Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 January 1937 — Page 16

|

5 §

meee The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY H. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY EARL D. BAKER President Editor Business Manager

Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times’ Publishing Co., 214 W. Maryland St.

Price in Marion County, 3 cents a copy; delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week. at

Mail subscription rates in Indiana, $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.

Memberof United Press,. Scripps - Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. Rlley 5551

§ ScRiPPs = HOWARD] Give Light and the Pcople Will Find Their Own Way

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1937

THE 80TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

THE lightest Administration program in years faces the 1937 Indiana General Assembly as it convenes today. Governor-elect Townsend has said he personally will back new highway safety legislation. He has promised to remove gross income tax inequalities. That is the extent of his announced program. . There seems little need for major governmental changes, but there is much constructive work to be done at the present session. = The safety laws need the thorough overhauling which Mr. Townsend proposes and which the Governor's Committee on Public Safety and others have outlined.

Previous sessions laid the groundwork for the State's participation in social and economic reforms launched by the New Deal. Indiana, under Governor McNutt, has gone farther in this direction than most states. The job now is to administer this program and round it out. One legislative need, for example, is to provide for local housing authorities to take over the task of erecting and operating low-rent public housing.

The State has a tremendous responsibility in operating the vast network of new governmental activities. Parts of the social security program are now in operation and others

_ are to become operative soon.

Because their success and the success of other State activities depends largely on efficient personnel, the Legislature should deal realistically with the problem of better public personnel management. A voluntary start has been made in the Public Welfare Department. The merit program should be extended. Uniform state legislation for municipal merit systems also is needed.

- Taxation will be an issue—gross income tax revision; possibly new taxes to pay for the local cost of social welfare; redistribution of gasoline tax revenue so that Marion County and other large centers get a fairer share; the controversy over property tax limitation; tax exemption readJustments. Increased budget requests must be studied. The liquor control act needs tightening. : These are some of the problems demanding attention. The overwhelming Democratic control puts a heavy burden on the majority party and the Administration. Democrats outnumber Republicans 77 to 28 in the House, 28 to 12 in the Senate. There is no effective minority opposition. The Republican minorities will help test Democratic policies and proposals. But chiefly the debate and criticism must come from the Democrats themselves. It is a serious responsibility. It also is an opportunity. : The way is open for the 80th General Assembly to perform constructive public service.

ROOSEVELT ON THE COURT YEAR ago what President Roosevelt did before Congress yesterday would have been breath-taking and have caused an epidemic of apoplexy in the Liberty League. For here was the Executive, in a government of three - equal #@nd’ co-ordinate branches—executive, legislative and judic¢ial—appearing before the legislative and lecturing the ~ judicial.” ; But instead of being a sensation now, what he did ~ and what he said are regarded as quite mild compared with - what might have been expected. The reason? What hap- - pened Nov. 3. The result has been to take the Court and the Con-

~ stitution out of the emotional field, and to put them where - they can be dealt with rationally.

The President described his conception of the deeper purpose of democratic government—‘“to assist as many of its citizens as possible—especidjly those who need it most —to improve their conditions of life.” He restated the objectives of the New Deal. He declared that those objec- - tives cannot be attained through ‘parallel and simultancous action by 48 states” but only by Federal action supplementing state laws. And then he put it up to the Supreme Court . to modernize. : “The vital need,” he said, “is not an alteration of our i law, but an increasingly enlightened view with reference to it. Difficulties have grown out of its interpre-

ment of progress, and not as a device for prevention of action.” “, .. And because all of us believe that our democratic form of government can cope adequately with modern problems as they arise, it 1s patriotic as well as logical fot us to prove that we can meet new national needs with new laws consistent with an historic constitutional framework clearly intended to receive liberal and not narrow interpretations. And so he left it—with the next move up to the Court. In Congress will appear proposals for amendments and - for curbing the power of the Court. But so far as the President is concerned, he rests the immediate future of his program on the hope that those who sit on the nation’s highest bench are intelligent enough to interpret the election returns as an expression of the wishes and the needs of the people of this democracy.

