Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 August 1936 — Page 9

It Seems |

i by ~ HEYWOOD BROUN

NEW YORK, Aug. 1.—When they threw Eleanor Holm off the Olympic team on the ground that she drank champagne I was against the officials.” Champagne ig a very good thing on a boat, because it settles your stomach. Champagne with brandy floated on top is even better and settles your stomach still more. Of course, I have no inf ation as to whether anything was wrong with Miss Hols stomach. After : reading some of the stuff about the German Prince she met and his great wit and charm I-should venture the opinion that Eleanor Holm has quite a strong stomach. She seems to be a girl who wouldn't take anything for her sense of humor. In my opinion Miss Holm could win any back-stroke swim even if she were forced: to carry a magnum into the tank with her. Only a year or so ago Miss Holm d some pretty public training in one of the W. 52d-st aquariums, but, nevertheless, she showed up at Jones’ Beach early on ‘a Sunday morning and proceeded to break the world's record for her event. It was her own record. A few months later, at Coral Gables, Fla. the same attractive young woman got -a facial the day before the big meét and let that stand as her contribution to the Spartan theory of a sound mind in a sound body. * Maybe it was the Athenians who said that. At any rate, the facial was the only training indulged in by the girl swimmer, who leaped into pool at the appointed time, wearing a modest wreath

of vine leaves, and proceeded to beat her record all over again.

Mr. Broun

os EJ 8 Her Own Private Record

HE suspicion grew in my mind that Miss Holm . never dared swim as fast as she could. She played with that backstroke record as a cat plays with a mouse. This may have been her reason for attending a couple of parties on board the Manhattan. IT she competed in the absolute pink of condition the resulting mark would be so amazing that the backstroke would become Miss Holm's permanent possession and nobody would ever compete for such a title again. 3 Tilden and other great sportsmen have been known to bang the ball out of court or into the net just to even things up. Some such gallant idea may have been in the mind of the martyred swimmer. On water and in water Eleanor would be so much superior to any girl who cared to swim against her that the result would be embarrassing.

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Personal Reasons Stated OF course, one of the reasons why I'm for Eleanor Holm is that I don’t like Adolf Hitler or Avery Brundage. Hitler doesn’t drink even beer, and he uses the crawl instead| of the backstroke. I have no idea what Brundage drinks or does except to make most annoying speeches. His latest action in barring Ernest Lee Jahncke from the International Olympic Committee is a complete justification for every one

who argued that America should not send a team to Berlin.

According to the new dispatches, Mr. Jatincke has been dropped for having written against Chancellor Hitler and the Nazi regime. But what becomes now of the arguments advanced by the proponents of sending a team? They argued loudly and often that there was nothing political in participating. The reasoning ran that we were sending men over to run and jump and heave the shot and that it was a matter of indifference to them whether the meet were held in a Jemoeratic country or one under a Fascist dictatorp. : But Avery Brundage has a different idea. -It seems to be his notion that our young men and our young women are going abroad to holler “Heil!”

‘My Day

BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

ALBANY. N. Y., Friday—We spent last night in Concord, N. H. Shortly before getting there I stopped at a rather lonely gas station where two men serviced the car. As I was paying my bill, one of them said: “Aren't you Mrs. Roosevelt? We're Democrats.” I congratulated them on their courage in that part of the country and went on feeling that even here we had friends. I was awake early and so I went down to get both our cars out of the garage to park them in front of the hotel so that they might be ready to be packed. As I was going out a young man stopped me rather hesitatingly and said: . “We are a group from the Baker School of Drama at Yale. We're touring New England with a play. I wonder if you would be photographed with us?” I was all prepared to say no, and did get as far ' as “that’s advertising, I'm afraid,” when rather shyly he added, “I wrote the play myself.” He hastily assured me: “The boys are all here and the girls are eating breakfast now. There are three girls and three boys and we will be playing here three days.”

So much naive enthusiasm seemed to deserve en-.

couragement, so 1 agreed to have a photograph taken when I got back from the garage. The local photographer, equally young, was on hand and I only hope that this bit of publicity will boost their audiences. The players travel together in an old car. They take no scenery, so their acting must cover up any deficiencies in surroundings. Some of our best actors .and actresses have had their training in the old stock companies which used to tour this country, and for these young students to spend their summers in this way is not a bad idea. They certainly will know how to get on together, how to stand weariness and how to meet emergencies. In Wiscassét yesterday, Miss Helen Hansen met us and gave me a basket of Maine peaches. Just as Maine strawberries seem to have a better flavor than any I know, except perhaps those grown on the Ile D'Orleans just off Quebec, so these peaches seem to have an especially delicious flavor. (Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

New Books

THE PUBLIC Y PRESENTS—

HE book, IT'S MORE N WHEN YOU KNOW THE RULES, by Beatrice Pierce (Farrar & Rinehart; $1.75), deals with problems of etiquette for ~ The author thinks the purpose of etiquette is not to make life more difficult, but to make it more pleasant for every one, and that rules are the tools which will help to make life richer and happier. 1t is really a kind of game, she says, and the girl who has learned the rules will have fun and will be

distracted by doubts and agonizing over her ~ Those who are fortunate enough to have access for sensible advice on-all

L they will do well to read |

the last chapter on home life.

