Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 December 1936 — Page 16

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| SCRIPPS ~ NOWARD | Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1036

TIGHTENING OUR NEUTRALITY HE furor that has arisen over the projected shipment | of American airplanes and engines to a loyalist port in | Spain illustrates how easily we can get involved in squabbles | not our own. | That our government, under our laws, could not prohibit the shipment, much though it desired to do so, receives scant consideration in the capitals of Europe, where the transaction is recklessly attributed to an unneutral attitude on the part of the United States. We know here that the Administration did all in its power to prevent the sale, but it is the fact of the sale that makes the headlines in Europe. If the Spanish civil war could have been foreseen, doubtless our neutrality law would have included a specific ban against such a shipment. But at the time the law was enacted Congress was thinking only of wars between countries, not war within a single country. American citizens, we believe, will welcome the assurance of Senator Pittman and other congressional leaders that this loophole in our neutrality law will be plugged as soon as Congress can do so. For the people of this country want no part in Europe's wars—especially not in a war that threatens, as the Spanish civil strife does, to set fire to the whole European continent.

ONE FOR PAUL BUNYAN HAT mighty myth Paul Bunyan, hero of the Northwest lumber camps, must be rubbing his eyes these days as a rival enters his domain. We refer to the giant Uncle Sam himself, whose Bureau of Reclamation is building Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia in eastern Washington. Paul's jobs were big enough, heaven knows. He would hitch up Babe, his biue ox (who measured 40 ax handles and a plug of chewing tobacco between the horns) and haul away mountains, move lakes and do other outstanding things. But did he ever do what Secretary Ickes has just told about—push that Columbia, second largest American river, clean out of its bed? The beautiful Columbia has gone its way undisturbed since the time, about a hundred centuries ago, when the Ice Age glaciers moved down and pushed it out of its bed at the present scene of Grand Coulee. The other day Mr. Ickes’ engineers and beaver-men finished a giant cofferdam, which they sank across the channel diverting the river for the second time into a new bed while the government builds the permanent dam. Soon there will rise across the river the world’s most massive dam, another monument to the New Deal's building policy. Paul Bunyan was “a man worth talking about.” Well, 80 is your Uncle Sam.

OUR WEIGHTY WORLD

SCIENTISTS of the Bureau of Standards in Washington say they have found a new absolute value for the acceleration of gravity, and so a more accurate method of weighing the earth. On the new scales our planet weighs only about six sextillion tons—quite a few tons, but some 800 trillion less than was formerly supposed. What startles us more is the scientists’ statement that, if all human beings and all animals were transported to the moon, the resulting loss of a few hundred million tons of flesh and bone would make such a trifling change in the earth’s weight that no instrument possibly could detect it. Against the mass of our globe we're like microbes on a pumpkin. That should make us humble, but not too much 80, considering that the human mind, which can’t be weighed at all, dares dream of controlling this 6,000,000,-000,000,000,000,000-ton sphere, and probably will do it if Riven enough time at the job.

MORE INCOME, LESS GIVING

AMERICAN business at last came “out of the red” in 1936, the Commerce Department believes. Secretary Roper tells Congress that the national income has climbed 3 back to at least $60,000,000,000 this year, with the gain continuing. At the same time the National Committee for Religion and Welfare Recovery estimates that the percentage of the national income contributed to religious, educa- ~ tional and welfare causes in 1986 has been the smallest in -11 years, We suspect that many factors would enter into a true explanation of a falling philanthropy in the face of a rising income, For one thing, the Federal government in 1932 had not vet recognized its obligation to relieve human want growing out of the depression. For another, organizations devoted to the collection of philanthropic gifts have to some extent defeated their own purposes. Community Chest experience in many cities has shown that as the depression continued resistance to that “method of soliciting has increased. Many persons who have ~been willing to give liberally to charity—that is, to feeding the hungry and clothing the naked—have shown growing unwillingness to give to character-building agencies, so called, in the name of charity. 3 Such agencies do great good. They deserve public support. But to a degree, it seems to us, they lose public support when their needs are lumped with the needs of actual charity in a single drive for funds. Contributions to religion, education and philanthropy in 1936 have been only about 2 per cent of the total taxable income, says the Committee for Religion and Welfare Recovery. Since contributions up to 15 per cent may be deducted as exempt from Federal income tax, the committee is making a last-minute appeal to citizens to increase their gifts to favorite religious and welfare agencies before the year's end. We hope, of course, that the appeal will be fruitful. But we believe that to bring private philanthropy fully into line with increasing national income may require

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Some Employers Forget They Are Buying Merely the Services of Their Workers and Not Their Freedom

