Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 July 1936 — Page 13

J

* HEYWOOD BRON

TEW YORK, July 22.—If any very gen-

eral feeling existed that William

Lemke was an honest man being exploited by political adventurers, his address before the Townsend convention shatters that illusion. : Seldom has any speaker tried to stand for so many different things at the same time. Lemke is for Coughlin’s money theories, for those of Townsend and for those of the late Huey Long. ‘These gentlemen do not speak the same language. The radio priest has referred to the California Doctor's revolving fund as “economic lunacy.” But these are shrewd and astute politicians who are gathered together in triple alliance. Even Lemke knows perfectly well that he is running for Landon. Indeed, he can hardly be unaware of the fact that he and the Kansas Governor constitute what is known at the race track as an “entry” and that they are both riding in the yellow silks of San Simeon. Consider the tribute which William Lemke, the friend of the common people, paid to Huey Long. “They sometimes criticise my friend Huey Long,” he said, “because he talked plain. I say to you that the greatest Democrat that this nation has produced in the last 100 years was Senator Huey Long. He had the courage to say things which were not pleasant to the ear, but the sad thing is that what he said was . the truth, and that is what we have to do before we can clean house.” 2 ” ”

Huey Long a Fancy Talker

T is hardly the truth that Huey was addicted to plain speaking. The Senator from Louisiana was an extremely fancy talker who liked to use florid phrases which, upon analysis, meant very little. As long as he could deal in generalities Huey was the friend of the common man, but specifically he was the bitter foe of organized labor, both in his own state and in the nation. And it is interesting to compare the more thumping of sweet William’s promises with the practical details of possible performance. The speaker went 100 per cent for the Townsend plan and also stated that the good Doctor can come into the White House whenever the spirit moves him. If Lemke is chosen by the voters I have no doubt that part of this promise will be kept. Dr. Townsend will be shown around the Blue Room. But William Lemke knows as well as anybody else that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for any legislation setting up the Townsend plan to get by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Broun

sn ” ” William Lemke Speaking

ND may I also ask your attention for the final twe paragraphs in the Lemke oration? he said: “In the words of the immortal Huey Long we intend to make this a government for the benefit of the great mass of people. We are going to bring about a condition where every man is a king and, I may add where every woman is a queen, and where the young boy and girl will have an opportunity to make good, own a home, raise a family and be part of this great nation of ours. “We recognize no difference because of religion, because of political belief or because of race and nationality; in this great country we are ail citizens of the United States of America and proud of it. I thank you.” . But you are not welcome, Bill, because you can not tie your cause with that of the Rev. Gerald Smith and still maintain that your party stands for no discrimination on account of race and religion. & At the very session at which Lemke spoke against religious discrimination the Rev. Mr. Smith took occasion to speak of the New Deal as “a cake baked in Moscow,” and heé quickly added, “by Ezekiel, Cohen . :

and the T

oe Om

BY, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

LLSWORTH, Me. Tuesday —We spent last night in the Danish village, about six miles before you reach Portland. It is a little place that I have often noticed coming through, afd since it looked attractive I thought it would be fun to try it. We had a vague hope that we might get by without being recognized and causing much excitement, so I sent Mrs. Scheider in to find out if we could get a room and have dinner. I have learned from sad experience that 7 o'clock is the deadline sometimes, and it was already 7:40. Mrs. Scheider returned triumphant with the key to one of the little houses, and word that we could eat dinner whenever we wished. We got out our bags, locked the car and took possession of our abode. We walked around to stretch our legs, for we had come over 300 miles, and then went in and ate a perfectly good Maine lobster dinner, There is no attempt to give one Danish food. Only one lady came up and asked me for an autograph. As we were wandering about afterward I suddenly heard a familar voice say “Hello, Mrs. Roosevelt,” and I turned to see Dorothy Hill of Buffalo. She is- taking a few weeks vacation after running an institute on public affairs at Wellesley. On leaving this morning at 7:30 the man at the desk said with joy: “We made the front page of the Portland paper, which is good advertising.” So some one was happy. I enjoy going through these Maine towns and villages. There is a certain dignity about the houses which is very pleasing. For decoration they depend almost entirely on the carving of a doorway, or the fan-shaped window over the door. All the houses look rooted in the ground they stand on. They have a cared-for, lived-in look, acquired only by houses which have been homes for generations, These houses are not opened .for a month or two, and then left by their owners who flit to some other place and some other house. Here whole lives have been lived, and the house partakes of the atmosphere of the past and present human beings. (Copyright, 1036, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

