Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 February 1937 — Page 15

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The Indianapolis Times

(A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)

ROY W. HOWARD MARK FERREE President Business Manager

LUDWELL DENNY Editor

Price in Marion County 3 cents a copy: delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.

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y 5551 ope Rlley

Member of United Press, Scripps ~ Howard Newspaper Alliance, NEA Service, and Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Give Light and the People Will Fina Thetr Own Way

TUESDAY, FERRUARY 16, 1937

HENRY THOU ART A JEWEL

IN EVER having worshiped consistency as a primary virtue, we are more entertained than shocked by the | about-face of Senator Henry F. Ashurst on the Court and |

Constitution issue, Even though we may think his switch an error, We confess a certain fascination in the dexterity of its execution. Witness him, standing one day on the floor of the

Senate, proposing a constitutional amendment and saying

with majestic eloquence: “I have no sympathy with attempts to whittle or to chisel, bv indirection, circumlocution and periphrasis, and ‘house-that-Jack-buill’ methods in order to get power. . .. The way to reach the desired objective is by bold frankness, by asking the people of the states to ratify the necessary amendments.” And witness him, eight days later, with tongue-in-the-cheek solemnity, telling the press that he would introduce ihe President's bill to take over the Supreme Court. “I never let what I said vesterday bind me today,” said he. No Senator can change his mind quicker than 1.” It must be said for the Senator from Arizona that there is nothing ponderous in the process by which he reverses his convictions. Indeed the self-kidding good humor he displays on such occasions disarms his critics. [t is no new trick to Mr. Ashurst. Some three years

ago, urging before the Senate a 10-cent tariff on copper, | the Arizonan remarked that when he took the oath of | office he promised himself “That I would never, as a SenaThe man who tries to be con- |

tor, try to be consistent. sistent simply says ‘I decline to be wiser today than I was yesterday.” n » ” ” uN n “VER since the President's message cracked the Court and Constitution issue wide open, the nation’s best thinkers have been in a dither. At first many liberals and

conservatives thought that here was something they could | sink their teeth into for a finish dogfight between their |

irreconcilable philosophies. But as the days speed by, we find both liberals and conservatives falling every which way, with the result that we now have the incongruous picture of Senators Norris and Wheeler agreeing with such diehards as Senators (Glass and Bailey that the President's plan won't do. And such other “sons of the wild jackass” Maverick keeping strange company with those stalwarts, Joe Robinson and Pat Harrison, in support of the President. Nor is the air any more serene in the academic world, where college prexies, deans and professors try to confound each other with historic parallels. Nor in the legal world,

where such lawvers for the underdog as Frank P. Walsh and Morris Ernst find themselves with great chagrin stat- |

ing views shared by Liberty League barristers. And if it is so among our best minds, how much more <0 it must be among lesser intellects, who, though not skilled in from-cause-to-effect argumentation, are nonetheless torn between their prejudices and their judgments. How enviable then the happy lot of the Senator from

Arizona, who can wheel into an opposite direction in this |

great debate without ever changing his stride—and do it gracefully.

DUTCH ART SHOW EGINNING Feb. 27 Indianapolis will have an opportunity to see one of tlie most important art exhibits of the vear-—the collection of 17th Century Dutch paintings to be shown at John Herron Art Museum. About 70 pictures, lent by collectors, galleries, institutes and the Dutch Government, are to be shown, according to Wilbur D. Peat, Herron director, who conceived the show. Valuable Rembrandt and Franz Hals pictures as well as the work of lesser known men such as Maes, Van der Meer and Pieter de Ilooch are to be shown. Mr. Peat and the officers of the Art Association of

Indianapolis, governing body of the Herron Museum, de- | | Dempsey-Tunney contest in Chicago that the or-

serve not only the thanks of the people of Indianapolis, but their attendance. Anvone able to do 20 who does not visit the exhibit is missing a rare opportunity. The paintings will be on view during the museum’s regular hours until the middle of April.

SLOPPY LAWMAKING ECRETARY PERKINS’ request for subpena powers in the conciliation of labor disputes, while reasonable in itself, points a double moral. First, it discloses this country’s glaring lack minimize the costs and losses in strikes. the haphazard manner in which so many measures find their way to and through Congress. The power to get what facts are necessary for successful mediation is only one phase of our need. This session of Congress should create an expert, nation-wide system for Federal labor-management mediation. The system should be based upon the tested principles and practices of the Railway Labor Act, but made applicable to all industries affecting commerce and public welfare.

