Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 November 1936 — Page 8

Che a Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY EARL D. BAKER President ~ Business

of United Press, Howard News

(except Sunday) by Indianapolis Times

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Wey MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1936

GER IN THE AIR SURVEYS have shown the huge sums which smoke costs Indianapolis in excess laundry and cleaning bills, tarnished buildings and civic unsightliness. But we are just starting to find out how much smoke costs us in health, Science years ago cleaned up our water supplies. Relentless war was declared against the typhoid menace of impure water. What already has been done for public water supplies needs to be done for the air we breathe. There is a job ‘ahead for the scientists in attacking the disease carriers of

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Before they may cure the evil, however, they must know what noxious gases, what living animal microbes, inhabit the air, corroding roofs, destroying lung tissues,

blighting plants and flowers, spreading disease. One such

_ ptudy is under way. Acting upon the theory that air-borne . plagues are just as sinister—and perhaps as measurable and controllable—as any borne by water, the New York City Health Department has begun with WPA funds the

“only comprehensive study of air pollution ever undertaken

in any nation.” But we needn’t await the results of this hunt for living microbes before doing something about smoke in Indianapolis. The promised smoke abatement survey is long overdue.

BUT HE'S EXTINCT

IN ATIONS that are throwing all their resources into tanks, battleships, airplanes and other armaments should take warning from the fate of the Glypotodonts. A new speci‘men of that family of animals has just been unearthed in fossil form by the Field Museum of Natural History. The ‘creature, whose bones were unearthed in Argentina, was ~ armed to the teeth. Et He was more than 10 feet long, and was armed like a . battle tank by means of a great shell covering. His head ~ and body were covered by a thick helmet and armor, and a - heavy sheathing encased also his tail, which culminated in a war club studded with horny knobs. There was a creature, one would have supposed, that

could outlast time. He roamed South America apparently *

. impregnable against his enemies. But about a million years - ago a little biped known as man appeared and made short shrift of him and his entire family. This new creature has something that Glyptodonts seemed to lack entirely. That 5 a brain.

SHARING RECOVERY LLOWING steel's pay raise announcement General Motors voted a $20,000,000 wage increase, along with salary raises, a widening of bonus eligibility, a common gtock dividend and another “appreciation fund.” Chrysler Corp. already had voted two bonuses to its employes. Here are signs of a healthy industry—fair profits and good output, with both employes and consumers sharing dn returning prosperity. If all American industries divided ‘their cream of profit with the workers in better wages and salaries and with the consumers in cheaper goods there would be no need for talk of “another NRA” or other regulatory measures. - Unfortunately they do not. Some legal method must be found to curb the sweat-shoppers and profiteers so that socially sound industries can prosper. More of industry’s earnings must be plowed back into mass Buying power, as some of the progressive industries

#ERA OF GOOD FEELING”

HE National Association of Manufacturers will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the patent system a series of dinners in a half score of cities, the keynote of which will be “a new era of good feeling between industry and the government.” The United States Chamber of Come meets this week in Washington, and, judged by exssions of its president, Harper Sibley, the same spirit hover over its deliberations. “The widespread desire of mapuiacturers to co-operate holeheartedly with government for the benefit of the ntry as a whole,” said C. M. Chester of General Foods, o is N. A. M.’s president, “will be symbolized by celerations to be held in Washington and 10 other large cities in Nov. 23.”

These expressions will be welcomed not only because’

Shey suggest a future republic united, at least in sentiment, on issues that must be met by all the people working together, but because they show a decided, if sudden, change pf policy on the part of two organizations whose policies pward public issues in the 1936 campaign were, by the ection, proved obsolete. We do not have to tax our memory to recall a meeting in New York last Dec. 5, under auspices of the N. A. M. which a blood feud was declared on President Roosevelt id all New Deal works. At that meeting manufacturers opted a political platform upholding the old order and houncing the new. Speakers assailed the New Deal as ! alien importation,” “an Oriental philosophy.” We hope and believe that the country’s big organs of business men have come to see the futility of : a government which has been so overwhelmingly orse d by the people. Business wil have to co-operate

x Lil

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Writer Grows Weary of Hearing’