EW YORK, Dec. 30.—It is easy to exaggerate the nobility of the working man who is an average human being and no better or worse than the man who buys his labor. Yet many employers have a tendency

to think of themselves as masters of the people who do the work which enables them to do business and to assert authority over their men in matters which are none of their affairs, Some of

them inquire into the religion and politics of their employes, try to find out what they are doing with their money, check their associates and otherwise forget that they are merely buying services and not the liberties of the men who perform the services. It is necessary from time to time to remind those who employ labor that the working-man’s freedom is not included in the purchase price of a certain amount of work, and such reminders are resented as disturbing agitation, probably inspired by Moscow. Nevertheless the freedom should cost the boss extra, unless the emplover, himself, is willing to submit to similar invasion of his private affairs in which case the hired help might be willing to make a trade on an even basis. I recognize the convenience of knowing that a man who works in a bank is not likely to help himself to the goods on the shelves to gamble on the horses which is the traditional error of fallible bank employes. But more careful stock-taking at the close of business should be adequate and, anyway, men who work in banks generally are not permitted to come within arm’s reach of the cash until they have spent some time in probationary jobs.

AM still harping on the arrogance of a small group of petty business men in Miami and Miami Beach who, in the familiar chamber of commerce spirit of fascism, have decreed that people who enter these communities to work in the resort trade must submit to the same humiliating process of photographing and finger-printing that is required of convicted men entering prison. The business men and real estate speculators of the two Miamis, as a class, are not at all superior in ethics, honesty or personal conduct to the waiters, bellnops and elevator boys. And nobody knows this better than the business men themselves. They are just employers, some of good character, others not so good, and although their business interests are entitled to such protection as they can decently provide, even those interests are inferior to the liberties of the people, who include the resort employes.

= o =

HE fact is that Florida has established a great luxurious haven for tax dodgers whose methods of acquiring their fortunes in many cases were not consistent with the public interest and whose character is the least of their assets, and there would be no necessity to bear down so hard this year to abate crime in the Miamis if the business men who are now so sensitive of the communities’ good name had not openly encouraged the underworld of the big Northern cities to make winter headquarters among them in seasons past. The most interesting crime in years in the Miami district was not the routine murder of a gambling house keeper in one of the principal hotels, but the frantic embarrassment of the local statesmen to get the tactless assassin out of the state and hush up popular curiosity as to how the gambling house happened to be doing business, anyway.

Mr. Pegler

.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30, 1938

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The Hoosier Forum

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

ATTENDED SCHOOL WITH MME. CHIANG KAI-SHEK

By Mrs. A. C. Tilton, P. O. Box 5, Knoxville, Tenn.

You state that Mei Ling Soong (now Mme. Chiang Kai-shek) was a student at Wellesley College. This is an error I have seen in

print so often I feel impelled to correct it. The three Soong girls received their American education at WesJeyan College, Macon, Ga. I was a student there at the time and Knew them, Wesleyan College is a Methodist school and also has the distinction of being the oldest college for women in the world. ' The oldest sister was there alone in 1907-08—my first year. The next fall she returned with her two young sisters, Mei Ling and Chung Ling. They must have been about 12 or 14 years old at the time. In June 1909 E. Ling Soong was grads uated in expression and gave as her recital “Madam Butterfly.” I think she also received a degree but am not sure about that. She went directly from Macon, Ga., to London where she was to be presented at the Court of St. James's. This was also my last year and I do not know what became of the younger sisters after that but to the best of my memory they continued as students at Wesleyan. These girls have been such important world figures I feel that Wesleyan should be given the credit it deserves.

Ld ” Ld

HINTS ARE GIVEN ON CAREFUL DRIVING By Charles D. Keene During the holiday season, when every one is thinking “Peace on earth, good will to men,” I wonder why the thought of good will toward fellow drivers wouldn't be a good thing. If this thought would take root in the minds of the driving public it would have a great bearing on the accident record. In this day and age, it isn’t the car that is at fault, but the driver. Only one accident in a thousand is caused by mechancal defects. Just a few hints as to how a careful driver avoids many accidents. He Allows enough time to avoid hurrying, Chooses the less-traveled routes; Doesn't light his cigaret or put on gloves, etc. when driving; Never drives with elbow out the window: Keeps foot off the gas when changing gears; Never looks for house numbers

while going more than 10 miles an |

hour; Always looks back when backing; Stops talking when maneuvering is in order; Takes foot off the gas when approaching a pedestrian who is trying to cross; Coasts up to a red light, doesn't rush; tk Doesn't keep too horn when in a traffic jam; ing

OBCAW, 8. C., Dec. 30.—Other apparently more important events have deferred the comment of this column on the attack on J. Edgar Hoover for mixing up too much grandstand and gun play in his latest capture of a third-string public enemy. To this writer, it seems contemptible. Whereas there was a terrorism of interstate racketeers, hijackers, tommy-men and gun-molls who were a menace and disgrace to the whole American community, now they are rubbed out. The man who did that ought to have the thanks of Congress and not the of jealous contemporary cops. He is entitled to an

ntal changes in m

N

General Hugh Johnson Says—

G-Boss J. Edgar Hoover Ought to Have a Grateful Country's Thanks; | Only Congress Should Have Power to Ship Supplies to Warring Nations.

starve.

| ta t

trality to select, as between two warring nations, | which one you will supply and which one you will |

(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.)

