Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 January 1937 — Page 10
PAGE 10
The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
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. SCRIPPS = HOWARD} : Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1937
REDEEM THE PROMISE! OVERNOR TOWNSEND and legislative leaders the other night heard T. V. Smith, Illinois State’Senator, _professor and author, ask substitution of skill and merit for beggary and patronage in public service. Here was a practical politician, defending politicians in their role (as legislators) of compromising conflicting interests. He even went so far as to say, “They also serve who only stand and talk.” This was on the theory that politicians, being “specialists first in words,” are able to tone down dictatorial demands and enable warring groups to conduct their war only in words. Politicians keep the machinery of democracy in motion. But there's a limit to talk. There is some work for the hand to do. : Senator Smith draws the line at public administration. Here is work for specialists’ of particular skill. Here is where the merit system should come in and the spoils system should go out. The non-policy-forming jobs should be under a personnel management completely divorced from party loyalty and from talk. : A combination of circumstances make this the right time for widespread merit system extension. Both major parties pledged extension in state and national platforms. Nation-wide polls indicate an overwhelm-
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ing public demand for the merit system. People are begin- |
ning to realize that the patronage system adds heavily to the tax bill. Budgets are higher, because government has assumed new social responsibilities. Public sentiment accepts these, but it is becoming less tolerant of incompetent and untrained public employees. President Roosevelt's proposal of wholesale civil service reform indicates the national temper. : ; Governor Townsend . probably is at the peak of his influence. His lopsided victory left him with a minimum of job obligations. In the main, the personnel of his Democratic predecessor and sponsor carries over. Patronage jobs now open are not numerous. Moreover, Indiana already has made a start by putting the Public Welfare and Unemployment Compensation Divisions under the merit plan. : : The new Governor and the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature now have a chance to bring in other departments and redeem a Democratic promise.
ANTIPICKETING ACT OUTLAWED
HE Indiana Supreme Court, in outlawing antipicketing ordinances, has settled an issue which the City Council has avoided for many months; The Court voided the Kokomo ordinance against picketing with the warning that picketing is lawful “if it is exercised in a legal manner and without fraud or violence.” The decision declared the ordinance “repugnant to the declared purpose” of a law passed in 1933. The Legislature, said the Court, “has spoken in no uncertain terms upon the question of labor disputes” and has left cities powerless to enact such ordinances against peaceful picketing. Significant was this comment of the Court: “Formerly the courts were inclined to disapprove collective bargaining, striking and picketing upon the part of employees. However, the past few years have witnessed a decided change in public opinion, legislative enactments and judicial construction.” The invalid Indianapolis ordinance against picketing remains on the books, a monument to the Council’s denial of a fundamental right.
MAKING BETTER DRIVERS
OST drivers are good drivers. They want to help reduce the traffic toll. They are ready to accept reasonable regulations and comply with practical and sensible Safety measures. It is not difficult to get a license under a standard drivers’ license law such as is proposed for Indiana. Keeping it depends merely on obeying traffic laws. Other states have found this law not only takes a few bad drivers off the road but makes a larger number fit to stay on the highway. duced accidents in states having the standard license law. No state with such a law has ever tried to repeal it, or even weaken it. Good drivers will welcome a standard law in Indiana. “They know it is essential if drunken drivers are to be taken .off the streets, and if incompetent and reckless drivers are to be weeded out.
THE VERY PLACE : REPORT from Boston says Governor James M. Curley, the redoubtable “Kingfish of Massachusetts,” whose term expired. recently, is to be appointed High Commissioner to the Philippines. The national Administration, we believe, could start its second term with no finer appointment. During his long rule in Massachusetts the Governor has built up a wertul personal political machine. His grip was shaken but not broken by recent defeat. Now for him to be up-
rooted and sent to the Philippines might be just the further
‘touch needed to dislodge him entirely. Manila, 7164 miles from San Francisco, is a good safe “distance for Governor Curley. It may be a strain on the Filipinos, but they'll have to develop fortitude sometime.