FARM TENANCY CONFERENCE DEAS on how to relieve the acute farm tenancy problem are being pooled at a conference here today. One of

five regional meetings, the conference was called by Sec-

retary of Agriculture Henry Wallace to get a cross-section of opinion from farmers, both tenant and owners, and from other interested groups. : The chiet question is how to help renters and sharecroppers re-establish themselves as farm owners. The appalling growth of farm tenancy has been accompanied by a depletion of soil fertility in many cases. The tenant's first concern is to make a living and, if possible, some profit. Under the present system he has little chance of getting a «farm of his own. i Long-time credit must be made awailable and—if tenants are some day to become established on farms they “own, debt free—the price of the land gust be cheap.

1

tation; but rightly considered, it can be used as an instru-.

,

Sse Gus TANAPOLIS T A Theory Collides With a Fact—By Kirby

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Columnist Writes About Article By Jesuit Author Dealing With Fascism vs. Communism in Spain.

; NEW YORK, Jan. 7.—John Donahue, edi-

tor of Columbia, the national magazine of the Knights of Columbus, sends me a proof of an article on communism and fascism, with reference to this country, by

Father Wilfrid Parsons, the Jesuit writer. It is troublesome business to attempt to summarize a story on which the author has spent thought and care, and I will not try. But it seems to me fair to report that Father Parsons says in conclusion that fascism is the reaction of the middle class to the menace of communism, not an end sought in itself. From Mr. Donahue’s having sent me this proof, I take it that he invites me to discuss the case. On this assumption, I would go Father Parsons one better, and point out that communism, in turn, is the reaction to poverty, oppression and the exploitation of the masses by the few. : Father Parsons himself has written that the masses in Spain were driven to apostasy, and that the blame for this apostasy goes back to those friends of the church who neglected to remedy their condition. That would mean to me that the downtrodden Spanish people are more to be pitied than slaughtered, and that a small but privileged element of Spaniards, who are now represented by fascism, were the real enemies of Christianity, not only in their resort to war, but in their original betrayal of a solemn responsibility. That responsibility was a grave thing, and I cannot understand any reasoning by which it may now be atoned with the blood of the betrayed. o " ”

Grae that each human being represents a soul, I see no distinction between the killing of a desperate man driven wild by oppression and want and the killing of a member of a religious order. Bu! if there is any distinction, obviously the consecrated person, being in a state of grace, is better prepared to die than the frantic infidel. And, so far as one may judge by the early accounts of savage atrocity in Spain, the methods of killing were as vicious on one side as on the other, but in the slaughter of priests and nuns in Spain, the blame again seems to me to go back. to the original offenders, and I think their offense needs elaboration as to names, titles, official position and practices. It is said that communism breaks out in its violent form, as in Spain, only when the people have been prepared for it by exploitation, poverty and ignorance inflicted on them by their n:asters. Communism is like a souffle. The timing and ingredients must be absolutely perfect or the revolution will flop, and the result is fascism. . # 2 ” Fates PARSONS views with alarm the propagation of communism in this country. My own alarm is less active, but I agree that the movement is insidious and persistent. I do not agree, however, that there is a choice between the evils of communism and fascism, and I.view with almost equal alarm his ‘contention that there is. I doubt that the souffle is very high in this country, but I do know how to turn off the heat, obviating both communism and the reaction of fascism. There are too many $35,000 fur coats in the audience of the New York theaters, too many women whose jewels glitter and clank and mock the misery of people like the trappings on old Franz Josef’s horses. . Correct this condition and the oppression and denials which it represents, and there will be no menace of communism.

Mr. Pegler

The

- ji : Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with vhat you say, but will defend to the death your 1 ‘ght to say it—Voltaire.

DRUNKEN DRIVERS FLAYED BY WRITER By H. S. Bonsib. . . « . Booze and drunken driving are worse than nuisances. Repeal is a failure. It is bad enough that the drunken drivers hurt themselves, but it is much worse that they kill so many innocent people. Take it, not from me, but from Joseph Choate, former Federal Alcohol Administrator, when he says, “There is more illicit liquor sold today than there was during Prohibition.” . .. Why not do with drunken driving as we would with an obnoxious weed? Pull it up by the roots. . . .

2 2 ” PRAISES EMPLOYERS WHO PAID EMPLOYEES BQNUSES By Walter Henry Something should be said for the stores, factories and utilities that showed their appreciation for their

employees by giving extra bonuses or salary raises. These employees are all Indianapolis citizens and this extra money will make them happy in 1937. More will be spent in Indianapolis, helping to bring us prosperity. I notice one utility head says his first thought is “weather.” His second, new residences for more business. Again I thank the firms that remembered Indianapolis citizens. 2 n ”

SUPPORTS TESTIMONY ON MRS. CHIANG KAI-SHEK By Mrs. E. R. N. .