Never changes lanes on a hill or curve, and Doesn't crowd his car with passengers so that his vision is obstructed or control hindered.

= " =

WONDERS WHO HAS FAILED TO KEEP STEP By W. L. Ballard, Syracuse, Ind.

I wonder who is out of step with reality, the regiment or me. I am a native-born Hoosier, schooled in our public schools when they were at their best in “Americanism,” before the heavy changes of this generation. I thougnt I knew what democracy was, even though it was enough different from other forms of government to warrant a war such as the American Revolution and even a constitution separating the church and the state! I have for years gathered evidence as to my mistake. We have all heard that the British monarchical empire was the world’s greatest democracy. Norman Thomas says socialism is the “basis and fulfillment of true democracy,” a lefthanded slap at democracy up to now. Mussolini regales us thus: “Fascism repudiates all democratic ideology. . . . Fascism is organized, centralized and authoratative democracy. . . . His ambassador in Washington adds: “Mussolini . . . has felt that he could define Fascism as a real democracy, intending for democracy the concensus of the pecple to their form of government’—any government the people support is a democracy (I know of fifty forms of government which

ITS LITTLE THINGS

BY VIRGINIA POTTER It’s little things you do that count, And bind me close to you— The way you try to understand, The way your words ring true.

It's little things that shed a ray Of happiness and cheer, The way you try to please each

whim, : The way you speak sincere.

It's little things you do to please

In everything you do; I may not show it, but, .my dear,

1 think the world of you!

DAILY THOUGHT

And the whole multitude sought to touch Him; for there went virture out of Him, and healed them all.—St. Luke 6:18. On every occasion in which virtue is exercised, if something is not

added to happiness, something is ken away from anxiety.—Ben-

ham.

The WwW

By Drew Pearson

OME, Dec. 30.—Those inside the Vatican say privately that the Pope never can recover from

people have “enjoyed” during history, and more or less supported for a time). Now comes Walter Lippmann and coolly uses “monarchy” and ‘“democracy” interchangeably. England is a constitutional democracy. The ability of the empire to absorb the abdication is a democratic development, because democracy takes its moral code more seriously than other governments. I suppose that any kind of democracy would require us to allow them all to use the word as they like, but I have the- satisfaction of knowing that with science it is otherwise. Democracy must be attractive, since all claim it. There is one thing we may be sure of. Unless we know what democracy is we will neithier be able to save it nor prevent its enemies from using it against itself. If science is “organized knowledge” we have no scientific knowledge . of democracy. To get such knowledge should be our first concern.

” EJ ” READER DISAGREES WITH MR. MENCKEN By D. L. Bennett

H. L. Mencken recently said, “The King is an idiot. His abdication shows it. The thing for him to do is to come to America and go to Hollywood. If he’s too dumb to make good there, he can go to Washington and join the New Deal Cabinet.” I think that is the most ignorant statement a human being ever made. Any one who is so common as to make a statement of this kind is not fit to shine David Windsor’s shoes, much less call himself an American citizen. All I can say is, God bless Edward Windsor. Long may he live.

” ” o THE LIVERY STABLE BOYS TALK ABOUT ROYALTY

By L. L. Patton, Crawfordsville

Zeb Sheldon and the boys down | at the livery stable wanted me to] write The Times that they would have liked the idea behind King | Edward's radio talk all right if il] hadn’t been for his voice. It scunded too much like those “dad-| burned” Jeffersonian Democrats. | Sid Williams think Wallis is entitled to a third chance. . .. | Lige Tate says the papers have | made too much of the fact that | King Edward has “common sense.” He says: “Whnat the fellow needs is a little mare “horse sense.” Wheat Larson says: “Why raise an uproar about the fact that one son of the Dritish monarch has flunked out on the job expected of him.” He asks “What about the sons cf our great Americans? What about the sons of our King Teddy Roosevelt?” Zack Foster says the real hero in the case is this fellow Simpson, who is acting honorable enough to be an American, instead of a Britisher.

Believe: Blood Clots Alone

| fords a deadly parallel] with that of 1914.

