Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 December 1936 — Page 18

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The Indianapolis Times

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ROY W. HOWARD ' LUDWELL DENNY EARL D. BAKER | President Editor Business Manager

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(SCRIPPS ~ NOWARD

Give Light and the People Will Pind Thetr Own Wap

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1936

LET NOTHING YOU DISMAY "WHAT'S today, my fine fellow?"

he leaned out

called Mr. Scrooge as a crisp, jovial

of his window on morning. “Today ?” called back the boy addressed, “Why, it's | Christmas Day.” | So it is. And just as that selfish old miser of Dickens immortal “Christmas Carol” had learned the meaning of this day of days before it was too late, so, it would seem, the human family today desperately needs to learn it now. What Scrooge heard from the phantom on Christmas F.ve was that human benevolence, tolerance and kindness

are They are the only keys that

’

more than mere words,

will open the doors to personal joys, family cheer, national well-being and international peace.

In the Americas this spirit of Christmas appears to | have loosed itself in a resurgence of good will between countries, classes and

individuals. President Rooseveit’s

Good Neighbor policy is being implemented in the pending peace pact between the Latin-American republics and our own, and Secretary Hull's trade treaties are proving our willingness to co-operate in peaceful commerce with all nations. Our own business men have called off their fight against the government, have asked for “an era of good feeling,” and are expressing an eagerness to co-operate in passing their new prosperity around the national table. But, with all this good will, what a deal there is to do | al home! Staggering tasks lie ahead in unemployment, preventable disease, curable poverty, strikes, low wages, sweatshops, child labor and a myriad of old and new social evils. We know that personal acts of kindness and charity will lighten many of these burdens, but we also know that in a complex society social evils must be cured socially. Christmas is a good time to begin turning our good will into etfective deeds of reform. In the world outside the picture is even more discouraging. On this anniversary nearly 2000 years after the heavenly host proclaimed the first Christmas message in Judea, peace seems farther than ever from the earth, good | will more than ever a stranger to the peoples of Europe | and Asia. Christian Spain is torn by a fratricidal war. China is on the brink of another. The land of the yule log, Kris Kringle and the Christmas tree is ruled by race- | hating pagan strutters who threaten to plunge the Old World into another frightful holocaust. The land of the | Christian Catholic Pope has just finished an unholy . war on helpless Ethiopia. As these and other fear-torn nations arm for new slaughter, how hollow the Christmas formula must sound to their people, The world this yuletime is a challenge indeed to men of peace and good will. Yet what is evil but a challenge? As we gather in our little friendly circles we should remember that the kindness that is in all our hearts can with | toil and courage be translated into all our institutions. Today let this old and famous carol be our toast: God rest wou, merry gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay!

THE PRESIDENT AND NEUTRALITY THE well-nigh unanimous decision of the Supreme Court sustaining the right of Congress to delegate wide power to the President in conducting our foreign affairs came as na great surprise. Indeed it would have been surprising tad it ruled otherwise. The Constitution expressly delegates such power to | the chief executive. And while it wisely provides numerous checks to prevent him going off the deep end before he can be halted, within these limits his discretion is absolute. The importance of the court's decision arises from the | fact that no sooner will Congress convene two weeks hence | than it will begin work on something to replace or amend the present temporary neutrality law designed to keep us from being sucked into a foreign war. The question then | will arise as to how far Congress can standardize our policy and how much leeway is to be left in the hands of the resident. The President—and the State Department, his foreign oflice—feel very strongly that his hands must not be tied | too tightly. And the Supreme Court—headed by Chief | Justice Hughes who formerly held the post of Secretary of State—plainly supports that view. For, it says, “Congressional legislation which is to be made effective through negotiation and inquiry within the international field must often accord to the President a degree of discretion dnd freedom from statutory restrictions which would not be admissible were domestic affairs alone involved.” The neutrality legislation ahead of the President and Congress is going to be difficult. The factors involved are myriad, delicate and dangerous. No compromise law will be satisfactory. A law which will “nearly” keep us out of war, like the second-best hand at poker, is no answer. What is required is a workable solution. What that solution should be is something the very best brains the nation affords should ponder well. As far as humanly possible our neutrality policy should be standardized and made automatic. Nevertheless that is easier said than done. It has to do with amazing complexities and contradictions. It must deal with controls over embargoes, shipping, trade, loans, foreign travel, blockade, contrabrand, freedom of the seas, communications, propaganda and so on and on. Some neutrality problems can be regulated in advance. Others can not because they can not be foreseen. No two conflicts are ever identical. No two foreign complications alike. Our own domestic situation may be little or ever so vitally involved. Congress can and should chart the general course the ship of state should take in a crisis, however essential it may be to leave the pilot the necessary discretion to steer it inside the broad channel thus marked out.

| those who do so should | stand that they are being absurd | and, probably, provoking comment

| babies?”

