Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1937 — Page 11

PAGE 10

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Way

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own

SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1937

THE OLD FOLKS

FOr many of America’s aged poor the new year dawns in greater peace, security and contentment. For many others it will be the same old story of fear, privation and dread of the poor house over the hill. | ; Seven states—Georgia, Kansas, North and South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia—enter 1937 Pro provision for any form of old-age pension on their 00Kks.

The average monthly pension paid to these hard-up

elders is small enough in the states with pension laws. It.

averages only $18.50 a month. And the most amazing contrasts are found in the standards set up by: the pension states. Why, one wonders, should California pay average State-Federal pensions of $31.45 a month, while Mississippi’s aged poor are expected to subsist on $3.85 a month? Why do 36 per cent of Colorado’s old people re-, ceive Social Security pensions, but only 2 per cent of Kentucky’s benefit? Why does Connecticut pay $26.20 in monthly pensions and Oklahoma $8; why can Massachusetts - afford a $25.85 average and Arkansas only $9; why Ohio’s $24.90 and Kentucky's $9.56? Why, in short, is old-age assistance under the old-folks new deal a blessing in one state and a cruel jest in another?

The United States is not a nation united in common standards, but a checkerboard of many community, state and regional standards. Only the Federal Government can create an American standard. And, the U. S. Supreme

—

Court willing, that is what we will do some day.

SPEED-UP FOR AUTHORS ITERARY Russians are agitated by reports that the Soviet government will put authors and playwrights under the speed-up system. There have been hints that toc many Russian writers live like capitalists on royalties from their early works instead of producing new books and plays. So royalties on old works may be cut, to prod the writers into turning out more new ones. We shall watch this new Russian experiment with interest, if it’s made. We reserve, however, the right to wonder whether the Soviets, having applied a forced draft to literatures, won’t soon be wishing they had fewer books and better ones. >

~ HITLER SOWS THE WIND

IN CREDIBLE beyond belief is the control which the Nazi government is exercising over its subjects—incredible, tragic and even pitiful. ; It was symptomatic, but not vital, that the Nazi press “was not allowed to tell the German people anything about the King-Simpson affair. It did not concern them directly, so it was not necessarily fatal to their happiness to be kept in the dark until g discreet paragraph or two told of Edward’s abdication.’ But, thanks to the same complete muzzle which Herr Hitler maintains on the newspapers of the Reich, the German people are daily being subjected to wholesale’ betrayal " which does affect them personally and vitally. Dragooning the land for every penny it can rake and scrape to buy armaments, and calling on the people to sacrifice even food to build still more, the Nazi government is hoodwinking the Germans into believing they are far better off than the people of other lands. A full-page picture of an American grandmother, in tatters, clasping her hands in thanks for a handout, is published in Der Angriff, organ of Propaganda Minister Joseph . Goebbels. The outline with it conveys the impression that pecple in the United States are starving whereas, in Germany, the poor are fortunate indeed. Utterly cut oft from the rest of the world, the Germans are thus being fed on Nazi propaganda instead of adequate food. : We would not be in his shoes. He has cut himself out “an all but impossible job. Unless he makes good, defeat will expose his treason to the German masses.

MARS DFALS THE CARDS

T does not seem to us that European diplomacy has much to brag about in its handling of Old World affairs since Armageddon. It is true there have been some grave situations. There have been some small and some not so small conflicts involving this or that nation, but these conflicts have not spread to world-wide proportions. However, the credit can hardly go to the interested chancelleries. Nor yet entirely to the world’s peace machinery. It is impossible to escape the impression that mankind has been spared a new world war largely because, up to the present, the great powers have not been quite ready. As day after day we read the sinister news from Spain and Germany, ltaly and Russia, France, England, Japan and other key spots on this sorely troubled sphere, the more the whole thing resembles to us a vast game of jack“pot poker in which human lives are the chips and national destinies are the stakes. Already round after round has been dealt. The kitty has been sweetened again and again. But, as yet, none of nf the players has drawn openers. It takes jacks or better, and none of the nations has yet the right kind of hand. None dares bluff because in a game like this he is certain to be called. In other words, no European nation seems prepared at this writing to take the initiative. None has a war machine on which it is willing to gamble its life. Sooner or later, however, one of them is going ko think that it has what it takes. And the one which does so first will no more be able to withstand the temptation to use it before some other nation has a better machine than the poker: player can refrain from making use of what he believes to be a winning hand. - There’s the danger. And, seeing it, we need not wonder that jittery world capitals today are anxiously kibitzing while Mars deals the cards on the table of Spain. :

gue tT ar J

Neutrality

By WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS |

(Substituting for Westbrook Pegler)

