. :

s ” 8 HE cars, according to Mr, Cottman, were of the ‘‘dinky” or “hobtailed” variety with a rear oms-nibus-like ‘step instead of a plat form. It took a pair of mules to pull a car and a crew of one to operate it. The street car people are still of the same opinion. The crew of one had as much to do then as it has now even if it did look easier. It looked easier because of the funny collection system then in use. Every car was provided with slots and a long tube running down either side. A nickel dropped in a

and. landed eventually in a glass box next to the driver. If it didn’t the driver stopped the mules to find out why. The fares to Irvington were paid in two installments, when | you-got on and at a point halfway out, and that complicated the system some more. : ‘Sometime in the nineties, the street car people brought a big storage battery from New York and tried it out on the Irvington line. Some optimist christened it “Jumbo.” but it didn’t meet the expectation of the publicity. oo After which, Irvington got a real for-sure electric system. It was a great improvement, but it left the strap-hanger problem just where it was in the old mule days. i

sk The Times

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: ; . The Hoosier Forum = I 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

withheld on reauest.) 8 #8

AIRPLANE TRANSPORTATION AIDS ALASKAN GROWTH By U. 8.

: LASKAN officials, in an effort S to secure additional airmail and passenger service for - the territory, recently produced some interesting facts about the new role of airplanes in. territorial development. ; : In 1929, for instance, Alaska had only eight planes. These carried 2171 passengers, flew 33,000 plane miles, and carried 118,000 pounds of freight and express. - Last year, however, there were 75 planes in service, which flew 1,600,000 plane miles and carried 13,000 passengers and 1,700,000 pounds of freight and express. : ; Given these facts, Alaskan officials insist aviation is due to develop the territory scores of years faster than the old-time railroad, steamer, and dog-sled means of transit. That is. vital news for Alaska, the United States and the aviation industry. . a AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERS OFFER SAFETY PLAN By H. N.. : : The Society of Automotive Engineers, having had a great deal to do with the kind of motor cars we drive today, ‘now - comes forward with an interesting six-point program designed to make it safe to operate these vehicles, The engineers would require 8 uniform and universal license law, based on physical and mental tests; enforcement methods that would identify the accident repeater and the habitual offender; uniform and compulsory periodic inspection of vehicles; uniform national traffic signs and signals; uniform

Your Health

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

N the second year, the child’s diet still should consist chiefly of milk, cereals, vegetables, fruit juices or cooked fruit, some meat and some eggs. A suitable diet for the 29-year-old will be about as follows: 7 to 8 A. M.—Cooked cereal, 3 to 6 tablespoonfuls, with milk and a little sugar; milk, 6 to 8 ounces; dry bread, toast, zwieback or crackers, plain or lightly buttered. 10 A. M—Juice of an orange. (This may be given with one of the meals instead.) 12 to 1 P. M.—Meat broth, vegetable soup, ground meat or egg;

spaghetti, rice or 7; green vegetable; peas, beans, beets, spinach, asparagus, onions, carrots, squash, etc. (mashed or strained); cooked fruit or banana; dried bread, zwieback or milk or a er

must be signed. but names will be

white vegetable; potato, macaroni, |

toast, lightly buttered. | cracker may

standards for headlights, reflectors, identification, etc.; and finally, adequate highway lighting. At a time when the movement for the safe use of motor vehicles is sweeping the country, this six-point program ought to prove important as a working basis for whatever reforms are brought about in driving. 2 ” ” : SCHOOL SYSTEM WRONG, EDUCATOR CONTENDS By N. W.. : If you ask Dr. William E. Grady, associate superintendent of New York City schools, the whole plan of modern education is wrong. Accordingly, Dr. Grady thinks it's high time to make a few pertinent revisions. “I don’t think the educational pattern we have set up meets the needs of the situation today,” he declared recently. “We've kept our children in school, but on the wrong diet. i “Nine out of 10 students want to

enter the learned professions. If they can not have that, they want to

be in the white-collar group, and we.

have the tragedy of excess. We are going to have to introduce more .vocational - activities and® re-establish the dignity of labor.”’s JE Dr. Grady’s suggestion seems entirely sound. The saturation point in the white-collar and professional groups has just about been reached.

t # ”n OIL MAN SHOWS HOW FEAR CAN BE LICKED By: Hugh S. Johnson, Tulsa, Okla. I had a talk recently with Waite Phillips. Waite is one of the hig shots in this man’s oil country. Waite came to this country without a cent 30 years ago. He climbed because he had horse sense and his share of luck. - A hard-shell Republican by inheritance, his brains burst that coccoon sufficiently for him to recognize that the whole world has

broken its ancient ‘moorings and is

drifting in new currents. He thinks the part of wisdom is to try to guide the irresistible course of change. not self-destruction: by trying to prevent it. ll : Surrounded in his circle by almost unanimous Tory reactionaries, he kids them unmereifully about insuring an election mandate for just what they don’t want, by standing out for a _ hard-boiled Republican

SIDE GLANCES

1 ties.

