Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 January 1937 — Page 16

"PAGE 14 _ —

= - . - . — —_ . oT ae The Indianapolis Times : ; dares i : ary ® 5 (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) . )\ MARK FERREE Boy WN Bon BD Xr Tw Business Manager

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

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

Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way ‘ THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1937

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

Member of United Press, Scripps - Howard Newspaper . Alliance, NEA ‘Service, and. Audit Bu-

reau of Circulations. Riley 9551

REBOUND sod THE best thing that ever happened for Chicago, ite has often been said, was the great fire of 1871, which wiped out square miles of frame buildings and made it both possible and necessary for Chicago to build a newer and finer and more modern city. : . So, too, did San Francisco come back fast, and bigger and better than ever, after the earthquake and conflagration of 1906. 2 : i yo . . And Pittsburgh, where only 10 months ago the business district was*as much as 20 feet under water and industries and railroads were paralyzed, today hums with activity which thelgloomy flood victims at that time could not visualize. : ig Something electric happens to the state of mind of a community visited by a great disaster. Dislodged from their accustomed grooves, men go back to work with hew zests, new methods, new visions. s So, let us hope, it may be with Cincinnati, Louisgille, Evansville and other stricken communities along the Ohio and Mississippi—that the pessimistic clouds which now overhang may be turned inside out to reveal the silver linings.

PUBLIC BUSINESS ae ABOR SECRETARY PERKINS’ request for emergency power of subpena follows the refusal of Alfred P. Sloan Jr. of General Motors to confer with John L. Lewis on the issues in the auto strike. Such a move is not a surprise. For the modern strike is too fraught with public interest—in this case threaten"ing recovery itself—for the Government to be able to do nothing more than request and cajole and confer first with one side and then the other, impotent before the impetuous flashes of temperament that are engendered in both as the strife continues, bitterness increases, and charges of doublecross and bad faith fill the air. It is regrettable that the Secretary’s move capped a sequence of events that may give color to the cry of politics. While such powers of investigation should be useful, ‘and should be granted in this instance, they will, however, in our opinion, fail to accomplish what must be accomplished

if the terrible loss in industrial disputes is to be brought to |

a minimum. The trouble is that such investigation comes after the fire has started. It should come before. It should be preventive. é* A permanent system of objective mediation to act as the preventive before the shutdown occurs should be set up. The practicality of such mediation already has been proved with the railroads—where. for 10 years theres has not been a major strike. The nation already has its motlel.

SUDDEN DEATH—1937 ” .

JE XCERPTS from a letter from a California friend: ° “For modern high-speed driving, particularly where grades and curves are required, the three-lane road is perhaps the worst deathtrap of all. On narrow, crooked roads, even a congenital idiot will be careful. But the three-lane road has a sign saying, ‘Middle lane for passing.” Two just mildly idiotic drivers, going in opposite directions, try, to * pass two slower moving trucks or busses and the result is always hell-to-pay. “On a narrow road at least one of them would fave waited until he got around that curve, or over the top of that hill. If we are going to have wide and expensive roads and rights of way, why not make them four-lane in the hilly or crooked sections and narrow them down on the fat, straight stretches? Better still, where we can afford fourlane roads, why not have two two-lane, one-way roads, with a soft spot in the middle for the soft-headed to light in if necessary? = : “I think our chief problem is the type of traffic that we allow to use our public highways. Who has not, on a twisting grade, hooted and honked at a gasoline or other truck, with one or more trailers attached, and finally taken a desperate chance in speeding around it? Who has, not seen enormous busses, as big as Pullman cars, weaving. in and out of, and generally disrupting, traffic? And who-has not read of the ghastly accidgnts that occur when these leviathans, for which our roads were not built, which were not built for our roads, and whose operators do not pay for the wear or confusion they occasion on our roads, go out of control? “Young love, youthful recklessness, the demon rum, and the speed possibilities (compensated for by braking and other control possibilities) of modern cars, of course have a lot to do with automobile accidents, . “However, these things mostly have been with us for a long time, and we will probably have to put up with them for a long time to come. In other words there would seem to be little of the practical in simply reiterating that they are all too bad—and in simply continuing to compare automobile accident rates with wartime statistics, There rémains, however, a limited field within which something positive might be done, and I think that in the above I Have pointed out a few of its corners.” : .’

