Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 February 1937 — Page 14

PAGE 14

The Indianapolis Times

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Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1937

LABOR: WHERE, FROM HERE? FTER some three months of pulling and hauling and backbiting, the Pacific Coast shipping strike which $700,000,000 in lost commerce apparently

a compromise settlement that will leave Meanwhile

cost upward of is moving toward an aftermath of class bitterness and distrust. in Michigan as a state court considers a petition to evict sit-down strikers from two General Motors plants, a blood. spilling riot breaks out in a third plant, and no end is in

sight for the wasteful automotive conflict.

& 4 8 “- 9 2

T is always difficult to get perspective on a situation that is developing rapidly right before your eyes. It 1s the : the forest for the old thing about not being able to see : j trees. From the spot a daily editorial writer occupies, perspective is especially difficult. Frequently we think we get more of it in a conversation or by letter than in the more formal editorial style; that we are less self-conscious. Anyway, we recently were asked by a friend for our comment on the whole labor question today. And we are going to give you the substance of our reply. More than one “take” will be required if we are to avoid undue length in any one issue. Hence the “continued” line at the bottom of this. The discussion first went into the matter of whether events have occurred in recent years to alter our whole fundamental approach, since unions first appeared on the American scene. Said the reply: “There have been many changes. But they seem to be in structure, not in form. many quarters classifies as big business, as compared with its general frailty a few decades ago. “Again, the attitude of capital in a lot of places is officially less unbending toward the idea of labor organization; outwardly more disposed to accept collective bargaining. Further, such an issue as the closed shop has evolved certain new phases. It is less stressed by some union leaders, as for example Hillman of the Amalgamated, one of the most successful of all unions and one which did not emphasize the closed shop in building itself up. ” ® 2 n 8 n “YT"HE jug-handled nature of many labor proposals, for further example of change, is fundamentally not right. That started back in the days when capital had everything and labor had nothing. If labor were to get anything, the proposition necessarily had to be one-sided. As labor has grown in strength, it has clung to the idea which is reflected still in such legislation as, for example, the Wagner Labor Act; jug-handled because its purpose was to make possible the organization of that vast portion of labor which, as yet,

has never been able to get a toe hold so far as collective

bargaining is concerned.

“But as labor comes of age, it should accept an increas- |

ing responsibility before the law, commensurate with its | | premier, a cabinet, a Diet on the order of our Con-

increasing power—in its own interest as well as in that of the public and of capital. Much of the resistance on the part of industry against collective bargaining runs to that. On it, some wise words were said many years ago by one who certainly classifies as a friend of labor—Justice Brandeis: “ ‘This practical immunity of the unions from legal liability is deemed by many labor leaders a great advantage. To me it appears just the reverse. It tends to make officers and members reckless and lawless, and thereby to alienate public sympathy and bring failure upon their efforts. It creates on the part of the employers, also, a bitter antagonism, not so much on account of lawless acts as from a deep-rooted sense of injustice, arising from the feeling hat while the employer is subject to law, the union holds ! position of legal irresponsibility.’ = = 2 ” ” a "BUT. despite alterations of a structural nature, the essence is the same as it was half a century ago. It is at bottom a human problem. And until some means is devised to get at the human element we won't progress very far, no matter what may be done by lawmaking toward limiting the evil practices of capital on the one hand and of labor on the other, “Collective bargaining is—or should be—a state of mind. It has never yet been accepted as a matter of course by most employers, as it has been for example in England. Until it is, the difficulties will continue, and an economic loss will keep piling up, more costly than all our floods and epidemics and other acts of God and the elements. : “We will still have, as we do now, on the one side the spies and the injunctions, the Chowderhead Cohens, the tear-gas and machine-gun agencies, the hookers and other undercover employees, ex-criminals serving as company guards, and all the other rough stuff that even now is being exposed by the Senate Civil Liberties Investigation: and on the other side, the lawlessness of mass picketing and the sit-down strike, labor’s claim to an inherent right to be ir responsible before the statutes, the jurisdictional strike, the sympathetic strike, the racketeering, the insistence on unilateral contracts, and the numerous other aspects that so frequently make labor’s position before the public indefensible in the light of common sense. - » 8 = ” o “ A ND in such a situation, protestations by the press and the public against the tactics of either party, against technical lawlessness or lawlessness in spirit, seem to be about as effective as assailing the anarchy of coal bootlegging in Pennsylvania, or the earlier viewing with alarm regarding the scofflaws of pfohibition days. “The labor problem, like the war problem, can't be solved by proving both sides illegal. “And in the meantime, from the purely economic point of view, apart from the direct loss resulting from strikes,

the nation suffers immeasurably in the failure of labor as |

an orderly force, working efficiently and without disruption toward increasing the purchasing power of the masses—the most obvious means toward a continued and increasing prosperity,” (To Be Continted)

For example, labor today in |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

“Hey, One at a Time !”—By

TUESDAY, FEB. 2, 1937 Kirby RE = = ® er NG i O 0 :

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By William Philip Simms

Times Foreign Editor

Nipponese Army Chiefs Apparently Have a Sincere Desire to Help Masses Against Big Business.