I wish to add my testimony to that of Mrs. Tilton. Some years ago, while teaching in a school in the East, I knew a Chinese student who came to our school for her final year’s work from Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. She told me that she was a relative of Mrs. Sun Yat-sen, wha is a sister to Mrs. Chiang = Kai-shek. This girl told me then that the Soong sisters had been students at Wesleyan College and that was the reason she herself had chosen that school when she came from China. Since music was the subject she planned to teach in China, she later attended a professional school. I have been puzzled by the newspaper reports concerning Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek and Wellesley, but

connected briefly with that school, although no mention of it was ever made by the student from Wesleyan College.

n ” ” LEGION PAYS TRIBUTE TO @HRISTMAS CHEER AIDS

By The Indianapolis Amerioan Legion Post 4 and Auxiliary We wish to express our sincere appreciation to those who so generously helped in making our Christmas Cheer and Welfare committees S0 successful during our holiday programs and distribution of gifts. We especially thank Miss Aloha

General Hudh Johnson Says—

Industry Says It Wants to Unemployment, but There

: ASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 7.—~Industry wants to co-operate with the Administration in solving the country’s public problem No. 1—unemployment, But how is industry going to do that? : Industry is not an organized unit wit 7 of government within itself. It is an em of tens of thousands of individual manufacturers and merchants. They are roughly grouped into separate trades such as the steel industry, the drug trade, the rubber industry, etc. Some of these groups have trade associations. These vary in effectiveness ‘from really effective bodies, like the Iron and Steel Institute, to organized excuses for an annual jamboree away from home with the lid off. None of them has any absolute power to bind, regulate or control its member corporations. In #n inadequate way, some attempt has. been made to organize these trade associations into great groups like the U. 8. Chamber of Commerce and the National! Association of Manufacturers. These have even less authority than the trade associations,

= = 8 zr § WwW is the other side—the governmental mechanism for co-operation? Almost nothing In the Department of Commeree there is Uncle Danny Roper’s Committee of Fifty. But these devoted and public-spirited pundits of industry speak for nobody but themselves., %

’

assumed that she probably was.

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these ‘columns, religious" ¢ ntroversics excluded. Make y¢ ir letter short, so all can have a hance. Letters must be signed, b: {| names will be withheld on reque it.) hi / Vf Carlin, the Recrea ion Department of the Park Board A the Recreation Department of the ‘Works Progress Administration, Mi. A. C. Zaring, and The Indiana olis Times for splendid and mos: helpful publicity.

” 82 8 ATTACKS ON EDI CATOR SCORED BY WR TER

By Hiram Lackey

In its efiorts to! ‘ob America of academic freedom! a reactionary newspaper seeks to filch from the American Federatio 1: of | Teachers’ College committee 1 s good name. The committee is condemned by the Tories because |; has the courage to expose Yale administration Hitlerites who rece itly nailed the

Davis for daring te each, effective-

ly, the unpopular ph se of economic Christianity. . . . The newspaper su ported its fallacy by the weakest of all conientions—the smart ale: taunt—that if & man does not like things as they are where he is, he hould go elsewhere. t . Suppose that Was! ington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoll | Martin Luther, Jesus and others had played cowards and left +t eir countries when they saw ther: was room for improvement. .] If all ssuperior pro: ressive minds, for the sake of per:inal ease and peace, had left the sc ne of conflict, where would we be today? Conservatives would not have anything worth conserving. ) Such’ a question. h Ips us appreciate how unfair, un: sasonable’ and stupid it is for us t¢ argue that a loyal citizen should i llow the path of the least resistai ce and leave when his services art most needed. The reactionary ne yspaper’s specious persecution of Prof. Davis throws light on its e itorials about Hitler fooling the G rman people.

VEILED L GHT By KEN HU HES The rhythm of my ays: Is what the future holds! I dream, and peer with longing eyes ® But there are hidde i folds Through which I n ay not see.

DAILY THO JGHT

Surely God will nc hear vanity, neither will the Aln ghty regard it.——Job 35:13.

