Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 February 1937 — Page 11

‘Vagabond

FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE

JK NOXVILLE, Feb. 10.—So I woke up in Knoxville and I said to myself, “This be-

~The Indianapolis Times

Second Section

ing Knoxville, IT must go out and see my old pal Norris Dam.” Norris Dam and I are just like that. We knew each other way back when.

When I saw it last it was ragged and jutty, and | and |

everywhere there was scaffolding, and cars buckets slid back and forth on huge cables stretching

across the canyon, and there were

great poundings and churnings, and whistles were blowing, and you could hear the grind of wheels on cables, creaking with heavy loads. The dam was alive with a clatter-

ing growth, and thousands of men |

walked and climbed and hammered about the living surface of the animate concrete. Norris Dam had grown up since I saw it last. Last spring the President was here to christen it or inaugurate it, or whatever you do to

a dam that is finished. And then |

down came the scaffoldings, and

down came the cables and the great | And they cleaned |

towerheads on the canvon banks. up all the exciting litter of construction that had spread itself for half a mile around. smoothed down the banks and tamped the clay level and planted grass. Norris Dam was finished. And finished it is for me, too. I drove out to see my old pal. One glance was enough. It is nothing but a monument, quietly serving a purpose. Autos now drive across its top, over a fine roadway. the gates at the top of the spillway and slide foamingly down the slanting face, making hardly a bubble when they reach the small river pool below. All the Sain is bare, and immobile, and lonely, just standing ere.

Turbines Silent WE went down into the powerhouse. The big turbines stood silent. One man a high steol behind a glass wall, in the many-dialed control room. Two TVA officials stood talking just outside the door. That was all the life around. Norris Dam is what it should be. Finished, un-

romantic and working. But I do not like it that way. I never want to see it again. to see any of my other dams—Wheeler, or Pickwick,

or Boulder. or Fort Peck, or Grand Coulee or Bonnhe- | are

ville—I them after they finished. Creating, constructing, that is the thing. But all that, of course, sense. Here is the sense: All along the great Midwestern rivers—the Ohio and Mississippi and Cumberland—people have been dying and suffering from brown, swirling floods.

never want to gee

the fever of

is romanticism, and not

= » = All Is Serene UT out around Norris Dam all is serene. Behind the great dam stretches a lake, nearly 75 miles long. The lake is blue, and the water is clear, and there is hardly a ripple on the shore. In front of the dam, the Clinch River is so narrow you could

throw a rock across it, and so shallow the boulders |

are sticking up out of the middle of the river not a hundred yards below the dam. There is no roar or rush of swirling water. stream is clear, as it was thousands of years The water is controlled

The ago.

Mrs.Roosevelt'sDay |

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

terday afternoon. After dinner, at which there

were only three of us, the President and Miss Le Hand |

started on their mail. of mail, over which I groaned but midnight. I read my New York Herald-Tribune this morning with considerable interest. One page was most amusing. Out of six headlines across the top of the page only one seemed to be without fear,

I retired to a very large basket finished about

facing our courts today have been pointed out and tentative remedies suggested. One man felt

turning our liberties over to a dictator or weakening

our courts, but all the others were filled with fore- |

bodings. One headline is particularly terrifving. “Plan to pack the Court to favor power of a minority is seen.” The meaning of this headline is ex-

plained in the article below, but at first reading you | help but link it up with the fact that the |

cannot opposition to the changes comes largely from the same group which opposed much of the social legislation of the present Administration, and the views of the people on this legislation were rather clearly expressed in November last and they were not a minority group. It leads a layman to wonder whether the will of

the people really is to determine our Government, or | whether a minority group of the Government is to be

the final arbiter.

Child marriage does not seem to be confined only | The marriage of the |

to the mountains of Tennessee. little 9-year-old girl in that state brought to light the marriage of a 12-year-old girl in New York State. It seems inconceivable that parents should countenance a practice of this kind uniess food is so short that one mouth taken out of the home counterbalances all other arguments, Certainly no one in their senses would want a child of 9 to be married. We may well hope that the publicity which has attended

this marriage will result not only in the passing, but children |!

in the enforcement of laws requiring that under a certain definite age may not be married.