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JULY 22,1986

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Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

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SAS BATTLE

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BY

(The Third of a Series)

BY FREDERICK G. MATSON

the fall of 1933 the City of Indianapolis had decided to take over the plant and property of the Citizens

Gas Co. as soon as the necessary funds were obtained. Accordingly, on Oczt, 21 of that year, the City filed application for a loan and grant of approximately $11,000,000 with the local advisory board of the Federal Public Works Administration. This application was later amended, Dec. 13, 1933, chiefly by reducing the amount asked

approximately to $9,000,000.

This sum was to cover the amount to be paid to the Citizens Gas Co. to obtain transfer of its plant under the terms of the 1905 franchise, and to make certain extensions and improvements in the plant and dis-

tribution system.

The original application to the local PWA board made no men-

tion of natural gas.

The Manufacturers Natural Gas Association, a group of 26 local industrial firms which had banded together in 1931 for the purpose of bringing in natural gas to use in their factories instead of the artificial gas supplied by the Citizens Gas Co., again urged the City to do something definite about

negotiating for natural gas.

A supply of natural gas lay virtually at the City’s door, passing through the northwestern tip of

Marion County,

the pipe line

carrying gas from the Panhandle fields in Texas, 1200 miles away, and serving ‘several Indiana towns and communities on its way east-

ward into Ohio.

ss 8 8 O the Manufacturers Associa=tion filed a “statement” with the PWA board on Nov. 9, ¥933, concerning the City’s application

for a loan and grant.

After asserting that the rate charged by the Citizens Gas Co. was $1.05 a 1000 cubic feet of manufactured gas of 570 Brifish Thermal Heat Units (or 95 cents on cash payments) the statement

said:

“The aforesaid present base rate

-of 95 cents per thousand cubic

feet for 570 B. T. U. artificial gas, as furnished to Indianapolis consumers, is the equivalent of $1.67 per thousand cubic feet of 1000 B. T. U. natural gas, and therefore compares most unfavorably with the prices of natural gas as furnished in other cities in this region, as shown by the following

table: . B.T. U. GAS

Cincinnall, 0; ..i.. 4. 900° seses 1000

Cleveland, O. ..... Dayton, O. Toledo, O. .....co0000es

¢ Columbus, Qs cones sess

Hamilton, 0. ...... ese Youngstowg, O. Canton, O. ..c.cces sees 1000 Springfield, O. Vincennes, Ind. ....... *QOakland City, Ind. *Sullivan, Ind. ....... « 1000 *Tell City, Ind..... esses 1000

- **Anderson, Ind.

SLynn, Ind. ....cc000000 1000 Corydon, Ind. ......... 1000 *Average. s*Industrial average.”

PER

M.C.F.

be 50¢ 90¢ bie 55¢

65¢ 50¢ 60c

35¢ %0¢ ! B0e

The declaration closed with a resolution passed by the association objecting to the city receiving the loan and grant from PWA for the purpose of acquiring the Citizens Gas Co.—“unless definitely predicated upon the use of available natural gas and not

otherwise.”

» 2 ® HE City then amended its application, reducing the request from $11,000,000 to $9,000,000 and stated, “It is also the intention of applicant to give prompt, careful and complete consideration to a determination of the availability and practicability and ex-

tent of use of natural gas.”

