Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 November 1936 — Page 10
Give Light and he People i. Find Their Own Way SATURDAY, NOVEMBBER 21, 1936
TRAFFIC CRACKDOWN
IN three days, a police drive against traffic violators has brought 235 drivers into court. Many were arrested funning preferential streets, others for ignoring stop
8 or lights,. some for improper lights, and some for |
inken or reckless’ driving. 5 Er. auto death toll has risen sharply. Five persons lave been killed in accidents here during the last week, g the 1936 Marion County tdtal to 142, or 12 more ‘at this time last year.
So this crackdown by the police and courts not only is tified; it is essential if the slaughter of men, women and lildren in the streets is to be checked. Municipal judges are to be commended for not hesitatto mete out punishment in many of these cases. Three
persons were given State Farm sentences. yesterday. The
enforcement drive would be more effective, however, if the “| practice of suspending costs were curbed sharply. These alli too-common suspensions tend to modify the value of our traffic laws, The warning today that more offenders are going to lose their driving licenses is a heartening sign. A “tolerant attitude” on the part of the public has been blamed in the “past for the increase in drunken and reckless driving. This ‘(attitude no longer exists. Enioiespient, not coddling, is wanted and needed, If this traffic “drive” becomes part of our enforceiment routine, ‘Indianapolis, may begin making inroads on its shameful accident record. :
FUEHRER, DUCE AND FRANCO
IN perfect and meaningful accord, Italy and Germany have extended recognition to Spain's rightist rebels, thus bringing Europe’s Fascist and Communist camps a long step - nearer the inevitable showdown. : The fact that Madrid had not yet fallen when “the - government of Gen. Franco” was officially recognized is of kus significance. It indicates that Hitler and Mussolini re prepared to join hands, if necessary, to prevent further Soviet aid reaching the tottering leftist regime in Spain. 2 It means that the Fuehrer and I1 Duce have openly sthrown down the gauntlet to Moscow's iron man Josef Stalin, And that today the futuré of Europe may hang = apon whether the Communist leader picks it up, or backs down rather than engage in an open struggle over supremacy in Spain. | In the light of diplomatic reports from other sectors of the world, however, it might be that for Stalin the better of wisdom would be to choose the latter course. For, cit or written, it begins to look very much as if Germany and Japan had about reached an understanding with regard to the Soviet Union. ~ Russia in the East if and when Germany marches against “her in the West. And vice versa.
MR. DAVIES TO MOSCOW
N naming Joseph E. Davies as our ambassador to Soviet Russia President Roosevelt has conferred a high honor. But he has loaded on willing shoulders tasks that may "require energy, tact, patience and wisdom'such as no Amer-
ican diplomat has been called upon to muster since the
orld War. Mr. Davies, an extremely wealthy man, will go to a country with an economy alien to his every tradition. He will reach Russia at.a time when hostile nations of Asia and Europe threaten to close on her and force her into war on two fronts. And he will represent a republic whose people are determined in the event of such a struggle to remain at all costs neutral and peaceful. Mr. Davies might have tarried in pleasanter scenes, living the life of a carefree American of wealth and leisure. But, as he has chosen public service before, he chooses now, (obviously prepared to give it the best that he
&
MR. WILLARD WAS RIGHT I)ANIEL WILLARD, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, isn’t the type of gentleman to say “l told you so.” Still, we can imagine that Mr. Willard, making his report at the one hundred tenth annual meeting of
the B. & O. stockholders, got a lot of quiet pleasure out
of what he was able to say about the effect of lower pas-
‘When the heads of, most other Eastern polls bitterly fought the idea of reducing fares, and contended that pvernment interference” was damaging their business, finally obeyed the Interstate Commerce Commission’s der reluctantly and under protest, Mr. Willard was not rely tolerant toward the idea. He strongly advocated ng lower fares a trial. Now, he tells his stockholders, the experiment has own itself a financial success. ) Per-mile train earnings up about 101% per cent on the B. & O. and lower fares, ther with improved services have done much to make
public more friendly toward the railroads. Observation
3 that other roads are having the same experience.
r+ vos os om Bg iss
Apparently Japan is ready to attack
SPANISH ol
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
Fingerprinting of . Florida Workers
Smacks Strongly of Fascism and Is Bad Blow af American Freedom.
