Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 January 1937 — Page 15

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” . Wagner Act Important

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By RAYMOND CLAPPER

(Ernie Pyle, Page 13)

ASHINGTON, Jan. 7.—Another tradition was broken by President Roosevelt when he delivered his annual message. Instead of wearing .the undertaker’s clothes which are customary with Presidents and Tammany Congressmen on stch occasions, he was turned out in a light ashen-gray cutaway with trousers to match. Someone in the press gallery said he was wearing sackcloth. But that z . was before he had spoken. When, in his message, President Roosevelt said that his task of executive management had reached the point where the administrative machinery needed overhauling, some of his«listeners recalled a campaign pleasantry with which he delighted his intimate friends last fall. He used to tell them that he could put cn a better campaign against President Roosevelt than the Republicans were making because he knew where the Administration was vulnerable. “Where, Mr. President?” asked one of his friends in surprise. . “In administration,” replied the President. ., But he got away with it because the Republicans were too busy nailing Roosevelt as a Communist to bother with a detail like that.

” zn 2 Too Bad Court Not Present

~ Mr. Clapper

OO bad the Supreme Court was not present as

usual to hear the message. It was too busy with an argument in the Palace of Justice across the Capitel Plaza to go over and hear a rougher one. Roosevelt said the vital need was not alteration of the Constitution but a more enlightened view of it— meaning by the Supreme Court. Several times he came back to this theme that the Court should take a more modern view of the Constitution and do its share toward making democracy work in an industrial age. . This has been the view of three or four of the

Supreme Court justices as repeatedly emphasized ifts

their minority opinions, which .with the support of one or two of their brethren would have become majority opinions and therefore the correct interpretation of the Constitution. This is the view which has been taken by a number of Administration advisers including. Attorney General Cummings, Secretary of Agriculture Wallace and Donald Richberg. This position is outlined at length in two books which have made a strong impression throughout the Administration—Wallace’s “Whose Constitution” and Irving Brant’s “Storm Over the Constitution.” Strategic reasons also probably had something to do with Roosevelf’s decision to turn the heat on the Court itself rather than on the Constitution. ” 2

N the first place, it would be unsatisfactory to draft I a constitutional amendment before the Court rules on the Wagner Labor Act. That may be the key decision which will indicate whether the New Deal objectives can be pursued further without a change in the Constitution. Then -too,~he may get a vacancy or two in the Court before long. That would solve most of his difficulties. Chairman Sumners of the House Judiciary Committee hopes to obtain legislation at this session which will facilitate the retirement of superannuated justices. Rebel yells greeted. the President's first crack at the Court, indicating that at least the noisier members of Congress are tired of having their work undone by five or six gentlemen appointed back in the dead past. :

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT W ASHINGTON, Wednesday.—The Cabinet dinner went off very well. It is more of a family party than any of the other state functions. Though of course, there are a good many people from out of town as well as from Washington. a After dinner we ‘had a young pianist, Beveridge Webster, who gave us a perfectly delightful evening. In a really masterful way, he played many things of which I am very fond. A lighter touch was given to the evening by Alice Wynne's dancing and Miss Juliet's recitations. After I said good night to all my guests and found out eyerybody’s breakfast wishes, I went into the President’s study to say good night. It was midnight and high time for everybody to go to bed, I thought, but I was wrong. - He was going to read his message over to his assistants and, of course, I sat right down to listen and forgot I had ever thought it was bedtime. Miss Esther Lape, Miss Elizabeth Read and I had an early breakfast together. They came down yesterday afternoon for the Cabinet dinner and spent the night at the White House, as did Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Flynn. : : : At 11:30 I went over to The conference on Negro Youth which is being conducted under the auspices of the National Youth Administration. A hurried luncheon and then we dashed off ahead of the President to get into our seats in the executive gallery at the Capitol. : It is always an int ting sight to see the two Houses of Congress affed together and I tried to pick out all the womnrer embers. Mrs. Nan Honeyman from Portland, Ore. is a new member and I was interested to see her sitting next to Mrs. O'Day. I

have known her for many years, in fact ever since

we were young girls, for her father was a great friend of my aunt, Mrs. Douglas Robinson. She has been active in politics in her own state for some time and should be of real value as a Representative. Around us in the gallery sat Mrs. Hughes, the usual number of Cabinet wives, plus a number of friends. z All the other gallerigs were filled to capacity also. Everything was beautifully arranged, however, and we reached our seats and left without any trouble at all Late this afternoon I am flying up to New York to open up the class in current events and the Junior League clubhouse .which the Todhunter School has every year. : |

