Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 February 1937 — Page 9

FR TI CG © SR TR

1 Vagabon

FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE ASHINGTON, Feb. 15.—This business of constant wanderings grows on a fellow, It gets in the blood, and you don’t want to stop. I am a better wanderer now than when 1 started it nearly two years ago.

The longest I've been in one place in the last two years was a month in Hollywood. got so that even five days in one spot gives me the heebie-jeebies.

The happiest I am at any time on

place and then finally one morn-

ing we pack up, check out, fill up |

with gas, and light out into open country. Boy, do you feel [ree then! Bud Ekins, in his book “Around the World in 18 Days,” tells about the geography behind him sort of piling up in his mind and becoming a haze, so that he could hardiy distinguish one spot from another, looking back on it. Of course I don't travel that fast, but I get something of the same feeling. For instance, several times I have awakened in ihe night and been unable to remember where I was, To find out. T would have to go back in my mind to the last distinctive place we stopped, and then come on up geographically to where we were, Another funny thing. I've got so that about half the peopie I see, I'm sure I've seen before somewhere. It's just a complex, but it almost drives you crazy sometimes, Onee in a while vou hit some part of the country that reminds vou of somewhere else, and haunts you just like those dimly remembered faces. For example, Holbrook, Ariz, seemed exactly like Montana to me. All the time we were in Holbrook I was mentally in Montana, and would have to picture in mind a map of the United States and locate myself that way.

Mr Pyle

» ” on Whereabouts Unknown

HERE are many, many nights when not a spul in the whole world knows where we are, a fellow a kind of creepy feeling. But it makes him feel pretty independent, too . When we first started out, there were times when I'd have that terrible “lost” feeling. We'd stop In a ratty hotel in a gloomy town in some thinly populated and drear part of the country, and at dusk I'd feel alone, and foreign, and blue. But I never feel that way any more,

One Dent in Fender ry ‘HE car when and we've brought it back after 16,000 miles with not a serateh on it. In a San Francisco garage they knocked a biz dent in a front fender, and then denied they did it and wouldn't do anvthing about it. But a few nights later a garage in Santa Barbara (where I stored the car for the night) pounded the dent out and didn't charge anvihing for it, in fact didn’t even mention thev had done it. We were robbed once. The back end of the car was rifled in Portland, and about $200 worth of stuff taken, Rut it was mv own fault, so 1 say very little about it. I carry a flashlight and a pair of overshoes in the car the vear round, and vou'd be surprised how many times thevre needed. We have found dark driving alasses an absolute necessity. And we've found that the cheap kind will ruin your eyes. Unless we are in the desert, we have taught ourcolves alwavs to put out a cigaret before throwing it awav. But forest rangers tell us that not one had forest fire in a thousand is caused by a cigaret thrown from a car.

was new we started,

————————

Mrs.Roosevelt's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

ASHINGTON, Sunday—I had vesterday from my small Seattle. Eleanor tells me she loves being in the country and having a room from which she can see the ships come in and out of the harbor. Their

my first letter grandchildren . in

home evidently is quite out of town, and for Eleanor |

and Curtis this means perfection of living. They have very little use for city streets and the restrictions of city life. Curtis, being several vears vounger, confines his letter writing to sending his love. Talking of children, I was glad to hear yesterday that New Mexico had ratified the Child Labor Amendment. It is still hanging fire in New York State and I cannot quite understand it, for vork State has always prided itself on being ahead of other states in its social viewpoint. Yet, they seem to question passing the amendment which, after all, only allows Congress to make laws governing the labor of children. The word “labor” has already been carefully construed. so there can no longer be any honest doubt in people's minds that it will be possible for Congress to interfere in the actual running of the home life of children. It seems to me that once you acknowledoe ‘he fact that Congress is made up of citizens elected to represent all of us, you must have some faith in their framing commonsense laws. We have quite a houseful over the week-end. Two voungsters, Mr. and Mrs, Thomas Lynch's little girl, and Mr. and Mrs. Eari Hooker's younger daughter, wha is mv husband's godchild, are bringing back tha voices of children to a house which, for a ew davs., has had no such pleasant sound. They went Saturdav morning to ride Sara's pony and visited Mount Vernon in the afternoon. Their elders have gone their different wavs, cightceeing or visiting friends. Mrs. Isabella Greenway has come to stay for a few davs, and that 1s a rare treat for me.