Second Section

~

Entered as Second-Clasa Matter J at I'ostoftice, Indianapolis, Ind. vive

PAGE 9

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1936

INDIANAPOLIS’ HOUSING HAZARDS

((Last of a Series)

BY JOE COLLIER “ A S a matter of dollars and cents, city slums and shanty towns are the most expensive types of housing possible. This cost is not borne by the slum inhabitants, of course, but by the rest, of the citizens of the city.” That quotation, taken from the Housing Report of the State Planning Board, is followed closely by a table prepared by Dr. R. Clyde White, Indiana University, showing per capita costs in certain substandard housing sections of Indianapolis for public relief, private relief, hospital care, venereal disease treatment, insanity, felonies, misdemeanors, juvenile delinquencies, and fires. The table: Census Tract 3 13 14 * 20 22 57 58 76 1 8 88

‘These figures assume striking importance when it 1s known that these 11 tracts contain 10.4 per cent of the population of the city and that the mean per capita social service cost for them is $27.29. The mean per capita cost for the same social services for the entire city is only $10.64. Health authorities, police officials and hospital officials all have said repeatedly that bad housing is one of the largest contributors to bad community and individual health, to fire hazards, and to juvenile delinquency.

Per Capita Cost $25.90 25.01 22.06 24.27 34.46

# w ”

HE Planning Board suggested in its report that, “It takes no complicated arithmetic to see that if $1 of that yearly per capita cost can be saved, it would be a very wise investment to spend 50 cents to save that dollar. It would be doubling the public’s money. “The term charity housing may carry some odium, but by no stretch of imagination can any other solution than the one implied by it be found for that class of people who are able to pay $5 or less monthly rental, 20 per cent of a family income of $300 or less. “Of course, an increase of the incomes of these families to such a point that they would be able to pay more rent would solve the problem. But until such a Utopian condition exists, and more especially, as a means of bringing about an increased income, the problem is one of charity. “The top figure of $5 a month is barely enough to pay the utilities required by the minimum standards of health and decency. This leaves nothing for the rent of the dwelling, which must be supplied through some form of public charity or subsidy.” One Indiana city made a generous step :toward the settlement of the problems of these people and, at the same time, the re: duction of its own public social service costs, That was Vincennes. r = = N common with nearly all river towns, Vincennes had a shanty collection known as “Pearl City,” because its |citizens were nearly all clam diggers. In preparing a part for the approach of the new George Rogers Clark Memorial, it became neces-

sary to destroy Pearl City, but it was obviously impossible to destroy it without providing other quarters for the inhabitants.

Under the leadership of Herbert Hill, a Vincennes attorney, Sunset Court was: evolved by the Vincennes Social Welfare Foundation, a non-official corporation, with limited funds, which assumed responsibility for the project. Twelve acres of land, situated just south of the city, were donated by the foundation. On this were laid out 20 lots, on three sides of an open court. On 14 of these two-room structures were! built and on the remaining six, three-room houses were con-. structed.

The court is used as a playground and a park. The lots are approximately 50 by 125 feet, and . besides the. house have a chicken, shed, coal shed and sanitary toilet."

. There are four wells, one on each

corner of the central court, which provide pure water.

» » » HE houses are built of salvage brick, with eight-inch walls, and plastered interior. The floors are of concrete, poured on an 18inch cinder base. The central chimney gives two outlets for stoves. The roof is covered with a good grade of roll roofing. Room size is approximately 12 by 12 feet. The houses are well constructed, well ' lighted and well ventilated.

Works Progress . Administration labor was used and the tworoom structures cost a little more than $300 each, and the threeroom houses around $360. -

Inhabitants of Sunset Court sign year’s leases, for which rental is $1. They work two days of each month under supervision of the Foundation, and are in no sense considered permanent guests. As the families are rehabilitated, the Foundation hopes to move them to better homes and see

den

LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND

BY DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM —— ef

av

? orga

] y Ek odd AY TIES : WV 2 x

'| ferent words.

Slums Put Heavy Burden on Taxpayers Planning Board Shows

High noon in an Indianapolis home in the bad housing area. No beds in the home, the family sprawls out on a quilt on the floor. picture does not show flies which get into the unprotected home. man of this house works 13 hours daily on a junk wagon to buy food for his family and pay $5 a month rent. Two of his children are in City Hospital, suspected of having typhoid. There is no city water available for the family; no sanitary toilet.

