Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 December 1936 — Page 12

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

LUDWELL DENNY EARL D. BAKER Editor Business Manager

ROY W. HOWARD President

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E> RIley 5551

Give LApht anda the People Will Pind Thelr Own Way

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1936

NEBRASKA'S OTHER EXPERIMENT TWO years ago Democrat R. L. Cochran was elected Governor of Nebraska by a 17,388 plurality, and 133 members were elected to the state’s two-house Legislature —85 Democrats, 46 Republicans. Gov. Cochran’s re-elec-tion plurality this year was over 77,000, and President Roosevelt carried Nebraska by 100,000, but of the 43 members elected to the new one-house Legislature 22 are Demo-

crats and 21 are Republicans. . This vear, in primary and general election, the legislative candidates appeared on the ballots without party designations. Instead of voting blindly for Democrats or Republicans the voters had to choose between individuals. Of the 43

members elected, 32 have had previous legislative experi-

There is evidence that they chose intelligently.

ence—in most cases, highly creditable experience. In other states, as formerly in Nebraska, a landslide for a presidential or gubernatorial candidate of either party usually carries a majority of that party's legislative candidates. The voters give little thought to the qualifications of the men who want to make their state laws. That system has produced some very bad Legislatures; and it seems a rather absurd svstem, since whether legislators are honest and able or crooked and incompetent is vastly more “important than whether they are Republicans or Democrats. Other states will watch with interest Nebraska's experiment with a one-house Legislature. Worth watching also will be Nebraska's experience with the companion innovation, the non-partisan election of lawmakers on their individual merits rather than on their ability to get attached to a party ticket.

MR. DOOLEY AND MR. HOOVER

AFTER months of tasting the sweets of public praise, J. Edgar Hoover's G-men must have been surprised at the bitter dose of criticism administered to them on the occasion of their recent and allegedly loose handling of firearms and tear gas in the capture of a criminal in a New York apartment house. But it will be just as well for Mr. Hoover and his cohorts not to waste too much time pondering the fickleness of public opinion. : In the kidnaping at Tacoma, Wash., of the 10-year-old Charles Mattson, the G-men have again an opportunity to show the stuff of which their reputation is made. If they capture the kidnapers, their new success will blot out memory of the recent criticism. But if they fail on this, and on two or three more opportunities that are most certain to follow, then they may as well get ready for another experience in the impermanence of public esteem. For American psychology has not changed much since the time of Admiral Dewey's rise and fall as a public hero, which prompted Mr. Dooley to observe: “When ye build yer triumphal arch to yer conquerin’ hero, Hinnissey, build it out of bricks so the people will have somethin’ convanient to throw at him as he passes through.”

PAGE MAJOR HOOPLE!

HE one hundredth anniversary of the Federal patent law now being celebrated discloses the comforting fact that America’s master minds are still working to make life easier, Among the choicer devices for which patents have heen granted are: A mechanism baited with cheese that automatically ties a bell to a rat’s neck and turns him loose to frighten away his fellows; A “pedal calorificator,” by which tubes fastened to your mouth blow hot air into your shoes to warm your feet: A coffin bell to be rung by an unhappy mortal who wakes up to find himself “dead” and buried: .

A traveling washing machine, filled wi $ irty | g g d with suds and dirty | ence, but managing great business interests for him-

clothes and attached to the auto's running board. All the laundry man needs to do is to drive his car over rough roads;

down the whiskers (ouch!) ; A hair-raising mechanism for boring holes in bald scalps into which hairs are planted. Well, we still think the patent law is a great thing. They laughed when Ben Franklin helped himself to a spot of lightning with a door key.

A WICKED BLEND A MON G the 19 power companies that convinced Federal District Judge Gore of Nashville that he should stop, temporarily, all expansion of the Tennessee Valley Author1ty’s power program is the Alabama Power Co.

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The Events Leading Up to the |

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Talburt

Now Comes the Really Big Issue! —By

Herblock

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler Mr. Pegler Tells How Gene Fowler Played a Jape on the Late Mr. Brisbane Who Was His Boss.