Just Waiting for t

! By Talburt

— Ease os

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Mr. Pegler Takes Up Beautiful Mystery of Love and Explains It, at Least to Own Satisfaction. TEW YORK, Dec. 25.—The beautiful mystery of love, always a popular topic, has received so much attention from press and pulpit lately that I think I ought to explain. Love is a soft but permanent sentiment

| and should be confidential between parties

A and B. They should, of course, publicly avow their

love, by means of a wedding, as a notice to the world |

that they are withdrawing from competition and wish

to be known as ineligible. But it is

not desired that they kiss and hold hands and roll their eyes in night clubs before or after. It is not only undesirable but vulgar to make these demonstrations, and under -

which would cause the blush of shame to mantle their cheeks were they to hear the same. As a general thing the more ostentatious the public display, the less legitimate and enduring is the love between parties A and B. This

Mr. Pegler

| is not an infallible rule, for some

very devoted lovers unconsciously give evidence oi their affection, but it may be said that most people who are truly in love avoid false moves which invite curiosity. It is not necessary to dissemble love to the extent of A's kicking B down stairs or vice versa. For that, too, borders on ostentation. But if parties A and B Just be themselves, neither clutching and ogling to show their devotion, nor punching and snarling to pretend otherwise, they meet the situation nicely. = n = LL lovers, in the first enthusiasm of a new attraction, also known as romance, are likely to think that they have hit upon something original, and this is a situation which calls for extraordinary self-control. They should realize that they are not

quite right and use the brakes a little more firmly. |

As a matter of faci, the heart is not implicated at all, being merely a physical organ, and the poets have created a regrettable confusion by localizing love in the heart. True, the pulse is accelerated in this state, but the same effect is produced by anger, fear, anxiety, alcohol, and sometimes by something that

the French call by a French name meaning indiges- | tion,

” n ” CARDIOGRAM will show no scientific difference between the quality and rate of a heart stimulated by love, wrath, worry, chicken chow mein or intoxicants. Love and alcohol, particularly gin or champagne, might produce minor cardiac pecularities, but this is just a guess. observation that people who think they are in love on short acquaintance in many cases prove to have been merely plastered. Anyway, when in drams, it is well to fold the hands on the table, where they will show plainly in the candid camera pictures, and keep a still tongue except to say “No” when a lady asks, “Don’t you love That might be an academic question, but too often it is the build-up for a midnight ride to the home of some suburban politician and saloon keeper who combines the complementary functions of marrying justice and champagne-booster for roadhouse wedding parties. If one does not wish to say “No” abruptly, one should at least say, “Submit your proposition in writing and I will take it up in business hours.” to one’s self, “Armonk-Reno-lawyers-alimony-ouch!”

‘| VIRGIL PHEMISTER

It is based on the |

And one should repeat over and over |

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

The Hoosier Forum

LIVE WITH CHRIST'S IDEALS, WRITER PLEADS | By Temperatus

| Without ideals, the spirit perishes. | Without food, the body dies. With- | out God, people are blinded. And

a ——

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

the comforts of life because the Lord has allowed us to live to the age where our services are no longer in demand. We should not be penalized at a | time when we are least fitted to bear it, as we can not help growing

Letters

| blind people can not live—by them- | | selves. It is people with ideals, with vision, with faith, with love in their

| life—for life is a battle. Cease battling and you die. Fail to see and | you can not battle.

That beautiful, magnificent Spirit, |

Jesus Christ, said: “TI am the Life,” ON TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

aay is a wondrous, Jo day. 1 oy R. B. Thomas oday we honor the birth of Him. ; | Soon the year will be spent. Let | or | us resolve, let us determine that He | i shall not have died in vain. That! we, too, shall love. That we will re- | turn good for evil. That we will | urdays? smile and carry on though the world {This go black before us, and perhaps we | can not see. Today, God is with us. Today we move in the name of the Lord.

u #

- PLEASED AT HEARING

| By Mrs. Mary C. Wharton, Portland, Ore, ment first.

| While a guest in your beautiful | city I had the delightful pleasure of | hearing Virgil Howard Phemister. | The Times’ reference to Mr.

call.

on the “Jordan Players” in the Murat was pleasing to mle, and en- |

courages me to believe that all of | BY “An Oldster,” Franklin Old-age pensions must has a great | first place in the consideration of | singer. I trust that The Times will | highly important subjects that will | be brought up in Legislature and Congress the coming session. We old people, for various reasons | that time I hard no mellow, golden | now out of the running, but still here as consumers, should not be thrown in the discard and want for

| Indianapolis will some day wake up | | to discover that it

| do its part to wake the city up. | For more than 25 years I was on | the concert stage, and during all |

| voice that would equal Mr. Phemis- | ter’s voice.

| | with a crown of thorns forced down upon his head, at least we can sym-

| hearts, who carry on the battle of | Pathize with the Englishmen who have read English newspapers.

