Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 January 1937 — Page 10

other levies; the same amount of revenue.

Uo

PAGE 10

The Indianapolis Times % (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) .

ROY H. HOWARD President .

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LUDWELL DENNY Editor

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1937

STATE POLICE EFFICIENCY

HE Indiana State Police recently did an excellent job of solving the brutal murder of Harry S. Miller, former Cincinnati fire captain. Heber Hicks was convicted and sentenced to die. Three other suspects in the: complicated case await trial.

Starting with few clues, the State Police in less than three days this week arrested two suspects and claim a confession in the slaying of William H. Bright, Indianapolis druggist. State Police Captain Matt Leach tells a shocking story of how two youths, 19 and 21 years old, allegedly stopped Bright's car—the first to halt at a stop light where they waited—drove to a cornfield near Boggstown, shot Bright four times, and took $1.25 from his pockets. The only motive, says Capt. Leach, was to steal the car, and . Bright “just happened” to be the victim.

The case apparently is another appalling example of youthful crime. It emphasizes the need of measures to stamp out the roots and breeding places of crime. It also is further evidence of Indiana State Police efficiency. on :

A PROMISE.COMES HOME TO ROOST

OVERNOR M'NUTT’S farewell message carried the welcome assurance that Indiana can finance the new social security program and rehabilitate State institutions without new taxes. And in two significant statements he drew the broad outlines of some needed governmental reforms.

“Your real tax problem,” he told the legislators, “is that of reducing the cost of government. The most important and effective step in this direction will be the reorganization and integration of local units of government.” There are too many local governments. Few have the - merit or budget systems. The National Resources Committee reports there are 175,000 units of government in the United States. Many of the local units are far too small, inefficient and wasteful. Local taxes take nearly two-thirds of the tax dollar. Reorganization of local governments, as proposed by the Governor's Committee on Governmental Economy, should be given serious consideration at this session. In urging the merit system for county public welfare staffs, the Governor said: a “Given a decent structure, the essential problem of good government is almost entirely one of personnel. The most serious losses are those accruing through the ignorance and inefficiency of public servants. Practically all functions of government require of governmental personnel special knowledge and training.”

This is just as true of other functions. The growing public demand for the merit system should get attention. Citizens now know that public personnel management, as opposed to the spoils system, is not theory. It means taxsaving business efficiency. The Democrats promised in platform and campaign to back the merit system. That promise has come home to roogt. :

THE BUDGET

ET us try to look at this new Federal budget not as a maze of figures. :

Let us view the broader picture it presents of a country

recovering from a serious industrial and financial paralysis.

And when we do that, it seems to us that the most striking thing about the fiscal program for the year ending June 30, 1938, is the fidelity with which it holds to the course which President Roosevelt charted some three years ago. Yes, they were three long years—years of anxiety and doubts as to those who felt the President had dared too much when he defied the traditional fiscal canons. The basic idea which guided the President, when he abandoned economies and launched his major spending offensive, was the conviction that the budget of the people had to be balanced before the budget of the government could be balanced. So he proceeded deliberately, and to a “degree recklessly, funneling out the Government’s vast credit to where it would do the most good. The resultant increase in purchasing power checked the deflationary ebb and started and speeded recovery. . As the people’s income grew their tax payments mount-

ed. And now, at last, the President has decided ‘that the

time has come when we should consolidate our gains. It has been his design from the first that, as recovery offered new opportunities for employment in private industry, the

government should curtail its emergency expenditures to |

pring the total outgo within the total income. And so for the next fiscal year he has cut the budget cloth accordingly. He has offered the prospect of the first balanced budget in eight years—the first 12-month period which contemplates no increase in the public debt. Can his pattern be followed ? ; That depends first upon private industry. The biggest cut is in relief. It takes for granted that private industry will do what so many business captains have long insisted it would once there was some assurance of a balanced Federal budget—expand, create jobs, go forward with confidence. : That depends second upon Congress. The budget provides for what the President considers necessary expend- . itures. He asks Congress (1) not to appropriate beyond the total of his estimated tax income and (2) not to reduce the tax income. Congress is free, within this formula,'to appropriate more for this item or that, if it provides the money by saving on other items, or provides additional revenue by additional taxes. And it is free to eliminate or alter existing taxes—and in our opinion it should do so on a drastie scale—but only providing it obtains, somehow, from No Congress alive to its responsibility will feel hedged! in by that formula.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES °

Good Morning, Judoe!—By Talburt i ; 8» >

Pr

| | Getting Under Way—y Herblock

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

‘Reports Salaries of Officers and Set-Up of Huey Long's Win or Lose Corp., a Quite Unique Firm.