NEW YORK, Dec. 29.—1 wish they had asked Gene Fowler for a few words about Mr. Brisbane when he died, for Mr. Fowler would have spoken a real piece. Not that he hated the great editor of the Hearst

ptess. I don’t think Mr. Fowler really hates

anybody. But Gene, now gone on to the more abundant life in the Hollywood drama and in occasional books, was a Hearst reporter and later a Hearst editor, who knew Mr. Brisbane's blind spot, which was his lack of humor. Mr. Fowler has told of a time when he was managing editor of the New York American when he saw Mr. Brisbane's automobile standing unattended outside the ‘office one evening and hopped inside to dictate down the hose of Mr. Brisbane's dictaphone an editorial column flouting every well-known political and philosophical cliche of the great editor which he could think of at the moment, winding up with the stout declaration that a gorilla couldn’t lick either Jack Dempsey or Gene Tunney, much less both of them. . % = ” Mr. Brisbane drove into New York from New Jersey in the middle of the night to look into the matter and solemnly complimented Mr. Fowler for having detected and defeated a foul plot against the integrity of his policies, never suspecting the satire. In my recollection, Mr. Brisbane goes way back to the beginning. At the 1912 convention of the Republicans in Chicago which nominated Taft over Theodore Roosevelt, a big man with a brow like the belly of a medicine ball, ripped off a few sheets of copy in the press station and, without looking up, handed them to me, saying, “Boy, copy.” r = 2

WAS a boy, but was no longer a copy boy. I was a leg-man and I tossed it back at him saying, “Run it down to the ‘wire yourself; I am a reporter.” At that, Mr. Bill Brons, the Hearst superintendent, turned a seasick green, kicked me three times with great rapidity, shoved the copy into my hands again and gasped, “Run that copy downstairs or I will kill you. That is Brisbane.” I recognized William Jennings Bryan, Richard Harding Davis, Nell Brinkley and Tad Dorgan among the Hearst staff, but Brisbane was a new name to me, Nevertheless, I waived my dignity and delivered Mr. Brisbane's copy to the wire. I told Mr. Brisbane about this a couple of years ago in Miami, and I don’t think he was amused. He seemed to regard it as an interruption. He was telling me about man’s capacity for work if a man would really work. = = » E was doing not only a daily column, which is rated

as a full-time job, but a weekly column, miscal« laneous editorials and a large file of letter-correspond-

Mr. Pegler

| self and William Randolph Hearst. Moveover, he was

| undertaking to reduce history, biography and the

i | |

| | |

classics to capsule form, for he said history and litera-

| ture were hopelessly bundled in millions of words.

A cylinder razor covered with sandpaper for wearing | | read so much unless he could devote his whole life to

No man, he said, could become educated having to

ailigent reading. He seemed to have read everything

| or digests of everything, and it is absurd of his de-

| tractors to say that he was a shallow man strutting

I'his united front of private power interests pleaded in |

effect that TVA is sinfully unconstitutional, a fearful and wicked master of tax money, and just plain bad.

© Meanwhile the Alabama Power Co. is buying power |

from TVA. It is paying just under 2 mills per kilowatt hour, and selling the same power to consumers at 8 much higher rate. That power comes from two sources. One is Wilson Dam, which the Supreme Court declared constitutional, a decision which Judge Gore seems to have temporarily overruled. The other is Norris Dam, which the “power trust” holds is unconstitutional. Power from Norris Dam in east Tennessee is sent over TVA transmission lines to Wilson Dam in Alabama, and there the two juices are mixed together. Imagine that unholy mixture of constitutional and unconstitutional power! In this the Alabama Power Co. is dealing.’ It has gone to the courts with 18 other private p

ower companies to kill the

| a little reading before the yokels. He had the mind

of a public library and he stimulated the inquisitiveness of millions and moreover he could out-knowl-edge all the heavy-duty thinkers of the butcherspaper magazines, who affected to despise him. ‘He was just a smarter and better man. Mr. Brisbane's flaw was love of money. If he hadn't become a money-lover, he might have been a great man, for his instincts right early in his career, and he was made of ch n stuff.

ASHINGTON, Dec. 20.—The other day, a deA I ull, Ah i SW.

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

QUESTIONS ENGLAND'S TRAIN OF THOUGHT By Robert Taylor, Bloomington English thinking remains tragically befuddled. In the Simpson affair the fact Wallis was a divorcee was the basis for the church's opposition to her. Yet the English Church openly condones “on the side” intimate relation of the royal family. England forced its king to choose between making Mrs. Simpson his mistress and keeping the throne, or giving up the throne to make her his wife. Because he chose the latter he is a traitor to England and her church. Thus a foolish country and a foolish church discarded a great and democratic ruler.

i» WW W PRAISE FOR CONDUCT OF COUNTY INFIRMARY By The Welfare Club of Indianapolis