Sale of Planes to Spain Likely To Give President Roosevelt Flee Hand on Any Peace Measures.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 2.—The international tempest stirred up by the sale of American planes to warring Spain likely will be found to have doomed the hopes of any who plan to tie the President's hands on neutrality. The principal issue before the coming Congress, when it. tackles neutrality legislation, will be the degree of discretion to be allowed the President | in imposing embargoes on exports to belligerents. Some members want to make the law sweeping, detailed and mandatory. Others favor giving the President wide latitude. Until recently, the indications all. seemed to favor the former. The airplane incident, however, has somewhat altered the outlook. If Congress left con= spicuous: and so dangerous a n= hole in the existing measure, | many are saying, how can it ex- _ pect to foresee all the other hidden dangers ahead and legislate Mr. Si in advance to cover them? I. Simms Than Senator ‘Borah there is probably no more outspoken advocate of keeping out of foreign entanglements. : Yet, says he, speaking of neutrality: not enact the millenium. “For myself,” he says, “I find there are some things that ought to be made mandatory, and some

“We can-

other things that ought to be left to the President.”

The Idahoan believes the law ought to be mandatory as to munitions shipments, loans, credits, travel on the ships of belligerents, and so forth. But general trade problems, he feels, should be left to the discretion of the President.

» ” ®

N° matter how sweeping or how detailed the pre- \ posed law may be, the case of the airplanes dramatically illustrates the potential perils such a law may conceal if it ties the President’s hands. President Roosevelt himself led the chorus of indignation over the aircraft deal, yet there was nothing he ‘could do about it. Dealer Cuse applied to the State Department for an export license, and the Department had no option but to grant it. The neutrality law completely failed to lay down the rules governing our stand on civil war—despite the fact that some civil wars contain far more international dynamite than some wars between nations. Whether it was Congress, the State Department or some other agency that did the forgetting is beside the mark. Indeed, the fact that everybody overlooked the point is cited to prove the difficulty of providing for everything in advance. |

" a a

much, if any, discretion in the hands of the President—not President Roosevelt, but any President. They believe it would be dangerous. Others contend it is equally, or conceivably more, dangerous to give him nc leeway whatever. They hold that in a madly racing world like ours, new and wholly unprecedented situations are bound to arise which, unless promptly handled, might quickly involve us in war. 2 Thus opinion here seems to be crystalizing in favor of a bill charting the whole course of American neutrality, in so far as may be humanly possible. Certain basic acts will be mandatory. The imponderables and unpredictables, however, will likely be left to the President. But he will be expected to keep strictly within the spirit and intent of the fundamental purpose, namely to keep this country from becoming embroiled in a foreign war.

OBCAW, 8S. C., Jan. 2.—There is a good deal of razzle-dazzle about the St. Lawrence. Seaway, now proposed for ratification as a treaty with Canada. If we want to look it in the teeth for exactly what it is—O. K. It is a vast project .for hydroelectric power in the lower reaches of that great international river, which will eventually cost us somewhere between $700,000,000 and a billion— and that is all it is. There is little present demand

for that power, and there are plenty of much cheaper power projects on the Canadian side in feeder streams. If we act with full knowledge that th we want, let's go. But in building up as al to create national sentiment for this tremendous dévelopment the people of the whole Middle West were sold a large and very thinly banana-oiled gold brick. To them it is not primarily a power project It is a great ship canal which will make Chicago a world port and bring the great ocean-going freighters of the trans-Atlantic trade to the docks of Duluth Chicago and Port” Arthur. To them the power development is an incident.

2 # ” ’ \HIS is plain bunk. The great canal builder,

Goethals, before his ‘death studied tha: pro, and told this writer that, in Ris opinion, 1t/ a

QoMeE members of Congress frankly fear to leave .|

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _ The Face That Launched 100 Ships—By Herblock

I wholly disagree with wha! defend to the death your right. o say it—Voltaire.