The The

them well on their way to earning their own way in the world. That's what Vincennes did.

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ARION County Commissioners have asked for a $350 emergency appropriatiorf for the + erection. by Works Progress Ad“ministration of a low-cost house to rent for approximately $4 a month. Marion County Council members have, according to the spon"sors, agreed to grant the appropriation, and if they do, work . will be begun in time for the ‘completion of the: building - by fall. : Bo : One of the buildings whose title passed to the county on defaulted school loans would be torn clown by WPA laborers, and upon its site would be erected a two-room dwelling.

This, would be built of cinder block, concrete and plaster, and would contain a sanitary, inside flush toilet connected to a city sewer, and running water, The cost of material has been set by the state planning board at $350. The County Commissioners now have approximately $500,000 loaned on property, title of which has passed to the county. Upon this sum, the county pays 5 per cent to the state. Even if the property has no income, the county still pays out of the general fund the 5 per cent interest. The commisisoners, by this method, see a chance to earn at

least a part of the interest, thus |

saving something for the tax-

‘payers.

» 7 ” LREADY, at the instance of the State Planning Board,

the State Fire Marshal has de-

/

—Times Photo by Cotterman.

cided to order down 500 dwellings in the city “because they are fire traps.” Joseph Scherer, chief inspector, said he would order about 1000 more torn down, if people were not living in them. Dr, Charles Myers, City Hospital superintendent, and Dr. Herman G. Morgan, City Health Board secretary, both have emphasized that slums produce disease, delinquency, and costly social evils.

The planning board has, through a survey of other ‘cities, both domestic and foreign, concluded that nothing short of private or public charity can deal effectively with the low-cost housing problem, designed for’ low rentals. The problem remains in Indianapolis unsolved, and is costing the taxpayer heavily.

Beginning Monday: “Spain, a Story of Conflict.”

(Gen. Johnson writes thrice weekly) BY HUGH S. JOHNSON

EW YORK, Aug. 1—It was showmanship to put- on six Governors to answer Gov. Landon’s acceptance speech—just like two Topsies ifr “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or six rings in a circus—pure Barnum ballyhoo. But was it smart? One Governor should have been enough—or even half a Governor. In fact the Landon speech almost answered itself. As it turned out, the assault “in mass in column of Governors” was pretty good political speech-making. But they all said practically the same things in difTo the extent that they varied, they used up two -or thrée weeks’ ssupply of ammunition in one barrage. The only good reason for such a show was that the Democrats didn’t have a big enough single gun to get an audience. The “six Governors—count ‘em — six,” were necessary to attract listeners and to carry in the news. :

ernors tried to get across was that there was something that needed debunking in the Landon build-up. But not one of the six did that half so well as a seventh Governor who spoke some days earlier—Gov. Lan-

| don himself.

» ” »

TT principal phoney in the Re-

publican- front is self-evident.

| Away back when the Landon boom started

Kansas on & platform and series of

The theme that most of the Gov- ||

‘GRIN AND BEAR IT

of old-fashioned Republican conservatism against anything new whatever. But it was too late to switch. The only thing left was to take Mr. Landon apart as a New Deal Governor and put him together again as a rugged individualist. Within a few months the drums he had beaten a New Deal Republican were muffled:-and the trumpets he had blown were mute. The word was quietly passed, in all the Old Guard citadels, that Gov. Landon was now “all right.” Big wise money began to flow in unlimited abundance. It was too late, also, to rub all the New Deal labels off the Re-

OUR COLUMNISTS

The Times may or may not agree with the columnists whose writings appear on this and other pages. Their columns are bubliched because they express diverse and inviewpoints, and not because ‘they express The Times’ editorial policy.

Landon Explodes Own Myth Without

Help of Democrats, Johnson Asserts

publican platform. It satisfied the boys east of the Alleghenies to place on them some ink-eradicator of nullifying words. Platforms aren't very important anyway. Candidates are important. The big interest in the Governor's acceptance speech was to see if he

were any different from the plat-

form and the implication of his recent history—and he isn’t.

z ” ” HE ridiculously obvious phoney is the Old Guard behind the fake and now somewhat frazzled

Populist whiskers of a synthetic “Oh Susannah,” fighting to the death for social security, the rights of labor to organize, and farm benefits and direct relief to the unemployed—both paid ‘from the public treasury. The body and strength of Mr. Landon’s present support, and the men who will most influence him, relish all these doses about as much as the devil likes holy water. It’s easier to believe in the wolf dressed up as Red Riding Hood’s grandmother—and it doesn't require six Governors {0 make that clear.

(Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.) ®

* +

by Lichty

| bawl for the entire state of Maine.