:

The statement by the City regarding an investigation of the natural gas situation closely resembled its assertions in 1931, and again in October, 1933, when petitions were filed with the Public Service Commission for certificates of convenience and necessity to distribute natural gas in Indianapolis. Those statements related that a special gas committee appointed by Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan in 1931 was undertaking such examination. Up to this time, December, 1933, however, the committee had made no public report. Indianapolis never obtained the PWA loan and grant. Congress adjourned June 16, 1934, without having made any provision for the City’s application in the new PWA

- appropriation.

2 8 = T finally. was determined to finance acquisition of the gas

. plant and property if possible by

the sale of revenue bonds. Accordingly, Mayor Sullivan and the directors of the City Utilities District, on July 30, 1934, called for bids to be submitted to the Mayor by the following Sept. 4. The first definite public announcement that the City proposed to introduce natural gas to local consumers was contained in this statement. A paragraph therein stated that “It is also the desire of the city to ufilize natural gas to the fullest extent practicable under the circumstances, including the furnishing of pure- natural gas to manufacturers and the use of mixed gas for domestic purposes, under appropriate guaranty of an adequate supply and a fair price.” This initial attempt to issue revenue bonds was a failure. No specific offers were received on™ Sept. 4, the date set by the Mayor. Representatives of bond houses

SULLIVAN

® BY MARK SULLIVAN ASHINGTON, July 22—The indignation of Democratic Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, which flamed up at the Patrick Henry celebration in Virginia a little while ago, is more than a minor

incident of this campaign. It goes

to the heart of this presidential election—both as respects the principles involved and the question whether the New Deal can win. Senator Glass went to the Patrick Henry celebration only as a guest; he had not expected to speak. He follows a laudable prdctice of confining his speeches to few occasions. But there was present as a speaker the Hon, William C. Bullitt, ambassador to Russia, one of the leading New Deal radicals. Apparently Mr. Bullitt made a new record in audacity by seeming to claim: Patrick Henry for the New Dealers. The New Dealers have been quite busy - claiming oldtime Democratic and other worthies for their cause, Particularly have they. been

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

BY DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM .

HIGH A 1& DEBATING, Io IT PovsiBLE TOBEA

nd Pros and Cons of the Continuing Conflict

2 Henry L. Dithmer

‘met with the Mayor and members of the Utilities District, however. They said the Citizens Gas Co. at that time was operating at a loss in the sale of manufactured gas and by-products from its coke-oven plant. ) 2 8 ” . == attitude was that th would not be interested in buying revenue bonds on the gas plant unless the City should in some manner guarantee payments of interest and serial ma‘turities. This the City was not in a position to do, and the project did not materialize. Manufacturers commented that with a fully negotiated contract for natural gas, the City could make a financial prospectus on operations of the gas plant that would make the revenue bonds. attractive. ; Mr. Sullivan left office at the end of the year. John W. Kera succeeded him as Mayor on Jan. 1, 1935. “We had hoped to get natural gas here,” former Mayor Sullivan recently said. “The intention was to construct a belt line to furnish straight natural gas for industrial purposes, and use a mixed gas for domestic consumers,” he asserted. The mixed gas, he explained, was to be used. so that the coke oven plants of the Citizens Gas Co. could operate at a profit.

Nex{—Why local manufacturers called off a fight against the

city’s acquisition of the gas plant.

CITES PATRICK HENRY ‘LIBERTY

o thes own numbers at $5 a vote or. spy on other voters

vociferous and persistent in claiming Thomas Jefferson. Some among them have claimed Lincoln.

8 5 = : PPARENTLY, when Senator Glass heard Patrick Henry pictured as a New Dealer, the Virginia Senator felt that to let that pass in silence would be an intolerable stultification. He rose, he said, “To

rescue the reputation of Patrick Henry.” He told that Virginia audience just what Patrick Henry stood for—which, as Senator Glass showed, was the opposite of the New Deal. He said Patrick Henry did not like the Constitution in its original form, not for the reason the New Dealers don’t like it, but for an exactly opposite reason. Henry felt the Constitution, as originally written, “did not curb government enough.” Senator Glass said it was through Henry's efforts that the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were added within two years of the document itself. And these 10 amendments comprise the bill of rights, that charter of individual rights and state rights: much of which the New Deal wants to destroy and must destroy if it is to ‘have its way. CN Senator Glass wished that Henry was alive now: “If I had his force of speech we might have accomplished something in the Senate without putting the Supreme Court to the trouble of -deciding these matters. Patrick Henry religiously held to: the view that the judiciary should be the final arbiters of all disputed questions.” Senator Glass was able to quote off-hand Thomas Jefferson’s: tribute to Henry: “At the altar of God he has sworn eternal hostility to every form of tyranny.” : * 8 = HIS Patrick Henry-Carter Glass << episode has several important. aspects. One is the earnestness of