ANOTHER SIT-DOWN ENDS TV of the country’s larger utility holding companies— " {he North American Co. and the American Water Works & Electric Co.—have decided to abide by a law that has been on the statute books some 18 months. They will register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Perhaps the election ‘had something to do with it. Probably the decision of U. S. District Judge Mack at New York that the law was constitutional had still more influence. And it may be that the lecture which SEC Chairman Landis subsequently delivered—telling how much money of the stockholders had been wasted on the “spurious” advice of lawyers—reached attentive ears.

v But whatever is the cause, the effegt is mhore important.

as La Follette and |

management,

(ATI Ey

% 7 ox { AT ly » Fo :

5 A &

sw 7

Fa ir Enough

By Westbrook Pegler

The Rickard Tradition Lives on |

In Chicago as the Midwestern City Prepares for Braddock-Louis Fight.

NEW YORK, Feb. 16. — From all that 1

hear, I gather that the prize fight between Jimmy Braddock and Joe Louis will be pulled off in Chicago next summer according to plan, and that it will be a social and financial success, One the social side, however, it might deteriorate rapidly and violently into a distinct failure not to

| say civil commotion and tragedy in the not improb-

able event of the Negro's defeat at the hands of a superior workman. There is a choice between the public arena of Soldier Field and Mr. Lou Comiskey's White 3 Sox baseball park. The pull at ¥ present is toward the ball yard ® on the ground that Mr. Comiskey, X as a faithful taxpayer, should not Ba be done out of a profitable eve ning's rental through the com- ™ petition of an amphitheater belonging to the community On the basis of practical experience, the ordinary citizens of Chicago and the Midwest who want to attend the fight should realize at once that their money of money that buys the best seats. these dimensions become occasions for the struggling ef the big shots of whom Chicago has at least a sufficient number,

a 3

v ! Yoh A hae Mr, Pegler

is not the kind

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES Pleasant Sound of Scratching Pens—By Kirby

STATE LOCAL

Hoosier Forum

I wholly disagree with what you say, but will

defend to the death your right to say it.~Voltaire.

WANTS LIST PUBLISHED | OF THOSE GETTING RELIER By James R. Meitzier, Attica

It is the practice in all good | business to keep an account of ex- | penses. If this is necessary for

umns, religious

cluded.

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these cole

Make your letter short, so all can have a chance. must be signed, but names will be

| publie, representing consumers he- | fore various Government boards, controversies ex- | leading Letters | would help put a brake on unjusti= fled price rises. In so doing it would | help increase real buying power, set

| men handling their own money, it is much more so for men paving out public money. Therefore, | [county auditors publish monthly | reports and township trustees’ ane | { nual ones in their local newspapers. | Disbursements are itemized to a | | penny, but money paid to the poor, | either by the trustee or by the Welfare Board is accounted for only in a lump sum. The taxpayer | does not know who gets his money, Now, this was perfectly proper in the days when public and private conscience considered it a loss of self-respect to live on government relief, It was done to save peoples’ feelings, Then, men and women believed it their duty to care for their aged parents and were too proud to push them off on the public, It's different now. The poor think | they have a right to the taxpayers’ money, Children consider it smart | to shove their parents onto the fax-

buying power.

added cost

tack on a bit

profiteering

ings Institution warning: “The drift higher prices

we face today. increasing costs,

withheld on request.)

| Production costs are rising. the composite price [about 156 per cent below the 1926 | base, and the cost of living until | ¥ W Ww now has not risen as fast as general | But the dangers and | the tendency are here. [ers and retailers are stocking up against threatened price rises. Pro- | ducers are being tempted to add a | little profit of their own for every | For employers are adding more to prices | | than the social security tax, others | to wage raises, becomes will find ourselves en route up the perilous spiral again,

goods is the gravest danger which Whether forced by

| a bulwark against another depres-

True,

still is | from the calamitous effects of its

evel own greed. URGES SENSIBLE PLAN IN DEALING WITH RELIEF By E. A. E. Senators debating the $789,000,000 deficiency appropriation for Federal relief up to June 30 differed widely in opinions about what the Government's future relief policy should be. Some would turn the whole problem back to the states and cities [ Others would make states and cities The Brook- | yake a sort of pauper's oath in order Just issued a to get Federal help in supporting their unemployed. Others would