NEW YORK, Jan. 9.—James A. Noe, former Governor of Louisiana, and former henchman of Huey Long, reported an income of $92,396 for the year 1935 as president of the Win or Lose Corp., a Louisiana oil company. Seymour Weiss, who was Huey's political treasurer, reported the same income as vice president of the company. The Win or Lose Corp. was formed in the summer of 1934 at the height of Huey Long's dictatorship. and at the time of his spectacular campaign against the Standard Oil Co. Huey" had made a law placing a high tax on oil refined by the Standard. The Standard threatened to close down, throwing thousands of Louisiana workmen out of jobs. The workmen®urned against the Kingfish, and Huey met the situation by turning the tax into a protective - tariff. He said the Standard had been importing cheap crude oil from its LatinAmerican fields, refining it in Louisiana and neglecting the Louisiana wells. He said the Mississippi belonged to him, and refused to let Standard Oil use his river to move foreign crude oil at low cost to the detriment of Louisiana producers. After a loud wrangle, Huey waived 80 per cent of the refining tax on Louisiana oil as a means of compelling Standard to patronize the Louisiana fields. : During the excitement over the tax negotiations, Huey quietly gave the Win or Lose Corp. a concession to drill 50 wells in the center of the state pre serve which contains the richest field in Louisiana. In return for this privilege, the Win or Lose Corp. agreed to give the State one-eighth of the oil.

s 8 ” HE formation of the company and the granting of the concessions were accomplished with very little publicity, although several of the young student Journalists who had been fired out of Louisiana State University for lese majesty made an effort to call attention to the deal. They said it was Teapot Dome on a small scale—and not so small at that. Huey owned both the Legislature and the Courts, so the

concession to the Win or Lose Corp. went through without challenge, and the company apparently struck it rich almost immediately. Earl Christénberry, who was Huey’s own secretary,

Mr. Pegler

was cut in on the Win or Lose Corp. as secretary, ,

but there is no mention of his income from the wells in the list published here. ” 2 =n T is impossible to guess what division of the money would have been made if Huey had not been killed. After his death, his Share-the-Wealth organization, protected by copyright and patent, descended to his widow as private property and was placed in storage, so to speak, notwithstanding efforts by the Rev. Gerald Smith to take it on the road and exploit it. Huey’s political organization fell apart and Weiss, among others, made peace with President Roosevelt and Jim Farley. Weiss and four other members of Huey’s organization were under indictment at the time of Huey’s death for violation of the income tax law. Up to the time of the surrender, the Department of Justice seemed determined to press the prosecution which, if successful during the Presidential campaign, would have been a great help to Mr. Roosevelt’s organization in Louisiana. With Huey dead and the opposition removed, however, the Department of Justice quashed the indictment, explaining that owing to a “change of atmosphere” in New Orleans it was deemed inadvisable to proceed.

The Hoosier Forum

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

DUKE OF WINDSOR PRAISED AS DUTIFUL SON : By Estella Cox Ex-King Edward is a very deserving personage. He has many admirable traits. He has been, and still desires to be, a most dutiful son to

He is deeply loved by his countrymen. His interest expressed, reveals his open, candid honesty and his desire to live conscientiously. At last he’s met the woman in whose eyes he has read life’s full meaning, and still feels that he desires the blessings of his elders and countrymen. His honest appeal to the whole world has won for him many friends and added greatly to his prestige. He assures co-operation and love to the neighbor. Long and happily may ex-King Edward live and may he some day marry the woman of his choice, the very beautiful Mrs. Simpson.

” ” » NEUTRAL ATTITUDE BY CITIZENS HELD NEED By E. F. Maddox. The letter by H. L., who “prefers Communists to a system of Nazis,” attacking the statement of Westbrook Pegler that the Spanish Government, backed by Russia, is no

more entitled to the sympathy of a democratic people than are the rebels, backed by Mussolini and Hitler, shows that H. L. harbors a decidedly unneutral attitude in his bosom. Mr. Pegler's statement contains the true essence of neutrality. American citizens who “prefer” any of these alien systems and who cannot take the attitude recommended by Mr. Pegler are a menace to the neutrality program of this nation, He ought to at least prefer peace to civil war. For H. L. to sing the praises of communism and to inveigh against Fascists is just as unpatriotic as it was for one lone exporter to insist on his right to sell war materials to Spain. H. Ls letter is designed to create public sympathy for communism and against the Nazis and Fascists. The sooner we all take a genuinely neutral attitude toward European wars, the better it will be for our peace and safety. The difference between Mr. Pegler’s attitude and that of H. L. is the difference between neutrality and hypocrisy.