FRUITS OF NEIGHBORLINESS MEXICO has just performed a neighborly act toward the
United States that would not have been dreamed of
in inter-American diplomacy a few years ago. The announcement of the Mexican government that : munitions produced in this country cannot be channeled through Mexican ports for transshipment to the fighting forces in Spain will do much to strengthen the Roosevelt Administration’s neutrality And it brings to mind afain the value of having good ‘neighbors, and demonstrates that it has been entirely worth our while to co-operate with and respect the independence and integrity of the other republics of this hemisphere, as
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Improved driving is reflected in re-,
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES __
Three Serious Violations
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Safety! Safity!
| Safety !—By Kirby
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Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
Operation of Income and Estate Taxes Is Officious and Prying as Miami's Compulsory Fingerprinting.
NEW YORK, Jan. 18.—Waiving no objection to the fingerprinting of employees, I have to admit that we already have in effect in the land a system of prying intrusion into the affairs of a large class of people
which is more officious and certainly no less searching than the plan adopted in the two Miamis this winter for the ostensible purpose of abating crime. This is carried on under authority of the
income and estate taxes which compel the individual to submit to a course of examination the like of which, if applied to the socalled werkingman in his humble home, would bring howls of indignation not only from the man himself, but as well from those who suffer out loud to see him wronged. It is a degrading process to require, by order of a Chamber of Commerce consisting of local merchants and promoters, that & workingman put his fingerprints on a card together with a rogues’ gallery picture, before his application for work can be considered. But there is an enormous element of citizens no less respectable and good who long ago learned to submit to frisking as a penalty for hard work, inteiligence and a small measure of success. Given sufficient earnings to require a report of income to the Fedaral and, probably also the State Government, the victim first sets forth his gross for the year. He then deducts from the total an amount sufficient to maintain hig dependents on a diet of clay and acorns on a sideHill patch in one of the submarginal bad lands. After that, if he makes deductions for the expense of carrying on the business which produces the income, he begins to court investigation.
A
Mr. Pegler
o E- 2 a HE inquiry will want his stubs and canceled checks, it will ask him what this tive dollars went for, and why he didn’t walk instead of riding a cab, and what he did with the $10 he won on the ball game.
He will have to bring in his lease, his contracts and his diary to show where he was on any given day, and like as not he will be asked for these documents. not all together, but one at a time over a period of weeks. There will be no allowance for the insurance carried to pay the income tax in cash the year after his death when his earnings have quit; not any rebate at any time for hospital or medical service to keep him fit to pay the tax.
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7HEN he has died, and his estate is ready for the auctioneers, his widow will be called upon to appraise his shirts, socks and suits, his coliar buttons and old niblick, his share of the family car, his portion of the shingles on the roof, his club memberships, if any. And if he gave her $50 in the last year of his life, is she able to prove that this was not done with the knowledge that his number was up, and with intent to defeat the purpose of the law? Y And all the time, the public employees will he paying no income tax to the State and hardly any to the Federal Government. Ahd the Governor and Mayor and Aldermen, and many of the Judges and other officeholders will pay no income tax to either, thanks to the foresight of bygone generations of officeholders who gave a kindly thought to their political posterity. He pays taxes to pay them bigger salaries than his own, on which they pay none whatever.
: The Hoosier Forum I wholly disagree with what you say, but will ‘defend to the death your right to say it—Voltaii
ASKS REPUBLICANS TO ADMIT NEED FOR NEW METHODS By E. A. Evans
Charles P. Taft of Cincinnati, son of the late ex-President, has intelligence, ability and cap for forward vision. Young<leaderg, so equipped, are greatly need the, Republican Party. Lacking them} the party can neither restore its own fortunes nor serve the country effectively. So I'm sorry to find Mr. Taft, on a post-election visit to Gov. Landon whom he served as an adviser during the campaign, ~ putiing out a newspaper statement like this: “Despite the fact that we took what on the surface looked like a terrific beating, we're in much better shape now than we were after the 1932 election, speaking froin the organization standpoint.” That sounds as unconvineing &as the alibi of a defeated prizefighter's manager. I wish Mr. Taft, or someone comparable, would give us something like this: “Boy, what a walloping we got! We're certainly a wreck,. and our morale is three stories lower than the sub-basement. If we expect to amount to anything again, we're going to have to get some new ideas and methods. First thing is to find out why we've been so wrong, and if our organization has any brains it will get busy on that problem.”