New Books

PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS— HE Robert S. Brookings, 1850-1832, covered vears of unprecedented activity and rhange in American life. Within that time, the West opened up, far-flung empires of steel and railways were founded. the cause of education surged forward under the impetus of the philanthropically minded wealthy, the Great War was fought, the Great Depression was endured, and the Great Paradox of noverty in the midst of abounding resources forced itself upon the consciousness of the American people. Of ail this burgeoning, growth, and change, Brookings was a part. BROOKINGS: A BIOGRAPHY (Macmillan), by Hermann Hagedorn, is that rare thing—a biography at once honest in spirit and warm

lifetime of

The Indianapolis Times

rr . Second Section

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1937

Entered as Second-Ciass Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice,

PAGE 9!

Ind.

It has

a long frip is when we have been laid up several days in one |

That gives |

New

Framers Suspicious

HY A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION?

of Both Executive and Legislative Power

”

By THOMAS L. STOKES

Times Special Writer WASHINGTON, Feb. 15. —Deeply involved in the background of the Supreme Court controversy, and fundamentally affecting the iscues arising from President toosevelt's proposal to enlarge that body, is the fact that the Constitution of the United States is a written

document. But while the Constitution Is thus rigid in form, its languasze in some respects has been found through the vears to be vague, This has left the way open to the Supreme Court for interpretations which, from time to time heretofore, as now, have aroused protest both from Presidents and from the people that the Court is blocking the path which public opinion, expressed through Congress, would take. They have accused the Court of taking the law into its own hands in interpreting the Constitution, which is set above both the President and Congress and therefore not easily amenable to the public will. The customary comparison, in times such as these, is with the unwritten British constitution in which final power resides in Parliament, which is subject to the veto of no court but which, on the contrary, often overrules court interpretations by simple statute. This permits adaptation to changing times and conditions. The question naturally Why does the United have a written constitution? Part of the answer lies in the reason why England has an unwritten constitution, which is that England, over a period of centuries, evolved a system of precedents and precepts, binding although not written, which were gradually infused into the people and their institutions.

arises: States

x E ” S ror the - and later the United States, they went through the usual experience of transplanted peoples, which is to draw up written constitutions for their governance, Furthermore, while transplant-

ing much of the English constitution, so-called, the colonies nevertheless had to put this into writing because originally they were governed bv contract with the mother country, through charters of various sorts, and, finally, when they were suddenly confronted with independence and with the need of fending for themselves, they naturally set out the terms in written constitutions. Both state and national. The original purpose of the constitutional convention of 1787 was to revise another written constitution, the so-called Articles of Confederation of 1781, though the convention went far beyond this objective. The convention had the benefit of numerous state constitutions which had been adopted after the cclonies declared their independence. These, in turn, derived much from the royal colonial charters, which were in effect written constitutions setting forth the rights of the people in their relations with the British Government and the Crown.