” ” ” CALLS M'NUTT GOOD WHITE HOUSE HOST AFTER 1940 By R. 8. 8., Brazil, Ind.

The sole issue of most of the foes of the New Deal was, and is yet, their hatred of Roosevelt and MecNutt. All they do is criticize without suggesting anything constructive. Trying to pull down instead of build up. Listening to much of the campaign talk concerning the candidate for Governor, one might have thought, that Mr. McNutt was running for the office instead of Clifford Townsend.

Governor McNutt has balanced

General Hugh Johnson Says—

One Reason Why Power of President to Vary Gold Content of Dollar Must Be Continued Is That It Maintains Value of Money All

ASHINGTON, Jan. 9.—Whatever may be said against it on other considerations, there is one compelling reason why the authority of the President to vary the gold content of the dollar must be continued. It is the whip over England that maintains the rickety value of money over the whole surface of the globe.

The dollar is the only currency in Chr that has beneath it three of the four pillars mam money stable. Those four pillars are: An ample gold reserve behind paper money, a favorable balance of trade, a creditor position among the nations, and a balanced budget. The dollar is the only coin that has as many as three supporting legs. It has all but a balanced budget and it looks as though that were on the way. Those three legs, and the prospect of a fourth, make American money the soundest in the world. ] | ” # ” Bx if, in the present state of flux ang danger all across the earth, the dollar were fixed beyond any power of fluctuation, the temptation would be strong to our commercial competitors—especially the British Empire—to execute one of those swift flank movements, such as have been made so often since the World War, and reduce the value of, say, the pound Shelia in fosine a Lmerican money. f that-were d 1 8! , 101 nple, it be harder and dearer, in exact 1 tne

his devoted mother, Queen Mary.

(Times readers are ir ited to express their views in t! se columns, religious controve iies excluded. Make your lett: short, so all can have a chance. | Letters must be signed, but name | will be withheld on request.)

the budget, kept the schc ils open, paid the teachers fair wz jes, paid the indebtedness left -by I s predecessors and has money le ; in the State Treasury. None of ‘his has been done at the expense ¢. human comfort. 15 In addition to all this, ‘we have been given one of the clec iest and best administrations which we have had for years. | Governor McNutt, being |! courteous gentleman, will make a good host at the White House. ‘ut anyone who has seen him or h' ard him speak knows he is a man ¢ ability, courage and honesty. . . . No one can admire a ma | who is so devoid of personality th it when in his company one feels Ii ie he is in cold storage. Being & human iceburg doesn't always’ denote brains. We are glad to know hat his code of honor is different f1 ym that of some others. At what | me did charm and personality be ome a liability instead of an asset. I think that in 1940 Mec] att will be elected President, becom ag successor to one of the greates , if not the greatest, Presidents v2 have ever had. The one who ht ped us regain our hope and cours e. . . . 2 un #. ADVOCATES SWEEPSTAK!'S TO GIVE EMPLOYMENT By a Man 42

Just what is to be the docn of a laboring man who reaches 4 years of age and finds himself a nost a begger because firms refuse jo hire him any longer? Twenty ye irs before he is eligible for a Social Security old-age benefit check h: finds himself knocking from pillar jo post in an effort to exist. Transient bureaus have bg nn cut

A RAINY DAY By PATRICIA BANNEI]

The little tea kettle, it bubbli s and boils, And merrily hums its refra n, Content with it’s duty, it c! eerily toils, While cutside the patter of ‘ain Falls down on the roof, ari the clouds move in gray Precision, decision—a dark | [rainy day. But—I can’t be lonely, I sit down to tea, i And we hum together—my @ zettle and me.

~ DAILY THOUGHT Come now, and let us reaso' together, said the Lord: th ugh your sins be as scarlet, they hall be as white as snow; though (hey be red like crimson, they sha | be as wool.—Isa. 1:18.