Reginald H. Sullivan

Henry C. Atkins

Five Indianapolis citizens who have had prominent roles in local gas affairs are shown above. Interest in natural gas became widespread during the administration of Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan, Acquistion of the plant and property. of the Citizens Gas: Co. by: the: City took place Sept. 9, 1935, under the administration of Mayor Kern. Henry L. Dithmer 1s president of the board of directors of the City Utilities District,. which has charge of the Citizens Gas and Coke Utility. Appointed general manager of the utility, Thomas L. Kemp,

formerly of Terre Haute, assumed

his duties last October. Henry C.

. Atkins, president of E. C. Atkins & Co., is also head .of the Manufacturers Natural Gas Association, a group of local industrial firms

favoring the introduction of natural gas.

right .of the individual to be secure against oppression by government.

8 8 8

T was a six-centuries-long strug--gle to get more and more liberty for the individual to take more and more power away from the King, away from the state, away from the government, It was a struggle to establish the principle that the individual has certain rights which are inalienable, which not even government can take from him. This is the whole history of the development .of constitutional government in Great Britain and ‘America. As Woodrow Wilson phrased it, “The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of government.”

Travel Increases By Scripps-Howard. Newspaper Alliance ASHINGTON, July 22.—Add. notes on prosperity: More Americans went. abroad this June than in -any month since June, 1930. ; Travel charts of the State Department’s passport division have been climbing ever since April. They will: probably go down from, this point on, as travel abroad always declines in the late summer, but the year’s total is expected to be far above the marks of recent depression years. > In 1930, 203,174 foreign-bound Americans made an all-time travel record. From that time on the number dropped sharply until 1934, when it turned upward in a small way. Again- in 1935 it mounted, but was still 85,000 below the peak year. This June 31,305 passports were issued as compared with 24,879

As Mr. Bernard Shaw put it, “Almost all British constitutional safeguards are safeguards against being governed.” (Mr. Shaw, being a

Socialist, says that as an accusation.’

I, being not a Socialist, quote it as a tribute.) : . I have said that in this struggle Patrick Henry was the last American leader. He was the last because until now we supposed that he and his associates had won the fight and won it for all time. But today, after a century and a half of serene confidence, we are asked to assent to a conception. of government which

‘| takes. much liberty away from the

individual and confers great powers upon the government to compel the

individual, After we ‘had come to

think of the individuals rights as a comforfable heritage, coming to us by virtue of birth in America, as much to be taken for granted as the air we breathe—we now find that this freedom is a thing we must again struggle for. 2 2 = is the redl “rendezvous with destiny” which this generation of Americans has. - (I quote the phrase from Mr. Roosevelt’s acceptance speech, buf it: doesn’t mean what he ‘implied it does.) To surrender liberty, or to -resume the struggle for it; to let it go or make the fight for it—that is the choice

| which fate lays before this. genera-

tion of Americans. - I use the word “liberty” as Patrick Henry used it. Every American knows what it means.. Liberty means immunity from compulsion by government. What Patrick Henry

said was “Give me: liberty, or give |

me death.” He did not say “give me economie security, or give me death.” He did not say “give me

‘12 cents a pound for cotton or give

me death.”