American colonies,

HE Massachusetts Constitution was constantly before deleqates to the constitutional vonvention. Lord Brvee traces the Massachusetts Constitution back through the roval charter granted by Charles I to the “Governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England” In 1628. and bevond that to charters granted to merchant guilds in England as far back as the time of Henry I. While the colonial charters were used as the basis of state constitutions generally, three states took them over bodily, except so far as Crown authority was concerned, Massachusetts using its charter until 1780, Connecticut wntil 1818 and Rhode Island until 1842. Lord Bryce said that it was through living under these royal charters that there grew up among the people “the idea of an instrument superior to the Legislature and to the laws it passed.” He put his finger there upon an important point, the germ of the written Constitution which, in its final form in the national Constitution, put checks upon the President and Congress, not the least of these checks being the veto power of the Supreme Court, ” ” ” SURVEY of other historical sources indicates reasons growing from the nature of the people themselves, and the country, why written constitutions were employed. People were suspicious of their legislatures and of their governors. A natural distaste grew up through some un-

TODAY'S LOCAL PERSONAL

By JACK MORANZ

The Presentation of the Declar

1 | fortunate experiences with royal

governors sent from England. The English Parliament also had become a symbol of legislative encroachment. The people gradually came to desire some sort of check. When it came to drafting a constitution for the new nation, there were other problems which only could be settled by a specific written constitution, and such would have been required had this form not been customary previously. There was, for instance, the conflict of rights between jealous states and a national Government. which could not be left to custom or precedent, for the customs and precedents wers that, these highly individualized entities were constantly at odds with each other, and their resistance to anv central national authority, unless it were carefully armed with power, was demonstrated in the experiences of the Continental Congress under the loose Articles of Confederation. ” n n HERE conflicts over . power between the large and small states, fear of too strong an executive, fear of an unrestrained national legislative body. Therefore, the drafters of the Constitution set down, in written form, the checks and balances which symbolize the American form of government. Lord Bryce, in a series of lectures on constitutions, said that there must be in any rigid constitution some means of expansion to

were

ITY

| 7) = HIS Hoy IS RIDING *MEMBER OF ALGONQUIN. RIDING €LUB, WoosToek Lug, ATHLETE ELLUB, AMERICA LEGION , IND. SO®. OF ARCH TESTS» BHAIRMAN CF STATE.

ii MN P

ation of Independence.

meet changing times, and that flexibility “must be supplied from the minds of the judges.” “Does not a danger lurk in this?" asked the British historian. “May not a majority in the Legislature, if and when they have secured the concurrence, honest or dishonest, of the judiciary, practically disregard the Constitution? “May not the executive conspire with them to manipulate places on the highest court of appeal, so as

to procure from it such declaration of the meaning of the Constitution as the conspiring parties desire? May not the Constitution be slowly nibbled away? “Certainly. Such things happen. “It is only public opinion and established tradition that will avail to prevent them. But it is upon publi opinion, molded by tradition, that all free govern-

may

Roosevelt Erred For Reform,

Ry MARK

Choice Says Sullivan

SULLIVAN

Our Town

By ANTON SCHERRER

RS. ESSIE BURKE, who runs the news= paper division over at the State Library, has fixed up the display window next to the elevator in a way that will bring a lump to anyone's throat. It’s pathetic beyond words because it recalls April 30, 1865, the day that the body of Abraham Lincoln was brought to Indianapolis to lie in state at the Capitol. Among the memorabilia displayed are Fletcher &

Bellow's bill ($455) for the necessary lumber to build the catafalque; Krause & Wittenherg's bill ($1490.91) for the drapery, ribbons, flannels, pins and alpaca (spelled alapacca), and Bowen, Stewart &

| Co.'s bill ($10.15) for the necessary

tissue paper. There is also the bill ($12.95) rendered by the Saturday Evening Gazette for the “programme of the funeral services,” and for the advertisement announcing the auction of the salvaged material of Mr. Scherrer the funeral. Included also is Gen. Wallace's wire to Governor Morton: “President Lincoln died at 7:28 a.m." (Apparently, the Western Union failed to date thes telegram beyond saying, “April 186—.) And, of course, there is a copy of the New York Herald (4 cents a copy) of Saturday, April 15, 1865, a reproduction of the third issue published on the assassination,

o E) on

Slight Understatement

HIS is the famous the Herald ane nouncing the assassination under the caption, “Important,” which is perhaps the grandest example of understatement ever thought up by anybody, une