At the time of a recent visit to the Marion County Infirmary it was gratifying to find order, cleanliness and an atmosphere of cheerfulness. Nourishing food contributes much to this latter condition. : New decorations in a pleasing shade of green add much to the attractiveness of the assembly rooms and corriders. The Marion County Home, in charge of Superintendent J. M. Twineham, provides a refuge from financial and physical problems which residents are unable to meet. 2 = =» DEFENDS GOVERNOR'S CHARM AND SMILE By “Perc” Turner, Bedford . . Mabel German, seemingly, is not content unless she is finding fault. Her recent articie berating Jovernor McNutt's “charm” showed her lack of knowledge of presentday state affairs. We believe that Governor McNutt will be the next President and that he possesses plenty of “charm” and a marvelous smile, and what she should know is that even his bitterest political enemies admit that he has given Indiana one of its best and cleanest aCministrations in years. As for A. J. McKinnon, he is evidently one of the “parrot” type, quick to seize upon the words of some one else and broadcast them vociferously. But, having been taught and led to believe that it takes all kind of people to make up this good old world in which we live, we are at least able to find a reason for the existence of these two writers.

DISAGRESS WITH WRITER WHO OPPOSES F. D. R. By John Fleming, Bloomington

The cynical Mr. McKinnon, who so audaciously related to the public that Roosevelt has proved himself “the weakest man in the party,” certainly must be a very courageous and patriotic man. Such men as this are a chief cause of the unfortunate dilemmas which we encounter today. All the ballyhoo of the election is finished. The people have selected Mr. Roosevelt to handle the controls again. Republican or Democrat,

‘General Hugh Johnson Says—

John Lewis Is Cornered by a Man Who Is Against Broadcasting Thought Waves and Has Awfully Hard Time Escaping From Him.

(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.)

every one should endeavor to aid instead of criticise him. He is the President of the United States and any one who claims citizenship to this country should realize the significance of this term and be constructive, rather than destructive. There are four years before another election, and when the time has passed let Mr. McKinnon come forward and expound his irresolute theories about how this government should be run. Until that time, to save embarrassment on his part, he should withdraw into his shell. = = 2 ANOTHER OPINION OF SHARE-THE-WEALTH By Hiram Lackey A contributor to the Forum refers to share-the-wealth logic as a “crack-pot theory.” Fortunately, we who defend the logic of fair distribution of wealth do not have to resort to name-calling. We leave that technique to our opponents who begin where logic stops. One minute our opponents tell us that in order to run business, “unlimited wealth” must be under the control of one man. When we point out the evils of this concentrated wealth our opponents, during the next minute, declare that our large corporations are owned by small shareholders and managed by salary-paid executives. Now, that is logic, isn’t it? : The life of Edison, or the story of the China Clipper reveals how progress is made, not because of our profit system and its concentrated wealth, but in spite of irresponsible capitalism. Edison amassed wealth, not because he was primarily interested in making money, but because he was forced to become wealthy before he could give his genius to the world. Under a more civilized state the government would give such genius every encouragement. If Edison had not been a good business man the world might have lost the immense wealth which his genius made possible. The contributor belongs to that

CHRISTMAS 1936

BY DANIEL FRANCIS CLANCY

Christmas! Season of merry content. Carefree, joyful, pleasurable time, My heart, though, Can not dance, but intent I ponder on Edward in lonely clime. I feel woe. .

DAILY THOUGHT

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.—Psalms 55:22.

If your cup seems bitter, if your burden seems too heavy, be sure that it is the wounded hand that is holding the cup, and that it is He who carries the cross that is carrying the burden.—S. I. Prime.

type of critic that the American Legion national commander condemns so severely and so justly. Mr. Colmery looks at bloody Spain and sees the inevitable result of the strange logic of such oppressors of the poor. The mind that can not see that President Roosevelt has a better way is not a safe guide. From the standpoint of human happiness, logic is again on the side of share-the-wealth arguments. When a man has sufficient wealth to buy all the comforts and reasonable luxuries that can be used in a lifetime, additional money does not add to his happiness. . ..

* ® =» QUOTES EDITORIAL IN PRAISE Or LUDLOW

By R. W. H.