Fair Enough

By WESTBROOK PEGL

NEW YORK, Aug. 1.—These dispatches have given a gloomy picture of Easte

port, Me., the site of the Quoddy Dam, but

the, poverty, dejection and indolence of the old sardine port are a localized plague and

there is no urgent need to break down and True, thefe are many sway-backed houses and barns to be seen from the highways, sinking into the weeds of more or less abandoned acres and Don Quixote has been riding again if one may judge by the wounded windinills sagging to their knees in the far Northeast. The general scene, however, is one of enterprise and substantial comfort, outwardly more. attractive than it was 10 years ago. White paint, the badge of solvency and self-respect throughout the New England states, still gleams against the green kackground of || woods and fields and the New England flower garden, that strange, esthetic quirk of a bleak temp:ra--.ment, blooms by the door of the honest potato-kicker’s cottage home. Nowhere else in the United States will you see the equivalent in simple beauty of the New Eng land flower garden with delphinium grown man-high in half a dozen blues and with little flowers blooming at their ankles in all the colors on the house-painter’s chart. The white paint, however, deserves credit for an assist in the achievement of the picture. In other sections people paint houses, if they paint them at all, on a basis of every man for himself and the often effect is of red, pink, green and gravy color

pulling and hauling every which way in horrible: discord.

Mr. Pegler

- ® 8 = Better Duck Inns MARE calls herself vacationland on her motur license plates and the business of comforting city-worn people from down the coast and inland has grown from an egg-money proposition to a major ine dustry of the state. But, though the sign “Tourists: Accommodated” has become as common as the trees and cabin colonies line the highways, the hotzls in the

towns were turning away customers all last week and probably will continue to do so. The prices, never- - theless, are surprisingly demuré and the only horror is the dreadful drollery of the names attached to ‘otherwise blameless little houses. There are a hundred Turn Inns, Better Duck Inns.. Tumble Inns and Us Auto-Stops and at least one We-Wanna-Lodge. The sulky men are racing again at Old Orchard Beach and an interesting piece by Mr. Austin Goode win, a Portland sport journalist, revealed that the Maine mortality permits mutuel betting on the buggy horses while still regarding the horseback steeds as the devil's own critters. Some day some one will get around to writing a piece on the sly nature of- the harness horsemen who chew wisps of hay and say “I swan” and get away with ingenious racing tricks and gambling coups on rubber tires by flattering the rural character of their public. ” ” =

Nature Favored Maine . DISCOVERED, too, half a dozen variations of rouse lette and keeno thriving in several roving carnivals wiih the law standing by, a form of sin which cere

- tafhly would not be winked at by the New York law, However the New York law, contrary to popular belief, is extremely prim about such things. One night in Eastport I visited a lunchroom and discovered a young man sitting at the corner with his chin on one hand glaring at a penny slot machine. “I have been plays ing this machine for two hours,” he said, “and I warn you it is crooked. I have got two dollars and a half in there and the jackpot only gives a dollar when it does give.” : The New York police would never tolerate a penny machine of any kind much less one that would take $2.50 without giving. : It seems impossible that Maine with her climate, her lakes and fish will ever know want as the duste bowl farmers know it. :

Merry-Go-Round

BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN ASHINGTON, Aug. 1.—There is something a - little pathetic about the candidacy of Bill Lemke for the presidency of the United States. He stands there, so cocksure, so confident, so smiling, smirking, so ready to talk about his campaign. You feel like taking him aside and warning him that he shouldn’t talk so much or the newspaper men will take advantage of him. Then you realize that Bill: wouldn't take, kindly to that advice and you let him g0 on. “When I become President,” he said, “I'll be like Andrew Jackson, who tied his horse to a hitchingpost in front of the White House. I'll let the people come in. I'll be at home to everybody. But of course, I can’t see everybody. There'll have t0 be some are rangements made about that.” At first you think this is just Bill Lemke’s sense of humor. But pretty soon he repeats himself. There are no “ifs” about it. It is “when I am elected” and “when I take over the White House.” There is no doubt about it. Lemke has talked hime self into a hypnotic - conviction that he is on the threshold of the White House. ” Ed ” EMKE has been campaigning for public office most of his adult life, but his voice still strikes the audience with the soothing effect of a circus Calliope. And apparen®®y he has an inexhaustible supply. of steam and no discretion in using it. “After I'm elected,” he said, “one of the first things I'm going to do is to restore all the little lakes and ponds that they used to have out in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

can be used for irrigation. Another thing, they to attract rainfall.” . Lemke was born on a farm near Albany," Minn, not far from the Lindbergh e. But his father,

town Yale, where he received law degrees.

; a 8 8 a | -] IEE politics have been az variable as a North

Dakota sunset. He supported Woodrow Wi in 1912, Hughes in 1916, the Non-Partisan League dur-

4 ing the next few years, and was a pro-Rposevelt Re-

in 1932 and 1934. Now he is a rabid, raving