less, perchance, it is the one recorded in Matthew 17:23. Abraham Lincoln's body arrived in Indianapolis at the Union Depot at 7 o'clock of the morning of April 30, 1865, amid the toiling of bells and the booming of artillery. Rain was falling in torrents and the air was tense with feeling. The crowd had been waiting since day=break, having been awakened at sunrise by the roar of 36 guns. Presently, the cortege began moving. The coffin was lifted from the last car of the train and carried to the waiting hearse which was drawn by the same four white horses that had brought Lincoln to the Bates house in 1861. This time, however, the horses were covered with black velvet,

issue of

”n n n

100,000 Pass Bier

T Washington and Illinois Sts. the military was drawn up forming a line of bayonets all the way to the State House. The procession halted at

| the south entrance and again the pallbearers lifted | their precious burden and placed it on the catafalque

in the rotunda of the Capitol. The Indianapolis Journal, reporting the event the

| next day, described the President's face in the "flood

| long

ment must in the last resort rely.”

ASHINGTON, Feb. 15—Let us| present Supreme Court to reza rd |

assume that Mr. Roosevelt's | broad purposes are as he commonly | states them—that he wishes Federal | control over business in order to end child labor, excessive hours, | starvation wages, and other unde- | sirable conditions. Let us assume that these are Mr. Roosevelt's pur- | poses, and that these are all his | purposes. Let us acknowldge that it is a fact that an immense majority of [the people really desire these pur- | poses. To bring about these things there {are three main ways. One is by | an amendment to the Constitution

| giving Congress the power to enact,

‘on these subjects, legislation having universal and uniform effect | throughout the country. If Mr. | Roosevelt would proceed along this | line, there could be no criticism of | method. This is the way that is { regular, simple, and direct. The | people would know exactly what they are doing, exactly how far they | are going. [ This method Mr. Roosevelt re[jects. He puts his rejection on { ground that the process of consti- | tutional amendment, is too slow. | True, the process takes tine; there | must be, first, passage through Congress by a two-thirds majority of rach House: and, second, there must be ratification by three-fourths of the states. But if constitutional amendment is cumbersome, it need not be slow. Consider the time consumed in [bringing about the most recent amendment, that which repealed national prohibition. Mr. Roosevelt was elected on ‘Nov. 8. 1932, on a platform which included repeal of prohibition. In that election he carried 42 states and had 58 per cent of the total | vote. So overwhelming was this popular indorsement of repeal that | the process got under way promptly. | The amendment was first passed by | the Senate on Feb. 16, 1933. Four | days later it was passed by the | House and went out to the states. By [the fifth of the ensuing December, three-fourths of the states had ratified. The whole process of amending the Constitution to repeal prohibition consumed exactly 9 months

| his measures as unconstitutional. | This would be to enact legislation requiring that the Supreme Court can hold an act of Congress unconstitutional only if seven out of the nine justices agree. (Variations suggest six out of the nine, or the whole nine). This method Mr. Roosevelt rejects because, he says, it is of doubtful constitutionality. 1t is doubtful, he says, whether Congress has power to declare what number of Justices shall constitute a conclusive majority. In taking this ground, Mr. Roosevelt is supported by a large body of thought.

u 5 2

| | | |

HE third principal method of |

would |

name would be ones who would de- |

clare constitutional the measures | he proposes. Presumably, before | appointing new justices, he would | satisfy himself in advance that | their views coincide with his.

| But to this method there is one |

| disturbing objection. The justices

appointed by Mr. Roosevelt would | | validate legislation by Congress on |

ani | or |

circum- |

| terpreted. Might Mr. {later ask them to measures, and might they obediently validate them? If Mr. Roosevelt, seeking some future purpose, should find the bill of rights in his way, might he ask his justices to limit habeas corpus, or freedom of opinion, or freedom of education? In short, Mr. Roosevelt, by the method he has chosen, is asking not merely for no specific purposes, but for a blank check.

