Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 July 1936 — Page 9

NEW YORK, July 25.—In Dranesville, Va., Secretary Ickes pulled a switch and immediately electric current flowed which . milked a cow and killed a fly and cut a shaver on the chin.

farmhouse and kept a herd of cattle from trampling the corn. Everybody around seemed to be Pleased except the farmer’s son, who cut his chin and even said he'd get the hang of the contraption

in a week or so even if he had to cut his own dodgasted throat. But Carter Glass has not been heard from. Carter is going to be jumping mad. The venerable and fiery Senator will undoubtedly make a speech in which he will point out that when Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” he was anticipating the electric milker. The founding fathers were content to swat the fly, but it was done by slave labor or through indentured servants and not by the grace of the rural electrification ad‘ministration. Virginia’s Gov. George E. Perry displayed heretical tendencies because he said that the prosperity of the country depends upon the prosperity of the farmer and that electricity would aid him in achieving success and luxury, Carter Glass will not like that, for the senior Senator is much in the position of the farmer's son. He is always being put out of jeint by innovations, and his chin is constantly cut by the harrowing march of progress.

»n ” ‘" Might Typify Present Struggles

F the farmer's son will be ‘content to drop that electric razor and hand it over to Carter the ensuing struggle upon the chin and jaw of Glass could very neatly typify the present struggles along the political and economic front in America. This might well be the sixteenth decisive battle of the world, in which case the Virginian’s chin would go down in memory along with the Plains of Marathon and the. Meadows of Saratoga. Moreover, it is well to remember that Landon has not said much which would be peculiarly attractive to Carter Glass. So far as the horse and buggy goes as applied to political progress, the Senator regards such momentum as reckless speeding. Carter would have the nation carried from one economic frontier to another in a litter. And he would favor many .stops upon the way in order to ease the jolting strain of such a rapid journey. : It is a great pity that history is so badly synchronized with invention. For instance, if the constitutioal convention had been on a national hookup the entire course of events would have been changed. If each remote settler could have heard Hamilton plainly and had the voice of Benjamin Franklin come literally into his living room, there might well have been less insistence upon checks and balances. ” ” ”

Turned Into a Straitjacket

NDER the construction of certain types of mind . the Constitution of the United States can be turned into a straitjacket, inhibiting all progressive action, both on the part of the states and the Federal government. Indeed, that condition exists with the present composition of the court. Some of the founding fathers may have wanted just such a binding document. Others did not. Many of the various compromises effected are clothed in language which is too ambiguous. Take the general welfare clause, for instance. No clear governmental philosophy came through because of the suspicion which various groups had for each other. They didn’t know each other very well, When critics say of this man or another that he has aroused class consciousness in America they forget that it has always existed in the republic. Just the same, a wide sweep of knowledge would have made for greater amity.

BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AMPOBBELLO, N. B, Friday—All the way up through - Maine people kept telling me things about Passamaquoddy Dam. Strange things had been done there. : Why did the houses have no chimneys? How could any one expect to keep warm without fires in this climate? How could any one expect ordinary people to pay for houses which cost $15,000 each? What was the point in getting old masters to hang on the walls? So yesterday we went over and visited this much-talked-of village and project. Three dams have been built. Two of them connect Eastport, Me., which is on an island, with the mainland and are so built that the train and a new highway can come in over them so that they will be useful to the state and its inhabitants. One dam connecting .two islands at the mouth of the Denny River is of no value unless the project is taken up again and finished. The village built for the workers on the project can easily be turned to other -uses. The houses have no chimneys because there is a central heating plant and an electric stove and ice box. The “old masters” are Phetetraphs which cost 17 cents apiece, but look very well. e furniture comes from Vermont, is made of maple and the beds cost $5 each. - I was interested and inquired how all the furnishing was done. ; It may interest you to know that the mail order catalog of a widely known firm was taken and they figured out what the lowest cost would be. Then bids were taken, and they found that for 25 per cent more. the most durable and attractive furnishings could be bought. i: The most expensive houses in the village would sell for $5000, including the land, house, ice box, stove and a share in all the public utilities. There are nine houses in a very beautiful location built to be occupied by people on a fairly high salary basis. These cost $15,000, and Iam sure will be wanted when the decision is finally made as to how this village shall be used. : My mother-in-law has a radio so we all listened to Gov. Landon's speech. An effective speech, and I could only think of what difficulties success may sometimes bring with it. s (Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

New Books

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS— Jouu FITCH, when he was a boy of 11, “crazy\ after learning,” cuitivated a small’ potato patch in time snatched from his hours of rest in order to buy Salmon's Geography, which would illuminate “the whole world.” From that time on he struggled against adversity, indifference and dishonest schemers in order to get learning, and, later, idea of a steam-propelled boat.