Chief Morrissey

Why do our traffic officers insist on directing traffic through safety | zones in our downtown area on Sat-

a common practice at Capitol-av and Maryland-st. { do you allow traffic to make a left | | turn on Capitol-av between Mar- | ket and Washington-sts into those | parking lots? This certainly causes | a lot of traffic hazards. I hope that | | the Chief and Capt. Johnson will | | start schooling our police depart-

| Police cruisers should stay in line of traffic except when they have a

”

| Phemister in the critic's comment ‘QLDSTER' ASKS MORE | FOR AGED PENSIONS

”

| MAKES SUGGESTIONS

| old. The facts are, we should have ! sufficient assistance through the | agencies of the Public Weliare De- | partment to be made comfortable in ‘old age as a reward for what we contributed in long years of production.

It is an insult and a blot on the escutcheon of this fair state to expect us to halfway live on $5 to $15 a month as now paid out through the County Auditor's office. More is being paid for the administration of the fund than is going to the support of us. old persons who are in dire need. . . {5

”

and

cants like they wefré investigating criminals, then finally recommend | a beggarly sum, and if one Kicks, they act as though they were paying it out of their own pockets.

Why

scrutinized in that manner and when they finally allowed me the full amount of $15 a month, they acted as though I should fall on my knees in praise.

It must all come from a tax, so why make us go to our county and appear before the commissioners and feel the humiliation of getting a check each month from the county auditor? The SpanishAmerican and other soldiers got theirs from Uncle Sam. They claim they were serving their country. We also were serving the same country by producing and paying taxes to maintain them. We are as much entitled to $60 a month. . . . The present Congress has an op-

”

have a

| PREDICTS WINDSOR'S RETURN TO THRONE By L. P.

Peace on earth,

‘British throne. The publicity de-| frain.

partment of the British government | ‘doesn’t build up a King unless they Can angels sing,

‘know they have control of him, Can bells ring out y : A | Upon a world so fraught with strife,

There is no telling what turn | That cares so little for human life?

body and soul.

slain,

General Hugh Johnson Says —

Pestilence of International Dishonesty Responsible for Failure of

Faith and Credit Upon Wh

ASHINGTON, Dec. 25—~The best defini- | tion of sound money is “something that men

~ everywhere will exchange freely for their goods and

services.” Money is a nation’s promise to insure value for what it is exchanged for.

ich World Commerce Formerly Was Based.

and bankers—as a matter of “best policy.” It is going, if not gone. Neither treaties nor monetary promises which do not remain to the advantage of the nations which made them are any longer dependable. Perhaps Germany began it by invading Belgium, but maybe she had to. The bolshevist repudiation of all czarist debt carried the collapse of honesty to commercial fields. Germany spread it further by devaluation, then extended it to a point where any nation which would rely on a promise of the Reich would be regarded as an international zany. Every debtor nation in , by defaulting the American debt, confirmed conclusion that international fiscal and commercial honor is little more than a fiction. This

any of this may excuse it, no eloquence can give it a softer name than the bare facts utter—international crookedness destroying the faith and credit

floated the commerce of the world. The trouble with the commerce, the employment and the peace of the whole world is the post-war pestilence of international dishonesty. is no

CHRISTMAS 1936 BY BERNICE DUNCAN

I wish to join Heywood Broun Go00d will to men, in predicting that David Windsor Christmas bells ring out again ' soon will find his way back to the The calm, sweet notes of this re-

Of | Good will to men,

| If they sing o'er war-torn Spain.

DAILY THOUGHT

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. —Proverbs 21:13.

