Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 November 1936 — Page 10

The Indianapolis Times

ROY W., HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY EARL D. BAKER President Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1936

~ AFTER THE FIGHT

TODAY America’s two big parties wind up a political fight. It has been ugly and sordid in spots. Many

slanders, half-truths and downright lies have been spread in | a campaign in which we have flung reason to the winds as |

never before in our generation. But tonight it will be over. One side will be winner, the other loser. It is important to our civilization—almost as important as the outcome itself —that the winner con-

‘duct himself as a generous victor and the loser be a good |

sport. . Whether in football, first, to abide by rules, and, next, to accept the outcome.

war or politics we must learn,

be just American folks again.

LET IT RAIN

HE weather man announces rain and snow today over most of the United States (California, of course, excepted). Whereupon the political writers promptly conclude that : a lot of farmers aren’t going to the polls, and then disagree as to whether that means it is Landon weather or Roosevelt weather. Which shows what creatures of habit our election prognosticators are.

As if our farmers of today had to travel over rutted | No, they are not horse-and-buggy farmers, |

i wagon roads. ‘nor even Model T farmers, and we venture that you can search the countryside and not find a single husbandman : who will choose to slosh around in the back lot today rather

* than step on the starter and speed down the paved pike to |

: town and the ballot box. = Even if they hadn't learned—as they most certainly Bave—that national politics is linked closely with their personal economics, the farmers of all people would be least likely to stay home today. Whereas their city cousins have had some respite, with frequent nights at the movies, the farmers have stayed home mostly, twirling the dials in gearch of lively tunes and finding only the bellicose bellows of campaign orators. After all that, what farmer wouldn't breast a blizzard or wade through hell and high water to Se it all and restore peace to his fireside?

“why WE ARE SADDEN ED

No

SA S the hart panteth after the water brooks, soul of llerbert lloover yearn for statistics, As the —=roue craves his wine Hoover longs for his ledgers. He prers the decimal to the damosel and is never so happy as Swhen on a bookkeeping binge. An evening before a roaring 5 with his lump sums and his percentages is heaven faenouzh for him. nd It is with great regret therefore that we observe the passage of election day with no reference by the ex-Presi-dent to the “common denominator.” You will no doubt recall his agile employment of that in the two previous presidential campaigns. It was his favorite mathematical tool. But so far as 1936 is concerned “3f rusts in the basement of forgotten days.

True, he did gorge himself in one grand orgy of arithmetic following what he described as “a searching examina- ~ tion of thousands of pages of details in the budget report” —a quest that must have meant excruciating pleasure for = him. And he did stir up a lively tilt with Henry Morgen- * thau in which formula battled formula and revolving fund was matched in sturdy combat with revolving fund. But nothing about the denominator. So in the spirit of longing retrospection let us recall before it is too late the expertness with which he wielded that device during his years as a presidential trooper. Remember? “We must find a common denominatbr. If we say that 5 per cent of butter and 95 per cent of flour form the basis of that useful mixture called ‘bread and butter,’ then the weekly earnings in each country would buy at retail in those . countries the following total of this useful compound. , . .” From then on he would show how many hundred pounds of bread and butter a railway engineer could bring home on Saturday night if he spent all his pay for the “‘useful com: _ pound,” and how many a carpenter and |an electrician and others desiring to go on bread-and- -butter benders could : obtain. And then would come odious comparisons to prove that ‘an engineer of a carpenter or an electrician in the nited Kingdom, or Japan, er some other place outside the United States, could only buy a small percentage of what the American could buy of bread and butter, and how for that reason the workman in America should give thanks ito the Republican Party; how in fact by the use of the same denominator he was much better off in 1932 than in 1928. We remember writing an editorial way back in ’3 hich ended with what we regarded as a stirring declaration, namely—"‘Long live the denominator!” Can you blame us that we appear saddened that the deator is no more?

HUF RAH FOR THE ONION

RRINY tears have been shed and strong words breathed in behalf of a new deal for the humble onion. Now, it jppears, a real campaign is to be started to lift this pariah pf the garden to its rightful place of honor upon the Amerian dinner table, The National Onion Association has named a commitof the 13 biggest American onion merchants and will a bold and nation-wide crusade to make America conscious. The onionists admit that while ohionBAling builds you cally, it sometimes drags you down socially. But de on ways to meet this unhappy dilemma. One

so does the

65 cents a month. Ad- |

Today we are Republicans and Democrats; tomorrow we wiil |

2d by science, claims that sodium hypochlo-

And Speaking of Coercion-—y Kirby

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

It Is Calming Experience to Step Into Company -of Professional Politicians on Eve