HEARD IN CONGRESS

Roosevelt, | validate other |

of soft mellow light from the chandeliers.” At 9 a. m., the people were admitted. All day they came at the rate of 150 a minute and it is probably no exaggeration to say, as was said at the time, that more than 100,000 passed the bier. At 10 o'clock that night, while the band was playing “Old Hundred,” the coffin was lifted from the catafalque to the shoulders of the sergeants and by them carried to the hearse, whence through a line of armed troops and torchbearers, it was brought back to the Union Depot. The train left that same night for Chicago. And right in this connection it may not be amiss to note that just about a year ago—at housecleaning time, to be precise—architect Arthur Bohn ran across an unsigned lithograph portrayinz Lincoln lying in the State House. It is a remarkably well-executed portrait but Mr. Bohn hasn't been able to run down the artist. He doesn’t even remember how he got it.

A Woman's View.

By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON F we are to believe modern psychology, the only good mother-in-law is a dead mother-in-law. According to its reckoning, most divorces are caused bw the meddling interference of some parent, and never by any chance is that parent a father. The authorities offer but one remedy for this problem. Boiled down, it amounts to this: Pitch the old lady out on her ear! We are still listening, however, to hear some wise guy explain how we can work ourselves up to the hardened state required to show an old, ailing, broken= down parent the door. What methods can we use to help us desert and forget one who has loved and cared for us for years? It will take a generation or so to educate us up to that point—if you wish to call it it education. Come to think of it, why isn’t this a good time to start some training schools for mothers-in-law? We believe in preparing our children for living—or so we sav at least—and any girl is as likely to become a mother-in-law as she is likely to be president of the Ladies’ Afternoon Club. And if we reared the girls to he excellent mothers-in-law, they couldn't help but be good neighbors, good wives, good mothers and good companions; for they would know how to fit them= selves into other people's lives without creating too much friction. Quite early they might master the most important rule for the making of a happy exis= tence: “Mind your own business.” It stands to reason, doesn't it, that the pampered child who burns always with a desire so show off and be the center of attention will never be a good in=law? The vain, selfish, shallow-minded women can’t qualify for the same reason that she doesn't qualify for anything else. Vanity, selfishness, complaints, self« pity, these are all traits that should be trained out of the girls as early as possible. When they are gone, the mother-in-law problem will no longer be with us. For of this you may be sure: The bad mother-in-law has always been a bad something else before she at= tained her position as National Menace No. 1.

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor, American Medical Assn. Journal N diagnosing meningitis, a doctor not only studies the symptoms and the history of the patient, which may indicate that he has been in contact with

Rep. Tobey (R. N. H.): On too many occasions constructive thought and action have been thrown to the winds by childlike chidings by members on either side of the aisle, alluding at length to the historic record of partisanship of the other party. . Referring to the other party with the argument, “So is your old man,” will get this Government of ours nowhere.

with admiration. Beginning his young manhood as an unquestioning and eminently successful go- — getter, Brookings found that wealth was not enough, F Zz ~ nor power, nor fine living. 1 in his search for the “durable satisfactions” he acquired the public spirit which rendered him one of

the most valuable citizens of St. Louis, the torce be- | 2 3 q ME RE) :