A rich man without charity is a | rogue; and perhaps it would be no rective effects of this new system | If we can not sympathize with difficult matter to prove that he is would be more desirable from a | the synthetically democratic King also a fool.—Fielding.

portunity now, this term, to set this matter in the place it belongs and we believe it will be done at an | early cate.

u n

SHORTER PENAL SENTENCES ADVOCATED By W. W. | It seems to me that a key to solu- ! tion of the crime problem may be | to give very short sentences in most | cases, instead of the present penal system which permits fraternalization of prisoners. The plan should | embody isolation, thus preventing their teaching each other crime, If

{ " |

Herald angels keep vigil o'er the | possible, I would prevent any pris-

I believe the punishment and cor-

| omer from learning the identity of |

standpoint of public welfare.

Some of the officials treat appli- |

I know, because my application was |

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

The Shepherds and the Wise Men and the Kings Traveled to Bethlehem to See the Savior.

NEW YORK, Dec. 25.—“And she brought forth her firstborn, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

From near at hand and from distant lands there came visitors to Bethlehem. There were kings and there were shepherds. They followed the same star. One of the royal party leaned down from his camel to listen to a shepherd who said, “We were in the field watching our flock and suddenly an angel appeared. We were very much frightened. And the angel said to: us, ‘Fear not, for, behold, I bring: you good tidings of great joy, which. shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ve shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And then suddenly the sky was filled with a great light and voices sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And the light faded and we | began to talk to each other and we decided to leave: just one man with the flock and we went up to Bethlehem to see this thing which is come to pass and which the Lord has made known to us.” And the eldest of the wise men explained, “For us it was a star, a new star in the heavens, and it | seemed to us that the star beckoned, and we gath- | ered together treasures of gold and frankincense and myrrh.” And he pointed to the great retinue behind him and the camels heavily laden with bales and bundles of precious stuffs,

”

Mr. Broun

n ”

ND the shepherds seemed ashamed and said, “We

have brought nothing. We came straight from the field when the angel spoke to us. And we were in

| great haste.”

They could see and detect the place of their destination at the end of the street. The star shone directly on the stable. And because it was only a small place and the party of the kings was large the shepherds made as if to step aside so that these great men from a distant land might go first with their precious gifts for the King of kings. But the eldest of the wise men waved to the shepherds to join his servants and not to humble themselves. “Whether it be from far or near,” he said, “we are on the same mission. We should enter into the house together.”

” ” »

ND in the street the servants opened cedar chests

and revealed great bars of gold. Through the narrow door and up to the manger itself strode the kings and great bearded men bearing treasure. The timid shepherds followed and ranged themselves in the back of the room.

The eldest of the wise men said, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen

| His star in the east and are come to worship Him { And we bring with us rich treasures of gold and

frankincense and myrrh.” And Mary, the mother, looked up at the great throng and paid no heed to the gifts of gold and incense but placed her finger upon her lips and said to the shepherds and to the kings, “The baby sleepeth.”

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Reading of 'A Christmas Carol' Is an Annual Ritual in President Roosevelt's Household; He Intones the Classic With Great Gusto.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Dec. 25.--“Oh, but he was a tight- | fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, | covetous old sinner!” When Franklin Roosevelt rolls these words on his tongue he does so with the same dramatic relish as | when he is making a campaign diatribe against economie royalists. ’ But politics is far from his mind. He is seated in | the White House, surrounded by his children and their children, and he is maintaining an old Christmas tradition in the Roosevelt household of reading “A Christmas Carol.” Most of the group have heard the Dickens story many times. Son James can recite whole passages of it by heart. The Roosevelt children have been brought up on “A Christmas Carol” as the President was brought up on it before them. For the famed Yuletide story was a perennial in the home of James Roosevelt Sr. n ” n HE ritual is no trifling matter in the President's household. It can the chauffeur waits to take young members of the family out to a party. that. It is true he

, moving passages, but the whole story is read through - | slowly and leisurely.

The family gathers in the West Hall of the White House, second floor, on the second evening before Christmas, Dec. 23. This is Jimmy's birthday. The President has done his home-work in advance by reading through the story and marking passages.

. which he will omit.

He reads about half the story at one sitting. The

| last half is read the next evening, Christmas eve.

# un n

Ax Christmas time two years ago, the President was not feeling equal to putting on his show.

- He suggested to Mrs. Roosevelt that she pinch-hit

for him. But the children would have no understudy. The passages the President reads with most effecs_ tiveness are the scenes where Scrooge scolds hisnephew for his generosity and calls Christmas a “humbug,” the Christmas eve dance at old Figgwig's warehouse, and the Christmas dinner—with goose—at Bob Cratchit’s house, The most touching scene of all, as the President reads it, is the final one at the Cratchit house, at the deathbed of Tiny Tim, the cripple. But the Presie dent, with the material aid of Dickens and his ime terial ghost, revives spirits to holiday gaiety before : RI sg Te