Wholesal- |

instance, some |

If |

epidemic we

has the direction of

of manufactured

or embraced as a | Works Progress Administration, Still

When Does Judicial Reform Begin

in a more militant atti- | tude toward antitrust law violators,

sion and rescue controlled industry

Prize fights of |

| they desire,

The good ringside seats never £0 on sale to ordi |

nary customers, but are privately allotted in the promoter's office. A certain proportion will be dealt out to the altruistic leaders of society and sport whose generous public spirit and tireless zeal achieved the triumph. n n » Toe there are the newspapers which inevitably are called upon to obtain pretentious seats for ad-

VE and miscellaneous friends of the management, :

The leading statesmen of the local and outlying political organizations also bear down on the promoter for seats adequate to their prestige, and visiting governors, moving picture people and items known roughly as celebrities must he accom-

| modated, too.

After that it is customary to withdraw from box

['ever-increasing amount of the tax- | payers’ | longer ashamed, but proud of their | and credit inflation ability to take it, their names and | the antitrust laws, many of which

| taxpayer could then decide if the | prices. | officials in charge are doing the can kill

| SERVICE FOR CONSUMERS

office sale, a large block of second-best ringside seats |

for the speculators who generally are indistinguish-

actual ringside, Will bring a premium of from $15 to $25 at private sale.

un u 3

FTER all this, the public sale begins. Tex Rickard himself indignantly declared before his

dinary customers were indeed fortunate to get even

| hominal ringside seats at box office prices. Mr. Rickard |

said it was preposterous to speak of selling a firstrow ringside seat to some shoe-clerk merely because

| he was first in line at the window and set him down

alongside some governor or banker or some famous society leader from the North Shore of Chicago. The Rickard tradition lives on in the prize fight

| business for the active genius of the impending cele-

bration was trained in close business association with the master.

Chicago continues to live on bread and circuses | Ne course at a really big circus the lower classes | dn i | hardly can expect to sit dewn front amor adequate mediation machinery to | % or

Next, it illustrates |

General Hugh Joh

betters.

| pursue each ticket to its ultimate consumer. | of a general price inflation,

{ v eV. | nan unclassified | unearned money

payers for support, while they spend their money for new cars, radios, | movies, card parties or anything

means of stimulating rapid expansion, it is the sure road to an inflationary boom with its customary spiral of rising prices, wages, costs and again prices.” The Government has established fairly effective controls over money ! Aside from |

Since the paupers are taking an

money and they are no

the amounts they receive should be | seem to have become dead letters published at least once a year. The | —it lacks controls over runaway Yet controlled industries the recovery goose by right thing for both parties. If it | profiteering. The building activity Is necessary that the taxpayer | from which we expect so much ean know who gets earned money and | easily be dampened by too high how much, it is doubly necessary | prices. that he know the same facts about | A consumer service, making facts

" u ”

SINGING SCHOOL

By JAMES ROTH |

[Pray let me hear the morning birds’ | sweet notes, | The gladsome chime from hordes of silvery throats. I have waited through the to realize

the talk that is heard among many | This ‘sighal, ‘welcoming ‘a ‘new sun-

economic experts of the possibility | oo whe Buith riot heard ‘the Joving |

IS CONSIDERED TIMELY M. NS. The suggestion that the Govern-

ment set up an able and alert |

service for consumers, strikes me night

[others would continue and even ex-

pand the WPA, | On certain points, however, a sur- | prising number of Senators of both parties seemed substantially agreed: | That the “emergency” nature of WPA and other Federal relief agencies has caused much waste and in- | efficiency, That localities which can should bear a larger, more definite | share of the cost of work relief. | And that there should be a scientific | investigation of the whole relief | problem to develop a long-range | policy looking toward a permanent | solution, | Harry L. Hopkins, WPA administrator, who knows more about the | subject than most Senators, has stated that “under our economic system unemployment is inevitable” ~~that if industrial production returns to 1929 levels this year we |

[will still have at least 6,500,000 un-

employed, and that even in future “prosperity” perfods there will be a minimum of four to five million unemployed, for whom the Government should accept responsibility. IT hope our economic system will | julitify itself by devising something |