In a leading editorial the Columbus Dispatch showers high praise on Representative in Congress Louis Ludlow. It says: “The traditional simplicity and humanism of the Hoosier are universally recognized qualities. Among the best contemporary examples of Hoosier common ‘sense and ability to simplify even the most complicated of situations is Congressman Louis Ludlow, from Indianapolis. “He is a Democrat to whom the nation’s heart may easily warm, for he is of the people and for the people. In Congress he holds the important post of chairman of the appropriations sub-committee, and recently he has announced that the Federal budget will be balanced not later than the year 1938-39. He proposes to do this by eliminating bulk appropriations, for which grants may be made to carry out projects which previously have been specifically denied by Congress; by eliminating the subterfuge of a ‘double budget,’ for, as he says, that will only lead to ‘endless’ confusion, since for all governmental spending, whether regular or emergency, there is only one source of income, the taxpayer; and by the elimination of appropriations which aren’t necessary. “Congressman Ludlow can not be accused of being one of those who would ‘let ’em starve,” for he has given ample proof that he is not. He has proved over a long period of years that he is a level-headed and far-seeing legislator. His words ring out in a time of unsettled conditions with the clear tones of a true bell. With more Democrats like him, the big flaw in our present recovery would soon be remedied” n = =

STUDIES COMPLAINTS OF WPA WORKERS By S.J. ¥

I am a WPA worker, and I've listened to talks by many of my fellow workers. Some claim that the pay is inadequate, and 1 began to sift them. I-found men who have reared families, provided food, clothing and shelter and given their children schooling. . . ., There are many others, who in this golden age, have never even thought of work. Yet, they are trying to force the government to cut Dad or Mother off the relief wage, feeling they should claim a pay divorced from charity. . . .

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun Mr. Broun Suggests New Year's Resolutions for Other People and Resolves to Be Shorter and Funnier,

NEW YORK, Dec. 29.<~This year I am going to make no New Year's resolutions for myself but adopt the unselfish practice of setting down a few suggestions for the rest of the world. It would be futile for me or

anybody else to resolve the abandonment of bad habits unless we can be assured that the comsmunity ‘round about will play ball with us. Who, for, instance, would care to be completely abstemious if all

about him were men and ladies with vine leaves in their hair? My own conduct as it stands is not deplorable, hut I am willing to make it even better upon the offer of proper co-operation. A familiar device of the Rockefellers used to be to pledge half a million dollars to this college or that provided the alumni would raise an egtal amount, That is the practice I wish to introduce in New Yeal's resolutions. According to my scheme, Mr. X " «leave me out of this—resolves to go on the water wagon for six months on condition that 25 of his closest friends and severest critics agree to do the same. If the conditions are not met, naturally Mr, X has every right to go out and get himself completely blotto. For the stage of New York I suggest the resolution that somebody write an absolutely first rate serious play about modern life. I haven't been to the th ater for a week, and it may be that some one of ¢ new arrivals meets the bill but up to 10 days ag the tendency of the theater seemed to be wholly the direction of comedy and light comedy at that. Now, I certainly want to set no flinty face against fun in the theater. I had a grand time at “You Can't Take It With You.”

” ” ”

NE of the Noel Coward nine made me weep my eyes out and, of course, there were several which seemed to me diverting. It was “Still Life” which caused me to make a spectacle of myself in the National Theater. Here Coward deals with a perfectly familiar theme of a love which is frustrated, but he and Gertrude Lawrence play with such an economy of effort that I was deceived into accepting the ine cident as actual. Wher: an actor raises his voice and his arms and shouts that his heart is breaking, I find it impossible to be terribly sorry for the character portrayed. Peo= ple who suffer with gestures always seem to me to be expending so much sympathy upon themselves that I can afford to stand aside and not interfere in a purely private grief. But when Noel Coward as a small town British doctor says in a flat and toneless voice, “I love you my darling,” then I bawl like a matinee addict.

Mr. Broun

OR the world of books I must put in a resolution in favor of my particular peeve that all noveis are

| too long. Even the most compactly written could be

improved by a good copy reader on any night desk in New York. There may be a story which ean not be adequately told in 50,000 words, but I ean think of no items which might not be covered in that compass. And, so my resolve for literature will be that some one may do a fine and moving yarn, and not go beyond‘the 60,000-word limit. And in order to keep the average straight I'll do a novel myself, even though it may not be fine or moving, within a 40,000 limit, For the world for 1937 the resolution should be for peace, and plenty of it. ; And for this particular column I'm sure that little group of its readers can all agree most ferven Had in the year to come it ought to be shorter unnier.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Uncle Dan Roper, Maj. Berry and Mme. Perkins Put on Three-Ring Circus in Planning New NRA; Each Spies On and Disparages the Others.

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Dee. 29.—The movement to devise a plan for a new NRA has developed into