Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 January 1937 — Page 10

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E Scripps - HowarD | Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1937

“RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY” ON this Inauguration Day Americans, Janus-like, look = both backward and forward—backward with gratitude "for the great work of salvage that has been done in the past four years, forward with hope that the next four years will bring them more of sound prosperity, security, peace and happiness. : - Who of us can forget that March 4, nearly four years ago? Banks and stock exchanges closing their doors. Farmers desperately arming to save their homes from foreclosure. Fifteen million jobless idle or on the march "in cities. Foreign trade at low ebb, capital in flight, gold hoarded, stagnation, panic and hunger. A nation afraid; _ and buoyed with only one hope, Franklin Roosevelt and his

" promise of a New Deal. How different on this, his second inaugural! The banks not only are open and flourishing, but enjoy more confidence than ever because of controls and insured bank deposits. : The stock market is strong. The farmers, except in _ drought-stricken and depredsed areas, are beginning to _ prosper. Employment is expanding. But the New Deal still has far to go to fulfill its promise and justify the faith of the multitudes that supported it - in November. Eight and one-half million Americans are still unemployed. This must be cured and buying power . returned to the working masses in higher wages. We have yet to modernize our Government and replace spoils and bureaucracy with a career service.” The “irrepressible conflict” between Congress and the courts is unresolved. The public debt is the highest in history. The President is represented as eager to make his second term an “era of good feeling.” That is a splendid aim and one, heaven knows, we all hope he will realize. But surely that cannot mean that he intends to rest on his oars and drift with the uncertain currents. Roosevelt won re-election by a tough-minded disregard for the obstacles that stood athwart his program. The

same courage and vision in consolidating and extending |

his gains will win for him a pedestal in history and for his generation that “rendezvous with destiny.” Franklin Roosevelt will become one of America’s truly great, if he goes forward through his second term in the spirit in which Abraham Lincoln undertook his second stewardship: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us: to see the right,let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”

REGULATION FOR SAFETY READER, whose letter appears in the Hoosier Forum on this page today, asks for details on what we mean by a standard driver’s license law. He also expresses a common misunderstanding that physical infirmities would prevent an applicant from getting a license under such a law. The chief features of a standard law—as recommended by the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety, the National Safety Council and other groups, and now proposed in Indiana—have been given here from time to time. Physical infirmities do not prevent the granting.of a license unless they are so great as to keep the applicant from driving safely. Licenses have been given to the totally deaf, with the warning to use extreme care to compensate for their handicap. Even drivers with crippled limbs have been licensed to drive cars with special appliances when they proved they could drive safely. : : "The standard law requires new drivers to pass simple, practical tests showing their knowledge of traffic laws and their ability to handle a car. Those who fail the first test are told to study and practice and come back. They soon find they must learn the traffic laws and how to drive. Most of them usually pass. The law does not aim tp cut drastically the number of motorists. It seeks to makd hetter drivers. Today, boys and girls begin driving with no knowledge of the law and little or no zhility to handle 4 car in difficult situations. Under the proposed law, young drivers facing a test would not neglect basic training. The examination usually is simple and brief. It includes questions on traffic laws and a practical driving test. «The standard law denies licenses to persons under the legal age limit; to those whose licenses have heen revoked or suspended, while the suspension is in effect; to habitual drunkards and narcotic addicts; to persons previously adjudged to be afflicted with a mental disability or disease who have not at the time of the application been legally restored to competency; applicants who have not passed the test, and those who in the opinion of the licensing authorities cannot operate a car with safety. In short, the proposed law would take away the licenses of those who are not mentally or morally equipped to drive safely or who, under its enforcement, are found later to be incompetent drivers. Good drivers everywhere will welcome such regulation.

TWO IMPORTANT MOVIES HE film presentations of “Winterset” and “Romeo and Juliet” in Indianapolis this week are at least a partial answer to the criticism that the movies are commercialized and superficial. “Maxwell Anderson’s remarkable drama of injustice, rated the best American stage play of 1935, now appears as one of the best pictures of the year. “Winterset,” on the stage, was a powerful story. The camera now reproduces the somber, poetic quality even more effectively. The acclaim of critics for “Romeo and Juliet” likewise has been generous, with particular praise for the fact that the movie people did not try to rewrite Shakespeare. In

2

these two pictures, the cinema performs two of the highest

functions of the theater—art and social criticism. A movie industry that can give to Indianapolis in the - same week two such outstanding productions—one of the classic and one of modern realign—merits the highest

The

Ankh:

Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Millions of Workers for State, County and Local Governments Are ~ Exempt From Federal Income Tax.

