Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 July 1936 — Page 15

E14

The Indianapolis Times 4A SCRIPPS. HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

. ROY W. HOWARD es os as oo President - LUDWELL DENNY «vib Editor EARL D. BAKER . . . . 4 . . . |. Business Manager

Member of United Press, ScrippsHoward Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Ente ro rise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Co., 214-220 W. Maryland-st, |Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County. 3 cents a copy: delivéred by carrier, 12 cents a week.| Mail subscription RT rates in Indiapa, $3 a year: outGive Light and the side of Indiand. 65 cents a month,

People Will Find

Their Own Way WEDNESDAY. JULY 8.

CITY MERIT SYSTEM

.. ROWLAND ALLEN, aking before the City Council on the new merit system for police and firemen, said the provision under which the Mayor and Safety Board recommend and approve applicants for admission the merit schools was admittedly a “weak spot.”

Phone RI ley 5551

¥

1936.

jawed” because the schools are pointmernts are made. Instead of tere being an original examination, open to all, at which the first we cants is. made, this initial sifting is done by the Mayor and Safety Board. As a result, charges have been made that politics influences the appointments. ® = ee HE law has other faults. Responsibility is scattered among too many hoards—safety, promotion, merit, trial, etc. There 1s a question whether the old law on political affiliations in the department still is in force. The|rate of pay should be fixed by law, not by the council. Another bad feature is that the trial board lis selected by the person making dismissals.

We believe the Merit Board, in the face of these handicaps, has functioned faithfully and without partisanship in an attempt to establish a merit basis for police and fire department appointments. The City Council deserves credit for | making it financially possible for this work to continue. Obviously, the law should be rewritten by the next Legislature. In the meantime, however, is it not possible that city officials themselves can strengthen the merit setup? We can find nothing in the law to prevent them from establishing a true merit system under the present act. The law does not require that the -appointments be made politically. | Could not the Mayor and Safety Board ask a disinterested group—such as the Indiana University police school—to conduct a preliminary examination and recommend appointments? By making appointments from such a Feconunstided list any question of politics should be eliminated.

FARLEY ALMOST LEAVES

: OW that Jim Farley has finally separated himself from the public pay roll, perhaps it is only fair to say that he handled the Postmaster Generalship quite as efficiently on a part-time basis as any of his predecessors whom we can recall did, full-time. There was no department scandal under Farley, which is more than can be said for the man he succeeded. And further, to give the devil his dues, it must be admitted that, albeit in a blundering way, Farley did try to straighten out the subsidy mess which he inherited from Walter Brown. Moreover, he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to take . it, as the Administration’s whipping boy. His hide is thick. : : We note with regret that his departure from the pay roll is billed as a leave of absence for the dura- " tion of the campaign. We hope it may prove more

| permanent than that. One of the reasons why Far

ley is going to have to put in full time instead of 99.4 per cent on the campaign is the fact that he failed to cut loose earlier. And he may have to work overtime if the people get the idea that the re-election of Roosevelt will mean that Farley will. go back into the Postmaster Generalship and at the same time hold on to his two big party positions. When any man gets so important and indispensable that he is the only one available to handle three separate man-size jobs then the average little onejob voter may be tempted to do a little mischief to the big fellow. Fl Farley has been the chief target for New Deal opposition. The target is still there, though somewhat diminished in size. For some reason or other, Jim's tenacity reminds ‘us of Robert Louis Stevenson's remark during his | last iliness—"I'm an unconscionably long time dying.” :

“THE MIDDLE ROAD”

WEDEN is one country in jittery Europe that is AJ relatively serene. Her Budget is balanced, her unemployed few. The standard of living, of her people is as high as any in the world.

President Roosevelt is sending a commission to

find out why, especially the effects of Sweden's cooperative movement. ° : 3 This is what William Philip , foreign editor Sof Scripps-Howard newspapers, went to Sweden to learn. And in a series of articles in The Times this week he tells you. |]

Jef p—

A DOUBLE LESSON

: GETILEMENT of the six-week strike at the Portsmouth (O) plant of the Wheeling Steel Corp, on terms which apparently mean a union defeat, to verify John L. Lewis’ pron

determined that the present gation drive in

the steel industry shall be pursued “legally and

peacefully.