The people of this country are not interested in any abstract technicalities of international law. They may not know just what the legal intendments of the “neutrality” are, but they know exactly What they want and the opinion is as nearly unanimous as such things ever are—they want to keep out of war. As this column has suggested before, there is a lot of muddy thinking on this subject largely growing out limited knowledge of war in the modern sense. Disto ship or withhold supplies ought not to be the President. That is nothing more nor less Power to participate in undeclared war. NoCongress ought to have that right.

into war it will be by something

’

his present illness. It may drag out for months, but he will never be the same. Vatican officials are not saying much about it, but the Pope's condition is due to a combination of afflictions including uremic poisoning, varicose veins and a weak heart. The veins have formed bloodclots below his knees, which in a man of less robust constitution might alone prove fatal—especially at his age. He is now 79. At one time an inflammation appeared behind the Poritifi’s ears which led his physicians to believe that he had a slight cerebral hemorrhage. This, however, has cleared up. One difficulty in treating His Holiness has been his distaste for medicine. When first confined to his bed, the Vatican doctor asked him about some medicine he had prescribed some weeks before. “Look in that chest,” replied His Holiness. And in the chest the physician found all the medicine he had prescribed for the last two years— untouched.

‘Looks Like We’re Headed Your Way P—py Talburt

The Liberal View

‘By Harry Elmer Barnes

(Substituting for Heywood Broun) 1

European Situation Provoked by Spanish Civil War Parallels That Of 1914 in Great Alliance System

NEW YORK, Dec. 30.—Edward and Mrs. Simpson temporarily pushed aside other European news. But the war in Spain has gone merrily on and the threat that it will develop into the second great World War

still remains ominously with us. Indeed, the question today is not whether a sec ond European war will break out. It has already started. The problem is whether the European war already in progress in {ipain will spread until it involves all of Europe, if not all of the world. The situation in Europe today bears a dangerous resemblance to the general set-up in 1914 which did much to make a European war inevitable at that time. I refer to the great system of alliances that existed in Europe on the eve of the crisis of 1514. Between 1878 and 1881 Bismarck brought into being the so-called Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy. This was designed for pacific purposes. It aimed to bring about the diplomatic isolation of France and thus to make impossible a war of revenge by the French, who might seek to recover thereby from the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian war. Bismarck also negotiated an understanding with the Czar of Russia.

Dr. Barnes

" un ”

OR over a decade France was truly isolated. Then when the Kaiser supersefed Bismarck, he abane doned the understanding with Russia and turned to a futile effort to gain an alliance with England. The French were quick to seize upon the new opportunity. They picked up Russia and laid the basis for the Franco-Russian alliance in 1892. Then, after a series of crises, France established friendly relations with Great Britain. She was able

to help smooth out the relationship between the late ter and Russia in 1907, and the Triple Entente of

| France, Russia and Great Britain came into being.

» u =»

HUS when the Archduke was assassinated on June 28, 1914, Europe was divided into two great armed camps. This situation did much to block the possibility of any diplomatic settlement of the 1914 crisis. Neither group of powers felt that it could back down without a fatal loss of prestige. Nor could either group seem too much interested in diplomacy, lest it give an indication thereby that it felt some doubts concerning its military power. The situation provoked by the Spanish crisis afe The fool« hardy diplomacy of the Entente after 1914 made possi= ble the triumph of Fascism and militarism in Gere many and led to the creation of a powerful Fascist block in Europe. These Fascists outside of Spain have enccuraged and aided the Spanish Fascists in their effort to overthrow the liberal and radical Spanish government. The Spanish situation thus reproduces on a small scale the general situation in Europe as a whoie, Spanish liberalism and radicalism have come to death grips with Spanish Fascism.

ashington Merry-Go-Round

Pope Pius Will Not Recover From Present lliness, Vatican Officials

Might Prove Fatal to a Less Robust Man,

has built up a remarkable constitution for a man of his years. All his life Pope Pius has risen at 7, said mass at 7:30, and breakfasted at 8, eating only coffee, rolls and butter. After a morning occupied with conferences with church officials and his regular private and public interviews, he lunched at 1:30, eating very frugally and drinking only one glass of wine. Imme= diately thereafter he walked in the Vatican gardens, usually for at least an hour. Conferences were resumed again in the afternoon at about 3:30 or 4, and continuéd until nearly 8, When His Holiness again worshiped in his private chapel. Dinner was served at 9, during which two private secretaries went over correspondence with him. No one would be allowed to sit with him at the same table. After dinner he read until midnight, at which hour he usually went to bed.

YY HEN the Pope passes, he probably will be Envi to history for his re-establishment of relations between the Vatican and the Italian govern. ment. For 60 years—until Feb. 11, 1929—they sword's points. But on that day Pope : signed the concordat

been at of the Pope over th

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and