EW YORK, Nov. 21.—I have received
letters from Miami and Miami Beach attempting to justify the mugging and fingerprinting of hotel and restaurant employes this winter on the ground that this is in-
‘tended to protect the hotel guests and other idle visitors from the depredations of individauls
among the help who might happen to be thieves or blackmailers. The intention is not bad, but the
method is fascist, and the whole process gives an idea of the in-
‘credible gall of that class of mer-
chants, promoters and citizénfixits who elect themselves leading spirits of a community and claim the right to degrade and humiliate working people. There is no ground for suspecting that hotel guests and other idle visitors, or politicians or local policemen are superior to. any other class of people out of prison, A hotel is -a public. house whose entrance requirements vary from one ..suitcase to half. a. dozen trunks, and there is never any inquiry into the applicant’s moral character When he steps up to sign: the books. He and the man who rents a house for the season are entitled to the benefit of a doubt and it is only fair to say that they are probably as decent as the people who go down there to work but no more so. I have encountered many hotel guests and renters in Florida and hundreds of employes, too. And F would add that, although the guests and renters included some dubious, not to say notorious, characters, the help, at worst, was only a little too democratic and not very expert.
» » # ne may have been some among them who would lift a dollar or a yard of pearls, but they
don’t get much pay, anyway. And people who stagger .
home from a night club in the dawn and sling jewels around a hotel room create an impression that a diamond watch wouldn't be missed and set up a strong temptation. But, even so, such thefts have not been common, as
I am sure the hotel men will be eager to agree, where-
as, for years it has been customary for the gambling house operators of the north to get up a Christmas fund along about August and send it down to the two Miamis for distribution among the local statesmen by way of preparation for the winter season.
UT in this country it is any American’s privilege
to go wherever he pleases and seek work subject to any reasonable local regulations applying to all classes of free citizens. If the Miamis were to say that every one, locdl and transient, guest gg well as employe, must report to the police to be photographed and finger-printed for comparison with the files of the Department of Justice, that would be all right because it wouldn't work, and nobody would lose any rights,. But, under the laws and the popular under= standing of freedom in this country, a high-school kid from Grand Forks arriving in Miami ‘or the beach to apply -for honest work is just as good as any guest, merchant, promoter and politician in town, and, in a showdown, might prove more desirable. It is a strange idea these leading citizens have, that because they have business interests and have localized themselves a few years they have a right to herd her Americans into the police station and to rege t they produce, on demand, an identity card,
stamped by a cop who serves an administration which
is not too honest itself. -
Jpent’s, tooth, and. above all,
CN Pegler To er deceived
1 wholly defend to
The Hoosier Forum
disagree. with what you say,
the death your right to say it—Voltaire.