¢ New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS— «x» IG bridges are built under water.” Thus, down 242 feet (the height of a 20-story building) through Pacific tide-water to a solid base went the foundation piers of the “biggest bridge job

Crossing project. “An illustrated story featuring the romance of bridge building and written entirely for the lay reader,” is THE STORY OF BRIDGES, by Archibald Black (Whittlesey). : : Over a period of many centuries are presented man’s achievement in bridge building, beginning with a single log thrown across a stream and ending with the great steel cantilevers and suspension bridges of today. Here are described bridges of antiquity, Roman acqueducts, the quaint wooden and stone stypuctures of the Middle Ages, bridges of iron and cement, and the modern steel giants. The almost unbelievable difficulties of construction are told. We hear something of the masters of engineering and see the workers high over rushing water, or laboring in under-water air chambers. » Authoritative information, romance, and a story - of marvelous efficiency, combine to make this a book cf significant worth.

” ” ” : O understand the “supremest Supreme Court in all the world,” it is necessary to understand its genesis and evolution. Ernest Sutherland Bates, in his STORY OF THE SUPREME COURT (Bobbs-Mer-rill), gives a timely and readable volume. He begins even before the constitutional convention of 1787. Following the gradual development of the theory of “judicial review,” the technical term for the authority of the courts to nullify legislative acts, and taking each court separately from the first under Jay to the present under Hughes, he reviews the salient cases and shows-how this judicial authority has acually been exercised. Even though certain points in the book have been questioned by other scholars, it gives the layman considerable aid in his efforts to

understand a current problem of impaytance.

\

in the world,” the stupendous San Francisco-Oakland Bay.

“Second Section

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1937

Enterec. as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

PAGE 15

BUILDING TRENCHES IN THE SKIES

Navy before it can get defend the island kingdom.

ideas.

performances. Maj. Williams

without battleships.

planes coming out of the fac of enemy Jer duction facilities for building wan

from standstill to top speed in nothing flat. -derous, slow build-up for an enemy Invasion by air. : be bombed in a matter of minutes after a fleet of enemy ships takes

By MAJ. AL WILLIAMS

Times Special Writer

HE Royal Air Force will have to “whip” the British

squared away and properly

In England 1 saw pursuit ships and engines that

would quicken the pulse of any aviator. I saw military airdomes and fighting equipment of the most advanced types. the Royal Air Force is struggling today, just as it did in the World War, to keep clear of the hampering influence of the two old services, paricularly the Navy. The Air Ministry seems to spend half its time with the Air Force affairs, and the other half warding off internal political attacks. It is tied to gold braid apron strings. : Time and again I was impressed, during my inspection of the war programs of the various nations I visited, that a logical preparation for an air war hinges on two vital factors. } see the mechanical future in the true light, and : second, the scrapping of thousands of worn out

But

First, the ability to

® ” 4

N England, mass production is the problem. I British aeronautical engineers have designed outstanding fighting aircraft, possessed of superlative Beautiful and impressive samples, they are, but there is no provision to turn them out in quantities. ; - This dangerous condition exists because of a Navy which will not admit that any war could possibly be fought

The Royal Air Force Knows that it must have thousands of airtory ‘doors shortly before the first load

pombs is delivered. That means that the kingdom's pro-

birds must be prepared to flash There can be no ponEngland could

off from continental Europe. s England’s existing aircraft industry has been working at full pressure through the full 24 hours of each day for a long time. But the results are only drops in the bucket. It’s a strange picture to find that the one country in Europe, which is possessed of everything from raw materials to me= chanical genius and brains, is making the slowest progress in the acquisition of equipment that spells air power. The British aircraft engine builders were the first to see the mass. production handwriting on the wall and stepped into line. Instead of demanding manufacturing skill from the fingers and experience of the factory workmen, they designed automatic machinery to take care of precision re“quirements. And they employed semi-skilled labor to feed raw materials to machines which could handle the grinding and shaping to thousandths of an inch. Such factories required intensive organization and training among the key men Who supervised. Such provision permits the release of the semi-skilled male worker for service in time of emergency when their places can be taken by women and this is a mighty important angle.