(The reason there is no Pegler column today is explained on Page 1.)

VV ASHINGTON, Feb. 2.—Underlying the crisis between the Japanese military and parliament is a condition of affairs much graver and more baffling than dispatches from the scene thus far have indicated. The struggle is but a continuation of a situation which, in the past five years, has led to re-

peated attempts to overthrow of the government by

soldiers, to a whole series of assassinations of high officials, and to the subsequent execution, imprisonment or removal of scores of officers on charges ranging from treason down. To say that today’s crisis is a fight between fascism and democracy, therefore, is too great a simplification. It may be that, but it is also far more. It was in Japan fat I first heard the term “Military Socialism” used to describe what seems to he going on. By which apparently was meant, not the Marxian conception, but rather a naticnal control over production and distribution as opposed to control by a few enormous private trusts. Japan has had constitutional government since 1889. It has a

Mr. Simms

gress, and two major political parties. People vote and there are popular elections.

Broadly speaking, therefore, Japan has enjoyed popular government. But under it—at least that is one of the chief complaints—control over the whole economic life of the people has found steadily its way into the hands of about half a dozen huge concerns. 8 ” z IG business has more power there than in most countries. The Mitsuis, the Mitsubishis an@t a few other vast corporations control practically everything—manufacturing, merchandising, importing, exporting, banking, mining, shipping, shipbuilding, underwriting, commission buying and selling, and so on. Cost of living, commodity prices, working conditions, all are influenced by big business. It happens that Japan’s military men are recruited mostly off the farms and out of the humbler homes. This goes for the generals as well as for rank and file. Thus many of them harbor a feeling of inJustice against the existing system, and they blame it on the “politicians.” In Japan, as in other parts of the world, there have been political scandals and these have been taken as proof that the people have been sold down the river. ” " os or not, this sentiment is more or less widespread in the Army and Navy. It was at least partly this that led a group of young Army officers to surround the Diet in March, 1932, with some notion of taking over the power, Similarly it helped inspire the several coups, involving virtual rebellion, murder and a state of siege, between that time and the grave “February Incident” of 1936. These attempts, mostly engineered by the younger officers, were to overthrow the “politicians” and put the military in the saddle. They all stressed a political housecleaning with the military in control,

But what makes these revolts different from most

is the apparently sincere desire of the leaders to benefit the masses.

. The Hoosier Forum

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

DEPLORES VANDALISM IN FINCH PARK By John F. White I have been reading, with a real sense of humiliation, the newspaper accounts of the serious acts of vandalism on the shelter house and wading pool in Finch Park by a group of young boys. It is particularly distressing that some of these boys, at least, are reputed to have good pupil records in the schools, and that all of them are of an age when a sense of upright conduct and respect for property should be so developed as to deter them from gross acts of vandalism in disregard of all decent standards of civic life. Finch Park and playground is

surrounded on the east, west and |

south by high-type American homes. the residents of which can be nothing less than humiliated and distressed at the conduct of the 16-year-old boys. Where responsibility lies is not easy to determine, but it is quite evident that there are several weak links in the chain of environment that surrounds our youth. A great deal of thought and self-examination will be necessary on the part of parents and citizens generally if we are to correct these weak places. Finch Park is an accomplishment to which the citizens of the southeastern part of the city devoted much time and they always hoped to make it an ideal playground and recreation center. There is always more or less difficulty in maintaining order and discipline on playgrounds, emphasizing the need for supervision of the grounds to be in the hands of trained and understanding persons, and from which the political spoils system should be barred. There may also be responsibility on the part of the police department that calls for thought and action. There might be a measure of poetic justice in entirely closing Finch Park and playground, as is now threatened by the Park Department, but to confess failure, even in the face of this incident, would be to make a horrible example of the community surrounding this park. The people would have a justifiable protest to such action. The situation calls for more cordial and sympathetic co-operation between citizens of this vicinity and park authorities. The people should not confess defeat in facing the difficulties of properly supervising and disciplining playgrounds.

2 o » URGES CAREFULNESS IN NIGHT DRIVING By Bruce Catton A traffic squad expert in a large American city recently published figures showing that more than half of the fatal accidents in his city in

1936 took place at night—although, as a moment's reflection shows, by far the greater part of any city's traffic moves in daylight.