FATHER COUGHLIN Es . IN EWS dispatch: “The Rev. Charles E. Coughlin will resume his national broadcasts, according to Albert M. -Ross, advertising counselor. Mr. Ross said that Father . Coughlin would broadcast over the Mutual Network for a '52-week period.” : 2 : : Statement by the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin in an‘address Saturday, Nov. 7, 1936: “I shall fulfill the promise which I made at the Cleveland convention. Thus, I am hereby withdrawing from all radio activity in the best interests of all the people. I,am doing this without attempting to offer one alibi, thereby

proving that my promise is better than my bond.” .

1 A standard driver's license law, now proposed for*Indiana, would not mean the stopping of all cars for a pdlice check of licenses. Only traffic law violators would, be stopped. The penalty then would be heavy on those with-

out licenses, ii < od dioch

at-the same tifne,

Wh on Torte nd

“THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES the Shouting Die—By Rodger

Lover Lg

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler New York City Employs About

170,000 Persons, None of Whom Pays a Cent of U. S. Income Tax.

THE City of New York employs about

~~ 170,000 people on a payroll of about 200

million dollars a year, not one of whom pays

a dollar of income tax to the United States Government. They include 35,000 schoolteachers, at an average salary of about $3000 a year; 18,500 policemen and 6500 firemen, practically all of whom receive sufficient salary to require a return to the Income Tax Department, but for their constitutional exemption. The teachers get virtually the same vacation that the children enjoy, and they may retire at®the age of 70, or after 35 years, on pensions amounting to one-half their average pay for the last five years. They are less favored in the matter of retirement, however, than the firemen, who are eligible for half-pay after 20 years. Po Rcemen must serve 25 years to be eligible for pensions, but there.are other provisions which permit:-re-tirement of all classes on less pay earlier in life. Feople employed in business must make a return on a minimum income of $1000 a year to both the Federal and State Income Tax Departments if they are single and not heads of families. Heads of families are allowed an exemption of $2500. A man or woman making $25 a week, single and not the head of a family, would be required to pay about $3 to each income tax authority, but John O’Brien, late Surrogate at $25,000 a year, and la%r Mayor of New York for one year at $40,000, receives a penson of $12,000 good as long as he lives or Mrs. O’Brien after him, entirely free of income tax. : - ; 2 ” 2 T should be mentioned that after the pensioner has received back the amount which he paid into the retirement fund at the rate of 3 per cent of his salary, the pension comes under the State Income Tax Law. However, that takes a long time and the collection of such taxes would require such minute searching that few old Jensioners ever bother to pay. ; Federal judges at $10,000 a year do not have to pay the state tax, although they must pay the Federal, and all other Federal employees enjoy the same exemption. : There are a large number of so-called constitutional offices in each state which are exempt from both income taxes. - ” ” 8 T isa tradition among state, county and city em‘ployees that the state taX does not really apply to them, but only to suckers engaged in the uncertain competitive scuffle for existente with no prospect of pensions, without civil service protection and subject to the Federal Income Tax as well. :

The school teachers of New York City, although much favored by comparison with employees of private industry, are not the high-salaried members of the Department of Educations In less than one page of the official roster there are listed 51 officials drawing more than $9000 a year, including 11 at $10,000 a year or more, and one at $20,000 g year, exempt from Federal income tax. : Literally millions of employees of the states, cities and the counties all over the country enjoy the Federal. exemption from Federal income tax on billions of dollars of payroll and all* Federal employees are exempt from state income taxes, if any, in the. states where they are employed. ) :

i Mr. Pegler

1 wholly

defend to the death your right; fo say it.—Voltaire. \

disagree with what a say,

but: will

ORGANIZATION, HE SAYS, IS LABORS HOPE By a Subscriber In reply to N. K. Purkheiser: I have been affected by strikes,

but I did not lie down and whine.