” ” n

TT airplane manufacturers, however, are just beginning to estimate how they can avoid hand work as metal airplanes replace wooder ships. But there’s another very important angle in the effort to grind out fighting planes like sausages in accordance with mass production plans. And that is, just how fine and excellent must be the finish of a fighting plane that is produced in war time. The records of the World War prove that the average plane was good for about 40 hours’ service. Some experts limited the useful life to three days’ active service and others to one flight over the lines. In other words, British airplane manufacturers are turning out ships which possess a finish

comparable to a Rolls Royce coach body. And paradoxical as it may seem, such exacting and expert workmanship is just as definite a handicap against the rapid compilation of ships in an emergency as if the emergency was not recognized. ; This quality of finish means skilled labor. And the British haven't anywhere near enough of it. What difference does it make if stampings that flow from automatic factory machines are possessed of slight wrinkles, if these wrinkles have no effect upon the airplane’s performance? This is the crux of the whole drive for air power. As far as performance is concerned, British engines for high speed single-seater and twoseater fighters, and the ships themselves are superior to those of any other nation. Nothing in the world can approach the performance of the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine single-seater fighter. Both of which are low-wing monoplanes reported to be capable of about 370 miles an hour. The British have only two of the three engines which are ‘necessary for a successful war in the air. n ” as ” HEIR Rolls Royce streamlined, liquid-cooled engines

are, I believe the finest high-

speed. engines in the world. Their

air-cooled radial jobs, built by the Bristol Co. and Armstrong Siddley, are among the leading engines of this type.- The Rolls Royce Merlin is responsible for the close to 400-mile-an-hour performance of their single-seater and twoseater, fighters. These will be flown only dy expert pilots and used for home defense against bombing raiders. The air-cooled radials will be the power plants for the slower fighting ships, which will form that branch of an air force which will some day be known as the “infantry of the air"—forty or fifty thousand strong. But the British lack the real long-range bombing engine.

England's Air F orce Far Behind Dre to Meddlin 3 Says Williams

(Fourth of a Series)

Great Britain's Navy envisions an air force under the Admiralty’s control, scoffing at war entirely in the air, says Maj. Williams. Top photo is of a plane tak ng off from the deck of the ‘British Aircraft

Carrier Furious.

(center) and ground troops, pictured below in action.

Bulwark of its defense, still thinks } agland, are ships like the battle cruiser Hood

Every estimate or attempt to investigate a nation’s capacity to produce the equipment necessary for an air war, brings you right back to where you started from. “How clearly do the leaders visualize that type of war, and how much freedom are they allowed in working out the details of that vision?” England plans that she is definitely not going to fight until she has to, and then she is going to try to move on the stage with ‘armies, navies and air forces. As far as production capacity at present is concerned, it is my estimate that the British are turning out between 500 and 600 aircraft engines per month, with an air-

plane production tota of about 125 finished aircraft evi ry 30 days. Their engine productio: can easily be stepped up, under t ‘e pressure of necessity, to about 1 00 engines per month. How they v ill manage to build a sufficient iumber of ships to use these eng nes is beyond my understand: ig. Especially is this true, in ' iew of the recently discredited “i nadow industry,” and the gene: 21 monkey wrench of indecision which has been hurled into the machinery by the constant row with the Admiralty. . [The “shadow indus ry” was a plan to build airplar: parts at many different factori:i ; and then have them shipped to : n assembly

plant. This was a mass production scheme, utilizing auto and other factories.] It’s not enough to be able to. build samples of aircraft pos-

If you can’t build them overnight, in quantity, it’s better to leave the money in the bank and not build at all. And so, in spite of the availability of all kinds of resources, technical "skill, and engineering ability, England is without adequate air defense, because her plans to meet a war in the air are at least 10 years out of date.

NEXT—Red Wings Over Eu-

rope.

sessed of astonishing proficiency.