T. R. Jr. and Alice Longworth Say President Is Their Fifth Cousin.

EW YORK, Nov. 16.—Thanks to many reminders from Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and his sister, Alice, most of us are now thoroughly aware that Franklin D. Roosevelt is only a fifth cousin of theirs. The

President, himself, has never been heard to claim a closer relationship and might even be glad to high-spade his fifth cousins on. a proposition of double or nothing with a private yearning for the

latter alternative no less eager than their own. And, considering the respective achievements of the two factions, the. insistent disclaimers of the Colonel and ‘Alice sound as though the Plaza Hotel at 25 Bowery were to station a barker in front of the place to announce over and over, “THis hotel has nothing but the name in common with the Plaza Hotel at Central Park.” Perhaps the analogy is a little harsh, for the Colonel made a record for bravery in the war and there is nothing shabby about him or Mrs. Longworth, but actually we heard them the first time and didn’t need telling even then. Therefore these frequent reiterations come to have the sound of a rather pathetic bid for personal - attention. The Colonel had his chance in politics and didn’t make it, and Mrs. Longworth had her lively, joyous day as daughter of a President and White House bride and wife of the Speaker of the House. That day is now on toward the cool of the evening. This- is Franklin D. Roosevelt's day and the sun would shine no brighter for him if he were brother to his fifth cousins, because he is just as big and strong and noisy in his own right as that other President Roosevelt from whom the Colonel and Alice inherit such public importance as they possess. » EJ 2 OUNG TED has been in politics ever: since 1919, but in all that time the only office to which he has been elected was the New York Legislature. Al Smith beat him for Governor in a big Republican year, and his appointments to govern Porto Rico and the Philippines, like his job as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Harding were a political inheritance from his father, for nobody will believe that a Lieut. Col. Mike Swift or a Major Pete Which would have received these posts on the strength of a combat record, a single hitch in the state assembly and a B. A. degree from Harvard. Like the son of Bob Fitzsimmons who had everything but what it takes in the ring, young Ted always

Mr. Pegler

‘left his big moments on the clock. In the Legislaiure ‘he could have raised hell, as his father surely would

have done, to prevent the expulsion of the Socialist members, but failed to dramatize the case. He should have shaken the very pillars against the state Prohibition Act but missed. #2 = = ND, though he afterward got credit for opposing the Teapot Dome t¥nsfer while serving in the Navy Department, that was a chance in which a real Roosevelt would have roared all over the country and made himself great though he wrecked the Harding Administration. . Mrs. Longworth is of the period of women’s rights,

So, all right, the President is only a fifth cousin to them. Or, wouldn't it be more like it to say that they are only fifth cousins to the President of the United States.

The Hoosier Forum

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

COMES TO, . DEFENSE

OF HOLC By Ned Brooks On first glance at foreclosure statistics of the Home Owners ‘Loan Corp., it'is natural to picture Uncle Sam as a Shylock. The HOLC, the figures BOW, has started — foreclosure proceedings against about 43,000 of its million borrowers, or about one out of every 23 whose homes were refinanced: by the government.

But before concluding that Uncle

‘Sam is the heartless lender demanding his pound of flesh from hapless.

citizens, let’s look at the principles on ‘which the mortgage relief program was established. The HOLC was created, not as a philanthropic institution ‘to allow rent-free possession of homes at public expense, but in an attempt

to rescue home owners who, because. reverses, were unable |g .| to carry their debts but who. were |

of tempor

conceded a chance: to: work out of their ‘difficulties if the obligations

were extended over a longer- period-|

at lower interest.