TUESDAY, T'EB. 16, 1037

Here?—By Herblock 2

—

AND | COURTS | THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

DFS Li

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun

| Leadership of Trade Unionism

Is Now in Lewis' Hands and It Is | Odd to Hear Me Was Defeated,

| PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 16.—Conservatives are curious people. Most of them have come up to the surface of the water to an | nounce that John 1. Lewis took a licking in | the settlement of the auto strike, [ven

William Green disentangled himself from the weeds to join in the chorus of the New York Times and Herald Tribune proclaiming a defeal To my mind this is factually untrue, It isn't necs essary to go into the precise detail | Loge of the settlement with General | 4 Motors. The psychological impli= cations are much more important, A It seems to me that Lewis emerges with a very palpable kind of recs ognition, The legalists may say ; : that it is less than formal, but at | aa ® the very least the executives of kT the company talked with John L,, and after a very long conversation war was ended and peace obtained, When anybody spends a vast number of hours in talking to a man it is pretty silly to say, "Nev= ertheless, IT don't recognize him.” Mr. Knudsen can maintain from a technical point of view that he didn’t recognize Mr,

for labor,

Mr. Broun

| Lewis because a good deal less than what the labor

Bul they Lewis

ins I's

leader asked was put on the dotted line dustrial captains must admit that, whethe member the name or not, the face of John L has become familiar, In a sense the president of the United Mine Work= ers of America owes a greater debt to his hating enemies than to his loving friends, After all, it has been his foes who were most articulate in proclaims ing him the dictator of the labor movement in Amer= jca. Mr, Lewis may want to deny this harsh impeachs ment, but I imagine that he may be willing to coms promise by admitting that now the leadership of trade unionism is in his hands, ” o" n

R. GREEN has said that the settlement is a sure render on the part of labor, Now, it may be trua

| that the craft unions in the motor industry have never

either compromised or quit. But how could they? They never got started, I've said that I think the C significant victory, and vet I will admit that 1 can gee a few crumbs of comfort for the conservatives, But these are not the same particles to which they are pointing with pride. If the sit-down strikers had been forced out by bayonets, tear gas and machine gun bul=

lets, the strict legalists would have won a victory on the

I. O. group won a

| surface,

* wu T is ironic to observe the meeting of the minds hes

Whether the situation today par- | call

sleep,

Wait--the

Who the post-war | consumer buying power failed to! keep pace with the spiral, and so in 1920--pffft! The hoom col-| a male or a lapsed, and commodity prices nose-| 12:7. dived approximately 50 per cent, Today prices again are rising, Copper, steel, lumber and other ine dustries have announced increases, | comed like a | Wages are following prices upward. | Mrs. Norton.

[Of birds, he hath not heard at all, | Keep a tryst with darkness lest you |

chorus you'll keep.

DAILY THOUGHT

shall offer Expanding | Lord, and make an atonement for physical production of goods and | her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born female Leviticus

¥ all the joys that lighten sufl- | 0) fering earth, what joy is wel

new«born child? — |

nson Says—

Mr. Green, A. F. of L. Chief, Takes Crack at This Column, but Makes No Attempt to Refute Any of Reasoning Set Forth Mere on Labor Crisis.

ASHINGTON, Feb. 16.—Mr. William Green. asserting that he speaks for the American ¥ederation of Labor, publishes a crack at this column for “lauding” the “principles and leadership” of C. 1. O,

and “finding fault” with that of A. F. of L. This. |

says he, is a “contribution to the services of those unfriendly to the cause of labor.”

C. I. O, he says, is a minority of organized labor. |

He can’t reconcile this columnist's previous favorable attitude toward majority rule with this support of a ‘minority.” Also, this column has “belittled if not besmirched” the “trusted officers of the A P.of 1.” There recently was published here a discussion of three types of unions—the company, the industrial and the craft types. It condemned the former. It recommended the industrial type for the mass production industries and said that while eraft unions have their place, it is not in these industries. That

blece was at pains to give reasons for all its con- | | the gentlemen responsible for Mr, Green's attempt |

clusions. It was not discussing A. ¥. of L. vs. C. I. O. ” " "