-|'are hot required, and many liti-

platform that sets forth just what |

a vast majority of voters don't want. He thinks that the objectives of the New Deal were about right— that the methods of reaching them were wrong, but that they are being corrected and will eventually swing into line. He doesn’t see disaster just around any corner. The striking thought he gave me was this: These Tory tactics will elect Roosevelt. The attendant ca-lamity-howling may scare business into a stand-still. You can't have recovery in an atmosphere of jitters. But when the hullabaloo of the election is over, these boys have sense enough to see that they have to live under established conditions. They will go back to their jobs— which, ‘after all, is profits, not. poliThen the underlying conditions favoring a real business advance will have a chance to work.

” ” ” RUSSIAN COURT SYSTEM DRAWS PRAISE By H.'L. 0. 2 ; ‘Some interesting observations have been reported by a group of English and American law students now studying the Russian court. system with a view to simplifying our own legal procedure. . The Soviet legal machinery, it appears, is distinguished for its brevity and directness. Judges, and not the lawyers, conduct the trials; and precedents just don’t count. Lawyers

gants conduct their own cases even in the higher courts. There are no long statutes; procedure is decidedly simple, and legal loopholes. are practically unknown. : Other features of the Soviet system, of course, are less tenable, such as that placing all attorneys in a collective unit and thus depriving them of fees, But in the main their system does, seem to have achieved one thing— a simplified, direct, and inescapable court set-up.

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"In all the trees!

Old forest trees— What histories : What symphonies In trees like these!

By George Clark

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Indiana

ERNIE PYLE

EDITOR'S NOTE~—This reving reporier for The Times goes where he pleases, when he pleases, in search of odd stories about this snd that.

KLAHOMA CITY, June 16—1It is late at night. You are ¢oming into Oklahoma City for the first time in your life. ; 2m You see the reflection of light in the dark sky ahead. That's Okla= homa City. The road comes down. out of complete flatness and to wind around a little, ~~ . You top a little rise, and the fog of lights divides slowly into individualities. You see tall ‘buildings all lighted up, still far away. You think my, but Oklahoma City's a big place. Lots of big office build ings. With people working in them this late at night, too. Why, it looks like the New York skyline at night, only the buildings ail seem about the same height. You think along like that, and then it suddenly hits you. Those aren't buildings all lighted up. They're oil derricks! I recommend that moment of realization and the next 10 minutes of amazed staring, as one of the most thrilling sights in industrial America. : # » ” - OU drive on in among the oil derricks. There are hundreds of them. : They're as thick as trees. Some aren't 20 paces apart. Some are right on the highway, like a filling station. A string of bright lights goes to the top of each one, And down below, on the ground, everything is brightly lighted. : First the sight, and thene the sound. There is a steady, heavy din. The whole field is alive with work. You hear deep, regular poundings; and a throbbing, rumbling, circular sound, like a grinding; and the clank of steel tubes and the whirr of great pulleys, and the shooting off of steam. Im=mense activity, and it is nearly midnight. The fiendish boring for oil never stops with the sun. You drive on and on. The derricks are wedged in between houses, on open lots, on filling station aprons. You're in the suburbs of Oklahoma City. And pretty soon you see a sign, “City Limits, Oklahoma City.” And you keep driving, and still you're amidst ‘the oil wells. And you stay amidst them clear into town. Theyre all over the golf course. There is one in the side lawn of the state capitol. There's one up against the Governor’s mansion. b

#® = = HREE months ago, there were: only two oil wells in the north=" ern part of Oklahoma City. Today there are at least 300, and new derricks are going up almost by. the

| hour. Residential sections are being

gutted. People are wild for oil.

There are many people who are shocked by this glaring display of commercialism. Rearing an oil field . right in the heart of a city. Ruining. homes and fine residential sections. Putting oil wells on the Capitol grounds. : Personally, I get a big wallop out of it. My vote for it is {'yes.” Put upa thousand more derricks! What if it does waste irrecoverable reserves of oil! Grind a thousand more holes in the ground! Who cares for the heart breaks and the empty tomorrows? Throw up: more silvery steel, shafts. Drill in the gushers, boys. It's fun. It's a fever. Let oil reign unrefined. Let's all get rich. Boy, hand, me that lease, before it's too late. =

Today’s Science BY SCIENCE SERVICE

MANY a person, resentful of modern dietary directions, of being told to eat foods he dces not like or to forego favorite items: of diet because of their effect on his health, has revived the old idea that" instinct or appetite is a good dietary: The reason why one can not rely on instinet in choosing foods is told by Dr. Leslie J. Harris of the Nutional Laboratory, University of ambridge, and the Medical Research Council, in his book, “Vitamins in Theory and Practice” (Mcmillan). As Dr. Harris explains if, the reason chiefly is a matter of

time. ; : “You demand a hot drink when:

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