Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 January 1937 — Page 11

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A ET J A BR A on

_ PAGE 10 The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD LUDWELL DENNY MARK FERREE President Editor Business Manager

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= Rlley 5551

B SCRIPPS — HOWARD 1 Give Light and the People Will Ping Their Own way

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1937

HELP THE RED CROSS HELP! HE WORST flood in the history of the Ohio River Valiey shows how little has been done to prevent recurring disasters. Lack of preparation is tragically clear. Only a small start has been made toward stopping floods at the source. There can be no more argument, there must be no more delay, about flood control. : But the job that needs to be done today is one of relief. Hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes. Hunger, cold and the threat of pestilence stalk the stricken valley of the Ohio. The splendid Red Cross disaster relief setup is functioning. But it needs money to operate and needs it now. The best way to help is through the Red Cross. The immediate need is for cash. Send your contribution to the American Red Cross today, second floor of the Chamber of Commerce Building. Make checks payable to Arthur V. Brown, treasurer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (CRIPPLED children in Indianapolis, who are fighting the fight that President Roosevelt waged and won against infantile paralysis, will benefit when citizens join the President in a happy celebration of his 55th birthday anniversary Jan. 30. Thirty per cent of the funds from the annual President's Birthday Ball will go to the scientific effort to stamp out this enemy of children. The other 70 cents out of every dollar collected will be spent locally to relieve infantile paralysis sufferers. It is a contribution toward the general good. So, on with the dance!

STRENGTHEN THE LAW

HE argument that Indiana's present driver's license law is rigid enough doesn't hold water. Massachusetts offers a good analogy. : Under that state's 33-year-old licensing law, the number of auto fatalities between 1910 and 1919 increased almost in exact ratio to the gain in motor vehicle registra- * tions. But from 1903 to 1919 the law—like our own ineffective present statute—did not require examination of drivers. ‘Traffic deaths showed an immediate drop. after the law was amended in 1920 to require all license applicants to pass a road test and prove their ability to drive safely. Indiana should do the same.

MEN WANTED!

Bring me men to match my mountains; Bring me men to match my plains, Men with empires in their purpose And new eras in their brains. —Sam Walter Foss in “The Coming American.” n ” 2 ” ” 2 oe S President Roosevelt prepares to push his reorganization plans, he might well breathe this prayef and add: ~ Bring me men to match my mountainous problems! For no matter what he and Congress do by way of rationalizing the mechanics of Federal Government it will accomplish little unless the departments in the reorganized scheme are manned with expert and devoted public servants. It is high time—as the Brownlow Committee has declared—to make Government service more attractive to trained, high-purposed men and women. Every day or so we read of some resignation that spells loss to the Government of priceless brains and energy. Called to Washington by the challenge of the 1933 crisis and the idealism of those early New Deal days, many are leaving now that the crisis appears to be over. Private industry is bidding away some. The campuses are calling back others they lent to the Government. Most of them are going because the Government fails to offer them careers with enough pay, security, dignity, freedom and imagination. To mention a few of these losses— © Drs. Lloyd K. Garrison and Harry A. Mills returned to their campus careers after brilliant work on the National Labor Board; Francis Biddle, Garrison’s successor, went back to his Philadelphia law practice; John Dickinson is leaving an important post in the Justice Department to become chief solicitor for the Pennsylvania Railroad; James

M. Landis, SEC chairman, is to be Dean of Harvard Law.

School; Rexford Tugwell, Resettlement Administrator, has entered private business; Dr. Henry Grady, expert framer of reciprocal trade agreements for the State Department, returns to his California campus; Jerome Frank, brainy RFC lawyer, has retired to private practice. Rumored also are the pending resignations of John N. Winant, Social Security Board chairman, and Edward MeGrady, Assistant Secretary of Labor and expert conciliator, How can the Government prevent such losses? Obviously the mere extension of routine civil service will not hold them. Higher salaries, as urged by the Brownlow ~ Committee, would help. on But more important is that other part of the report _ which calls for the making over of our entire public service _ into something like what England has evolved. A career - service, free from spoilsmen’s pressure, founded not only on merit but on the recognition of exceptional merit through promotions, offering lifetime vocations of the * highest honor and dignity—this would give us more Gar- : risons, Landises, McGradys and the rest. ; In the meantime let us hope that the staggering recon- * struction problems .ahead will persuade most of the best * public servants to remain at their desks until the job is . done, and induce others of their caliber to take the places : of those who leave. : Regardless of the administrative setup, in the end—as : the Brownlow Committee says: “The effective conduct of : the work of the Government depends upon the men and {Women who serve it.” : 4