NEW YORK, Jan. 20.—This is the time of year when people who pay income taxes will be impressed by a reminder that millions of men and women drawing good salaries from state, county and municipal of-

fices and jobs throughout the country are not required to pay any Federal tax on this money and that in states which have a state income tax many of them are exempt from that, too.

It is also worth mentioning again just now at the approach of the annual ordeal of figures and schedules that Federal officials and employees are exempt from state income taxes. - There is a touching exchange of courtesies between the two authorities. The Federal Government, with a fastidious regard for the integrity of state and local government, generously declines to exact either a tax or an accounting from officials and employees of the subdivisions. Those states which have their own income taxes on producers and earners as well as on the idle rich, extend a similar courtesy to Federal officers and employees. And, if the individual happens to hold one of those state offices which are defined as constitutional he is exempt from both. These constitutional offices include that of Mayor and Governor and many positions on the bench and there are among the totally exempt salaries some of the most luscious public rewards in the United States. In addition to the tax exemptions, many patriots in these. brackets receive free automobile service at the expense of those who do pay taxes and the Governor of New York has the use of the Executive Mansion through the abundant generosity of the same good providers. -

Mr. Pegler

# 2 z

ITERALLY millions of men and women belonging to a class that is largely parasitic are not required to meet the same obligations that fall on persons who have to make their living in competitive conditions and who receive much less pay. Then, too, most of the great class of exempt Americans may look forward to retirement at a comparatively early age on pensions which are at least sufficient and many of them, retiring in the prime of life, go into the crowded work market and take full-time jobs which otherwise might be given to people in actual need. The guests of the taxpayer in most cases get longer vacations than the people who support them and those who are immune to the hazards of political upheaval of course have security in their positions. : o ”n ” IREMEN, policemen, mayors, aldermen, sheriffs, deputies, gpurt clerks and attendants, hundreds of thousands of pectors and office employees, judges, chauffeurs, commissioners, wardens and jailers, governors, members of state legislatures, attorneys general and the very men and women in the income tax department who collect on the incomes of the producing class are exempt from at least one income tax if not from both. The fact that a public salary may be well within the brackets at which other earnings are heavily taxed is held to have no bearing on the case and a judge may be called upon to punish a private citizen for failure to shower down a contribution toward the payment of his own salary although his salary be five rss that of the shirking traitor and totally exempt y law. :

ARE YOu

‘per cent of accidents

— THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES . Life-Saving Barrier ;

U HAD YOUR

2,

National Safety

E | RIVING? A CHRONIC TRAFFIC-

LAW VIOLATOR? | HAVE YO

TESTED? DRIVING ABILITY Be

Council

¢

A R aLL OVER ME!

rT,

GOODNESS == I HOPE HE DOESN'T STEP

The Hoosier Forum

1 wholly disagree uhth what you say, Gut will defend to the death your right to say it—1 oltaire.

ASKS DETAILS ON PROPOSED DRIVER'S LICENSE LAW By Walter M. Jones I have been pondering just why it is you do not amplify your oftrepeated editorials on driver’s licenses. In your editoridl, “1937 License Plates,” you say, “We hope the Leg-

islature will see to it that driver’s licenses are not passed out next year until physical examinations prove an applicant's competency.” Why is it you do not know of a survey taken in Chicago last year on accidents which showed that only

seven-tenths of 1 per cent of the!