I know that only by organized effort on-labor’s part can we hope to make and keep gains. Organized labor has fought for shorter hours and higher pay and it is to its credit that we have useful labor legislation today. Organized labor has also helped the unorganized men. Shame on those who want the benefits of organization but do nothing to aid in bettering conditions. nt

" You say that 90 per cent of the G. M. employees wish to return to work. What's keeping them from doing so? Surely not the 10 per cent. I believe that you have underestimated union strength. You complain of the long hours and small pay of taxi drivers. They are the result of no organization. Difference in labor views never justify aiding the enemy. Brush up on economics and discover that wages lag far behind productive value and profits. Is it any wonder that we have depressions?

”- 2 = PRAISE FOR PRESIDENT AND HIS SMILE By C. E. Hopkins While sitting at my radio Jan. 20 I heard a voice say: “Here comes the President.” A picture of this man, undaunted by fear, riding along streets packed with his ad-

' mirers, flashed through my mind.

Even as the rain poured from the skies, seemingly to drown that smile, the sunshine of his soul was too great and he smiled radiantly. Yet, the day was typical of the past four years of our American life —crowded with bankruptcy, fear of internal strife and war on the horizons of other nations. As he had four years ago, our President has the same reassuring smile to lead us into the future of this great nation. Undaunted by the dark fears of unbelievers in. the past or present, he stands alone high above the multitude, daring to do according.to his oath and ingenuity; daring to lead where others will not follow and setting the stage for a new drama

(Times readers are

umns, religious controversies ekcluded. Make your letter sho

withheld on request.)

blows to my acquaintances and never in any walk of life have I seen the willingness to serve or help more prominent than among these drivers. . . . :

Recently, as I stood with my husband, viewing one of these night drivers whose life was snapped out so maliciously—a feeling of awe passed over me as I saw men enter and pay their respects to one who sang ‘through the long nights as he and his fellow workers awaited the public's demands. Let's give a kindlier thought and a pat onthe shoulder to the taxi drivers. 2 2 ” ABSENCE OF SAFETY ZONES CRITICIZED By an Old Times Reader As a merchant on Indiana Ave. for several years, I have noticed that a lot of my friends and customers cannot get out to busses because there are no safety zones from Ohio St. to West St. It isn't safe for people to get out to board cars. because the drivers of aut run down the tracks and ugha those who want to get to the used-to-be safety zones... . |

ANSWERS QUESTION ON LANDING ZONE By Capt. Lewis Johnson, Police Department : ‘ When trackless trolley cars were installed on Indiana Ave. some time ago, it was planned that the. trolley wires would be moved toward the

Indianapolis

OLD MAN RIVER :

By MRS. ALFA L. JOHNSTON There is a river rolling on Most terrible and grand, : But now it’s simply run amok | And covered up the land. \

curbings ‘so that the cars might load and unload passengers at the curb. Since this move was contemplated, the Police Department did not wish to go to the expense of erecting heavy bumpers and iron rails for safety zones when they might later have to be torn out at more expense. The police do not consider a loading zone in the street nafe without these bumpers and rails. We hope the Indiana Ave. situation will’ be remedied this spring. ”

2 8

REPLIES TO COMMENTS BY

GUIDE LAMP EMPLOYEES By a Reader; ittsboro In answer some of the Guide Lamp employees’ comments on the

strike: :

John 'L. Lewis, William Green and

their henchmen started by telling |

workingmen they .were for them.

While you “Guide Lampers” were

working you received your pay each

week, but now you are on a strike. Are you receiving pay for that? ...