The Portsmouth strike, marked by extreme bit-

its feeling run away with its that officials of the Amalgamated A

that he is °

ASPHALT PLANT SMOKE X 7HOLESOME evidence that the city is eager to do its part in éliminating the smoke nuisance

in Indianapolis comes from Mayor Kern. As the

result of a citizen's recent complaint against city asphalt plant smoke, the Mayor reports that City Engineer Steeg has instructed the new superintendent of the plant to use coke for an experimental period. | There should be no let-up in the fight to reduce smoke. ;

HANDS OFF THE SCHOOLS!

ELF-APPOINTED censors over America’s schools stand rebuked by the National Education Association, whose militant convention in Portland, Ore. bristled with speech after speech assailing enemies of free teaching. : “It is futile,” reported the association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, “to expect independent, judicious and courageous minds to be developed in students by timid and submissive teachers.” “Until we remove dictatorships from the schools, we can not with good gracé attack it elsewhere,” said Thomas W. Gosling, national director of the Junior Red Cross. - “If democracy: means freedom to inquire, to learn, to express oneself then we can tolerate no dictatorial censorship of thinking and learning,” said John W. Studebaker, United States Commissioner of Education. “Americanism,” said Frank Miles, editor of the Iowa Legionnaire and spokesman for ‘the American Legion, “‘gloes not consist in throwing children into jail because they might fail to salute the flag. And neither does Americanism consist of enforcing compulsory oaths of loyalty upon any class of citizens. Tremendous efforts are being made to deceive educators ‘into thinking that we are trying to militarize the schools, The most often repeated charge is that the Legion is trying to curb academic freedom. May I assure you that although once in a while a post or an individual legionnaire may object to something or other in a school,ithe Legion is interested chiefly in helping teach’ children how to think. I have yet to know a teacher of the thousands of my acquaintance who I thought was a raging red.” These are utterances of robust Americans who know that the educational goose step is every bit as alien to our shores as Russian communism.

EUROPE EYEING FRANCE RANCE’S experiment in popular front govern: ment may prove a blessing or the reverse. It is too early to say. But whatever it turns out to be it could hardly pick a worse time for a tryout. An explosion in France today would almost certainly ignite all Europe. . The trouble is not with Premier Leon Blum, Socialist head of the new regime. His reform legislation includes (1) A general political amnesty; (2) A 40-hour week; (3) Collective labor contracts; (4) Vacations with pay; (5) Public works jobs for the unemployed; (6) Nationalization of war industries; (7) A farm rehabilitation program; (8) Raising the compulsory school age, and (9) Revision of existing wage-

"cut decrees, beginning with the most poorly paid pub-

lic servants. : The danger faced by Premier Blum—and France— is that he may find it impossible to steer a sane course between the moderate radicals and the Communists, who helped him to power. On the extreme left are some who, while refusing to share the heavy responsibilities of government, nevertheless wish to play with him the role of power behind the throne. Should Premier Blum permit these forees unduly to influence his course, the more moderate supporters

will desert him, and down he will come. If that Age

pens the country is likely to see a fight for power tween the right and the left in which almost anything can happen. ; | SE Europe’s peace is already a tottering structure, and France is one of its keystones. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hapsburg Austria, dissatisfied Hungary, and others, are awaiting only a favorable opportunity to start something. Should chaos come to France, -it might bring down upon Europe the very catastrophe she has been so anxiously trying to avoid.

BOLTLESS BORAH “ OU are old, Father William,” the young man said. “And your hair has become very white; “And yet\ you incessantly stand on your head— “Do you think, at your age, it is right? . (From Alice in Wonderland.) Senator William Edgar Borah of Idaho isn’t bolting—again.

“Bolting the Republican Party,” he told the

United Press at Boise, “is not part of my plan.” That isn't news. For nigh on to 30 years he has gone through the same performance at election time. He has denounced the Republican platform, its candidate, its record. This year, with all other liberal Republicans of the West behind Roosevelt, and himself backed by an glmost unbroken New Deal voting record, some innocent citizens thought he would make good his threat at last. But, as ever, he plans to be irregular on every day but election day. On that day he will give himself a treat, and go regular. Once #&gain the statesman will stand on his head.

A WOMAN'S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

COLLEGE girl wants know how she can learn to be |charming. give her this definition, by Ludwig Lewisohn, which in my opinion is the basis on which any girl can build. : “Charm,” says' Mr. Lewisohn, “is the mark of harmony.” Thus to be charming a woman should . fit into her, clothes, into her surroundings and into

whatever group she finds herself. She should never

obtrude; when she does, she is merely gpectacular. The truth is, a great many women are called charming who are only distinguished because they wear expensive clothes or talk well, have qualities

being, can live as beautifully in a cottage as in a

That is to say, charming women can go into the

homes of social inferiors and be wélcomed warmly

Our “Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

\ VERY once in a while you hear that the art of conversation is headed for the bow-wows. I heard it again the other evening—this time from the lips of an alert little lady who. explained at some length that it is a lost art in Indianapolis mainly because the men around here insist on talking shop.