NTS; Sma Soke not, attempt to refute any of he reasoning from which these conclusions were drawn. He can't refute it. But in his descriptions, the craft unions become “labor.” C. 1. O. be-

those »

| views about the relative spheres of industrial and

craft unions. They were expressed three years ago and consistently ever since, He also knows that, in

| approving of Mr. Lewis, this column has not attacked |

the A. F., of L. ” ” » | = column has expressed sympathy for Mr. Lewis—perhaps too warmly. But it has also condemned the sit-down strike and insisted on elections rather than strikes to determine the question of representation. Contrary to Mr. Green's asser-

tion, it has continuously advocated majority representation. But does this mean that no union should function if it does not agree with the federation? How about the railroad brotherhoods? The position about C. I. O. being a “minority” is absurd unless what we have in A, ¥, of L. Is “one big union,” | which Mr. Green would he {he last to assert. As for contributions to the cause of labor, when

| to lecture this column have attained to twice the age of the oldest justice of the Supreme Court, and if they keep on producing their labor contributions at their present rate, the whole Aulic Council in mass will not have brought forth in their combined lifetimes one-tenth of 1 per gent of the contribution of the first year of the lamentable life of NRA—t0 all labor, organized

ro i Xe can BoB i i dl ba

better than permanent Government, sapport—work relief or dole—for millions of people. But it isn't nec- | sssary to go all the way with Mr, sings—its notes | gopkins to realize that the | thing better hasn't yet

it before the have to shoulder a major part, Whether it is to be continued for

lone or two or more years, or

lief is no longer in the emergency class. | guessing about 4t, to end the waste, confusion and injustice inherent in

develop a plain and sensible plan for dealing with it.

The Washingt

Amelia Earhart's "Psychic"

| whether it is to be permanent, re- |

The time has come to stop!

treating it as an emergency, and to |

tween the extreme left and the extreme right, Cers tain conservative spokesmen are assailing Governor Murphy because he didn’t go in and shoot it out onca the court had decided that there was no legal basis for the sit-down, There are certainly some radicals who would have preferred the same denouement, Frank Murphy really is a member of that vanishing tribe knows as Liberals, He was not in complete agreement with either contending party, but in spite of pressure he held to the opinion that the issue could be talked ont and that tear gas never makes anybody see a situation more clearly, I would also like to say a kind word for an official who has faced a great deal of criticism from many quarters, I have not always felt that Frances Perkins was the best possible Secretary of Labor. IT don't think 80 now, But to her everlasting credit it should be cot down that she behaved with skill and courage and determination in her efforts to bring about a satisfacs

| tory settlement of the war in Flint.

on Merry-Go-Round

News on Air Crashes Mystifies Officials:

Twice Reported Correct Location; Expects Data on Utah Plane in May,

By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen ASHINGTON, Feb. 16—~One development in connection with the recent air crashes which has been intriguing air officials is the way Amelia

Earhart has gone psychie, America’s foremost woman aviator has now become the No. 1 seeress of the air, She believes she has developed a contact with the occult world by which she knows what happens in air crashes. Her latest prediction is that om May 10 she will make a startling discovery regarding the crash of the Western Air Express plane lost over the Wasatch Mountains on Dec. 15 between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, and not yet located. Officials at first were inclined to laugh at Miss Farhart's psychic messages. But her accuracy now has them mystified. When a United Air Lines plane was lost just outside of Burbank, Qal,, on Dec. 27, | Miss Earhart told United Air Lines officials to look on a hill near Saugus. There the wreckage was

d. To lt when the Western Air Express plane carrying Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson crashed on Jan, 12, Miss Earhart reported the plane to be near Newhall, 15 miles north of Burbank, where it was found. In the earlier crash of the Western Air Express

in Utah, Miss Earhart had a vision to the that

| trip to the flood zone, |

the bodies of the dead had been robbed by a trapper, | Two days later a trapper near Sait Lake City ree | ported finding the wreckage, but then suddenly dise

appeared without locating the plane. o u " HE next time Maj, Gen, Edward M. Markham, - Chief of Army Engineers, feels moved to make a speech, he will first make sure he is in a safe and dry hall, Gen. Markham learned this lesson on a recent Accompanied by Harry Hope kins, he arrived early at an Arkansas refugee camp where they were to confer with Governor Bailey. While waiting for the Governor, Gen, Markham seized the chance to give a “pep” talk to the flooded« out residents, He urged them not to get panicky, to keep cool, and assured them that “everything is going to be all right.” In the middle of his cheery sermon, a interrupted him with: “General, if you want to get out of this area yon better leave right away. The water's already a foot high over the only road out!” About-facing, double-quick, Gen, Markham and Mr. HopkinsJleaped into their car and beat a hasty, if unmilitary, retreat-~leaving the speech unfinished.

refugee

fa a