The Hoosie:

you say, but will

GRASS ON GRAVES HELD REAL MILITARY UNIFORMS

By Wilbur S. Barnhart, Federation of + Indianapolis Public School Teachers

Please reprint the following from the December, 1936, issue -of the

Chronicle of World Affairs, publica-_

tion of the League of Nations Association, Inc.: - " “The News Letter of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches makes some pertinent comments on, the announcement last month by the British secretary of war that blue uniforms are to be introduced into the British army; that, being associated in the public mind with the horrors of the World War, khaki has lost its romance. “Militarism, even if honestly intended only for defense as it is in Britain, can not escape from the mendacious character which makes possible its existence. “The first essential of militarism, whether it be intended for aggression or defense, is that it shall appear to be the exact opposite of what it is. The first business of those who recruit armies is to hide the fact that war is hell. Martial music, brilliant uniforms, flying banners and spectacular parading are some of the inventions used to perpetrate the lie that war is a glamorous thing. “If there is a next war its horrors will be indescribably more terrible than those of the last war. But Great Britain is changing the color of its soldiers’ uniforms. Why? It is changing the color in an effort to make the British people forget the horrors of 1914-18, to the end that they will be susceptible to illusions about the “romance” of a new war. “Says the News Letter: “ ‘Has Mr. Cooper (British secretary of war) ever looked beyond the color of the uniforms and fixed his eyes on the real military uniforms, namely the grass. over 10,000,000 dead boys slaughtered in the World War, and the black crepe on the bodies of 5,000,000 war widows, and all the economic misery and woe that has covered the earth since millions of boys dressed in uniforms of different colors met on the field of blood?’ “‘If the peoples of the world would only keep this “real uniform,” in memory there would not be another war.’ “J. W.T.” ” » ” CITES BRITAIN IN BRIEF AGAINST U. S. HOME LOANS By George H. Patterson, Mortgage Bankers’ Association of America, Chicago With 3ne-third the population, England and Wales built nearly our times as many homes during the depression years, 1930 to 1935, as did the United States and the most sig-~ nificant increase in building was made in 1934 after all government subsidies, other than those for slum clearance and rehousing of. displaced workers, were abolished in 1933. oi During the six years from 1930 to 1935 England and Wales built 1,406,725 new family dwellings while in the same period the United States built only 349,000, an increase of

General Hugh Johnson Says— St. Lawrence Seaway Is Large Gold Brick Sold to People of Middle West; Waterway Only Government-Aided Canal Worth the Money. |"

‘| as, many.

nvited to these colprsies ex-

(Times readers are. express their views in umns, religious contro: cluded. Makeé your le ‘er short, so all can have a chanc¢ |. Letters must be signed, but na: ies will be withheld on request.)

1,057,725 homes, or nearl; four times Of these 1,4 3,725 .more than a million were buil by private enterprise with no aid frc in the central government or locals \uthorities. During 1936 England ind Wales will build around 320,000)’ omes compared with only about 12 ,000 homes in the United States. V hile building activity in England ind Wales is still high and has be n given a great part of the credit { ir recovery there, it is slowing down in proportion to previous years. - he distinguishing difference betw ‘en home building there and here @ ow is that we are showing large @ increases, while England's gains | nce. 1934 have been small. The }crease in homes built in England ‘nd Wales in 1934 was 43.5 per cei; in 1935 only 9 per cent, with ¢ fractional gain estimated for 1936 | In the United States, we regi: ered our first gain last year am unting to i50 per cent. with an : crease of around 118 per cent est nated for 1936. But in pumbers HI homes built, England and Wale | are still far in the lead and afte | about 15 years of widespread built ing activity. home-building boom has 1 len great€1 proportionally than ti > one we saw at our peak in 1925-1! 6.

It is also highly signii cant that during the last six yea: private initiative, with no state a {, was responsible for more than wo-thirds of the homes built in En land and Males. While condition: affecting home-building and hom¢ financing are different here than ii England, it is not illogical to believe that with our present business rec! ery private initiative in the Uni id States could more nearly equal Zngland’s record were government c: npetition in mortgage-lending remc 'ed.- The British building societies a 2 lending around 70 per cent to 75 ¢ r cent of the.appraised value of th property and sometimes lend ‘15 p+. cent to 20 per cent above this an hunt if a deposit-guaranty by the |uilder is made or insurance issued to cover this excess amount. Thi practice seems to be the closest ar 'roacn to the operations under ow !Nationa!

BARTERED LO I

BY KEN HUGHE & You killed the white birc With your sharpened & ow. Now you offer in exchan j2— Another pet—a dirty sj (rrow!