EDWARD WANTED TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL, WRITER CLAIMS

By RALPH MILLETT Times Special Writer HE trouble with Edward was that he had a trailer complex. And so he chucked the richest crown in the world—and a woman got the blame or the credit for it. Edward wanted to get away from his troubles, from his responsibilities. If he hadn’t had love for an excuse, he would have found some other vehicle. He was tired of the treadmill— tired of having to do things. It doesn’t make much difference whether you are a race horse or a plow nag—if you have to do your daily stunt and do it some days when you don’t feel like it. The carpenter envies the man of business and the man of business envies the carpenter. One has to drive hard nails all day and the other hard bargains, on 2 NE of the richest and most in- . dependent men in Memphis recently bemoaned the fact he missed the King's farewell. : When it was suggested that he should have a small radio he threw up his hands in horror. “Why, what would the customers and the directors of this institution think if the president had a radio on his desk?” ‘ For years we had envied him becduse he was so independent—and he has a horse collar on his neck just like the rest of us. What difference ‘does it make whether the horse collar is called a presidency or a crown? It is a horse collar just the same.

2 2 2

MAN who has made so many laugh that he sometimes is referred to as a humorist recently confessed that he is in such._haste every morning that he seldom sits down to a. table. : He just grabs a bite of toast, gulps a cup of coffee and'dashes for the office. And he makes people laugh. They don’t see the horse collar. 6 : He, too, longs for what Bobby

Burns called the blessed privilege of being independent. Like King Edward, the Duke of Windsor, “Boysy,” or whatever you call him, he is going to chuck the whole thing

some day and run away — in a trailer.

” ” » ND so Edward Windsor, the

president of a Memphis insti-

tution and our favorite humorist

all answer the question that is be-

ing asked from Maine to Califor-

nia: “How do you account for the trailer craze’?

. Mr. Babson is wrong in his pre-

diction that half of our populati#n will be living awheel in 20 years. But the fact remains a million persons are now living in trailers, more than 300 firms are manufacturing them and are having a hard time to keep up with orders. The people are tired of wearing horse collars. They: want to get away from conventions and cocktail parties. They want to chuck the whole business—just as the King

dil—and run away.

Folks are running away on wheels, running away from business, away from tax collectors, away from bill collectors, away from social obligations. : But Mr. Babson is wrong because he has overlooked one thing—folks can’t run away from themselves. They can’t run away from life— and life means responsibilities.

Even the King will find that out

—if he hasn't already.

READERS SNUB WARS

By Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance COLUMBUS, O. Jan. 7.—Spain’s war may be a great news story so far as the editors are concerned, but

| for John Q. Public it’s just so much

printing ink on white paper. That is one of several jolts The Columbus Citizen got when it conducted a reader poll to pick the 10 best news events of 1936. Here is the public consensus: 1,

Roosevelt's re-election; 2, Edward's

abdication; 3, execution. of Haupt-

mann; 4, payment of soldier bonus;

5, Olympic games; 6,0 Supreme Court’s AAA, TVA and other decisions; 7, reduction of railroad fares; 8, Schmeling’s knockout of Joe Louis; 9, (a local story); 10, weather, hottest, coldest, wettest,

Pe

+

Report Lobbyists Tryi ng

To Curb Senate R.R. Probe

By NED BROOKS Times Special Writer

ASHINGTON, Ja: T7.—Railroad and bankirg lobbyists were reported active 1iday in an effort to curtail the 3enate Investigation of railroad I nancing. The movement wis directed against the request for more funds which Chairman W ieeler (D. Mont.) is preparing to nake. The Senate has alrea¢ 7 voted two appropriations, of $25,0(7 and $75,000 for the inquiry. jut a vast

amount of research ren ains if the!

committee is to go tho: sughly into the fiscal affairs of the 25 systems and individual roads it |: instructed to examine. Remaining funds will: carry! the committee only two or ti ree months more at the present pac: .