but will
BELIEVES DEMOCRATS RICHLY REWARDED By H. L. In Democratic circles there is intense and widespread interest cocerning the political rewards accuring from the recent victory of clean politics. With a sense of justice as keen as that of a child, each
precinct worker - is considering the relative value of his services in the work of a great organization. Naturally, no enlightened American
the subject of exploitation. The big boys realize that the outcome of an election is largely des
| pendent upon which political organ-
ization has the greater power and efficiency. They know that efficien¢y in organization depends on har-
‘| mony, which in turn depends on
‘Justice, | Since there is a scarcity of new jobs, the task of keeping every one satisfied is a. difficult and delicate one. Needless to say, the citizens: who did the actual work are sénsitive to. the sharpness of the ser-
it, busts
All crusading Democrats ' cannot be justly rewarded for their services through political ® jobs. = Therefore it would be nice if each disciple would think of himself as a member of the great brotherh that saved America from the hofrors of Hooverism. Each of t citizens, as an American, -in a very real sense, is richly rewarded for his sacrifice. :
EJ ”» ® ‘NINE OLD MEN’ HELD : VICTIMS OF PRECEDENT By Reader ‘ It seems to me that all the propaganda about the sacredness of the
clare laws unconstitutional has served only to stir up a campaign of hate against the “nine old men.” It is time some one stop this cam- | paign of hate by infornring Americans that their fire at the “nine old men” is misdirected. Surely some smart editor could explain that the “nine old men” are the victims of a court procedent established in 1803—that they have to pass on the constitutionality of laws —that Congress by legislative action can relieve them of this odious task. ; 2 2 = TWO LESS CREDITORS AFTER ‘CAMPAIGN, WRITER NOTES By W. 8. To illustrate his own troubles during the campaign, Charman John Hatton told ‘a story about a Kansas flood. “Standing on a bridge,” he sald, “we saw a huge log float by, riding the middle of the current. On that log swarmed thousands of ants. And every one of those ants thought he was guiding the log.” The story somehow seems applicable to the statements made re-
likes to think of himself as being :
right of the Supreme Court to de~|
cently by special groups and political aders who have come. for
General Hugh Tohen Says—
Tugwell Would Make Fine University President: Cabinet Probably wa | £4
Not Change Very Much; Homer
ASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 21—Tt was a brave jor Reg Tugwell In heen.
doesn't | but he de
(Times readers are mvited 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.)
ward to claim credit for Roosevelt's re-election. We'll hear more from these when Congress begins consideration of legislation affecting ‘the special groups. : Meanwhile there is some consolation in the knowledge that at least two special pleaders who rode the Roosevelt log in on the flood tide of 1932 were not riding it in 1936. One is, that rugged agrarian, George N. Peek, who got peeved with the New Deal because the President wouldn’t go along with his pet plan of regimenting foreign trade. The other is Father Coughlin, whose peeve arose from the President’s refusal to take the flywheel off the monetary printin
«The only obligation the E dont.
can owe them is a debt of gratitude for crawling off his log. And credit for that, it is pleasant to reflect, is politically non-negotiable. 8 8 8 WRITER HAS LAUGH AT ‘TORY’ PAPERS’ EXPENSE
By Max Kinney
_I am still indulging myself with a | good laugh over the discomfort that
many of our Tory papers have to suffer from the face-slap the people gave them on election day. So re-| sounding was this smack it was heard around the world. Now that the people know who really are their allies, I should like to own or acquire stock in some of the comparatively few liberal newspapers and magazines whose owncrs and managements had the cour
GOD
BY DR, ROBERT O. LEVELL | However so big the path you trod, Or whatever Jou size may be; Youre 50 small in ways compared
When you open your eyes and see.
i
‘His is the strength of One Supreme, Possessed with the greatest of power:
Bverywhetg you look His work ®
He smiles in the heart ofa. flower.
DAILY. THOUGHT Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sofry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing—I1 Corinthians 13. TRUE repentance shuns the evil itself, more than the ex-| ternal suffering or the shame— Shakespeare.
-
age to raise their shrewd steel against the cloaked devil. For great
forget. The most promising result of the searing rebuff is that it may “tend to check, for a time, an organized campaign well under way to sell democratic people anti-liberal, antipeace ideas. What more vital con‘cern, to our highest spiritual and material welfare, possibly can be imagined than this issue: Shall it be an offense: against our sovereign citizenry, more serious than “lese majesty,” for the public prints to circulate enslaving ideas in the sole interest of the Fascist few? Propaganda, in the sense of spreading false and true ideas, is the very life-stream of a people. It is what the blood cells are to the physical body. The people should decide now and forever whether our
the true or false. Lol a : PENSION AND POLICE JOB UNFAIR, IS VIEW By M. R. Quirke .«. War with Spain was over Dec. 10, 1898, when the peace treaty was sighed. Here comes a man enlisted in March, 1901, who ‘served three years and gets a job with the city
police department.and retires on a pension. : Today, In addition, Uncle Sam’s taxpayers must pay him $50 a month, as he was ‘three-quarters disabled during the war with Spain. Can't there be some way Uncle ‘Sam's G-men or Congress can ‘give eibizgns protection from this?