New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

TASTY new mystery story with atmosphere thick vd enough to cut with a knife—and two corpses who were indeed knifed, is THE BELL IN THE FOG, by John Stephen Strange (Crime Club; Doubleday). The ingenious Barny Gantt, news photographer extraordinary, is sent to Sowback Island in Penobscot Bay to regain his health. Immediately he is surrounded not only by murders, but by postal inspectors, revenue investigators, and just plain flatfeet. Then comes the fog, the thickest this side the Atlantic, which only the huge flash from the lighthouse can penetrate. Through the silence of the fog each 30

seconds reverberates the sound of the bell warning | ships at sea and assuring landsmen that all is well |

at the light,

Mr. Strange has dished up a nice mess of clues: |

A stolen letter, a ghost in a gravevard, some new rubber boots, a three-year-old almanac, and a beautiful blond who would never pick a lighthouse for a home. Barny Gantt makes a good detective. All is well as the fog lifts, and the reader hopes for more mysteries from Mr. Strange.

” = ”

BOOK of quiet and simple happenings is THE COUNTRYMAN'S YEAR (Doubleday), by R. S. Baker, who writes under the name of “David Grayson.” It is the diary of a man who has retired to a small New England village, where he has bought a few acres of land and built a house, planted trees and a garden, and kept bees. He has niade good friends among his neighbors and says that here he has known the best that comes to any man: “Times of sight is also insight.” This is a book that has been lived before being written. The daily joys of birds and bees and flowers are woven in with comments on books and life itself. Finding life so interesting that he has no time to worry about it, the author says that “it is not limitation of life that plagues us. It is the limitation of our awareness of life.”

And they |

Four little ripples of white water squirt out of |

two | sat on |

I never want |

building—

! only Coolidge appointee was a Re-

| termining factor in Supreme Court : ASHINGTON, Tuesday—We had two teas ves- |

This fear | was all inspired by the fact that certain difficulties |

that the suggested changes had | precedents behind them and that we might not be |

It reads: |

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1937

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

THE COURT PLEASES’ TO STAY 70 Average Age of Justices at Death; 45 Have Died in Office

By BERTRAM BENEDICT HE average age of Supreme Court justices at death has been between 70 and 71 vears. Of 66 deceased justices, 45 have died in harness. The average length of service of the present membership is now

15 years. Mr. Justice Holmes resigned from the Supreme Court in January, 1932, in his 91st year. He

was the oldest man ever to have sat on the Supreme Court bench. However, eight justices served longer terms than Justice Holmes, who was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, in his 62d year, and hence served slightlv more than 29 years. John Marshall and Stephen J. Field each served more than 34 years on the Supreme Court, the record going to Justice Field by a few months. Joseph Story and John M. Harlan served more than 33 years. John McLean, James M. Wayne, Bushrod Washington and William Johnson also served more than 30 vears. Chief Justice Hughes in his book on the Supreme Court tells of a vain attempt to persuade Justice Field to resign after he had reached his dotage. Years before, Justice Field had served on a committee which persuaded Justice Grier to resign, and Justice Harlan was deputed to recall the incident to Justice Field. When Justice Harlan asked him if he remembered having urged Justice Grier to resifn, Justice Field awoke from his lethargy long enough to comment: “Yes, and a dirtier day's work I never did in my life.” But Justice Field did resign soon afterward.

= » =»

N 1857 President Buchanan wrote: “No Whig President has ever appointed a Democratic judge of the Supreme Court nor has a Democratic President appointed a Whig.” But in the 20th Century things became different. President Taft, later to sit as Chief Justice, promoted Edward D. White from Associate Justice to Chief Justice, and Justice White was a Democrat. Two of the five new appointees to the Court by this Republican President were Democrats. All of Wilson's appointees were Democrats and the

States,” says Supreme Court the President

after ascending

according to victions.

preme Court History,” points justices joined publican. But Presidents Harding and Hoover each named a Democrat, Butler and Cardozo, respectively So judicial outlook as well as political allegiance has been a de-

dering those Presidents, publican appointments. Yet here also there has been no invariable rule. Wil-

son, liberal, appointed Justice Mc- the South.