The inquiry was auth rized ‘more ' ut public

than 18 months ago hearings were not starte i until late December, the interim | eing ‘spent in piecing together evi ence from company files and othe sources. ” ” ” HE lobbyists, accor¢ing to reports, are circulati ig charges among incoming Senate s that the inquiry is being conduct! d unfairly, that it is covering grouad already explored by other ge rernmental agencies and that addit onal funds would be a waste of mo; ey. | Hearings thus far ha e centered on the $3,000,000,000 Van Sweringen system, although com ittee investigators have accumu ated much evidence dealing with tl 2 Pennsylvania, the Chicago, Mil: aukee, St. Paul & Pacific and seve al smaller

‘| systems. :

KNOW YOLR INDIANAPOLIS

The Indianapolis Glave Co. is the largest cotton gl! ve factory in the world, and ‘he city ‘has the largest exclusii & paper shopping bag factory in the world, the Deubener hopping Bag C0, | vio

The committee has proceedéd on the theory that the examination of each system or road should be exhaustive and should be completed As a result, many of the 25 designated companies have thus far escaped

before another is undertaken.

even a preliminary scrutiny. The inquiry has had assistance from the Interstate

mittee for the past year. C. Cs interest arises from its in-

ability to gain access to records now

available to the committee, and from the charge made at hearings that false reports and shabby bobkkeeping were contained in statements filed with the commission. : ” » = BSTACLES- placed in the paths of investigators have slowed the. investigation, committee members said. In one instance, Chairman Wheeler asserted during the

hearings, it took agents nearly a year to gain access to certain Van Sweringen records. Investigators also told of being sent from one city tc another for files, only to be told in the end that the records were nonexistent. The search has taken investigators into some -of Wall suet largest financial institutions. en Joseph B. Eastman, former co-ordi-nator of transportation, mapped the inquiry, he listed J. P. Morgan & Co., Kuhn Loeb & Co., Dillon Read & Co. Speyer & Co, J. and W. Seligman Co. and Hayden, Stone & Co. as banking firms closely affiliated with carrier financing. Charges of unfairness in conduct of the inquiry cropped out during the hearings, P. J. Mulligan, Cleveland attorney for the Van Sweringens, asserting that it was “unfortunate” that the committee’s version of the Missouri Pacific's bookkeeping “should be broadcast to the American public without the oppor-

tunity of an explanation.” The committee the following day heard the

officers.

company’s accoupting

Commerce Commission, more than 50 experts of the I. C. C.’s Bureau of Accounts “having been assigned to the comThe 1.

‘with another.

Our Town

UNDAY had a charm of its own when I was a boy. I guess it was really more of a mood, because compared with other days of the week, Sunday started out differently, For one thing, Sunday opened with a strange

i.

stillness in the air—a mood maintained, more or less, until the close of the day. The streets were quiet. The cries of street peddlers were stilled. The streetcars were on a slower schedule, and even the

noise of the horses’ hoofs sounded differently, probably because the heavy draft horses used for pulling the drays, of which Indianapolis had many when I was a boy, were put away for the day. To be sure, the family horses, hitched to surreys, were out, but they had a way of going about their business as if they sensed the significance of the day. This doesn’t mean, of course, that all sounds were suppressed on Sunday. Not at all, because Sunday had sounds of its own. The church bells, for instance. Best of all, I remember those of the Sacred Heart Church way down on Union St. They were powerful hells and easily could be heard a mile. With a good breeze behind them, they could be heard even farther. They began ringing Saturday night, I recall, but they never sounded as well as they did on Sunday morning when the air was cleared to receive their | music.” The bells didn’t play a tune, as bells nowadays try to do. They rang out, as bells are supposed to do —joyously, happily, as if they were in a mood to celebrate something worthwhile. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Indianapolis had more bells 50 years ago than it has now. .