accidents are caused by persons with Some physical disability? This, apparently, leaves 99 and three-tenths caused by healthy drivers. What good will a physical éxamination do? This writer is hard-of-hearing, but has driven a car since 1915 without a single accident worth mentioning. I know a one-armed salesman who has driven two years longer than I have with no accidents recorded against him. Are you trying to derive us of the chance to drive? . . . 2 a 8 ONCE BEAUTIFUL STREETS NOW CALLED DEPLORABLE By R. B. Lucus Z Several years ago Indian$polis was known as the “City Beautiful” because of its beautiful streets,

homes, and parks. Today we haven't that name because we don’t have many beautiful streets. I hope that we can get some civic organizations to get after the proper officials and demand that our streets be taken care of. Let some of our city officials drive out E. 10th St. to the elevation or out Roosevelt Ave. and they will find deplorable conditions. I sometimes think that the streets are left that way so: that new automobiles must be purchased every two or three years. : We need some action on this matter. I have called the City Hall and all the answer I get is, “We will look inte the matter.” Let’s all pull together and get action. If nothing else, get some of these PWA men out there. I know they are not afraid to work. f 8 on ASKS TOWNSEND FOR CURB ON INDIANA CRIME By Henry S. Osgood

An open letter to Governor Townsend; i I am a close observer of methods and trends as they develop in the legislation of Indian's lawmakers and not the least will be the attention focused on the ensuing laws by that class of citizens most intimately concerned by the degree of latitude by which their operations are to be limited. The Legislature should adopt this

General Hugh Johnson Says —

Brownlow Committee's Report Errs in-Apparent Assumption Job of Reorganizing Government Can Be Done by Reorganization of Presidency.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—To one who, like Billy Baxter’s dachshund, has been “brought up under a bureau” ‘it seems a miracle that the three Brownlow gentlemen—whatever their genius—could burst from their cloisters, hover momentarily over the labyrinthine chasm of Washington and then, in a neck-and-neck race with the other academic hoverers

of the Byrd Committee, come first under the wire with-

a Sivine afflatus reducing the whole cosmic chaos to order.

The proposal that the civil service be extended to all except “policy making” jobs is - bully, .but is it Brownlow? Both 1936 candidates solemnly pledged exactly that, but Mr. Landon said .it first. In the suggested “six selfless synthesists” there is poignant pathos. There once was a wholly selfless synthesist with a “passion for anonymity” and a perfect devotion, who managed to keep his idolized boss both informed and obeyed by the mightiest without the slightest offense to even the lowliest. But there are no more Louis Howes. . ; ;

s n 8.

O="F the Presidency itself .is to be re- : Lu Yganieed nH 8 So of trinity. The director 0 e budget is e grand vizier—t - ps or ll Mnazageniet” Th fis Jory main ext to Poo-Bah is a personnel manager

no executive can

%

men.

contrive our destiny.

with it!” # 2 =»

academy and service school for an army of a million The third person is a “resources board’—a sort of composite brain constantly to conceive and

Weatried by these vast concepts, the Committee seems to have taken one terrified look at the colossal : hodge-podge which is the real problem and said: “Sweep it up—dump it into 12 catch-alls and to hell

(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.)

slogan: “Make Indiana unpopular with all classes of criminals,” then proceed to enact laws with teeth to make them mandatory and abolish the parole system, which is without merit and therefore harmful and. injurious . ..

iisure that every vote which is cast 7ill be for himself. Mussolini has ¢one the same thing with the Fiscist Party in Italy. This is one way of betting on a sire thing in an election but it is a cldngerous precedent to create. It lithits the rising of any new party tel express the will of the people wiio do not have confidence in either of the major parties. It will stifle al’ attempts of laborer and farmer te ever gain their proper representatich in the Government. The only th ng which has caused the two old

. Crime is not adequately punished and is ably abetted by any lawyer whose record as a lawyer is founded upon his ability to outwit legal statutes and clear his client on technicalities, however insincere or crooked. ha The Legislature will earn lasting credit by enacting stringent laws to punish any breach in which financial loss is sustained by life imprisonment and -making death in the electric chair the punishment for murder, kidnaping, arson and rape. Be it said to the condemnation of the legal profession that a lawyer's standing as a criminal jurist depends on his astuteness and ability to defeat the ends of justice and clear his client in the face of direct evidence. If all legislation were first submitted to the State Supreme Court for verification the machinery of justice would have very little to interfere with in the process of legal interpretation by which justice fails to function. . . . ” ”» 2 FEELS LABOR LEADER IS WRONG ON BELIEF By Ralph B. Ross, Muncie A representative of labor is calling for a repeal of the Minority Party Law by the Legislature, in order to limit appearance on the ballot to the two major political parties. This labor leader is working against his own interests. He wants the Legislature to violate the cardinal principle of self-govern-ment, which has given labor in this country such a high position. He wants to do what Hitler has done, limit parties on the ballot. Hitler won't allow any political parties on his ballot but his own, to

FOUNTAIN

By HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK

You are A white goddess Tossing frail flowers Of spray to loving winds.