It also air-conditioned/ the |

SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1936

Entered as Second. Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, 1nd.

THE INDIANAPOLIS GAS BATTLE

(Last of a Series)

BY FREDERICK G. MATSON N° public report ever was made by the special gas committee appointed by Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan in 1931 to determine the advisability of bringing natural gas to Indianapolis, Henry L. Dithmer, City Utilities District president, who served as chairman of the special

committee, said today. On three occasions the City Utilities District directors publicly stated that a complete study of the availability and practicability of the use of natural gas was being undertaken by the committee. _ These occasions were, first, in the objections filed by the City on Aug. 8, 1931, when the Manufacturers’ Natural Gas Association sought a certificate of convenience and necessity to furnish natural gas to industrial consumers; Second, in the joint objections filed by the City and the Citizens Gas Co. on Oct. 27,

Service Co. sought a similar certificate, and again on Dec. 13, 1933, when the City applied for a $9,000,000 PWA loan to enable it to take over the Citizens Gas Co. plant. 5 Mr. Dithmer explained: “There was nobody -to make a report to, except the Mayor. We did not feel it was necessary to make a formal report because proceedings of the gas committee were discussed in informal meetings with the directors of the Utilities District and the Mayor. It was an investigation ‘for our own benefit.” “No public report. was made, but nothing was kept secret,” Mr. Dithmer said. “Information was Evallable to any one who wanted i 2 #” 2» SKED what findings the committee made, Mr. Dithmer said that the best price for natural gas that was offered was between 30 and 35 cents a 1000 cubic feet at the city gate. “At that rate the cost of gas would have been more than what the Citizens Gas Co. could make it for,” he said. Mr. Dithmer said he and the then Mayor Sullivan made some trips to southern Indiana to inspect natural gas wells, and that they had concluded that an adequate supply for a city the size of Indianapolis could not be depended upon from that source. ” ” o FTHEY also visited the large gas plant in Cincinnati. where mixed eas is used. he said. Mr. Dithmer said no investigation had been made as to the number of probable consumers, both domestic and industrial, who would take natural gas, if it were offered. “That would be an enormously big job, and we had no money with which to conduct such a survey,” he said. “There probably are some locations where there are lower rates than those in Indianapolis, but on a heat value—B. T. U.—basis, I

. don’t think you will find any city,

with the possible exception ' of Cleveland, where costs are any lower than they. are here,” Mr. Dithmer asserted. “The Citizens Gas and Coke Utility (the former Citizens Gas Co.) is making gas cheaper than we could possibly buy it, according to figures submitted to us,” he said. . “If we find that we can get

This picture, taken at the Citizens Gas and Coke Utility's Pros-pect-st plant, shows coke being pushed from one of the ovens into a “hot car,” one of the steps in manufacturing artificial ‘gas. The Pros-

The Record and Pros and Cons of the Continuing Conflict

* pect-st plant has three “batteries”

—Times. Photo by Connaway. of 40 coke ovens each. In addition

to coke, other by-products in the manufacture of gas include coal tar

and ammonia, .

natural gas distributed cheaper than manufactured gas, we will use it, but it will take considerable time and experience in operating the plant to find out. We are going to get gas as cheaply as it is

possible to get. it in Indianapolis,

regardless of what other cities pay,” he said. # ” n

: FIVE-CENT reduction in all gas rates was put into effect May 1 by the local utility. The base rate now stands at $1 a 1000 cubic feet; with a discount of 10 per cent for prompt payment. The new rates were made pos-. sible because of recent reduction in operating expenses amounting to $26,296, according to Thomas L. Kemp, general manager.

The quarterly report of the utility filed in the office of the city

- controller shows net income in-

creased $41,438 in the first three months of 1936 over the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1935. Net income from Jan. 1 to March 31 was $113,423, compared with $71,985 from Sept. 9, 1935, date of acquisition by the city, to Dec. 31, 1935. Another recent development in the general gas picture is the construction of a 230-mile pipe line from Zionsville, Ind, to Detroit. This line was begun in April and completed the first of this month, something of an engineering feat. The line was built as result of a 15-year contract negotiated last year by the Detroit City Gas Co., a privately owned utility, with the Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co., to supply the city of Detroit with natural gas from the Texas Panhandle fields. The line was constructed by the old Indiana Gas Transmission Corp., now absorbed by the Michigan Gas Transmission Corp., hoth subsidiaries of Columbia Gas and Electric Corp. The Detroit-Zions-

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

BY DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM

E NEN MORE LIKELY “HAN WOMEN To THK WHATEVER

2 2 PERSONTO STEAL?