” 4 ”n Everyone Dressed Up

HE celebrating mood didn't stop with the bells, however. It took hold of everybody. Fathee started the day dressed in his “Sunday-go-to-meeting= best,” and I recall that he always had his shoes shined for the day. I used to get a nickel for the job, unless it happened that we had had a muddy week, in which . case I got a dime. By #4he time dinner was announced, mother, too, was dressed up in her best, and so were we boys. [| . It was a day of deliberate dressing, probably because 50 years ago we had a wardrobe consisting of working clothes and a Sunday suit. Sunday ceased to be what it used to be the moment people took to wearing Sunday suits on week days. |

” 2 2 Visited in Afternoon

INNER over, we were ready to celebrate. At any rate, the afternoon was given over to visiting or receiving calls. ‘Like as not, father would spend the afternoon at the Maennerchor. Sometimes, he would take me with him, and it was always a grand Sunday when he did. It was always good for.a peep at Max Leckner, the musician; Engelbach, the bookseller; Gottfried Recker, the merchant, and Dr. Guido Bell. They would talk about the strangest things imaginable. Once, I remember, they had a heated discussion whether the egg or the chicken happened first in the scheme of things. The egg won, though for the life of me ¥ couldn’t see why at the time. On rainy days we stayed at home and caught up on our reading. Father always read “Ben-Hur.” I don’t know how many times he read it, but it was close to a hundred. I nearly always picked “The Swiss Family Robinson.” I still remember how it starts: “The storm, which had lasted for six long and terrible days, appeared on the seventh to redouble its fury.” I'd like to see a modern artist pack as much into the opening sentence.

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON HE most vivid memory of my childhood is of |. Great Aunt Matilda. Tall, upright, tart of speech, she was noted in the Indian Territory for her pungent ‘comments on life and her delicious sausage. Her spending money was made at “hog-killing time” when she traveled up and down the “Nation” helping housewives grind and mix and pack their tasty meat. As a little pitcher with big ears I often heard Aunt Matilda say, “She’s made her bed; let her lie in it” Thinking she had references to the difficulties of keeping the huge feather beds comfortable or presentable, it was some time before I sensed that the words had a cryptic meaning. One day ‘Aunt, Matilda changed the pronoun and said “He’s made his hed,” and instantly I knew there was something curious about that, for what man ever made his bed? : This time we three children who had discussed the topic mustered up courage to ask an explanation of Aunt Matilda. She ‘thumped us with her thimble, saying we were too young to understand. But she added, as a sop to curiosity: “It means that the troubles you bring on yourself, you will have to bear by yourself.” Aunt Matilda and her kind, who are almost gone from earth now, asked no quarter from life. When they made their beds, they slept in them without com= plaint. We can be sure, too, that their sleep was not always easy. So many of us work to create our own unhappiness and then cry out that fate has been against us. Great groups of individuals connect their misfortunes with the stars as they whirl in their courses. We blame this, that or the other for our miseries when as.like as not most of them are of our making. That old-fashioned something which Aunt Matilda called “grit’—the quality which made men and women feel responsible for their dwn mistakes—we and our children could do with a bit more of it.

Your Health ‘By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, American Medical Assn. Journal |

AN is the talking animal, communicating with other men by speech. When a man loses his voice, he is said to be dumb, and it is not strange that the word should also mean “stupid,” when applied to a man who is unable to speak intelligently Hence the loss of the voice or its im=proper use is;always a serious disturbance. When your voice gets hard and husky, you are likely to suspect that you are catching cold. When nose and throat become infected, the infection fre-

Mr. Scherrer

\

_quently extends down the throat into the larynx, or”

voice box. The larynx contains the vocal cords, which give sound to the voice. There aye, however, many other causes of hoarse=ness, which may come on at any time in life. Babies may cry hoarsely almost immediately after birth be cause of some infection or some mechanical disturb= ance that affects action of the vocal cords. As the child grows older, he begins to talk. He will not talk intelligently until he is anywhere from 14 to 18 months old, and some children fail to talk until they are much’ older. By the end of his first year, the child may use several simple words. In two years he should be using simple, short sentences. As the child gets older, sudden hoarseness may be brought on by diphtheria or some other infectious disease. : : The habit of talking in a well-modulated voice, with proper emphasis, may be developed by training and proper study of use of the voice. A soft voice, with suitable emphasis when required, is an important factor in success in any walk of life. Hoarseness often occurs after prolonged use of the voice, but also after straining it unnecessarily to em= phasize a point or to reach great numbers of people. It is now recognized that throats and vocal cords of some persons may be éspecially sensitive to various ingrédients of tobacco smoke. The intelligent individual soon will learn to associate his attacks of hoarseness with such factors and to avoid them if he rs to protect his throat and vocal cords.