Every occupation, plan and work of man, to be truly successful, must be done under the directioi; of Christ, in union with His will, from

love fo Him, and in dependen 2 on His wer.—Muller, oH

Quer World.

down until a man must submit to mission relief for only two nights. He must then travel from city to city to exist, now and then being

arrested for vagrancy. The Government has introduced most every other kind of legislation, so why not introduce a bill legalizing a national sweepstakes and make all men “unfit for other labor” the salesmen of tickets on a commission basis? I suggest four races each year. . . . All excess profits over the capital and lesser prizes might go for balancing the budget. This is one way of putting all men too old to work and too young to draw a pension, to earning a living. It will pay for itself, that it be run for 10 years on trial, then if it is not a success, scrap it and try another way. I am satisfied this will succeed and become a fixture. 2 ! Five million dollars would be sufficient to huild four racing plants, print the tickets and launch the plan. . . .

2-8 »

DENOUNCES M’FADDEN ACTION | §

IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN By A Reader

Bernarr MacFadden is the latest

to take the I-told-you-so attitude toward the Republican National Committee. In a recent editorial Mr.. MacFadden, after denouncing the choice of Landon and Hamilton and praising the effort of Hearst, criticizes the National Committee for not supporting him in his speaking campaign. He points out that only in one State, Maine, where he was “given support and publicity with State-wide radio contact,” did the Republicans make a “reasonably decent showing.” It seems to me, in view of the success the Democrats had in featuring Jack Dempsey, the Republicans made a mistake in not making a side show out of Bernarr MacFadden. However, I believe very few people will blame the National Committee for not encouraging Mac"adden to. talk. ” 4 ” TANK TRUCK DRIVER ASKS CO-OPERATION - By a Tank Truck Driver If you want to do a genuine service, ask your readers who have nil burners to keep a check on the quantity of oil in their tanks and order in plenty of time so that service men will not have to be ralled out at night, ont Sundays or holidays. Ask them to. get on a regular route so they may be properly cared for. We are only human and desire time undistyrbed at home, the same as other individuals.

» 2 o BETTER TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM URGED By a Reader

. « « What we need is the correct transportation system to avoid wrecks and give better service. . . .

to you.

I suggest

When will we get this? That is up

Washington

By Raymond Clapper . (Substituting for Heywood Broun) Neutrality Complicated, but Good Test of Any Measure Is, ‘Will It Keep Us Out of Foreign Trouble?’

VV ASHINGTON, Jan. 9.—This neutrality business is complicated enough at best.

ar] * 78

It is not easy to decide what is the best thing

to do as various suggestions and conflicting arguments come forward.

It might help if each suggestion were tested by this question: Will it help keep us from becoming entangled in foreign trouble, or will it be likely to involve us? Possibly that is not a perfect intelligence test. But it is a prac< tical one to help us steer our way through the maze now going on.

There is a quite general tenden- -

cy to use another criterion, to look at proposals to see which side will be helped or restrained. That is a tempting way of thinking. Most of us would like to see Hitler tamed down. Most of us a year ago were haping that Mussolini would come down sprawling in his raid on Ethiopia. Most of us have more sympathy with the political methods and outlook of Great Britain and France than we do with those of Russia or Japan or the other dictator countries. Yet to use those sympathies as a basis of testing so-called neutrality action is apt to prove treacherous. If we plan our course so that everything we do is

Mr. Clapper

- pointed to help one, side and to hamstring the other

side, we shall shortly be, in fact, though perhaps not in name for a while, allies of one side. . ” # ” AZ the moment, some individuals are criticizing the action of the Administration in cracking down on shipments of munitions to Spain. They say that it is unfair and discriminatory to shut off shipments to both sides in Spain while taking no action with regard to shipments to Germany. This come plaint comes from some who are merely bitter toward Hitler and from some who are anxious to see the loyalists win in Spain. They say that this ace tion shuts-off munitions to the Spanish loyalists but not to the foreign backers of the Spanish Fascists. American Communists are particularly indignant. Similarly, some in the State Department would like —although dominant sentiment in Congress appears set against it—to give the President sufficient discretion so that in the future, if the big war comes, we will be able to supply the so-called peace-loving countries while shutting off the trouble-makers. In practice it would mean going back to what we did in the World War, supplying the Allies and not the Central Powers. The chances are that the outcome would be the same. ! ” 2 ” va NYTHING we do or-do not do is likely to hel one side and injure the other. Nothing that we do_or do not do will affect both sides equally. It we put our trade on a cash and carry basis, one side may be able to come and get it while the other side may not be able to. ,If we cut off all trade, we would be adversely affecting the side which otherwise could come and get it and to that extent we would be giving indirect aid to the other side. If our action is to be judged by its effect upon other nations, we become lost in our primary aim, which is to keep out of Europe’s wars. They have been going on for centuries. The labels change. Instead of a Kaiser we have a Hitler. Instead of a Czar we have a Stalin, Unless we are going to return again to a mission« ary role and try to save the world, the most practical test of our policy will be to ask ourselves whether it will reduce or increase the chances of our building up a stake in one side or the other and of becoming involved. In other words, the attention should be directed to the effect upon the United States, rather than the effect upon the belligerents, actual or potential.