2 ® 8 WRITER CHARGES RELIEF HEADS ARE OVERPAID By a Reader
In a recent editorial The Times says: “One urgent task is to find accurately how many such people there are on relief. . . . Another is to find how many, now getting Federal relief, no longer really need it and to remove them from the rolls. Another is to develop better, more positive methods of encouraging and helping Federal dependents to. obtain private employment. . . .” I agree with your article. Also, I want to ask why do we have so many relief executives drawing $3000 to $5000 a year? . ..
”n 2 8 STREETCAR MOTORMEN DEFENDED
By R. B. T. To E. R. E.
Your recent article was very much appreciated by your kind of thinker. You stated you have driven over a million miles since 1907. You are certainly a good driver, and 1 think you should be given a medal by the citizens of Indianapolis. Now, E. R. E, let me ask you a few questions. While driving your car in and around Indianapolis have you ever run a stop light because you were in a hurry? Do you stop at all stop streets? Your answer is probably “Yes.” All right. Have you even ridden a streetcar and sat near the motorman to see
what he has to contend with. He
General Hugh Johnson Says —
29 Air Crash Deaths in Month Necessary to Arouse Department of .Commerce, and It Yet Refuses to Give New Regulations to the Press.
EW YORK, Jan. 18.—Another blind-flying crash! Uncle Danny Roper’s handpicked assistants, are “awakened” by this latest catastrophe, which erased the idolized Martin Johnson—yet refuse to give the new “air safety regulations” to the press with the curmudgeon remark: “We don’t want your comment.” It takes 29 disaster deaths in a month to awaken this crowd from its year-long lethargy and then they are awake only in the old army sense, when it used to be justification for a soldier’s testimony that his buddy wasn't drunk: “Well, IT kicked him' and he moved.” ® As this column pointed out a year ago, an aviator flying in storm or fog is exactly like a man diving into a swimming pool full of opaque milk. He is as blind as a bat. But the theory is that a radio beam, like a homing path of light cutting toward him through the murk, will guide him, keep him high enough not to run into mountains, and finally tell him that as he lets down, he will drop out-of the fog into a layer of clear air right over his destination, high enough to permit the delicate feat of landing— dangerous undertaking, even on a level plain.
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TT) VERY human life in his care depends absolutely XL, on the accuracy, dependability and continuity of that single guide. It is Danny Roper’s Department
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(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Make- your letter short, so all can have a chance. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
has to think of the safety of hundreds of people every day and all he needs is just two more arms and two more eyes to -go down the streets safely. There arer’t two automobile drivers out of every five who have any respect for the streetcar operator. Suppose there were no streetcars, busses or trackless trolley cars, and some morning your car wouldn't start. I'll bet you would be one of the first to raise a squabble. We operators have schedules to run on, and unless the automobile drivers co-operate with us, we never can reduce accidents. Put yourself in the place of an operator and you wil] change your mind about “safety first.” :
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OPERATOR ANSWERS
CRITICISM By an Operator A few days ago I noticed an article by E. R. E. regarding the operators of the Indianapolis Railway and Peoples Motor Coach Co. driving through red lights. : : As an operator for this company for the past 10 years I can readily see E. R. E’s attitude toward us, for there is a certain percentage of the motoring public which is antagonistic toward us because of the size of the equipment we operate. This attitude is certainly childish, for 75 per cent of the operators are motor car owners themselves and thoroughly understand the problems of the motorist. : - We are schooled in safe operation
WANDERER AT HOME
By KEN HUGHES
He liked the brown road Opening free Beyond the curving line Of mountain and tree. : He liked the misting of morning— The changing from the red to the blue. With the sunning clouds in opal hue. He liked the happy thing— Oh, the wandering life! But he could only dream at home Because he had a wife.
DAILY THOUGHT
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.—Isaiah 60:18.