Shucks! The most interesting conversations I have are with men who talk shop. I remember distinctly a conversation not long ago on the subject of men’s pipes which might have ended disastrously had

tnot Dr. Walter Bonns (botanist

that he is) injected the professional observation that briar pipes are the best because briar, in the nature of things, is the excrescence on the root of the male arborescent heath. And certainly, Jr. Horace R. (Frank) Allen's story:of his tiger hunt wouldn't be half the fun if he didn’t take time out to explain in detail how he fixed up the mahout’s fallen arches before bagging the beast. So

There are reasons for this, course. For one thing, shop lends substance to a man’s conversation because a man’s business is about the only thing left that permits him to have new ideas—to say nothing of new whims. That, gives shape Given shape and color, ‘what more can any one ask of a good conversation?

of

: ” 2 8 HE trouble with conversation in and around Indianapolis is not that so. many men talk shop, but that so many men do not talk shop. Instead, they talk about women, art, music, books and sports, about none of which it is possible to add anything more worthwhile. In confirmation of which I now

cite two places in Indianapolis where the art of conversation still

succeeds.

One such place is the Stammtisch at the Athenaeum. A Stammtisch is a table set aside for a select and pre-determined group of men who act as if they had proprietary rights. (I had to dig it out for myself) The group in this instance consists of Col: Richard Lieber, Herman Kothe, Herman Lieber, Leo Rappaport, Andrew Steffens, Richard Kurtz, Alex Vonnegut, John Broerse, Judge Smiley Chambers and possibly some others. With such an

trades—it is difficult to figure how the notion of a lost art ever spread in Indianapolis. ; My other example is the Round Table at Portfolio, made up for the most part of George Calvert, Clif-, ton Wheeler, Lee Burns, Kurt Von-' negut, Adolph Schmuck and George. Newton. On the face, it looks every bit as good as the Athenaeum Stammtisch, but it isn’t, I'm told, mainly because Portfolio conversa-:

.| tion too often wanders into fields

outside of talking shop. Even so, it's good enough. .

Ask The Times

Inelose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13thst, N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extended research be undertaken.

Q—Who supported John Barrymore as leading woman in the motion picture, “Tempest”? When was it released, and from what was the picture taken? A—The picture was released in May, 1928, with Camilla Horn supporting Barrymore. It was an original screen play by Fred de Gresac, based on a story by Vladimir Dantchenko, former impressario of the Moscow Art Theater, with adaptaMon by C. Gardner Sullivan. : - Q—What is fool's gold? A—Iron pyrite, a combination of sulphur and iron in almost equal parts. It can be distinguished from gold by the odor of sulphur given off upon application of heat.

Q—What is the address of the National Liars’ Club? A—Burlington, Wis. : Q—Which state leads in the production of boots and shoes? . A—Massachusetts. Q—Name the Lieutenant Governor of New York. A—M. william Bray. Q—What is the motto of the United States Marine Corps? A—Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful). Q—Give the name of the man

from southern Alaska to the Mackenzie Delta; near the extreme northwestern corner of Canada. A—Andrew It required six

talking |

to the conversation. |

abundance of autobiographical ma-’ terial—to say nothing of diverse |.

‘child has been in contact.

inexpensive and easily

who drove a lapge herd of reindeer |

* Bahr, a Laplander,|°®

The Hoosier Forum © 1 disapprove of what you say—and will defend : x 10 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 siuned. but names will be withheld on request.)

# ”

AROUSED BY POLICE

CONDUCT HERE. By Regusted . : An accident occurred on a recent Saturday evening in which a car driven into E. Washington-st from Eastern-av. was struck by. one.going west. No one was hurt, no damage of any consequence done, but there they: stood slaunchwise: on: the car. tracks and slightly west of Eastern. After a while a police car came catterwalling from the west at about a 60-mile clip and instead .of pulling. up to the south curb of Washing-ton-st, where there was amiple room, it suddenly swerved across the westbound line of traffic into Eastern-av. The frantic grab of ‘a. yhdther. jerked a child out of its path and only the quick application. of brakes by thé driver of a west bound car prevented another smashup.. .. Now : this idea .that a policeman can do no wrong is a lot.of apple. sauce, but day by day we see developing among the police an attitude that whatever they.do. they |