General Hugh Johnson Says —

Western World, in the Terror-Ridden Dominican Republic, Has a Dictatorship Said to Be as Cruel as Any Now in Existence Abroad.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 2.—In these days of crumbling of popular governments and challenges to dictatorships from the unsullied Jeffersonians of the Western World, give a thought to the democratic perfections of La Republica de Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo is Columbus’ idyllic “Hispaniola” the glamorous capital of incredible New Spain—his tomb-—established when he was still “Admiral of the Ocean Sta he Sarliest Seviving European seéttlee New World. Its nam ange to Ciudad Trujillo. ne? been oh a It is as though the British army upon the recapture of Jerusalem had rechristened it Tommytown or Atkinsville, or as if Allenby, instead of entering the “gate called beautiful” on foot and uncovered, renamed it Allenbyhurst,

T= most modern methods of every local and international racketeer have heen used. The press is a controlled echo. Labor unions have been abolished. Strikes are settled with machine guns, and there has been a blood purge of all opposition. But this stolid monotony has been relieved by a sprightly versatility—every form of homicide known to man except perhaps the subtle poisons of the Borgias. I» tae annroved.Hitler fashion, a youth was iiggeres dw, o wale is

Yet, in the most delicate of Capene nuances,

(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.)

The reason is not far to seek. Streets are often poorly lighted. On rainy nights every light sheds a dozen confusing reflections — on windshields, on auto windows, on gleaming pavement. Pedestrians, unwarily crossing a street in the middle of the block, are invisible until the driver is almost on top of

them. Part of the remedy, of course, is better street lighting. But the thing that is chiefly needed is greater care on the part of the drivers. It ought to be obvious that to try to make daytime speed under nighttime’s conditions of limited visibility is bound to lead to tragedies. = = ”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON RIGHTS OF MAN By a Farmer, Elwood Since the big strike there is much thought concerning private property and its legal right. An editorial in The Times on this subject covered considerable ground. The right to private property is sacred and no man or agency has a moral right to take it away from him unless he is

using it to get unearned income or puts it in the way of others’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If I steal a gun and sell it to buy another of my own, it is yet private property. But if I corner a man and hold him up with the gun, demand-

WHAT IS VANITY?

By F. F. MacDonald Vanity, vanity—what is vanity?

Life—brim full of grief and pain, Constant struggle for meager gain Hopes, ambitions, oft in vain.

Fleeting joy so dearly bought, Doubtful victory of battles fought, Fear and loss by Death's hand wrought.

Humble birth or high estate, Angel's pity for sorrow+-hate, Man's brave march toward mortals fate.

Vanity, vanity—what is vanity?

DAILY THOUGHT

Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.— Isaiah 51:1.

ET a man try faithfully, manfully to be right, he will daily grow more and more right. It is at the bottom of the condition on which all men have to cultivate

themselves.—Carlyle.

ing his money or his life, I am going the limit with my private property. Even though such procedure were legalized the man robbed would never agree to it. We are taught to rejoice that the robber did not pull the trigger, and was willing to arbitrate by taking my money and letfing me live. Such consideration! Private monopoly seems to do the same thing to us, so why not be thankful to it, especially when its husiness is transacted in a more civilized manner? Private monopolies are legalized and given financial aid to buy and sell. They corner the necessities of physical existence and claim it as their private property. If every man who labors would unite, the organization formed would be big enough to handle these monopolies. If it had not been for the never-ending demands of organized labor, there would soon be no purchasing power except that for 0 bare living. Better pay to laborers in the great industrial field means better living standards and a greater demand for farm products. ‘Tens of thousands of persons who never donated a cent or even moral support to organized labor are ungratefully drawing the benefits it has brought. ” n n FAVORS EUGENICS LAW FREE OF POLITICS By R. B. R. A eugenics law would be a good thing in Indiana if it were drawn up to cover the rights of the individual in regard to his correct relationship with society and if it were administered free of politics.

Such a law could not be drawn up by such mediocre students of popular government and rights as generally inhabit the average State Legislature. Venereal disease can never be curbed by prohibiting marriage of infected person. The only way it may be controlled is to bring it out in the open as any other disease is, then the medical profession can stop it in a few years. Prohibiting marriage because of physical defects of individuals is contrary to our form of government, no matter how beneficial it might be to the race as a whole. . .. A physical examination should be compulsory for both man and woman anda the results made known to each, but not to the public. Then, if the couple wants to go ahead and marry and take the chance, it should be perfectly legal to do so. A record of these examinations should be kept on file in the office of the State Board of Health. Before either the man or d4he woman, or any of their progeny can ever be admitted to a state welfare institution of any kind the record of the examinations should be observed. - After a few generations of working this plan we would have a complete record of health of all state inhabitants and I believe the eradication of disease could be obtained much easier among the people without infringing on personal rights.

lt Seems to Me

By Heywood Broun

Hard-Boiled Book Critics Agree on Awarding of Fellowships Without Argument, Which Is Amazing.