EW YORK, Nov. 3.—It is a calming experience to step from the excited midst of people who believe campaign speeches and propaganda to the quiet company of practical politicians, press agents and speechwriters in a national headquarters on the

eve of a great election. . Inside, the clickety-click of the mimeograph machines is heard, and the low tinkle of telephone bells. Tired, bored men drift from room

to room with telegrams and press handouts. . The atmosphere is stuffy, and the suites of the Biltmore Hotel, where the Democrats occupy four entire floors, are considrably the worse for wear after long service as the party offices. There are spatters of ink on the rug where Norman Baxter sits with Eddie Rodden. Mr. Baxter once was a sports editor in Washington and presently became an editorial writer for Ned McLean, Warren Harding's friend and partner in mischievous frivolity, Late last summer the man who once wrote Republican editorials for Mr. McLean put in a short hitch as the hit-and-run editor of a Democratic paper in the state of Maine, and he is now finishing out the campaign at national headquarters. Something comes up about an agricultural point which needs a little attention in one of the lastminute orations, and there is some head scratching over the problem. The boss can’t do it.” His stuff is set. Wallace, then, or Ickes maybe? Why not Jimmy Farley himself? Or even Jack Dempsey? Dempsey has been campaigning New York for Mr. Roosevelt, using a troupe of Jack Curley’s wrestlers and distributing rubber bladders to the voters, and he once dug sugar beets in Colorado.

Mr. Pegler -

= » = UT never mind. Some one will write a couple of

paragraphs on the agricultural point. And old Charlie (Mike) Michelson will stuff it into somebody's last-minute speech. Old Charlie Mike, the shaggy genius of the publicity staff, has a background no less interesting than Mr. Baxter's. Years ago he was a managing editor for William Randolph Hearst in Chicago and played the game for the great white father just as hard and craftily as he plays it against him now. And only four years ago he and Mr. Hearst were sawing notes on the same fiddle, when Charlie Mike was smearing Herbert Hoover and Mr. Hearst was supporting Roosevelt. Big Shamus Farley, grown a little fat in four years, goes sailing down the hall to a room where the political reporters are gathered for the last roundup to hear the details of the election night setup.

” EJ # F any one has reason for personal pique against Hearst it is Mr. Farley, because he delivered a heavyweight champion fight to Mr. Hearst's prize fight department only a few years ago and swelled the gate tremendously just as a political favor. And for the last two years, Mr. Hearst has been tearing his hide off in strips, but Mr. Farley as a practical politician understands that it is all in the game. Very few of the practical politicians have lost their tempers in this campaign, although the boys in the Democratic headquarters have a feeling that Jack Hamilton has been unnecessarily dirty in some of his word-of-mouth propaganda about Mr. Big. They have been keeping a file of dirty Republican copy in a separate folder called the garbage can, and they may make Mr. Hamilton eat it in years to come. Still, Mr. Hamilton seems to be over the top now—a famous man in November who was very obscure in June.

of Election.

The Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it—Voltaire.

TAKES BROUN TO TASK FOR BOOING LANDON By Mrs. M. G. IL

I am a Republican, but I also admire President Roosevelt for all his earnest and sincere handling of our country’s affairs. I voted for him four years ago. I am not doing so this time for personal viewpoints to which every one is entitled. It is extremely disgusting to me to read in a family newspaper of merit such stuff as Heywood Broun writes in the Oct. 31 issue of The Indianapolis Times. He admits he booed Landon and is not ashamed. He should be, as it is the most unethical thing to do-I know of. He should go back to South Brooklynovitch. No refined American citizen would boo at either candidate. As long as Roosevelt is our President he deserves courtesy and surely Gov. Landon is a man above reproach. It is getting so it is unbearable even in theaters because of booing. That should be stopped and Mr. Broun should be ashamed. ” » ” CRITICISES VIEW ON SPAIN By Robert N. Collier, Sullivan One A. J. McKinnon on Oct. 26 complimented Westbrook Pegler for his articles on Spain. Then Mr. McKinnon proceeded to blame Spain’s troubles on communism and advised voters to vote against Roosevelt and the New Deal as a vote “against communism in politics and labor.”