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Has the Keys to

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Fair Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

Takes a Good Look for I. O. Us On War Debts and at Last Discovers That There Aren't Any.

VW ASHINGTON, Jan. 25.—Off and on, for |

some years, your correspondent has made persistent efforts to trace down, see with the naked eye and, if possible, touch by hand the actual I. O. U.s, which represent the war debt of the European nations to the U. S. A. The quest started at the Treasury a long time

ago but they didn’t seem to know d4nything about

these documents there. They reckoned there must be some notes or chits somewhere around town, because it stands to reason that when a party puts out money on loan he takes at least a memorandum if for not other reason

“than to provide the basis for a

bad debt item in his income tax return. The search led to the archives where Mr. Jim Preston said he didn't think they had any such there, although the archives are a formidable store of old mash-notes, laws and memoranda dating way back to the beginning of the country and he hadn't had time to read them all yet. ] He is a man who would gladly open the safe for a friend and bring out the I. O. Us for all those billions~if he knew where he could put his hands on them, but he shook his head and said he couldn't rightly say just what department would have custody of the little slips of paper which speak for 11 billion dollars of American money.

Mr. Pegler |

" un n 7 OUR correspondent, visited the Smithsonian, that great national repository of historical souvenirs and prowled for days among the rusty epaulets of forgotten generals, the sprigs of whiskers plucked from the true beards of Uncle Joe Cannon and Ulysses Grant, the two-headed calves and toy boxcars, but found never a trace of any I. O. Us. Now, at last, it comes out that there are no I. 0. Us in just that form, but that there are instead agrzements, quite different from mortgages or notes, and that the money never was lent altogether as cash loans but represents an adjustment of vast bills for groceries. steel, grain, tobacco and all the jumble of merchandise which nations require

| in wholesale quantities when they are fresh out of | what it takes to feed people and fight a war.

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“HE reality of the war debts is an enormous record of shipments, detailed like a grocer’s weekly statement, with credits for spoiled eggs and short weight, credits for material which they handed over to Gen. Pershing on the ground and, finally, of course, the great discounts which were granted because the total sums were just too ridiculous for serious consideration and it was thought better to bring the amount down into the zone of theoretical collectibility. The theory in this case is still a mere theory of course, but anyway the figure finally represented an agreement on the amount which the late Allies might undertake to pay. Your correspondent is advised that the agreements are around somewhere, probably in the State Department, but somehow his interest is not what it was for these documents probably would consist of enormous volumes containing tables of figures and exchange differentials and“~fead like an invoice of

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .

FS £ £7 & BEI wr

The Hoosier Forum

1 wholly disagree with what you say, bull defend to the death your right to say it—Volnire.

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PURCHASING POWER | PROBLEM DISCUSSED | By S. B. Hetrick, Elwood

Learned men and women have | met from time to time and dis- | cussed the subject of civil and foreign wars. They have arrived at one conclusion: To promote foreign trade as a means to stop what appears to be a life-and-death struggle between so-called civilized nations. Trade between nations would stop war a* least while they trade, but the cause, now and always, that stands in the way of foreign trade is the identical cause that stands in the way right here at home... . In every nation, concentration of wealth has deprived the masses of purchasing power. When they could