DAILY THOUGHT A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.—Proverbs 15:1.

Oppose not rage while rage is in force, but give it way a while and let it waste.—Shakespeare.

ASHINGTO

ceremony an booming of guns

for home.

For Washington,

pé ities to allow labor and agricultule anything at all was and still is thi! threat of agriculture and labor to combine and overthrow the partigi] of City Hall politicians . and organizations of various cities. .fithis labor leader from Lake Ca inty wishes to sacrifice all the adjantage which agriculture and labar hold over the old parties. Cf course labor and farmer represcntatives in the Legislature will not betray their own people becau 2 they are not blinded. f ” ” s DE ENDS ATTITUDE ON SPANISH WAR By liiram Lackey Ii E. F. Maddox's specious argumelt defending Spanish fascism, he dec.ares: “The difference between Mr, Pegler’s attitude and that of H! 1. is the difference between neutral ty and hypocrisy.” . .. I. do not see how I could have expriassed my attitude more fairly and dfrankly. .. . M:. Pegler’s single column that is unfa r to Spanish Loyalists may well be &:tributed to acute indigestion. His ast two columns on the subject have defended the Loyalists by his just, natural and withering scorn of the aypocrisy of reactionaries here and 71 Spain. In Mr. Maddox's defense of fasci im, he poses as a champion of peaci. He has yet to learn that there is no peace except in justice. He sliall remain a poor champion of peac: until he gains sufficient love for jistice to sympathize with the strugiling victims of tyranny and oppr¢ sion. Mr. Maddox accuses me of being as ulineutral and unpatriotic as the line exporter who insisted on his right to sell war materials to Spair. This injustice would be easier to foigive if Mr. Maddox did not know ‘better. My letter was an academit¢ discusion of facts. Understanding of truth makes for peace. Ignor nce of closed minds is all that cause! the present destruction of propeily and life in Spain. . .. The zeal and loyalty of Mr. Maddox : worthy of a great cause. Some lay he will come face to face with ihe realization that the economic: greed, selfishness and prejudice li¢ defends so fanatically are unwol hy of his great representative capaciiy. . . .

Inaugural Ball-By Herblock

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Herglecik py

—~

3

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Industrial Espionage, Far From Aiding Cause of Peace on Labor Front, Serves to Foment Trouble.

EW YORK, Jan. 20.—One of the most important Senatorial hearings is just getting under way again in Washington. I refer to Senator La Follette’s committee which is investigating the system of espionage used in many large industrial plants. It seems to me that the OGPU of big business often represents the lowest and meanest of industrial

practices.

The appropriation of the La Follette committee is not a large one, and the investigation has only scratched the surface as yet. .If I were a stockholder in one of the large steel or automobile companies I think I would rise up.in meeting and protest against the vast sums of money turned .over to detective agencies. The activities of the spies ‘planted in various shops are not only base but stupid as well. Far from bringing peace to the labor front, the in‘formers actually foment trouble. Many companies which pretend to put no barriers in the way of organization carry on an underhand campaign of terror through thugs and stool pigeons. | : The familiar explanation given for the use of ihdustrial secret service is that it is necessary to ferret out Communists. rE