- Can you expect any company to

show much: respect for a group of men who let some outsider . come along and tell them what to do and try to run some other person's business? :

If you employed men, would you let me come. in and tell you how to do things? I don’t believe you would. I believe the sit-downers

had ketter get up and the ones on the - outside doing picket duty had et

go back to work. Show your employer you are willing to be peaceful and settle all disputes yourselves, without having outsiders come in. You would probably gain more and not lose any of the time caused by strikes. I am trying to explain to the

workingmen: that they should have

backbone enough to fight their own battles peacefully, not by violent tactics. Let's all be good friends and work together for the good of both sides. -

2 ” 2 SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT

It’s chased the people from theirfURGED BY WRITER

homes, :

By Chester Smith

in the history of the United States, Whether it be wise or unwise, only God knows.

” 8 ” TAXI DRIVERS PRAISED BY READER By Mrs. M. L. A.

To say a word of praise for taxicab drivers in our city gives me real pleasure. I have been in close touch with many of them over a period of more than nine years. As any class of people, I have found them courteous, considerate and quite human. Few of us realize the companionship existing “between the night drivers who stand by to serve at all hours and under all circumstances. In my years of experience with them, death has dealt several hard

General Hugh Johnson Says—

.Only Sure Thing About People in Floods Is That They'll Move Right Back Into Path of Water Singing, 'River, Stay Away From My Door.’

EW YORK, Jan. 28.—Wahy do Italians move promptly back to live on the slopes of Vesuvius, regardless of the many fiery devastations of homes and towns since Pompeii? Why don’t miners and their families depart from the bleak villages at the pit mouths and find other fields of work, regardless of ‘the well-known fact that half the jobs have been replaced forever? Why will people move straight back to live in the paths of destructive floods, regardless of frequent past visitations and scientific and mathematical assurance that they will come again and again? The only sure thing about people in floods is that they'll do it every time and then sit singing “River, Stay Away From My Door,” and doing nothing else about it. Cary Grayson asked a twice-flooded farmer what he was going to do with the relief provided for him, and he said, “Buy me some stock and chickens

and move back home.”

” # 2

TT U. S. Army Engineer Corps has been the guardian of rivers, lakes and streams ever since our beginning when" as the “topographical engineers” they surveyed the wilderness of the West. Floods have been the special study for generations of officers. Long ago they worked out the height and probability of such floods as last winter's and this, and suggested such meal the science of engineering provided for

en Lil FE Te Ea

The cost runs to astronomical figures. The amount of work and the element of time is great. A lot of progress has been made and now more will be made. That is not-the point of this .piece. The point is that all the present catastrophe was an assumed risk, Of course, that does not make loss and suffering and sympathy for both any less, and it won't in the least lighten future disaster because, just as soon as the high water goes down, these people will go back and risk it all over again. 8 » ” T= writer was in Pittsburgh last year when the 4 crest of that flood struck the Triangle. Two smashing facts stood out. The first was the momentary paralysis of ‘our present complex life when catastrophe stops light, power, phone, water, gas and transportation conduits and milk and food deliveries, That’s one impression. The other’is the immense resiliency and efficiency of modern regimented society in adjusting itself. As short a while ago as 1906 I saw panic in the San Francisco fire and a lot of deaths and injury from ignorance, fear and undiscipline. Not in Pittsburgh 30 years later and not down the Ohio now. The situation is in hand and relief rolling in and, with all the insensate destruction of property, al-

st no 3

They have taken to the hills, And Old Man River rushes by. And into the Gulf it spills. :

The Red Cross cries “Please help

With your dollars and your dimes To help care for little children Until they have better times.”

So send in your contributions, That the needs may all be met, And thank the God above you That you're not in this awful net.

DAILY THOUGHT

In the seventh day is an holy convocation; ye shall do no'servile work therein.—Leviticus 23:8.

Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.—Longfellow.

Well we have a new President, or rather, we have the same one again. What are we going to do abo t? Are we going to get behind hipd ana help prosperity ‘move forward? {The ‘President. has started things moving in the right’ direction and it is\up to every citizen in the United Sta to help. We are not.down and out any more. It is with great pleasure that I see the improvement since 1932. ‘Business is good and everything in general is improving. All this is due to the very able President we have had for the last tfour years. . .. - ix From a shut-in’s point of view, it - looks like the- depression is whipped. We haye the most per- .| sistent Chief Executive and the greatest Congr we have had in many ‘years, let’s all do our bit to jegain full recovery. . . .