GRIN AND BEAR IT

- + Cyl

NEW YORK, July 22.—After the Cleves: land convention of the old folks’ party; it is useless to ignore the fact that a dictas

torship movement has been started in the United States. : s

Under the domination of two ecclesias« tics, the meeting of aged Americans was converted into the first American Fascist rally. The old peoples were lured to Cleveland in the belief that they were promoting only pensions for them- : 3 selves and others like them, according to the so-called plan of old Dr Frank Townsend. They believe |i themselves to be the genuine Americans and, at heart, most of them undoubtedly are. But before they got through the week, they found themselves cheering a man who promises to organize a black shirt army of 100,000, in the guise of poll watchers, threatened to take over the government and advocated a state religipn. ale Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, xis who whipped a Bible out of his hip : pocket and waved it at the old peo- “1 Tesier ple, also dropped a hint of compulsory attendance ag the state church on Sundays when he declared for a Bible-reading, Sunday-to-go-to-meeting Americanism, The old people also cheered Father Coughlin when he reviled the President of the United States as a lias and double-crosser and demanded, in effect, a holy war of invasion against Mexico as the first article of the foreign policy of the new regime. =

8:8 8 : Dr. Townsend a Mystery - 7

IN Z=opr seems to know for sure whether Dr, Townsend is a shrewd, clever demagog, with 4 mask of humble altruism, or an innocent political hick who discovered himself with a big thing on his hands and allowed a clerical slicker to muscle-in,

Certainly, Smith has tried to take his movement from him, but the old mahatma has been very slippery up to now. ba The old folks’ party, including all the young voters who would like to live on their parents’ pensions, is identified with the doctor’s name. But the doctor, too, is distinctly a dictator. He demonstrated that when he ordered Gomer Smith, the Oklahoma Cherokee, thrown out of the party for defending President Roosevelt and criticising Gerald Smith. Gomer Smith declared the President was no Communist or atheist, but an American Democrat and God-fearing church-goer. Dr. Townsend delivered a personal ruling that this was heresy and the elderly Americans of the convention were treated to the spec= tacle of an American citizen being tossed out of a . party calling itself American for praising the Prese ident of the United States. : Thus, the doctor abolished freedom of thought and speech and came out for backroom government and secrecy. ; -

2 2 All Started Over Pensions

FEE proposed army of 100000 black shirts under Gerald Smith's command is a Louisiana idea

|. Which Huey Long borrowed from abroad. Huey passed

2 law providing unlimited numbers of poll watchers "#t $5 a day each on election day. © + rE These watchers can either swing an election by

to note who votes against the machine. An army of 100,000 black shirts under the coms mand of a man who says, “We are going to take over the government,” could be expanded to much greater numbers, sufficient, in time; perhaps, for an American version of the march on Rome. i And all this comes’ out of a meeting of elderly Americans who went to Cleveland with no thought of

abolishing the free American government, but merely to demand old-age pensions.

Merry-Go-Round

BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN

ASHINGTON, July 22.—Vague news of a collie sion between the President’s yacht and a phos tographers’ boat has leaked out, but the facts regards ing the seriousness of the crash have ‘been caref concealed. For one brief moment it looked as th | the Sewanna, with the Roosevelts aboard, wi ; founder. f FHA It happened this way: “ Photographers had hired a boat to get close-ups of the President embarking at North Haven, Me., and were told by Marvin McIntyre to wait at the whapf until he was lowered over the side of his destroyer onto the yacht. Then the destroyer would send them a messenger, and they would come close and take all the Lpictares they wanted. : 4 ree and a half hours passed. No messenger, Finally they noticed that the President's flag’ was being lowered from the destroyer, indicating he had left it. So they started out to catch the Sewanns, manned by Roosevelt and his sons.

By that time, she was well outside the they finally caught up with her. Then an ensued among the photographers, the movie men wanting long-distance shots with long-distance lenses, the newspaper photographers wanting close-ups for still pictures. : “F ’ 5, Finally the movies were given their chance, then the boat was ordered closer for the stills. About

The captain of the chartered vessel, being given orders simultaneously by every photographer aboard, tried to get very close to the yacht, at which poink a big wave swept the two vessels together. The President's sons, shrieking curses at the phos tographers, tried desperately to keep out of the way But the two boats collided, and the ; Sewanna got entangled with the