Mr. McKinnon evidently did not |-

read Prof. Agapito Rey’s statement in The Times of Oct. 6. Prof. Rey has been a member of the faculty of Indiana University for 12 years, teaching Spanish, but he was born in Spain and fully understands what is going on in that country. Prof. Rey says the fight in Spain is a “conflict between dictatorship and democracy.” Those who uphold democracy are the loyalists, while those who ‘demand a dictatorship are the rebels. Mr. McKinnon either doesn’t know what is going on in Spain or he wilfully seeks to misrepresent. The working classes of Spain, the farmers, the factory hands and the miners are giving their lives in a desperate effort to preserve their recently won freedom. They are the patriots of their land as our forefathers were the patriots of 1776. Is Mr. McKinnon against the American Revolution? =

” » » SEES PROSPECT OF VOTERS THINKING INDIVIDUALLY By Jimmy Cafourus A day may come in a ‘not too distant future when men will vote as individuals and not as cattle. Most likely there always will be a lot of propaganda or its equivalent. Probably there always will be dyed-in-the-wool Democrats and rip-snort-ing Republicans, or their equivalents. i Maybe in future days, to make identification easier and to put the stigma of the hated opposition on

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Roosevelt's Re-election Is Sure and Only Remaining Questions Are Size’ of His Popular Majority and Complexion of House of Representatives. |

settled “here at the ‘beginning of a plains winter, moneyless and almost destitute. An overwhelming majority were Republicans by inheritance. / The point is that if you were coming to the country looking for a Republican community of rugged individualists, this is where you would naturally turn.

LVA, Okla., Nov. 3.—There is'no longer any doubt of the re-election of Mr. Roosevelt in the elec-

toral college. = The remaining interesting questions’

are of his popular majority and of the complexion of the next House of Representatives.

Up to the present trip through northern New York,

Ohio, Kansas and Oklahoma, the writer: believed that .

there would be a considerable reduction in the President's popular vote as compared with 1932 and a greatly increased Republican representation in the House.

Now ‘that seems doubtful. Of course you can’t tell

much about national sentiment by visiting four states, but with one

my stops were in normal Re-

this part of the state came to see me. I was aston- * ished. There wasn't a sunflower in the lot.

regard Roosevelt as a sort of a saviour. It

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make your ‘letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)

each other, the Democrats will sport feathers jauntily stuffed in their hats and the Republicans will wear hip-boots. / » Maybe by that time Hitler will have gone to Valhalla and Mussolini probably will be in the company of his picture painting ancestors. So goes all flesh, Maybe by that time popular government. will be flourishing again and if, as most people think, America is still a democracy, it will be a grandfather. And not long ago America was a babe in the woods! , . . - . : ” ®2. 2 CIVICS EXTENSION COURSE TERMED DREAM By an Ex-Schooi Teacher

Mr. Barnes’ recent article in The Times contending that by an extension of the course in civics in the schools we could develop an American race that would vote for principle instead of for party or man, is, I believe, more the dream of an idealist than a realist. I am more inclined to agree with the viewpoint expressed by Woodrow Wilson in his book, “The State. ”

THE LETTER

BY VIRGINIA POTTER

Strange handwtiting; a seal too— The stationery color—blue, A postmark from’ a distant land, Brings me a picture of burning sand.

Scented with rich, exotic perfume, From the land where theny blos- ~ soms bloom— The wavy handwritingk to a degree Reminds me of a stormy sea.

I'm half afraid it isn’t real, With trembling hand I break the seal— Ah, it's open now; inside a find— A message of a different kind.

A photo showing smiling eyes— My lover in a strange disguise, Cn the back, words I know are true, Only three, they're “I love you.”

DAILY THOUGHT

"For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be for“gotten. And how dieth the wise Ban? as the fool.—Ecclesiastes

NE may live as a conqueror, a king, or a magistrate; but he must die a man. The bed of death brings every human being to his pure individuality, to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most solemn of all reiations—the relation between the creature and

his Creafor.—Daniel Webster. =

Mr. Wilson tells us that, in a twoparty political system such as our form of government necessitates: “Educate the public as much as you may, but the bulk of the public will continue still to follow blindly one or another of the two great parties. . « » The salvation of the nation always will depend upon the handful of radicals who by changing. constantly from one party to the other hold both parties in check.”

It is my belief that Mr. Barnes’ plan would play directly into the hands of the politicians who dictate to the public school systems, allowing them to attempt to standardize “Americanism” as ‘“Naziism” standardized in Germany, “Fascism” in Italy, “Bolshevism” in Russia. Surely, history demonstrates that liberty and democracy are spirits that can not be standardized. They must move constantly forward. Once we stop to standardize them we have dictatorship.

8 2 2 RIGHT OF OPEN FORUM 1S UPHELD By L. L. Patton, Crawfordsville

. . When high school and college teachers tell me that they can no longer teach facts from the course books, that they must subvert facts to suit the school boards, I can not help consulting history and predicting trying times ahead for the American people.