IOLENCE ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.—Hazlitt.
as well as in city ordinances and traffic (des. - We have no agreement wh police whereby we may run rec¢ lights and commit other violatior i. One i: the qualifications of a good drier is to keep his mind on his busiess, and if I| were sitting at a ste sign and E. R. E. drove through he red light With a 10-ton truck wi hout being arrested, I'd say more poiver to him. As for a 25-
year rectird of no accidents in driving, I'd {ay it’s ‘a good | Ripley item. I' can’t [Ho it, and it| seems that every tirie I have an accident it's
with son © fellow who would squawk |
if I'd criwd a yellow light. I $8 8 EDITOR OPPOSES WEISS PROPOSAL ON JUDGES By J. Half itd Broyles, Editar, The Negro
Jacob Weiss, State Senator from Marion (aunty, will introduce a bill in the }iresent General Assembly advocatil 2 creation of two separate units in our Juvenile | Court system. He desires a Negro judge for the Negri: cases and a| white judge for the white cases.
Such a proposal, to me, is without a daitbt the most vicious and undemoc; atic Indiana has seen since the establishment of the Jim Crow puhiic schools.
Undoukiedy the proposal originated wit some Negro lawyers who happened fo have voted the Democratic ticliet and who are willing at all times |o sacrifice race principles for jobs. When justice is justice, race, cree! and color have no place. The lives of the youths today and millions yt. to be born are at stake in such is ues: : In conc sion, I propose that if a Negro is 0 be made a judge, let him use iat capacity as judge of all, alike, | "
SAYS JUVENILE COURT PLAN MI REPRESENTED By Senator jacob Weiss Nobody no has seen the Juvenile Court bill [ have been working on could maki: such a statement, because thet: is no idea of segrega-
tion and iisuld be none under the provisions,
All such reports are vicious, malicious and without foundation in fact, and intended to | injure the chances oi the bill when it is introduced.
2 » ” TRAFFIC "HANGES ARE REC! /MMENDED By G. S.
What vi: need is the correct transporta on . system! to avoid wrecks anti give better service. We now travel both directions on either side of th: crooked Pleasant Run
Creek. Trilfic should be one way
lt Seems to Me
By Heywood Broun
Booms Senator Ham/ Fish of New York for the Heavyweight Championship of Capitol Hill,
EW YORK, Jan. 18.—The great Empire State seems to have chosen a physical culture fan as one of its delegation to Congress. Matthew J. Merritt was slept as one of the two Representatives-at-Large,
Already he has gained attention in Washington by urging his fellow members to use the gym in the new House Office Building. But Mat Merritt has his work cut out for him if he hopes to capture the physical leadership of the House. And his chief rival will be, as always, a fellow member from New York. On the basis of sheer brawn and
Mat Merritt any day in the week. Indeed, I think that Mr. Fish could take on as many as nine Congressmen in an evening and demolish them all. Fm speaking, of course, of boxing encounters and not of debate. The Senate is generally manned by setups. One finds more paunch and less wind in the uppsr chamber. And yet Ham's claim to the title of Congressional heavyweight champion has been much enhanced by the last election. Senator Barbour lost his seat in the Democratic landslide jand I think he alone of all upon the Hill could have taken the measure of the Harvard footballer. As far as I know, Ham Fish never went in much for boxing. His prowess was shown on the gridiron. He was an All-America tackle on Walter Camp's mythical team. Of late Ham has gone in heavily for liberalism. In the last campaign he was Borah’s buddy, and now that the votes have been counted Ham is crying out against the reactionary tendencies of his party. Instead of harrying Reds Mr. Fish has become a baiter of Republicans.
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UT though his intentions are earnest and honorable, Ham Fish is still a little more engrossed in Harvard football than the fate of the hation. As I remember, he said during the last campaign that he looked for two triumphs in November. He predicted that Harvard would beat Yale and that Landon would overcome Roosevelt. I have said that Ham Fish carries football close to his heart in spite of his heavy legislative responsi bilities. I know that is so because I have tried him out. On numerous occasions I wrote columns of bitter attack on Ham Fish, the Red baiter. I assailed his political position and also his acumen. Indeed, I went so far as to say that he was not a statesman. Then one day I ran smack into him in a corridor in Washington.