NEW YORK, Feb. 2.—I used to think that book critics had a greater capacity for quarrels than any other group. But last week some 25 or 30 gathered to award four fellowships established by the Book of the Month

Club, and the decisions were reached with hardly a cross word spoken. Since the original list of insufficiently read books contained approximately 30 titles, there seemed to be ample room for conflict. With 30 books and 30 critics the possi ble number of combinations is staggering. Nevertheless, the conclave moved on even keel to a rapid conclusion. I must admit a slight feeling of disappointment, because it had been my original suggestion that reporters should be asked to sit in during the deliberations. This was thrust aside as fantastic, since it was held that the literary folk would be terrified into sie lence if they knew that their words might be subject to quota tion, I was rebuked a couple of times for speaking dis paragingly of the well-made book as opposed to cruder power, but two rebukes in a day is hardly a new high as far as I am concerned. Of the four authors who received the awards I voted for only one originally. Robinson Jeffers, Katherine Anne Porter, James T. Farrell and Paul Sears received $2500 each, Farrell was the author I felt most strongly about, but all four winners commanded majority support.

” ” A Poet’s Poet ATURALLY, in the case of Jeffers, the words of Edna St. Vincent Miliay carried a great deal of weight. I kept my trap shut when Miss Millay dea clared that Jeffers was a poet's poet. She was qual ified to speak. Of course, it seemed a little odd to be honoring a man like Jeffers, who has a consicer=

able body of work behind him and has %on a high degree of praise from the critics. But it seems that his reading public is still small, and the hope was expressed that his books might readily find a considerable number of people who would appreciate him. Henry L. Mencken once said that there were only 4000 intelligent readers in America and that an author of any standing would be a fool to look for any more. But Henry has said a number of things, including the voicing of the theory that the Chinese are peculiarly available for executive office in America. And I think he errs on the side of une derstatement in regard to readers, just as he was too generous in his estimate of followers for Governor Landon.

Mr. Broun

s 8

” A Pat on the Back HE notion behind the Book of the Month Club awards is that when somebody tears his heart out to write a book he may become discouraged if it drops noiselessly after the fashion of a used razor blade chucked into the Grand Canyon. A "prize may serve as recognition of a good try and hearten the author for his next effort. For years I have been dealing in the analogy of baseball players and writers. I think it is much easier for a left-handed pitcher to get himself dise covered than for a southpaw novelist to achieve recognition. The writer will find it necessary to taks a much longer windup.

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

Steel Moguls Reported Ready to Start Sit-Down Strike of Their Own,

Thus Tying Up Gigantic

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

Dominican gentlemen have been torn to tatters by tommy guns from passing limousines and others have been taken for a one-way ride. “Pineapples” have been used to explode the sophistries of opposing statesmen. Distinguished gentlemen of his ma jesty’s loyal opposition have been shot “in the mountains.” # ” n UDER the complacent aegis of our good neigh-

bor aloofness, American bondholders have been swindled out of their treaty-guaranteeq sureties. A year ago, we learned that never in the history of modern civilization had there been a greater devotion to the ideals of self-governm ¢ in the 21 American republics. nig yo and later in Washington the President mentioned the repugnance of “all the Americas” tq any other form of government save democracy. Venezuela—but the less said about that the better Let’s also omit to mention three others—2 of “all the Americas.” ‘ Oper cent But, if this bloody stew in Hispaniola Hitler is a flower girl, Mussolini is dE Semen god Asie, was an infantile pratiler piling up croquet balls.

»

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ASHINGTON, Feb. 2—The Navy's big shipbuilding program is in serious danger of being hit by a crippling sit-down strike. In this instance, however, it is not the workers who are threatening to strike, but the employers. Manufacturers supplying Navy shipyards with steel for new warships have notified the Government that they will stop further shipments unless the Healey Act is suspended, : This law applies the 40-hour week to all work done under Government contract.” The steel magnates claim that their production schedules are geared to a 48-hour work week, that they can't produce steel under the Walsh-Healey Act. They demand that the provision in the statute empowering the Secretary of Labor to suspend its operation in cases of emergency be put into effect.

Otherwise, they warn, they will stop filling Gov- ¥

ernment orders for ship-building steel.

® 8 =» NAY yards have only a month's supply o on hand. If they threat it would mean program would be for month. i hi

Building Program of the American Navy, .

At a conference between Secretary Frances Perkins