Every one of the million borrowers was in immediate danger of losing his home when the government came to his aid. He had to be, or he wasn’t eligible for. assistance. Each applicant, to quote :the law, must have been “in involuntary default . .:. with respect to indebt-edness-on his home . . . and unable to carry or refund his present mortgage ‘indebtedness.” . The HOLC, consequently, got the dregs of the mortgages—those which private lenders wouldn't continue |: to carry. Every one of the million was classified as “distress” and, without government aid, every one was on the verge of foreclosure.: ’

It is not surprising that some of |

the loans have turned sour—indeed,

it is to be expected that the volume:

of foreclosures. will increase as the HOLC continues its liquidation. But in the meantime, the majority of the million borrowers saved from dispossession, the real estate market has been rescued from a collapse, the urban mortgage debt has been reduced by about $4,500,000,000 and local and state governments have been reimbursed more than $225,000,000 in delinquent taxes. . Now let's look at the mortgages that are being foreclosed. : More than half, according -to HOLC officials, involve instances of borrowers who can but won't pay—people who regarded Uncle Sam as a soft-headed Santa Claus passing out. free rent. Many of these promptly paid up when the filing of foreclosure suits demonstrated that the HOLC meant to collect. ‘In other instances, borrowers have died or abandoned their properties. In still others, where their equities were small, they have consented to foreclosure to prevent the equities |

being wiped out entirely by inter-

est and

taxes. The HOLC is lenient fo borrow- |:

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Better Business Owes Gratitude to : Militancy of Labor Under Lewis; w ge

Undivided Profits Tax nid ps Should Have Been Larger.

(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.) -

ws

ers who make honest efforts to meet their - obligations. “Every reasonable consideration, ” says an official statement, “is extended to borrowers who intend to pay and can pay if- given a fair chance.” “But,” adds the statement, “it is not- fair to the public interest ‘to tolerate that small minority of borrowers who attempt :to evade ob-

ligations .they can’ undoubtedly |

meet. ” More than three billion dollars

“of public. money is at stake. HOLC expenses, plus its losses, must be

. within the spread between est on its mortgages and in= derest on its bonded indebtedness if its books are to balance at the end of 15 years. It is not a pleasant task to foreclose a home. It would be far easier, mechanically and politically, to wink at delinquent borrowers —and let the taxpayer eventually pay the losses. The HOLC, with

‘the courage to carry out the

original self-sustaining intent - of the act, isn’t operating: that way, » » ”

; BELIEVES THAT SUSANNAH

WILL BLOSSOM AGAIN By. Mrs. Mabel German Pat Hogan, Columbus, wants to know where Susannah is. Well, I was expecting you to miss her, Pat, as she surely got in your hair,

RIVERSIDE BY MAUD C. WADDELL

There’s a winding lane All bordered by trees:

will have been Where beckoning shadows

Greet each breeze,

"And bid 4 you welcome to Jong: Sought,

AT he peace and solitude Where oft you learn true gratitude.

Stands a long and wooded hill Where singing waters rippling fall Between piled rocks and MOSSY ledge; Here weary cares are ‘soothed away By Nature’s hand with soft caress. You wonder long in quiet pause Feeling akin to growing things; Seeming so strangely far removed: From nearby city’s stress and

: noise, And hy this stillness sometimes view That inner self you scarcely knew.

DAILY THOUGHT As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.—Isaiah 66:13, oy F all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the bor-

rower, not the owner, Rutherford,

The Washington Merry-Go-Round ;

-

She was a Republican and an American. : Her forefathers fought to free us from a master, that we might be a free people, and she never forgot it. She was taught that our Constitution is all but sacred, and that because of it .we .have-lived a free people, for the people and by the people as no other nation has lived. “When she saw evidence of the Constitution being man-handled in an unlawful way, she took up the stars and stripes and began waving them in the breeze, singing, “My Country Tis of Thee, Sweet

Land of Liberty.” Barbara Fritchie |

had the same patriotic spirit, but did not get the same mistreatment. Susannah was alone, helpless, and on relief. She had a job until the NRA took it away. So the New

‘Deal as usual played up their boon-

doggling (there's a word for you.) Against threats and intimidation she stood up-for her rights as a free American. She was told if she voted for Landon her relief would be taken away, but she still stood her ground. Finally, one dark night, Farley put her in a bag and Wallace plowed her under. They overlooked the most important thing; she had her pockets full of sunflower seeds and will blossom and flourish in good ‘season. But why do you call on Susan ah? Speaking of platforms, just what is the New Deal platform? You masquerade as Democrats, but that is

| false pretense, as any Democrat who knows why he is a Democrat

will tell you. Your New Deal candidate used the Democratic platform to mislead the people. He laid all the cards on the table, but it wasn’t long before not only the