Revnolds, conservative, and Cool- | a

idge and Hoover, conservatives, appointed Justices Stone and Cardozo, liberals. = n ” O vacancy has occurred on the Supreme Court during the Roosevelt Administration. Vacancies occurred during the Administration of every other President since the Civil War except Garfield, who served only a few months. President Johnson was prevented from filling the Supreme Court vacancies during his term of office by action of Congress in reducing the number of members of the Court. Prof. W. W. Willoughby, in “The | Supreme Court of the United |

RESIDENT

in 1301. It

In January,

Senator William Garner, center, and Senator Henry F. Ashurst are shown in Washington

that ward slavery helped to determine

and confirmations by the Senate prior to the Civil War, but insists that the justices

Court bench decided slavery cases their

Charles Warren, in

case involving slavery, antislavery with judges in rendering the decision.” He points out also that Supreme Court justices nominated by Jefferson and Jackson joined in rendecisions

Supreme Court invalidated reconstruction activities of the Republican Party in

present message to Congress remarks that the Supreme Court was established in 1789 members and was reduced to five is trme that an act was passed in 1801 not to fill the next vacancy which occurred. but | this act was repealed in 1802 be- | fore any vacancy had occurred, so that the membership of the Court was never less than six. 1935, Roosevelt denied that he intended | to recommend an { number of associate justices forthcoming decisions on Deal measures were unfavorable,

H. Dietrich, left, Vice President John Nance

attitudes to-

nominations by Senator Ashurst (D. Ariz):

it in

is never time of

{ United States; | constitutional, | pestilence,

war, the Supreme

honest con-

cdnctrine of humanity. Suppose that some tribal insects should, as they might, assail the food supplies of the | United States. Who amongst us would say it would be unconstitutional to fight insects? We would bring on an army of gas squads and we wouid exterminate the insects in order to preserve the food supplies of the people.

” ” 2

Senator King (D. Utah):

in “The SuUnited States out: “In every

proslavery

obnoxious to and that a Rebench

suance of bonds.

Senator Adams (D. Cole.) : No. . . ® We may be canceling one obligation ROOSEVELT'S by issuing another. I know in my own state, into the bank came an oid-time borrower who gave a new note in lieu of the note then held by the bank. Tearing up the old | note, he said, “Thank God, that is | paid!”

with six

” on LA

Senator Bailey (D. N. C), dis- | cussing relief outlays: Facilis des- | cenus averni—easy the road to [ ruin, President | Senator Lewis (D. TIL): Easy the road to hell. Senator Bailey: THe Senator from Illinois gives a more literal interpretation, but I did not care 'to read it that way into the record.

ncrease in the if New

TODAY'S LOCAL

PERSONALITY

By JACK MORANZ

HIS AMBTONS WERE 7 Bulb A RAILROAD AND 0 ENGAGE IN FINANCE 8 IN 1901 ORGANIZED A 8. To 2UILD INTERURRAN UNE FROM LOGANSPOR] Io INDPLS* THEN BOUGHT THE LDOANSPORT ST RAILWAY AND LATER BOUGHT TE ST. RAILWAY AND UGHTING PLANT OF KokoMo » BUILT [UE RoADS FROM KokOMO © MARION AND TO FRANKLIN AND BUNT THE HEATING PLANT AT KOKOMO © CONSOUDATED AND OPERATED THEA AND MADE THEM SUQRESSFUL * IN 192) ,S0LD THE ENTIRE GROUP PAVING TO EACH OF The ORIGINAL STOSK= HOLDERS 320,000 FOR EACH $1,000 INVESTED » FOND OF SPORTS AND FINE HORSES HE WON A SILVER @UP IN 1007 WITH HIS TROTTER = HE WA PRES. OF LIMITED GUN CLUB FORT YEARS »