N Z

R ARE

ville spur joins the main artery that runs across Indiana from Illinois, cuts through the northwestern tip of Marion County and extends to Ohio and the East. » ” » "THERE has been much discussion over two reports.-by W.

E. Steinwedell, Cleveland consult- _

ing engineer, relative to the use of natural gas in Indianapolis. The first report, made at the request of the Utilities District, soon after the City had taken over the Citizens Gas Co., was issued last December. It contained a detailed analysis of the then exist-

+4. ing conditions of the utility.

Citing four possible methods of introducing - natural gas, the report dismissed three of them— which stipulated various combina - tions of mixed artificial and natural gas—as impractical, and indicated that rate reductions as high as 34 per cent could be made by use of straight natural gas.

The second Steinwedell report

was in the form of a letter to the Utilities District directors and was

* made public on July 1. This re-

port was based on operations of ‘the local gas plant for the firss ‘three months of the current. year, . during which production expenses

‘|: were reduced to such an extent,

Mr. Steinwedell said, that natural gas would cost more at the burner than artificial gas now manufactured by the utility.

# 8 =n

HE saving on manufactured gas would be at least 3.7 cents per 1000 cubic feet, according to the report. ; This second survey by Mr. Steinwedell virtually substantiated similar claims made earlier-by D. J. Angus, a Utilities District .di-

rector, in a speech before the Ro- |

tary Club last June. : Mr. Angus said that natural gas . would cost more to deliver to cus‘tomers than the present manufactured gas. : Manufacturers and others in-

terested in natural gas concede the marked improvement in operations of the gas plant under the management of Mr.: Kemp, but assert that the latest Steinwedell report is based on ‘a heat value of - 870 B. T. U.; which is now in ef-" fect here, instead of 1000 B.T.U., the usual heat value of straight natural gas. . They also contend that the recent Steinwedell report does not take into consideration the fact that such low cost operations as were possible in the first three winter months of the year, have never been maintained for the year as a whole.

(The End.) tial y A20018'W AD

‘Beginning M day — “The Indianapolis Hous-

Arn rs ET

ing Problem.” ‘

Gov. Landon's Speech as Disappointing as Republican Platform, Johnson Says

BY HUGH S. JOHNSON EW YORK, July 25.—Gov. Landon’s acceptance speech must have been a deep national disappointment. ; The Republican platform has been on the record long enough to have been thoroughly digested and discussed. The almost universal, impartial comment was that it is the usual political compromise of obscurities and inconsistency. But in view of Gov. Landon’s courageous gesture of an immediate telegraphic addendum, the country had concluded that he would clarify the platform and give it life. The world was waiting for the sunrise. Probably no acceptance speech was ever anticipated with more interest, if not anxiety. It was one of the greatest of political opportunities. It is not too much to say that Gov. Landon had a chance to elect himself by a single speech. . The day came. The build-up was immense. The moment before he spoke was like the climax jn the first act, of the opera Lohengrin, when the whole court of Henry the Fowler gathers breathless in the

| meadows on the Scheldt to witness

the miraculous answer of heaven

against the right to strike, and in favor of company unions.

” % 2 HERE is to be Federal conciliation in labor disputes. The Governor rapped Roosevelt for letting some strikes go so far that the President had to step in. That was just the Governor's inexperience and ignorance of the country’s principal problem. Wait till the load is on him—if ever. ie «Farmers are to have cash “benefit,” as much tariff ‘protection of their domestic market as consumers will stand for, and also laws on soil

“benefit”? What laws on soil conservation? What is the farm tariff and foreign trade. policy? No answer. ; The Governor is even more obscure and less cqnsistent on the farm problem than is the platform. It is the same old Hoover hokum. The Governor scolded government spending and, like Mr. Coolidge’s preacher who was against sin, said borrowing and high taxes are bad. But Roosevelt bdrrowing and high taxes are mostly for farm and unemployment relief. The Governor pledged continuance of both. How is a going to reduce taxes and debt

erosion and depletion. How much’

Tn loreign policy he is going to keep out of war and entangling alliances. He cited Harding as an earnest of how well we can expect him to handle the problem of world armament. All Harding did was to sink battleships we had to ‘rebuild and get euchered out of our Pacific defenses. ; ENE: The only rise he got out of his visible audience was when he tackled executive and Federal usurpation of power. But, sincg he indorsed every principal result of New Deal policies, it is not exactly clear how he is to attain the same results without similar methods. All the rest of the speech was the usual old-line. generality ‘about monopoly, the Constitution, home, frugality and individual . opportunity, that you can hear from anybody on any radio, at aimost any hour of the day or night. Except that if you hear it less well done, you will have surpassed my experience. I have never heard a worse speech on the air or indeed anywhere outside of a high school com-

mencement. / 1936, by United Feature

(Copyright, op Syndicate. Inc.)