Your Health BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN HEN a child is sick, it should be placed in a rodm with plenty of fresh air and, if possible, sunshine. ‘In cold weather the room should be kept warm, and in country districts a room with a fireplace is helpful. Eodintanne Provisions must also be made to prevent drafts by use of suitable window: boards or screens. : The bed or crib should. be free ly movable and should be placed in such relationship to the windows that the child will not have to lie and stare at the direct sunlight. If there is an infectious

2

disease,

all unnecessary drapes, carpets, pic- |

tures, or other materials shculd be taken out of the room, as it might afterward be necessary to destroy the materials with which the sick

This applies also to toys and books. Such materials should be -washed : or destroyed. eR Sick children should not be allowed to play with foy animals made of fur or cloth, since these accumulate discharges and will in any event have to be burned when

the child recovers. For the same} reason it is not advisable to have upholstered furniture in the sick} room, but preferably hard wood: or |

metal pieces. a i When possible, the . child's sick room, as well as the adult’s, should

always be adjacent to a bath room, | lessen greatly thei - ‘amount of work necessary in taking | .

as this will

care of the child. : The mother or the nurse who is

responsible for the care of the child | should keep available a smock or a} whenever the | is in attendahce on the in-| |i

wash dress to be w

ee. a there is an infectious disease, i Bs als advisable 18 pave

.| womanedriver of the struck car and

land was hit.”

| ping our hats to them before long.

-f which is dark and sinister looking

[ 3 can not be questioned, much less criticised. The two cops crawled out and stalked over to the standing cars. One began by brow-beating the

after hearing the evidence, he proceeded to render judgment thereon. “You're to blame, ‘cause you drove out onto a preferential street

“But I stopped, Officer, and waited there ampst five minutes.” “But, she .stopped for the street,” volunteered a garage man, “and besides the other car—" =. “Now who are you, mister? What business have you got buttin’ in? You-got any interest in this?” .. Arid. so it went, to the disgiist #ind indignation of the onlookers. - For officers of the law to so flagrantly abuse and distort their authority and to display a Prussianized attitude: toward civilians is in conflict with - American ideals and should not be tolerated. We are neither peons nor serfs here, nor should we he treated as such, and unless a. stop*is put to ‘this sort -of unhecoming official conduct, we’ll be tip-

a Ca CHIEF MORRISSEY ADDS A WORD By Michael F. Morrissey, Chief of Police When police make runs te accidents they presume some one is injured. Consequently, they try: to arrive at the scene as soon as possible. One reason for squad cars pulling to the left side of the street in such cases is to block traffic, since

the red light on the front of the |

car serves as a blocking point. : L RoR N.S ‘COMPLIMENTS TIMES ON RECENT ARTICLES By Mrs. James L. Murray . May 1 compliment you on your series of articles on Indiana parks, and also “your editorial on.riverside forests. Then, as a contrast,

may I picture a desolate river not far from- Indianapolis, a river

5

which carries an unhealthy odor. There was a time but a few

years ago ‘when the stream: was|.

one of the prettiest. rivers in Indiana. Near the-old town of Freeport children waded in the ford, men fished below the dam, canoes.and boats carried happy young folks up and down-the stream. But all this has been changed. Many ‘cottages built along the banks: of

the river have been closed, ‘boats

‘have been put away, children are warned not to go near thé water. Even farmers have fenced their stock away from the shallows where they used to splash and drink. The citizens of Indiana have been led to believe that there is a law against stream pollution with teeth in it. - Now, should it be possible for manufacturing. concerns to take a lovely recreation spot from the people by dumping such refuse into the stream as to make it unfit for man or beast? We in Indiana are proud of our parks, but Blue River, extending through the very heart of this state, is a disgrace that

.can not be overlooked or forgotten.

: . % ” - on . COMPLAINS OF DELAY OF

‘BONUS BONDS

By Veteran, Huron

Why is. the Veterans Bureau so slow and tardy in getting out some .of .the bonus bonds? My application has. been in the Veterans’ Bureau for four months and I have one card saying. not. to write, still my application recently was not act‘ed on. 2 : I found that they were still waiting information from Washington, D. C. so I suppese I'll get it by 1945, maybe.

WOODCHUCK TRAIL BY JAMES D. ROTH

I walk a crooked path, Hard by a brooklet blue.

| A man in all his wrath,

. This splendor would subdue.

And then I worship by a spring; And drink cool draught of nectar. "Tis then my heart all praise doth

sing, The scene is real, and not a spectre.