- pe

HE 1S THE OWNER OF ThE MAROTT SHoe STORE, ONE OF THE LARGEST FAMILY SHOE STORES IN THE U-S+® HE ALSO OWNS THE MAROTT HOTEL RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE FINEST FAMILY HOTELS IN THE COUNTRY » HAS ALWAYS BEEN ACTIVE IN RIi€ AND CHARITABLE AFFAIRS =» MEMBER OF

George Jo Mare

Zz 2 / , - ; ’ fe 7) / In Ut iy W 9 7

MASONIR BODIES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS &

CAME 10 U-S+ IN APRIL IBS AND WORKED 4S & SHOE CLERK FOR WIS FATHER |N THE PAGE & MARGIT STORE. = BORN IN ENGLAND HE ATTENDED SCHOOL THERE FoR | YEARS EARNED HIS FIRST MONEY IN HIS FpTHERS QHoE FACTORY ®IN 1870, WHILE EARNING $10% A WEEK, HE MARRIED ELLA P. MEEK, » QAVED #16722 AND STARTED IN BUSINESS FOR HIMSELF ON NOV. 13, 1284 AND IN 5 YEARS, BECAME ONE OF THE PROMINENT SHOE MEN IN INDIANAPOLIS

——F@oAn DEXKEIMER-cARION STUDIO PlloTo ~~

HEARD IN CONGRESS |

It is | never unconstitutional to save the | un- |

We are | paying some debts now by the is-|about the Federal courts and the |

-Acme Photo.

discussing President Roosevelt's proposal to add to the Supreme Court

a new member for each justice 70 years or older,

G. M. Str ke and Court Plan Link Is Seen by Sullivan

floods, and other great | disasters to do so. The doctrine of | necessity, intervenes as well as e | ASHINGTON. Feb.

By MARK

10.—The paramount subject in every- | body's mind today is Mr. Roosevelt's action about the Supreme Court. But there is one aspect which, un-

| less attention is called to it at once, |

will escape notice. And if the out-

| come is what now seems indicated, | | ditional force of {into a third building. all |

Mr. Roosevelt's action about the courts and the developments in the Michigan strike are further related in that the conferences about the strike were inspired by Mr. Roosevelt and are sponsored by him. When Governor Murphy of Michigan asked the head of the strikers and the officials of General Motors to confer with him, he stated in his request that it was “in accordance with the wish of the President of the United States.” Throughout the conferences, newspaper dispatches have repeatedly quoted Governor Murphy as saying he was keeping in constant touch with President Roosevelt. ” " ”

NE of the effects of Mr. Roosevelt’s sensational action about the courts, at the particular time he took it, was to take public attention away from what is happening in Michigan. For more than two weeks, the Michigan strike has been occupying first place in the attention of the public, with increasing concern about developments in that quarter. Suddenly, last Friday, Mr, Roosevelt's action about the courts eclipsed everything else. I observed in a New York newspaper on Saturday morning a dispatch which recited a momentous development in Michigan. That cispatch ordinarily would have occupied the first page and would have attracted grave attention from the country. But with Mr. Roosevelt’s action about the courts filling the first page and several succeeding ones, the item about the Michigan strike was pushed into the obscurity of Page 32. Understanding of the present stage of the Michigan strike may be had by following the recent develcp-r-—ts in sequence. On Feb. 1, General Motors counsel went before the County Court in Flint, Mich., to ask for an injunction

| | | |

| General

srdering the sit-down strikers to rerminate their illegal occupancy of Motors’ property. During the very hours when this

| upplication was being argued before

| enlarged

action |

all |

Both are parts of a move- |. : advancing on several fronts, | livered to the sheriff.