! not buy their home products or

those of other nations, the masses closed avenues of trade at home and abroad. . .. Under our present system of production and world-wide distribution, it is impossible to create a lasting, satisfactory expansion by going farther and farther :in debt. Instead of removing the cause, the nations most engulfed in the delusion in order to avoid war at home seek expansion abroad—which, under the present system, is impossible. They resort to destructive methods of expansion by conquest. Instead of removing the cause so that all could buy and there would be no more artificial famines, depressions or war, it would be better to trade with one another the things conducive to happiness. Let us stop the system of trading fire, death and destruction wherein even the victor inherits ruin. ’ " in 8

CITES DISPARITY OF PENSIONS By S. D. Davison, Falmouth

I noticed in The Times that Mrs. Calvin Coolidge had heen granted, by the Senate, a $5000 year pension. As a news item, that was all right, of course. The Senators were only following a very bad precedent, and I do not suppose she was asked to taize a pauper’s oath. She, far from being a pauper, is granted the pension, I suppose, to enable her to maintain the proper dignity for the widow of a former U. S. President. If she was in need, I'd gladly see her granted a pension, but not $417 of the taxpayers’ money each month. The same Senators will fight the Townsend plan for $200 a month for cl people, who have worn out their machinery in a real. service for which they have not received adequate pay. They will say “old people do not need $200 a month and would not know how to spend it.” After mature years, however, when one is not given the opportunity to work and must have help he is expected to live on—not $417 —but usually less than $17 a month. One other thing. When there is

the Pennsylvania Railroad?

legislation to help labor, farm and domestic labor are left out. If there

General Hugh Johnson Says—

Refusal of Employers to Sit Down at Table With Representatives Of Men and Talk It Over When Labor Disputes Occur Is Pain in Neck.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 25—One aspect of these labor troubles that has always given me a pain in the neck is the refusal of employers to sit down at the same table with representatives of their men and at least talk it over. Miss Perkins imported Governor Murphy and then had John Lewis sit down with him—but not with Messrs. Sloan and Knudsen, although Mr. Lewis has frequently pointed out that it was only with these General Motors gentlemen—and neither the Governor of Michigan nor the Secretary of Labor—with whom there was anything to talk about. No hope. Madam Secretary did send for the General Motors people—and she talked to them but she didn’t see to it that they talked to John Lewis— and they refused, to do so unless and until the sitdown strikers evacuate their pnts,

» ” ”

1 an paparial observer there seems to be an element of childishness about this, H it - haps about 130,000 heads of families out wa pee. ing up their savings daily, what prejudice or harm could come to anybody from conversations looking to their restoration to jobs? Counting dependents, half a million people are suffering directly—not to ‘mention the secondary slowing of business and employment throughout the whole industrial chain—glass,

are affected, but it is very great.

cals—nobody knows the total number of people who

Alfred Sloan is as cultured, considerate, gentle, and pleasing a man as you would find in a month of

(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.)

is any class of labor that needs to be helped by having the number of hours lessened it certainly is farm and domestic labor. ’ I want to add that I have not applied for any pension—I am not eligible—and thus have not been refused. I never intend to ask for financial aid as long as I am able to roll my own hoop.

#2 NAZI END BY BANKRUPTCY OR WAR PREDICTED

By American of German Descent

Mr. William Kruse takes another correspondent, to task for criticizing conditions in Germany and for not signing his name. It would be most foolish for this man to do the latter for there are on record many cases of attack by Hitler followers on people who openly criticized this leader of the German government. As far as economic conditions in Germany are concerned, anyone who has not lost the ability to think and who reads German papers can well see that they are deplorable and that the Fuehrer is hard-pressed to prevent economic

.collapse. One does not need to be a

Communist, to see the early end of the Nazis by bankruptcy, or war, or both. » » » INSURANCE FUND PROPOSED

FOR WAR RECONSTRUCTION By Bystander

There is so much chatter about taking the profit out of war that we are confused about the term profit. War destroys both life and property. Profit from destruction is unthinkable. Whatever is destroyed, whether it be life or property, is always on the loss side of the ledger. These items are world assets,

COLD WOMAN

By HARRIETT SCOTT OLINICK

Her lips Promise flowers Of passion in crimson. Her mind is a cold room barring Out love.