DAILY THOUG

iT Envy thou not the o pressor. and choose none of his ways.— Proverbs 3:31. |

or him pecutes; or him. irtunate aven.—

There is no happiness who oppresses and pe there can be no repose For the sighs of the unf

cry for vengeance to I Pestalozzi. ;

And it is likewise tru | that this |

Hdusing Act providing for insurance of the entire loan. Yet with no stich guarpmiies by the central British government, private initiative has gone ahead, and of the three million new dwellings built in England and Wales since Armistice,

one-half have been built with no |:

government aid. 8 » ”

DOUBTS CONGRESS’ ABILITY TO REGULATE CAPITALISM By Vox Pop - The proposals to amend the Constitution to give Congress power to regulate capitalism by controlling wages, hours and prices are others of those follies of “back seat drivers” who try to cofitrol the economic machine in which they ride as

passengers, but not as owners of.

the machine. Labor, as such, prefers to let capital assume all responsibility for conducting business, but labor assumes no responsibility for production on its own account. Labor is content to be told what to do. It

never starts enterprise. Labor in-:

sists on the secondary role in industry. refusing responsibility as promoter or manager. Congress is even less competent than labor to assume control over the business of corporations, in which neither Congress nor labor have invested brains or money to conduct as a successful financial enterprise. - Congress will not assume the risks of ownership and management of American business, neither will labor enter the field except as a back-seat driver. . In an economy condugted with profits as the objective, profits must control the business management. If labor or Congress want to control wages, hours, prices and production, let either or both own and operate a business with a view toward eliminating the profit motive and substitute production for use, in which profits go to consumers only. 7” ” 2 DRILLS PRISONERS FOR DISCIPLINE By R. A.

When James Hammond became warden of Kentucky's state prison some time ago he found a big problem on his hands. Enforced idleness had led to a series of disturbances at the institution. Because of a law preventing commercial use of prison-made goods, Mr. Hammond could not put his 2900 convicts at work, to keep them out of mischief. So he tried an-

other idea. He started drilling his

prisoners, on a competitive basis, the various squads vying for the distinction of being the best-drilled in the prison. The plan has worked with remarkable success. This interesting story seems to be analogous to one from abroad. When Hitler became Der Fuehrer, conditions in Germany were turbulent, He, too, began to put his people on a military basis and, by drumming into them the theory that they were a chosen race, strengthened their competitive instinct. And thus far Hitler, too, has been successful. But there the analogy ends. The principal .aim of Hammond's plan, it seems, is to keep the peace.

UIE oo TR

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun The Peoples’ League for Peace

Still Sounds Like Good Idea! Opportunities of the New Year.

ORAL GABLES, Fla.,, Jan. 2.—Francis Lederer, the motion picture actor, spoke here the other night in favor of a league of peoples for the cause of peace. The particular machinery which he described was vague in outline, but it is true that the struecture of any such organization presents great difficulties. It is trite enoygh to say that the League of Na-

tions has failed because it represents the dickerings of diplomats rather than any exchange of ideas

y 4

between the masses themselves,

Of course, you can not crowd all humankind into a hall for the purposes of discussion. For the sake of getting things done there must be a delegation of authority,

Unfortunately, the recent his=

tory of the world shows that men .

in these posts of power let their sense of responsibility grow dim. At Versailles Woodrow Wilson spoke as the representative of the American people. If he had not : been thwarted and in some meas=ure bamboozled there would have been a better treaty, and the chances of a Hitler regime would have been rendered most unlikely,

But even Mr. Wilson erred in his failure to keep the folk at home well informed on the various issues as they came up. On the contrary, it seemed to be his notion that he would, out of his own head, anticipate the desires of America and hand over a completed program. In effect he said, “Here's a house’ I've built for you. Walk right in and make yourself at home.” alterations. Not a cornice or a gable was to bechanged.

Mr. Broun

” o 2

OW, certain aspects of the dwelling were far from pleasing to many people in this country, and so the voters proceeded to burn the building to the ground. I still think this was not the wisest course we could have foljowed.