Mr. Broun

# © =a Ta HERE is a brief extract from the testimony of Joseph Littlejohn, superintendent of the Atlanta office of the Pinkerton Detective Agency: Tor Senator La Follette—How do you define commiye nism? Mr. Littlejohn—Well, it was generally known that— Senator La Follette (interposing)—As a matter of fact, Mr. Littlejohn, do you not regard any attempt on the part of employees to organize themselves into independent unions as a communistic activity? Mr. Littlejohn—Not altogether. ” Senator La Follette—Are you giving me a frank answer? ae Ad Mr. Littlejohn—Yes, sir; trying to. ¢ Senator La Follette—As a matter of fact, do you not regard, and do you not so characterize, activity on the part of workers to organize into indepndént unions as communistic or radical activity? E .Mr. Littlejohn—Where it is radical until out different, sir. Senator La Follette—Have you ever thrown ott, turned down or canceled a job for a client you sold on the ground you were going to find out what his ‘ employees wére doing because you found out the ore ganizers were not radicals? : Mr. Littlejohn—No. i 2

” 2” ” : NE a single witness from the various detective agencies could offer any definition of Communist ~or communism. One testified -that he could write a book on it, but he, too, was unable to put his ideas into any simple sentences. Again, there was a good deal of talk about the radical labor groups which the Pinkertons were supposedly searching for. And in the examination of Asher Rossetter, vice president and general manager of the Pinkertons, Senafor La Fpllette said: “You have talked a good deal now about the distinction between the so-called Communist and radical labor organizers and labor unions and those you describe as bona fide. Now tell me the names of some you had in mind when you used those terms” Mr. Rossetter, the boss detective, could make. no ‘better reply than, “I don’t believe I can give you the

we find

name of any particular communistic labor organjzation.” 4

* -

The Washington Merry-Go-Round |

Inauguration Day Is Washington's Biggest Show, and It's Considerably

Dit'erent From What It

Ry Drew Pearsor and Robert S. Allen

N, Jar! 20.—It takes only two min-

utes for the Presiiiént to repeat the 35 words which constitute the actiiil inauguration. But around that brief oath of office has been built a full day of ad celebratitia, which begins with , the

early i the morning and continues

far into the night wher the last tired dancers start

Iniiuguration Day is a major

F the governmental system is to be improved, it must be done by the President under general policies laid down by Congress. Also, the executive judicial and legislative functions of the great interior governments—like the Interstate Commerce Commission—ought to be separated. If the job is to be done at all, it must be immediately, under the present tremendous prestige of Franklin Roosevelt. The great blind spot of the

| report is the apparent assumption that the job can

be done by a mere reorganization of the Presidency into three anonymous push-button managerial departments to regulate 12, managed primma donnae. It will be done only by a forthright delegation of plenary authority and responsibility to Cabinet offi-

pull the 13C-odd

] {

independent

“cers of “assistant President” capacity with directions: and

holiday. Business is at & standstill. Schools are out. The streets are packed. The Avenue” is transformed into a gala paradeway, v ith flags, bunting and blocks of grandstands. And thi local citizenry are lost amid the throngs of visiting s:tangers. The capital is used 0 conventions and parades. They are an old story. F. om bankers to bonus marchers, it has seem them al. But it has never become

‘blase about the quadrenitial big show that marks the

induction of a President. 2 2 OR the big show is never twice the same. It has changed a lot since tli¢ days when the Presidentselect demonstrated their democracy by coming to the uguration on foot. "Thomas Jefferson, the first "President to be. Rugure: in. Washingto

Was in Jefferson's and Jackson's Time.

mony returned in a similar manner to his lodgings, where he sat down to dinner at his accustomed place at the foot of the table. an In contrast to this, the President today rides to and from the Capitol accompanied by.a vanguard of motorcycle police and a deputation of Secret Service operatives. His car proceeds down the center. of Pennsylvania Ave. with the tens of thousands that pack the streets held back by wire ropes. nA - Even the cameramen are banned. Formerly, they - were permitted to run alongside the cars taking random shots. Now they are provided with platforms at strategic spots, and not allowed elsewhere. Re. : : : HE inauguration in the old days was also a field day for pickpockets. Newspapers of Andrew Jackson's time report that petty thieves made a rich haul, the largest single ‘‘take” being. $300. But this deft craft, together with the other Vices, today are under. strict police surveillance. Uniformed and plainclothes men from a number of large cities are sent to the capital to aid the local force to guard the crowds. Known crooks are promptly arrested on suspicion. Ea ; The Secret Service has taken extraordinary precaue tions- to protect the President. the Ca;

At frequent * ts ‘his route and | ito! Hh Hs i : E be