R ® » AEADER FINDS SOME GOOD IN DEPRESSION By William Lemon ii That there is a little bit of good in
| everything bad was proved by the | depression.
The recent election proved that ‘the average American has learned to do his own thinking after Ahe depression had given Ris brain much needed exercise.... - Labor has learned to reject what capital accepts and the propaganda of closed shops and full dinner jpalis, Both labor and capital 34 earn that they are essential to other’s prosperity, for the old or of huge profits’ and low wages is, gone. . . . Company unions are one of the greatest jokes in American history. If you expect the manufacturers’ association and the Chamber of Commerce to play Santa Claus, you are all wet. They never did and never will as long as you remain unorganized. Now is the time to or-
| panize and to affiliate with other
Jabor organizations. In fine of Pesce prepare for war,” for there is gnly ‘one Roose.
velt, and Be is with us,
shall be their reward. We shall not |"
national body shall be nourished by |
It Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Tugwell Talented ~ Official and Took One of Fiercest” Barrages Ever Directed Against Public Man.
"JEW YORK, Nov. 21.—Congress should award a wound stripe to Rexford Guy, Tugwell. His side has gone onto victory, but Tugwell has dropped out because he has found it too difficult to walk about with so.
much shrapnel under his skin. ' Nobody can accuse him of quittif® under fire. He stood the gaft during the late campaign, in which he 'was- used by the opposition as a symbol of everything crack-brained.
And let it be said for Rexford ~~
Guy Tugwell that he walked forward steadily with his eyes open against one of ‘the fiercest bare rages which have ever been laid on a public man by the press of America. It so happens that 1 saw him in Washington on the morning that the shells began to break around
him. I called up his office for an ,_ appointment and was told that _
Dr. Tugwell could see me at 8 a. m. . ~The thing which interested me was ‘a story going around among the correspondents that Tugwell was being left out on a limb by
Mr. Broun
‘the Administration in the matter of He Pure ‘Food
and Drugs Act.
1 think I rather startled the good dostor by my opening remark. I said to him: “I hope youve got your private life, or lives, in order.” He looked at me a little incredulously, and I hastened to explain: “What I méan to say, Dr. Tugwell, is that I am wondering whether you realize what a terrible beating you are going to get ‘in the newspapers, and magazines.” oh “And it won't all be done directly in connection with the Pure and Drugs Act,” I added. “They're going to sneak up on you from behind. Indeed, from every angle.” : Tugwell gave a rather weary smile and suggested that he had already taken quite a trimming as “the professor in polities,” “the revolutionist” and all the rest of \t. 2 = ” UT,” I insisted, “this is going to be much worse than anything you've taken as yet.” ’ Before leaving I asked him about the report that he was being harshly dealt with by his chief and put ~ on the spot by having his name connected with a measure which was. not truly his own. I mentioned the matter of the announcement that the bill was not an Administration measure. : Dr. Tugwell admitted that he was on the spot, but he insisted that he had walked there of his own volition. “I didn’t inspire the Pure Food and Drugs Act,” he said. “I didn’t write it, and it is not the type of legislation in which I'm rily interested. Of course I'm for it, but I'm chiefly interested in ree adjustment and recovery measures. »
‘Bi, he continued, “there’s nbting | in this story that I'm being callously sacrificed by the Presi ent. What would you expect Mr. Roosevelt to do? -can’t fight a battle on 10 or 12 fronts at the same time. It is essential strategy for the President to restalk Lis ditve lo three on four primary oblestives. I'm to take the rap on this drug business, but that's my assignment. It’s entirely reasonable to ask certain individuals to bear the brunt of particular ba Rexford Guy Tugwell is a highly compete talented public official. He has served Bis oom country well and contributed much in setting the tone of the to co ein Dong dave me wn on ere Was a man done in by selfish forces.