Surely .it is time that Americans are reminded that American liberty was born in open rurum, and that the American Constitution ‘gives Americans the open forum as the means of preserving that liberty. There is no radicalism that could be more dangerous to the theory of American liberty than that which seeks to stifle the open forum. There is no end that will justify an attempt to establish a dictatorship over public opinion.

2 2 2 SAYS M'NUTT KNOWN

been .

IN OTHER STATES

By L. P.

Sometimes a man has to get. out of his own state to be able to make an accurate estimate of state officials. Recently, when I was in Chicago, I was surprised to find that many Chicagoans know. more about our Indiana Governor than I know myself.

The same surprise came to me in Cincinnati and Cleveland. It seems that all over the United States peo= ple know of the splendid record made by our Governor McNutt. Only hete in Indiana has it been kept

1a secret.

= » ” SEES M'NUTT AS PRESIDENT By Le Roy S. Moore Breathes there a Hoosier with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, “I'd like to see Paul'V, McNutt elected President of these United States in 1940”?

has:

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Considers Question of Whether an Intelligent Man Should Bet

His Money on the Horse Races:

EW YORK, Nov. 3.—I can’t speak for the

rest of the people whom I see around. po

the track, but I go to horse races because ‘I love nature. I like the trees which you can see beyond the backstretch, and the dumb animals which run in front of you are beau-

tiful in rain or sunshine. Of" course, down in Florida you can also ses flamingoes -in the infield. But I don’t think these birds add very much to your thrills, I would as soon have the lawn lit tered up with elephants. . Indeed, it would be better that way, because elephants are very intelligent and never forget, and if you got friendly with one it would no longer be necessary to

pore over the dope -sheets. You. .

would merely wait until the eles

phant nudged, which would indis cate that a winning horse was parading. by. But elephants to the one side, _we must all face the question as Mr. Broun to whether an intelligent man should bet money on the horse races. I say yes, but I must*~admit that there is much to be said on either side. I am extremely doubtful as to whether anybody can gain for himself a living wage by betting on the races. Of course, I'm just about even myself. Naturally, I don’t keep any accounts or even add up at the end of the day,

Ey

I just look and®see if I have a nickel for the subway,

and in response to any inquiry answer in as steadfast a voice as possible, “Just about even.” . It requires a good deal of character for me to go to the races regularly. Connie thinks that gams=

bling is a very evil. thing, except when you win, and,

naturally, not even so astute a player as myself can win every day.- None of us is perfect.

But I do get very much annoyed when I am ats i

tacked by patrons of the track along the political and the econorhic front.

and said, “Why, Mr. Broun, I thought you were a radical, and now I find you here.”

- 8 » ”

E had surprised mein the act of betting $2 right Ge

on the nose of Easiest Way. I turned a stony stare upon the gentleman, who was, so far as I was concerned, an imperfect stranger. “What have you got to say for yourself?” he cone tinued. that I had no intention of issuing any statements -about anything, because I felt that the country would prefer to get the election out of the way before it took up my case. But, of course, it isn’t just my case. It is all part of a general muddle-headedness as to what constitutes radicalism—or liberalism, for that matter.

sn ” 2

I is preposterous for peopie to assume that the only cheerful persons in the world are conservatives amd reactionaries. I need only cite the face of Herbert Hoover. Surely, men who traveled about with ws V. Debs had a better time than those who have associated with Alf M. Landon.

But let’s get down in the scale. -I mean down from

the plane of Debs.” Even among us small fry who hope that we can have some part, however trivial, in the making of 4 better world there should be some sense of responsibility go to the horse races every afternoon and the dog races every night. On Sundays I ought to work. = But some day we will have a more kindly and

friendly sort of society. If I lived long enough I might

be the commissar of racing in this state. In that case I would make one change—I'd have Tacing. on Sunday,

The ‘Washington Merry-Go-Round

This Campaign Is Last Appearance of Jim Farley in Public Office f Some Time; May Succeed Will Hays or Become Czar of Liquor Indus hr

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

dropping overboard those who become political weight. So Roosevelt let Big™ Jim fight his o battles, stew in & own juice. he Jim, always loyal to his chief, worried ple said nothing, But, like any wife, Bess Parley enraged. She blamed Jim for ever working man like that. . Jim Farley is a véry patient man. He said nothing

I brushed his hand away and replied briefly

‘In my own case I mean I shouldn't

‘The people I refer to are Te represented by a man who tapped me on the shoulder =