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

It Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun Acquires New. Respect for Deeds Of the Founding Fathers From Ernst's Book About Constitution,

NEW YORK, Jan. 28.—I have been ‘reading “The Ultimate Power,” by Morris Ernst, and this book about the Constitution: and its background gives me a new respect for the Founding Fathers. : Of course, one does not come away.from ‘this very lively work of research with any conviction that the young men who met in Philadelphia built for all time in every phrase they wrote. Indeed, it is

quite’ evident that for the most part they had no such intention. We tend to forget that the ses sions were stormy and that it was little short of miraculous that any Constitution at all could be arrived at. There was only a thin and flickering flame of unity. -It - is literally true that the men from the various states regarded, each other as foreigners. * Of * course,” the dream ‘of a united kingdom was there," however nebulous, but the man of broadest national vision, Thomas Jefferson, was far away. Before all others Jefferson . was the prophet among our- early statesmen. Most of the rest had their eyes fixed on their own fences with the intensity of any small-time Congressman of today. Three conspicuous exceptions in the’ constifutional convention were Franklin, Madison and Washing-

Mr. Broun

‘ton. Old Dr, Franklin seems to have beeh the one

to pas arounti the soothing cirup when the going got rough. He was the most civilized of all the,delegates and also the oldest. nr

And some of those jealousies were just about as petty as anybody can imagine. That is one of the reasons why the language of our Constitution is in many places less than crystal clear. Clarity was often impossible because certain controversies could only be resolved by the use of phrases which might mean several different things.

» 2 ” ii

NT only was it difficult to frame a Constitution, NV but it was also a terrific task to sell it to the country. ‘There was no great passion for a union, and there was fear and suspicion. The role which’ George Washington played ‘probably was much more important than appears on the surface. Sitting as chairman, he took almost no part in the debates. He spoke only twice, and then briefly, But he left a great deal unsaid. 'It would have ree quired little more than the lifting of a finger for George Washington to have made himself monaréh or dictator of the new nation.

It is a Little difficult to understand why he ree frained. Washington was no enthusiast for demacracy in any broad sense of the term. He was the most powerful man in the nation. And there is no question that he had a strong-and legitimate belief in his own capacity for leadership. Tear Spiny

£8 #8 T is true, to be sure, that the ragged Continental} forces probably constituted the most democratic army this country or any other has ever kn But that was not because of the wish of Washington, but merely the condition which arose inevitably from a lack of centralized control. States’ rights flourished 100 per cent throughout the campaigns of the Revolue tion, which is one of the reasons why it took so long to win the war. ; Morris Ernst records the fact that when Benjamin Franklin asked Washington what the official title of the President of the United States should be, Gen. Washington replied that he preferred “His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties.” 5

Runciman's Visit to White House Was for Purpose of Arranging U. S, Loan to Germany to Relieve Economic Stress, Merry-Go-Rounders Say,

By Drew Pearson and Robért S. Allen ASHINGTON, Jan. 28.—No matter how much V the White House and the State Ds may deny it, there was a lot of fire behind : screen thrown up around the week-end visite Runciman with the President. AR The President of the British Board of ° of the most powerful members of the Brit did not make an unpleasant crossing: of in midwinter just for a vacation. Inside information is that he came for purpose of getting the United States financial burden, in order {6 postpor war until England. can ;

gram. : > The economic situation of almost as bad as during #! got to bring about some’ imp good justification to the Germ poverty. War for colonies or new: tel is one way out. a : a = oe B= a billion-dollar. loa; another alternative; o

money would come back to the United States for the ‘purchase of raw materiais,. ~~ * England is now bent on doing anything which will postpone until she caniget prepared, and this ig one method\of doing it, =~ , = :