SULLIVAN

the Court, Mr. Lewis’ union, far from showing respect to the Court,

{or apprehension about what action

Court might take, actually the area of their strike. They continued to occupy the two ktuildings they had held for webks—and they threw an ad-sit-down strikers

the

n n ” HE following day the Court handed down its decision. The | Court declared that the occupation of General Motors’ property by the sit-down strikers was illegal. The Court issued an order calling on the | sit-down strikers to leave the plants. This order by the Court was deThe sheriff read it to the sit-down strikers. The response of the sit-downers was, according to newspaper reports, a booing of the sheriff. The sit-down strikers sent a tele= gram to Governor Murphy of Michigan saying, among other things, “We have decided to stay in the plant.” The strikers were now not only in illegal possession of private property, they were also in contempt of court. The Court, apparently according to Michigan procedure, took the ground that it was not called upon to do anything further until General Motors gave the Court formal notice that the Court's order had not been obeyed, and that the illegal possession continued. This General Motors did. Thereupon the Court issued what is known as a “writ of body attachment.” This writ directed the sheriff to arrest the strikers and remove them. ” 2 o BVIOUSLY the sheriff could not, alone, arrest and remove several hundred men. On Feb. 5 he asked Governor Murphy to give him the assistance of the National Guard to carry out the Court's writ, To this request, the Governor up to this writing has made no reply. The situation in Michigan is that the Court has followed the proceduie laid down for it by law, The Court, however, is made impotent to enforce its decree so long as the Governor of the State does not provide the necessary force. What Mr. Roosevelt has done at Washington with his proposal to reduce the independence of the courts is a frontal attack on the authority of the judicial branch of government. What Governor Murphy, the New Deal Governor of Michigan, has done, amounts to a flank attack. The two victims fit into the same pattern, Those are the basic facts of the situation. Perhaps it should be said in fairness to Governor Murphy in failing to give support to the Court and sheriff, he seems to put his failure on the ground that he wishes not to cause disorder. But there might not now be danger of disorder if earlier he had made clear his determination that in any and all

eventualities he would see that the law was upheld.

Winter's

Stars Are Waning

By DAVID DIETZ

Times Science Editor

EBRUARY offers you your last chance to see the constellations of winter in all their glory and beauty. In another month they will ne drifting toward the west, giving way to those constellations which herald the advent of spring. For the student of the heavens, the sky is a calendar. The configuration of the firmament tells him the month and each month brings a new panorama. As I have preached on many occasions in the past 15 years, the man who crowds the beauty of the stars out of his life has lost one of the riches which

nature offers him for the taking. Dominating the night sky is

Orion, the mighty hunter. His familiar stars are to be seen almost due south, midway between the zenith, the point directly overhead,

and the southern horizon. Charging at him from the west is Taurus, the celestial bull, while his two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, trail behind him to the southeast. Beautiful stars that are familiar to the student of the heavens mark these constellations. You cap learn

them easily and make them your

friends for life.

Three bright stars, all of second

magnitude, form the famous belt of Orion,

four |

PAGE 11

Ind.

Our Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

A NOTHER quaint tendency of modern people is their readiness to generalize, Thus President Roosevelt naively assumes, because some men of 70 years appear to be too old for their jobs, that, ipso facto, all septuagenarians are old. Indeed, so old that they need help. Shucks! When I was a kid we never considered old age as something fixed. It was a relative thing.

Sometimes, to be sure, it was measured by the mood of the moment, sometimes by something more tangible, but certainly never by anything that looked like a law, The nearest we ever got to a law was a vague suspicion that, maybe, 20 years measured the difference between youth and old age, but we weren’t sure even of that. Certainly, not sure enough to accept it as a law. For example: I still remember that when 1 was 10 years old, I considered everybody who was 30 years old as pretty old. When I got to be 30 years old myself, 1 cone veniently adjusted my measure of old age to make it fit men of 50 years or better. And when I got to be 50 years old, I made it fit men of 70, which, curieously enough, is just about where President Roose velt stands on the subject today. I press the point, because, having read the newspapers lately, I know that President Roosevelt cele= brated his 55th birthday just a week or so ago. I wonder how much his birthday had to do with his readiness to generalize. Well, it had this much to do with it: Had President Roosevelt been five years older on his last birthday, it's dollars to doughnuts that he would have adjusted his idea of old age to make it fit men of 80 years or better. I'm sure of it, and that's why I contend that nobody—not even the President of the United States—can have fixed ideas about a matter that doesn’t allow itself to be fixed.