When a man:has r : longer any conception of exceller ;:e above his own, his voyage is don ; he is dead; dead in the trespasse and sins of blear-eyed vanity’ —H. W. Beecher.

cross of severance ¢1 Prof. Jerome’

~

Obviously, it envies Hitler's success in curbing free speech. The policy of the newspaper in dealing with progressive, militantly honest subscribers, is in perfect keeping with the fascism of its editorial. Readets feel that truth, important to their self-interest, is being withheld and that something must be wrong. Quite naturally, when readers wish to know the actual truth about anything or to make a vital decision they depend on facts and opinions expressed in newspapers which practice more of the idealism of Thomas Jefferson and Voltaire. By such stabs at free speech, reactionaries cut their own throats.

E-4 ” ® LIQUOR BUSINESS SHOULD PAY DAMAGES, WRITER BELIEVES 4 By X. Y. Z., Crawfordsville If drunken drivers are to take possession of our highways the liquor. business should bear the burdens which it puts- upon society. The “dead drunk* should - bury their dead. A man hurt by a drunken driver should receive damages in proportion to his injuries and the liquor business should bear this cxpense. Society should not have to bear the burdens of such a business, notwithstanding’ the legalizing of sale of intoxicating liquors. It is up to those who profit financially from

liquor to care for the widows, or-|

Phans and cripples it makes. It is their duty to provide the way and the pay. We should not go on with the slaughter of innocent people and let the losses fall on society in gencral. Our lawmakers should do something about this when they meet. Lightening the penalty for first offenders will not solve the problem. How many people should a drunkrn driver kill or cripple before his iicense is revoked? gi ” z 2 DECLINE IN LYNCHINGS NOTED DURING 1936 By R. M. One of the excellent records hung up in the year 1936 is the fact that the lynching evil declined substantially. The year saw nine lynchings—and while it may be remarked that that was just nine too many, it should be noticed that it was 11 fewer than 1935’s total. Furthermore, there were 35 cases in which courageous officers of the law prevented attempted lynchings; and 30 of these cases were recorded in the deep South. Altogether, 69 people—all but seven of them Negroes—were saved from violence at the hands of mobs. It is cause for congratulation, that record. And it emphasizes a fact that Northern 'critics too often overlook—that the average Southern official, supported by the sentiment of his own locality, is aware of his duty and brave enough to carry it out. y :

Co-operate With Administration in Solving Is No Machinery Set Up for Co-operation.

Beyond that there is no machinery at all in government for the highly heralded “co-operation.” It wouldn't take any act of Congress for the trade associations of a few of the principal industries to name some men—not too many at first—to confer with the President, or with whomever he might designate, to work ou a plan and a set of objectives for honest-to-goodness’ and continuous co-operation.

” ” s =e are some bellwethers for every industry and some for several industries. If the right man were picked, there are several groups, of about a dozen men in the United States who, if this proffered cooperation and the famous era of good-feeling really ‘means anything, could sit in a room for a few hours with Franklin Roosevelt and come exceedingly close to giving the final answer on whether this Job can be done smoothly by voluntary industrial action, or whether we have to hack it out with a legislative meat-ax. Just to strengthen the assertion about the 12 men, it is instructive to name a sample panel: Pierre du Pont, Walter Chrysler, Eugene Grace, Owen Young, Andrew Mellon, Walter Gifford, John D. Rockefeller

Jr, John Hartford, Louis Kirstein, J. P, Morgan, Henry Ford, Clay Williams, % ° Ea

were audible titters from th

—

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun Finds Ex-Pitcher Rube Marquard,’ The "$11,000 Beauty,’ Selling Tote Tickets at Florida Race Track, ORAL GABLES, Fla., Jan. 7.—“Give me one ticket on No. 3,” I said, and the man

behind the window shoved out a tote token.

on Strider to show. He dealt me the ticket

with his left hand, and when I looked up.

there was my old friend Rube Marquard, once known as “the $11,000 beauty.”

Rube looks well, and I rather imagine that ha’