"| deuces were wild but the whole (deck. If this is not fact, why did

all the leading Democratic statesmen disown the Administration? There are none so blind as those who refuse to.see and none so deaf as those who refuse to hear. This

Administration has tried only one |

or two schemes that were not unconstitutional. What's wrong? We have not had Americans running

: of state. Here at the end of this lovely lane ou ship of s

1, for one, think the Brainstormers, Tugwell, Wallace, Frankfurter, Ickes and others, should take a long vacation. I suggest Roosevelt take them all to Russia, where they will be better appreciated. He could take them fishing with him and balance the budget by leaving America for the Americans, CoE WRITER RAPS G. O. P, CAMPAIGN METHODS

‘By Perry Rule, Bringhurst

The campaign waged fo discredit the New Deal under the leadership of the favor-seeking beneficiaries of the Old Deal was so insufferably arrogant that the public regarded it irrelevant, unintelligible criticism indiscreet.

dicate, that this sort of campaigning has an exceedingly unwholesome effect.

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Doubts That John L. Lewis Aspires to Be President of These United States in 1940.

EW YORK, Nov. 16.—The New York Sun says that the recent election has gone to the head of John L. Lewis and that he wants to be President of the United States in 1940. The assertion as to the political ambitions of Mr. Lewis is based on a statement. by Cecil Carnes in a recent biography of the leader of the United Mine Workers.

But Mr, Carnes does not quote John L: as saying

anything about the matter, and the statement is no more than the biographer’s. guess or surmise. I think Mr. Carnes is wrong and I am guessing, too. In the days to come Lewis is likely to figure largely in the news, and it may be that he will be mentioned from tithe to time in these columns. I wish to correct a misapprehension. The rumor "has come to me on several oce casions lately that I am a pare ticularly close confidant of John L. Lewis. It isn’t true. I happen to know where the rumor. arose because I started it myself. All newspaper men are fond of pretending to a friendship with the great and near great. Everybody admits that Lewis stands, potentially at the very least, as one of the important men of America. 3 “This particular columnist may well have felt, “My employer will think better of me if he hears that I have moved out of the night club circuit into the

Mr. Broun

- world of action and have become a chum of John

L. Lewis.”

g » » ” : UT for the sake of argument, let us assume that John L. has listened to the buzzing of the bee. What is the crime in that? When I was a little lad they told us in school that any boy born in this coun try could grow up to be the President of the United States. They didn't encourage the little girls bee cause this was a long time before Woman Suffrage. I don’t think Lewis is bothering much about the presidency just now because he has such a big job on his hands. He is committed to the task of organs izing the men and women in the mass production industries and among all the unorganized groups. This number might reach anywhere from 10 to 0 million or even higher. Now, of course, John L. Lewis believes that labor should be concerned with the political as well as the economic front. Many agree with him. And his head ‘has not been turned over night. It is a head set upon a decidedly massive neck, and Lewis has come to his present beliefs slowly and after much consultation with others," 2 8 =» OME of the most trusted lieutenants of Lewis in the United Mine Workers were once his bitter enemies, And I would like to say a few words in regard to the assertion of the New York Sun that John L. Lewis is an arrogant dictator, and that this is proved by his attitude toward William Green. It is a little thick for Mr. Green to declare that the issue between the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. is one of democracy. Green has been maintained in office very largely by Hutcheson, of the Carpenters. The Carpenters have not held a convention in seven years. The United Mine Workers gre for ever holding meetings both locally and nationally, and you can see more good fights at a Mine Workers meeting than youll ever at Madison Square Garden. I submit this as a f of democracy.

William Green Has Come Long Way for Man of His Ability: He Is Living iiProt of Poreoniags of Not Taking Sides; He's on Spot Now, However,

on 16—For a man of mediocre: 3 eutral,