|The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Sam Rayburn, Majority Floor Leader of the House, Is Soft-Spoken

Texan Slow to Anger, but

degree of devaluation, for a British subject to buy our products—whether from England or South Africa or any countries whose currency is tied to the British bound—the so-called sterling bloc. ; In other words, devaluation of foreign currencies, relative to our own, acts exactly as would a horizontal increase in their tariff walls against our goods and a horizontal decrease in our tariff walls against their goods, : : ” ” 8 : E Xion this strategy has been used against us over and over again, and was being used until the President got authority to make a counter-attack by devaluing the dollar—and used it. It was absolutely necessary if we were to maintain our exports and sustain’ the price of cotton, wheat, lard. and other export farm products of which the price (both domestic and export) is made in foreign markets by world competition. The moment this country is left without this weapon of defense—this club behind its office ‘door— the danger is great of a new assault. But so long as it is known that, regardless of the elements of strength of the dollar—especially our more-than-10 per cent gold average—we can devalue the dollar just as far as the British can devalue the pound, the temptation to either ne il M, '

By Dr: 'w Pearson and Robert S. ‘Allen ASHI /GTON, Jan. 9.—0ld frien 5s of Sam Rayburn say that it takes him g month to get really riled.! That he is slow to anger is true, but when he do’ 5 get steamed up—Ilook out! This trai | is one of the chief characteristics of the new Democ ‘atic . generalissimo of the House. Outwardly, he i friendly and soft spoken. But his jaw is square and decisive, and plenty of hot blood flows in his veins. Born in Tennessée and reared in Texas, Sam can ar | will fight stubbornly and relentlessly. This mai 2d-fist-in-a-velvet-glove quality was displayed repe: sedly during the fierce struggles over the holding con pany and stock exchange control acts. The Hou: : Interstate Commerce Committee, which Sam headec¢ handled the two measures, The committee was : :calcitrant and obstreperous. Also, some of the chief Democratic leaders, the late Speaker Joe Byrns and ohn O'Connor, chairman of the Rules Committee, & cretly were against the bills. : #8 #8 8

HE situs ion was enough fo try the patience of a Job. i less canny fighter would have flown off the hance a dozen times, There was plenty of - provocation. Sai ; : But: loss of temper would have meant playing opp sition’s hands, That was exactly what in evi *y-wa3

‘said. “Nothing

When He Gets Riled It's Time to Duck.

head and let his foes do the ranting and raving, while he quietly but tenaciously drove the measures through to enactment. : Sam is majority floor leader of the House today because of his masterful leadership in those historic legislative battles. They not only won him the gratitude of the Presi dent, but the wholesome respect and admiration of his. colleagues. He won a 100 per cent victory, but he left no personal animosities. > » # ” AM is just as plain and simple as his name. “I was named Sam, not Samuel,” he says. “We don’t believe in putting on airs in our family.” That holds true for his appearance, his speech: and way of living. Fifty-five years old, 5 foot 6 inheight, bald, slightly corpulent, Sam was one of 11:

children, eight boys and three girls. Three of his. brothers are dead. Sam married in early manhood

but was divorced several years later. He has no

| children and never remarried.

In Washington he lives in a two-room furnished: apartment. To keep in shape he walks daily part: way to his Capitol office and plays a little golf. : A friend once suggested that he get a sports model topcoat. Sam shook his head. “Nope,” he like that. When a man of my age

» 3 & Co

of arguments --

SATURDAY, JAN. 0, 1937

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