DAILY THOUGHT

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day—Isaiah 2:11,

Pride is the common forerunner of a fall. It was the devil's sin, and the devil’s ruin; and has been, ever

since, the devil's stratagem who,

like an expert wrestler, usually gives a man a lift before he gives him a throw.—South.

pays ita

whe gra] wor ent, we No

ical boundary or another. The | whether we like it or not.

#telligent businessman would | a bill with a gun. Good will | ‘understanding always bring | gain “than prejudice and ill {Nations would find it cheaper | to Wi off the sword rattlers of Eu- | rope; hrough the use of gold bags thanty building battleships and gas mas ¢§. After these morons bathe theij-toopulations in blood and fire, Peto fucnion -must begin. TH §{ next world peace conference shoul § propose that every nation i the pool a sum equal to ft spent for war preparations, ir the damage done in any icfd by war. Why not insure reconstuction? + £iations used the squandered on man-serving instrumenthey would show mental cainstead of imbecility.

i n ” SUPREME COURT ISSUE HELD ABOYE DOLLARS AND CENTS By Cafles M. Knight, Morgantown It VES not Thomas Marshall, but John #farshall who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when it ed the precedent passing thy constitutionality of laws. I

rcuisions of the Constitution. or gain of dollars and cents place in a controversy in the self-governing right of ‘erican people is the issue. The §principle of Supreme Court veto ¢f laws is not “an infringement pon the people's sovereignty” created by the Constitution. The Constightion gives the Supreme Court fthe power to interpret the suprenye law of the land. If Congress and the President adopt faws taking this power away from tie Court I have no doubt that the Cofirt will, and should. proclaim such dws unconstitut:onal.

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FLAYS FACTORY FOR

Som(y Indianapolis factories are paying:sood wages, but one factory : employees only 32!2 cents

In ryth season they take two and a half Tents off of every hour, with the pr¢ nise to pay it back after the rush sy dson, but this has never been done. fx Thergf is now a rumor that the plant vill now give the two and a half cats back and call it a raise, under t-: New Deal of 1937. The #vages of this industry are not suificient for a man who has to meq, present high living expenses.; Other Indianapolis fac-

By Drew Pearson ind Robert S. Allen

ASHINGTON, Jan. 125. —President Roosevelt is peeved at Washingtin newsmen.

MONDAY, JAN. 2, 1097] Must Hold By Talburt

sg se FT

|t Seems to Me ‘By Heywood Broun

Inaugural Speech Shows President

Construes Election as Mandate From a Progressive Majority.

EW YORK, Jan. 25.—The era of good

I say happily because the phrase was generally used to mean a period in which the Administration would permit big business to run its own show with very little advice or interference from the Government. The inaugural speech of President Roosevelt seemed to m2 to carry a chale lenge to that plan in every line.

Quite properly President Roose= velt did not outline a precise program but merely indicated a mood. Nevertheless, there were very few crumbs of comfort for those who had been hoping and predicting that the President would let well enough alone in his second term and proceed at low speed along the middle of the road. Since my own hopes go to quite a contrary wish, it may be that I magnify the leftward tendency of the second inaugural. But there can be no getting away from the fact that Mr. Roosevelt de.clared roundly that we are not yet in the land of well enough.

He spoke of the underprivileged as constituting one-third of the entire population of the United States, and while he went into no detail as to the manner in which living standards can be advanced, he did definitely suggest that betterment can only come through the functioning of the Federal Gove ernment. . Et