EAR IT. ~~ S77 :

+ 4

by Lichty

|" dte corned beef and cabbage ‘and

Fair Enough

by WESTBROOK PL

R OCKLAND, Me., July 25.—What sort of Sunday school outing is this Olympie expedition of the free Americans, that a lot of male Aunt Betties are permitted to put their heads together, smacking their lips over a bit of scarMal and dirty the name of

of both sexes in charge of the American team, is a champion

tractive human being | spects that ever wore the American | shield in Olympic competition, Her husband is a band leader and band | leaders work in night clubs. She probably met him in a night club in the first place and since their marriage she has gone .trouping with him and spent some time around night clubs herself. Her only responsibility to the Olympic team was to show up for the races sober and to do her best, both of which she was sure to do when the j time came and both of which she did within the last few weeks to win. her place on the team for the find time in succession. ir eanor is no child and the Ol ic team is boarding school. She is an old i as inietes. 80 and when a player has been competing up in the championship brackets for eight years the individual develops some personal ideas on training. :

Training Becomes Drudgery

TEE ordeal .of training is not so hard the first few years, but after that it becomes not only : terrific bore to a person of any spirit, but physical drudgery as well. I was talking the other evening with the father of a young woman who swam yith our 1932. Olympic team in Los Angeles, but passed up this year’s competitions even though she still makes Olympic time against the watch. He said he talked her out of this year’s trials because she is at an age when she ought to have fun and the previous: experience had shown that Olympic competition is a great strain over a period of a year or more and not worth the sacrifice. : Eleanor Jarrett is not the first great athlete to break training with a loud crash and she bespeaks.a ‘lihe of thought on athletic training which has been Justified by spectacular successes of athletes who will be remembered long after Avery Brundage's own perio: manies in competitive sport have been fore gotten. Jim Corbett broke training on champaghe whenever he found himsélf too finely drawn pn Th all

Mr. Pegler

” # »

Back in the early days of American Olymg competition our teams included some full-grown men who drank when, as and if they pleased and ) won their eve: without benefit of curfew, callorie tablets or’ ) eronage. Adult men and women are entitled to the same rights today and the babying and tut-tutting imposed on people who are old enough to vote and bear arms or children by the A. A. Stagg and Field ing H. Yost school of athletics is an arrogant form of snoopery. ta i

BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN 7 ASHINGTON, July 25—~G. O. P. Chairman John Hamilton has made a personal a 1to Senator Bill Borah to take the a for rans don. ‘Hamilton wants Borah to make a series of speeches in the Middle West, particularly in Illinois, where he cut so deeply into Col. Knox in last spring’ primaries. . . . United States Naval officers are rid ing on the German dirigible Hindenburg in i to report on the feasibility of such a vessel for the American Navy. Naval aeronautical officials strong for another giant airship, but the sea-dogs are not. . . '. The Postal Inspection Service i§ the oldest detecting agency in the government. It was estabe lished in its present form by Postmaster General’ Amos Kendall just a century ago, but the origin of the ace sleuths goes back to Benjamin Franklin, first Postmaster General. In his day postal inspectors were known officially as “postal surveyors.” : Germany’s system of “Sell to those who sell to has made a terrific dent in Central America, strong hold of United States trade. Germany will not | for coffee, fruit or -other Central American products in cash; only in German goods. Résult has been that German trade has doubled, in some cases quadrupled in this vital area... . . Six thousand gallons of wate a minute can be sprayed on the lawn of the Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument by the government's new sprinkling system. . 2 8 =» 3 EN. “HAPPY” GLASSFORD, police chief of : Washington who befriended the bonus army, being swamped with letters from veterans all over country wishing him luck in his campaign for Cone gress.. A lot of them, incidentally. live in Arizona, the general's home state. . . . David Rockefeller, grands son of the oil tycoon, and recent graduate from Har ard, plans to study economics for a couple’of ye ’S, then go into “business.” ... . Theodore Roosevelt II son of Teddy Roosevelt Jr. another Harvard grad