In spite of manifest dangers and difficulties, it seems to me that the new year ought to offer oppor=tunities for co-operation among the peoples of the world. » The President’s trip to South America was®eminently successful. I think it is captious to say that his speecn was merely a series of friendly platitudes. Peace stands in need of platitudes. They certainly have served the warmongers well in their time. And it is important that a new spirit has been created in regard to Pan-American affairs even though the peoples involved are still fumbling for a formula to make this spirit effective. Accordingly, it seems to me that one has a right to urge upon his fellow citizens sympathy ‘for the gallant defenders of the Spanish republic even though he may be at a loss to say what tangible form that good will can take. : y

® ” u

NRST of all, there should be a blowing away of many misconceptions. I have specifically in mind

the frequently repeated assertion that Franco is a 4 A | sort of modern crusader seeking to rescue his home= ho I need not mention his Moor= .

land from the infidel. ish mercenaries or labor my point very much. I would prefer to cite specific evidence, and here is the opening of an A. P. dispatch from Spain: “Madrid, Dec. 25.—Christmas bombs and shells smashed death and hatred into the streets of Madrid

|today. At ledst five persons, one ‘a woman, were

blown to bits. ... For an hour and a half the central ‘part of the city, filled with thousands of Christmas Day strollers, was a place of tragedy and terror.” I think that ought to be sufficient to prove that Gen. Franco is not truly animated by a desire bring “peace on earth, good will toward men.” .

The: Washington Merry-Go-Round

Son of Ecuadorean West

Pointer Finds Life at Academy Is Just

As Tough as |t Was When His Father Attended the U. S. School,

palpably impracticable as a ship-way that he could

not see how any competent engineer could indorse it and retain his professional. standing.

The subject is too complicated to discuss in this short space, but it has to do with speed, costs and delays of lockage, breaking points between relative costs of water and rail transportation, the effect of ocean propellers on canal walls, and many other technical profundities.

Jn ou #8 T is a fact that, in several eras of our history, this country has gone “canal crazy.” From the New York Barge Canal to the Lake Michigan-Mississippi Waterway to the Ohio and Mississippi developments—we spent millions of government money for a facility which conipetes with private capital invested in railroads. Yet, without such subsidies, the waterways could not compete at all—in rates, speed, service, or in any other aspect of economic operation.

After several years of study of this subject, both |

as special assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois in the lakes-level controversy and as adviser to the Coolidge National Transportation Committee, the writer thinks it is fair to say that, except for the Great Lakes Waterway and our splendid harbor improvements, there isn’t a government-aided canal, canalized river, or waterway development in the United States that justifies the public 'e 1 15€ Le

DILL]

. tained !

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

W JA HINGTON, Jan. 2.—Jaime Eduardo Alfaro, W st Point plebe, suffered a jolt the other day ag his father’s son. He is one of two sons of lloy Alfaro, Minister of Ecuador, himself a nter. ; \ipper classman accosted young Jaime as

from be Capt. ! West P An follows: “You “Yes “We 2 very proud of him.” “Yes sir.” “I s opose he has told when bh | was a plebe here?” “Yes 'sir.” “I su spose he has told you the place is soft now?” “Yes sir.” : “Wel |” snapped the upper classman ominously, “we'll st » about that!” :

; gw # . HE nterstate Commerce Commission is preparing to c¢ ‘ack down on recalcitrant bus operators who have fz led to comply with the Motor Vehicle Act. The Co! mission’s legal staff is drafting a large numper of pmplaints. Two convictions have ‘been obir them, one resulting in a $1200 fine. , . . officials estimate that the use of WPA work2ck income tax returns has netted the Gov$18,000,000 in ‘additional income. . . . Asked

: father was a plebe here?” sir.”

‘you things were tough

was resigning, G-Boss J. Edgar Hoover replied: “It would have been presumptuous of me to have done SO. The decision whether I stay or go is up to my superiors.” . . , Two of the Postoffice Department’s aee executives are representing it af the Annual Postal Congress of the Americas and Spain now in session in Panama. Those attending are Harllee Branch, Second Assistant Postmaster General, and John Lamiell, Director of the International Postal Service. . . . A sign on the door leading to the private offices of the National Emergency Council reads: -“No Admittance—Storage.”" a = =» Ta B=» GALLAGHER of Detroit, champion of ather Coughlin, is about as popular arou Vatican as Josef Stalin. PoP he the When he was summoned over here last year to pipe down the radio priest, Bishop Gallagher gave a series of interviews to American newspapermen, saying that the Vatican had not even mentioned

He insisted that it was too late for ,

Father Coughlin’s name, and that his mission was in =

no way concerned with Coughlin. - The interviews, published in the United States, were immediately cabled back to the Vatican by one or two. American cardinals friendly to President Roosevelt and hostile to Coughlin. u She Vasican waxed exceedingly wroth and made clear to newspapermen that its whole purpose in

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