Mr. Broun

” 2 = FT HERE was no hesitation in the strength and firmness with which Franklin ‘Delano Roosevelt swore to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. In the last campaign there was a good deal of sniping from the Republican side as to the meaning of an oath. Of course, fundamentally the question was really bound up in difference of opinion as to the meaning of the Constitution. I do not think a similar line of attack can be used against Mr. Roosevelt during this term. To my cars he made it quite clear that he had bound himself to protect an instrument framed for the ‘general wel= fare;” with all that implies. 4 It is true that Mr. Roosevelt mentioned in passing the function of State government, but when he spoke of the problem of many millions miserably housed and undernourished the plain implication was that Washington must take a hand in the solution of these problems. = n » ” MMEDIATELY after the election a great deal was said about the power and willingness of private enterprise to clean house on its own. For myself I never get much kick out of such suggestions. It may be that private enterprise could increase wages and shorten hours without being pushed by any outlying forces of any kind. But private enterprise, with very few exceptions, has never done anything of the sort. And even the best intentions of the most enlightened ‘employers are undermined by the chiselers. It seemed to me that the President manifested no faith whatsoever in reforms to be achieved by purely voluntary effort. . While, as I have said, he offered no set program at this time, it does seem to me that he made very definite commitments. If he lives up to his speech, which had every ring of sincerity, he is pledged to carry on very vigorously the fight for collective bar-

tories ike doing their part.

gaining and for slum clearance through Federal aid,

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Walhington Newsmen Are Displaying Too Much Enterprise to Suif

Pre - ent; Premature Discl

journeying, but he is no whit more courtly nor kind a gentleman than Mr. John L. Lewis. Both of these men are fully aware of this. were frequently in contact with each other in 1933. If memory isn’t at fault, they spent some pleasant evenings together. : : ” »

WH then, can’t they now sit down together and see how far they can get toward an agreement where so much of other people's interest is at stake? It will be hard to make any layman understand that what I am about to state as a reason really is one acted on with a straight face. The “reason” is that if they sat down with Mr. Lewis, it would be “recognizing” that he speaks for some of their men. That he does speak for some of them is spectacularly evidenced by the fact that the General Motors plants aren't running. But it is felt that if such “recognition” is accorded to Mr. Lewis, the “loyal” employees won't like it and it will aid the recruiting campaign of the strikers.

But will it aid as much as refusing to discuss peace? And to whom should a worker be “loyal” in labor

weed, carpets, fabrics, paints, chemi |

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trouble—his fellow workers or bjs employer?

r—

They.

The boys are displayilz too much enterprise to suit his“ plans. They hi re been scooping him on certain proposals on whic he has been working secretly, and the premature @ublicity has got under his skin. a : One of his press confer: ices last week was devoted entirely to “throwing doy” stories which had revealed his plans to mak \ another try for Senate ratification of the St. Law ‘ hce waterway treaty, and to confer. with Walter E Sciman, British Cabinet member. ; yi Nevertheless, Mr.- Run¢ jan was a White House guest - last week-end and: ie treaty will go to the

Senate in the near future. | A s “at's irritation is that the ¥) his legislative strategy. cr gressional attention oc“s at once. He wants to = time. ave convinced him that Capitol Hill bring about

Roosevelt doesn’t want cupied with too many thi feed Congress one course Four years of experien too many irons in the fire log-rolling and insurgeicy. Just now the Presiclent £s primarily interested in

osure of His Plans Is Wrecking Strategy.

ures with maximum speed and minimum opposition. But with the correspondents breaking stories on highly controversial plans which he is secretly contemplating, his carefully laid strategy is being knocked into a cocked hat.

” ” ” HE newsmen, incidentally, aren't the only ones to feel Presidential displeasure over leaks. He has talked very plainly to his Cabinet on the subject. At a meeting of the official family he ordered them very emphatically to put the lid down tight on their subordinates regarding the Government reorganization proposal. Inner Administration sniping at White House policy is an old Washington story. Every President has to contend with it. Mr. Roosevelt, apparently, is determined not to tolerate it on the redrganization issue—against which there is extensive, though secret, hostility throughout his entire Administration. He told the Cabinet he would insist on a united front on this question, and required them to see to it that there were no leaks nor secret hostile lobbying, The command was quickly put into effect. Secretaries Wallace and Roper informed their lieutenants that a rigid “gag” was in force on ‘the reor= ganization plan. = Secretary Ickes issued an even more severe warn= ing. He called in ‘his assistants, told them that a

rushing through the ceficiincy relief appropriation and in securing extension arious emergen

committing hara kiri would