Mr. Broun
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INCE we had been classmates, I did not fear that he would punch me in the nose. Harvard men don't do that, except when playing football: with Princeton. : But, as a matter of fact, Hamilton Fish seized my hand and greeted me almost as demonstratively as if we had been a couple of Yale men. He did say, Bhi have put on a lot of fat since we were in col= ege.” of opinion. . I went away feeling that all the game laws were off and that I could take a shot at Ham any time I pleased. But I went too far: I wrote one column joshing Fish as a football player. He immediately sent a complaint to the paper. He was willing to pass the charge that he was not a statesman, but he
on each sii¢. Market St. should be a one-way street. . ..
could not endure the hint that he was not an out standing tackle. And I think he was quite right.
The Washington Merry-Go-Round
President's Government Reorganization Program Due for Heavy Barrage
Of Of position if it Reache
‘that furnishes tha} guide and that must say to what | tains!
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extent ships can shoot the works in bad weather on a gamble on that guide when it isn’t working well, It is a fearsome responsibility. Suppose, through any failure, the beam doesn’t keep the ships in air higher than the mountains or tells a man to let down, hoping for clear air, when there is no clear air there—only a brick wall. ” fd ” ORE frequently men and women strapped to their seats have the screaming life burned out of them like the agonized victims of Torquemada— immolated on the altar of departmental politics, departmental solicitude for transport companies rather than for the crisped and twisted victims of incompetent bureaucracy—tenderness for the airways’ barons—who must now see and ‘suggest changes” in new “safety” regulations before the press is given a chance even to comment on them. The New York News suggests that passengers be told about weather ahead before they embark. This writer always asks about that in winter and invariably is told that it is 0. k.—frequently never to see ground before arrival. Once, after that kind of inquiry, we ran into the worst blizzard in recent history. We were packed, five in a four-seater with so much baggage that we could scarcely move—and then flew over the Continental Divide in blinding snow to find, on landing, that even automobiles on roads and trains on tracks had been forbidden to move in the moun-
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By Drew Pearson ani! Robert S. Allen
ASHINGTON, Jan. 18 The President's Government reorganizatioii plan is due for heavy pounding if it ever reaches the floors of Congress. The “if” is a very big one. It is a good bet that the :weeping five-point program recommended by Mr. ‘oosevelt will never get out of committee. Some kin¢ of reorganization legislation will be enacted, but th¢ chances of its following Mr. Roosevelt’s model are retiote. That plan is certain to be subjected to drastic revamping. The left, right ard center are vehemently oppesed to one or more phasis of it. | The liberals will go along tn the proposals for two new departments, enlarging ‘he White House staff, extending the civil service stem: and curbing the power of the Controller Gene¢ial to obstruct expenditures. But they are up in arts over the demand that the independent agencies, sich as the Trade Commission, Interstate Commerce Commission and Power Commission, be placed unde: the jurisdiction of the regular departments. Such a move, they indignantly contend, would mean the politicalizing | of these agencies. 2 = 2 HE rank-and-file among the Democrats also look askance at this proposal, and, privately, are none
s Floors of Congress, Which Seems Unlikely
The Republicans—largely for partisan reasons—will join vociferously with the liberals in attacking the proposal to put the independent agencies under the Cabinet. During the Coolidge regime a scheme very similar to this was attempted. The Democrats, then in the minority, violently opposed it. But now the Republicans will yell murder.
: 2 9 » TT of the five recommendations are ardently desired by the President. They are the pros posal to create six executive assistants, and the one that would strip the Controller General of authority to overrule expenditures before they are made. This move 1s a direct outgrowth of the long vendetta with former Controller General J. R. McCarl, The recommendation that the Controller General's office be confined to strictly “post-audit” activities was based on an extensive study made of Mr. McCarl’s operations by the Treasury. The report held that Mr. McCarl powers never intended for him to exercise. It also charged that despite Mr. McCarl’s claims to being the “watchdog of the Treasury,” throughout his 15year term he did not uncover or stop a single major irregularity in expenditures. Co It was Senate committees, the report pointed out, that brought to light the Teapot Dome and the Ship= ping Board scandals, the boodle-laden ocean and aire
too enthusiastic about the ide¢:s of expanding the civil service, | ce
| mail contragts.
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muscle I'll back Ham Fish against :
But that was a fact and not an expression
had usurped
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