” n n

Mr. Scherrer

Other Reasons

HERE are other reasons, too, why old age can't be fixed. For one thing, there are too many exceptions—ljke schoolteachers, for example. I can't recall that I ever had a young teacher and it seems strange, because certainly some of them had all the exterior attributes of youth. Indeed, some of them were as pretty as pictures, but for some reason I never thought of them as young. And I'm reasonably sure that all of my contemporaries shared my opinion. Well, the joke is that most of my teachers were remarkably young. So young, in fact, that very often

not more than 10 years measured the difference bee | tween them and their pupils.

n " n

| Proof of Teachers’ Ages

KNOW that to be true, because every once in a while I run across the fact in an obituary. It was just the other day, for instance, that I learned that she whose painful task it was to take me through the multiplication table was only 9 years and 8 months older than I am. The news sort of upset me when I heard it.

It was that way with policemen, too. I don't know why my teachers and the cops were able to fool me the way they did, but it all goes to show that there 1s something more to age than years. Maybe age embraces a sense of authority. Maybe it's something that commands respect, regardless of years. I'm sure I don’t know. All I know is that only a very young man, or ane old enough to be President of the United States, would be foolhardy enough to have fixed

| opinions about it.

A Woman's View

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

HOUSEWIFE in Washington is alarmed at the ine crease of apartment heuses in her neighborhood, She contends, and rightly so, I think, that the apartment has helped wreck the American home and contributed therefore to the general misery of womans Kind, “An apartment is easier to keep,” she says. “for there is no yard to rake, no sidewalk to sweep, no garden to tend, but these are exactly the things which most wives need. We ought to be building small houses instead of huge community dwellings.”

Her idea may meet with some opposition, even though none of us can deny it strikes at one of our greatest modern evils.

If it is cheaper and easier for bevies of families to live under one roof, then it must certainly be cheaper and easier for those families to cook and eat and wash and sew and have their babies tended as a group. In which case we shall have begun the perfect communistic life. Let’s consider the question from a purely social point of view. Is it good for society for men and women to exist in apartments? I must side with the Washington housewife there. It is not good becausa it deprives the wife of her opportunity to work in the soil, to plant a garden, to rake her leaves in autumn and smell the budding shoots of spring—to feel here self rooted and a part of the sweet earth to which she so fundamentally belongs.

Each time we take an old task away from a woman, without giving her a new one in its place, we add to the idleness of her days and the unhappiness of her existence. Who can deny that thousands of our women take jobs now wherever they can find them, only because they are unoccupied and therefore bored? Women, like men, must have work to do. We can preach until our tongues shrivel, and never change the truth of that statement. And if we hope for a planned society, as we say, then one of the first of our tasks is to provide every middle-class women with a small house set in a tract of land large enough for her to have a few flowers, a few vegetables, a few chickens. No machines that the ingenuity of man can devise will ever take the place of these old-fashioned blessings.

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, American Medical Assn. Journal

T is not safe to gamble on the possibility that a throat infection which looks like diphtheria is really not diphtheria, but something else. If your child complains of sickness, particularly of a sora throat, and if there is any possibility that he has been exposed to diphtheria, a culture should be taken and the material examined immediately.

A doctor should be summoned instantly if your child appears to have swelling of the neck or any croupy condition with hoarseness. Eighty-five per cent ot the deaths from diphtheria occur in youngsters une der 5 years of age. In such children particularly, therefore, recognition of diphtheria at the earliest possible moment is important.

In preventing diphtheria, the most significant factors are the use of the Schick test and of diphtheria toxoid. During the first six months of life, many chil= dren are protected from diphtheria by material come ing to them through their mothers. The Schick test, which shows whether a child has this protection in its body, is merely a method in which a very small amount of diphtheria toxin is in= jected under the skin. People who have resistance to disease will have a negative Schick test; those who have not, a positive one. When a person does not possess sufficient resistance to the disease, he may be given this resistance arti ficially by injection with a substance called toxoid. Toxoid is a diphtheria poison made innocuous, or detoxified, by the addition of formaldehyde. There are both one-dose and two-dose treatments. The majority of physicians prefer to give the two injections three weeks apart. Injection of this toxoid stimulates formation in the child's body of a substance capable of overcoming the diphtheria poison,