and pitch pretty good bail in the slower time. But seemingly he is done with baseball and addicted to the tote ticket business. Marquard is working both afters noons and evenings, for at night you can go to his booth if you want to bet on the dogs. I haven't had much chance to talk with Rube yet except to pass the time ‘of day. Not that I have been neglecting my extracurricular -activities. Indeed, I understand that if I maintain my present average the racing stewards at both Tropical Park and the West Flagler dog track purpose to present me . with a good conduct medal inscribed, “Never absent and never tardy.’| Moreover, I understand that my marks in deportment will be 100 per cent. Unfortunately, I am not going to ‘get by in simple addition, and that is very strange, since I have displayed a distinct flair for subtraction ever since I arrived in Miami. : And so I haven't seen as much of Marquard as I would like, because since our first meeting he has. been promoted to the $10 window at Tropical Park, while his West Flagler post is at’ the $6 combination booth. I'm too smart to let them get my money in that way. | ] ; 2 td t-4 - UT naturally I look back with some regret at the brave days of old before Rube and I became business men. We trained together at Marlin Springs, Tex., in the early spring of 1915. Then it was “easy come and easy go” with both of us. If time could be turned back in its flight and the old whip brought to life in the left arm of Mar= quard he would be at least a $200,000 beauty. He was one of the greatest pitchers ever to blaze the ball across the plate. To be sure, he was only a thrower in the beginning, and not a very accurate one at that. But under the lash of McGraw’s tongue he learned of the existence of the: corners and how to find them. #2 2 ® | WENT to the track with Rube’s own ghost. I mean ‘A his first ghost, for later on in succeeding world series the Rube had many who wrote for him. But it was Bill Farnsworth who first showed Marquard the possibilities of making money through the power of the pen. { Of course, he didn’t precisely acquire writer's cramp by becoming an author for the duration of a world series. Still, he was a fertile source of material, Rube dropped a close one to the Red Sox, and Farns< worth caught him in the clubhouse before he had quite dried out. The southpaw spoke in bitter terms of Bridwell, Larry Doyle and some other members of the supporting cast who had betrayed him with untimely errors. And young Bill rarnsworth wrote the story just as Rube told it. : | - The next day nobody on the team would spealc to Rube. He had to choose between peace of mind and pride of authorship. He chose the former course and blamed the whole thing on his ghost. And today Rube writes nothing. His only truck with|literature is to hand out little slips which tell a short and simple story, such as “Combine 2777.”

could still go out,

Mr. Broun

The Washington ‘Merry-Go-Round /

After Mussolini, What? No One Knows, but It Looks as if 0 Duce Is Ready to-Bestow Dictatorial Mantle on Son-in-Law Count Ciano.

By Drew Pearson

| OME, Jan. 7.—For years the big question mark concerning Italy has been: After Mussolini, whe |? Who will take his place? Can anyone take his lace? a “1 ussolini has made the choice’ of his successor dou ly difficult by exiling to obscure position every mar who crowded him for the limelight. \ I ut now it looks as if one man had come along upo; whom Il Duce has bestowed the dictatorial bles ing. He is Count Galeazzo Ciano, Minister of For ign Affairs and what is more important, husband of I ida Mussolini. 2 : 2 ” ” |ANO is a born actor, and his acting consists chiefly of imitating his papa-in-law. Italy is full of 1 ttle Mussolinis—ambitious Fascists who ape 11 Duc —byt Count Ciano is the best mimic of the lot. He | an roll his eyes, blow out his cheeks, pucker his lips: exactly like Mussolini. He even struts around with his thumbs in the top of his pants—the village blac smith pose so frequent with II Duce. It long ago Ciano tried a balcony speech at Florence a la Mussolini. His facial expressions were perfect, but just as he was rumbl out one of Il Duce’s most stentorian perorations, oice squeaked. There d below. C | the whole; however, Ciano does pretty well!

{ new Italian liners

He is aided by having his father-in-law’s piercing eyes, his full face, and his heavy jaw—though his skin looks as soft as thistledown, whereas Mussolini's is like black sandpaper. - Ciano has something which Mussolini lacks—al sense of propriety in his play-acting. |Il1 Duce struts and storms before foreign visitors as he does before cheering Fascists, fand the strangers don’t like it, But with foreigners Ciano is pleasant, frank, forth right, saves the theatricals for the local peasanty, # = z IANO had an early yen for diplomacy, first became -secretary of the Italian Embassy in Rio de Janeiro. After he married Mussolini’s daughter, pro-. motion came faster. He was sent to Shanghai as consul general, where he conceived and inaugurated an express steamship service between Italy| and the Orient, This was the first deed of young Ciano’s which indicated that, outside of a lucky marriage, he had

something on the ball.

People back in Rome opposed the Orient steamship service, argued that large ships could not pay be= cause of exorbitant tolls collected by the Suez Canal, Ciano argued that British steamers were so poor that

_new Italian vessels could capture all the trade.

He finally won out, and proved to be right. The ‘have given the staid old British lines a serious jolt. Le :

i

-

or