and 17 days. 2 8 =» OW if there is as much popular support for Mr. Roosevelt's present economic purposes as there was for his policy of prohibition repeal, the process ought to take no longer time. Mr. Roosevelt, in his election last November, had a larger proportion of the popular vote than he had in 1932 and car- | ried a larger number of states—he carried all but two. If this over- "8 2 whelming support was also support Rep. Shannon (D. Mo.): Grover for his economic purposes, then the | Cleveland removed from office the | process of achieving his economic | Federal District Attorney of my | | purposes by the method of consti- | district, M. E. Benton . George | | tutional amendment ought to take | Graham Vest, a great United States ! | little time. Senator from Missouri, . asked | So far as Mr. Roosevelt's objec-| for an explanation of this drastic tion to this method is one of time, | action. Cleveland said: “Yes; I did it is not a convincing objection. If | remove him. He made a Demo- | he has no purpose additional to the | cratic speech, and I consider that economic purposes he discusses, pernicious activity in politics.” Then there is no good reason why he |Senator Vest said: “Mr. President, should not proceed along the path if he. is not reinstated instanter | of amendment. there will be the damndest lot of | A second method for bringing | pernicious activity in politics when about Mr. Roosevelt's economic pur- | the Senate meets that this country poses aims toward overcoming the | ever heard of.” M. E, Benton was disposition of a majority of #he reinstated. Lid

the infection, but he also obtains specimens of the spinal fluid and examines it for signs that indicate irritation and for germs. In times of epidemic outbreaks, doctors not only examine victims’ spinal fluid, but they also frequently study secretions of the nose and throat to determine whether germs are present. Since these germs also can invade the blood, it is occasionally wise to examine the blood as well and to determine not only whether it contains germs bub also whether the blood has begun to develop the antisubstances by means of which the body opposes this disease. During an epidemic many germs may be found in the throats of persons who have been in contact with cases but who are not themselves sick with meningitis. Under ordinary circumstances, the germs would be found only rarely in the nose and throat of normal persons. Because the disease may be spread by such germ carriers, it is customary in times of epidemic to limit overcrowding, to insure adequate ventilation, and to keep those who may be carriers out in the sunshine and open air as much as possible, One of the great discoveries in modern medicine has been the development of the serum now usefl in the treatment of typical meningococcus meningitis, If the serum is given quite early, and in sufficient amounts, the percentage of recoveries is still greater. There are fewer relapses, too, and practically no chrgnic cases, after proper serum treatment,

ERR

BOARD REGISTRATION FOR. ARCHITEETS =» »

hind the recrganized Washington University, an indispensable member of the War Industries Board, an earnest, if belated, student of economics, and, as his crowning achievement, the founder of Brookings Institution for economic research and the training of men for public service. ” 5 n LTHOUGH many books of general interest have been written about flowers, plants, and trees, no one heretofore has been very much interested in - a writing about seeds, at least from a nontechnical Wo — TS F BACH IN LIFE AND LEGEND. Tn HE S AN ARCHITEET, HEAD GF A-C-BOHLEN & SON, Quinn “tells about seeds, their habits, uses, and the WHieH WAS FOUNDED BY HIS GRANDFATHER IN 1853 superstitions and legends connected with them. DESIGNERS OF THE MURAT THEATRE , METH . HOSPITAL, Many kinds are described, among them floating BANNER-WHITEHILL BLDG, MARVGROVE COLLEGE (DETROIT) seeds, elinging seeds, tumbling seeds, and shooting ST. MARYS COLLEGE AND CONVENT AT <T MARY'S D seeds. Their common uses aside from propagation are OF THE W S IND.. ST PETER b PAUL CATHEDRAL OODS, 5 Ole AND SHELBY COUNTY COURTHOUSE =

manufacture of clothing and other items. In early

SE ’ , HIS FIRST OB WAS MAKING BLUE PRNTS FOR HIS FATHER AFTER NG ue SeHooly BORN IN INDPLS AND EDaeATED AT MANUAL TRAINING HiGH SeHooL AND CORNELL UN(V. 1909 » REALIZED HIS AMBITION To BE AN ARGHITEET AND IS THE

gO colonial days, beans were used as a medium of ex- 3EGENERATION IN THE FRM SMARRIED change. Now, in different parts of the world, seeds KATHERINE LESH AND HAS A SON RoeT L. are used for wine, dves, jewelry, and decorative orna- | » NY 2a BREEN ’

ments.

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