Then I meander ’neath the trees; I stem the bush and briar. The grapevines waving in the air, ‘Seem climbing high and higher.

I come upon a wodchuck then, For my presence I'd atone; But now he’s scrambling toward his den, . : : He leaves me all alone.

DAILY THOUGHT Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you~—Deuteronomy 9:24.

HERE is little hope of equity ‘A where rebellion reigns. — Sir P. Sidney. :

SIDE GLANCES

By George Clark

TF 7 :

i

55

Vagabond Indiana

ERNIE PYLE

EDITOR'S NOTE—This roving reporter for The Times goes where he pleases, when he pleases, in search of odd stories about this and that. EWARK, N. J, July 8—Clifford J. MacGregor is by way of becoming a miniature Admiral Byrd. . Miniature-is hardly the word, for

‘| MacGregor weighs 220 pounds with

out his fur suit on, and the Eskimos call him Ooksook, which means “fat,” and you know you can’t fool an Eskimo. ; But MacGregor and Byrd do have many things in common. For example: Both are mixed up in aviation, both like ‘the cold countries, both have spent considerable time there, both lecture about it when they get back; and both are always planning another trip. That's what this story is about— Mac's next trip. ‘I call him Mae because I knew him long before he ever saw an Eskimo or ate a frozen fish, way back in the days when he was just a weather man for the air mail in a one-room shack at Bolling Field. : Well, Mac disappeared, and time drifted by, and then one day he turned up and said he had been in Alaska four years, establishing airway weather stations. ? He was full of Eskimo talk and scientific terms about meteorology, d he had a lot of picture slides and I went up to his house one night and watched while he explained them. . 2 #2 = AC gave me an ivory cigaret’ : holder carved out-of a seal's tusk, and disappeared again. He went back to Alaska for one more year, it seems, and now he's the meteofologist for the Weather Bureau at Newark Airport. But we must go back a little. It seems» that in 1882 various nations got together and sent out expeditions to all kinds of weird places to study weather. This_ thing was known as the Polar Year. One of the strangest places to which expeditions were sent was a spot called Fort Conger, way up the east coast of Canada, clear beyond Labrador, just a couple of jumps from the North “Pole.. The man in charge of Fort Conger in 1882 was no less than Gen. Greeley himself, Well, that first Polar Year turned out all right'so in 1932-33 the nations got together for another one. Meantime, our Mr. MacGregor had been born and had grown to large proportions and was busy studying the weather, so they sent him to Alaska. . Officially he was “Commander of the Second International Polar Year Expedition to Port Barrow, 1932-33.” He had a fine time. But money was short in 1932, and one of the places they couldn't afford to send men to was Fort Conger, where Greeley had been. That grieved our Mr. MacGregor. He believed there was so fine wedther to be observed at Fort Conger. So he set about promoting an expedition. y ” n 8 HE got it promoted all right. AL That's what this next trip of his is. The government is sponsor= ‘ing it, and supplying the equipment, and Mac is raising the rest from individuals. He will take about 20 people—10 = government = scientists, Land 10 civilian volunteers. It will take a year to get ready. They have to buy a boat and stock it' up. Theyll be gone two years. They'll take an airplane, two trac tors, several dog teams'and a thermometer. ? They leave next July. It'll take them two menths to get to Fort Conger. They’ll set up camp at Fort Conger and make meticulous records and twice a day theyll radio back to Washington that “It’s 80 below zero right behind the kitchen stove. Wish you were here.” Also, they'll haul stuff on trac tors 70 miles north from Fort Con-

‘| ger and set up another camp on top

of a mountain, 5000 feet high. Here they'll study solar radiation. ; ——————————————————— i ——— :

Today’s Science

BY SCIENCE SERVICE ge CIENCE is notably successful in

producing new knowledge, products, ideas and methods that have the possibility of making the world a better place to live in. But scientists are not notably vocal in discussing the social order and kinds of government. Se Dr. Edwin G. Conklin, leading Princeton biologist, emphasized the disparity between scientific knowledge and social practice. Different nations are trying different remedies to allow social actuality to catch up with scientific possibility. Dr. Conklin favors democratic socialism as the safest and sanest social order. He analyzes current social orders in the following words: Communism, in so far as it is based upon the ideal that all men are equal in ability or character or ‘social value, is scientifically false. In a democratic society all men are not and never will be equal in power, wealth or social value, but they do

{ have equal rights to life, liberty and

EYRRFER

2 5